Hey guys! I hope you enjoy my fourth chapter of Brook Lodge Riding Academy. I'm not sure how many chapters I'll do...
This picture is of Rachel and Shadow xx😍💕
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Rachel! Rachel! Get up...We're late for school!!! "What" I sat bolt upright in bed and glanced at my clock, it was 8:16 and school started at 8:30! I jumped out of bed and dressed as quickly as possible. I grabbed my bag filled with books from my desk and staggered down the stairs with my heavy load. My mouth watered as I walked into the kitchen filled with the smell of sweet pancakes. The other students had obviously gotten up early so that they had time to eat breakfast.
I felt a pang of happiness when I spotted a plate filled with pancakes with a note written beside it. 'For Emily and Rachel' . Unfortunately they were cold so I started to heat them up in the microwave when Emily reminded be that we had 9 minutes to get our lockers and timetables sorted and get to class. "oh right" I said rushing out the door. We made it into our seats just as the bell rang. I looked over at Emily and she mouthed the words "phew" to me. We both burst out laughing and started our first day of school at Brook Lodge Riding Academy.
At break we went to the cafeteria to have lunch. We grabbed a big table before anyone else could get it and sat down to eat. I met a few girls in my biology class Grace, Eimear and Lauren. Grace's horse is a 14.2hh cremello called Bailey, Eimear has a 15hh light bay called Phoenix and Lauren has a 15.2hh pinto mare called Dixie. After school was finally over (we got tons of homework) we all went to the stables to the get our horses ready for the evening lesson: Cross country.
I did a lot of eventing back home with Shadow so we both knew what we were doing. I began warming up with some simple exercises my trainer back home always got me to do. Because Shadow always went a bit mad in cross country I needed to get him listening to me more. I squeezed him into a walk and after about 4 steps asked him to halt again. Shadow reacted in the way I expected him to. Not pleased. Of course he would want to just gallop in a big open grass field but I wouldn't let him. Every time he gave out when I asked him to halt he would have to stay halted for 5 seconds longer. When he listened and stood I would reward him by releasing my reins and letting him go again.
I repeated this exercise multiple times before Shadow was halting immediately when he was asked. I moved him up into a trot and then asked for halt again. When I was sure he was 100% focused on me and me only I tried it at a canter. He was behaving well so we moved onto jumping. Again he was bolting off after the fence so as soon as we landed over the jump I made him halt. After a few times we got it and he was no longer bolting off all over the place. "Hello everybody I am Mr. Wilson and I will be your riding instructor. I have been watching you all warm up and I think you did a great job working independently with your horses. I have seen some great techniques from some of you used to calm your horse down Sammy Ashley Rachel" he paused and smile at us three. I blushed as Mr. Wilson continued "now as I can tell you have all warmed up over some practise fences am I right?" We all nodded " good, good follow me and we can do a couple of jumps and then I will make a course for you all to do" we again nodded and followed Mr. Wilson through a gate into a larger field with about eight jumps. " now as you probably all know Brook Lodge Riding Academy is well known for its cross country course. Well obviously this is not the only part to the course. This is field number one of 18. Today all we are doing is the few jumps in this field as it is your first ever lesson here at BLRA. Alright now you can school individually over these or
We did a really tricky course which was a simple log jump to start with about 6-8 strides to a massive table up a bank over a brush fence through the water, over some hay bales and then lastly over a big cottage which was really wide aswell!
"Ok, everyone that's enough for today" Mr. Wilson our instructor called. I dismounted and brought Shadow back to his stable. While I was lifting the saddle of his back I noticed a small rip in the saddle flap. Hmmm that's weird i thought to myself, that definitely wasn't there earlier. I left it on the stable door and went to get Shadows blue fleece rug out of my tack box. What the? My tack box was unlocked and wide open with my stuff thrown all around the room.
"Whoa" Emily said laughing, "are you having a bit of trouble trying to find something there Rachel" she said bursting into a fit of giggles. "No" I said, "someone unlocked my tack box and started rooting through my stuff!". "Oh" Emily looked serious now, "Well did you tell Mr.Wilson?" "No not yet" I replied miserably. "Well then come on" Emily said grabbing my hand and dragging me out the door. She rushed into Mr.Wilson's office and told him everything leaving me standing there looking quite stupid. Mr. Wilson was quite for awhile, he eventually spoke. "Ok I will report it to the principal, but there is nothing more we can do I'm sorry" I didn't know what to say so I just nodded and walked quickly out the door. "Don't worry it will be fine" Emily said comforting me. Once again I nodded and let myself into Shadows stable. "I know what will cheer you up" Emily said grinning madly. I turned around hopefully"what" I asked. She smiled and said " riding ". I gave her a quick smile before she went to tack up Pippin.
"Everyone pick up canter on the left lead please" Mr. Wilsons voice boomed across the indoor arena. It was Thursday, and we were in the middle of our evening lesson. "Ok everyone, halt at A and turn in. Every horse and rider will get a chance to come over this course that was set up earlier. We will start with you Emily" he said gesturing to her to start the course. Emily and Pip, her big chestnut showjumper, turned in a flawless clear round with record time. "Very nicely done" Mr.Wilson said giving her a quick smile before turning his attention to me. "Right Rachel, whenever you're ready you may start". I nodded my head and nudged Shadow into a forward active going canter.
I turned him towards the jump and felt him rush forward, I quickly circled him once more before heading into the fence again."Good decision Rachel" Mr.Wilson called out to me. "See that everybody, Rachel could feel Shadow lurching forward so she made a very wise decision to circle him once more" I smiled to myself under my riding helmet so that no one could see. "Focus" I said to myself. Stop getting distracted I quietly gave out to myself. First fence. It was a blue and red vertical 3..2..1 simple.
Next few jumps were all the same and Shadow took them easily, then onto a Swedish oxer we always struggled with these at home 3.2.1 now. Perfect. "Excellent Rachel and Shadow" Mr.Wilson called out to "now as you all have probably heard, there will be tryouts for the advanced team this Saturday" We all nodded "I expect that you are all practising, yes?" We nodded once again. "There will be a dressage routine, followed by a showjumping round and lastly a cross country course. Simple stuff ok. I don't want to see anything fancy fancy in the dressage, basic flying changes and pirouettes." I could feel butterflies in my stomach already, we only had 3 days to practise for team tryouts and I was really hoping for a spot on the advanced team this year. Well I'd better keep practising!
