Gen 7 Chapter 4

The summer was drawing to a close and I’ll admit I was a little sad. I had been riding almost every day these past few months and I just wasn’t ready for that to come to an end. I still had a long way to go, but at the same time I was doing a lot better than the first time I had hopped up into the saddle. “Howdy there stranger!” said a voice from behind me. “What are you doing here? I thought you and your Mom went out of town for a horse show?” I replied back, surprised to see Chelsea here.Chelsea explained that her Mom hurt herself and wasn’t able to drive all the way to the show so they decided it was best to just stay home. I wasn’t happy her Mom had gotten hurt but I was happy that she was here. “I’ve got something special planned for you today if you’re up for it.” Chelsea explained. “Of course I am! You know how much I love riding!” I replied excitedly. “Alright then, lets go!” she said, and we grabbed our bikes and headed to her house. Little did I know we weren’t going to her house but to the local training grounds where she already had the horse tacked up and waiting. Chelsea then gave me my first jumping lesson and it was so much fun! I could have done it all day long!But of course as the sun began to set I knew it was time to call it quits for the day. I leaned down and gave the horse a pat on the neck. He had been such a good horse all summer putting up with me when I didn’t know what I was doing and never once getting upset. Back at Chelseas’ place I made sure to give my horse plenty of treats before I went home for the day. He would never know just how grateful I was for the patience he showed me. I know there are many other horses that wouldn’t put up with that, but I needed someone like him to teach me how to ride. Sadly now that I was getting better that meant I needed to challenge myself, which was going to mean finding a more challenging horse for me to ride. For now though I just let myself enjoy what we had right in front of us. My happiness was suddenly cut short when I received a phone call from my Mom. Lady our beloved dog passed away. We had her my entire life and I just couldn’t believe she was actually gone. I told Chelsea I had to get home right away and took of bicycling through a torrent of tears.My Mom was waiting for me at the door, I fell into her arms crying. “Lady was very old sweetheart, I’m sorry but there’s nothing we could have done. She’s in a better place.” my Moms words echoed into my head. As much as I knew she was right it just angered me that she didn’t seem more upset by our pets passing. I spent the rest of that week in my room crying. Poor Chelsea tried a couple times to get me to go riding with her, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it quite yet.Finally my parents forced me to say yes and get some fresh air and sunshine. While I was reluctant at first I knew that it would be good for me in the long run. So I called up Chelsea and had her meet me down at the beach. She had brought the horses along so that we could ride a little later. For now I was content just basking in the warmth of the sun.Chelsea hadn’t brought any tack along in case we decided to go for a swim, leather and water don’t mix very well you know! “Hey, let’s have a race!” Chelsea suggested. “I don’t know…” I began to say. “Oh come on now, don’t be chicken. buck, buck, buck!” she interjected. “Well all right! You asked for it!” I replied giving my horse a kick to get him going.Chelsea anticipated my move and took off just ahead of me. I have to admit that the wind in my hair as we galloped across the beach was just what the doctor ordered! I felt my sadness melt away with every beat of my horses hooves. There’s no denying that horses have a healing quality and I probably shouldn’t have spent all that time mourning over our lost dog, but I felt at the time it was necessary. At the end of the day I felt better than I could have imagined and now I was ready for school to start that next week. Though I might not get to ride quite as often once school started at least I got to spend my summer enjoying myself!