Champions Until the End

Chapter Two

Picture at top is Dawn

        Mike Blackwell. Instructor of Pine Road Pony Club, and owner of Pine Road Stables. I had met him before, and he was friendly. Formerly a famous eventing rider, he quit to begin instructing after an accident on the cross-country course. Kind of like me.

        "Everyone in the center, please!" he called.

        Everyone slowed to a walk and turned towards the center immediately. I realized that I was probably the only new one here. I turned my attention back to Mike as he began talking.

        "All right. Today we have one new member joining us on the advanced team. I hope you all welcome Kennedy and talk to her after the lesson. Now, I hope you all have warmed your horses up, because I thought today we'd kick off the season with a pony swap!"

        Pony swap? I thought. Someone else has to ride Faith? She won't like that. I knew that Faith wasn't any calm, laid-back lesson pony. She was a feisty, spirited horse who was still learning.

        "Draw slips of paper from this riding helmet, and it'll have a color on it. Find the person with the matching color and swap horses" Mike instructed.

        I was the second-to-last person to draw. I looked at my slip and saw the word 'green'. I looked around for the other person with green. It was one of the boys. I dismounted and walked over to him. "Hi, I'm Kennedy." I said.

        He smiled. "I'm Charlie, and this is Fernidad. He's a bit lazy."

        "Noted. This is Faith. She's very energetic, and she's still pretty green." I smiled back as I handed Charlie her reins and he handed me Fernidad's. I looked the bay over and guessed that he was probably a Mongolian pony. I adjusted the stirrups a little, and hopped on. "Hey, boy," I murmured to him. I have a habit of talking to horses too much. "Ready to go?"

        I could see why Charlie said Fernidad was lazy. He took a lot more leg than Faith did, and I could see Charlie struggling with sensitive Faith a bit. I'll go over and help him if it looks like she'll buck, I told myself. When Mike asked for a canter, I got Fernidad going on the bit and more forward. I glanced over at Faith to see how Charlie was handling her, and recognized what was happening almost immediately. "Watch o-" I never got to finish my warning. Faith gave a violent buck, twisting in the air and dumped Charlie on the ground before bolting around the arena.

        As Faith bolted past me, I grabbed onto her long mane and swapped from Fernidad to Faith in a matter of seconds. Only after I had brought Faith to a walk did I realize that I probably shouldn't have just left Fernidad standing there. Luckily, he didn't move. I quickly made Faith do the trot-to-canter transition again, and after she did it, I jumped off and led her over to Fernidad to grab him and lead both horses other to the now-standing Charlie.

        "Sorry about that" I told him, handing him Faith's reins. "She does that sometimes."

        "It's fine, everyone gets bucked off once in a while. Thanks for grabbing her."

        "No problem." I replied, jumping back onto Fernidad just as Mike called for the lesson to resume.

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        After the lesson, with no one having any more problems, and having traded Fernidad back to Charlie for Faith, I led her back out of the arena, clipping her into the crossties to untack. I walked with Rachel and Paige to turn Faith back out in her pasture, which she shared with Rachel's, Paige's, and another girl's horses. "What are your horses' names?" I wondered.

        "This is Dawn, she's a German Riding Pony." Rachel answered, patting the neck of her chestnut mare.

        "And Daisy is a New Forest pony." Paige told me.

        "Who are the others?" I asked.

        "The Selle Francais is Lonru, her owner is Isabelle. She's the most stuck-up person ever." Paige informed me.

        I wonder if that's true. I didn't voice the thought, though. Instead I nodded, and then Rachel began speaking.

        "You already know about Charlie and Fernidad from the pony swap, of course. Parker's his brother. He has a dapple-gray Connemara mare named Feather. And Jocelyn's horse is Blackjack, he's a Pottok pony."

        "I love the name Blackjack!" I commented.

        "Yeah, it is a good name," Paige said. "I have to be getting home. See you for the next lesson, Kennedy!"

        "Bye!" I called after her as she left the stables.

        "I'd better get home too." Rachel mentioned. "See you next lesson!"

        "See you then!" I smiled. Maybe I was making friends. But then again, they didn't know a lot about me. At least they were nice. I hopped off the fence I had been sitting on, landing in the pasture to say goodnight to Faith. I look around, but I don't see her. "Faith!" I call. She doesn't come, which is weird. The first thing I trained her to do was to come when she was called. "Faith!" I say, louder this time. When she still doesn't come, that's when it hits me: Faith is gone.