River Ridge Riding Academy

Chapter 18(Hope's POV)

       After two weeks, all the students that had left campus came back to school and had two days before classes started up again so I decided to go out to the barn to see Jazz. I hadn't gotten around to the barn as I was settling back in but I knew that he had been lunged a few times during the break.

       I headed out with Shay to find our horses but didn't see them in the barn so we went to check one of the four very large paddocks.

       We could see Aztec standing in the field grazing and perked his head up when he saw us. I couldn't see Jazz in that paddock so I check the other ones but didn't see him in the near by area.

       A staff member walked by and I asked them if they knew where Jazz was and luckily she knew. She said that last night all the horses were let out into the paddocks and Jazz was in paddock four, which had a group of thick, tall shrubs that blocked the fence between the two paddocks.

       I crawled under the fence and began to walk the large length of the paddock. As I did, I saw Meg's mare, Valla grazing. My eyes widened.

       All the staff knew that Jazz and Valla couldn't be put in the same paddock because they didn't get along. I started to speed up, ignoring the fact that I shouldn't be running around all these horses but I just wanted to check on my gelding.

       Finally, I saw him. He was laying down and had blood on his legs and chest. I ran faster towards him then called for help. Jazz's breathing was shallow and I felt hot tears rolling down my cheeks.

       Someone came and helped get him into a stall with the help of a few other staff members and Becky had as soon as she'd heard. She was doing her best to comfort me as the vet was checking on Jazz.

       Belle, Jayed, and Shay also came to check on me and asked what happened. I couldn't get any of the words out while I was crying so they gave me some time.

       The vet told us that Jazz would be ok but he wouldn't be able to be ridden for a few months to recover, then he would only be able to have light work after that.

       We called my parents and everyone concluded that it would be best for Jazz to go back home when he was healed enough to ride in the trailer but the school would pay for the vet bill as it happened on their property while I wasn't even there.

       The headmaster then called me back to her office after a few hours.

       "I know this is very hard for you but I need you to tell me what you saw." She said

       I told her about how Valla had been put in the same paddock as Jazz and had most likely attacked Jazz.

       She believed me and dismissed me back to my room so she could talk to a few other people and told me that she'd let me know if she figured out what exactly happened and for now I can try out the lesson horses they had to eventually lease until Jazz got better.

       I agreed and headed back to my dorm but as soon as I did, I went straight to my bunk and just laid there, putting some headphones in and listened to some music.