West Palm Riding Academy

chapter two

"Good morning, Laia! Today's the day!"

I groaned as I rolled over in my bed, stuffing my face in my pillow. But as I took a deep breath in, taking in the scent of the pillow, I remembered that I wasn't home.

Sitting up quicker than I probably ever had, a wide grin spread across my face and I looked at Emilia, who, also grinning, stood over me in her academy attire.

I sprung out of bed, rushing to my dresser where I had set aside my outfit for today. First impressions were always the most important, so I had a very particular look planned out. I couldn't make much of an impact with my clothing, as we were all instructed to arrive in our academy-branded white polo top, but I choose a nice pair of maroon jodhpurs. Along with that, I had my new paddock boots and a cute pair of light maroon socks, the same shade as the jodhpurs, to complete the look.

"Don't take too long, Grandpa wants to start loading our luggage and our tack," Emilia said, taking a seat on my bed to wait.

"I won't," I said, closing the bathroom door behind me. "Did you turn out Irish?" I asked, hoping she'd say yes.

"Yes."

I loved her reliability.

Quickly and carefully, I slipped on my shirt, jodhpurs and socks and pulled my hair back into a neat bun, securing the last bits of loose hair with bobby pins. I sprayed my head with hairspray before picking up my pajamas and heading back into my room.

After I finished putting all of my belongings back in my suitcase, Emilia helped me take all of my luggage downstairs.

"Good morning," Grandpa called from the kitchen. "We can get breakfast on the way, get all of your things into the truck. There's extra space in the trailer for your tack and grooming totes."

We nodded in sync and hurried outside, where a large black trailer was hitched to the back of Grandpa's old blue truck.

"Wow, you must have been up early," I pointed out, noticing that all of Emilia's belongings were already tucked away in the back of the truck.

"Not too long before I came to get you. I got up, changed and brought everything out here. I have my priorities straight."

"That's for damn sure!" I said, and we laughed in harmony as I pulled open the truck, and me and Emilia began lifting my bags into the trunk.

"So, it's a two-and-a-half drive from here, right?" I asked, tossing in the last bag and pulling the trunk down after me.

"Roughly that, maybe close to two hours and fifty minutes?" She responded, looking me dead in the eye. "Let's go get our stuff from the barn."

That's when Grandpa rushed outside, an anxious expression drawn across his face, and yelled, "Girls, hurry up! It's later than I thought! We need to leave within the next fifteen minutes!"

We both exchanged worried glances before running off towards the large white barn just ahead of us, next to the house.

Right in the middle of the isle sat two large grooming totes, Emilia's a deep orange color accented in blue, and mine pale taupe, accented with a deep mahogany color.

I rushed over to mine and squatted down next to it, opening the top. I began searching through my belongings, mentally checking things off of my checklist. Curries, hard brushes, soft brushes, fly spray, hoof picks, pulling comb, shedding blade, shampoo, conditioner, coat polish, hoof polish, clippers, scissors, treats, bits and leather cleaner.

With a sigh of relief, I closed and secured the tote, standing up and following Emilia over to the tack room. 

All of Emilia's tack was deep brown, and mine was black, which made things so much easier on us. We each had two saddles, one jumping and one all-around. Same with bridles, and we each had a martingale and a breast collar. In a small box next to my saddle was my large collections of saddle pads, one in yellow, blue, navy, white, black, maroon, dark purple, dark green and deep turquoise. Emilia's collection was much smaller, consisting of a pink pad, a blue pad, a black pad and a dark purple pad.