Ever Arnolds; how my life got completely flipped upside down.

Horse back riding

It was seven thirty in the morning on a Saturday. In February.

So, naturally, I would want to be sleeping, correct?

But no.

I was woken up by a faint tapping sound on my window. I groaned and got up. I shuffled over to the window and pulled open the curtains.

Callan was throwing rocks and erasers at my window. I opened my window.

"What."

"Have you ever been horseback riding?"

"Yeah, I rode for like six years."

"Cool. You wanna go horseback riding?"

"What?"

"Well my friend got s job at a ranch, and they do rides and I was gonna go with my friend but he bailed. So do you want to come?"

"Well, sure, I guess. When?" He checked his watch.

"Thirty minutes." My eyes widened.

"Your friend bailed thirty minutes before the ride?"

"No. He bailed two days ago. I just didn't know who to ask. And then I was like, Ever would probably be into that. And then you weren't home when I was. So I had to wait." He grinned. I rolled my eyes and pulled my curtains closed so I could change.

I pulled on some dark, high waisted jeans and combat boots, and a flowy crop top. I grabbed my sunglasses, pulled my hair up into a bun, and ran out the door.

And then I went back inside because I forgot to brush my teeth.

Callan was waiting outside on his bike, texting someone. I went over to him and flung my legs over the back of his bike and held onto his waist, tightly. He stiffened.

"I can't drive if I can't breathe, Love." He said as if he were out of breath. I loosened my grip a bit and he started the bike.

The ranch was gorgeous. It was acre after acre of beautiful pasture, with a ranch house and turn out for the horses near the entrance. There were probably around twenty horses. Two were saddled. And a bunch more were being brought out to be saddled. We walked over to the house. A boy, a little taller than me, and my age, ran out.

"Hey Cal, small change of plans," he said.

"Okay, Rory?"

"So we had a group call this morning saying that they had their ride canceled, and would pay twice over for their group to ride because it's a birthday or something. I don't know. Problem is, we only had you two booked, so it's only me and Jane here today as wranglers, and the barn owner. The group is twelve people, which means two wranglers are hardly enough," then he turned to me, "have you ridden a horse?"

"Yeah six years of training."

"Okay, is it okay if I send you two out alone? I have Sonny and Vigo out for you, they are the two least spooky horses and as long as you guys can handle it, I think you should be fine." I looked at Callan. I was fine with it. I nodded, and so we agreed. "Okay, I'm just gonna run through some commands with you two in the arena and then you can go." I got onto Vigo, a dark painted, sixteen hand quarter horse, and Callan got on Sonny, a sixteen five hand, buckskin Arabian.

Rory brought us to the arena, and had us walk, stop, back up, turn around, trot, lope and jump, just in case any of it was necessary. We both passed and we left.

Callan led us over to the more jungly part of the ranch. We loped through the painted eucalyptus trees and over small hills.

I guess it had been around two hours when we stopped. The horses were tired, we didn't know exactly where we were, but we knew how to get back, or at least the horses did, as they did this often.

It was on the horse path, and had a watering area to tie the horses to, so that's what we did.

Apparently Callan never learned survival training or Boy Scouts or whatever and couldn't tie a basic easy release knot, so once Vigo was secure, I tied up Sonny for him. Then I went to sit by him at the other end of the trough.

"Well this has been fun," he said after we had sat in silence for nearly five minutes, with only the buzzing of the bugs in the area and the lapping of the horses drinking their water.

"It really has, thank you for bringing me. I haven't ridden since I was like, sixteen."

"Why did you stop?"

"There were a bunch of things, but it's not really something I like to talk about." It had been brutal.

"I'm all ears if you want to tell me, but if not, that's fine as well." I stared at him. It was obvious he wanted to know, but wasn't trying to pressure me. I sighed.

"Fine. Basically, I had been reigning as first place for almost four years in the senior division, which being put in the senior division was pretty rare at the age of twelve, but that's not important. At this point I was sixteen," I started reliving it in my head, "I was doing a hunter pace sort of event, where its a trail ride with obstacles. I was on this gorgeous mare, Bristol, but she was kind of spooky. So we were doing the highest jump in the race, ahead of everyone, I don't exactly remember how high it had been, and remember, this part coming up is only what I had heard from my instructor and my mom. I don't remember much. As she was just going over it, I guess a flag waved or a whistle blew or a whole series of events, and de started spooking before she even hit the ground. Of course, I couldn't hold on and I fell off, this was from pretty high up, mind you. Straight into my back. And then the horse ran over me. Which, people are always like 'that couldn't happen, horses couldn't do that to someone' but I promise it happened. My back was broken, I had almost been paralyzed and the doctors said I was lucky to live. I would have kept riding, but my instructor refused to teach me anymore, because she felt that she had failed me, and my dad wouldn't let me. It wasn't safe or something," I took a deep breath, after realizing I had been shaking.

"And you consciously came riding today."

"Well, obviously."

"I mean, why would you do that if you knew what could happen?"

"I mean did you not know that the horse you were on could buck you off, or bite you, or step on your foot when you came here?"

"Well of course I did," he muttered.

"Have you heard the phrase 'get back on the horse' I always knew the risks, even at the race that day. I still know the risks and the chances of that happening again to me are like one in a billion. Plus, I'm still living aren't I?"

"Who knew you actually took risks." I slapped his arm.

"Learn something new every day." I rolled my eyes.

"Well, for the record, that's brave of you," he said. I could feel him staring at my lips. I turned to him, "getting back on a horse after one almost killed you."

"It's not brave," I said quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"It's not brave if you're not scared, I mean, I had you here didn't I?" I literally took a second to blink, and in that second, I felt his lips on mine. I scooted closer and wrapped my arms up around his shoulders.

"Will you please give me a chance?" He asked. I felt a funny warm buzzing sensation run through my heart.

"Yes." I smiled before kissing him again.