Champions Until the End

Chapter Twelve

And here is Chapter Twelve for ya'll! There is a timeskip to the show, because I'm lazy and have no other ideas. Just a random show that offers showjumping, cross country, barrels, western pleasure, dressage, and pole bending. There are teams of riders from each place, in this case Pine Road Stables, and at the end of the show they tally up the points to see which stable came out in first! Now, without further ado, I give you: Chapter Twelve!

        I unloaded Lady from the trailer, careful not to let her get overexcited, because she knew the show routine well, and she loved it. As I tethered her to the trailer, Parker led Feather out and tied her beside me. I checked Lady's button braids that I had painstakingly done the night before, and I was immensely relieved to see that they were perfectly in place. I grabbed my grooming kit and ran the hard brush over her, not bothering with the currycomb since she didn't need it, all I wanted was to flick the dust off her shiny coat.

        After picking and oiling Lady's hooves, I stood back to admire yesterday and today's work. I turned around to see how Parker was doing, and Feather looked even better than Lady. Her button braids were in a neat line, every one of them even and straight, and her coat was a glossy dapple gray. "Nice work," I told Parker who was crouching to oil his mare's hooves and hadn't noticed me. He looked up and said, "Thanks," before finishing up.

        "What events are you in?" I asked him, changing the subject.

        "Showjumping, dressage and barrel racing," he responded while we each began tacking up our horses. "You?"

        "Showjumping, dressage, and cross-country. I didn't know you did any western stuff," I commented.

        He shrugged. "I do barrels occasionally. Whenever they don't offer it, I'll do cross-country instead, but since they have it, why not do it? Dressage is first, right?"

        I grabbed my copy of the show schedule to check. "Yep, dressage is at nine, then showjumping at ten, cross-country at eleven, then there's a break, then barrels at twelve-thirty, pole bending at one-thirty, and pleasure at two-thirty. All times are estimated." I finished.

        "All right, then. It's eight-thirty now. Let's go register and get our numbers." Parker suggested.

        "Sounds good," came my reply.

        The two of us went to the registry tent, waited in a line for around five minutes, then registered and received our numbers. I was 168, and Parker was 134. As we walked back to the trailer, I grabbed Lady's bridle to finish tacking her up so that I could head over to the warm-up arena, since dressage was starting in about twenty minutes. I was supposed to be the fifth one to go, and Parker the seventh. Rachel and Isabelle were also in this class, and I was pretty Rachel was supposed to test second, but I had no clue about Isabelle.

        Parker stayed behind to finish something, saying that he'd be right over, so I walked Lady over, mounting once I got to the first of the two large warm-up arenas. Soon enough, the first rider was called from a stable I didn't recognize. Soon enough, Four people, including Rachel, had finished and it was my turn. I took a deep breath, and then they called my name. "Next up for the dressage is number 168, Kennedy Hawkings on Lady's Secret" That was me, and Lady's Secret was Lady's registered name. I straightened my back, lifting my eyes up and squeezing Lady into a working trot.