Everyone arrived at the stables, Mrs Kelly unlocked the door with her key card and slid the door open. Everyone's mouths dropped, it was so clean and pristine. They all walked down and each stall was neat and clean with refiling water troughs and grooms constantly filling hay nets, all one colour for each horse.
'Okay, starting from stable 1 to 13, we have Gretchen, Bennett, Joanie, Lenny, Elsa, Bridgette, Gayle, Cedric, Brennan, Orville, Jessie, Missy and Dee.' Mrs Kelly explained. She showed everyone over to a board with everyone's names on and which horses they were next to. Everyone rushed forward to see, Thea heard one girl screaming Elsa out so Elsa obviously wasn't Thea's. Thea walked away to see the horses, she went to each stall, each horse was either asleep or eating. She went over to a horse in the 5th stable, it backed up and stamped its hoof, nickering. Thea was instantly in love, it was a light grey, almost white and it stood tall and proud. It started doing mini bronks in it's stable, nearly kicking the wall down. It was obviously distressed. Thea walked back over to the board and saw her name next to Gayle who was in stable 5. Thea instantly went white, she had the horse who she was in love with.
Thea stood there next to Gayle's stable, watching him. His ears were flat back and he looked as if he was going to pounce like a cat. 'Steady boy.' Thea cooed as she opened the door and entered. Mrs Kelly handed out the tack and told everyone to tack up their horse and meet her out in the show jumping arena, which nobody knew where abouts it was. As soon as Gayle saw the tack he shot across the stable, Thea jumped back. She walked up to him to stroke him, he breathed heavily. Thea kept cooing at him, calming him down all the time. She stroked his body and legs, he stood still, not moving a muscle.
Eventually she managed to get the tack on him, Thea was last out but Gayle kept spooking at the grass or even the stones flicking up. 'Where were you?' Mrs Kelly shut the gate behind Thea. 'I was struggling to get the tack on Gayle, miss.' Thea replied, stroking Gayle's pale neck. 'Be quicker in the future!' Mrs Kelly instructed. Everyone was instructed to get on from the ground. Thea tightened the girth as she just about missed Gayle biting her, all the other horses danced around as they saw Mrs Kelly putting jumps out. Thea rolled down the stirrups and put her foot in, before Gayle could move anywhere, Thea had jumped on. Gayle reared up, throwing his legs up in the air. 'Control your horse!' A girl screamed, quickly moving. Mrs Kelly watched as Gayle went back down.
'Right, I want everyone to introduce themselves and the horse you're riding.' Mrs Kelly whacked her boot with a whip. 'I'm Treo Bags and this is Orville.' Treo patted Orville's piebald neck. 'I'm Carol Hanson and this is Dee.', 'I'm Danny Tyler and I'm riding Bridget.', 'I'm Ky Ash and I'm riding Bennett.' Ky looked at everyone. Thea instantly realised it was the boy in the lounge she liked. His white teeth showed as he patted his bay horse on the neck. Once everyone had introduced themselves they all warmed up. Thea walked Gayle round, he pulled his head up and jolted, realizing he had a martingale on. Thea trotted him on, his paces were bouncy and smooth, every now and then he would throw a buck of excitement in. Nobody was aloud to canter so Mrs Kelly got everyone to line up.
'Just a word about this Showjumping class.. All these horses were bought from the sales last week, each horse has never seen a show jump or even attempted to show jump. They have only simply walked, trotted, cantered and jumped maybe a few jumps in their life. The aim of this class is by the end of this term, your horse must be trained up to jump at least 2ft9 showjumping course with proper show jumps and fillers' Mrs Kelly explained. Everyone's mouths dropped onto the floor. No wonder Gayle was so hyper, he was completely green. 'If you do fail, you will be kicked out of this class.' She looked at everyone.
Treo was first to go on Orville to jump a small but colourful cross in trot. At the last minute, Orville stopped, Treo kicked and he cat leaped it 4ft in the air. 'Good start Treo, just keep your leg on at all times to prevent him stopping as he did jump it so it is possible. Mrs Kelly smiled. Ky went next, Bennett brisk-fully trotted in and popped it perfectly. 'A bit off line but a very good start! Potential there.' Everyone else had been and it was now Thea's turn to attempt on Gayle the Beast.
Gayle pranced around, trying to canter and buck. Thea turned Gayle to face the jump, her heart was pounding. Gayle pulled forward, he cantered into it and leaped over it, leaving Thea sat there with no reins. 'Good start Thea, just a bit slower and make sure you're more organised.' Mrs Kelly explained. Everyone finished off by cantering around the arena and not one horse was calm, especially Gayle who took off down the long side.
'It's ok people, they will improve if you make them.' Mrs Kelly explained, letting everyone out of the arena. Everyone led the horses back up to the stable to untack them. Gayle was sweating all over so Thea rubbed him down with straw and brushed him as he stood there asleep. 'I'll come back later to put your rug on sweetie.' Thea smiled at Gayle. It was dinner time soon so everyone put their tack away and Mrs Kelly locked up the door. 'When the doors are locked you must use a key card to get in.' She explained as everyone walked to their rooms.
