Collide - Matthew Espinosa Fanfiction

26 | Eyes on the Prize

JESSICA'S POV:

"Hello. I'm with the U.S. Equestrian Federation, and your horse has been selected for testing." The man says. I don't know what to think. My mind is running around and I can't seem to form a sentence.

"O-okay. Thank you," I said and walked away back to the barn where my instructor was.

"What's testing?" Matt asked.

"Drug testing. Someone must have told them that they thought Boss had something in his system." I said walking faster.

"I need a one day lease" I said when I saw my instructor.

"Already ahead of you," she had a horse tacked up.

"This is such a mess," I shook my head.

"Come on let's go try this horse up in the ring, you have a while until your first class." Robin said walking up with me. Grabbing the reins, I led the horse over to the mounting block and hopped on. This horse was a little bigger than Boss, but skinnier.

"Ok canter around a lap in both directions to get a feel, then jump over this in each direction." She said, setting the jump to a good height. I picked up my right lead canter and his canter is bumpier than Boss, but it's doable. After a lap we switched directions, he has a good flying lead. Next we headed towards the jump; one, two, three I counted the strides in my head. We soared over the jump and I could feel him trying to go faster. I sat deeper in the saddle, half halted, he got the idea and went back to the pace we had before. After swinging back to the jump we did a few others and I felt pretty comfortable with him.

"Good job, I know he's no Boss, but you did well. How do you feel?"

"Good."

"Great, walk him around and then bring him back to the barn when you're done."

Nothing like getting told that your horse is being tested for drugs and you have to take a chance with a new horse at five in the morning. Note the sarcasm.

"You and the horse looked good out there," Matt said.

"Thank you," I smiled. Matt decided that he wanted to be a "horse person" and led the horse and I back to the barn, except he walked us back to the wrong barn. When we got back to the right barn, Boss was standing in the middle of the aisle while people were using weird high tech devices.

"You should ask them how much longer this will take, maybe you will be able to ride Boss instead of this horse. We don't even know what its name is," Matt whispered.

"I don't want interrupt them, you know?" I turned to look at him, but Matt was already walking over to the man.

"Hey Dr. Fat?"

Did he just...

"It's pronounced Fatté," the man sighed.

"Oh so like Fatty, but Italian."

Oh my god.

"Matt!" I walked over and tried to stop this train wreck. "I'm so sorry about him. Umm I was just wondering when all this testing would be finished," hoping he wasn't too insulted by Matt's pronunciation.

"I do not have an exact time that we will finish, but it shouldn't be too much longer."

"Thank you very much, I appreciate it."

"Bye Dr. Fat-" I put my hand over Matt's mouth before he could finish the sentence and dragged him away.

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