Maple Stream Riding Academy

Chapter Eleven: Cross Country

        I'm currently in Culinary with Alex, Reagan, Natalie, and Felicity. There's only fifteen people in our class, and there are five kitchen spaces. Today, we pick out kitchen and kitchen groups. The groups have three people in them, so Rea, Alex, and I decide to be a group. We choose kitchen three. I like how the kitchens are organized by colour. The first kitchen is red, the second kitchen yellow. The third kitchen is blue, the fourth is green, and the last one pink. A group of boys chose the pink one. 

        Today we start off simple by baking cookies. Following the cookbooks recipies, Alex, Rea, and I all take turns adding ingredients and mixing. With twenty minutes of class left, we put the cookies in the oven for ten minutes.

        Our culinary teacher, Mrs. Burton, only talked for a few moments to explain where the ingredients are. And they're in cabinets above the counterspace. 

        Ding!

        "Rea, the cookies are done. Want to get them out?" I ask, looking into the stove. They look perfect.

        "Sure," Reagan says, grabbing the oven mitts and carefully pulling the cookies from the oven and putting them on the stove top. We made twelve cookies, so Alex and I make groups of four cookies and put them on paper plates. We take a seat and eat out cookies together.

        "How did the cookies come out, girls?" Mrs. Burton asks.

        "Delicious," Alex says with a full mouth. We all laugh, finish our cookies, and leave as the bell rings. 

        We all rush back to the dorm and change into our uniforms. I race to the barn and get Raquel and my vest. The barn hands must've brought the horses in during last period. I quickly brush her and get her tack on. I put on her maroon saddle pad, her jumping saddle, and her bridle. I also put her black jumping boots on. I don't put her mane or tail in a braid because it bothers her and causes her to perform poorly while she jumps. I lead her to the cross country course where about ten other students are.

        "Wow, not too many cross country students this year. Last year, we had twenty students," the cross country trainer explains. She's on the shorter side, her hair pulled back into a high pony tail. She's wearing tan breeches and riding boots, and she's wearing a Cross Country MSRA jacket. It's blue and has white wording. I lead Raquel next to Maggie and Rea and adjust her stirrups so they don't jangle as she walks.

        "I'm Ms. Holt, your cross country trainer. You guys are obviously here because you have great talent and excellent academic skills. In your hometowns, you may have been seen as advanced riders. Get that out of your mind right now. Here, you are beginners. I will train you guys tips and tricks that will make you succeed in your future of riding," she explains. "Right now, you are going to run the courses three at a time. The cameras on the course will tell me when you reach a certain point, and then I'll send the next person," she says, motioning her hand to the outdoor monitors set up on the wall of the XC judge room."I have all of your names on this clip board," she says, waving the board in the air. " Going down the list, I'll keep sending people. There are co-trainers along the course as well, with clip boards, that will be assessing you. Don't mess up." She speaks into a walkie-talkie saying she's sending the first student. 

        "Cameron Taylor," she says, reading the first name on her board. I pull Raquel's left stirrup back down and ask Maggie for a leg up. I mount and pull into the starting block. "You will be timed. Push yourself and your horse."

        She counts down from ten, and when she says "GO!", Raquel rockets out of the start, faster than I knew she could run. We approach the first jump is a simple table, and Raquel easily clears it. Next is a brush fence, and Raquel clears those too. Theres a sections of multiple corners, and then an uphill bank with a bounce on the top. Three strides after the bounce, theres a downhill bank into water. There's an uphill bank to jump up and out of the water, and theres a long area of grassy hill to run across. Staying low and lifted off pf Raquel's back, I give her maximum movement of her body so she can run faster. There are some more tables, a skinny, and a rock wall that Raquel clears, only barely scraping her hooves on one of the tables. There's a water section we have to run through, and in the center of it, a log we have to jump. There is a trakhner jump that causes slight hesitation, but she clears it just fine. There's another section of flat running land, then a brush jump and a wooden oxer, another table and two skinny jumps, and a final corner. Then we are completed.

        I trot Raquel back to the rest of the students and Maggie and Rea look at me with dropped jaws. "What?" I ask, out of breath. Then I notice everyone staring at me.

        "That was incredible," Ms. Holt says, giving Raquel a pat. Then everyone erupts into applause.

 (A/N So i wrote this page like two days ago, and I'm looking back at it now... You guys have a lot to take in soon. Sucks that only one person is reading this book at the moment...)