Danica Huxley is a single child to Lewis Huxley, famous movie and TV show director, and Claire Huxley, a fashion model. Since her family has moved around a lot for work, she’s used to being homeschooled while training for Three Day Eventing. She has two horses, Thor and Topaz. Before Merrick Academy, she was living in Los Angeles and riding at a stables where she was one of the few Eventers. She’s highly ambitious, and she’s determined to try everything that Merrick Academy has to offer. Except she’s still scared of riding through water after a horrible fall, the course load is overwhelming, and she keeps getting into fights with Beatrix.

Beatrix Miller grew up on her family ranch in Montana with her parents and her three siblings- older brothers Mark and Jeremy and little sister Gabriella. Her father is a farmer, and her mother is a teacher. It was her older brother, Mark, that taught her how to ride horses and helped her train her Quarter Horse mare, Harmony. Beatrix was a barrel racing superstar back at home, but now she’s trying her hand at Show Jumping. She attends Merrick Academy on a full scholarship due to her stellar grades and impressive track record of honors classes.

Melody Hallman has only ever wanted to follow in her politician father’s footsteps: go to Merrick Academy just like he did, then go to Yale just like him, and then go into politics. She’s also close with her mother, who works as a realtor. Melody has never owned her own horse, so she rides everyone else’s. The constant change has given her a talent to ride just about any horse with impeccable poise and grace. She’s on a direct path to success, but she wasn’t expecting that her bully from back home, Ben O’Hare, would also be at Merrick Academy. Ben’s jealousy of her riding had instigated a prank that sent her to the hospital, and she still struggles with migraines because of it.

Sarah Turner never rode a horse before her arrival at Merrick Academy. There aren’t exactly tons of barns in the middle of New York City. Instead, she grew up modeling at the insistence of her mother, Judy Turner, former figure skater. Her dad is a day trader, and it was his idea to send her to boarding school so she’d be out of the big city. When she left behind the glitz and glamor of NYC, she also left behind a tight knit friend group and a boyfriend. But she’s determined to learn to ride, compete on a team, and do all the things she wasn’t able to do before.