I sat astride my gorgeous 16.2hh blue roan paint Gelding. We were lined up beside my best friend (and adopted brother) and his Palomino pinto thoroughbred Gelding Merlo, he stood at 16 hands.
"Ready?" Trent challenged with a smirk.
"You bet" I grinned in response as we both asked our horses to move forward by clicking our tongue and lightly tapping them with our heels, they immediately picked up a canter.
We were doing our weekly race around our home cross country course, it was at a great enough standard for an experienced horse show but we only used it to practice and as leisure, our ranch was a very good riding facility with all sorts of courses, a large stables, pastures, round yards and a couple of great trails. It was all privately owned by my mother. We did board a few other horses but it was mostly just our personal horses.
Bandit and I finished around 10 metres ahead of Trent and Merlo.
"You two get better all the time" cheered one of our boarders from the entrance of the field.
"Thanks Josh. But we owe it to Bandit and Merlo, they put all they have into whatever we ask, they're our team. You and Cobalt will get there soon" I encouraged as Trent and I rode out of the field.
We rode towards one of our trails, this one came out onto the property of one of our best friends Haley and halfway through it was a hidden meadow that we had dubbed the meeting meadow which is where we would meet up and hang out most days.
We stayed at a walk until the last few minutes which we raced, I held Bandit back but gave him his head in the last minute and we won by a head. I gave him a pat on his neck and dismounted, taking his tack off to let him graze without any restraint. Soon enough Haley and Seth, joined us on their horses Rusty and Vanity they too let the horses graze then came to sit on the logs with us.
"What was it you wanted to show us?" I asked referring to a text Haley had sent me earlier today.
Without speaking she handed me a brochure and watched me closely for a reaction as I looked through it.
It was a brochure for a top of the line equestrian school that was opening six hours away. Falls Lake Equestrian High was a boarding school and Equestrian school in one it was for high school students who had a passion for horses and wanted to further their riding abilities. The school was ran by an Equestrian Olympic Champion by the name of James Young. Most of the riding instructors where also champions or very highly respected trainers but amongst them where your ordinary high school teachers.
The school was expecting to have a lot of interest so were holding riding tryouts both English and Western style as they offered both disciplines. Only the best 300 riders would be accepted.
To attend would cost $35,000 a year if you were to board there with your horse or $25,000 if you were to live and board elsewhere but still attend the school.
The brochure included many photos of the school and horse facilities it also had a website on the back page for more information.
"It looks pretty good" I shrugged and handed it to Trent.
"It's cool" Trent said and handed it back to Haley once he read it.
"Good? Cool? Oh come on I can tell you love the look of it! You've got to try out" Haley urged.
"They're only accepting 300 riders" I reminded.
"You and Trent are the best English riders around, and you're pretty great at western too. I think that you both have a good shot at getting in" Seth said.
"Ok so if Mum agrees we'll try out, but only if you and Haley do too" I responded.
"All of you have a good shot in both styles but my English isn't as good. I'm behind you in the show circuit you're all top 5 riders and I'm number 8" Seth said.
"But your western skills are amazing and your English is improving really well and rather quickly. I think if we practice every day for the next 2 weeks we'll all have a shot at getting in" Trent encouraged.
"Trent's right, you're 8th in English but first in western. You've got a shot" Haley agreed.
"Ok, I can only try" He nodded.
"Great, let's go ask Mum, we shouldn't get worked up over tryouts if she won't let us go" I noted.