Rescued [[Nicola Philippaerts]] #wattys2017

Pepper's First Competition

It had been several weeks until my fall now and I was preparing Alaska and Pepper for a major touring event. It was the 2017 Longines Global Champions Tour. We start off in Mexico City and then from there we go to Miami Beach, Shanghai, Madrid, Hamburg, Cannes, Monaco, Paris, Cascais: Estoril, Chantilly, Berlin, London, Valkenswaard, Rome and we finish in Doha. Then we have to fly back here to Belgium.

"Chels. We're flying out tomorrow and we still need to get Pepper some travel stuff. I'm shooting into town now to pick up the feed so will you come with me." Olivier said.

"Sure. Let me grab my card." I said and pulled it out of my shoulder bag. I stuck it in my back pocket and followed Olivier to his car. We hopped in and Olivier began to drive off to town so we could grab some last minute things.

When we arrived at the Tack Shop, the owner of it greeted Olivier with a hug and a hand shake.

"How have you been Tyler?" Olivier asked.

"Not to bad Olivier. Is this your girlfriend?" The man named Tyler asked, shaking my hand.

"No. I'm Nicola's girlfriend, Chelsea." I said and smiled.

"Apologies Chelsea. Anyway, what can I do for you?" Tyler asked.

"Well, Chelsea needs some new items for a new horse of hers and me, I'm just here to pick up some feeds for the journey. We don't trust competition ground feeds." Olivier said.

"Right. I'll help with the feeds and all the horse stuff is everywhere so have a look around and for you two, half price on anything you buy and then half of the total. Anything for my favourite riding family." Tyler said. We thanked him whilst I went to look at new rugs for Pepper. I saw a very nice yellow, red and black one so I chose that. I also chose a smart brown leather headcollar and lead rein. I looked around some more and found travel boots, new jumping boots, overreach boots and feed bucket and scoop. I picked up a large red bucket for water and a black one for skipping out then I picked out a yellow one for bathing. I got a new grooming kit and some new spurs and I also picked up a lunging cavesson, lunge line and bandages set to lunge Pepper with. I also saw a beautiful black saddle pad and a white sheepskin riser pad which I had to get for Pepper. I was pretty much all set.

I got to the counter at the same time as Olivier. Tyler wheeled over all the feed Olivier had picked out and both lifted it onto the counter together.

"Right. large sugar-beet is usually 96 euros and there's three of them. Large mix is usually 82 euros and there's three of them. Competition nuts are usually 110 euros and the Alf-Alfa is usually 94 euros and three of them. Half all of them.

SUGAR-BEET - 96 divide by 2 + 96 divide by 2 + 96 divide by 2 = 144 euros

LARGE MIX - 82 divide by 2 + 82 divide by 2 + 82 divide by 2 = 123 euros

COMPETITION NUTS - 110 divide by 2 + 110 divide by 2 + 110 divide by 2 = 165 euros

ALF-ALFA - 94 divide by 2 + 94 divide by 2 + 94 divide by 2 = 141 euros

TOTAL = 573 euros then half that = 286.05 euros for the feed please Olivier." Tyler said. Olivier swiped his card and paid for the feed.

"Right and now for Chelsea. Good choice of colours. Now let's see.

RUG - 67 euros divide by 2 = 33.05 euros

HEADCOLLAR AND LEAD REIN - 43 euros divide by 2 = 21.05 euros

TRAVEL BOOTS - 28 euros divide by 2 = 14 euros

JUMPING BOOTS - 17 euros divide by 2 = 8.05 euros

OVERREACH BOOTS - 10 euros divide by 2 = 5 euros

FEED BUCKET AND SCOOP - 18 euros divide by 2 = 9 euros

LARGE BUCKETS (3 euros each) - 9 euros divide by 2 = 4.05 euros

GROOMING KIT - 20 euros divide by 2 = 10 euros

SPURS - 16 euros divide by 2 = 8 euros

CAVESSON, LUNGE LINE AND BANDAGES SET - 37 euros divide by 2 = 18.5 euros

SADDLE PAD - 12 euros divide by 2 = 6 euros

RISER PAD - 11 euros divide by 2 = 5.5 euros

TOTAL= 141.03 euros divide by 2 = 70.65 euros." He said. I swiped my card and waited for it to beep. It did and Tyler handed us our receipts before giving Olivier a hand out to his ca with the feeds. I waited for the feeds to be loaded in before putting my stuff in as well on top of the feed and then getting into the passenger side of the car.

"Nice stuff you bought back there." Olivier said after a while.

"Thanks. It caught my eye so I bought it." I smiled and laid my head against the window.

When we arrived back in the yard, Nicola was stood there with the stable hands and his father. James was there as well. I jumped out of the car and ran over to my boyfriend.

"Hey beautiful." He said and pecked my lips.

"Hey sexy." I replied and giggled.

"Nicola. Enough flirting we need to sort out who's riding in each horsebox. In Nicola's horsebox we'll have just Chelsea and Nicola. Horse wise, you guys will have Alaskan Winter Mountain, H&M Harley VD Bischop, Rule The Wold and Donatella N. Get going. Take one of each bag of feed and anything else you need. There are two compartments and the living area for tack and such. Off you go. In my horsebox will be me and Anthony. Anthony you will be riding H&M Legend of Love and H&M Bisquet Balou C. I will be having H&M Challenge and H&M Chilli Willi. In Olivier's horsebox, we will have Olivier and Anna. Olivier you are riding H&M Nobel De Virton and H&M Zilverstar. Anna you will ride Sweet Nothing and H&M Cavalo. Lets get going guys. Plane leaves at 5am tomorrow!" Ludo shouted. Me and Nicola grabbed one of each type of feed and a bag of Chaff from the feed room. We also got three tubs of Flexi-Limb for our horses and a tub of Garlic, not to mention a whole sack of carrots.

Once the preparations were made, we all headed into bed because it had been a long day and we were all going to be groggy waking up at 5am tomorrow. Me and Nicola fell asleep in each others arms and got as best a sleep as we possibly could until we took off tomorrow.