bravo, jest

♘ chapter 7

Over the next few weeks, Nadia trained by herself and with Jest. They worked on working together, half passes, collection, flexion, flying changes, extended trots and leg yields in dressage, courses, angles, height, speed, and strides in showjumping & variation of jumps in cross country. All jumps that is, except for the water jump. No matter what or how hard the pair tried, Jest never jumped it. That was one of the many things that constantly shot through Nadia's mind as she tried to sleep the night before the 3-Day-Event started. Her sleep was plagued with nightmares of straight blonde hair, an injured horse & other catastrophes that may occur over the next 72+ hours. When she woke, it was with an uneasy feeling that she tried to get rid of with one long breath. It didn't work so she just went on with her day, doing the best to ignore it. The clock on her bedside table read 4:30 am & Nadia made sure that she had gotten to bed before ten but it made no difference because no matter how hard she tried, she could only manage to get a few hours of sleep.

Dazed and in a sleepy haze, Nadia made herself a mango and banana smoothie before packing the last few things in her overnight bag and walking outside into the crisp, cold morning air. She walked slowly over to her car & unlocked it, throwing her bag in the backseat before slamming the door shut and dragging herself over to Freckles' paddock where he sleepily awaited her. Clambering through the wire fence, Nadia made clicking noises with her mouth to get Jests' attention. Not that the clicking was necessary for that because a split second later Nadia was sprawled on the frosted grass, having tripped trying to get her second foot through the fence and had gotten Jests' attention. Jest whinnied before making his way over and looking at Nadia curiously, sticking his nose into her face and snorting. Sighing, Nadia pressed her cold palm onto Jest's warm nuzzle in greeting and then stood up, groaning in effort. 

"Let's hope this is the worst the day gets," she said to Jest.

♘ 

The freshly mowed green grass looked like a carpet decorated with jumps and trees when Nadia first took a glimpse of it out of her window.

Blair squealed in the seat beside her. "Look! There it is! Look, Nadia, look!"

Nadia smiled slightly. "There's plenty of time to see it, but I can look now if you want me to crash the car?" she suggested to Blair with a giggle.

Blair gripped onto the sides of her seat comically. "Nope nevermind. Eyes on the road please, eyes completely on the road thanks!"

The sun was beginning to appear on the horizon, warmth and light starting to spread across the cold & dark landscape. The first moments and last moments of the sun were the most beautiful in Nadia's opinion, she loved the exquisite colours sunrises and sunsets made and the peaceful, timeless feeling they gave her. She hoped that the sunsets that happened over the next few days wouldn't be the last she spent with Jest.

"Alrighty, we're here!" Nadia announced as she pulled into the showground entrance. "Welcome to our home for the next three days."