Silver Hawk Ridge: Taking Flight

{ Chapter 10 }

   Soon, the first day of practice had arrived. There wouldn't be any placement of teams just yet, but we needed to be able to hit the ground running going into the school year. In the days leading up to today, Mr. Watts has placed bright green signs around the stables and pinged our emails like crazy reminding us to show up by 7 AM to look at lesson blocks. Since we weren't on teams yet, they had to divide us up so we weren't all crammed into the ring at once. We would have today through Friday to receive instruction and feedback before tryouts took place on Saturday and Sunday. It would be a very stressful few days.

   Avery wasn't pleased with me, but I got us up at 5 AM. This way we could have enough time to get ready and eat a proper breakfast. I was met with several pillow hits to the face and disgruntled, muffled moans before she finally rolled out of bed. We gathered in the bathroom to brush our teeth, hair, wash our face, etc.. Isabelle wandered in not long after to join us. Her delicate, sleepy face was surrounded by a mess of her blonde hair, all complemented with a rumpled pink silk pajama set. We all took one look at ourselves in the mirror and laughed in stereo. We were quite a sight to behold with frothy toothpaste mouths and cleanser covered faces. We padded back out to our rooms to get some lesson attire. I ended up selecting a pair of tan breeches and a navy polo and my tall boots. Avery had opted for a pink polo and black breeches with her own tall boots.

   After a quick approval of each other's outfits and hair, we grabbed our stuff and headed to breakfast. There was almost nobody down there, save for a couple early risers and equestrian people. We sat down at the table with Isabelle after getting our breakfasts.

"Welcome to day one of what's about to be absolute chaos" Isabelle remarked. "Every rider from our best national team riders to the newbies will be clamoring for the attention of the trainers during lessons. You two ready?"

"It's not so much a matter of 'ready', as it is a matter of 'are we going to survive the berating on what we thought was correct'" Avery noted. Mr. Watts has seemed nice enough, but that did not have any bearing on his attitude in the ring. Something told me it was going to be pretty intense, because this school did not just print a reputation on paper and pass it out. Riders and other athletes from this school were tough and skilled competitors, all due to the constant cultivation and monitoring of our progression in practice and competition.

Having finished the rest of our breakfast, I consulted my Fitbit. It was 6:15 AM, so it was time to go. We dumped our trash and trays off and walked out the dormitory doors to the stables. There wasn't a cloud in the sky as the sun peeked over the horizon to dry the dew-covered lawns. I looked over at Isabelle and she was the picture of riding perfection. She was wearing a navy, red, and white zip up short sleeved riding shirt, paired with navy riding breeches and tall black boots polished to perfection. Her hair had been tied back in a low bun without a stray hair in sight. She was going to impress.

   We arrived at the barn and students were clamoring near the office door. At 7:00 AM on the dot, Mr Watts stuck the sheets with the lesson blocks on the board and immediately hid back in his office when the student equine body surged forward. The blocks appeared to be made up of 4-6 riders in a block, assigned to a trainer or two. After looking at the sheet riders had vacated the area to either get their horses ready or go do something else until their lesson (some of them looked like they were heading to take a nap). I got to the front and looked for my name amongst the many groups. I finally found my sheet of paper.

Lesson 1 time: 7:30-8:00 AM

Riders and horses:

Isabelle Starling and Medley
Matt Crenshaw and Lenny
Lilliana Regis and Amir
Savannah Bells and Rega
Tamika Manning and Hattie
Darren Waters and Allen