Champion

Chapter 4

The sun blinded my eyes through the tiny window as I woke up in my bed on Saturday morning. I looked at the mechanical clock on my table stand beside my bed. 8:15 it read. I got up quickly and ran over to my closet to put on clothes. I grabbed boot cut jeans with small rhinestones on the seat of the pants. I then put on a yellow t-shirt and a grey sweat shirt. I accidently bumped into Buddy who was laying on the floor right beside me.

"Sorry Bud" I said. I patted his head and opened up my door. I walked back upstairs, Buddy following behind me, to see my mom already up eating raisin bran cereal.

"Good morning! You ready to go get that mare today?" Asked my mom smiling at me. I smiled a huge smile and nodded. I then walked into the kitchen to grab a bagel and cream cheese.

"Your father and Lila are going to do chores this morning and Lila will ride some of the horses while we are gone" explained my mom.

"Okay, when are we leaving?" I asked sitting down on the black leather couch. I took a bite of my bagel.

"Around 9 o'clock. That mare is situated 4 hours from here in Calgary" she said. I heard my sister walk down the stairs. Buddy wagged his tail and walked over to her. We all said good morning as she went into the kitchen. Ten minutes later, my mom was packing water bottles and snacks for us. I got up and put on a windbreaker over my sweater. I passed a jacket to my mother as she walked towards me with the lunch box in her hand. We said goodbye to my sister and my father who was just coming down the stairs. We walked outside and hooked up the two horse horse trailer to our red F250 Ford truck. We hopped in the truck and on our way we went towards Calgary.

Four hours and three stops later, we arrived at the huge Training barn. It was surrounded by huge paddocks with at least 4 horses in every one. The barn was huge with an indoor arena on the inside just like ours but even bigger. An outdoor arena was just behind the huge barn. We parked outside the indoor arena and got out. A small skinny man walked over to us. He had a blue jays ball cap on and his western cowboy boots were caked with mud.

"Hi, are you guys here for Franny, the chestnut mare?" Asked the man.

"Yes, in fact we are! I'm Rose Smith" said my mom. The man introduced himself as Jimmy Richards. They began to talk about the barn and he told us he'd show us around and bring us to the mare. We walked through the whole barn, passing very expensive show horses. Three people were riding around in the indoor riding arena. I watched as a bay gelding and, what looked like to be his trainer, gallop into a sliding stop. They did a beautiful spin at the end and took off again. I always loved watching reiners. I then watched as a huge dapple grey mare do a long flowy trot down the rail. "Must be a Hunter Under Saddle horse" I thought as I watched the mare pass the slow loping palomino gelding. "Wow, his lope is beautiful!" I thought once more. I turned to see my mom and Jimmy Richards already half way up the next aisle. I speed walked towards them passing whole bunch more show horses.

"Okay, so this is beautiful Franny" said Jimmy Richards. I looked in the stall to see a beautiful chestnut mare staring back at me. She had no white socks but a nice long blaze down her snout. Jimmy told us he had to get back to work and that her owner would be here in two minutes. We could brush her with brushes in the box right in front of the stall. We agreed and I walked into the stall. Franny looked at me and smelled my jacket. I giggled.

"I don't have any treats!" I laughed. I brushed her down and started picking out her feet. A man walked up to us. He looked muscled and very tall with dark brown hair.

"Hello, you must be Rose and Ivy Smith!" He put out his hand. We both shook his huge hand. My mom and him talked and before we knew it, my mom was writing him a check. I smiled and he congratulated us.

"You can ride her in this saddle and bridle if you want before you take her home. There's extra helmets in the tack room too!" Said Franny's old owner. I thanked him and began to tack her up. I brought her to the indoor arena as I heard the man and my mother start talking about random things like Congress. I got on and walked her around. I then asked her to jog. Her jog was so comfy and very slow. "This is awesome, she is a natural mover!" I thought excitedly. I didn't ask for much just a little jog and a short lope. It was faster but still very slow and smooth. She wanted to put her head down more but I didn't want her to just yet. After the ride, she wasn't sweaty so I got off and brought her to her stall. I untacked her and brushed. We then brought her to our trailer. She got on really well and I put up a hay net for her. I offered her a bucket of water, she didn't drink any, so I dumped it out and put the bucket in the truck.

"Let's go!" I exclaimed happily. My mom laughed and drove out of the long dirt driveway.

"Are you going to change her name?" Asked my mom. I scratched my chin in thought.

"Hmmmm, I like the name Franny, but I think I'll change it. I was thinking maybe Marley, Lucy or maybe even Mila!" I said. My mom thought for a moment.

"She looks like a Lucy to me!" She smiled. I agreed. Four more hours and four stops later we finally arrived home. I saw the horses outside our front lawn, grazing the small sprigs of grass that were finally growing in the warmer spring air. I smiled and imagined Lucy out there with them. We parked the trailer and I brought Lucy into the indoor arena where I put her in the first stall to the right. I let her loose in the stall and filled up a hay net for her. I scooped her grain, that her old owner had told us what she ate, and then put it in the corner feeder of her stall. It was already dark so I gave her a kiss then left towards the house.

"I'll see you tomorrow beautiful!" I said as I left the barn. She nickered and went back to eating. "What a great day" I thought as I closed up the barn. I went inside the house and talked with everybody about Lucy. I then went to bed and thought about my whole day. "I'm so lucky!" I thought as I fell asleep.