The 8 Second Ride

The Trail Ride

I got the push I needed to update faster. My friend has been really into the book and I am going update faster.

Clara's POV-

"Stay away from him." I say to Jason.

"Someone is getting a little too protective." he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls my back against his chest.

"You think that was protective? Wait for later things are going to get strange." I smile and pull away.

"Well then I will be careful today." he turns me around and kisses my.

My eyes fly wide open but slowly close when I realize what he is doing. He pushes me up against the stall door. He turns his head making the kiss deeper. All of a sudden Max pushes his head between and Jason. I laugh and slid away from Jason. He chuckles and rubs Max's nose.

"You better go get your horse otherwise I will leave without you." I swing my saddle pad Max's back making sure it is lined up.

"What horse do you want me to ride?" he smiles.

"I want you to ride the black thoroughbred and in English." I say while swinging my saddle up onto Max's back.

"Okay but you have to come with me to grab her." he grabs my hand and pulls me to the four wheeler.

He sits behind and starts the four wheeler. He takes me to the one of the back pastures and I see a gorgeous black thoroughbred with a white blaze on her forehead. I jump off the four wheeler, I turn around and realize that it didn't even stop yet. What can I say, I am not a careful person. I walk to the fence and the mare walks over to me.

"What's her name?" I ask while climbing the fence.

"Matilda, don't laugh I was 16 and I didn't know what to name a foal." he looks up through his eyelashes.

"She is absolutely gorgeous and did you bring a lead rope with you?" he nods an hand me a blue an green lead.

I go an clip the lead to Matilda's halter and throw the lead rope over her neck. I swing myself up and onto her back, as soon as I am on her I kick her and we take off towards the fence. I remember Jason telling me that he had a thoroughbred that show jumps, hopefully this is the one. When we reach the fence she jumps clear over it and doesn't even hesitate. When we make it over the fence I hear the four wheeler coming and I pull her to a stop.

"What the hell was that?" Jason yells when he shuts off the four wheeler.

"You know I can take care of myself, I won't break like an expensive piece of chain!" I yell back while walking Matilda away so he can't grab the halter.

"Stay still, you are not riding her back to the house." his voice is strained and is starting to get angry.

"No I am riding her back to the barn an Max is coming back to my house, I will have my parents come pick him tonight." I kick Matilda and we jump over several more fences.

When we get back to the barn I go and look for Jo.  When I find her she is doing warm ups with a light palomino. I yell her name and she stops on the other side of the arena and comes to my side.

"Hey." she says while patting the horse on the neck.

"Hey do you think you could give me a ride home, please?" I ask going up to the horse.

"Yeah but why can't Jason take you home?"

"I really don't want to talk to him right now." I follow her out of the arena.

"What did he do now?" she says while getting off of the horse.

"He was treating me like a chain doll and wouldn't let me do anything by myself. Oh and I am bringing Max home with us, I want him at home so I can get him back into the routine for practicing. I want to run in a rodeo in a couple weeks." I say.

"Well that sounds like him, but he does have a point you did just get out of the hospital a couple of day ago." she untacks and follows me to Max's stall. 

"Yeah but I feel fine and I want to do things like I did before." I sigh and she looks at me funny.

"I know that but take it easy for the first couple of weeks and he will be happier. What did you do that made him go all crazy?"

"I kind of got on Matilda in the pasture and jumped all the fences on her." I whisper knowing that she would freak out.

"That explains it. Oh and I just thought of this but do you want to take Matilda back to your house and show jump her for me." she asks while leading Max out to the truck and trailer.

"Yeah I would love to, but isn't she your brother's horse?"

"Yeah but he won't care, he never does anything with her. He is too busy going to rodeos and going to the practice rings that he never does anything with her."

"Well then I will take her to my place." I go over ad grab Matilda from the stall I put her in and I see Jason at the end of the barn. He starts to walk over to me but I swing onto Matilda and bring to the trailer.

"Hurry up your brother is coming and I really want to go home and ride." I say while getting in the truck.

"Yeah and I can tell he is mad. We should definitely hurry up." we pull out of the drive right as he walks out of the barn.

"Hey that horse that you were just riding, What was her name?" I ask while changing the radio station to 102.9.

"That is Destiny and she is a retrain horse that my parents bought. I am training her for my little sister because Destiny would be a good learning horse for her. She was originally trained to run barrels but the owners before us didn't run her or even ride her so she came here and now she will be put to use.

"Well it looks like you are doing a good job, but here's a tip, change her bit. You're using too big of a bit for her, that's why she is tossing her head a lot. I recommend a wonder bit or a just go with a plain snaffle." she nods and pulls into my driveway.

We unload the horses and say our good byes. When Jo leaves I go for a long and much needed trail ride with Max. I get home and I untack the horse. I clean up and head to the house for a long night of sleep.