Winning My First Horse Show It all started when I saw a horse race on the TV. I was lying on the ground with my dogs. My mom was cooking steak and potatoes for dinner and my dad was sleeping in his bed. My sisters were playing on their phone and tablet. The horses were wearing colorful gear and the riders were matching with the colored helmets and riding outfits. There was a Palomino in yellow, a Bay in green and a Bay in blue, a Paint in orange, and a Black in grey. I could see the jockeys petting and reassuring the beautiful giants. When the gates opened and the horses took off I watched so intensely it were if I was about to pass out.
When the horses took off I could hear their breathing slowly getting faster and harder and the crowds cheering louder and louder. I could hear their hooves thumping and the breeze of the wind whisking pass them as they flew over the jumps. I could hear them as they brushed the tops of the bushes as they leaped and splashes in the water as they landed. They were moving so fast they were no more than a blur in a tornado. When the horses finally slowed down and came to a halt I instantly fell in love with horses and wanted to see what it was like riding them. My parents said maybe we can find a stable to ride at.
I was at school and two of my good friends said that they watched it last night too. I said, “I wish I could do stuff like that. ” They responded by saying that they ride at Zephyr’s Way Stable and they could give me their information. “That would be magnificent! ” | said squealing. That night when I got home I told my parents that my friends had told me about a stable and gave me their information. We called and said that we got their information from my friends and they were really excited we called. My parents scheduled me a camp at the end of summer and I couldn’t wait to meet everyone and see everything.
When the day finally came I was beyond excited, I was thrilled. When we drove down the long gravel road with trees and fields, we walked into the stable, that was a white and black barn with a ring in the front, a lady with dark brown hair up in a messy bun with brown eyes and a hat with sunglasses sitting on top of it walked up to me and asked if I was Hailey. I responded, “Yes,” and she said she was Ali and she would be my instructor for the camp. Ali showed me and my mom where to put my things and then another girl, that looked about my age with long blonde hair, blue eyes and riding pants with a green shirt, walked in the oom with a man with brown hair and brown eyes.
We soon found out that her and the man, that was her dad, were here for a camp too. She said that she was super excited and she had only been to one camp before. I said, “This is my first time,” and she said I would love it here. Her dad introduced himself to my mom and I and then the girl said, “My name is Charlotte,” and she held out her hand. I took her hand and shook it and I responded, “I’m Hailey. ” I had put my lunch away and when I came into the room another girl entered with a lady. The girl introduced herself as Hania and that the lady was her mother.
After that all our parents left and we were left in the lounge to talk. Soon after Ali walked into the room and said she would show us around. Ali showed us around the barn and introduced us to all the horses, it would take you a year to count all of them. There was Morpheus, Polly Pocket, Valentine, Stymie, Wink, Georgia, Texas, Zoe, Zephyr, Sailor, Charm, Amigo, Zane, Nina, Bentley, Camden, and that wasn’t even half of the horses on that half of the barn. Ali said, “Soon we would tack up and then we will ride. ” When I heard the word “ride” I instantly fell into a daydream that I couldn’t get out of. Charlotte was ounding on my shoulder, whispering, “Are you okay?! ” | said, “Yeah, just got distracted. ”
Ali called from down the barn, “Girls are you going to stand there all day whispering, or we going to ride some horses! ” Charlotte and I took one glance at each other and instantly started speed walking down the hallway of the barn side by side. Ali showed us the tack room and then helped us one by one to tack up our horses. I got to ride Wink, Charlotte got Charm, and Hania got Morpheus. When we were tacking up Hania had to get Ali to help her because Mo (Morpheus) was the biggest horse at the barn and she was the smallest of all of us.
Ali had already taught us how to tack up, how to lead a horse, how to know if a horse is angry, how to feed, brush, and properly care for a horse, and she already taught us that you always mount, walk, tack up, and do almost everything on the left side of the horse and we weren’t even there an hour yet. Then I started thinking, this is going to be great! When we got out into the outside ring Ali helped us mount from the left side of the horse. Hania was first to mount, then it was my own turn, and finally it was Charlotte. When Hania mounted she had to get a leg up because she was too short for the stirrups.
Then Ali had said, “You can walk around a bit if you like, you can steer if you know how to but if not you can stay put or just let the horse walk themselves. Hania had said she had ridden horses at her grandparents house so she started to walk around on the horse. When she was walking around I couldn’t help but thinking how confident Mo looked when he was walking around the ring. He had his chin up high, and his shoulders straight in the up in the air. We got on the horses and then Ali started teaching us about riding and we practiced poles, trotting, two pointing, and a little bit of cantering with some ross rails.
I couldn’t remember a time I had been more ecstatic, or sweaty. The rest of the week we continued to practice that the whole time and we met some new people like Maddie, Compton, and Riley who were older teenagers that rode at the stable. We had really fun making shirts, painting pictures, cleaned and cared for your assigned horse (mine was Morpheus) and we even took some tests that weren’t always fun but they definitely weren’t boring. The day of the show I was extremely anxious. We lined up and got ready. Ali gave us directions and courses to take and we had to do it.
I think I did pretty well and I even rode Wink in the show, who was my favorite horse to ride at that point. We did the things we practiced during the week. There was one point I was going over the jump and I cut the corner to short and I wished that I didn’t mess up to badly. My wish came true! When they were giving out ribbons we lined up and when they announced, “First place for Equation, Hailey Knight. ” | was beyond ecstatic, I was more than thrilled, I was beyond words.
Then when I heard, “First place for test scores, Hailey Knight,” I thought Oh, that’s kind of cool. Then when I heard, “First place or sportsmanship, Hailey Knight,” I thought, Oh no, I feel bad for the other kids that came, especially if it was their first time. After the show my parents congratulated me and the other kids and then I untacked Wink at one point he bit me because I was trying to take off his bridle then he shoved me into a wall. Thanks Wink! After that we went to eat lunch and when we went home there was a surprise waiting for me. My neighbors and puppies were there and we celebrated. This is the story of me winning my first horse show and to this day I still never regret a minute of any of it.
