Kinswood Academy: Dressage Queen

Chapter 1:

My heart was pumping, sweat rolling down the back of my neck.

This was it

Gold was in our grasp

It was so close I felt like I could reach out and touch it with my fingertips.

The gorgeous bay gelding move seamlessly beneath me saddle.

Valegro

A final passage down centreline was all that separated us from the Olympic gold medal

I sat back and cued Valegro down from a working trot

The sun shone down brightly on both of us and I could practically hear the announcer as he commentated from high above the stands of millions.

" A match made in heaven "

Valegro was my heaven

We halted on centre line and-

" Earth to Isla! "

My eyes snapped open and my daydream cloud faded, revealing that I was not in fact at the Olympics, on the horse of my dreams, but instead in a hot, dry arena with five other riders, on top of an 18 year old flea bitten grey mare instead of the king of dressage.

I looked to my right to see my best friend Stacy.

" ...What? " I shrugged as I played with my reins.

Stacy rolled her eyes. " You were dreaming about Valegro again weren't you? " she asked as if it were obvious.

I avoided her gaze as I watched another rider in our lesson finish up her dressage test. " ...No...It was about Valegro...and the Olympics "

I could tell Stacy rolled her eyes again, but she didn't reply to my embarrassing explanation, because our coach, Madame. Dubois turned to address us, and the other 3 riders lined up beside us.

" ...Any critique for Miss Valentina? " She crossed her arms as her eyes landed on me. It was scary how she could always tell when one of us hadn't been saying attention.

Tracy Valentina, self appointed queen bee of Elite Dressage Stables, gave me a smug smirk.

" ...Um...I...well...she " I sighed in defeat.

Another rider, Lisa Essex, raised her hand and Dubois changed her gaze to her.

" Prince was too tense, almost like Tracy was holding him back too much, not letting him stretch out when he needed to... "

Tracy rolled her eyes. " Thats a load of- "

" Miss Valentina! " Dubois scolded. " Lisa has a point, you do not let Prince extend himself, look at him, he's sweating much more than he should for a horse of his fitness... "

Tracy took a quick glance at her pedigreed black dutch warmblood. " ...But Madame, I have to hold Prince back! If I don't he'll run out on me! "

I had to stop myself from scoffing. Tracy would never be satisfied with any of the hundred thousand dollar horses in her parents collection, she would always find a way to pin her flaws on them. I felt sorry for them. 

" Even if that is the case, I expect you to work with Prince on compromise. The judges will not be so forgiving about scores as I am... " When Dubois turned away, Tracy rolled her eyes and kicked Prince forward, her Stübben Wide Rowel Spurs digging into the poor geldings sides. With a pained grunt, prince stumbled forward.

" As for the rest of you, remember that this summer will be full of shows and I expect nothing but the best... "

" For those of us that aren't bailing on Elite... " I heard Tracy add as she met my eye, making the other girls besides Stacy giggle.

" Thats enough! " Dubois snapped. " Isla has been given a wonderful opportunity, and I expect her teammates to support her, not hinder her! " she walked out of the arena. " Cool out...Isla, meet me in my office after you're finished with Baroness please... "

Our group disbanded quickly, and while the other girls left the arena the minute they were sure Dubois was out of sight, Stacy and I actually stayed to cool our horses.

Baroness was sluggish underneath me. I never got along with mares, I much preferred to ride geldings, or even stallions, but mares and I just never clicked and Baroness was no different. She was Dubois retired competition horse, now only used for lessons. She was lazy and I had to work 10 times as much as the other girls just to get a decent performance out of her. In the years that I had been riding her, I could still never figure out how she was a runner up at the world championship.

Unlike Baroness, Stacy's dark bay trakehner mare Bliss moved swiftly and with purpose, even though the lesson was over.

" ...Don't let Tracy and her minions get to you...they're just jealous about you getting into Kinswood... "

I took a sharp breath at the mention of Kinswood Academy. Kinswood was known for being one of the best equestrian based boarding schools in the whole country. They were so prestigious that they had three separate equestrian programs, one for dressage, one for show-jumping and one for eventing. I had fallen in love with the academy after accidentally stumbling over their website while looking for Dressage horses for sale. After I had seen what their past students had gone on to achieve i.e. Olympic glory, I was hooked. The only problem was that I had ridden Bliss in my application video for the Dressage program, now I only had the summer to find my own horse to take with me. Finding horses wasn't the problem, my parents owned a warmblood breeding facility a few miles north of New York City, my home, but finding the horse, one that I clicked with, one that understood me, was the problem. I had tried dozens of different horses growing up both at Elite and my parents stable, but none so far had clicked. Now I was a summer away from going to my dream school and it seemed like lazy, senior Baroness was my only option, if Dubois would let me take her. I would never be able to keep up with the best Dressage riders from around the world on Baroness, and from what I could see from Kinswoods website, Baroness would probably drop dead from the work that was expected from each rider in the program. 

I halted Baroness and dismounted. It was just another reason that I wished Valegro was mine. The 2 time Olympic champion was my dream horse and even though I never actually met him in person, somehow I felt this connection to him. Watching him and Charlotte Dujardin preform on tv was what had inspired me to get serious about Dressage a few years ago and I never looked back, but I also knew that he would never be mine, no matter how much I wished, how much I dreamed.

Valegro wasn't destined to be mine.