The horse girl

~Faith's P.OV

I jumped out of our dusty white four wheeled drive and moved over to mum and her best friend Sarah. Dark hair, hazel eyes and thin figure, mum was beautiful and poised. Today however, she seemed somewhat nervous and frazzled. I was to but mostly, I was excited.

We had just arrived at paddock. The paddock was A few minutes away from Brisbane city. A strange spot for a paddock, but a paddock nonetheless. We lived in bellmere, about an hour and a half away. We had made the long trip out there to look at a horse. For me. A real horse. not just a little stuffed toy but infact a real, living breathing poop making horse.

Mum had seen the add for the horse on Facebook. Sarah, an expert horse woman had told us not to get our hopes up though because the horse may be completely different to what the description in the ad had said that they were. I couldn't help it though, I was so excited that my stomach was doing flip flops.

I had been ridding for about three years. Mum had signed me up when I was in grade 7 to try and take my mind off things. I had been bullied so much during those young primary school years that I finally snapped and said to mum, "what is the point on living if I'm just going to be treated like crap?". After that mum knew that I needed something of my own, something to that the kids from school couldn't take away from me.

So, halfway through grade 5, mum enrolled me in riding lessons at Glass House Riding School. I had been a nervous wreck for a long time. At first I was so scared that I had to have the instructor lift me into the saddle as I was almost frozen with fear. Eventually though, thanks to everyone's patience, my confidence and self esteem began to grow. I'm not saying that it was easy, that as soon as I got on I became a superstar rider. I took quite a few tumbles and I was often left feeling frustrated after a lesson that hadn't gone very well.

I bet when mum signed me up for horseback riding lessons she never thought that she would end up with a totally horse obsessed daughter. A phase, that's what everyone had said by the time I'd had been riding for 2 years. I just shook my head and rolled my eyes. I knew that I was something much more than something as small as a phase.

A small petite middle aged lady with dirty blonde hair strode forward to shake mum and Sarah's hand. She formally introduced herself to them as jenny. She turned and as if just noticing me, her brows furrowing and her lips curving into a frown. I felt my heart drop a little at her hostility towards me. She gave a small nod in my direction and broke her gaze from me before turning and climbing over the barbed wired fence.

I hung back nervously, unsure of what to do with myself. A chestnut gelding was tied to one of the fence rails and I watched keenly as jenny approached him. He turned his head and nudged her gently on her arm. She smiled slightly and rubbed his forehead. Suddenly as if she had just remembered that she had an audience, jenny said to us, "This is Maverick,". She then motioned to me to come on through. "I'll tack him up then you can hop on." She said as I made my way over the fence.

I moved towards maverick smooching to him. I stroked his neck tentatively and moved towards his head. Jenny grunted and I turned around as she placed a saddle on mavericks back. She cleared her throat and looked at me and then to another fence post where a bridle was hanging meaningfully. I looked from her to the bridle twice before I went and picked it up. I came back to mavericks side and hesitated. Would he stand still while I placed this on him? "You do know how to put a bridle on don't you?" Said jenny gruffly. "Uh, yeah of course." I replied blushing furiously.

With shaking hands, I eased the bit into Mavericks mouth. Being a perfect gentleman, he accepted the bit within seconds. I relaxed slightly but my fingers fumbled as I fastened the throatlatch. Breathing deeply, I turned to face jenny, mum and sarah. With an anxious smile I said, "we're ready."