J.O.P. Stable: The Twin Saga (Book 1: The Summer Finale)

Chapter 1:

Jewels POV:

" More speed! Elbows in! Close your fingers! Keep his attention on you! Get ready! "

I yawned as I sat up in my bed, awoken by the sound of J.O.P.S Cross-Country coach, Andréa Rivière barking orders to one of her students, probably another import student from Europe. Andréa is one of the best eventing coaches in Europe, specifically in cross-country, after she placed gold at the Olympics for individual eventing, she came here, to the home of me and my twin sister Skylar, J.O.P.S or Junior Olympian Prep Stable, located in Ontario, Canada. Now riders from all over the world come to train with her from time to time.

I stretched as I looked over and checked the time on my iPhone. 5:25. I got out of bed and walked over the the glass double doors that led to the small square deck that connected my room to my sisters room next door. The deck wasn't used for anything like reading, it was connected directly to our family paddock, a huge open field that held our family horses, while the one beside it was used for the school horses and another one closer to the stables was used for boarders, leasers and when riders from around the world-like famous Grand Prix riders and Olympians, came for breeding or training.

There was a black metal railing that lined the outside of the deck, with a gate in the middle. I walked over to the gate and let out a high pitched whistle. As I opened the gate, my black 17 hand high Thoroughbred Dutch Warmblood cross gelding with four equal length tall stockings, Shadow came cantering up the field. He's the foal of the late, great show-jumper Hickstead, a gift from Eric Lamaze to my parents Charlotte and Scott Lockhart for letting him keep Hickstead and a few other horses at our barn when his trailer had broken just before a big show. After being trained for a bit, my parents saw how much I had fallen in love with Shadow, from the hours I spent grooming him to the hours I spent watching him be trained, they told me that Shadow could be my own if I rode him and we clicked. I didn't even have to sit in the saddle to know we automatically had a connection and we've been a pair ever since. Shadow loves jumping more than anything. As he ran up to the gate, he whinnied and shook his head, sending his medium length, pulled mane flying.

I grabbed a double clip lead line that me and my sister always kept on the bars of the gate, slipped on some worn and torn ' can't even remember the brand name of ' paddock boots and lowered myself onto Shadows back, clipping the lead line around his neck.

" Your hyper today aren't you boy, did you get into Onyx's grain this morning? " I asked Shadow, stroking his mane.

Shadow snorted and turned his head to look at me, making me smile. " Alright I'm sorry to accuse you, now, let's go see who's doing cross country this early in the morning... " I said.

Shadow pawed the ground with his hoof, kicking up grass and dirt.

I pressed my heels against his sides and he walked forward before breaking into a trot and then a canter, towards the pasture fence. Shadow had a bad habit of jumping the 5 foot fence, not running away, just jumping it then stopping on the other side, and at first it freaked me out, but then my dad installed a safety feature on the top rail of the fence. If Shadow tried to jump it and clipped the top, it would fall, like a show jumping rail.

Shadow leaped over the fence and I let go of the lead line, stretching my arms to the sides. I loved free jumping, I felt like one with my horse. Shadow landed cleanly on the other side and we cantered around the dark brown three floor school barn with a crisp white roof, past the three huge indoor arenas, through the two open round pens, around the boarders barn and towards the empty field where the advanced cross country course finished, since it started at the other end of the forest. I spotted Andréa's hot pink vest, which she always wore over a hunter green long sleeve shirt when she was on the course teaching, so that the riders could spot her.