Complication

Chapter Forty-One

Gina's POV:

"Remember, don't run him through the course. If you don't make the time then you don't make the time. Get a clear round before anything else." Scott says to me as I walk into the arena under the blinding stadium lights.

For the past two weeks Scott has been doing everything he could to get me to this moment. We moved Casper into Grand Prix Village next to Fibonacci and I've been riding both of them. Learning on Fibonacci and teach Casper what I just learned in the lesson before. It was tough but I did it. I finally got here.

It took long enough. For the first week I didn't jump anything over two foot on either of the horses. But finally, everything all clicked, not only in myself but in Casper too. And before we knew it we were flying over six foot fences with ease. And right now is my first Grand Prix class on him. I looked at my competition at least twenty times. I'm not looking to win a blue ribbon tonight but it is pretty intimidating when you're showing against Jessica Springsteen and Emmanuel Andrade.

I trot down the grass arena, Casper tenses up once he realizes he's alone in this giant arena. "Shh" I whisper to him. I look in the packed stands, Lucas's flailing his arms around like a maniac made him stand out just a tad. I laugh for half a second at this crazy best friend of mine, then I see him give me a thumbs up. I take a deep breath and realize but Casper jigs beneath me. I try to encourage him and trot to where my first jump is, letting Casper see it before I trot over to the liver pool and let him look at that too. I look at the board which also had a live video up. The bell sounds. I pick up my canter and calmly make my way to the first jump.

Thankfully he didn't have a problem with the first fence but as I canter down to the Hermes oxer I feel Casper get stronger and stronger, pulling me to it. "Whoa" I sit up and half halt and he slows his stride. He pushes off the ground without much force yet clears the wide oxer by a foot each way.

I focus on the next combination. These are always tricky with Casper because if you don't come in perfectly he'll be too strong to fix his striding throughout the rest of the combination. "Whoa" I shorten his stride earlier than one would usually but I have my system of successfully getting through these on him. Casper reluctantly shortens his stride. I could almost see the spectators confusion to why I was slowing down this early but if I don't he'll run me through it and probably hit every fence.

I wait and wait and wait until I'm three strides out and see my distance. I squeeze his sides and cluck him forward. This way instead of gaining all the momentum and jumping the jumps flat, now he uses his hind end to propel himself up and over the jumps. He aces this and we make it out clean and over the next five fences clean too. Now at the liver pool line to wall, I know Casper is going to look at something here. I push him forward at the base of the liver pools to give him extra confidence to fly over them. He hops over them with ease but the second he comes into sight with the wall he panicks and slows his pace. The closer we got the more he wabbled, looking for a side to get out on. "Come on" I calmly say and squeeze him forward. He moves forward but at too slow of a pace to make it over the jump clear so I give him andother squeeze.

He doesn't listen. Oh, come on Casper please not now! I beg in my mind. I know that if I even think about using my spur he will spurt forward and not calm down the rest of the course. But if I don't he'll hit the jump, spook himsef, and won't calm down the rest of the course.

I try encouraging him forward one more time but when I get no response I place my spur on his side, expecting the worst but he picks up his pace like a normal horse.

Oh, wow. maybe he's evolved into an actual horse now that's life goal instead to try to kill me-

At the base of the jump he pushes so hard off the ground I got left behind. And in mid air I caught up but that didn't help the fact at I felt that we were in the air for twenty minutes, and when he landed roughly on the other side, he put his head in between his legs and started broncing.

"Now is not the time Casper!" I say and pull his head up and push him forward to stop the bucking.

Throughout the rest of the course he was hot headed but at least it was controllable. I can deal with that. And in all honesty, for me, that was a prefect round. We made it clear and nobody got hurt. I did get three time penalties but now I know I have to work on that. I was pleased with Casper and how much he held it together- well- for the most part. 

Back at the stalls Lucas comes up and high fives me. " I Told you you would kick ass."

I smile. I did do pretty freaking awesome on a horse that's never shown Grand Prix before.

Scott walks into the barn and comes over to us. "That was great! Better than I expected it to be."

"Thank you" I smile.

"I've already talked to Jackie Peterson. When Casper gets shipped back down to Two Trees he will be in a whole new training schedule and if all goes well you will be traveling around the world with him. She is thrilled to have him having this experience."

I couldn't contain my excitement. Ever since I was little it's been my dream to travel the AA circuit. "That's amazing!" I refrained myself from jumping up and down but it Is very difficult to accomplish.

Then I realize that I'm going back home in just three short days. I don't want to leave WEF but at the same time I'm tired of it and need to go home. My mom and Brandon are making me take a plane again so I'm going to help pack up everything then I leave around sun set and they leave the next morning. Of course I will be waiting at Two Trees to help unload everything, there's nothing that could happen to keep me from doing that.