Triple A Academy (An Equestrian Story)

Lesson Time!

All three of us walked into the boarders barn and walked to our horses stalls. Amber and I had stalls right across from eachothers, but Matts was a couple stalls down. Bummer. I poked my head over Clouds stall where she was hiding in the corner eating her hay. "Cloud!" I clucked as I said her name eagerly, as she turned around to face me. "Ugh you got mud stains again?!" I groaned as I noticed that her legs were almost covered in brown. I guess that's what I get for owning a paint! I quickly led her out of her stall and onto the crossties and got to work at brushing her and making her look spotless. "There is no way we are not going to look perfect for our first lesson. Amber you are so lucky that Q is black, you can barely see any dirt!" I glanced over at Amber who was gently brushing down Q's stunning black coat. I quickly checked my watch to see how we were doing for time. 20 minutes left, I'd have to really attack the brown spots on her legs if I wanted to be on time. I quickly grabbed my curry and hard brush and got to work getting rid of all the stains. After what felt like an hour I had finally gotten her coat looking almost perfect, and I still had 10 minutes left to tack up. 

I ran into the tack room and quickly grabbed my bridle, saddle, baby pad, half-pad, girth, and boots. I quickly put her new leather open-fronts on because I was assuming we were jumping, and the last thing I wanted to do was hurt my horses legs. Then I gently set my ogilvy baby pad and half-pad on her withers, and then my saddle on top of that. I couldn't helpbut stare at my saddle whenever I saw it, I was allowed to get whatever I thought was best and ended up with a custom CWD, the kind I used to drool over in tack shops. With little time to diddle-daddle I did up her girth and put my hair up in my GPA helmet. I checked what Amber was doing and she was almost done bridling so I quickly slid the bit into Clouds mouth and gently slipped the bridle over her ears, then moving onto the throatlatch and noseband. 

I looked behind me and Matt was ready as well, Monte looked stunning as usual. Just in time too, Mr. Carter walked into the barn and motioned for us to enter the arena. One by one we all walked into the arena, with a couple other students behind us as well. Everyone's horse was well groomed and all the riders looked well prepared as well. Mr. Carter walked in behind us and closed the door to the arena shut. "As im sure most of you know, you have already been assigned your riding level based on what you told us when you applied. If you are unsure, please check your email to find out when you get back to your dorms. For now, you will all be riding together so that I can assess your riding abilities. One at a time please lead your horse up to the mounting block and start walking around the arena"

One by one we mounted up and started to walk around the arena. There were 5 of us, but the arena was huge and there was plenty of room for us all. Mr. Carter dragged a chair into the center of the arena and began giving us instructions. "All riders please move into a posting trot on the left rein." Slowly we all nudged our horses and began posting the trot. Most of us did a normal warm-up with lots of transitions, changes of rein, and extension/collection to get our horses listening. "Good job everyone, if I could please get you all to come into the center of the arena so I can see you canter individually." We all slowed our horses and brought them into the center. "Amber, you will go first. Please demonstrate a working & collected canter on both reins, a simple and flying change of lead, 2 different upward transitions and 2 different downward transitions." I watched her perform all that was asked almost effortlessly, except when Q gave a little kick out during a flying change which unbalanced her a bit, but she re-balanced quickly and continued on. Next was Denise, and then me. I rode Cloud out of the track and nudged her into a working trot, and then sat and asked for the canter. She easily performed the transition and moved up into a nice rhythmic canter down the long side. I squeezed the reins and asked for a collected canter down the short side, did a simple change of lead down the diagonal and then slowed her back down to a walk, and asked for the walk to canter in the corner. It was a bit choppy but she did it anyways and continued on like nothing had even happened. We did a flying change back down the diagonal and then ended with that. Next was Matt, and then Jake would be last.