"Emily, come on" I whispered to my sleeping roommate. It was 3:45am on Saturday morning. Emily opened up her eyes and groaned before remembering we had a show. She hopped out of bed and quietly went to shower. I was too excited for our first ever competition at BLRA and I couldn't sleep. I had woken up at 3:30 slightly before I woke Emily up and showered. I grabbed my hair dryer and winced at the loud noise. I did my hair so that it was nearly dry as not to wake anyone up who was not competing today.
Emily walked out of the bathroom looking a lot happier and dried her hair. "Where are your white breeches?" I whispered to her digging around in the wardrobe. "They're with my show jacket hanging up" she replied. I grabbed our two bags and unzipped them to reveal two pairs of pristine white breeches and two black show jackets. "Here you go" I said passing her the clothes. "Thanks" she said. We got changed quickly into white breeches, a white shirt and a black belt. "Do you want tracksuits" I asked tossing Emily a pair of grey tracksuit bottoms. Mr. Wilson had asked us all to wear clothes over our show gear because our class was straight away. Emily laughed at the sight of us with our big baggy tracksuits.
We quickly packed a bag filled with saddle soap, plaiting bands, spare grooming brushes, bottles of water, a few apples and carrots for the horses and bottles of juice and bread rolls and meat for us. I grabbed my phone, keys and purse and put them in the bag along with Emily's. We slipped out of our dorm room and walked down to the stables. The barn was packed and horses and riders were running around everywhere. The cross ties were filling up fast so I quickly grabbed Shadow's travel halter and tied him up before anyone could take the spot.
Even though it was only 4:30 nearly every single rider was already here. I grabbed my grooming brushes and set them down beside Shadow. I unclipped the straps on his rug and was delighted to see that he was near spotless underneath. Apart from a few stains along his neck and legs Shadow had stayed clean overnight. Emily had managed to get Pippin out of her stable and into the cross ties right beside us. "Hey" she smiled, "you excited?" I asked taking the tangles out of Shadows tail. "Umm yessss" she exclaimed "I am soooo nervous though" she said going suddenly quiet. I laughed "don't worry you'll do great" I reassured her. "Thanks" she said. We continued grooming in silence. When I was happy with how Shadow looked I went into the tack room to search for some plaiting bands. I found a few grey coloured ones in the press.
I walked back to the cross ties which were now emptier than before. Mr. Wilson was now patrolling along the stables checking if the horses were up to standards. Luckily he was only at the start of the barn so I had roughly 8 minutes to get started on plaiting. I got a stool and began combing out Shadow's grey mane. Once it was all knot-free and on the same side I began to tie it up into neat rosebuds. At the end I counted and realised I had an even amount of rosebuds. I sighed and took out all the plaits and this time divided the hair up so there was an uneven number of rosebuds. I counted 13 and I smiled glad that I realised before I went into the show ring. I went around to Shadow's face and put his forelock into a rosebud as well.
Just as I came back from dropping the stool in the tack room Mr. Wilson strode over and eyed Shadow approvingly. "Well done Rachel" he said and handed me a slip of paper. The paper told me what time my classes would be, what stable Shadow would be kept in while at the show grounds and also what trailer Shadow would be traveling in to and from the show. I pulled Shadows black travel rug back over his back and clipped it up before putting on large black travelling boots.
I looked up to see Emily strapping on Pip's last hunter green travel boot. "Hey what trailer are you in? I asked replacing Shadow's head collar with a black leather one with his name engraved on the side. "Ummmm let me check" she said pulling out her slip of paper. "I am innnnn..... Trailer 1" she smiled "oh me too!" I smiled and hugged her. "You ready to load?" She asked me. "I think so" I said. "We need our tack" I said strolling to the tack room to collect my gleaming saddle. "Oh really I thought we were going tackless" Emily said laughing. I laughed and slung my bridle over my shoulder. We carried our tack and put in in the back of the navy land rover which was hooked up to a 6 horse trailer.
