Chapter Twenty Nine
"How's he doin'?" Matt asks me, patting Rebound on the shoulder. I am sitting in his stall. We just finished icing his legs about an hour ago. Now, he is all poulticed, wrapped, and hoof packed, happily munching on hay in his stall.
"Amazing. God, Matt, I can't believe how brilliant he was today." I stand up and burry him in a hug.
Matt chuckles and I can feel his chest vibrate. "That's awesome, Al. So happy for you."
Right after cross country, April hand walked Rebound for about thirty minutes until we were sure he was cooled out. Then I had an interview with USEF and Horse Illustrated. Not a bad end to the day. I still am not sure how many speed faults I got or what place I am in. Dee and Mark left to go check on my placings and my mom went to go buy me a snack.
GiGi is busying herself by cleaning my tack and April is watching the cross country live feed on her phone. I look up and see Dee and Mark walking my way. They have big grins on their faces. That must be a good sign. A really, really good sign. I smile, not even knowing the news yet.
"So, Ali, curious at all to how you did?" Mark asks me, sitting down in the chair. Dee sits down next to him, taking a big sip from a water bottle. I nod excitedly, but on the inside I was kind of dying. Almost nervous about the fact that this weekend has been way to good to be true.
Dee holds out a printed and updated version of the scores. I snatch it out of her hands. I got 8.4 time penalties, which was as expected because I took some of the longer options. I was not complaining at all. Barely anyone can get around this successfully at their first 4 star. So adding the penalties to my original dressage score of 43.3, my updated score before show jumping is a 51.7, which was absolutely wonderful. My goal after dressage was to get a 60, and to have a 51 after cross country is pretty damn amazing. I dropped one place down, from fourth to fifth, but that didn't upset me one bit. That dang William Fox Pitt beat me out by having a clear cross country run. It is crazy to think that I am just right behind one of the world's best equestrians and one of my biggest idols.
"Shit." I accidentally say out loud.
"What's wrong? Aren't you happy?" Everyone looks at me.
I look up at them, grinning. "That's pretty damn amazing, if I do say so myself."
Everyone laughs, even some people down the aisle.
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Hey guys so I am thinking after this chapter there might be only one or two more. It is crazy to think that the Comeback/Rebound journey is almost over. If anyone ever wants, I might post a short story about Comeback/Rebound, like a prologue, epilogue, or different POV sometime, what do you guys think? But honestly I just want to get this book some with because it is so overdue and I want to share my new book with y'all! Super excited about it!
Thanks for reading.