Literally just a bunch of stuff that I doubt I'll continue

Circus

The big top was filled with the sound of joyous shouts and wild applause.

I basked in the light of the ring, XXXX, my eight year old Irish Sporthorse stood beside me, her black coat shimmering in the light.

Her ears flickered around as the noise continued.

I glanced over at my best friend, Parker James, three years older than me, Parker had run away to join the circus when he was fourteen.

Now he was twenty and I was seventeen.

Unlike Parker, I was born into the circus, my parents were acrobats, by my love of horses was strong from the beginning.

I glanced around at the rest of the crew, Maxi, the crazy clown, with her bright makeup and pranks. Glen, the elephant trainer, with his gorgeous elephant Epri, and his daughter Alice, who was sat proudly on Epri, grinning at the crowd.
She was only just twenty, born into the business like myself, she was talented and beautiful and she'd caught Parker's eye the minute they met.

James, the man with the three Irish wolfhounds that did tricks beyond what one thought was possible for such a dog.

Stacy, Davina and Rebecca, the fiery acrobats that worked side by side with my parents.

Alex and Hamish, the power couple who could bring any emotion to the crowd with their magic performances.

And of course old Johnny Day and his twins Stevie and Adam. In their early thirties, Adam would soon take over his fathers role as ring master, but there was a little discrepancy over wether Adam would take the role or give it to Stevie.

And as I look around at the family we've built, I smile, how could you not? There in the ring, euphoria running high after a successful show. It never gets old.

•••

The next morning I'm up bright and early, exercising XXXX before helping to pack up.

Last night was our last show in Melbourne.
Soon we'd move down south and over the next three weeks we'd power through shows every night until we reached XXX where we'd give a few shows before moving on to XXXX.

As I'm barebacking XXXX over some sixty centimetre jumps, Parker comes running over, "hey Ari! Johnny says you gotta bring her in now, we're moving off early, there's a big storm due to hit here soon and we wanna get goin before it does". He climbs up on the fence and vaults on behind me as I canter XXXX past. I urge her on and he hauls himself up to stand behind me as we bolt around the huge park.

He slides back down and laughs. Behind me.

It's as I'm pulling XXXX back to a slow, collected canter and then straight to a walk that I realise we've attracted a crowd.

There's people taking photos and videos and I smile at them as we walk past.

It's a little odd, so many people attracted by such a simple action, something we've done a million times, our way of closing the show I guess.
But then, the show isn't normally held in the middle of such a busy city, we're normally put on football fields or paddocks on more the outskirts of town.

Suddenly XXXX stops as a little girl runs up to her, her frantic mother yelling after her.

The girl, small with curly blonde hair and exotic green eyes giggles as I give XXXX the rein and she takes it all to nuzzle the girl.
"Mummy look", the girl reaches up to stroke XXXX nose but is yanked away by her mother.

"Izzy what have I told you, you don't run away like that", the girl begins to cry.

"Hey it's ok, I know, how about a pony ride", I smile down at the sweet girl.
Her mother looks alarmed but I assure her that XXXX, although incredibly large in size, is immensely well educated and that we hold a trust for each other rivalled by few.

This gets her a reluctant agreement and I hand my helmet to the girl as her mother lifts her up to me on the horse.

I hand the giggling child the reins and off we go. We lap a couple circles before coming back to her mother.

I bring the mare to a halt and carefully stand up behind the girl.

"Hey Izzy, would you like to do a trick with me?"
She looks up, nodding eagerly.

I help her wiggle back and hop infront of her, standing lithely on the mares broad shoulders.

I lift Izzy up and place her on the mares rump.
I get her to turn around and face XXXX tail.

We both extend our arms with a smile and cameras flash everywhere.

I help the girl slide down from XXXX rump into the waiting arms of her mother and take back my helmet before cantering back in after Parker who managed to slip away already.

I get back in and hurrily rug XXXX, putting on her travel hood, tail bag and float boots.