Silver Opportunity

Chapter Eighteen

After a night filled with movies, candy, and pizza, we sadly had to wake up early. When my alarmed blared at five-thirty in the morning, I groaned and rose. Leo was strewn across my bed and Molly was wrapped in several blankets with half my pillows on the floor.

"Leo," I whispered. When I got no response, I nudged him with my knee. "Leo, wake up."

"Hmm," he groaned, rolling over. "What."

"Come on, get up," I whispered. "We have a show to get to."

He took a deep breath and sat up. His hair was all messed up, which made my heart flutter. I kissed him on the forehead before going and waking up Molly. It took much more convincing to get her up, but she eventually did. We all got dressed and wore clothes over our show gear so it wouldn't get dirty. We made coffee and had some breakfast before we headed out to the barn. The twins headed over to the other barn and grabbed their horses while I double checked that we had everything packed. I hung hay bags before going and grabbing Titan. I wasn't expecting him to load perfectly, but it took him a couple tries and a few minutes of rest before I could get him on. Next, Molly loaded Aspen, who went on without batting an eye. Vegas loaded after a slight hesitation, followed by Dublin who loaded himself.

"Are we missing anything?" I asked, triple checking everything. "I have Titan's registration and Coggins, I have all our tack, we have our coffee..."

"I think we're ready to roll," Molly said with a yawn. She beat Leo to the front seat of my pickup, and instantly began fiddling with the radio to find the perfect station.

I started the truck and carefully pulled out of the driveway, and soon headed on our way. After the quick drive, I found a decent spot to park.

"I'm going to register Titan, why don't you two unload the ponies," I said as I hopped out. "Leave Titan on, I'll unload him when I get back. I'm not sure how he'll react."

The twins agreed and I headed over to the booth. The woman accepted my paperwork and handed me a new show number for use with Titan. "That class begins in two hours, before lunch. The other class you're in is the last one, so we'll see when that is as the day continues."

"Alright, thank you so much," I smiled, turning away and heading back to the trailer. There I saw Hannah had arrived with a few riders from the barn who were also showing. I also noticed Dublin, Vegas, and Aspen had been unloaded and were tied to the trailer, munching on hay.

"He's in there waiting for you," Leo said as I approached. "He seems pretty calm, but I wanted to wait for you before bothering him."

"Perfect, thank you," I said as I climbed into the trailer. I looked over the separator and scratched T's grey fuzzy butt. "Hey, buddy, how are we doing?"

He simply glanced back at me and nickered, showing no signs of distress or anxiety. "Alright, let's get you off."

I took his lead rope from Leo and pushed the separator open. Once he was secured to the lead, I undid the hook to the trailer and turned him around, leading him straight to the exit. He calmly hopped down, took a look around, and pulled his head down so he could get some grass.