Hoofbeats (RusAme)

Chapter 1 - Contest

Third POV:

The sound of hoofbeats pounded against the dirt ground as a stallion made his way to an upcoming jump. The rider pet the horse's neck in encouragement. Clicking his tongue and squeezing his legs against the horse's sides to speed him up to a fast gallop. The stallion obliged his rider's actions and sped up, the jump closing in each passing beat.

The sound of hoofbeats stopped for a mere second as the stallion lifted his front legs off the ground, then his back. Clearing and landing the jump perfectly.

"Good boy! You did good." The rider pet the horse's neck again.

With the final jump cleared, the rider pulled back on the reins to slow the horse down to a trot.

"America Washington cleared a perfect round with a time of 2:12, passing Netherlands Amsterdam by 28 seconds." A speaker resting on a near-by stable spoke.

"Surprised even Netherlands got a good time." America pulled on the reins again, the horse slowing down to a walk. He spotted his younger brother walking towards him.

"Good job. You got a faster time than before." He handed his brother a water bottle.

"Thanks, Nada." America paused for a moment to drink, "hopefully I can make it to the finals this time, or else all this training would've gone to waste."

Canada nodded in response, "You even attempted the puissance wall. Not many can clear that jump."

"Got me extra points though. Where's Maple?" America referred to Canada's mare.

"She's in the stable, probably eating." Canada responded as he took the reins and started leading America's horse to the stables. While America was looking off somewhere in the distance, Canada sneakily feed some sugar cubes to the stallion.

"So, how did Rodeo go with the water jumps?"

"He's gotten much better now, did lots of training with him to do with water."

"Oh and, I think dad is taking us home."
"What about father?"

Canada sighed softly. "You know him," he looked back at his brother, "always has something to do."

"Do you know when he left?" America laced his sentence with disappointment.

"Yeah, I uh. I think it was around 12:30."

"So he missed my performance..." He spoke in a hushed tone, sadness tugging at his heart.

Canada saw that his brother was clearly upset that their father missed his round.

"Hey it's fine. I'm sure that dad recorded you or there's a high chance that we're on TV, since I spotted some film crew all over the course."

"There was? Wow. I didn't even notice." Canada tied Rodeo's reins to a pole once they arrived at the stables.

"Thanks, Nada." He hopped off of Rodeo's back and started taking off each tack piece, one by one. Once he got to the bridle and the reins, he took it off like the rest but put a leading bridle on instead, attaching a leading rope to the ring, tying him back up on the post. (I actually don't know the name of it and google won't tell me-)

Rodeo lifted his front leg and started to tap against the trough. America heard the commotion and stared at his horse for a split second before getting his horse's trouble. He turned on the tap, waiting for the water to rise, while waiting, he noticed that Rodeo's legs were covered in mud and his coat was layered with dust. "Hey Canada?" America shouted to his brother. "Yeah?" He got a response. "Can you grab the soap, bucket and washing...stuff?" "Sure, and they're just grooming products." "I knew that." "Uh-huh, sure."