Striving for Show Jumping

Chapter 2. Now.

So here I am in present tense. Standing outside the new stable block waiting for Melissa to arrive. "Oh. My. God" I hear a giggly voice coming from inside, "If you get us caught you are so dead". That voice is strangely familiar, Maybe I'll just peek inside.

Oops, Homecoming Queen Zara and her boyfriend, doing what they do best. I step outside again into the freezing cold wishing I was as warm as they are.

In my dreams. Melissa finally walks around the corner with the keys hanging out her pocket. "Hey, Mel!" She shouts as she breaks into a jog, "Waiting to see Comet?". "How'd you guess" I laugh. Comet is my new rather crazy 14.3 hack, Pop Eye got too small and now belongs to my little sister who loves him to pieces. I bought Comet from the heartland racetrack, he was majorly lame and terrified of humans. He's better now. Anyway.

The key clicks in the lock and I rush inside blocking out Zara who is now behind the haystack, honestly, anyone would think she was a horse herself with all the noise she's making!

Comet snickers from down the corridor and hits the door impatiently, "Coming" I giggle. I let myself out the door at the end into his paddock. He noses me and grabs the carrot from my hand. I jump on him bareback and he takes off around the paddock with me clinging on for dear life. Sometimes I wonder my he wasn't fast enough for racing because at the moment he's going so fast my eyes are watering. I bury my head in his mane and he slows down. I laugh as he snorts as if to say, "Why'd we stop?" I slip on a brand new hunter green rope halter and we go back inside.

I tack him up in his matching hunter green saddle pad and ear bonnet. I spray mane detangler in his tail and brush his palomino knots out. "Hi Mel!" my best friend Eve yells as she runs around the corner of the barn. "Hey!" I say back. "Comet's looking great, sure you don't need an extra rider?" She laughs. Eve is always trying to ride Comet purely because she likes his colouring (Flaxen Chestnut). Her horse Tillie is a bay with a white star and socks.

Don't get me wrong, I love all horses no matter what colour, but everyone. And I mean everyone, at some point, will comment on how his mane "shines like polished gold" in the light.

I lead him over to the mounting block behind Eve and mount up from the ground. A skill my dad taught me when I was 4 years old. He skitters all over the place as we head to the arena to practise our jump offs and quick turns. We get to the arena only to find Tom the school jerk beating his 14.3hh grey over jumps way too high. "Oy! Tom! Get off you horse you idiot before you ride him down to the bone" yelled Eve. She's always been pushy with him, ever since he snuck out at night as a dare and galloped Tilly down the riding school gravel driveway in the rain. Tilly pulled a muscle because of him, put her out of jumping for a month, Eve was so mad she tipped a bowl of red dye over his hair.

Anyway. That's old news. He yanks his poor horse Rocket (who now looks like a snail) to a halt harshly and tighten's his sweaty girth. "Tom Burich you are the most obnoxious jerk I have ever met!" I say grabbing his horse's reins and stroking his horse soothingly. "Well well well if it isn't my two favorite ladies" He says with smug smirk.

That was his first mistake.