Flying Free

This is a vignette I wrote for my English class and had to present (not doing that again that's for sure), but I was told it was good and well I want to share it with you guys. Note it's about the sweet gelding I'm riding right now and have been riding for 13 weeks, his name is Nugget but I changed it to Big Red for the story. Hope you enjoy!

Fiery Red, running across the ground like a wildfire, this is how I imagined Big Red when he ran. With me on his back, it was like taming the wind. As he cantered it felt like the beat of my whole life. Three beats.

One Two Three, Rise up, Lean back, Sit down and do it all over again.

Looking back I could see how this was just the way my life went I remembered how throughout life, my parents have been there, sometimes it felt like they protected me, sometimes it felt like I was being hidden from the world but they were still always there. For some reason, even though they could never find out where my love for horses came from, that was the one thing that they understood the most. The fact that for me, life with horses was the life they couldn't restrict me from.

One Two Three, Rise up, Lean Back, Sit Down and do it all over again.

Rising up. That's how I felt on Big Red like I was rising up from the hidden world called life and he carried me out of there, Out to the free unknown world of flying.

It's been nine years since I found my love for horses.

Nine years that I've been dreaming of them.

Nine years since I knew what me I was happiest as.
A girl who dreams of flying.

Going through those ups and downs of his canter slowly I thought back to all those other times I rode. Never did I stop smiling he's the one who helped me get there.

Big open strides, a funny attitude, and sweet nature, always somewhere in my mind. The horse that saved me from life. I wonder, if maybe I wasn't the only one he helped get there along the way.                                              

One Two Three, Rise up, Lean Back, Sit Down and do it all over again.

His life like a dance, five six seven eight, One step forward, Right foot not left. Start all over again. One step, right foot, keep going.
The first time we met. Him, covered in mud and thought I was crazy, Me, I know I need to ride this horse.

He'd already been through so much. I wanted to learn to move forward with him.

So that's what I did. Weeks, lessons, and hours I've been with him. Always seeming to end to soon.

Yes, there are other horse crazy girls that ride him but I'm not sure they're all like me.
One Two Three, Rise up, Lean Back, Sit Down and do it all over again.

There are the girls who have been riding since they were three, the I just ride for fun, I wanna be a pretty little princess on a white unicorn (Grey, not white horses are never white they are a very light grey), and the type that believes riding is an escape from this crazy world called life. That's me. I love my family but my family isn't full of horse lovers, only me, Mom doesn't go around them often, my sister used to but no more, and my brothers and Dad never have.

One Two Three, Rise up

My moms allergic and stays away. I'm allergic and I can not stay away.

On Big Red's back or even just emptying and filling water buckets in the barn is my home away from home.

My home where I feel free. Being free isn't riding into an open field hair flying in the wind, no.

Being free is a feeling, not an object, it might seem that way for some but it's not. Everyone has their own was of feeling free and mine just happens to be when I'm with horses. Some people may feel it in music, art, other sports and sometimes even books.

One Two Three, Rise Up, Lean Back

"Loosen your hold on the reins and let him have his head." my trainer says from the ground turning in circles with us lunge line in her hand and shaking me out of my thoughts. I looked at my hands. White from holding the reins so hard then I looked at Big Red, his hooves matching my heartbeat.

He knew what he was doing, even as he learned. I knew what to do as well, I just had to do it.
Letting my hands fall forward, the tension in the reins still there, I gave Big Red his head. His pace immediately picked up, gathering his legs under me,

One Two Three, Rise up, Lean back, Sit down,
My breath came quickly, the wind blowing on my face, even though I thought it was the last thing I should feel on his back as he cantered across the ground I felt completely and utterly safe. I rose up and down with his canter giving him his head some more and leaning back. He slowed, I kept him going, it felt like we had been moving forever but in reality, the world had only moved on for a few minutes.

I slowed him down to a walk. My side aching. Whoever said Horseback riding was easy, was greatly misguided.

"Alright, I want you to loosen your grip on the reins. You hold them like they're what keep you on the horse. Focus on your balance, not the ground," I nodded and nudged him up to a trot again then a canter.

One Two Three, Rise up, Lean back, Sit down, and do it all over again.

I took a deep breath, the outside world seeming nothing compared to this, and I let my hands go forward most of tension in the reins gone only the little bit that kept us connected remained.

I bobbed up and down with his canter keeping his legs underneath him, maybe I was making him work, but he was flying.

Both of us were flying.

P.s. I'm adding another part to this but it's quite different it's kinda like a poem but at the same time it's not. Hope who ever reads this likes it. Thanks!