The Story Of Ella.

The Accident.

It was happening all over again, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was on my horse Apollo getting ready for us to be called into the ring for the show. As I watched the rider before me go through the course and it looked fairly easy. I thought to myself 'We got this.' I patted my horse on the neck taking a stray piece of hay out of his braided mane which I had braided earlier before loading him into the trailer.
Apollo was a four year old, dappled grey gelding. I've had him ever since he was born. He was a gentle horse and in my opinion one of the best. We did almost everything together, if you were ever looking for me you could always find me with him.
"Rider Twenty-three, please enter the ring. Rider Twenty-three."
That was our number. This was the show that we had been practicing for all summer. Alex, my best friend, and I would practice together even though she didn't jump to compete anymore.
I climbed up on to Apollos back and we trotted into the ring. There were twelve jumps that we had to clear and then we would be done. As we cantered around the ring to where the first jump was located I felt free. Whenever I was riding all of my worries just went away and it was great. After we cleared each jump I would praise him, he was such a good boy and always did what he was asked even if he was a bit reluctant to.
As we came to the last jump, Apollo hesitated for a quick second but then we cleared the jump. As soon as we landed I knew it wasn't going to be good. Before I knew it we were crashing to the ground...
Then I woke up. "Just another nightmare." I muttered to myself sitting up in bed.
It has been four years since the accident and I am still having nightmares about it. After we hit the ground everything went black and all I remember is waking up in a hospital room in pain. I had a broken leg, a concussion, and some fractured ribs. I got pretty lucky considering the way he landed on me. I never got to see Apollo again after that day because he had to be put down due to the extent of his injuries..
I sat up, crawled out of bed and went downstairs to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. It felt cool downstairs compared to my room which was hott. I grabbed a glass, turned on the faucet, and got some cold water. As I drank the water I glanced over at a picture and noticed it was me and my old horse. I thought that everyhthing that we had that reminded me of him was put away after I got home from the hospitial but I wanted that picture to be left alone. It was the only reminder I have of him before I lost everything.
After the accident my family and I moved closer to the city but we were still in the country. We don't have any animals now except for our dog Itsy. Now that I'm about to start my Junior year in high school, my family decided that it would be good to move and have a ranch again. I'm not happy about it because I haven't wanted anything to do with horses since the accident.
I decided to go back to bed and headed upstairs. Before laying down I cracked open my window to let some cool air get in. As I lay down I try to push all the thoughts out of my head and eventually it works and I finally drifted back to sleep.