The Storm Before Dawn

Chapter 9

Picture of Gold
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I ran into the stables and threw open the first door I came too, it was Gold's stall I put his lead rope on and cantered him out of the barn. The first thing I looked for was any sign of Onyx. There were some hoof prints in the dust so I followed them. The prints led to a trail that I rode a lot so I cantered along it looking for Onyx.

I saw a movement up the trail ahead of me so I urged Gold to canter even faster. When we turned a corner there was Onyx trotting along panicky. I dismounted Gold and slowly walked up to where Onyx had stopped.

"Hey girl" I murmured

She stayed still so I grabbed her reins and holding them got back on Gold then headed back to the barns. Then Onyx being Onyx decided to rear back and take the reins from my hands and raced off again. My shoulder had shooting pains in it but I raced after Onyx again.

As I traced Onyx through the wood over logs and through puddles I realized just how good of a cross-country horse Gold could be. We started catching up to Onyx as she started to slow down. Within a few strides we were neck to neck so I reached down and took hold of get reins. After another few strides we slowed down Onyx with us. I went towards the barn again and Onyx was with us the entire time.

When we got back to the barn I put Gold away and put Onyx into the round pen. She cantered around for a minute when I decided to put up a cavileti. She went over that that and I decided we would be done because it was already 3:30 and I still had to eat a snack and work another three horses as well as ride some of the rescue horses.

I walked back into the house and grabbed an apple and a cookie. Yep this is my lunch an apple and a chocolate chip cookie, I know it isn't the best lunch but it was all I had time for.

My head turned to the clock, it was already 3:40!! And I still had to work Flash, Sky and work with Dawn before 8:00 tonight as well as clean their tack.

"Ugh"

"Is someone over whelmed?"

"I am just tired because Onyx jumped the fence then I had to go chase her down now my arm hurts and working all these horses and helping you with riding the rescue horses, I don't know what to do mom"

"That was a run on sentence. But is that all? You know I can help you, I may not ride but I still can brush horses and clean tack and have Jacob clean the stalls so you don't have too."

"Really? That would be amazing!"

"I will clean the tack today now scoot!!"

She chased me out of the house and I ran down to the barn.

"Hey boy" I whisper as I walk into Flash's stall.

Flash is such a good boy, he lets me put his blue halter on and he stands perfectly still while I put all his tack on. Normally I don't use a martingale but I decided to use a running martingale today, to see what he would do with it. We walked out to the arena where Zœ was already jumping.

"Mind if I join you?"

"Asha!!!"

"Is that a yes?" I ask as I walk through the gate.

"Ah yeah!"

Flash and I walk to the middle to the arena where I mounted him and started walking him to the edge of the arena. We warmed up walking then I trotted him around the outside rail, he was responding perfectly! I had almost forgotten about my shoulder by this point but riding definitely made me feel it. I decided to keep riding Flash even though it made it hurt.

After we finished warming up I trotted Flash over some caviletti. I asked Flash to canter right after we landed to point him at the first jump of the next 2 foot course. Together we soared over the seven jumps and landed perfectly. I gave him a quick walk break the collected him again to go over the 3 foot jumps.

Since I had had a martingale on him I didn't know if he would do as well but after an hour of working him he was amazing! I cooled him out and brought him back to the barn.

Just because he was a good boy I gave him a few apple flavoured horse treats and gave him a bath. I am not really sure who got wetter. He was clean by the end of it and so was I! However, it was soooooo hot out I didn't care. I looked over at the barn thermometer and it said 80* Fahrenheit, no wonder I was so hot!

While I dried I decided to go ride Sky bareback. Ok so maybe that wasn't the best idea because once I got off of her I was covered in all of her white hair! And since I was still damp they were all sticking to me.

"Yuck!!"

Anyway I went and said hi to Dawn and misted down her stall and the aisle so it wouldn't be as dusty. It helped but only for a few minutes, since it was so hot out it dried so fast!

My mom walked in to the barn and asked if I had worked Cheerio yet. I hadn't so I went and got him and his tack out. I quickly tacked him up and brought him into the indoor dressage arena. Cheerio was a pretty experinced horse so I didn't lunge him before hand, he was supposed to go up for adoption within a few days even! I trotted him around to warm him up then I collected him up and started asking for a few harder movements like half-pass and legyeild. He was performing perfectly! I was so excited that he would get to go to a good home and spend the rest of his life in a loving and caring home.

Cheerio had come from abuse then neglect. He was an x-jumping horse, but wasn't good enough. He was beat by his owners to get him to jump higher and higher. He was comfortable to jump 3 foot but that wasn't good enough, they pushed him to jump 5 foot. He wasn't ready for that kind of work and after jumping a course of ten jumps about eight times in a row, his front legs gave out on his landing. Cheerio survived, but his owner was paralyzed. He was beat from head to toe, then left in a stall to starve to death.

After about two weeks they needed the stall for a new horse, so they sold him to an auction house. A man bought him and decided to see how well he jumped. He started a skinny weak horse jumping 3 foot jumps. Again Cheerio's legs gave out so the man left him to starve in his stall. However, when the horse was jumping a lady drove by and called us. My mom went down there and now two years later he is jumping 3 foot and a fabulous dressage horse!

We were cantering around when I asked Cheerio to stop and back up when he tripped on his back leg. He fell backwards and I got stuck on the saddle he fell on me when everything went black.

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