Silver Opportunity

Chapter Sixteen

"Spill!" Molly said as she stormed into my house. Hannah looked up alarmed from her cereal. I took another bite of Nutella toast. "Hannah, something happened between Leo and Em last night and neither of them will say anything. Did they get in a fight or something?"

"I don't know, I wasn't here last night," Hannah shrugged. She paused suddenly. "I wasn't here last night. You two had the house to yourselves."

I said nothing.

"Oh, my gosh, Em, did you two-," Molly started, here eyes getting huge.

"I think this is my cue to leave," Hannah said as she swallowed her milk. As she put her bowl in the sink, she said "Just... be smart."

Molly was still staring at me.

"Yes," I finally said, giving her a small smile.

"Giiiiirrllll, yes!" she exclaimed. "I'm so proud of you. Little Emily is growing up."

"I'm not telling you anything else," I crossed my arms. "It's your brother. My lips are sealed."

"Just tell me one thing," she said seriously. I looked at her expectedly. "Did he respect you?"

"Of course he did," I said softly. "It's Leo."

"Okay, well, I'm satisfied," she smiled, giving me a hug. "I'm going to go get Aspen. I'll see you around."

"Bye, Molly," I laughed as she left my house.

-

"We're ready, Hannah!" I called as I brought Titan into the arena.

"Perfect, go ahead and get on while I finish setting the jumps up," Hannah said. Using the mounting block, I hopped up onto T and began warming him up. Hannah had only set up three jumps, a small course.

After we were warmed up walk, trot, canter, I popped Titan over a smaller jump a couple of times before beginning the lesson.

"Okay, we're going to test out what kind of training this horse has had," Hannah said as I walked him around. "I know I set up three jumps, but we're honestly probably going to stick to one."

"Fine by me," I nodded. "So, what's the game plan?"

She raised the jump we had just taken to about 2'9", higher than I had jumped him before. I did a courtesy circle before approaching it, but I remembered what happened yesterday when Justine tried to jump him. I kept T steady up to the jump, but at the last stride, he stopped cold. I was thrown forward, but I stayed on, and once I pulled myself together, got him moving again.

"Forget about what happened yesterday," Han called out. "Circle him around, do it again. Look up, trust that he's going to go over it. He's looking for your guidance right now."

I took a deep breath before cantering him. We tried again, this time I kept my mind blank, my legs on, and my eyes over.

This time, T cleared it no problem.

"There you go," Hannah cheered. "Perfect. Alright, do it again."

This was how our lesson went. We cleared the jump, Hannah raised it. We kept it to one jump, but got up to 3'6" before we were both tired. It was awesome that Titan still had so much scope, but I knew that once we made the jumps into a course, it would be a whole different beast.

"Alright, cool him down, you're both gross and sweaty," Hannah laughed.

"Thank you," I nodded as I wiped some of my sweat on her. "Thanks a bunch."

"Ew, okay, yuck," she laughed, moving to take a seat on the fence. That's what I loved about Hannah. No matter how busy she was, she always made sure she had time to be with me as I cooled down after lessons. "Alright. So we'll do two more lessons this week, then another three next week. Next week, do two on Dub, we have a show that weekend."

"Sounds like a plan," I nodded. We continued small talking, avoiding the topic of last night.

"Hey, Em, we need to talk," she started. Oh boy. "It's about yesterday."

"Yeah?" I squeaked, not sure where this conversation was going.

"Look, I'm sorry I had you show Titan last night," she began. "It was completely wrong of me. I should have realized that you're Titan's person now, and teaching this lesson, I realized that. I'm really sorry."

"Hey, it's okay, Han," I said. "You were doing your job. It's not fair to you if I'm the one holding you back. If you need to sell Titan, that's what you need to do. No matter how much I love him, this is your business and you need to do what you need to do."

"You're missing the point," she said. "I have almost a hundred horses for sale through this place, I can make my money selling them. One horse, no matter how much he will go for, won't make a difference. He's clearly chosen you, Em, and I was completely idiotic to even consider selling him. So, he's officially yours. The papers are now in your name and everything."

"Wait.. what?" I asked. "W-why would you do that?"

"I don't see anyone else with the patience or talent to own him," she shrugged. "Ever heard of Christmas in July?"

"Thank you so much, Hannah," I choked out while I wiped tears off my face. I've never owned my own horse - Dublin and Zee were her horses that I rode. But Titan, he's all mine.

"It's the least I could do, honestly," she beamed. "You better make him the best horse out there."

"Trust me, he can do that all by himself."

So sorry for being inactive guys!! I have a really bad case of pneumonia that didn't respond to meds so I am on new meds and hopefully it works! i've been miserable but i'll be better soon. also my horse is dead lame and has been as long as i've been sick (about a month) :( i'll try to keep uploading, but i'm really sick and exhausted all the time. thanks for your patience :)