Stone Valley Equestrian Center: #1

Chapter 3: A Busy Day

A/N: The above horse is supposed to be Calypso, for visual reference.

The sun was almost completely up as I came into the barn at 8:15 the next morning. Before anything, I needed to meet Nikki in stall 16 to get this over with and start my day.

Stall 16 wasn't occupied by a horse. The shavings were clean and the buckets empty. I stepped inside the stall and was surprised to see Nikki waiting there. I looked around to make sure that nobody saw us, because I didn't want to start off my riding career as the weird kid who hangs out in stall 16.

"Can't we do this in front of the stall?" I asked her.

"Shhhh," she put a finger to her lips.

"What?" I whispered, confused.

"Nikki!" I heard a voice from out in the barn aisle and crouched down.

"Sorry, got to go," Nikki whispered as she went into the aisle.

What the hell?

When I was sure nobody was watching, I came out of the stall as if I had just arrived.

...

I made my way out to the dressage arena at 8:55. Two girls whom I had never seen before were working at a walk on the rail of the beautiful and spacious outdoor arena. The morning breeze lifted Hope's mane as I mounted and strode out to the girls.

"Hey," a girl called out to me as she halted her horse. "I'm Daisy. You must be Stella?"

"Yep!"

Her beautiful, large bay let out a whinny.

"And this is Thunder," she pet his neck and giggled.

"Nice to meet you, Daisy and Thunder. This is Hope," I introduced my beautiful mare.

Daisy had reddish hair neatly tucked into her helmet, like all the riders I had seen at this prestigious world in its own. Her shiny, black tall boots gleamed against her gorgeous gelding's sides.

The other girl was Amber, who was riding a school horse, Jax.

Into the ring came a skinny, yet muscular man in tan riding pants and a black polo. He wore a baseball cap with the Stone Valley logo and flashed me a smile with teeth almost as shiny as his boots.

I halted Hope as he came to shook my already-sweaty gloved hand.

"Stella? I'm Marc, the head of dressage. Welcome," he looked up at me and Hope.

"Thank you," I expressed my gratitude and relaxed into the saddle.

He looked over Hope and my tack, as if he was searching for treasure. He touched each and every inch of leather on my horse.

"Very clean overall. I am a meticulous tack cleaner and a stickler for presentation. You have a little bit of saddle soap in your billets, though."

Was he really telling me that the holes under my saddle had a bit of soap in them? I guess that's what they meant by 'Challenging and Prestigious Riding Academy'. I just smiled, nodded, and made a mental note to clean that out.

Once Marc had us warm up, we did some figure-eights and some short tests and sequences.

"I Part of dressage is melting into the saddle and being one with the horse. Sometimes your horse is lame or tired, but that doesn't excuse you from riding. It isn't just one horse. For this reason, I'm going to ask you to do a horse switch. Don't worry, I am not putting you or your horses in danger. It's good for both of you. I trust each of you with each other's animals. Amber, you get on Thunder. Daisy, ride Hope. Stella, ride Jax," he called out commands.