#ssoedits

Day 2 : Liberty 

Considering how stressed I was for the trot up the day before, I actually woke up quite late. When I first woke up it took me 2 minutes to realize where I actually was and why I wasn’t in my own bed. Then I realized - I’d rented a small room in Valedale and a stable for Sunny whilst the event was on. 

I got dressed, had a quick bowl of cereal whilst checking my notifications on Facebook and Instagram, and then meandered down towards the stables. The atmosphere was unbelievable. People and horses everywhere once again, some grooms were mucking out, some riders were attempting to bath, some lunging, others just having a chat with their friends over a cup of coffee.

Today was the first proper day of the competition, and it was Liberty. I’d never done Liberty with Sunny before, heck, I’d only owned her a week and had ridden her once. I really had thrown us both in at the deep end with this show. Mistake? We’d find out. 

I’d pondered what I’d possibly be able to do with her, and I could already feel myself start to panic. The times for each competitor had been released about 10 minutes earlier so I rushed over to see what time I’d be competing. There was more than one double sided list of names, and three breaks in the day. I scanned the list looking for my name, not on the first sheet...not on the second....there it was. I was dead last on the third sheet. Which I suppose was lucky, It meant I’d have a bit of time to try and do *something* with Sunny, and at least let me have an idea of what I was letting myself in for. 

The day flew by pretty quickly, once I’d mucked Sunny out and done all her jobs, I walked up towards the Hollow Woods where Liberty was being held. Some of the bonds of the riders and horses were unbelievable! One rider was near galloping around the makeshift arena, directing her horse and changing transitions with only her voice, and finished her performance by getting her horse to bow right down, and she dismounted over his head. What on earth?! I couldn’t compete with that! 

After that, I scurried back down to the stables, put Sunny’s headcollar back on, and led her up towards Valedale arena where I practiced riding her bareback, first with a bridle, then with a headcollar, and then with a neckrope, and then trying to get her to follow me on the ground.

Once I’d come back down, the final break was over and the final list of competitors were left to go. There had been a few delays throughout the day and so now it was getting quite late.  It was around 6pm now and it was starting to get dark. The amount of activity round by the stables had diminished, most riders had put their horses away for the evening and had either gone home for the night, or were down by the Hollow Woods watching the final few competitors. 

After a quick groom, a pep talk, and fixing myself up, we were ready. I led Sunny down towards the Hollow Woods. Luckily there were some temporary spotlights set up so it didn’t go completely pitch black and people could actually see what they were doing, the moon was shining bright with moonlight dancing through the trees, and there were fireflies weaving in and out of the crowd and investigating the horses. 

“...And the last competitor of the day, and a new competitor on the circuit, Vivien Wolflee and Miss Sunshine Type!” The judge blared over a speaker.  

That was me. 

I entered the makeshift arena and slipped off Sunny’s headcollar. For a minute, Sunny was just trotting around with no real direction. She was anxious. She started whinnying, and spooking at people in the crowd. I started cringing, but tried to keep it cool. I just walked around the arena, trying to get her attention.

Day | Rain | Night

Hurricane Irma