Saddling Up {thewattys2015}

Chapter 10

The show at hunterwood national was upon us. It had been two weeks since my parents had dropped me off at windsor. I'm so excited for the show as my parents will be there! It's been a while since they've seen Elle. The show was on Saturday and it was Friday.

It was just after school and I was in my dorm getting ready for my last lesson before the show. It wasn't a huge show but it was big enough. We had a huge show in December at the Olympic riding grounds. It was to determine if we were going to nationals. In October, we had 4 shows, one every weekend. In November we had semi-finals, finals and provincials.

Decembers show was the semi-nationals. The way the judges allowed us to go to nationals was by tallying up the points and the ribbons your riding team has aquired since September. I tacked Elle up and mounted her once we were in the arena.

We started the lesson with a jump course. Our 2 thing to tackle was a dressage course. For the remainder of the lesson we worked on cross-country. Mr.Rossi said as we were leaving the arena "The bus and the trailers leave at 5 am sharp. If you are not awake, you are not going to the show." I nodded to myself and walked back to the stable.

As soon as I untacked Elle, I hurriedly grabbed one of the 12x12 wash stall. The stalls were quickly filling up as other students had the same idea.

I clipped Elle in cross-ties and grabbed her gold-with-silver-sparkles tack box. I lightly hosed Elle and then lathered her body in her mane'n'tail shampoo. I worked the shampoo into her taunt muscles. I hosed her body off and dried her body with a towel from my tack box. I wiped her face with a huggies wipe. I decided to tackle her mane first and I combed her mane through and then braided it.

From spending so long being crouched down and twisting her mane and tail, My fingers ached and my back was sore along with my calves. I put her back into her stall after latching her navy blue coat on her body, to prevent her coat from getting dirty. I sat down on her big tack chest where her extra bridles, lead ropes, tack box and halters were stored. I grabbed her saddle cleaner from the tack box and began cleaning my soft leather butet eventing saddle.

By the time I was done cleaning the saddle, my fingers were caked in yellow, dried saddle soap. I polished her saddle and bridle, especially the silver nameplate on the pommel, on the front of the saddle. The nameplate read: Purely Elegance, Eleanor Hastings. My grandma gave it to me for getting accepted to Windsor.

I put her saddle in the leather show covering I used, and put the bridle in my tack chest, which I was bringing. I picked out her white halter and lead rope. I quickly polished Elle's hooves.

I made sure my velvet show helmet was in its casing and put it in my tack chest along with my halter, lead rope, extra hoof polish, saddle, bridle and her sky blue bell boots.

Finally. I was finished everything. Famished, I went to the centre of the campus and into the bakery. I got myself a hot chocolate, a fresh baked panini and a cupcake for after. The cashier swiped my student car and smiled. I took the food back up to my dorm where I ate it. I showered quickly, picked out my show clothes and set my alarm for 4 am. It was 9:30 pm and curfew was at 10. I got into my pj's and crawled into bed.

The alarm rang at an early hour. I groaned and slapped the snooze button violently. I hated waking up early! I brushed my teeth and braided my freshly washed hair. I went into my walk-in closet and pulled out my white show breeches, my navy-blue show coat and all the rest of my clothes.

I grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie to put over my show clothes incase Elle sneezed on me. Knowing her, it was quite possible that would happen. I quickly got dressed and slipped sweatpants over my breeches and shiny black leather riding boots. I threw on my hoddie and left the dorm with my keys and cellphone. It was 4:30, leaving me tons of time to get Elle prepped for shipping.

I hummed my favourite song (all about me by john legend) while I latched Elle's final sky blue shipping wrap on her hind leg. I snapped on her lead rope and lead her to the trailer line. Mr.Rossi lead us to the final trailer and I loaded Elle in the trailer beside Paige's horse. I heaved her heavy tack trunk into the trailer beside her and latched the trailer door firmly shut.

I settled into the bus that was taking us there. Our stable hands: Robyn and Doug each drove one of the two trucks, pulling a horse trailer. Mr.Rossi rode with us on the bus. I settled into my seat, since Paige and Alyssa decided to sit together.

Brandon sat by himself in the seat across from my seat. I stretched out my legs in the two-person seat and fell asleep. A rough shake woke me up. "It's time to wake up. We're here." Brandon demanded roughly. I nodded and listened to Mr.Rossi who said "Alright! After we get off the bus, I want you to to go to the sign in tent and get your number. Afterwards, You will go tack up you horse, groom, re-do the braids if you have too, then you will get dressed in your show clothes and then go to the warmup ring. Ok?" We all chanted back to him "Yes Mr.Rossi!"

The stable hands would put the horses in there stable block. Crowds of horses and people swarmed me and I could hear the whinnies and neighs of horses. I went to the sign in tents and signed in and grabbed my number:167. I went to our stable block (Which was W for Windsor) I found Elle's stall and saw that Paige's stall was next to mine. I re-groomed her and put her white saddle pad on her back and smoothed out the wrinkles. I placed the polished English saddle on her back and tightened the girth. I adjusted the stirrups. I put on her bridle and Elle accepted the bit quickly, She realized that I was stressed about the show.

I applied extra hoof polish and put her mane into little braided nots. I velcroed on her sky-blue bell boots. You don't have to make your horse wear bell boots, but I use them when she's jumping. Finished, I went into the bathroom and took off my hoodie and sweatpants. I put on my choker pin and hairnet. I snapped on my velvet helmet and shrugged on my navy blue show coat.

I lead Elle into the warmup arena and took her over a couple jumps. After that. I walked the jump course to count the strides and see how fast she would have to go in order to have a good time. I couldn't walk the cross-country course since it was roped off. A loudspeaker crackled over the busy crowd "Could the advanced show jumping group A: numbers 160 to 167 please come to ring B." I felt my nerves jump a little as I walked Elle over to ring b. I was last in the jumping order.

It was 166's turn, which was Alyssa. I felt my hands get sweaty as I prepared in the starting box. I quickly put on gloves and Elle took off suddenly in a canter as the starting bell rang. I geared down and Elle lept over the 1st jump.

5 minutes later, We were approaching our 2 to last jump. We had no faults, but I couldn't see our time. I let Elle into a slow gallop, but we took off too late and heard a thud in the arena as Elle's back hooves clipped a rail. She shook her head, her confidence clearly shaken. I tried my best to soothe her. She flew over the final jump and I smiled at our good time. The loud speaker crackled once again "Final Score for Eleanor Hastings on Purely Elegance is 45 seconds with 4 faults." I patted her flank and headed off to the cross-country arena.

Cross-country was realitvely easy. I had a great time with no faults. It was ribbon time now. I went to the jumping ring and watied for my name to be called. The loud speaker came to life "The winners of the advanced show jumping goes as follows: 5th place: Brandon Silver on Ebony Fire. 4th place: Alyssa Tension on Ember Blaze. 3rd Place: Julia Meyer on Trix the Witch. 2nd Place: Eleanor Hastings on Purely Elegance. And finally, our blue ribbon winner is: Paige Heffley on Whisper in the Wind. Congratulations to everyone who placed."

I smiled immensely as I walked away with my red ribbon. This would certainly help with our school going to nationals.
The cross-country ribbons were handed out quickly. I waited, until the 2nd place person was called. Ethei, I didn't place or I had gotten first.

"And the blue ribbon goes to: Eleanor Hastings on Purely Elegance."

I smiled so long my cheek started to hurt. I grabbed my ribbon and thanked the judges. I can't believe it.

My first show with Windsor Preparatory and I was walking away with 1st and 2nd palce. I pinned both ribbons to Elle's bridle. She was going to want to show off these ribbons for days!