Time skip to the show, because I'm the author and I can do that :). Enjoy! Paige up top.
I placed the saddle on Duchess's back gently, tightening the girth. My tack for Faith definitely wouldn't have fit Duchess, and Lady's tack had been sold with her, so it was at the stables, but Duchess's back was a lot narrower. So I got to use Duchess's tack. Apparently it had come with her, and the jumping saddle was a beautiful, shiny reddish-brown. Her dressage saddle was just as gorgeous, but with perfectly oiled black leather instead. Showjumping was my first class, so I obviously put that one on first. Cross-country was second, and dressage was the last English event of the day, before the Western classes started. And, this time, with the option to enter four classes if I wanted, I decided to do the barrel racing. I hadn't practiced it with Duchess at all, but I had always found it fun so I thought, why not? When I had grabbed her western tack from the tack shed back at the stables, it had been covered by a saddle cover, and I had left it that way.
I slipped the bridle over Duchess's ears, buckling the throatlatch and the noseband, before leading her away from the trailer and over to a mounting block. As I adjusted my stirrups and swung my leg over Duchess to mount and settled onto her back, another horse and rider approached me.
"Hi, Parker," I said, leaning down to tuck the stirrup leathers into their keepers, since I had forgotten to before I mounted.
"Hey, Kennedy. I had forgotten to ask you earlier, what classes are you doing? Dressage, showjumping, and cross-country, right?" The blonde boy asked, and Faith snorted, shaking her long mane.
"Yeah, you guessed it. I also decided to do barrel racing, even though I've never tried it on Duchess. We're able to do four classes this time, so I thought, why not do it? I've always found it fun." I shrugged.
"Really? Well, looks like we've got the same classes." Parker smiled at me, and I glanced at him, remembering that he actually did some competitive barrel racing on occasion, though Feather was more of an English horse then Western.
"Oh, cool!" I said, grinning back as we both nudged our horses into a walk, heading for the showjumping arena. "What's Charlie doing?" I questioned.
"Showjumping, cross-country, barrel racing, and pole bending," Parker replied. "He'll probably be waiting at the arena by now, he was still finishing tacking Ferni up when I left. Thanks again for letting me use Faith, by the way. She's an awesome horse."
"Oh, it's no problem!" I responded. "Mike wanted me to ride Duchess the entire time, apparently."
"Ah," Parker said. "Come on, it's right there. May the best rider win!" He joked, and we rode up a small hill in silence before reaching the arena, and right as we halted, the announcer began calling the first rider into the arena for their round. Charlie was the fifth rider, and he managed to drag a clear round out of Ferni, although it was dreadfully slow, since Ferni apparently felt more like sleeping than jumping right now. Parker was right after me, and when it was my turn, I rode forward into the arena, and I did a large circle to get Duchess in a nice canter, and when the bell rung to signal that I had a minute to cross the line and start my round, I already had Duchess in a neat canter, and headed towards the first jump, careful not to let her rush.
Duchess leapt the first vertical perfectly, and I allowed her to lengthen her stride a bit before the next jump, a large oxer with colorful flowers around the sides. I felt Duchess hesitate, not sure about the bright colors, but I gave her a nudge with my heels, and the cremello jumped confidently, reassured by my signals.
The rest of the course Duchess took perfectly, until the second-to-last jump. Duchess suddenly spooked at the sound of a car loudly backfiring, and she almost refused to take the vertical in front of her, before deciding last minute to take a scrambled leap over it, scattering poles everywhere. I was almost thrown off, and I had to grab the saddle to stay on.
Obviously the noise had scared Duchess, and she bolted forward, not even bothering to jump over the last obstacle, instead running straight through it and, having crashed into some poles, started going crazier. Duchess kept on trying to do jump, rear, buck, and bolt all at once, and eventually I got thrown over her head, unable to keep my grip on her.
As I hit the ground a ways away from Duchess, the breath got knocked out of me. My face was in the sand, and I spat out arena dirt when I regained my breath. Looking up, Duchess was still going crazy. The high-strung mare bolted, a look of wild terror in her eyes as she ran straight towards me. I had to roll quickly out of the way, and I felt like I was in one of those rodeos when I just got thrown off of a bucking bronco, and my horse didn't want to stop. (Last year, I actually saw this happen, except the rider was out of the arena. It took around twenty-thirty minutes for other riders to catch the horse)
Standing up, I edged carefully towards my terrified horse. Completely aware that everyone in the stands eyes' were on me, I spoke in a soft voice to soothe Duchess. "Hey, hey, girl, you're okay, it's okay, everything's fine. Calm down, girl, we're okay, there's nothing there. Duchess, come here, you're fine. Nothing is going to hurt you." I continued in a stream of endless words, and Duchess gradually calmed down at my soft, reassuring voice.
Making my way over to the mare, I noticed that she was still quivering in fear, so I continued to talk in the same soothing voice as I led her slowly out of the arena, making the traditional signal to the judges that I was retiring from the showjumping. With plenty of faults from the scattered rails, and the fall, and having never actually crossed the finish line, I had at least ninety faults. Sixty for the fall, and four for each rail, plus some for my time. It was better to retire.
Parker gave me a pitying glance as he rode in while I exited, and I gave him a grim smile back, mouthing sorry since I couldn't watch his round. I led Duchess back to the trailer where I had tied her, and I came back to watch the very last of the showjumping and see the results. Parker had gotten second, and Paige had turned out a great round and came in fourth. Rachel had gotten unlucky, and gotten eight faults, so she hadn't placed at all. Isabelle had claimed seventh, and sixth, seventh, and eighth, were separated by only a second between the three. I congratulated Parker and Paige, and then walked back to the trailer to tack Duchess back up for the cross-country, since I had untacked her before.
Except for one problem. When I got back to the trailer, Duchess was gone.
Heheheheheheheh. Should I hide? I haven't updated this book in literally forever, and I just did that little cliffhanger right there. So. Um. See ya next chapter, I'm going to try and update soon (or should I just torture you all with the wait... mwahahahaha)
Glorybringer1163
*runs*
YOU ARE READING
Champions Until the End
General FictionIf you see this book on any platform other than wattpad, it has been stolen without my consent! Kennedy Hawkings was born into the saddle. Growing up at a famous stable in Montana, training to become a professional eventer her entire life, two famou...
