Kingston Horse Academy

Chapter 1

Hi guys, this is a story that I've been working on all this week. I'm not sure if I like it. It is not twilight or vampire related at all which is quite strange for me actually. Anyways I'd love some feedback on this because I might not continue it. Thanks guys, love you <333

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Kingston Horse Academy

Chapter 1

I reached up to get my saddle. Of course my saddle would be up on the top shelf in the tack room. See, I'm not the tallest girl around; in fact I'm probably one of the shortest. I'm only 5'3" and I'm supposed to be done growing. I'm already sixteen; I'm probably not going to grow anymore anyways. I finally reached the saddle by jumping up to it, but then it slipped, my clumsiness in the way once again. I went to catch it before realizing that it was a lot heavier than my old one. I began to stumble and would have dropped it, but someone's strong hands appeared beside me and caught it, taking it from my grasp.

I looked up to see a guy about my age staring down at me. He looked to be about 6 feet tall. He had long dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes. "Thanks," I mustered. I blushed, my face probably bright red. "No problem. Hey I'm Chase," he said. My first name, Eloise, almost slipped out of my mouth, but I caught myself. "Marley," I answered shaking his hand. That was close. I was going to go by Marley here. I had had enough of the name Eloise. It was too unique, too different, and too immature. Marley, my middle name, had a better ring to it. Marley sounded more mature, more grown up. Eloise reminded me too much of my mom. She died a few years ago and my dad just got remarried. His new wife, my step-mom, has a lot more money than we have. Her three children are all grown up and moved out. The oldest one is thirty-something, the youngest in her first year of college. They all went to Kingston Academy, a private school in London and my step-mom paid for me to go. So here I am, my sophomore year in high school, in a new country, with no family or friends for thousands of miles.

"So Marley," Chase began snapping me out of my flashback. "I haven't seen you around before. Are you new?" "Yeah, this is my first year here, I just moved here from America," "Oh, you're the new girl, from New York right?" he asked. How'd he know where I was from? "Yeah," I answered. "My father told me to look out for a new girl from New York," "Who's your father?" I asked. "The Head Master," he answered. "Oh." Oh? Was that really all I could say? Great job Marley; ruin your first conversation with a cute guy at your new school. "So you ride?" he asked. Maybe I didn't ruin it after all. "Yeah, I've been riding since I was five," I answered as we left the tack room, him still carrying my saddle as if it weighed nothing. "Western I assume?" he stated more than asked. Assume? It was a western saddle. Anyone in their right mind who knew anything about horses would know that. "And English. I took English lessons. I didn't start riding western until I was fourteen," I explained as we headed down the aisle of the barn.

"Do you have your own horse?" he asked. "Yeah," I answered and stopped as we reached her stall. "This is Glow," I said. "You match," he stated after a few seconds. "Oh yeah," I answered as if I hadn't noticed. Of course I did... Glow was a beautiful quarter horse, a mare in her early teens, and was a beautiful chestnut color. The same color as my auburn hair that I dyed last month. It was naturally brown but I liked red far more. I'd wanted to dye it red since I was twelve but my mother never let me. But there was no one to stop me now. I felt sort of bad disobeying her, but I did anyways. Glow was wearing a purple halter, and a purple trailering blanket and boots. I had on a purple button-down blouse, tan riding pants and my brown riding boots. We were meant to match, I did that purposely, but he didn't have to know that.

"She's beautiful, how long have you had her?" "My Step-mom bought her for me last month. I leased her for three years before that though," "What kind of events do you guys you do?" he asked. "Hunter Jumping, Trail, English Equitation, Gymkhana, Barrels, and Western Pleasure," I answered and he nodded but said nothing "So do you ride?" I asked, breaking the silence. "Yeah but just western. I grew up on a ranch so it was never important to learn to ride English, although I've always wanted to jump," he said. "Yeah, I love jumping," I began, "You could still learn you know?" "I guess so, maybe you'll have to teach me," he said. "I think that can be arranged," "Are you riding in the lesson today?" he asked. "Yeah," "Okay, I'll see you there," he said as he placed my saddle on the rack and walked away to get his horse.

Well that was interesting... Don't ruin it Marley, don't scare him away, I thought to myself. I took off Glow's trailer blanket and her boots and began to brush her. When I'd finished that, I grabbed my purple saddle pad and placed it on her back above her withers. Then I placed the saddle on top of that and ignored Glow's head tosses as I cinched the girth tight. She was girthy, as many horses were. "It's not that tight," I scolded as I gave her a treat. That made up for the girth. I put on my helmet and riding gloves, then I took off her halter and replaced it with a bridle, smiling as she took the bit nicely. Now we were all ready. I led her out of the stall and down the barn's aisle towards the riding arena.