Triple A Academy (An Equestrian Story)

Warming Up

Once we were done unpacking Amber asked me if I wanted to go to the barn and ride before dinner to get the horses settled in and used to the arenas, so I said a quick goodbye to my parents who were still waiting outside in the truck and raced off to the barn with Amber. It wasn't until we both arrived at the same paddock that we realized our horses were out together! "So I guess I've found Q's owner then! He's stunning!" I said to Amber while we brought the horses inside. "I guess so! Your horse isn't too bad either" she winked at me and lead Q inside to his stall, which was also directly across from mine. "So, have you thought of a name for her yet?" I shook my head. "Nope, I haven't even ridden her yet, today will be the first time!" "Well then lets get ready and go, I wanna be there for your first ride!". We both brought our horse out onto the crossties, with Q in the second set behind me. We both groomed our horses and then went into the tack room to get our stuff. I grabbed my shiny new saddle (squee!), bridle, girth and saddlepad and set off back into the barn. I carefully sat the saddlepad, halfpad, and saddle astride my horse before carefully doing up her girth, and she didn't move a muscle, matter of fact she was practically sleeping in the crossties! I gave her a quick pat on the neck before checking that Amber was ready to bridle, and when she nodded at me I quickly slipped the bit into my horses mouth and eased the bridle over her ears. She looked SO pretty with tack on. 

Once we were done we headed into the arena, and it was HUGE. I mean the one at Bridlewood was pretty big but this was a whole other level. It had big glass windows and vents all around which I assumed were for air conditioning and heating during the winter. Wow. This place just kept getting better and better! Once I located the mounting block I walked over to it, double checked my girth, and then got on. Holy cow she was big! A big step up from the ponies I was used too, but after walking around for a while I was able to adjust. I turned my head to check where Amber and Q were before announcing I was going to move up into a trot. I sat up, pushed my heels down and raised my hands slightly before pressing her sides with my legs, and she went right into a beautiful working trot. Her stried was bigger then I was used too but I adjusted after a few strides and rose up and down in the saddle (which was like riding on a cloud by the way) along with her. After a few laps both ways and lots of transitions we moved into the canter, and just wow. Her gaits are so amazing and SO smooth! I could've cantered on forever but I didn't want to tire out my horse on the first day. I stopped a couple times to watch Amber and Q and I could tell they had been working together for a long time, he was moving in a really nice uphill canter, on the bit and everything. They looked flawless. Once we was done we grinned at eachother and cooled out. Just as we were finishing up, we saw a boy and his horse walk into the ring. His horse was a beautiful dark bay with 2 white socks on his hind legs and he must've been at least 16.3hh, and well the boy wasn't too bad looking himself either. We introduced ourselves and found out his name was Matt and he was new to the school, and his horses name was Monte. Turns out he was actually a western rider but wanted to ride on the equestrian team so he decided to learn to ride hunter/jumper. We exchanged phone numbers and agreed to go get dinner together (all three of us) later. 

We went back into the barn and untacked our horses, and then put them in their stall, before heading back to our dorm to get changed. Once we got to our dorm before I good even sit down Amber grabbed me by the shoulders and squealed "OHMYGOD YOU LIKE HIM !!!!!" I blushed and sat down on my bed "Well I mean he's nice and admittedly pretty cute but I barely know him!" she sat down next to me before pushing me off the bed "Well you're gonna!". She practically shoved me into the shower before running into my closet and picking out clothes for me. "Relax!" I shouted from the shower "It's just us 3 friends going out for dinner together, its not a date!" "TOO BAD" she shouted back. I washed my hair and hopped out of the shower and blowdried my hair before checking out what she had picked out for me. She actually did a pretty good job, she chose a plain white blouse with a grey v-neck sweater to go on top, paired with a simple pair of blue jeans and my beige sperrys. I quickly slipped on the outfit and did my makeup, and which point Amber was out of the shower, hair dried and almost changed. She was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans paired with a purple v-neck and a pair of black toms. I have to admit, we looked pretty good. By the time we were done it was just about 7pm, and we were going to meet Matt in the main yard at 7:15, so we were right on time. I grabbed my purse and my phone and we ran out the door towards the courtyard. We got there a little early but he showed up after just a couple minutes. After a couple minutes of arguing we all agreed on going to the on-campus pizza place which was according to Amber was really good. 

It was only a 5 minute walk from the courtyard and we sat down at a booth near the back. Before I could even say anything Amber shoved me into the booth beside Matt and oh-so-secretly winked at me. Real smooth. Someone came immediately and we agreed on just a plain cheese pizza for the three of us. It was really good, just like Amber said. We must have spent at least an hour in there just talking about random stuff. Matt was really really nice and I was liking him more and more by the minute. Oh boy. Literally. Turns out he was really nervous about learning to jump, so I offered to help him out during his free rides. We decided all three of us would ride together from now on. Then Amber perked out "Oh Allie, I completely forgot to ask, have you thought of any names yet?" Matt looked at me puzzled "My horse is new, she doesn't have a name yet. I've was thinking of naming her Cloud, what do you think?" Amber nodded "I love it! It fits her perfectly." "Well then thats that, my horses name is Cloud!" I smiled and made a note-to-self to write it down on her stall plate later tonight. 

((Picture to the right is of Monte, Matts horse!))

((Please comment and let me know what you guys think so far! ))