Mossy Hill Academy~ The Competition

Chapter 9

"Wake up girls! It's show day!" Mrs Maple yells at us from outside, it's currently five am. Too early, way too early.
It's lucky that we are all using official Mossy Hill Academy tack today, it's all shiny and new, and Weslow can still compete.
Sue and Katrina weren't happy about that.
I still have to get Jack ready this morning, in case we need to compete, though I doubt we will. The competition is at the Mt Spring Equestrian Centre, the Olympics were held there a few years ago.
As I put my hair into a low bun, and slip into the Mossy Hill Academy riding uniform I think of how Sue and Katrina wanted me in the competition, but why? Perhaps they would have then sabotaged me, hurting Jack.
The doctors cleared me to ride today, but I'm still on my pain medication for my leg. Once I'm happy that I look perfect I head outside to see Jack. I'll need to braid his mane, and brush his coat until it's so shiny it's blinding. First I load his tack into the ute, and then I see Jack.
He's all muddy and his mane is matted. I swear I left him in his stall, ready for today. In the corner of my eye I see Payton smirking at me, this is her doing. At least I'm only an emergency, but I still need to get Jack ready.
Working like a machine is how you would describe my mode, my hand goes up and down Jacks muddy legs with a sponge and hose.
Mrs Maple comes in and helps me, though I get a lecture for letting him out in the field, but I just apologise. There's nothing I can do anyway, and I may as well take the blame, she'll never believe me anyway.
After forty five minutes of scrubbing and brushing Jack is finally ready to have his mane braided, Mrs Maple leaves me to braid, and I quickly set to work. My fingers cramping up I'm going that fast, and the braids are so tiny.
Once he's done I clip my Mossy Hill Academy lead rope to his special Mossy Hill Academy halter. It's purple with the words Mossy Hill Academy printed on the top. All riders are required to wear the correct uniform, or we cannot compete.
As soon as he's floated I hear a shriek, coming from the stables, so I rush over there. It's Katrina, and she's fuming mad. Her beautiful white Arabian, Pirax, is all muddy as well. It seems that she forgot to lock her up too.
It seems hilarious, this is karma.
I walk over to Weslow and we have a small laugh together, and then she admits to leaving her door open and locking Pirax outside.
"I've decided that Katrina and her gang aren't going to control me anymore, we will always be friends. I'm sorry for letting them manipulate me, I'm a horrible friend."
I smile at her, "aren't we all?"
We sit next to each other in the Mossy Hill Academy ute, five people are in each car, and we are towing our horses.
The ride there is actually quite nerve racking, Weslow and I can't stop talking about how excited we are. That's when Mrs Maple gets a call, she shuts off the radio and tells us to be quiet.
"Hello, Mrs Maple speaking. Oh really, that's terrible! Yes, we have a spare rider, we can put her on the team, thankyou sir."
When she hops off the phone she looks at us, Zelie Grill, you are going to be on the team. Not our competing team, but the team that will help riders on the course if they fall off."
"Okay, so what do I do?" I ask, still unsure of what she means.
"You will be riding around the course, making sure it's safe, and that if anyone falls off they're okay."
"So I just make sure everyone and everything is safe?" I confirm.
"Yes, as soon as we get there, report to a man called Mr Jenkins, he will show you where to go."
I nod my head, at least I won't just be sitting down at the stands all day, and now Jack will get some exercise too.
When we get there the place is packed, horses and riders are everywhere. The place is so fancy, but I don't feel out of place, because only the best and most prestigious riding academy's get to compete. Mrs Maple points out Mr Jenkins to me, and I walk over there, our stable hands are taking our horses to their stalls.
"Hi, I'm Zelie form Mossy Hill Academy." I tell him.
"Hi there Zelie, I'm mr Jenkins, and I'll help you with where you're supposed to go. If you could get your horse and meet the rest of the safety team on the side of the water jump, that would be dandy."
"Sure, I'll get him now." I smile at him and then leave to get Jack. On the side of the Mossy Hill Academy horse floats are the horses number and stall number.
Jacks in stall 69 in the East wing, these stables are five star and massive. Olympic horses only deserve the best of the best, but so does my Jack.
By the time I've walked everywhere, gotten lost multiple times, and tripped over even more I find Jack. His braids are still in place, and he looks stunning.
"Are you ready to go, boy?" I ask
He snorts and stamps his foot, eager to get out into the fresh air.
"Let's go then." I lead him to our allocated cross ties and start to brush him again, he needs to look perfect.
Once he's tacked up I lead him out of this maze, and on the way out I see a sign with a map and directions to each wing. Great, that would have been handy a little while ago.
Once we get outside I mount Jack and head over to the water jump, and there's already a few other students waiting there.
As I get there Mr Jenkins is coming up to us, "great, everyone is here, let's go."
He motions for us to follow him, and he walks us around the course. There's six of us in total, myself, two girls from Crimson Creek, a boy from Harper Crest, and a girl and boy from Stone Henge. A few of the many schools competing.
Mr Jenkins gives us reflective vests with the competition logo on them, and puts us in pairs, and I'm with the boy from Harper Crest Academy, his name is Bradyn.
We are assigned to the last part of the course, when they have to jump the bush jump, then sprint it out to the end.
"Hey I'm Bradyn." He introduces himself, and gives me his hand to shake.
"Hi, I'm Zelie, from Mossy Hill Academy."
"I'm from Harper Crest Academy."
I shake his hand, and we take our horses over the last jump in the course, taking turns saying one thing about ourselves when we jump.
He goes first.
"My favourite colour is purple."
I smile at that, purple.
"My aunt owns the academy."
"My horse is a quarter horse."
"I have a thoroughbred."
"My horse is Merlin."
"This is Jack."
Once we've done that much we are told the competition is about to start, so we back off to the sidelines, and wait for the announcement saying who is first up.
"Competitor number one is Rosalie Kirk, from Blossom creek Academy, riding CrackerJack." The announcer announces.
The siren goes off, signalling her starting, and we wait anxiously for her to come past. On a small makeshift television we see her going through the course, and she's pretty good. She glides over the first few jumps, but she doesn't count her strides properly and misjudges her next jump. CrackerJack awkwardly makes it over, but she'll lose points for that.
She soon comes up to our part, her time is just over a few minutes, and her face is set in stone after the mishap with her strides. Luckily she makes it past this last jump and sprints it out to the end.
That horse is really talented, way better than his rider.
A few more riders take the course, then comes Weslow.
"Competitor 23, Weslow Henston from Mossy Hill Academy, riding Ghost."
I'm so nervous for Weslow, this course is pretty hard, even for advanced riders. The siren buzzes, and her and Ghost storm down the course, clearing almost every jump with ease, almost. At the water jump Ghost hesitates for a split second, causing their timing to be slightly off. They still clear the jump, and they are fast approaching the end. They almost the fastest time so far, and they fly over the jump in front of us, and she shoots me a quick smile. Ghost pushes until the end, and they cross the line with a great time.
"Weslow and Ghost, second place."
They lost some time on the sprint to the finish line, but her jumping was great. I quickly trot Jack over to Weslow and Ghost, quickly telling Bradyn that I will be back promptly.
"Wow, that was a great run Weslow." I pat ghost, congratulating her too.
"Thanks-Zelie." She's panting hard from her run.
My phone starts to spastically buzz from a spastic attack. Like when you get a million messages from a group chat that you haven't been on for a while. It's actually mum ringing though, so I answer my phone.
"Hello Zelie Grill Speaking,"
"Zelie it's mum here, you're needed to jump the course as one of our riders just fell while practising."
"I haven't ever done the course though!" I protest.
"I know, but I know you can do it."
"What about the safety team?" I ask
"I've already told Mr Jenkins, he said Bradyn can manage perfectly fine on his own."
I sigh, knowing that my team needs me to even compete at all.
"Alright, where do I meet you?"

I am instructed to trot Jack over to the starting line, that will have to suffice as his warmup. The course is simple, I have to jump over the gate, turn right at the tree and jump the wall and rail, then the post and plank straight after that, then there's the triple bars after a tight left turn, the wall, the water jump is a full u-turn after that, and the brush and rails is straight ahead, finally it's a sprint to the finish. Simple, right?
No, not at all.
"Competitor number 25, Zelie Grill from Mossy Hill Academy, riding Jack."
I'm so nervous, I wasn't even supposed to be jumping today, and here I am, waiting for the starting siren.
Jack isn't startled by the siren at all, which is lucky, I saw a girl one year whose horse bolted at the sound of it and dumped her in the dam. Unlucky.
We head straight to the gate, clearing it, the easiest jump in the course. We turn right at the tree, just missing the actual tree, and face the wall and rail jump, I count our strides to the jump, and Jack jumps extra high, and we once again make the jump. Why couldn't he have been this good on the try out day?! We go straight to the post and planks, Jack nicks the pole with his hooves, but the pole remains up.
I breathe a sigh of relief. I lose my concentration for a split second, and we almost don't make the turn left. Saying that it's a tight turn is an understatement, it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. We jump the wall quite easily, and make the u-turn to the water jump. I'm nervous for this jump, I've never jumped Jack over one of these before.
He senses my nervousness, and I can tell I've stiffened up, so I try to relax, or we won't make it at all.
"Come on Jack, we can do this." I tell him.
I hope he jumps extra big, so we can make it. I close my eyes for a split second, and we end up making it over. We will have lost a couple of points for that jump, it was very sloppy, but we've done well so far. As we approach the last jump Jack seems to pick up his gait, going faster, and we're going too fast for this jump. Yet I don't try to slow him down, I know we can make it. He snorts as if this jump is easy, and we clear the brush and rails, and while I'm passing Bradyn he shoots me a thumbs up, and I smile back. Jack is panting hard, but I know we need to beat Weslow's time of three minutes point zero three, to place second. We pass the finish line, our time and score flashes up ahead on the podium.
We've done it, we made it second place, pushing Weslow down to third.
James comes in first in his division, and we all receive medals, and Mrs Maple takes a photo of us, and it's going in the newspaper.
We're all huddled up under our team tent, waiting for the team announcement. I think our team has a petty good chance at placing, as most of us placed as individuals.
"Ladies and gentlemen, our team results are in: third place is Blossom Creek Academy, second place is Mossy Hill Academy, and first place is Harper Crest Academy. Could the riders competing for those teams please com up and collect the shields.
I head up to the podium with James, Katrina and Weslow. We are handed a silver shield with our named and our horses names on it. The Mossy Hill Academy logo in the corner.
Mrs Maple gets a flag, saying that we came second in this competition, and for once, I'm extremely happy.
We stand there smiling for out picture in the paper, I'm next to James, he's holding my hand up, and I'm holding Weslow's up.
We're all so proud, and so happy. Not even Sue can ruin this, wait, where is she?