Adam Met-A Love Story.

Chapter 13: A Cloudy Day.

A few days had passed since my panic attacks that night and everything was going back to normal. I had a race day today so again, the day was stressful. We awoke at 6:30 again, I got dressed into my jockey clothes and we met Jack, Ryan, Marie and Isobel at the track. I slept over at Adam's again the night before. Adam drove me to the track. "I'm not on AJ today. I'm on A Cloudy Day." I said as we arrived. "You mean that horse that threw its rider in your last race?" Adam said, parking. "Yep. AJ has an injury." I replied. "Oh Annie promise me you'll be careful. I don't want you ending up in hospital or worse." He placed his hand on my thigh after turning the engine off. "I'll be fine, i've done this plenty of times." I kissed him on the cheek and got out. "See you after the race!" I said as I shut the door and made my way over to A Cloudy Day's stable. He was already ready. I just had to mount. We took him out of his stable and I was thrown on. A Cloudy Day was a grey, with a deep grey mane. Hence the name. I was more nervous than last time. If I win, I can enter the National race that only happens once a year. This was it. I put my feet into my stirrups and A Cloudy Day took off cantering towards the starting point. We did our usual walk up to the first hedge, him being ready was an understatement. He was bucking, rearing and quite clearly wanting to get on with it.

"In a minute." I said to him as I turned him back towards the starting line. He stood, dancing on his hooves on the spot. I looked out to the crowd. I saw Adam and the rest of the group at the front. The gun was shot and all the horses set off galloping. A Cloudy Day set off at top speed. This wasn't good. He would burn himself out before the last hedge if he carried on not listening to me. I couldn't afford that to happen. I pulled on his reins. "Slow down." I said to him as we overtook another horse.

Adam's Pov:

"He's not listening to her." Isobel said, pointing at her. "Will she be alright?" Jack asked. "I'm not sure. She's never ridden him before and when she's on AJ, he listens to her." I gulped a heavy weight in my throat. "Please." I said to myself. "Please be okay."

Annie's Pov:

We approached the first hedge. I had a wave of anxiety rush over me as we jumped it, barely getting over. He was already burning out. "Listen to me." I said to him as we came towards the second one. Anxiety filled me once again, this time even worse knowing that we had hardly made it over the first. He once again cleared it. Another horse came at the side of me as we headed round the corner. "Move!" The jockey on top said. I looked up at them. It was a jockey who I went to jockey collage with. Jack Birch. I moved closer to the fencing as he over took me. "Idiot." I said to myself as we approached the third hedge. We didn't make it.