Stillwater Equestrian Academy

Chapter 12

The rodeo was getting closer. It was five days away. The Stillwater Color Guard was getting more excited and more nervous at the same time. We already transferred our badges, buttons, patches, and other awards to our new color guard jackets. I also transferred my rings to my uniform jacket as well. Then we put the jackets on. We looked good. Well, we thought we looked good.

We practiced dressage in our uniforms to see how we would do. Then we practiced formation followed by our routine. Then timing and etc.

Since I was the rodeo queen, I practiced my routine with the American flag. It was long enough to use but short enough to maneuver easily enough, without hitting Boomer or the ground.

I stood up in the saddle and did a ballerina spin as I twirled the flag. I did a lay back spin, a couple arial cartwheels, a couple arial backflips, a couple layout spins, a couple somersaults. All the while I twirled the flag. I spun around and went into a sit spin and back up into a standing spin. I did the flag, the splits, the handspring, the mill, the scissors, a dance through, and etc. I finished with holding the flag the way a queen would while she stands in the saddle. I pushed a button and white sparks flew out, adding to the magic of it all.

The other flag twirlers, pistol twirlers, rifle twirlers, knife twirlers, sword twirlers, rope twirlers, fire dancers, and the light dancers all worked together on their tricks, routine, jumps, formation, dressage, and etc.

By the time we got through, there was a video of the Stillwater Color Guard performance. We then dismounted, walked over to the videographer and watched the video to see how we did. To us, we looked flawless. But that was us. We were partial. We needed somebody else to let us know what we needed to improve on.

"Great job ladies and gentlemen." Coach said. "All of you did a great job today. Your performance was flawless. I swear, you all have been practicing for years now. Not just a few months."

"Not so, Sir. It's only been a few months."

Jeffrey, the videographer, posted it on line, on Facebook, on YouTube, on Twitter, on Instagram, and other multi-media social platforms. Within minutes, we had over a million likes, a million tweets, and so forth.

We hive-fived each other. We then walked our horses back to all the different stables. That time, we had to clean the whole stable buildings. Once we were through, we put fresh hay down, cleaned the water and food buckets, and filled them back up. We then untacked the horses, cleaned the tack, and put it all away in the cubbies. We hosed the horses down, brushed them thoroughly, and let them graze in the pasture. We closed the gates and went into the house. We went upstairs, showered, and changed clothes. We washed our uniforms, after we removed the awards. When they were done we put the uniforms in the dryer. Afterwards, we put the awards back on the jackets and hung our uniforms up in our closets.

We ran down the stairs and into the living room where Ms Campbell was sitting watching a movie. We explained everything to her about the day's events. Plus what Coach Scott said afterwards.

"That's wonderful, Kids." Ms Campbell said. "There's cake in the kitchen. It's Angel Food cake. There's also ice cream in the freezer. Enjoy. It's your rewards."

We looked at each other and then we ran into the kitchen. We quickly got what we wanted, went back into the living room and watched The Wizard Of Oz with Ms Campbell. Afterwards, we cleaned our dishes and headed upstairs and went to sleep.
*****
It was Sunday and Maddie and me went to the stables and went to tack our horses. I noticed there was something wrong with Boomer's front right leg. I bent down and checked it out. There was blood trickling down the front right leg.

"Maddie, Boomer's front right leg has been cut."

"Angel's too, Stevie."

Casey walked in and stopped when he saw the looks on our faces.