Broken Prodigy | COMPLETED ✓

Chapter 4

Georgia leads me to the tack room and heaves a big dressage saddle off a rack with the name Aladdin blue tacked to it. If one thing about this pristine english stables surprises me, it's that they use blue tack for name labels.

"Can you grab the bridle?" Georgia asks me, grabbing an english riding helmet which she puts on her head. She nods to a black hanoverian bridle hanging on a nail which also has Aladdin tacked to it. I nod and grab it, and we head out to behind the stables, where a woman is lunging a big dapple grey warmblood- almost seventeen hands, I would guess- in a round yard. 

The horse is gorgeous. His head sits in an effortless frame, and his legs move so lightly it looks like he's floating.

"Ollie, this is Maya Davison," Georgia gestures to the woman, who smiles and nods. "And this big boy is Aladdin."

The woman stops lunging Aladdin, and brings him into the middle before reaching up and patting him. Georgia opens the round yard gate and we walk in, still carrying the tack we got before. The horse already has a dark green saddle pad on underneath his lunging gear, and Maya unfastens it so that Georgia can put the saddle on.

"Maya is our number one trainer and one of our clients. She specialises in dressage," Georgia explains as I absentmindedly pass her the bridle.

"What she's forgetting to say is that she is my best rider," Maya says, smiling proudly at Georgia, who blushes. "She just doesn't like to admit it. I get her to ride all my horses."

"Wow. So you do dressage, then?" I ask Georgia.

"And showjumping. I would do cross country, but my mother would freak out. She hates that I ride at all. And the idea of me jumping over immobile logs at top speed would probably cause her to have a fit."

I laugh at that, and hold Aladdin whilst they finish saddling him.

Once Aladdin has the saddle and bridle on, and Maya and I have the rest of the lunging equipment, Georgia leads Aladdin out of the round yard, and we follow her back inside the stables after we close the gate. We walk straight to the indoor arena, and I hold it open for Georgia, Aladdin and Maya to walk through before closing it and standing outside.

Maya helps Georgia mount Aladdin, before they ride off and start at a slow walk around the edge of the arena. After a lap of loose rein, Georgia gathers them and pulls Aladdin onto the bit. I've never ridden english, except for a time when Lucy and I attempted to train our horses to jump. It didn't work out very well. 

Out of all the english disciplines, dressage is definitely one of the most confusing to me. It has all these supposedly different moves, but they all look the same. But even with no english riding experience, it's obvious Georgia's an amazing rider. She holds her hands above Aladdin's neck, only checking him ever so slightly, and her position makes it look like she's gliding as they move through different paces.

"That's it," Maya praises her. "Just let him go at his own pace when he does what you want."

As Georgia continues riding, with a few minor instructions from Maya, Maya heads towards me and joins me outside the arena, leaving Georgia to do her own thing. Every move she does is some advanced step, nothing I've ever seen before.

"So, given your completely lost look, I'm guessing you don't do dressage?" Maya says to me.

I chuckle. "I don't do english riding at all. I used to do western."

"Used to?" she asks, curiosity lighting up her expression. 

Just as I'm about to make up some lame excuse, Georgia's panicked, "Woah!" pulls us from our conversation. We look up to see Aladdin jumping away from the other side of the mirror, and he throws Georgia off balance with the sudden movement.