Joshleen 1: Fortunate Accidents

Fortunate Accidents- 25

A horse! A gorgeous, buckskin horse! From what I could see she was a mare (girl).

"Oh my!" I say to myself.

"We're not there just yet Tai! Hold your horses," Josh winked, I guess he thinks he's great at jokes.

We drove a while longer and arrived at a stable/ equestrian centre. It was absolutely amazing. The fields were all green and pretty, the barn was a gorgeous shade of red and white. The main building which I'm guessing is the office. There's a sign saying 'Summerville Stable' in green block writing with a picture of a horse in a paddock underneath.

"This is amazing!" I tell Josh as we pull up in the parking lot.

"I'm glad you like it. Be sure to tell your mum that too," He tells me. Mum's going to be here? I thought she was at Rachel's.

"Will do," I respond. We get out of the car and walk over to the barn. I follow Josh as he seems to know where we were meant to be going.

I see mum, Rebecca and a blonde haired lady walk out of the open barn door.

Mum walks over to me and smiles.

"What do ya think Tai?" She asked wrapping her arm over my shoulder and looking at the barn with me.

"I think this place is beautiful!" I tell her.

The blonde haired lady came closer to us with Rebecca at her side.

"Elaine Withers, owner and head trainer at Summerville. Pleasure to meet you," Elaine stuck out her hand for me to shake.

"Tailah Evans," I said shaking her hand. She looked around 45 possibly older.

"Let me show you to the barn," She said doing a similar version of the Zamolo arm.

I followed closely behind her taking in the view and vivid smell of horse.

"Here's our 12 stall barn, tack room's in there and feed's in the dark brown barrels beside the water buckets," Elaine told me.

Elaine stopped in front of a stall with a dapple grey gelding in it. He looked to be around 13 hh (135cm), smaller than Prince who stood at 14.3hh (145cm).

"This is Donatello. The pony who'll be riding every Friday starting in December," Elaine told me. Donatello was really pretty, aside from being small for my size he was gorgeous.

"Wait. Ride every Friday?" I asked. Was I going to get lessons here? I was going to ride! Oh my gosh!

"Yeah, your mum and dad have signed you up for lessons every Friday," Elaine told me happily. I smiled wide, very wide. I couldn't help it! I was thrilled.

I, Tailah Evans, am going to be riding a HORSE every single Friday come December. I don't really care too much about the wait, it's mid October now so it's not too far away.

"Today you'll have a lesson, that way I can sort out what stuff we can get into later," Elaine said opening Donatello's stall door and stepping in.

I saw his halter hanging and decided to grab it off the hook and follow Elaine into the stall. Daisy had shown me how to put on a halter when I visited her with Skylar. I was a quick learner and had a good memory so I still knew what I had to do.

Elaine stood back surprised I think at my confidence.

I put on Donatello's halter and lead rope as Elaine talked to me.

"I've been told you've never had a proper lesson but have ridden 2 or so times at a friend's place,"

"Yeah, my friend Daisy had a horse. He was gorgeous, a stock. Really pretty," I told her whilst clipping the lead line onto the metal ring below Donatello's chin.

-----

I mounted onto Donatello. We had saddled him up and taken him to one of the riding pastures outside as the indoor and outdoor arenas were occupied.

"Lovely posture Tailah. Do you know the basic walk, trot and canter confidently?" Elaine asked me. I had done all of those at Daisy's before on Prince and hadn't fallen off so I guess I was confident.

"Yeah, I've done them all a couple times," I told Elaine. Mum, dad and Rebecca were in the corner of the pasture watching me. Mum looked so happy yet worried, Rebecca looked surprised and dad was getting something out of his pocket.

"Do you feel comfortable to show me?"

"Yep," I responded.

"Okay then, show me what ya got,"

I squeezed my legs against Donatello's sides and he immediately responded moving forward into an even walk. I squeezed again and he quickened to a trot. I started to rise and fall as Daisy had taught me and kept my heels down, back straight and hands soft. I looked over to where dad, mum and Rebecca were as I rode past them and they were all smiling and dad had his camera out most likely recording me.

I squeezed my legs again and Donatello moved forward into a steady canter. His strides were surprisingly long for a galloway. I sat easily to his canter and after a reasonable amount of cantering I slowed him back to a walk then halted near Elaine.

Elaine smiled at me proudly, I think she was impressed but I wasn't sure.

"You told me you'd only ridden a little bit! You look like you've been riding here for years!" Elaine beamed. I smiled back accepting her compliment.

"Thanks, I wasn't sure how well I looked but it felt amazing,"

I hear clapping just as Elaine's about to say something. I look behind me and see mum clapping like a kid that just got handed a butt load of lollies.

Elaine laughed quietly.

"Your cheer squad seems to have enjoyed it," Elaine jokes.

"Yeah," I laugh...

A/N

Hey!
Liking the book so far? I hope so! :)
Do you like horses? Comment below and let me know! I do obviously, I actually went for a ride earlier on my horse Dell, she's a 14.3hh Standardbred mare and I love her more than I do most people!

Have an awesome day!
~Hailey