Intangible | Free Rein [Pin]

- Chapter 2 -

When Harper woke up the next morning, it was with exhaustion weighing heavy in her bones, her sleep had been fitful, and it felt as if she had hardly slept at all. There was a searing pain across her head and her muscles ached with the spontaneous exercise she had yesterday.

After she took some painkillers, Harper changed into her burgundy jodhpurs and a white shirt with her denim jacket. Harper took a deep breath and grabbed her full water bottle and her phone, she raced down the stairs and pulled her full-length boots on before she grabbed her keys and left the house before her dad or Miles would try and talk to her.

The lane was bright as she took the quick walk to the stables, once she arrived, she made a beeline for Robin's stable; she unlocked the door and threw her arms around his neck, "morning boy."

As it was fairly early in the morning, there were only a couple of people already in the yard. Harper smiled at them as she walked past to start her morning chores and to take care of Robin, no matter where she was walking, she kept an eye out for Pin. She walked into the feed room and made Robin's breakfast and stuffed a hay-net for the day for him. While he was eating, Harper mucked out his stable and emptied the wheelbarrow once she was done.

By the time she had finished, the other girls had arrived, and the yard was bursting with life. Harper came to the main part of the yard, after she put her wheelbarrow back, and saw that the new trainer was riding Raven. The pony squad was shocked until Mia saw their faces and came over to enlighten them.

"I see you've all met our new trainer, James Forsythe." Mia looked very smug. "he's here to help us win nationals, after Sam decided to become a criminal."

James ignored the comment about Sam and turned to the girls, "pleasure's all mine, and training starts, fifteen minutes ago. Tack your horses but leave them in their stables, be in the arena in five minutes."

Zoe crossed her arms as James walked Robin back to his stable, "well, I'm not training with Mr. Creepy."

"Are you a part of this team or not?" Mia scoffed, "or do you just want all of the attention to yourself, as always."

Harper cut Mia and Zoe off before they could continue bickering, "I need to find Pin, I'm worried about him and he took a huge fall for us."

Mia rounded her attack onto Harper, "he's probably just hoping you'll leave him alone for once, either way, once a criminal, always a criminal."

Before Harper could argue back with Mia and hopefully tear her to pieces, James came back into the yard and told them to get a move on. Harper grabbed Robin's tack and gave Mia a glare as she passed by her, she gave Robin a quick groom before she put his tack on and left it loose enough for being in his stable. She took a deep breath and headed for the arena with her hat on her arm.

Zoe, Susie, Harper and Mia leaned on the fence as they waited for Jade to join them, in front of the girls, James was setting up some kind of course. Harper took her phone out of her pocket and sent Pin another text asking if he was okay. She put her phone away when she saw Jade arrive in a neon green shirt that Becky clearly made for her.

James clapped his hands twice to get their attention, "okay, listen up. Two buckets each, two laps of the arena and two months to get you ready for junior nationals."

"Why don't we have the horses?" Zoe questioned as the team walked towards a pair of buckets each and held them.

"A champion horse needs strength, balance, agility and the ability to follow orders. As does his rider." James explained to them, aiming the last sentence to Zoe, "from now one, the order of importance is me, then your horse, then the buckets, then the fence, and then you."

James blew his whistle and the girls set off for their first lap of the arena. Harper grasped her buckets and started her walk around the arena, at her old stables, this was a type of training that they used to do that everybody hated. Although, they used to use bricks as opposed to water so that the weight could be increased.