The Eventers

Chapter 5-Mollie

"Girls! Wake up, get dressed into breeches, and tack up! You have a jumping lesson in twenty!" My aunt called. I sighed. Changing into some rust red breeches, a lower-cut brown shirt, and putting my hair up in the famous ponytail. I met Emily in the hall. She was wearing some really nice faded blue breeches, and a black collared riding shirt. We grabbed our boots from the hall, hers Mountain Horse, and mine Ariat, and took the golf cart to the stable.

Gryffin was waiting at his spacious stall, sticking his head over the polished glass door. I patted him and grabbed his hunter green halter. Leading him out of the stall, I looked for an open grooming area. Emily had beat me to my favorite one, so I was forced to move into a new area.

Gryffin stood patiently while I groomed him, tacked him up, and grabbed my helmet and gloves. When we got to the arena, Emily and Bentley were warming up.

"Nice color coordination." I said, mimicking my sister from yesterday. "The blues look really good together." Emily had put the same color saddle pad on the horse, and even found some polos to match. She gave me a smile.

"Well, aren't I lucky! Both my students are actually on time!" We turned to see my aunt, who had just gotten back from her eventing spree in Europe." So girls, I have decided that today we are going to work on jumping, strictly jumping, and only jumping. I'm assuming you have warmed up?" We nodded, even though I hadn't. "Good. Then warm up over the vertical."

The warm up fence was about 2'3, nothing too big. Emily went first, and took it beautifully. Bentley's ears were forward, he jumped from the perfect distance, right in the middle, and got his lead change afterwards. So basically, a huge change from yesterday.

"Very nice Emily! I loved the canter speed. Keep it like that." My aunt commented." Okay, Mollie, you're up." I turned Gryffin to the jump, and set off. His canter strides were huge and slow, and we took off at the perfect time. He got his lead change easy, and slowed right when I asked him to. "That was perfect Mollie! Really great! Okay, go over the red outside line in 5 strides."

Emily went first, as she usually does in lessons. She collected Bentley up, and then lengthened a bunch. Bentley leapt forward, and took the first jump. Emily seemed to be scrambling a bit, but they got the five.

"Emily, explain to me why you looked so desperate in the middle of the line." Emily fiddled with something on the bridle.

"Umm.. It just got to where I felt like e was hurtling forward, and I didn't feel safe. I haven't really adjusted to the whole fast horse thing, Bennie is still pretty fresh in my mind." Emily admitted, which was pretty brave of her actually. Emily for her 13th birthday, was given Bentley. Before that, she rode one of my aunt's horses, a grey named Bennie. He was on the shorter side, and didn't go as fast as the other bigger horses. And she was way more adjusted into his jumping style than Bentley's, or any other horse for that matter. However, I knew with that admittance, it was going to be a good lesson for me, and a horrid lesson for her. Fun.