“Wow, it’s packed!” Amy observed as she pulled the hunter green Dodge Ram and the new six horse slant load trailer into the Tampa Circuit Horse Show Grounds.
Amy’s best friend Sarah sat in the passenger seat. She turned around to look at Amy’s ten-year-old sister, Michelle, in the back seat.
“Ready for some real competition?” Sarah asked with a smuggled grin on her face.
Michelle shrugged and looked out the window. “I don’t see any real competition, just spoiled brats with push button ponies.” She was only ten, but it was absolute truth, and everyone with eyes knew it.
They stepped out of the truck and inhaled the sweet Tampa air. Filled with the smell of horses and leather. It was each of theirs favorite smell, and if they could bottle it and sell it then they would.
The work had finally payed off. They deserved this, more then anyone but them selves would understand. All the endless hours of working during this year was the only thing that brought them here. None of them were rich, but with experience around horses, they brought in good money, doing just about everything they could to make money in the horse business. From cleaning stalls and tack, to even starting a summer riding camp. They were finally here, and damn did it feel good!
Amy tossed Michelle a lead rope. “Take Mikey out and let him stretch his legs then graze,” She instructed.
Michelle led her dappled gray pony out of the trailer and walked him around. Amy brought out her bay Hanovarian mare, followed by Sarah with her Throughbred gelding.
They walked around for a couple minutes then led the horses back to their home for the next tiresome week.
They unloaded all the tack from the trailer and turned the extra empty stall into a tack room. It wasn’t the best, but it would do.
“Hey Shell, we’re gonna go sign in, can you put maybe three bags of shavings in each of the stalls? We’ll help when we get back.” Sarah asked, but it really wasn’t a question.
Michelle nodded then dragged the heavy bag of shavings over to her pony’s stall. She tore open the bag then spread them around. She was on her second bag as a white Ford with a matching trailer pulled in next to them. She watched carefully as the people exited the truck. There were two young girls, probaly ten and thirteen, and the driver was a plump middle aged woman. Michelle hoped they were nice. She couldn’t stand to have her horses next to snobs for the next week.
“Angel, put Sugar in stall number 40 and Leslie, put Lily in 41, we’ll make the other stall the tack room,” The lady instructed.
“Okay, Carol,” The brunette said as she opened the back of the trailer.
Michelle figured Carol was the trainer.
“Hi, how are you?” The brunette asked sweetly to her new neighbor as she walked by with her pony following closely behind like a puppy.
“Hi, I’m good thanks, you?” Michelle answered then asked.
“I’m fine, are you showing?” The brunette asked.
She sure wasn’t mean, and Michelle was relieved. “Yeah, this is my pony,” She said pointing the gray.
The girl walked her pony into the stall then came back out with the halter. She set it next to the door because there were no hooks.
“That’s cool, my name is Angel, and that’s my sister Leslie and my trainer Carol.”
“My name is Michelle, I’m here with my older sister and her friend.”
“What are you showing in?” Leslie came up and asked.
“I’m in the Pony over fences and under saddle,” Michelle said. “What about you two?”
“Angel is in the pony classes too. I’m doing the 17 & Under Hunter Hack.”
Just then a silver Explorer came and parked next to the trailer. Out came a blonde woman and a blonde boy.
“That’s my mom and my brother Aaron,” Angel said as they walked towards them.
“Hi,” Michelle smiled warmly at the mom.
“Well hello sweetie. I’m glad the girls have someone around their age here.”
Amy and Sarah came back and walked over to Michelle. “All signed up!” Amy said.
“Oh, this is my sister Amy and her friend Sarah,” Michelle introduced them. “This is Angel and Leslie, and her mom and their brother Aaron. Angel is in the same classes as me and Leslie and doing the Hunter Hack.”
“Mom is Nick gonna come and watch us?” Leslie asked.
“Yeah, and he’s bringing AJ, you know how your brother doesn’t like to be around the horses,” She said with a laugh.
“Well we’ve got a lot of settling in to do, so we’ll let you go. Do you guys want to ride together later and go around the property? It’s huge here,” Sarah asked.
“Yeah, that sounds like fun. We’ll be here all day!” Angel was more then happy to have someone to ride with.
They both parted ways.
“That Aaron sure is a cutie,” Amy grinned at Michelle.
“Oh yea,” Michelle said sarcasticly. She wasn’t the boy crazy kind, which wasn’t good because Amy loved to tease her.
“Michelle has a boyfriend, Michelle has a boyfriend!” Amy sang loudly.
Michelle threw a brush at her. “You know what, everyone’s right, I really am more mature then you Amy.”
“You got that right,” Sarah mumbled.
“What was that?” Amy eyed her.
“Oh, nothing,” Sarah chuckled.
“Excuse me, Amy, Carol and I are going to sign them in, will you just keep an eye on them for a little while?” The mom asked. They still didn’t know her name.
“Yup, no problemo!” She said as she picked up the brush that had just been thrown in her direction.
Sarah picked up two buckets and put them in Cody’s stall. She unraveld the hose and filled up the buckets. “Poor guy,” She patted his neck as he drank more then half the bucket. She didn’t realize just how thirsty he was.
When she was done with the hose she handed it to Michelle then to Amy. They finished setting up all the tack and each girl had their own wall for all their junk.
“You guys want to ride now? Because after everyone has to give baths then clean tack so we might as well give the horses some exercise now,” Sarah said to Michelle, Leslie and Angel.
They all nodded then soon the aisle was crowded with five horses of all sizes.
A little Dodge pulled in next to the Explorer.
“Oh, there’s my brother,” Leslie said looking at the car as a tall blonde got out along with another guy with dark hair and lots of tattoos.
Kristen looked over then took a second glance. They weren’t that bad, especially the blonde.
Aaron ran over to them, glad another guy was there. He jumped on his back and Nick carried him back to the barn.
“Hey guys!” Angel smiled.
“Hey whats up gurlys?” AJ said in a fake female voice.
“Oh guys, come here,” Leslie and Angel led them over to the other girls. “This is Michelle, Sarah, and Amy. They’re from—wait, where are you guys from?”
“West Palm Beach,” Amy laughed at her cuteness.
“They’re from West Palm Beach,” Angel continued.
“Cool, nice to meet ya,” AJ shook hands with each of them.
“Hi,” Nick said quietly. He wasn’t much of a talker.
The guys sat down and the girls continued tacking.
Nick watched Amy carefully. She knew how to adjust everything, like she’d done it a hundred times. “She probaly has,” Nick told himself. “If not, more than that.”
As if on purpose they all zipped up their chaps at the same time then giggled. Amy and Michelle lifted the other girls onto their horses.
Amy pulled Trophia up to the tack box and got on.
“You are so lazy!” Michelle accused her sister with a laugh.
“Shut up Shell, you couldn’t even dream about getting on her without a leg up,” Amy hissed as she lengthened her stirrups.
“Are you guys gonna come watch?” Leslie asked.
“Yea,” Nick said as he got up.
They walked out to the rings. All of them were extremely crowded and they weren’t going to take the chance of someone else’s horse flipping out then scaring their’s.
They found a ring with only a couple horses in it. They all started a posting trot. They warmed up for a few minutes and soon “the mom” and Carol came out.
Amy trotted up to the guys. “Wanna be the course designers?” She asked while pulling brown hair into a pony tail and letting her reins droop.
“What do we have to do?” Nick had a look on his face like she was going to work him into the ground.
Amy chuckled. “Just stand by the jumps and I’ll tell you when to raise or lower them, it’s not hard.”
They agreed and walked over to the jumps. “Ok, take that pole and set one end on the ground, then take the other pole and put one side of it up and the other on the ground so it looks like a X.” Amy ordered her sexy servants.
“Thanks,” She said as they stepped back. “Ok, Michelle!” Her loud trainer voice took over. “I want you to do a sitting trot to it and make him wait.”
Michelle nodded then picked up a slow trot towards the small jump. The pony pranced then broke into a canter.
“That was horrible! Do it again, but make him wait! I want you to trot the jump. This time do a posting trot and two strides before the jump stop, then go to it.”
Michelle see-sawed her hyper pony’s head down then trotted to the jump. She sat back and gently pulled the reins. The well trained pony slowed down at her touch and stopped. She squeezed her heels and he jumped it.
“That was so much better, he didn’t drag you over it. This time do a collected posting trot with out stopping, and make him put his head down or I’ll tighten that martingale! Then continue and go over it to your right and make a figure eight.” Amy instructed her, something she was very used to.
Everything came out mumbled to the guys. They had no idea what she was talking about.
Michelle did what Amy told her and she looked great. “Ok now I want you to canter it on your left lead, then make him switch over the jump and land on your right lead.”
Michelle nodded and the pony did everything perfectly. Fifteen minutes and dozens of jumps later Michelle was done. “Just walk him around and let him cool down, and give him a big pat, he was a good boy today.”
Amy picked up a canter and brought her horse over a small vertical. She switched leads and did it again. She jumped the line a couple more times then went up to the guys. “Will you bring it up five holes?”
A few minutes later the jump was a lot higher. Amy mentaly mesasured the jump to be four feet high. She squeezed Trophia towards it and the horse cleared it with no problem.
Nick watched the horse fly through the air in front of his face. “Wow...” He whispered to himself.
“Wow, that girl can ride,” Carol told “the mom”.
“She sure can. I wonder what classes she’s in,” The mom pondered.
“Excuse me, Sarah, do you know what classes Amy is scheduled for?” Carol asked as she walked by on Cody.
“Yeah, she always goes in the Four Foot Open Jumper Classic.”
“Can you raise all of them?” Amy asked to Nick and AJ. She didn’t even bother Aaron. The jumps were all over his head.
“Yeah, sure,” They said easily. Watching her jump was thrilling.
Amy was the only one still riding. Everyone else stood by the gate anxiously waiting to watch her course.
Once all the jumps were raised she made a course in her head and repeated it several times. She started with the big plank then took jumps in which way they’d never seen before. Any jump in any direction, she jumped it. Her course had ten jumps and she cleared all of them.
She let Trophia walk for a while and went over to everyone. “Jump off time!!” She said with a devilish grin.
“Don’t mind her,” Sarah said. “She has no fear!”
Amy made up another course. This one only had six jumps. She picked up a canter then went over the first jump. After that her canter turned into a gallop and she flew over the fences, leaving dust in the air. She did impossible turns and jumped almost all the jumps at an angle, switching leads and pushing the horse faster. She sped over the last fence then galloped around the ring. She slowed her down and trotted over to everyone. “Was that bad? Too slow?”
“That was great, no faults! Thirty seconds! Record time!” Sarah looked at her stop watch that she started over the first jump.
“Good girl!!” She hugged her horse’s neck. “Is everyone done for today?”
“Yeah. That was a really good ride, everyone,” Carol said.
They all walked back to the barn and untacked their sweaty horses.
They hosed them off then put them back in the stalls.
“Wow, did you hear that?” Sarah asked while rubbing her saddle down with leather oil.
“No, what?” AJ asked.
“That was my stomach screaming “Feed Me!!!”
“Oooh food...” Michelle smiled like she was in another world.
“We’ll eat as soon as we check in at the hotel. But we need to put our stuff away and feed first.” Amy was always cracking jokes and making people laugh, but when things needed to be done she took care of them, and her horse came first.
They carried the rest of the tack and their show clothes into the tack room. Amy hefted the fifty pound bag of sweet feed over her shoulder and brought it in.
“Let me get that!” Nick hopped up and went to her.
“No, it’s ok, but you can get the other bag out of the back of the truck if you’d like,” Amy was used to carrying these types of things.
Nick and AJ went to the back of the truck. Nick lifted the bag of pellets. It was a lot heavier then it looked, but being the macho man he is he picked it up. AJ slid his fingers under the twine on the hay and carried it in the tack room.
“Thanks guys,” Sarah said as she and Amy walked by with the two other bales.
“Michelle, fill all the buckets, Sarah pick the stalls and I’ll feed,” Amy said as she walked into the tack room and picked up three small buckets. She filled them with their usual meals, then added their vitamins and as a special treat and almost a bribery for them to be good tomorrow she put in the pieces of carrots for each of them.
She left the buckets in the room and gave Cody and Mikey four flakes of hay and then gave Trophia five because she’s bigger.
While they were chewing on the hay she dumped their dinners into the buckets. All the stalls were clean, they had food and water. She swept in front of the stalls the locked all the tack boxes. Then she put a padlock on the tack room door.
“Well we’re gonna get going. It was nice meeting all of you. We’ll be here by six tomorrow morning.”
“It was nice meeting you girls, be careful,” The mom said.
“Bye,” They all smiled then unhitched the trailer and left.
That's all I have for this story. If you like it then join my listbot on my main page and I will email you when it's updated. ~*~Amy~*~
