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He thinks she's too quiet.
She thinks he's too loud.
He rides a highly trained reiner.
She rides a former prison horse.
He's an OG
She's a newbie.
He avoids saddle club kids.
She teaches them.
H...
A few hours later, after warming up and reviewing all my patterns for the millionth time, it's almost my turn to enter the arena for my first class of the day, ranch riding.
Even though ranch riding seems like it should be easy, it is just transitioning gaits, stopping, and rollbacks after all, it's probably my weakest area when it comes to ranch versatility. The patterns are usually pretty confusing though, i think i've only been able to do 1 or 2 patterns without fucking them up.
" Number 111, Seline Henderson and Legends Sweet Victory, please enter the ring." The announcer shouts from the judges stand.
I glance down at the number pinned on my saddle pad, 112. I'm up after Seline.
Great. This isn't going to make me and Roan look even worse than we are at all.
Seline's horse, Legend, competed in the Snaffle Bit Futurity as a 3 year old and placed 6th out of the hundreds of people and horses that competed against him in the open division.
When Seline bought him a few months ago, all you had to do to get him to lope off was lift your finger.
Seline rides with a pretty heavy hand, so Legend is definitely a lot duller than when she first got him, but he's still a great horse.
Noticing that Seline is finishing up, i pull the pattern out of my pocket and study it one more time.
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" Coming in with a score of 75 1/2, a great ride from Ms. Henderson and Legends Sweet Victory." The annoucer calls
Seline exits the ring with a smug look on her face, " Good luck Rivera, you're gonna need it after the run i just had." she tells me as she rides past.
" Number 112, Kehlani Rivera and Roan Delight, please proceed to the ring." the announcer calls.
Oh shit, this is it. Were up.
Breath Kehlani, breath. The worst that can happen is all hell breaking loose, but thats not to bad, right?
It's not like were gonna die or anything.
Well, we might die of embarassment for the worst run seen in 20 years, but were not gonna be like dead dead.
I take a deep breath and cue Roan to walk though the gate. As i'm heading to the starting point, i glance over my shoulder at the rest of the competitors and one of them, a boy around my age, i think his name is Asher, not quite sure though, catches my gaze and sends me a smile.
" Good luck." he mouths.
I send him a small smile back, feeling those damn butterflies in my stomach start to fly around again.
What the hell Kehlani!
Don't let this boy who've you known for like 15 minutes distract you, no matter how hot he is.
