Eat.Love.Ride

A Day at The Barn

I step out of my mom's black Chevy Tahoe. I smell the horses as soon as I open the door. I instantly felt at home.

"Be safe, I'll be back at six!" I give my mom a thumbs up to acknowledge her. I slam the door shut and start to walk to the lockers. I put my bag down so I can put my combo in my lock. I took out my phone and turned on some music. I looked for my headphones in my breeches. Like always, I forgot them. I turned on Panic! At The Disco. Most of the songs are clean (ish). So if a small child walks by, they won't hear a lot of cussing. 

I check the time. It was 11:00 in the morning. I walk towards the pastures where my horse was kept. I look in the arena and see that their is a group lesson going on. My trainer waved at me and I waved back. I looked down at my boots and noticed a bunch of dust on the toe. I was a little peeved knowing that I polished them the night before.

I walk to the farthest pasture where my horse is kept. I grab his purple rope halter with the matching lead. "Lombard!" I call out, "We got 30 minutes Bud, hurry up!" I see his head pop up. He gallops over to the gate with his tail up in the air. I can tell he knows we are jumping today. I open the gate and make sure none of the other horses get out. I untie the halter and put it on his face. I walk out of the pasture and he follows.

Lombard is a black thoroughbred. He is my all around horse. I started doing English stuff with him until I tried riding him through the barrel pattern bareback. I realized he could do just about anything I wanted him to. I asked my trainer what she thought I should so. She told me to make a schedule that I thought would work for me. Some lessons were Western, some were English. Lombard and I only had English tack. I asked my other trainer if I could borrow her Western tack until I could get my own. She agreed. I still don't have a Western saddle. But I did get a Western headstall, overreach boots, and purple sport boots to help his tendons.

I tied Lombard to his normal spot my the tack lockers. He pawed waiting for me to serve him his grain. I grabbed his mixture from inside my locker and put it down in front of him. He dove his head down and proceeded to pig out. I grab the curry comb from my locker door and started to groom my horse. I grabbed the dandy brush and got the rest of the dirt off of his body. I grabbed my friends fly spray knowing that the flies would be out later because the weather is starting to warm up. Lombard finished his grain and became very finicky when I was trying to clean out his hooves. 

I grab my gold saddle pad and put it on his back. I grabbed the saddle and put it on him as well. I did the girth and got his bridle and put the bit in his mouth. I put his halter back because we had 10 minutes left before I needed to be in the arena. I grabbed his tail brush and started to braid his tail. I used to not be able to braid tails or manes. So, my trainer made me braid his tail as best as I possibly could until it was up to her standards. After 2 months, I finally got it down. I was so proud of my achievement, I started to braid his mane and tail for fun. Now, everyone who rides at my barn wants me to braid their horses for shows. 

The ten minutes passed by and I untied Lombard's halter. I put my hair into a pony tail and put on my black helmet. I grabbed the reins and walked to the arena. I open the gait and Lombard walks in. I see my trainer start to walk to the arena as well. I left the gate open so she didn't have to fiddle with it. I walk Lombard to the mounting block. He stands still while I adjust his girth once more. I step onto the mounting block and Lombard turns his head to look at me. I put my foot in the stirrup and swing my leg over. I adjust my stirrups because they were too long. That means that Abbey probably borrowed my saddle.

"Hey, Faith!" My trainer calls out to me, "Is Lombard ready today?"

"He's a little to ready!" Lombard was already prancing around. "We haven't even warmed up and he's ready to jump 3 feet!" I do my normal warm-up and start to canter him around the arena. "Lombard, calm yourself or else we won't do anything else today." He understands me and collects. My trainer, Amy, laughs and starts to set up a cross rail. 

I walk Lombard and pet his neck.

"Alright Faith, trot over the poles and try to get him to trot the cross rail." I kick Lombard up to a trot and he goes over the poles. I tried to give a half halt closer to the cross rail. He perks his ears and arches his neck. In sync, I get into my position and we hop over the cross rail. I pat his neck as we canter a few strides after the jump. "Good boy."

Amy starts to raise the jump to a vertical. I look at what hole the pole is on the standard. It's on the 6th hole. That means the jump is 2' 6". Amy drags a cavaletti 3 strides away from the vertical. "We know Lombard likes to jump to soon, so really figure out your strides. If he gets to ahead of himself give a little half halt." I nod my head and ask Lombard to go forward. He starts to pick up his canter. He picked up the wrong lead. I ask for a lead change and he pulls it off perfectly. I pull on the reins slightly to shorten his stride. I put my rest my hands on his mane to make sure I don't pull on his mouth. We soar over the vertical. I give leg before the cavaletti. He swings his head up. I felt him move to the side. I push him over with my leg.

Next thing I know. I'm in the dirt. Lombard refused the damn jump. I look up at him and he's looking down at me acting like he didn't do anything. He put his head down and the reins fell over his head dropping to the ground. "Thanks dude." Amy laughs at what I say. She walked over and helped me up. 

"The hardest thing about riding is the ground." Lombard acts really calm as I get back on. I see Rachel and Maxine laughing at me. Those two girls think they know everything. Lombard shakes his head. "Alright Faith, take this jump at whatever pace you want. Just think about what you're doing." I glare at the girls. I ask for Lombard to canter from a standstill. He knew I was trying to regroup as fast as I could. I could feel him trying to pick up the wrong lead. I let him. As soon as we passed Rachel and Maxine, he did a flying lead change without me asking for it. I let Lombard to what he needed to. A stride away from the vertical I gave him a little bit of leg. We fly over the vertical again. I count the strides out load and Lombard flew over the cavaletti without an issue. I laugh and rub his neck. 

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Mom picks me up on time as usual. I see my dog in the back of the car. I get in the car and my mom asks me the normal question. "So how did it go?" I told her what happened. She laughed and gave me a high five. 

We get to my house and I walk up to my room. I hook up my speaker to my phone and play my music. I go to play Ugly Heart by G.R.L. I put my blinds to the window up and open my window. I turn on the fan and go to lay on my bed. I look at my text messages. 

Message from Dax: Hey babe, how was it today at the barn?

I get exited and text back.

"It was fine. I fell off. But then I got redemption!"

My phone goes off. 

"Jump on Skype."

I log onto Skype and call him. We talked for about 30 minutes before my mom came upstairs. "Honey, enough."

"Hold on Mom, I'm talking to Dax." She rolled her eyes and closed the door.

"I need to take a shower Babe."

"Ooh take me with you." I glare at him through the phone. "I'm just kidding." I shake my head. 

"I'll text you after alright." 

"Fine. Talk to you later." He hangs up the call. I grab my towel and head to the bathroom. Dax has a way of being clingy. He has his own horse at the barn. Her name is Lily. She used to be a lesson horse. He rides Western. He's also on the gymkhana team like I am. We met when I was exercising Lombard and he had his lesson. I noticed he kept looking over at me. Afterwards, I walked up to Lily and started to pet her. The gymkhana team had a barrel race that weekend. He asked if I could braid his horses tail. We started talking after that. Next thing I know, we were dating. Rachel and Maxine were always giving him crap and saying I din't know how to ride or take care of my horse. He never really cared. 

By the time I get out of the shower it's 20:49. I text Dax. "Hey, I'm off to bed. I'll be at the barn early tomorrow if you want to hang out. We can go on a trail or get lunch. Or both, you can decide." I turn off my phone and plug it in to charge. I turn off my light and go to bed.