Green Valley Stables

Chapter one: Introduction

Green Valley Stables

Mary, Edith's sister, slowly crept into Edith's room. She sat down and lent over Edith, "EDITH, GET, UP!" Mary screamed in Edith's ear. "WAH!" Edith said, sitting up quickly in her bed. "Haha, bye!" Mary said, quickly walking out of Edith's room. "Ugh! I hate you, you rat!" Edith shouted to Mary as she tried to hit Mary with her pillow from her bed. She flopped back down on her bed, "welp, I may as well get up now!" She said to herself as she drew back her duvet and sat up on her bed. Edith got her dressing gown and slippers, but didn't put them on. She quickly trotted downstairs. Yes! Edith said in her head, she's still here! "AH!" Mary shouted as Edith wrapped her dressing gown on Mary and threw her onto the sofa and started hitting her with her slippers. "My hair! Edith, get off, you're ruining my hair!" Mary said, trying to pull Edith's dressing gown off her while Edith kept hitting her with her slippers. "Righ-" Rosà, their mum, said quietly before she noticed the girls. "You know what, nevermind" Rosà whispered to herself, rolling her eyes and letting out a quiet sigh as she walked back into the kitchen. Meanwhile, Mary had got the dressing gown off her and had one of Edith's slippers in her hand and was now throwing it at Edith. "Okay! Truce, truce" Edith said to Mary, while she put one hand up in the air slowly and put the slipper down on the floor. "Truce." Mary said. "Well, now I've got to redo my hair, no thanks to you. And I've got," Mary got up and picked her phone up, off the table, "3 minutes to do it." Mary ran upstairs in a split second and brushed her hair quickly and tied it back into a low ponytail. "Right, where's Mary?! She should be putting her shoes on! She's still got to go to school!" Rosà said to Edith. "She's gone up to redo her hair, relax she's got 2 minutes still" Edith said. "Redo?! She's already done her hair?! When she came down, it was already done!" Rosà said. "Yeah well, something, happened" Edith replied, walking into the kitchen to get a drink. Rosà sped up the stairs to check on Mary, "Mary, are you ready yet?" Edith heard Rosà say from upstairs. "Yes!" Mary moaned. "Just checking," Rosà replied.

"Right I'm off, girls. Have the best days! I'll see you later, love you both" Rosà said, giving both of the girls a kiss on the head. "Bye mum, love you too!" Edith said. "Bye mum, love you! Bye, my dearest sister I hate so much!" Mary said, giving Edith a bittersweet smile. "Bye rat," Edith replied, giving Mary a sharp grin.

(19 minutes past nine/09:19)

Okay, so, if mum and Mary get back at 5pm, and I leave here at 9:30, I can get to the yard for around 9:50. That gives me 7 hours at the yard. Edith thought to herself. Yeah, that's a good amount of time. Right, just got to sort out lunch.

Edith walked into the kitchen and searched through the fridge and all the cupboards. In the end, she pulled out a frube (yogurt) out of the cupboard, some strawberries and a peach out of the fridge, and a two bars of chocolate out of the small cupboard. She packed the food into her lunch bag, looked in the mirror to check she looked okay and she didn't need to redo her hair or anything, and then she opened the door and started walking to Green Valley. Edith opened whatsapp and started texting her friend:

Edith:

I'm on my way! I'm literally so excited to

see Snickers! I haven't seen him in ages!!

Anabella:

Ikr! I saw him last week he was sooooooo

Insanely cute! I got the cutest picture of

His snoot! I'll show you later!

Edith:

My boy's always cute! 🤣

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"Oh hi, Edith!" Adia, the old barn owner said, "Uhh, let me just grab to sign in board. Uhh, where did I put it?" Aida started searching around her office for the board, while Edith stood there waiting. "Oh wait, I gave it to Elsie! Edith, could you please go and get the board from Elsie and bring it back here please?" Aida said with a smile. "Of course!" Edith said, as she went to put her bag away and search around for Elsie. "Mia, have you seen Elsie?" Edith asked, Mia, a tall girl with long strawberry-blonde hair. "Uh yeah, she went to turn out Snickers and Pearl. FYI, I told her not to turn out Snickers." Mia said, pointing to Elsie, a short girl with ginger hair. Snickers is basically Edith's pony. So if anyone wants to do something with Snickers like, turn him out, ride him, put one of the riding school children on him, they have to ask Edith. "Jesus christ, can't she leave him alone or just ask me?! Thanks though" Edith said to Mia, giving her a smile before storming off. This time was especially annoying, because Elsie knew that Edith was supposed to be riding him soon, and that she needs to ask if she wants to do something with Snickers, but she never does. "19th bloody time!" Edith said quietly to herself. Elsie let Snickers and Pearl into their field and started shutting the gate. "Elsie, can you stop turning out my pony without asking! He's not your pony but you keep doing things with him without asking me!" Edith said to Elsie, snatching Snicker's lead rope out of Elsie's hand. "He's not yours either!" Elsie sharply said to Edith with a scowl. "Just stop doing things with my pony!" Edith said, as she opened the gate "Snickers!" Edith clicked, as Snickers pricked up his head and ears. "Or what? You'll tell Aida?" Elsie said mockingly. "Pretty much" Edith said. "Good boy, Snickers!" Edith said in a high squeaky but calm voice, as Snickers started walking over to her. "He needs a break. I'm riding him later. And I'm going to ride him properly, not like how you ride him." Elsie said. "Bahaha! One, no you're not. Two, you just told me your plan." Edith said, leading Snickers out of his field. "If she's going to put you in your field anyway then she could've at least given you a groom." Edith muttered to Snickers, as she kept walking Snickers forward but went to the side of him and glided her hand over the dried mud on his back. She went back to walking by Snicker's Shoulder and gave him a pat. Edith pulled out her phone and took a photo of Snickers, "Snickers, what's this, boy?" Edith said to Snickers, trying to get Snickers' attention.

She tied up Snickers in his stable, and went to get some brushes. "Dandy brush, curry comb, hoof pick aaand, hoof oil. Perfect" Edith said quietly to herself. "Hey again, Snickers" Edith said to Snickers. She used a plastic curry comb to get all the dried mud off Snicker's back, legs and neck, and then checked Snicker's hooves to see if they needed to be picked out, luckily, they didn't. She picked up a dandy brush and started to get any excess dust or mud particles off. 

28 Minutes later, Edith checked her phone to see what time it is, "Well, after 28 minutes, you're looking beautiful again, my boy" Edith said, "I'll be riding you soon too". The time was 12:48am, and Edith was riding at 1pm. Edith rides Snickers when he needs exercise, for free. "Edith!!" Annabella said, jogging up to Edith. "Oh my god!! I didn't know you were coming in today!!" Edith said, coming out of Snicker's stable.

(1pm)

Edith and Annabella went into the tack room and picked up Snicker's saddle. "Could you grab Snicker's saddle, please?" Edith asked Annabella "Course" Annabella said, to Edith. The tack room was  a medium sized room with a wall of saddle holders, a wall for bridles, and a rack of saddle pads, all the colours from red to black, a box for boots, one box for polo boots, one for fetlock, bell, field and brushing boots. The girls walked back to Snicker's stable and put the saddle on the saddle peg, and the bridle on the bridle peg outside of Snicker's stable. "Oh shoot! We forgot the saddle pad!" Edith said, darting back to the tack room. "Oh yeah!!" Annabella said, chasing after Edith.

"Right...Uhh" Edith said, gliding her hand across the rack of saddle pads, "I think you should go for Mint, Edith" Annabella said, "oh yeah! That would look good on him!" Edith said, pulling out a Mint LeMieux saddle pad. "Oo, let's get an ear bonnet and some polo wraps!" Edith said, pulling on a draw full of ear bonnets. She pulled a Mint coloured ear bonnet, while Annabella got the Mint polo wraps. They gave Snickers a quick groom before tacking him up, and then walking him over to the indoor arena.