Heart over jumps.

English tryout

There were loud speakers all around the campus and the tryouts were called alphabetically by last names. I was the first of our group we waited patiently to have our turn. 

My name was called "Ready boy?" I gulped, nerves rushing over me. Bandit nodded his head slightly and pricked his ears forward. Jumping was first, then we went from that to the dressage arena which was right next to it, both arenas had big screens to show the competitor clearly, it was like a championship show. The first jump was a breeze which helped my nerves a bit. Bandit and I flew over the rest of the course in good time and I gave him a huge pat to congratulate him on the round and even lent forward to hug his neck.
"That's the sort of teamwork between horse and rider we expect to see here. Look at how pleased both horse and rider are with the amazing run!" One of the judges commented and the crowd cheered putting a huge smile on my face.
We went to the dressage arena and only had to wait a few minutes for our turn which went smoothly, we picked up every lead and I couldn't have been more pleased with Bandit. It was a freestyle dressage so we were able to do as we pleased. After that I dismounted Bandit and loosened his girth. I wanted to give him a break while we watched the other competitors have their rides. After half the riders had completed the jumping course we were moved on to the cross country course.
Cross country and jumping where Bandit's favourite, I gave him a drink before tightening the girth before mounting again. Bandit was truly buzzing with energy "We're going to ace this" I beamed at Haley who had also had great runs in the previous events.
And we did ace it, no faults and sailed over each obstacle, both in good time. At this point I didn't even care about whether or not I was going to be accepted to the school, I was having such a blast riding Bandit and I could tell he was enjoying it too.
We managed to go untack Bandit and Vanity and lead them around to cool them off in time to see Seth and Trent do all their runs. They were great though Seth got one fault in jumping for knocking a rail. His dressage was near perfect his cross country was great. Both Rusty and Seth gave their all and showed real potential with heaps of room to grow. One thing I had noticed we all done and lots of other riders failed to was praise our horse after each round. No matter how bad our run has ever been we still congratulated our mount for giving their all. Trent aced each event.
We got to see the girl with the cremello horse ride and they were amazing but the girl seemed to push her horse and never once praised him, she didn't even cool him out instead she handed him off to someone else to cool down. I couldn't stand that, if it's your horse than you're responsible for its needs.
When all the horses were cooled down we put their blankets on again and put them in a small turnout yard together so they could work out their excitement and graze while we went for Lunch as there was two hours until the western tryouts and then the results would be announced at 4pm.
"You all done great" Mum praised.
"I forgot you could ride like that" Hunted commented to Seth.
"I've been working on it" Seth smiled.
"If you thought that was good then wait until you see his western riding" I stated.
"He rules at western, I know that. Mum and Dad would be so proud of how far you and Rusty have come" Hunter nodded.
Seth couldn't contain his smile at that.