Horse Academy (2)

Chapter 12

Hi everyone, so you all may have noticed I haven't been publishing very often since late last year. Well the reason why, is because I finally got my own horse!! So it's been pretty hectic... But hopefully that explains my slowness in updating. My apologies to all the people that hate me for it but that's life, you're stuck with me now XD

Also if you don't know, I'm co-writing stories with Dressage_Queen so you should go on over to her page and check them out! We update those books faster then this one, so if you want to see more of Dressage_Queen and I's content combined, this book is for you. But anyways I'll let you get back to reading the story.

Hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 12

Nausea hit my stomach and spread through the rest of my body. Today was it, I had my riding trials very soon which determined if Storm and I would be compatible for the intermediate A team. It was nearly time for my trials and I've been warming up Storm for the past 10 minutes in the indoor arena. I had been popping him over some cross rails and checking he was picking up the correct canter leads.

But today he wasn't exactly feeling like jumping, dragging down almost every rail for the first five minutes. Thankfully I was able to work him over that issue and get him performing better. He however would nearly drop a pole every now and again even with the spaces I gave him. He mustn't been feeling it today I concluded as I work through some circles with him. After a few more minutes of working Miss Sanders, the coach of EFA's intermediate teams arrives on the dot. She was dressed to perfection and held a kind smile on her face which put me to ease, I liked her already.

"Taylor, it's wonderful to meet you" Miss Sanders greets eyeing Storm with a look of interest.

"-and this must be Wind Storm" she continues, no hint of nastiness in her voice.

"It's nice to meet you too Miss Sanders, I wanted to thank you for giving me the opportunity to gain the scholarship here at EFA" I response kindly. I knew she had been the coach that had stood up and got me elected for the scholarship.

"Don't be modest Taylor, you deserve to be here like everyone else, I'm positive you'll be riding to the best of your abilities" Miss Sanders reasons.

"Now let's stop with the chit chat, I would like you to go to the far wall and track left, at C start post trotting and do a serpentine, once you've completed that I would like you to then do it in a canter" she directs before heading to the middle of the arena to view my riding.

Picking up my reins, I push any nervousness I previously had far away into the back of my mind, this was it. I could feel Storm gather himself automatically and get into an energetic walk as we approach C.

At C, Storm immediately picks up on my cues asking for him to go into his lovely flowing trot. Luckily we had been working in circles before the lesson as Storm goes on the bit and flexes. I felt the scrutinising gaze follow me everywhere, watching my every turn, Storms reaction time, and our consistency. I would've been intimidated if I wasn't so focused. On our next time around I asked Storm to pick up a canter, it to had been near perfect. As we crossed over to the other lead he completes a flying lead change before continuing on our way around the rest of the serpentine. We still had to work on our flying lead changes as they weren't perfect but I was still proud he picked up on the cues.

For the next 20 minutes Miss Sanders asks my to complete various tasks, some I knew I did perfectly while others I needed to work on. However now that we had done that, the coach set up some jumps about a metre high. On the side opposite of the course there was a jumping grip, the first four jumps were cross rails which got higher as they went by, while the final jump was a vertical. Miss Sanders quickly walked me through the course which was then linked to the jumping grid before waving me off.

The first jump loomed ahead of us, a brightly coloured red vertical. Storm launched over it effortlessly before continuing to the oxer. He had looked at some of the strange jumps but displayed no problems. Guiding him to the jump grid, I try not to tense, I wasn't the greatest when setting Storm's stride up for these kind of things. Any other horse it would be fine but on Storm, jumping grids and combos had become my weakness as we went up the levels. The first was a bounce jump, whilst between the second and third, two strides were needed. The final two jumps however, I would only get one stride in between.

Going into the grid, Storm and I got the first four jumps right, but just before the vertical he sneaks in a tiny second stride. Upon landing, much to my disappointed I hear the tapping noise followed up by a soft thud on the arena floor. I however gave Storm a well deserved pat on the shoulder for the effort he put in today.

"We'll get it right next time bud" I said quietly so Miss Sanders didn't hear.

"Well done Taylor, your ride today was quite solid, we're happy to have you on the team. Your lesson times for intermediate A will be sent out tomorrow" Miss Sanders compliments.

"Thank you miss" I said my frown turning into a beaming smile

We did it!

As Miss Sanders leaves, I once again give Storm a massive pat on the shoulder before dismounting.

"We did it boy, we're on the team" I state enthusiastically hugging his neck.