𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑡𝑜𝑛. ʙʀɪᴛɪsʜ ʀᴏʏᴀʟ ғᴀᴍɪʟʏ

12 ♔♕ 𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘆 𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗯

𝚜𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝟸𝟶𝟶𝟶 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝟸𝟶𝟶𝟷

Riding was her escape.

Everyone knew it. It allowed her to be free. To forget. To just focus on being at one with her pony. Bella loved every second of it.

When she had asked her pa whether or not she might be able to go to the local area eventing trials for her pony club, she had been unbelievably surprised by his answer. She had had a long argument prepared explaining all the pros and cons to letting her go, but he had just said yes. It shocked her that much she asked him to repeat himself, which he did with a chuckle. She was allowed to go.

And now, now that she was here, well, she couldn't contain her excitement.

Zara had gone with her, as her groom, moral support, driver and well, everything else as well. Her best friend, Rose, had also somehow managed to convince her eldest sister, Lady Josephine Powlett, to take her along too so she was buzzing around with excitement.

Bella was excited too, she'd been practicing the test for the past week and was pretty sure she could remember both of the courses for the showjumping and cross-country back to front and inside out.

"𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚊 𝚠𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝙷𝚁𝙷 𝙿𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝙸𝚜𝚊𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚊 𝚘𝚏 𝚆𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝚛𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚙𝚘𝚗𝚢 𝙺𝚊𝚊𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚘, 𝚘𝚠𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝙷𝙼 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚀𝚞𝚎𝚎𝚗"

That was her cue. She pushed Kaapi into a trot, entering the arena Bella tried to keep him as straight as possible, she halted at x, saluted the judges, and then they were off.

She could hear the shouts of support from Josie, Rose and Zara over the top of everyone else, the three of them were bouncing around with excitement as she left the arena.

"That was brilliant!" Cried Rose, smiling she gave Kaapi a good pat on the shoulder, "good boy."

"He was a good boy." Bella agreed with a grin, before sighing as she continued, "did you see the last 20m circle though, it was more of an egg."

"Oh don't worry about that." Zara said brightly as they reached the horse box, "the rest was good."

Bella grinned again as she swung her leg behind her and lightly landed on the floor, "you were such a good boy Kaapi!" She exclaimed, running to one of the many bags hanging off the side of the box she rummaged through it with a frown. Smiling as she finally found the treat she was looking for, she walked back over to the grey pony who Zara was now readying for the showjumping, and held her hand out to him, scratching him on the nose as he greedily took the treat from her hand. "Right!" Bella said with a start, "how long till the showjumping?"

Zara gave a quick glance at her watch as she passed the final boot to Bella to put on Kaapi's legs, "20 minutes till your in."

Bella sighed as she placed her foot back in the stirrup and sprang up into the saddle, "you think they'd give you more time in between," she smiled at Zara as she put her other stirrup up a few holes so they were shorter for jumping, "thanks...right then, let's go do some jumping Kaapi."

The four of them wandered back over to the warm up arena for the jumping, Rose and Josie hanging over the fence whilst Zara stood just inside the fence, shouting out advice to Bella as she warmed up. It went well though, they went clear with just one time fault.