To Let Go

Chapter 8: Morning rides

AN: This chapter is dedicated to alphablackwolf14 for voting and reading. I appreciate it so much!

It was my third Sunday at Chesterfield, and I was up bright and early, at the unholy hour of 4 am. After being placed on Intermediate about a week ago, I really needed to work for it if I wanted to make a team. After changing into a pair of lime green breeches, and an Ariat sweater, I crept out of the dorm, and to Athena's pasture. On my whistle, the sleeping mare rose up and trotted up to the gate, nuzzling my pocket for treats.

"Oh here you go greedy," I smiled, ruffling her mane.

In the  small outdoor riding ring, I mounted her up at around half past four in the morning, and walked her through the chilly morning air. After marching her forward for about three laps, I asked for her smooth, gliding trot. She happily lengthened and collected for me, and then we trotted over some poles. Feeling her power as I sat the trot, I asked her for a canter, where we did some serpentines and figure eights. 

"She's still a bit stiff on the left lead," a voice cut through the morning fog, and I halted Athena to find a dark haired girl with what I presumed to be blue eyes standing outside the ring. "Can I come in?" She asked, gently tugging on her dappled light grey horse.

As soon as she was within my clear vision, I looked down at her again, and noticed something familiar about her. 

"You can stop staring now, I'm Clarissa Waters, and this is Grand Slam, but call him Sam. He's a Belgian Warmblood. You must be Samantha Jane Weatherbie, although I don't recognize your horse. From the looks of it, she's a Holsteiner cross, must be 4 or 5. " Clarissa smoothly got onto her horse, springing onto him with only the smallest pressure on his back.

Here was THE Clarissa Waters, 17 year old eventing extraordinaire. I had been a huge fan of her ever since I found her in an equestrian magazine when she was eleven. 

I bent Athena more on her left while Clarissa warmed up. Her beautiful gelding's strides were nothing like I had ever seen, and they were one. Her heels were down just enough, back and neck straighter than straight, her hands moved with the horse, and she sat down perfectly in her seat. 

"Am I going to coach you or not? And stop staring at me as if I were Jesus, because I'm not." Clarissa finished off her warm-up with a few lead changes. I was beyond shocked, and I was so nervous now, but quickly, my nervousness melted away as she coached me.

We started off with lead changes, and as perfect as Athena was, my aids needed much more polishing. Then, a hundred dozen leg yields later, our leg yields became effortless, so effortless in fact, that we were finally able to move on. 

"Sit even deeper in your seat, now give her MORE rein. SQUEEZE a bit," Clarissa had already halted Sam, and there I was, learning instant downward transitions. Athena had already backed up, and now, she was full on cantering. "Not THAT much!"

After my mount had halted, we did the same transition again and again, doing all the basic w/t/c and halt transitions. By the time the sun was in the sky, I was beyond drained, and yet, there Clarissa was, telling me to walk her a bit and then continue. She set up a two crossrails, and gave me the go-ahead to jump. 

As soon as Athena saw the jumps, she started to run towards them. I wiggled the reins, reminding her that I was still there, and I glued my butt to the saddle. A few half-halts later, she was in a steady pace, so I circled her towards the jumps. Her ears were pricked, and I rose into my two point, letting her stretch her neck out, making sure that my heels were down, and my back was straight. I kept my leg on, and she landed easily before approaching the next jump, a long 4 strider. 

"Good, just remember to not rise too far ahead of your horse, and not fling yourself over your horse's neck, like this!" Clarissa nudged Sam into an instant, perfect canter, and I watched as they effortlessly glided over, Clarissa in the perfect position and not at all daunted by Sam's extreme over-jump. 

"Wow... that was... incredible!" I breathed.

"Well, you can look like that too." Clarissa smiled. Then, she drilled me into two points, and at one point, she even made me keep my eyes closed as I blindly steered Athena.

A while later, after our horses were cooled down and taken back to their pastures, Clarissa decided to talk business with me.

"Sam, you can't possibly use Athena for try-outs, she's still a young horse, and I wouldn't recommend jumping her higher than 2'3", although her movements are amazing. You should enter her in flat-class. Now do you have any other horses?"

"Yeah, I have Winfred and Dino." I nodded, proudly thinking about them.

"Great! Ride one of them tomorrow, and the other the next day, then we can work out what we want to do. In the meantime, we should get ready for our second choice. Well, I'll see you in outdoor ring 22 tomorrow at 5 in the morning." Clarissa rose up from the hay stack.

"Bye!" I was grinning madly, because no matter how tired I was, I had just scored a ride with Clarissa.

...

Back in the dorms, I went up to see if anyone wanted to come to breakfast with me, and I was surprised to the whole room up and awake. 

"Finally you came, we were wondering where you were!" I was greeted by the sing-song of Mari's voice.

"I swear, this girl was going CRAZY trying to find you." Luna playfully gave Mari a shove.

"Um, do you guys want to get food?" the nervous little voice speaking reminded me that Erin was in the room. She had become only a tiny bit less shy, but still, her riding pattern was incredibly strange. One day, she was on top of the world in her riding, and the next, she was almost falling off.

After a delicious Sunday morning breakfast of Bacon, Eggs, and Waffles, I hurried to fetch Winfred and get her tacked up.