Hopes, Dreams, and Horses?

Brook View Riding Academy

HELLO EVERYONE! If you are not interested in reading a book written by an 11 year old, you may be interested in going and reading version 2 of this story! It is the same exact story, but written better. If you choose not to, well... proceed with caution and enjoy the story! :)

"Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it." - W. Somerset Maugham

Fun Fact: "Old Billy," was the oldest recorded horse who lived to be 62 years.

*Lara*

I shifted around in the car... this was not what I wanted. For the entire school year, my friends and I planned our summer to every exact detail. My parents had other ideas, they didn't want me at the mall all day, swimming in the pool all day, or reading all day. They wanted me to spend my summer at a summer camp, learning how to ride and care for horses.

I could not see myself doing this. Mucking out stalls? Gross. Going over jumps? Heck no. Being thrown off? Ouch. What in the world were my parents thinking? I turned the volume on the car's radio up to drown out my thoughts.

I tapped the window to the beat of the song until my mother turned the volume down and said, "Lara, stop."

I glared over at her. "Turn it back up."

"No. You need to get over this summer camp idea. You'll make friends, have fun, and learn something new while at it. I don't see what your problem is," she said blankly, focusing back on the road, quickly pulling into a gravel drive.

"You don't see my problem? I have plenty of friends, all back home wondering why I told them I could spend the summer with them.. until you and dad decided I'd be better off riding crazy animals!"

"Lara, calm down!" My mother instructed, fixing her cold blue eyes upon me. "We're here. Get your stuff and we'll go get you ready for the entire summer."

I slowly got out of the car, slamming the door behind me, my eyes narrowed. Nickers and whinnies of excitement and pleasure could be heard, even though we were a good distance away from the clean, massive barn.

As I grabbed my stuff, I watched horse trailers pull in and snobby-looking girls hop out of their trucks, stroll to their trailer, and unload their fancy looking purebred horses. Every horse seemed to be equipped with some kind of leg blanket and a jacket on their back.

"Come on Lara!" My mother brought me back from my thoughts.

"Coming mom," I groaned, dragging my stuff over to her. Together, her walking, me more like dragging my feet, went over to a big lodge. My mom opened the door and ushered me inside, where a tall, almost graceful looking women walked over to us and shook our hands.

"Hello, I'm Eleanor." The woman, who looked to be in her thirties, greeted us. "Welcome to Brook Veiw Riding Academy. Do you have a horse?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't."

Eleanor nodded and walked to her desk. After stirring around some papers she pulled out a binder, and returned to us. "Inside this binder are my horses. You may pick one of them to ride while your here. Pick wisely, they're all good."

I took the binder gently ad flipped through pages of strong, majestic looking horses. There were a variety of breeds, from Arabians to Morgans. However, I immediatly became entranced with Vegas.

That's how my summer started.