At the mention of trying something new with Medallion, I could feel myself start to get worried again.  

But then I remembered what Tessa had said, about competing for Medallion.  If I had been feeling this way at a show, what would I have done?  

I began slipping into my 'show mindset', taking deep breaths and zoning in on the objective: get Medallion to turn with little or no rein.  It seemed so simple and yet so hard.  

Tessa had gathered up her reins.  "Just do the same thing you were doing on Challenger, but don't expect her to respond as quickly.  I'll go first and have you follow, it might help her."  

I nodded, refusing to think about all the fights we'd had before. 

"Alright."  Tessa had Challenger nicely on the bit, and now that I was looking for it, I could see the impulsion he had.  

She started turning him.  I almost panicked, but I stopped myself.  I stepped down into my inside stirrup, and turned my navel to follow Tessa.  

For a moment, it felt like she wasn't going to do anything.  But then she took one step to the inside.  Then another, and another.  All of a sudden we were facing Challenger's tail.  The turn had been messy, but we had made it.   

I patted Medallion's on the neck.  "Good girl!"  Surprisingly, I felt as excited as if I'd just won something.  

Maybe I had.  

We practiced more with turning, all the while making sure that I didn't drop my right shoulder or pick up on the reins.  

And wonder of wonders, Medallion listened to me.  She obeyed me.  For the first time, we didn't fight, we didn't argue.  It felt so good I wanted to keep going, but Tessa declared that was enough for the day.  Besides, other riders were going to want the arena soon. 

While Medallion had practiced on our turns, Tessa had been doing more intensive work with Challenger.  In trot, he'd been doing leg yields, and in canter, he was working on having more spring and impulsion.  It was a true demonstration of how impulsion was not more speed, because Challenger could have added a lot more speed and that was not what Tessa wanted. 

It was obviously a harder concept for him to grasp, but never once did Tessa get frustrated.  As soon as he got it right, he was rewarded.  

We talked more as we led our horses from the arena and took the tack off.  Tessa was delighted that all had gone so well for Medallion and I.  In fact, her joy almost matched my own.  

"I think you could do some jumping tomorrow," she commented.

I paused as I was undoing the girth.  "Whoa, wait a second.  Don't you think that's too soon?" 

"I didn't say you'd be jumping three foot, I only said you could be jumping.  If you're not comfortable with it, we don't have to do it."  

"I'm not supposed to have a short rein on her though, so how's that going to work?"  

"Who said you needed a short rein to jump?  She's jumped before, right?  I think, if you just aim her for the jump with our body and maybe use your reins to guide her a bit, she'd just go over it."

I wasn't convinced, and also wasn't sure if it was a good idea to try that so soon.  But on the other hand, I'd never felt Medallion jump.  Unless you counted her bucks and leaps of derision. 

"I guess...  Well, we're see how it goes tomorrow."  

"Alright."  

It was easy to tell that the stable was busier.  More horses were out and people were everywhere.  It felt more crowded, which I wasn't used to.  At Vantage Point, you had to have a lot of people before it felt like that.

"We have an empty paddock you can turn Medallion out in,"  Tessa offered.  

"Okay, thanks."  I had a feeling that if a horse like Medallion didn't get her turn out time, she wasn't going to be fun to handle. 

We went up to the house for lunch, which was just as tasty as breakfast this morning and dinner the night before.  Then Tessa invited me up to her room again for more study.  

"This'll be funner than those books," she said as she booted up her laptop.  "But still educational." 

"Okay," I said as I propped up a pillow on her bed and laid against it.  

She started typing away, her fingers flying across the keyboard.  "I want to show you what these training methods of classical dressage can really lead to."  

She clicked on a youtube video and tilted the laptop screen toward me so I could watch:

https://youtu.be/CX53qyBFw7w

"Wow," I murmured at the end.  "That looked so cool.  I didn't know you could piaffe without reins."  

"That's if the horse is really 'on the seat' as they say," Tessa replied as she searched for another video.  "The reins, on well trained horses, become almost unnecessary.  That's the goal, at least.  And that's why we're able to ride Medallion without them."  

She clicked on another short clip, this one focusing on piaffe:

https://youtu.be/-Pm_2qU3jqk

"Piaffe, to them," Tessa explained, "Is a way of strengthening a horse, not necessarily a goal you work towards at the end of training."  

I blinked.  I'd never thought of it that way before.  The piaffe wasn't required in eventing dressage, and to be honest, as much as I struggled with dressage, I had no intention of attempting it before.  

"This horse is twenty-two years old, and look how well he's doing."  Tessa picked out another clip: 

https://youtu.be/MwTOTn4t3mM

He demonstrated the same agility as the other horses.  In fact, he looked like he could still do some jumping.  

"Of course, the most famous classically trained horses are the riding horses at the Spanish Riding School.  Anja Beran, who's YouTube channel is where these clips are from, is not as well known, but she is just as good."  Tessa was now typing something else in.  

My ears perked up at this.  "The Spanish horses are classically trained?"  

"Oh yeah, totally.  Have you ever heard they're trained with 'ancient ways'"  

I nodded.  "Yeah, that the way they were trained were passed down from generation to generation orally."  

"That is true, and the method is ancient, but saying it that way makes it seems as if it's some huge secret.  It's not.  You just have to do a little bit of searching."

We went on to watch many more clips and videos from Sylvia Loch, Anja Beran, the Spanish Riding School, and Arttoride.  All of the horses moved forward willingly, with happy expressions and did their work easily, something that at Vantage Point I had not seen as much.

Tessa and I talked on afterwards.  Our conversation wandered from the classical principles to our past horse lives.  She told me more about Jigsaw and her introduction to Challenger, I told her more about Tab.

When I went to bed that night, I was hopeful for my future with Medallion, and confident I had found a true friend.     

AN:  I like how Wattpad enables me to link the videos up there for you guys to watch (If you want to, but I HIGHLY recommend you do, they're so cool!).  

I thought I'd just say here that this book is coming to an end.  *holds up hands*  don't panic on me yet!  

The plot for this was, from the beginning, different than where it went, as indicated by the current blurb.  I never planned for Vanessa to visit Star Run Stables, but that's the turn this story has taken, and to try to include what was going to happen now would make the book too long for me. 

BUT.  

There IS going to be another book.  

I've already fiddled around and designed a cover for it, I know where it's going to go (Well, where I hope for it to go), and am excited to start in the second book in the series.    

So, here's what we're going to do.

This book still has a couple more chapters to go before it is finished, and if I stay on schedule at a chapter a week, then it should be completed by January 9th.  From then on, I'm going to take the rest of the month of January off, and then start publishing the new book in February.  How's that sound?

So, there you go, I hope that will work for you :)  I'm so excited to embark on a third book in this series-that-I-don't-have-a-name-for.