Briarsridge Riding School

Chapter 1

I carefully pulled an EOS lip balm out of my bag and applied it to keep the crisp air from chapping my Florida lips. I stepped inside the immense wooden stable and found the nearest stablehand. She was doing a stall, and smiled at me when I walked up.

"Hi, I'm new here, my name is Scarlett Cooper, do you know where I should put my tack?" She smiled and nodded, leading me upstairs by means of a ramp to a door. Behind it held the most beautiful tack room I have ever seen. Wood paneled walls and nice cement flooring, with easily 60 lockers all big enough for two saddles and bridles, as well as your helmet, tall boots, grooming supplies and saddle pads. In the corner was a high tech laundry system, of which I thought would take me a while to figure out. There was also a full sized fridge filled with water and tea. In a conjoined room, there was a nice bathroom, complete with shower and towel cupboard. I gawked at all of the space. How big was this place?!

"Uh... Do I have an assigned locker? Or can I put my stuff anywhere?" She turned around from looking at a clipboard, and pointed to locker forty-six.

"Alphabetical. Get your rack and things all settled in and then I will show you the horses you can try out based on height and weight. They are all different levels of expertise and control, and there are about four for you to try." She gave me a curt nod and walked out, leaving me to add my tack to the extensive collection. I opened the locker and was stunned again. Carpet covered the bottom, and the two saddle racks gave plenty of room for both my saddles and bridles, which had their assigned hooks as well. I put my show saddle, a dark brown CWD in first, lightly putting the cover on once I had placed it. Then I added my lesson saddle. Lighter, the worn CWD had been through more uses. I then added my stall boots for wet moments, my 11 saddle pads of varying colors, my two bridles, and my grooming bag and helmet. I still had room to spare! The locker's door had a mirror on it, so I looked myself over. My shirt was still clean and pretty crisp, and my breeches and tall boots for lessons were clean as well. Redoing my ponytail, I grabbed my helmet and went on downstairs to the stablehand. She was in a different stall, adding new clean shavings.

When I arrived, she looked up. Stepping out of the stall, she led me over to a large arena.

"Wow! This whole arena is reserved for me?" I was shocked. She shook her head, chuckling.

"Relax kid, it's just a warmup arena." She helped me mount up onto the first horse, a chestnut mare. All of the horses were pre-saddled ad bridled, and I began waking the mare around. The stablehand would call out things for me to do, and I would do them. Half passes, leg yields, extended and collected canter and trot were just the beginning. We also did a good sized course of mainly oxers.

The mare was great, but there was something I just couldn't put my finger on. Then I realized over an oxer that she was a push-button horse. I could just go on auto-pilot when I rode her, and I didn't like that.

So I mounted the next horse, a beautiful steely gray gelding named Gatsby. We worked great together on the flat, but he couldn't jump. I could easily see him as a dressage horse.

The next horse I was I ride was a paint gelding named Casper. He was tense and spooky, and didn't like that I could keep him mostly under control with my legs and contact with the bit. He was not my type of horse. I didn't want to ride a horse that I couldn't feel safe on, so I dismounted and got on the last horse. He was a ginormous black gelding named Kermit. We jumped without doing flatwork upon the stablehand's requests. He jumped like a dream.

When I dismounted, the stablehand took Kermit from me.

"Later tonight, after dinner, the postings for your horse, and your riding colors will be sent to you via email. Your dorm is Stetson hall, and your room is 06 on the first floor. Rules and things should be on your bed when you get there." I thanked her again, and walking back to the tack room, picked up my luggage and put my helmet away. Wow, this school was huge.

Finding Stetson was easy, it was the closest dorm hall to the stable. I opened the main door, and found that the hall entrance was empty. Room 06 was the second closest to the main entrance on the left, and I saw the key taped to my door.

Unlocking the door, I set my bags down ad looked up for the first time. And when I saw the rooms, I nearly fainted.