Briarsridge Riding School

Chapter 7

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I finished braiding Gatsby's thick mane, trying my best not to explode. Every person in the world seemed crammed inside the stable. I had polished all of my tack and Brandon let me borrow some navy blue polos. I had black Kerrits and my Mountain Horse show boots on, complementing nicely a hunter green polo shirt. Kermit was already done and tacked up, looking spectacular. I closed Gatsby's stall, and walked over to Kermit's.

My beautiful boy was shining in his stall. I took the bridle and my helmet from the hook, and then bridled Kermit. I led him outside, and let Kermit graze while I looked for a warmup arena. The smaller arenas were all empty except for like two people in each, so not that bad. I chose one close to speakers so I could hear when my name was called. Pinning my number to my horse's bridle, I mounted and walked in.

In the centre of the arena was a trainer who was handing out tips to the girls. I quietly pushed Kermit into a nice trot, and he extended his long legs to their full extent. I sat the trot, then posted without my stirrups for a good long time. He moved smoothly into a canter when I asked him, picking my stirrups back up. We cantered over the few small schooling jumps over on the side of the arena. They were only about 2'0, and Kermit cleared them easily. I patted him and headed over to the show jumping arena with 10 minutes to spare before my round. I watched the first five riders, as I was going sixth, get almost perfect rounds, only two riders getting time faults or knocking poles. I gulped as my name was called. Here I go.

I waited for the bell, so when I heard the dull BRIIIING of the starting bell, we were ready. We hand-galloped towards the first jump, a three-foot high brush box. He jumped it perfectly, and I rose and fell into postotion with him. We did a tight turn and came back around to a line with four strides in between the 2'9 rolltop and the 3'0 vertical. We leapt over the next few jumps, and finished out with a crossbar, the middle reaching 3'3. Eek. We hadn't jumped this high before. We took off a little early, and landed a little early as well. But, we didn't knock a rail. And he didn't buck me off. We had done it! Then I looked up on the scoreboard and nearly passed out.