'A life worth living' Hero (book 2)

Chapter 18

Megan looked just as shocked as I as she casts a glance over at me. "Is something wrong Megan?" Steph says clearly confused.
"Stacey Helens?" She says tilting her head as if she were trying to decide.
"Hi Megan." I say.
"You too know each other?" Steph asks.
"Um yeah thats sort of what I was trying to say before." I reply.
"So, umm... where's my horse?" Megan says obviously no longer interested in the topic of how we knew each other.
"I just tied him up outside the stables for you." Steph says.
"I thought you hated horses Megan." I say confused.
"I still do, it just turns out Thant I'm a natural at riding so yeah I'll be riding at the gymkhana this weekend." She says. "Not that I expect to see you there." She adds sourly.
"Actually I think you will see Stacey there." Steph says. I turn straight to Steph.
"What?!" I say.
"Yeah, watching." Megan says back.
"I think you've got the wrong end of the stick Megan." Steph says. "Stacey will be riding in some of the events that you are, you know."
"Ha ha, that's a funny joke. She probably can't even ride." Megan says. "Anyway, I better go practice. I expect to win this gymkhana." And with that she walked off, slamming the doors behind herself.

I stand there processing everything that had just happened before my eyes. I was going to ride in a gymkhana! "So should we start training?" Steph asks me. I look at her.
"You know I think Megan's right, it's a big joke really. I mean like she's so much better then me and I will just fail anyway." I say.
"Have you actually seen Megan ride? I mean like not that she's bad at it but you don't know." She says. "Anyway, I just want you to have a bit of fun and if you win you win and if you lose you lose."

"Ok, I'll get LuLu ready." I say. I go to the tack room and get his tack. I give him a quick brush before I slip the saddle blanket and saddle onto his back. "Ready to go for a ride LuLu." I ask him. He swivels his ears at the sound of my voice.
I lead him out through to the main arena and bounce up into the saddle. Steph is in the middle of the arena setting up low poles to jump over. "At the gymkhana you'll start the day off with an activity that is designed to show control over the horse. You will all be in the arena together and will be told to walk on then halt or transition from a walk to a trot, something like that the judges just make it up." She says. I nod.
"The second thing that you will be doing is a mini show jumping course." She says.
"But I can't jump anything!" I exclaim.
"The jumps won't be high and plus, you jumped a meter fifty the other day on Hero. LuLu is perfectly capable of jumping jumps anyway so you have nothing to worry about." Steph says. "There will be nine jumps on the course and they're quite straightforward. You will race against the clock so you will need to keep a steady pace."
"So... shall we start?" Steph says. I nod. "Ok, can you please work LuLu around the arena at a trot with loose reins." I tap LuLu gently with my heals and... nothing. "Come on boy, let's go." I tap him again and... no sorry, I didn't really tap him a gave him a little kick. That's when he started to walk. I tapped him again and he started to trot. I rise up and down in the saddle and check to see if I riding and sitting on the correct diagonal.
"Wrong diagonal." Steph calls out to me. If you don't already know what I mean by diagonals I will explain. When you are rising and sitting in a trot around an arena when the horses front inside foot is forward the you should be out of the saddle (so rising) and when the horses front inside foot is back you should be sitting.
I corrected my diagonal by sitting for two. After a lap or two of this Steph asked me to ride straight at the small jumps in 5e middle of the arena at a canter.
"Don't worry, LuLu knows what he's doing so all you need to do is be confident, and lean forward and sit out of the saddle." Steph said.
I squeeze LuLu on into a canter and do a lap around the arena before turning him to face the jumps. My adrenaline was pumping as I rode but it stopped as I approached the jump. Normally people are frightened or nervous when they jump but I didn't feel that. All I felt was the feeling of being free.
I lean forward and sit out of the saddle as LuLu takes two huge strides and jumps over the jump as if it were just a pole on the ground. "Good job." Steph says.
After a whole lesson on jumping I slid out of the saddle and led LuLu to his paddock. I untacked him then gave him a wash down. I got his food ready then put it in his feed bin. "Thanks for being such a good boy today, even though you were a bit stubborn at the start." I tell him while sliding his halter off. I watched him as he trotted off to go see his paddock neighbour from across the fence forgetting about his food.
"LuLu!" I shout out to him. He looks at me. I pick up his feed bucket and give it a shake. "Did you forget about something?" I giggle as he races back then gobbles up his food.
I go through the gate to get out of his paddock. "Love ya boy." I say to him before walking back to the dorms.
School started tomorrow so I decided to get an early night. I'm 3 weeks into the term so only 7 more two go. For now I'm going to have to just suffer through my classes and just hope the holidays come soon and that I can get right with Georgie, Anna and Luke again before then.

Authors note:
I am so sorry I haven't published in a long time, I guess I was a bit lazy but hey, school holidays have started so I will try and publish a lot more. Maybe I'll finish the book, you never know.
Thanks for being great readers and giving me feedback, it really helps me out. And by the way, your feedback won't affend me it's all good.
Thanks
-Kate Harris