Embittered Competitor: Day 2

Word Count: 12,034

Summary of Events:
Chapter 3: Steele competed once again and got a good time, although all the horses seemed slow, ending the night in a tie with Guy L'Aubental. Then Terri came over to Steele's trailer and they discussed Terri's observations of Steele and how Steele felt that Spencer had a goal in mind of showing him up and it seemed people were inordinately worried about the whole thing.
Chapter 4: Steele met Spencer himself for the first time and Steele got the impression that Spencer was just like everyone had described him to be. They then went into the arena to compete. Spencer was to go last and Steele just before him. Steele got a time .1 seconds better than G.D. Hagen, who'd been on top, and Spencer went and notched a time .2 seconds slower than Steele. Spencer's gelding, who'd been highly nervous, freaked out at the crowd's reaction to the fact Steele had the lead and Steele stopped the gelding. Afterwards Steele talked with G.D. — who'd done more competitions in the US — and G.D. recommended that, even though they didn't really know what Spencer could to, to be on his guard being as people had deliberately gone and pitted the two of them against each other.

Excerpt of the Day:
"Red fidgeted and backed into the corner. Spencer was all ready and then Red moved forward again and Spencer had to reset. Finally Red stayed still. The calf shot out and Red shot forward, Spencer swung his rope. The crowd was silent, waiting.
The rope sailed over the calf's head, Spencer ran out, tossed the calf down onto its side, tied its legs together and threw his hands up in the air. The six seconds passed — slowly it seemed to Steele — and then the announcer revealed that it was a good time. Everyone was still silent, waiting for how long the run was.
"Spencer Grinnell has notched a time of seven point one seconds," the announcer said.
The entire crowd exploded into an uproar of cheers, most of them leaping to their feet and jumping around, and that was when what Steele had been expecting for some time occurred: Red lost it.
Spencer had just mounted Red and was quickly returned to the dirt — although far less ceremonially than he could've gotten off himself — as Red charged forward. The arena volunteers had been on their way to the calf and had quickly leapt away. Steele watched as Red began to drag the poor calf."