Trust Me

Chatper 7

 I walked to the barn thinking of which horse the instructor would put me on, I loved all the horses back home at the little barn I used to ride at and my parents were going to buy me one for riding here at Ashfield but sadly it was way too expensive to fly a horse over here with me. But I hoped here I would find a horse that I really bond with, not that it’s the most important thing ever but I find I tend to ride better when I have a connection with them. I soon reached the barn and walked inside and saw the beautiful stalls with dark oak doors and with little gold plaques that had each horses name engraved on it. I looked in at all the different horse’s wishing one of them was actually mine. As I daydreamed I took in the sweet smell of fresh sawdust, grain and hay. It was a smell I could never get tired of and even though I was nervous here it helped to calm my jitters and make me feel at home.  I snapped out of my daydream and walked to the end of the aisle way where a tall woman with red hair and black breeches, and a Kelly green pullover  zip sweatshirt and glossy black show boots.

 “You must be Ava, I’m Avery, the head instructor here at the barn. I’ll be putting you on the intermediate riding team for now until I see your skills and you’re tested for the advanced team but from what I’ve heard from your instructor back home, you’re pretty good. And a very good jumper I hear too, we’ll have to find you an excellent horse for you to use while you’re here with us. I have a couple in mind that I think would work very well with you, let’s go look at them and you can decide which one you want to ride first.”

We walked down the aisle and came to a stall with a gold plaque that read Colemen, a beautiful black Arabian gelding with a white star on his forehead and two white socks on his front legs.

 I turned to Avery, “He’s so beautiful do you mind if I try him today? He looks like he has a very gentle personality too,” I said as he nudged my hand gently with his nose.

 “Yeah go ahead and get him setup in the cross ties and then his tack is in the tack room, each horse has their own little holder for all of their stuff. Well, I’ll let you get started and the lesson starts in a little bit in the indoor arena if you need anything I’ll be in my office.”

“Thanks,” I said as she started to walk back down the aisle.

 I grabbed some brushes from the brush box after I cross tied him, and made sure he was sure between the ropes so he didn’t walk away while I was putting on his saddle and bridle. He was pretty clean so I didn’t have to brush him very much and finished in no time, with his coat gleaming under the lights. I tacked up and went to the indoor arena where I found some other students who I hadn’t seen around campus trotting around the ring. Once we were done warming up we came to the middle and Avery told us what we were going today.

 “Well since today is Ava’s first day with us I’m not going to be as picky as I normally am but we still are going to be working very hard on the different exercises. Alright Andrew,” she said to a boy with blonde hair poking out of his helmet on a gorgeous brown and white pinto.

 “I’d like for you to start figure eights you’re the leader. Then we will do different gait exercises then maybe at the end if we have time we can do some jumping.”

 It sounded really fun to me but I wasn’t going to let it being fun let me lose my concentration, I was here to ride and only that I needed to focus on Colemen and what we were doing. Nothing else mattered when I was on a horses back only the horse and I.

“Posting trot,” Avery yelled from the middle of the ring.

We rose up and down in the saddle as we went around for a little while then went in and out of cones and were on both sides of the ring.

“Working trot for a lap and a half around the ring then, drop your stirrups then canter around the ring please.”

I sat and encouraged him to stretch out and collect himself more, bring him into a nice working trot.  Then I gently tapped him with my heel and asked him for a canter, then slip my feet out of the stirrups. I loved cantering but I hated doing it without stirrups because sometimes I got nervous that because I only had my legs holding me on and no longer my feet that I would fall. Colemen had such a smooth canter though so it wasn’t that horrible and I almost felt like I was flying. Cantering takes my breath away and has a way of making me feel better even if I’ve had the most awful week, it magically makes everything better.