WARNING!!!! The main character in the story is a Santa non-believer!Task 1: (667 words)
My eyes shot open as my clock blared Christmas music on the local station. I slapped the clock to stop the music, and then it hit me. It was Christmas! Christmas meant stockings, and presents, and food. Lots and lots of food! I needed to head to the stable today before our family got here as well, so I could take care of my two Gypsies, Whisper and Forgetful. At that moment my little sister, Sophie ran into my room and jumped on my bed. “Amberle! Get up!” she yelled, pulling at me to get out of bed. I went limp and pretended to snore, just to annoy her a bit. Pulling on my arm harder, Sophie pulled me out of my bed and I crashed into my floor.
“Owwwwwwww!” I groaned, opening my eyes and untangling myself from the blankets still wrapped around me. Sophie giggled and ran out of my room, probable to wake my parents.
Ten minutes later, I was off of the floor, had brushed my teeth and hair, and was walking to the top of the stars, seeing as we weren’t supposed to go downstairs until we were all together, my parents and sister had all been waiting for me. The second I arrived, my sister grabbed my arm (again) and pulled me down the stairs. Since my sister still believed in santa, I was still allowed to ask “him” for gifts. This year, I had asked “Santa” for a Christmas theme saddle pad, leather cleaner, and a the second book of the The School For Good And Evil series. When we got downstairs into our large family room, We were first greeted with our stockings. Mine was filled with cute little trinkets and candy, along with an iTunes gift card. My sister had already torn through her and was onto her pile of gifts from “Santa” I moved to look at mine, noticing all three things I had out on my list. Before I had even had a chance to check out the saddle pad, Sophie was ready to move onto the wrapped gifts. Each family member collected their gifts, and we each released our inner child and tore open the wrapping. My sister got a large amount of toys from our family, and mine were mostly riding supplies and gift cards to my favorite clothing stores.
Once everyone had finished with their gifts, we all got breakfast (cream cheese rolls and raspberries) and headed back to inspect our gifts closer. Before I could follow my sister into the family room, my mother said, “Amberle, we think that you’ve been extra responsible this year, so we wanted to give you another responsibility. Head to the stable, and there will be one last gift waiting for you there, okay?” I nodded, to excited to talk. I quickly got changed, loaded all of the stable supplies from Christmas into my car, and drove to the stable. When I got there, it was pretty empty, but I walked into the main barn, not sure what to expect. I slowly walked down the aisle to my horse’s stall, patting their neck as I walked by. I noticed the usually empty stall next to them had a horse in it. I checked out the nameplate, which said: Christmas Carol || Eve, and under that said Amberle Butler. I had to re-read the plaque before I understood what it actually said. I peeked into the stall and squealed. This was the horse I had my eye on for forever! There was also a tack box outside of the stall. I opened that, and realized it was full of all of the tack and supplies for the beautiful babe. I let myself into the stall and wrapped my arms around the mare’s neck, who snorted in response. “Merry Christmas” I said to her. Task 2: (605 words)
After I had called my mother and father to thank them a million and one times, I figured I should take Eve for a ride! I made sure to take care of Whisper and Forgetful before I did anything else. Once they were taken care of, I walked back to Eve’s stall, and took her out, clipping her green lead line to her matching halter. I then led the mare to the cross ties right by her stall. I grabbed my new grooming kit for Eve (that matched her halter as well) and brushed her gently, not wanting to spook her before I knew what she was sensitive to.
About 15 minutes later, Eve was groomed, and I was ready to tack her up. I had seen a few other people, but other than that, the barn was empty, so I was hoping I would have the arena mostly to myself. I opened the tack trunk and got a better look at the tack my parents had gotten for Eve. There was a black saddle, bridle, girth, a few colors of polo wraps, jumping and bell boots, and martingale. There was also one show saddle pad, and a gel half-pad. I tacked up Eve in everything (picking pretty green polo wraps for her back legs, and jumping boots on her forward ones) besides the show pad opting to save that, so I decided to use the new Christmas pad. I slid the reins back over Eve’s head, and she followed me down the aisle to the indoor arena.
I grinned when no one else was inside, because that meant I could play Christmas music over the speakers! I plugged my phone into the speaker system, pressed play, and turned the volume to the perfect level. I then moved to hop on Eve’s back, but then remembered to check her girth and boots. All were snug, and I mounted, by rear settling nicely into the curve of the saddle. I leaned down and gently stroked Eve’s neck, and the large mare snorted, ready to get moving. I chuckled to myself as my favorite Christmas song, Carol Of The Bells, came on, and I urged Eve into a walk, then a trot, and a canter. I eyed the jumps on the other end of the arena, and leaned down. “You wanna try ‘em, girl?” I asked Eve, knowing I looked pretty stupid, but who cares! Eve snorted, and bobbed her head, so I decided to take that as a yes, and I grinned.
We reached the jumps, and I surveyed the small course, starting with two verticals, a smaller cross rail, then an oxer, and a double combination, none any lower than two feet or larger than three. It wasn’t the hardest or highest course I had ever taken before, and Eve was a well trained competitor, but it’s always a risk to jump a course on a new horse. However, I trusted Eve, and I hoped that she trusted me as well. I gently urged her forward with mostly my seat, as I had learned today that she was sensitive to hard leg signals, and I didn’t want to push her limits too far with me today.
We reached the first jump at a canter, and Eve soared over it as I got into my jumping position. We got over the rest of the jumps just as perfectly. Once we were over the last part of the combination, I leaned down and wrapped my arms around Eve’s neck as Jingle Bell Rock played in the background. “Merry Christmas, girl” I said once again to the horse.
