Rescued [[Nicola Philippaerts]] #wattys2017

Pepper's First Competition (part 2)

I awoke to Nicola's alarm on his phone but turned over and went back to sleep.

"Babe. Wake up. We have to get going." Nicola said, shaking me awake. I sat up groggily and rubbed my eyes, face-planting Nicola's chest. He giggled and  rubbed my head.

"Come on. Wakey, wakey." He giggled again and pushed me onto the floor. Now I was wide awake and up on my feet. I grabbed my clothes and quickly changed in front of Nicola whilst he changed as well.

Out in the yard, people were bustling around. Some were leading horses towards their horseboxes and others were still prepping their horses for travel. Me and Nicola headed to Alaska and Donatella's stable to begin getting them ready for travel. I threw Alaska's travel rug over him and strapped his boots onto his legs. I also wrapped a tail guard on his tail and buckled his headcollar onto his head.

"Come baby. Let's go." I said and led him out of his stable. I got to the horsebox as Nicola was loading Donatella into the horsebox. I waited for him to tie up Donatella and close the first barrier before loading up Alaska into the horsebox next to Harley and closed barrier two.

I then went back for Pepper. I did the same with his travel stuff, put his new rug on his body, strapped his travel boots onto his legs, put a tail guard on him and buckled his headcollar onto his head. Nicola had already loaded up Harley  and closed barrier three so I put Pepper in last and closed the final barrier. Me and Nicola then closed up the ramp and secured it before heading over to Ludo.

"Dad. Me and Chelsea are ready to leave" Nicola said.

"Right. Go and get a head start. We're hours behind schedule so we'll meet you at Mexico City Arena." Ludo said. Nicola nodded and we both hopped into the horsebox before driving off to the airport.

On the plane, I began to get really anxious. Nicola picked up on my anxiety and held me close to him. He rubbed my shoulder and whispered soothing things to me.

"Nic I'm so scared." I whispered.

"I know but it's only a few hours. Get some sleep." He said and placed his hand over my eyes. He kept it there until I fell asleep. I hope I survive this plane journey.

I awoke with a jolt as the plane touched down. Nicola began to wake up as well. The flight attendant let out an announcement for all passengers to alight the plane. I went to bolt out the door but Nicola grabbed my hand and stopped me.

"Wait. We landed perfectly." He said and made me get off the plane next to him. We went into the airport and got our passports checked before heading to the animal section to collect our horses. Donatella, Alaska, Harley and Pepper all neighed excitedly when they saw us. We loaded them back up into Nicola's horsebox in the same order as before and began driving to Mexico Arena where we would be able to settle down until the others arrived.

Hours later, Ludo and the others arrived and settled down quickly before we all headed to our hotel rooms for the night. We had already passed the vet check and such so all that was left was to sleep. And that's exactly what me and Nicola did.

The next morning, I had just finished tacking up Pepper when Nicola rode out on Harley.

"C'mon babe. We'll warm up together." He said. I quickly mounted onto Pepper and followed Nicola outside to the warm-up arena. We popped a few warm up jumps together and discussed the course we had walked earlier. I was first up for the day and let me tell you, I was as scared as Pepper probably was.

"Now entering the ring. Our first contestant of the 2017 Longines Global Champions Tour, 17 year old Spruce Meadows Champion; Chelsea Acer riding Rule The World. An unusual colour and breed of horse she's riding folks but not against the rules of the competition. Let's see how they go." The commentator said. Pepper reared up at the shock of being in such a big arena with such terrifying jumps but I kept calm and asked him to canter. He did and so begun Pepper's first competition.

He cleared the whole course in a record time which put the whole competition into a whole new level. I trotted him out of the arena and gave Nicola a hi-five as he trotted in on Harley. I watched his round but Harley refused three jumps and had four poles down. Nicola pulled out and chose to retire.

"Nic I am so sorry." I said. He shook his head and patted Harley.

"It's been a bad day. Maybe tomorrow will be better." Nicola replied and led Harley back to his stable with me following. We untacked our horses then let them rest for the remainder of the day before going back to our hotel room until we were called for the placing ceremony. I felt really bad for Nicola because I know he wanted to try his hardest to be better than his brother.

When we got back into the hotel room we kicked off our boots and Nicola suddenly pushed me against the closed door and pinned me there.

"Nicola. What are you doing?" I asked nervously. He responded by crushing his lips onto mine. I smiled in relief and kissed him back, slipping his top off over his head. I ran my cold fingers over his toned torso making him shiver and moan under my touch. His hands slipped up my top and massaged my ribcage softly causing a soft moan to escape my lips. He pushed himself up against me even more, grasping my hips with his gentle yet firm hands. I wanted to be in control now so I pushed him backwards onto the bed and straddled his hips. I reconnected our lips and ran my fingers through his hair tugging on the ends. He gasped in pleasure and went back to massaging my back and ribs  with his hands. His tongue slipped into my mouth and we battled for dominance. I managed to make him submit by grinding on him softly. I then lost control of things when Nicola flipped our positions and straddled me, dominating the kiss and pinning me under him. It was about to go further but a knock at the door sounded. We broke away and fixed ourselves before Nicola called the person in. A female official entered and her eyes began drooling at the sight of Nicola.

"The placings are being announced in ten minutes. You need to go back out on your horses." She said glaring at me with daggers and then left the room. Nicola brought me in for another passionate kiss before we broke away and he pulled his top back on. We walked back to the stables, tacked up our horses and rode back out to the arena.

I was surprised when Nicola's name was read out in ninth place whilst Olivier came second. Anna was in eleventh, Ludo came third and Anthony came fifteenth. And me, I came first. I was given a rug for Pepper and a trophy as well as a Longines watch. The stadium erupted into applause and the flag of Belgium was flown high in the sky. Pepper tossed his head and posed for the cameras. I felt really bad for Nicola though.

Once all the fuss was over, I put Pepper back into his stable and folded his new rug away inside the tack box. I closed his tack box and stood up to see the same official that came to get me and Nicola...

TO BE CONTINUED -------------------->