Beauty & The Bull Rider

Chapter8 Girls + Girls = A Broken Spirit

As I rode Ash into the arena, I saw the pole set up in the middle of the ring. Amy and all of her friends that I mad met the first day were warming up on the rail. I put Ash through her gaits for about 10 minutes. I saw a black haired figure walk into the ring out of the corner of my eye. I slowed Ash from a lope to a walk and turned to look at the figure.

My eyes went wide and my heart skipped a beat as Fallon Taylor smiled and waved at me. Ash turned her body into my leg, which was pushed into her side since I was turned around. My mouth hung wide open and Fallon chuckled. "Let's get started girls," she yelled.

Fallon had us all line up in front of her and she had us all say our names. "Okay girls," she smiled. "Right now, we'll do some poles," "I want each of you to go individually and then I want the rest of you to critique that persons run," She pointed to the red headed girl on the end. "You can start, Georgia," Georgia turned her strawberry roan gelding in a circle and then let him blow up toward the poles.

Her legs wildly shook as she clung to the saddle horn. Her horse was obviously an automatic trained horse, since it twisted around the poles gracefully as Georgia swung around wildly in the saddle. She grabbed her left rein and jerked on it at the last pole. The roan galloped home as Georgia kicked and kissed at it.

She came to a sliding stop and took her place in line. "How do you girls think that Georgia could have made her run better," Fallon asked. Amy raised her chin. "She could have not let her legs flop all over the place, she could be more soft with her hands during the turns, she also could have not let the horse be so automatic and at least been in control," Amy sneered at Georgia, whose face was redder that a watermelon.

I glanced at Fallon, who had wide eyes at Amy's in-depth critique. "Okay," she said slowly. "I will give you all two runs to improve yourselves," She nodded at Georgia. "You can try again," "And keep Amy's points in mind,"  I sighed as Amy giggled at Georgia.

                                                               ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Georgia and five other girls, including Hannah, Ashley and a girl named Sarah, took their runs. Amy had at least two faults that she pointed out in each run. I picked up on Fallon's aggravation with Amy when she had pointed out that Ashley needed to "Learn to ride" before she came to a rodeo camp. "Amy, you can go ahead and take your run," Fallon said to her.

She smiled. "Watch and learn girls," she flipped her straight, shiny blond hair at us. She took her quirt off of her saddle horn and slapped her horse in the rear. The gray that she was riding took a rearing leap into a full-out gallop. 

She got halfway through the poles and suddenly she jerked her rein. Her horse, startled by this action shied away from the next pole and tripped over his foot. She yelled curses at the horse and kicked him past the pole. He trotted slowly back through the poles. Amy took out her quirt again and whipped the gray's haunches as she turned for home.

At that point, the gray was beyond upset. The horse crow-hopped and bucked Amy to a pulp. Her petite frame was soon thrown to the ground. We were all quiet as we watched her. She laid there for a few seconds, then got up and stomped over to her horse. she jerked the reins and made him back up. She got back on and rode back to our line.

No one dared to say anything about her run. After I ran my pole runs with almost perfect scores, Fallon set up the barrels. We all took turns on barrels just like we had did with poles. Hannah ran the fastest run. Amy was still tense and angry from her fall, her horse picked up on it and didn't perform any better than before.

After the class was over, I looked around the stable block for Amy. I finally found her putting her tack in her trunk. I cautiously approached her. "Amy," I said as I wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans. She turned quickly. "What," she snapped. "I'm sorry you fell off today," I said quietly. She rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she turned and began briskly walking away. She slowed down and stopped. She turned and walked back to me. 

She shifted her weight to one foot and crossed her arms. "Stay away from Fisher," her words dripped with venom. "He only likes girls who are pretty,"   I stopped thinking about what I was going to say. She smirked and walked away. I felt my face heat up and big tears well up in my eyes. I turned and ran back to Ash's stall.

I could hardly see where I was going or who saw me. I threw my arms around Ash's neck and the tears came rushing down my cheeks. The only thing I was sure of at that moment, was that, girls are mean, I love my horse and my spirit was broken. Bad.