Champion

Chapter 2

"Good morning Dad, you slept in late!" I teased as I sat at the table and ate the grilled cheese I just made. My mom laughed and sat down on the couch with a cup of tea and a bologna sandwich.

"So what's for breakfast?" He asked.

"Nothing because it's lunchtime" I said laughing. I took another bite from my grilled cheese. He looked at the clock and his eyes went wide. He smiled and walked into the kitchen. My mom looked at the clock and finished her sandwich quickly.

"We better hurry up and go ride the horses. I have a couple lessons to teach at 3 and at 4" said my mom. I finished my sandwich quickly and stood up. I put my hoodie back on while my mom got dressed for riding. I gave Buddy a kiss and left the house, leaving him inside, my mom right behind me.

"So which horse do you want me to ride?" I asked. I then realized the wind started to pick up. "Brrr!" I said.

"Can you ride Rad and Reggie for me?" Asked my mom. I nodded and went to get Reggie, our newest stallion. He is an all black AQHA stallion. His father is a multiple world aqha champion so we are hoping Reggie will follow in his footsteps. I put him on the cross ties then grabbed his brushes from the tack room. I brushed his silky black coat and picked out his feet which had shoes on them. I brushed his face with a soft brush and gave him a kiss on the nose. He picked up his head in disgust.

"I'm sorry, I know you don't like kisses but you're just too cute!" I said in a weird baby voice to Reggie. I grabbed a red saddle pad and then put on a Textan saddle that my mom had won with Rad. I did up the cinch and put on my black older helmet. Not one I'd ever show in. I then put a nice tan colored bridle on Reggie with a snaffle bit. I held his reins and walked into the tack room changing my winter boots out with my black cowboy boots with spurs on them.

"Let's go Reg" I said walking him towards our indoor arena. Through the windows I could see my mom already riding one of the horses in for training, River. I opened up the door on the side of the building, walking into the barn side with all our younger horses. I closed the door behind me. I looked over at the nearest stall to see Fern, our chestnut yearling AQHA mare, another foal out of Dolly. I waved hello to the youngster and walked into the riding arena. Dust kicked up from River jogging around. I tightened up the cinch and mounted up from a stool so I wouldn't hurt Reggie's back. I jogged him around, bending and counter bending him to open up his shoulders and make him more flexible. Soon I was working on moving his hip and his shoulders around.

"Wow, he's looking good!" Said my mom dismounting River. Sweat dripped down Rivers legs. I stopped Reggie and gave him a huge pat. He licked his lips and let out a huge sigh.

"River's really sweaty!" I laughed. My mom smiled and explained she was working on moving his hip around in lollipops quite a bit so she was working really hard. I giggled and started loping Reggie around. My mom untacked River and brought him back into the boarding barn to keep him tied until he cooled off. She brought out two horses, Ocean (an 11 year old bay AQHA mare boarder) and Zee (a 3 year old bay pinto APHA gelding in for training). She put Ocean in the round pen and started tacking up Zee.

"I'll leave Ocean in the round pen until River is cool, then I'll put him back out" called my mother from the aisle in the barn part of the indoor arena. I continued to lope Reggie around and did a lot of counter canter and side passing, getting him light on his feet and putting his weight on his hind quarters. After getting a good few strides I stopped and hopped off giving Reggie a huge pat.

"Good boy!" I said bringing him out of the riding part. He was a little bit sweaty but wasn't too bad so I brought him back to the stud barn. By the time he was all untacked and brushed down, he was no longer sweaty. I put him back in his 12x12 stall with his leftover breakfast and took out Rad. I tacked him up and brushed him and then gave him a kiss. He leaned into me trying to get more.

"You and Reggie are like polar opposites" I giggled and brought him to the indoor arena. I rode him around a little bit doing some bending exercises and some lollipop exercises. After about a 40 minute ride, I got off and put him back in his stall. By the time I got back to the riding arena, my mom was already done riding all the horses she needed to and had brought River back in the round pen. We then let the broodmares back out loose in the indoor arena for about an hour before the lessons started.

"Okay, all the horses that needed to be exercised today are done!" I exclaimed. My mom smiled and we walked around the barn part of the indoor arena checking on all the young horses. We started talking about Congress and the AQHA World show.

"So, are you planning on going into the shows?" Asked my mom walking into one of the yearlings stalls to brush them off.

"Yeah, I was kinda wondering if I could maybe train my own to go to Congress and show them." I said scuffing my cowboy boots on the cement floor.

"Really? Well we have tons of young horses here you can work wit..."

"No, I mean a horse from different bloodlines, you know what I mean" I interrupted looking at the floor. My mom nodded her head.

"Okay well, I mean, if you can find the perfect horse for the shows, just tell me we can look into getting them, I'm going to take Reggie this year there as well as a couple youngsters so if you do change your mind..." said my mom with a half smile on her face. I jumped and exclaimed "thank you! I will start looking now". I asked if there was any other thing I had to do before I could go back into the house. My mom thought for a minute and said nope. So I ran out of the barn and into the house. I waved a quick hello to my father who was at his desk and my younger sister who was watching tv and ran down the stairs and into my room. I jumped on my bed, grabbed my computer and searched up for western pleasure prospects for sale in Canada.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!