Bloodless Day

Changing Reins

"Hold him!"

Bloodless Day danced beneath me, skittering to the side, head bowed so it touched his chest, powerful hindquarters balancing him as he rocked back and forth. My arms ached from holding him up and back, my legs burned from staying on, my back hurt so badly it was easy to ignore the pain.

"Can't you see I'm trying?" I shot back, ignoring the smug glance of Lilac as she trotted by on the ever so polite So Far So Good.

A small conference, hissing sounds beneath the blinding orange light the morning covered Piperson Farms with.

Then:

"Try harder!"

I growled. Uncertain, BD missed a beat of his mini tantrum and I hauled the reins back, taking advantage of him to get a hold of the bit and pin his head to my boot. Sensing defeat, the stallion stood and relaxed.

"Nicely done, Anna. Lilac's going to breeze Goodie, then you can trot clockwise up the track then gallop him back."

I shivered in anticipation at Willifred's words, releasing BD's reins. Now over himself, he unconcernedly lowered his head to crop at grass poking through the outside fence. The old trainer looked at us disapprovingly but didn't speak, instead turning his attention towards the edge of the track. Twisting in my saddle, I saw the dark blur that was Lilac and Goodie making their way towards us. Galloping strongly, the sun glinted across Goodie's nearly black coat, striping him with bronze and gold. Lilac stood over his neck, her hands giving every time he asked, taking back when he needed it, letting him fly. They were so in sync.

As Goodie passed the quarter mile pole, Willifred snapped at the stopwatch, allowing a slight smile before he passed it to one of the assistant trainers. She grinned too. I suppressed my slight frown.

Bloodless Day was a great horse. This I knew. But Goodie was running into a class of his own- heart-stoppingly fast, he was slow to tire and didn't waste his energy worrying and rearing and pacing, in the stall and under saddle.

It was so hard to get along with my stallion when he was the evil twin.

Goodie's workout was done, so I touched BD's mouth with the reins and spun him around. We trotted easily up the track, BD toying with the bit and me glowering in the saddle. When we reached the end, I buried my hands in his shortened mane, frustrated with... everything, really. Ever since Goodie had arrived, BD and I had been shoved to the side. BD was oh, that horse and Goodie was a horse of caliber. Words like Triple Crown and Great Things floated around his stall. If anything floated around BD's stall, it was bruised and/or broken.

"You haven't been breezed in weeks," I muttered. BD tipped a glossy ear back at me, confused. I sighed. "I know. You don't care. You just want to run."

With a yell, I spun BD around. He pivoted on his hind legs and before he could properly regain his balance, we were flying.

I stood proudly in the stirrups, fist buried in the dark mane, my other hand giving and giving and giving BD more room. He stretched out gorgeously, low to the ground, tearing water from my eyes. I whooped. This was how to wake up in the morning. Experience had made me selfish - a simple gallop wasn't enough. We had to fly. Would this one day not be enough? I couldn't imagine.

We flashed past the pole. Out of habit, BD began to slow, but he wasn't tiring. I set back in my seat, cooing to the stallion. His ears were permanently facing me, but he listened too, dropping into a collected gallop, falling into a canter, tripping into a trot, sighing into a walk. I turned him back towards the gate where Willifred and his assistant were waiting. Lilac was long gone, but based off the dropped stopwatch and open mouthed expression of the assistant, we'd done well.