Vanessa's POV:

"That's better," Tessa commented.  "But what if I wanted to let the rein go a bit, what would she do?"  

Tessa thrust her hand forward, creating a small loop in the reins.  Medallion immediately picked up speed.  Her walk was now that jigging jog that I hated.  

"What if I take it back?"  Tessa said as she restored her hands to their original position.

Medallion slowed down, though not as dramatic as before.  

"How interesting," murmured Tessa.  She halted Medallion in front of me and let the rein out.  "She seems-"  

Medallion started walking out as soon as she felt the contact on the rein had gone.  Tessa reached down and pulled her into a one-rein stop.  "Now that was naughty," she said.  "Has she done that before?"  

I shrugged.  "I usually never got her stopped, and if I did it was on a tight rein, so she's never done it with me."  

Tessa let Medallion have her head back.  This time the mare stood still.  "Alright, back to what I was saying."  

"From what I can tell, this mare is very responsive, which is good.  And she likes to go, which no doubt makes her a prime event horse."

"But what is causing a lot of problems is her mouth.  She seems extremely touchy about it.  She despises contact.  Having seen you ride, I don't think it's you that started it, although you might have made it worse.   But at some point I would think she's been ridden in the mouth harshly by someone other than you."

"She just will not trust herself to my hands.  I can feel it.  She holds herself back.  I wouldn't be surprised if she's curling behind the vertical."  

"She is," I interjected.  

Tessa nodded.  She fingered a piece of Medallion's mane. "Eventually, she could be retrained to accept the bit better and be more confident with it. But it'd take a lot of patience, tact, and time."

I bit my lip. I wasn't sure I had enough of any of those three. "But you do think... You do think she's rideable?"

"Absolutely, especially if you ride her more from your seat, and less from your rein."

I knew what Tessa was indirectly saying. She was asking me if I was willing to try again with Medallion.

I nodded. "Okay." I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to that or not.

Tessa slid off of Medallion. "She just needs someone to listen, Vanessa, and to respect her dignity." She handed the reins to me as she took back Challenger. "If someone could do that for her, I think she'd go to the ends of the world for them."

She looked me in the eye. "And we both know that's what makes a great event horse."

I nodded and led Medallion back to the stable. We only had a little bit of time to ride before they would have to leave, so I handed Medallion over to a groom to be untacked.

As I walked back to the arena, I resolved to put all of my conflicting feelings and thoughts aside for the moment. I wanted to enjoy this time with my fellow riders.

It wasn't often that I rode just for fun, much less with other riders. And surprisingly, I found myself looking forward to it.

Tessa's POV:

In some ways, I had felt Challenger while riding Medallion. But in others I hadn't. He had never curled behind the vertical at the touch of the rein, or slowed down so quickly when I took up contact.

I had enjoyed Medallion, but she was not Challenger. Challenger's nervous personality complimented my steadiness, we filled in the gaps for each other.

Vanessa, on the other hand, needed Medallion's determining dignity and sensitivity to learn how to slow down, how to feel. In Medallion, I saw an awesome opportunity for Vanessa to learn. And to maybe find a horse that could take her to the top.

As I mounted Challenger I felt a tingle go through me. Now the fun began. We were headed to the outdoor arena to do some jumping.

While we had a sizeable jump set up at our own stable, it was nothing like this. I knew there was literally thousands of dollars' worth of fences we were going to jump. And most likely, that Challenger was going to spook at.

There was a reason I always put a neck strap on him when we went jumping. There was no telling how many times it had saved me.

Vanessa's POV:

I swung up on Win and followed Lacy out the doorway to the outdoor arena. Behind us was Tessa's dad. Although he could ride well, he'd elected to try out the indoor arena viewing area. But now that we were headed to the outdoor, he was going to set up jumps for us.

"Oh stop it."  Tessa's light voice reached me as I stepped out into the sunlight and squinted my eyes.  

Challenger was looking a little wild eyed, he was snorting and pivoting as he took in all these new jumps with colorful designs.  I smiled, while at the same time being a little surprised.  He'd seemed like such a brave horse.  

Win didn't bat an eyelash, he'd been out here many times before.  Shocker, too, seemed relatively calm.

However, dependable Russo wasn't being quite so dependable.  Although not as electrified as Challenger, his head was high and as Lacy walked him around he shied multiple times. 

 "Hey guys, what do you want to do with the jumps?" Called out Mr. Wellen.

We met the middle of the arena to discuss what we wanted to do.

"I think the jumps look alright just as they're set up," commented Lacy.

"Yeah, except they're too high," agreed Mrs. Wellen. "I think some cross rails for warming up would be good."

Tessa nodded her agreement. "Sounds good. What about you, Vanessa?"

"Sure, whatever works for you works for me."

"Alright, so, we'll lower the heights to, say, 2 foot 6, with a couple of cross rails for warm up jumps?" 

 We all voiced our agreement to Mr. Wellen's assessment. 

There were about ten to twelve jumps currently set up in the large outdoor arena, so Mr. Wellen set up two cross rails and we jumped over them while he adjusted the rest. 

As soon as the two cross rails were ready, I gathered my reins and nudged Win on.  I wasn't interested in dithering about who was going first, second, etc.  The others could figure that out if they wanted to.  

The first cross rail was a navy blue with white, set up along the rail.  I clucked to Win as we came round the corner and he sprung into canter.  I rose into half seat and looked ahead.  

The cross rail was only about one foot tall in the middle, so I was not concerned at all.  I eyed the distance, felt Win's canter, and determined that he would make it in four strides.  

I counted, and sure enough, we took off right at four.  Win hopped over it and tugged a little at my rein.  That was too easy for him, he wanted more. 

Obliging him, I turned and felt him switch leads beneath me.  The next cross rail was over one foot but not quite two feet.  It had giant sunflowers for standards.  

Win pricked up his ears, and I half halted a little to get him to come back to me.  This set off our striding and I couldn't see the distance very well.  I estimated that it was three or four, but I wasn't sure which.  

He slowed slightly, eyeing the cross rail, realizing that I wasn't necessarily going to help him out on this one.  But he was game and we jumped it in three.

I pulled him down to trot and looked around, determining where my other riders were.  Shocker had jumped the first cross rail and looked to be coming up for the second one, so I moved out of the way.  

Challenger was coming to the first cross rail in canter.  Tessa sat in full seat with a short rein and was looking forward.  

Challenger slowed down the closer they came and I wondered if he was going to stop.  But Tessa gave him a firm squeeze and clucked to him.  

He jumped it way larger bigger than he needed to, but he did jump it.  Tessa followed his weird movements easily.  

When they came the sunflower cross rail, Challenger slowed all the way down to trot.  He tried avoiding it by going to the left, then the right, but Tessa was there both times and wouldn't let him shoot out.  

Again, he jumped way bigger than needed, but he did jump.

As Tessa cantered him by, she said, "He'll be better now that he knows he can't get out of it, and that I'm going to be right there with him."  

I nodded.  My earlier impressions of Challenger being bold had evaporated.  I wondered how, if he wasn't bold, he was becoming such an impressive event horse.  Somehow, I thought he'd be better suited to dressage.  

But Tessa was right.  The next few jumps he still looked at, however he wasn't near as hesitant.  It looked like his confidence did come from Tessa, who approached each jump confidently. 

We had finished our cross rail warm up, and now it was time to go big.  I picked out my first jump, a red vertical.  

"Come on Win, let's do this." 

AN:  Sort of a double update today.  In the next section is going to be a huge announcement that I hope you guys will be as excited about as I am ;)  

This chapter is also long, with the author's note right here it is within 1,600 words.  Hope you enjoyed it.