Flying Change

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Dance’s canter rocked underneath me, his ears flicking back towards me, listening for cue’s. The emerald turf was springy beneath his delicate hooves. The bell rang and I turned him towards the first jump, his ears flicked forward and I felt him take the bit and lengthen his stride towards the big oxer. I looked for it, found my spot, 3-2-1, I counted down and felt him lift off, jerking his shoulders up underneath his body and snapping his knees up, we soared over the first, landing safely on the other side. I looked forward towards the vertical and let him canter down to it calmly, rocking along in our own private rhythm, he sprung over it like a cat and I swung him left towards the third a square oxer, he pounded down towards it. “Whoa Boy,” I muttered and took a check as he began to get away from me. He listened, rocking his weight back on his quarters and waiting for the jump to come and then leaping over it with an artistic flick of his back legs. We set off again. He was beginning to fight for the bit. He was enjoying himself. The course rolled on and I sat up, seeing a short one for the Swedish oxer, he half listened and found a distance, launching us up and over it before rounding the corner and galloping for the water, he took it on like a lion and flew over it. I sat up sharply half halting for the tight two-stride double. 6-5-4-3-2-1. Dance snapped his shoulders up and bounced himself over the vertical and then stretched out over the oxer, I let my hands follow his movement and felt my body fold naturally with it. We landed and I turned my body to look at the next fence, a large wall off of a 180 degree turn, is sat up on the corner, wrapping my legs around him and balancing him. He shortened effortlessly and before I knew it we were over the wall and the triple bar that followed it. We cantered towards the treble, the last efforts. I saw my spot and rode for it and he soared over the first element, landing and shortening immediately, tapping the ground lightly before he was thrusting us over the oxer and then touching down again and another one stride and I was shooting my reins up his neck as he stretched out over the final wide oxer. I felt him give an extra little kick and I could see his petite black ears pinned back with effort. I felt us touch down safely on the other side and as we shot across the finish line the first cheers began to sound around the arena.

“Lexi, Lex?”

My eyes shot open and I found myself staring into two big brown eyes that would make any girl’s insides melt.

“Hey,” he smiled down at me and bent to drop a soft kiss on my forehead. “I made you some tea,” he smiled and placed a mug on my bedside table next to me. He smelt of horses and leather and it made my heart do a little dance.

“What’s the time?” I asked still a little groggy from being woken.

“9:30,” he was smiling so sweetly at me that it made me feel a little giddy. He was really something. He had long dark lashes that framed his chocolate eyes perfectly, and they were the kind of eyes that made your stomach do cartwheels and made you forget what you were going to say. His nose was perfectly straight and sloped and he had a strong jaw line that made him look like he had just been pulled out of a Calvin Klein advert. And his lips, well they made it extremely difficult to focus on what he was saying sometimes. He looked like the prince charming that had just been pulled out of a fairytale, and by some absurd twist of fate, he was all mine.

“Earth to Lexi,” he laughed and I flushed, I guess I had been day dreaming. “I’ve already ridden Dance, Cabby and Lari, they went well. Ritchie wants to talk to you if you’re feeling up to it.” He relayed the message as he sat himself on the other side of the bed and looked over at me. “If Cabby wasn’t yours I would be after him, he’s top.” He grinned and I suppressed the squirm of jealousy. Cabby was top and it had been obvious he and Phillip got on from the moment Phillip first sat on him. The useful thing about Phillip being here was that he had happily taken over riding for me. It was nice to get a different perspective and he was amazing with them. The bad thing was that I wasn’t so good at sharing my horses and it was difficult for me to see them going so well for him. Even Dance had let Phillip ride him. I had been sure that wouldn’t happen. It made me twitchy.