Since North was overall an eager and hard working horse, we were trotting around the arena easily, I rose and fell to the beat of North's outside leg. After trotting, we were asked to canter. Now at a canter, I worked on a half seat and preformed many circles, serpentines to keep North motivated and to help keep him supple and on the bit.

"Diagonal from M to F with a flying change at X" Camille, our trainer called out. The petite woman with golden skin and light brown hair had so much experience in the industry and when my parents chose her as mine and Grace's trainer a couple of years back, I was beyond happy. Being a top notch eventer herself, Camille was full of experience and new and innovative exercises to help us reach our full potential in the sport.

I pulled a bit on the right rein when North and I were nearing M, asking him to take a diagonal. He responded to my cue and turned the slightest to the right so that we would pass the middle of the huge arena and therefore change hands. With North standing at 17.3hh, each stride of him was huge. We quickly approached X and I cued the light gray, almost white, horse under me to perform a flying change. I moved my right leg which was at the girth back so that it was behind the girth and my left leg forward so it was over the girth. I shifted my weight and applied pressure and kept contact. Exactly at X, North lifted all his hoofs for a beat and moved them in the air landing in the correct lead.

Once we were working on the other hand, we basically repeated what we had done to the other hand. We went through our paces and I really urged North into a rhythmic and forward stride. We worked on many circles once more, and we even went over some trotting poles to really get our horses moving.

"Okay, come on over!" Camille said as we slowed our horses and came over to her. While we were warming up, she had set up a pair of ground poles a couple of feet apart so that we could use for the exercise she had planned. "So, Grace will start off; this exercise is pretty simple, but we will slowly build it up. So, I want you to go over both poles and get five strides between them" Camille instructed simply.

Grace nodded and asked Aspen for a canter. As they approached the line of ground poles, Grace performed a half halt to make the distance. With Aspen's steady hoofbeats, we counted the amount of strides she put in between both poles. After performing the five strides in between, Grace slowed Aspen as they came over to us.

Camille looked at me and I cued North to canter. I adjusted my stride at the long end of the arena and kept pressuring North in the turn so that we wouldn't kill the canter. We went over the first pole, and each time Norths hooves reached the turf, I counted a stride in my head. As we went over the second pole, I smiled as we had put in the right amount of strides. I gave North a quick pat and went over to my instructor who was by the other dappled horse.

"Okay, now, I want you to do four strides in between, and after you go over the second pole, you go again, but this time shorten your canter and put six strides in between the poles."

I glanced at Grace who was already nudging Aspen to the canter. Once the dappled gray was cantering, Grace went into half seat and asked Aspen to extend his canter stride.

"Grace, make sure to make a big turn so that Aspen can keep that good rhythm to approach the poles." Camille called out. Grace followed Camille's tips and took a wide turn letting Aspen extend his stride a bit more. In mere seconds they were over the first pole. Grace moved her hands forward ever so slightly encouraging the dappled horse to extend a bit more. With long and extended strides, they went over the second pole after putting four in between both ground poles. As soon as they reached the other end of the arena, Grace sat deep and asked Aspen to slow. Aspen complied and slowed his stride exponentially. They made their way over to the poles once more, Grace performing half halts ever so often to keep the small stride. I watched as they went over the poles and made five and a half strides before going over the second pole. Grace winced but still gave her gelding a pat as she came over.

"Okay El, your turn now. Make sure to really shorten your stride on the long side and try to check if you will make the six strides over the poles, it really helps. And just like I said to Grace, really take a wide turn when you're extending." Camille instructed. I nodded and urged North into a canter.

Just as Grace had done, I stood ever so slightly on the stirrups taking all of my weight off my stallions back so he could really extend his stride. Turning towards the poles, I made sure to open up and take a wide turn. Over the first pole I sat back down. 1,2,3,4, I counted up my head, and we were over the second pole. I sat down and pulled at the reins asking for North to slow, which he did. As Camille had said, I shortened along the long side of the arena. I took a quick glance at the poles and shortened a bit more as I noticed that I was still quite long. In the turn towards the poles, I squeezed North and tugged at the reins simultaneously so that North would keep on going but would not extend too much. I felt us go over the first pole as I looked ahead. I sucked in a breath as we cantered throughout the six strides before going over the second pole.

As I approached Camille and Grace, the blond gave me a smile. "That was so good!" she said with a genuine smile. Most would think that there is some kind of rivalry between Grace and me, but there has never been. Between us is not about competing to see who is better, we just want to enjoy it. I was actually pretty thankful for that, I was a really competitive person although I would not say so out loud, so if competing with each other would be in the mix, it would most definitely not be a healthy relationship.

I thanked Grace before she had another go perfecting her mistakes and acing the exercise. In the end we ended up raising the poles to about 70cm, nothing too big, but it would help us to adjust the striding over real fences.

We still had about 20 minutes of the lesson left, so Camille started to set up another exercise for us while Grace and I just talked about random things. I let the reins slip through my fingers as North rested with his head down. I wouldn't normally let the reins loose on a horse I was mounted on, but I trusted North and I knew that he wouldn't bolt on me, so I did so anyway. When Camille came back from setting the exercise up, I gathered the reins once more and North immediately perked up.

"Again, this exercise is pretty simple but it's very beneficial. As you can see, there is a cross rail and a few strides later, there are two cones. You are going to approach the cross rail, and go over it, perform your get away and come to a complete halt right when you along with the cones. There are about 5 strides in between so there is plenty of time to jump, and perform a correct getaway, completely straight for that matter, and halt. It is fairly simple, but you have to have your horses full attention." Camille continued "Now, I don't want to see you come into the crossrail at a weak canter, I want your horses in a forward canter, like if you were in the ring. Eleanor, you are really going to need to work on it. It's a small cross rail, no higher than 70cm, so North will not even bother picking his hooves up. You need to ride very forward and really encourage him to jump it, but you have to keep in mind that you have to halt a couple of strides later so you will really need to work on that." Camille instructed. I took mental notes on what she was saying. North had this bad habit of not bothering over small fences, it was pretty annoying but I had learned to work with it. I really had to push him and encourage him forward so that he would jump, but now that we had to halt five strides after the jump, I didn't really know how that was going to go.

"Grace, go ahead!"Camiile said with a smile.

Grace once again nudged Aspen to canter, they went through a few trotting strides before they were cantering, it was nearing the end of the lesson and Grace was getting tired, but he still compiled and they both centered around the arena readying to approach the crossrail. Grace's brown eyes were fixed on the jump before them, every few seconds flicking her gaze to where she would perform her getaway. I watched as Aspen lifted his legs and Grace moved her hands over Aspen's neck, both in complete sync. As they landed, Grace performed a half halt to regain Aspen's attention, as they slowed ever so slightly to come to a square halt right in between both cones.

After a couple of seconds standing there, Grace nudged Aspen as they came over to us.

"Nice!" I smiled at her after speaking the kind words. She flashed me a smile and received a compliment from Camille. I readied myself to perform the exercise and when Camille gave me my cue, I tapped North with my heels and he immediately cantered, unlike Aspen. North was that kind of horse who by the progression of the lesson only got more energy and got more alert instead of getting tired. I eyed the cross rail as I encouraged North a bit more. I tugged ever so slightly on my left rein asking North to face the crossrail so we would jump it straighly. I felt North try to slow, so I just countered his action with a bit more pressure on his barrel. North eventually gave up on trying not to go over it and right before the jump we lifted off. I folded into my two point as North lifted his hind legs leaving us completely airborne. Gravity pulled us down again and when a pair of white legs reached the turf, I sat back down and tugged slightly on the reins asking him to slow. I kept the constant contact on the reins and five and a half strides later we halted square. I asked North to stay still a few seconds as I looked back and saw that we missed the checkpoint by a bit. I sighed but still gave North a pat; it was ok for the first try.

"That was really good El! As we imagined, he tried to back off but good job on making him go over the jump. You could have tugged a bit harder on the reins to ask for a more immediate response, but other than that it's ok. Have another go" Camille corrected my mistakes. I nodded and had another go.

Following Camille's instructions, as soon I had another go, this time North knew that he had no other option than to go over the jump, so I didn't push him that much, I let him set the pace, which was considerably slower than the pace we had jumped the last time. As we touched the ground again, I pulled back in the reins, and North immediately complied and slowed his pace. Exactly five strides later, we were halted in the middle of both cones, smiled and gave the light gray horse under me a praising pat. I walked back to where Grace and Camille were with a grin across my face.

"That's it!" Camille praised me. "Okay, let me raise the jump, each of you have a go, and we are done for the day" The young woman with golden brown hair said as she went over to raise the pole.

Both Grace and I had a go at the exercise with the medium sized vertical. With it standing at approximately 1 meter, North respected the jump and we had no trouble throughout the exercise, and Grace aced it as well. We ended the lesson and we were currently walking out horses around the arena and just talking.

We talked with Camille about this and that, she was our trainer, but also a friend. She had taught us all we knew about rigid and she was like a big sister to Grace and me, so we told her absolutely everything. It was nice having a nice relationship with your instructor, I couldn't imagine training everyday to achieve one of your goals but not enjoying as much as you should because your trainer and you weren't on good terms. I shuddered at the thought and brushed it off re- focusing on the conversation going on.

"Which horses do you have left?" Camille asked both of us as we hopped off our horses,

loosened the girth, and rolled up the stirrups.

"Uhhhh, I'm missing work Captain and Marvel but it will have to wait because I have to study!" I said and hurried out of the arena.

"Tomorrow again?" Camille called out.

"Yeah! Wouldn't miss it!" I replied with a quick glance.

"This girl and her studying!" I made my best friend's voice out and practically saw her rolling her eyes even though my back was facing her.

"You know I can hear you, right?" I called out

" That's the whole point" it was my turn to roll my eyes

"Get outta here and wash that poor horse off!" Camille ushered me out of the arena with a laugh that harmonized with Graces and mine. After I washed North off and settled him in his stall, I grabbed all my stuff and waited at the entrance of the barn for the cab I had asked for. Once in the cab, I connected my airpods and listened to music while staring out of the window blankly.

After 40 minutes, I arrived at the driveway to my house and made my way down it reaching the door. I turned the key and saw my mother and father in the living room with coffee in their hands. I let my lips curve into a smile as I rushed to my father and gave him a big hug. Call me a child, but I hadn't seen my father in two days and I missed him.

"You are here early," My dad commented.

"I can say the same for you" I retorted with a grin.

"Well, after lunch you will know why I'm here early" my father added suspiciously, although I knew where this was going, he had got another horse for me to retrain.

"Okay what's its problem? Was he started at the race track? What does he hold potential for?" I bombarded my father with questions. I still got excited when I got a new horse to work with, I loved figuring each of them out, and learning how to work with them and not against them. I loved the whole process of earning a horse's trust and bringing it to his or her full potential, there was nothing more reading than that.

"What are you talking about?" my father asked confused

"Dad, I know you got a new horse for me to retrain," I said with a smirk tugging at my lips.

"You know me too well" my father said before I embraced him again quickly and made my way upstairs to my room, on the way up calling out to my parents that I had work to do.

I sat down on my desk and got through my work. I blasted music through my computer and focused on my work entirely. The school year was ending and I needed good grades. I was really hoping to attend college this year, and I needed good grades for that; plus, I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible and get to the barn.

About an hour later, I hear a knock at the door and my mother's sweet voice telling me to come down for lunch. We all sat at the table and ate lunch and just talked. I was just about to finish my GCSEs and I was going to start my A levels , but I wanted to be done with GCSEs as soon as possible. There were only two more weeks left of school though, and i was excited for a whole summer at the barn working with the new horse my father was talking about, and the show season was just beginning which was quite exciting also.

"El, have you decided on which A level subjects you are taking yet?" My mother asked curiously.

"Not yet," I said truthfully. It has been a hard decision that I was still working on. What i studied as my A levels influenced my future, and the thing is that i don't know what i want in my future apart from working with horses. I had promised myself that i was going to look into the possible subjects tonight so that i could hopefully come to a decision by the end of the week.

We finished our lunch in peace and I headed to the barn with my father. The new horse hadn't arrived yet so I was out in the small arena riding Captain. I was schooling the bay pinto horse over some jumps. The Captain's current owner had brought the gelding to me six months ago to retrain into show jumping, and I was almost done with the training process. Captain was always a willing horse and a quick learner, so for him to be almost ready to be resolved after six months of training wasn't a surprise.

I guided Captain over a course that stood about at 1 meter and we cleared perfectly. Although the bay pinto was quite successful on the track, he needed a lot of leg to get moving, but after he worked on the flat a bit, he had a dream to jump. His owner gave me the possibility to re-sell him myself, so i made a mental note to talk to my father about putting him for sale to see if there were any prospects.

Ending the schooling lesson, I went back to the barn and handed Captain to Matt and made my way to Marvel's stall. I slipped the halter over the gelding's chestnut face and took him out to get tacked up. It wasn't usual for me to tack up the horses I worked with, Matt usually helped me with it so that I would save time, but Marvel was an exception. I had started working with Marvel, or Marvellous after my dad got him from a kill pen. He has been one of the most challenging horses to work with. When he came, he was cold backed, so it's taken a lot of work to work besides that, and to make him earn my trust. We don't know if he was ever started, but we do know that he has a lot of potential. I got him around six months ago and I have been working with him ever since. Marvel trusted very few people, and I really needed him to trust me so I spent as much time as I could with him, therefore I groomed him and tacked him up myself before every ride.

I was trying to get Marvel to be a show jumper, but we hadn't jumped that much yet. We worked a lot on trotting poles and cavaletti, but this summer I was really hoping to start jumping him. Once we were both geared up, I mounted and we made our way to the small arena. Marvel, being a very spooky horse, got startled as we passed the covered arena where there was a lesson going on. We got to the smaller arena and I started to trot by the rail. I rose and fell to the chestnuts beat and performed many lead changes and such. I ended up just conditioning him, so i trotted plenty as well as cantering him, but making sure to walk him ever so often so that both of us caught our breath.

When I considered that I had worked the gelding enough for the day, I brought him back to the stables where I un tacked him and put him back in his stall. Just as I had finished leaving Marvel's corresponding tack in the tack room, my father popped in with a smile.

"He is here right?" I said with a small smile that was growing by the second.

"She, actually." My father corrected us and made our way down the road to where there was a big trailer with the ramp down. One of the grooms went down the ramp with a horse in hand. The flea bitten horse climbed down the ramp and stopped immediately. She lifted her head and perked her ears, taking in the new surroundings. My father broke my trance of staring at the thoroughbred mare with some papers I needed to fill in as I was taking the challenge of retraining her. I filled in the forms and ended with my signature before taking the lead rope and bringing the flea bitten into the stall.

Once in the shaving covered stall, I stood outside and admired the horse. My father came up behind me with all the papers in hand regarding the horse, he handed them to me before I made my way to where Grace was so we could go back to our houses.