Maple Stream Riding Academy

Chapter Twelve: Cross Country Queen

I let Raquel get some water by the XC building and make my way back to the class and watch the monitors. I get back just as Reagan is taking off, Apple running very fast.

"You don't know how impressive that was," Maggie says as she mounts Moon to talk to me better. "Your equitation was flawless the whole time. You and Raquel are such a perfect team. You knew when she needed more reins and what to do to give her more freedom and use of her body."

"I've known her since I was born, of course I know what she needs," I say. "I don't know, that wasn't my best run. Maybe my fastest, but she still hesitated on the trakehner."

"Cam. Every horse hesitates on the trakehner. It scares them," she explains.

"Maggie Trevors," Ms. Holt shouts. Maggie walks to the starting box and waits for the count down. When Ms. Holt says "Go!", Moon takes off sprinting. I watch Rea and Maggie on the monitors. Apple hesitates before jumping into the water obstacles, and Moon stumbles on one of the corner jumps, but they recover. Maggie was the last competator, and when she comes back, Ms. Holt pulls me aside.

"Do you know what team you're going to be joining?" She asks, her face soft and kind.

"Uh, I was planning on joining the XC team," I reply, scratching Raquel's ears. I had dismounted when Maggie returned.

"Good. I'm the leader of that team, and I'm telling you, Cameron, you have pure talent. You're built for cross country," she explains. "The only critique I have is that you need to keep your eyes up and lean back further when jumping into the water obstacles. That way if Raquel miscalculates the jump and stumbles, you will stay on."

"Okay, I'll do that," I say. "So, why did you want to talk to me separatley?"

"I think that you are a great candidate for being captain of the XC Team," she explains. "I would love to have you lead this team into victory. The teams meet three times a week, from 3:45 to 4:30."

"Oh wow, really? Me, as captain?" I ask, getting excited.

"Yes. I'll tell Student Support that your chosen team is XC, and on tryout day, work your hardest. I know your talent," Ms. Holt says. "I'm dismissing you ten minutes early because I think Raquel needs a rubdown before you go eat."

"Thank you so much," I say, hugging her. I walk Raquel back to the barn, take her tack off, and give her a massage. She leans into my touch and closes her eyes in comfort when I reach her sore muscles. I put her nice leather halter on and lead her to the school when I see all the students come from their lessons.

From what I've heard, if you go around back of the school, the cafeteria offers outdoor eating so you can eat with your horse. I walk around to the back and seea window, kind of like a drive through. I see a sign to the left the window saying "Please tie your horse here if you're getting food!" and an arrow pointing to the left. There are hitching posts and ties, so I tie Raquel to one and get my lunch, untie Raquel, and sit under the shade of an apple tree. Raquel lies down next to me, and I feed her one of my baby carrots. She notices I have more, so she puts her head on my lap.

"Hey Cam!" Alex shouts. She's leading Gypsy over to me, and she's holding one of the disposable lunch trays like I have. She sits next to me, letting Gypsy graze, and eats her lunch. I keep feeding Raquel carrots as she lies on my lap, and Alex and I talk about our classes.

~

After my short fifteen minute lunch, I bring Raquel back to the barn and let her eat some hay in her stall while I clean my tack (yay) to make it look good for show jumping. At 12:55, I arrive at one of the arenas for show jumping. Yet another small class.

"Wow, this class is so much smaller than show jumping. We had thirty students. We have, what, ten? Eleven students in this one?" The trainer says. "I'm Ms. King, your show jumping trainer. I know that a bunch of people are doing cross country for secondary, and there were, 25 kids in steeplechase, ten in cross country, thirty in show jumping, and about 35- 40 in dressage. The rest are racing, barrel racing, and cattle catching."
(A/N I forgot the steeplechase arena and racing arena on the map, but they're in the same area as the arenas [So the purple dots] ty ily)

"Why do so many people doing cross country for secondary but not primary?" someone asks.

"Because it's dangerous," I reply. "The more you work, the more tired the horse gets, making it more prone to fall. Primary classes are longer, secondary are shorter."

"Oh yeah, that makes sense," Mason says. "There were so many kids at dressage, I wanted to cry."

"Okay, riders, I'm going to have you guys go one at a time and go through the course," Ms. King says. "Mason Young, you start."

Mason nervously mounts a restless Apollo and leads him into the ring. He does two warm up laps around the outside and gets to jumping. He clears all the jumps perfectly except for the oxer, where Apollo got ahead of himself and tripped, completely missing the jump and plowing into it. Thankfully, that was his final jump.

"Great job, but just remember, eyes up, heels down. Also, make sure your horse knows that you're in charge, not him," Ms. King says. "Ms. Cameron Anne Taylor, I heard you did incredible during cross country, why don't you show your stuff?" She gives me a sweet smile.

I laugh and mount Raquel with Alex's help. "Okay," I say. I do two warm up laps and follow the course. Raquel is so used to jumping high in cross country, she doesn't even come close to touching the fences. I keep my back straigh, heels down, and eyes up, and Raquel and I move as one.

"Wow, you are a natural jumper," Ms. King says. "Just use your legs a bit more for control. Raquel has a soft mouth, don't rely on it too much." I nod and walk out of the arena on Raquel. This girl, I believe her name is Jessica, gives me a dirty look.

"Great run," Mason says, reaching down and petting Raquel's neck.

"Thanks," I say. "You did great as well."