A/N
Firstly: I don't know how much you all know about horses and I don't know how many of you are native English speakers, so some of this horse jargon might not make sense to you. If you don't understand anything or want to know anything in particular about any of the horsey stuff here, feel free to ask me about it. I'd be happy to answer any horsey questions! After all, I want you to understand this as much as possible.
And secondly: It has been forever since I've uploaded anything. I'm sorry, but exams came first, and now I'm back. I'm hoping to get back into the multi-chapters I have going, but for now, here's a one shot set in the same universe as "Emergency Room Anguish". Enjoy!
Tom took in the surroundings of the vast expanse of green fields around him as he and Sybil walked through the long grass, hand in hand, to bring Pebble in from the field. Since going out with Sybil, he'd spent more time around horses than he ever thought he would in his lifetime, and though he was still wary, he was getting more and more used to the company of the majestic animals.
On this occasion, Sybil had organised with a group of horsey friends to get together for a Chase Me Charlie afternoon. She loved these competitions when she was a part of the Pony Club and it was a unanimous decision between her and her friends that it would be a fun way to spend the day, despite being adults. Why couldn't adults have the same fun as children?
It was a gorgeous day for a fun ride. The forecast kept changing and it was uncertain whether they would have to cancel for too much rain or wind. Though it had rained in the morning, the sun had brightened everything up and it was turning into a lovely afternoon to be riding. Luckily, the puddle in the outdoor arena had dried up, and the water that remained in the sand was a pleasant amount to have to ride in.
Sybil had had to explain to Tom many times what Chase Me Charlie was and yet he still wasn't sure how it worked. The aim of the game was to see how high the horses could jump. The jumps always started low enough to walk over. Everyone jumped the fence and then the jump was put up slightly and everyone jumped that jump and it was put up again and so on. If you knocked down a pole or refused the jump, then you were out, but the competition continued for everyone else. In the end, last man standing wins.
Sybil wasn't expecting to win, but she was looking forward to it like it was her tenth birthday. She distinctly remembered being very excited that she was into double digits when she woke up about three hours earlier than usual on that birthday all those years ago.
She and Tom had arrived at the stables and grabbed a head collar and carrot to go and fetch Pebble from the field.
Tom had discovered that he actually didn't mind the idea of being around horses now. It meant he got more fresh air than he otherwise would and he was beginning to see the appeal of riding. Of course, he had seen Sybil fall off more than once, with the first time being more than traumatic enough, but he could see how happy Sybil and her friends were when they were riding, and that, in turn, made him happier.
As they came to the gate of the field, Sybil spotted Pebble about half way across the field. She called his name and he looked up at her briefly before returning to his patch of grass.
"Typical," Sybil huffed good-naturedly.
She and Tom climbed over the gate and began to walk towards the dapple grey Irish sport horse, who made no effort to close the distance between horse and rider, but at least didn't try to trot away, as Sybil knew many horses did. Tom had been at the stables enough that he could now recognise some of the geldings. There was Diamond, Mary's thoroughbred, for a start. There was Toby, a huge and muscly old 17hh skewbald and a little bay pony called Milo, who was often used for lessons with younger children who didn't know the first thing about horses. He knew of a few other geldings, but he couldn't see them. Maybe they were already in the stables or maybe they were out on hacks. As the mares and geldings were kept in separate fields, he didn't know any of the mares by name.
As Sybil approached Pebble, he realised that she had a carrot and suddenly his ears were pricked and he was happy to be brought in. She offered the carrot, secured the head collar quietly and led him towards the gate with Tom by her side. Having done this a few times before with Sybil, Tom knew to walk ahead and open the gate so that Sybil and Pebble could just walk out and Sybil wouldn't have to juggle a gate with one hand and a horse with the other. They waited patiently on the other side of the gate whilst Tom closed it and tied the rope around the end of the gate. Pebble dropped his head to the lush grass as soon as he could, despite having spent all night and all morning in a field full of grass.
They walked through the fields, Sybil and Tom again holding hands the whole way, until they reached the yard where Sybil led Pebble into an empty stable and then went to fetch the grooming kit and tack. When she returned to the stable, she sighed as she realised how muddy Pebble was. It was great that he was out in the field; he could run around to his heart's content and it was good for him, but he also had to opportunity to roll in the mud, and since it had rained in the morning, the mud had clung to him and Sybil had the marvellously glamorous challenge of getting it off. She put the saddle over the stable door and balanced the bridle on top of it before putting the grooming kit on the floor outside the stable and picking up both a rubber curry comb and a body brush.
Once she was in the stable with the door closed and locked behind her, she ran the curry comb all over Pebble's body in small circles, excluding the more delicate areas of the legs and face, which dislodged most of the dirt. She went over the area smoothly with the body brush, following the line of hair and focusing mostly on the saddle and girth patch. She didn't want the saddle or girth rubbing against missed dirt, particularly if they were going to spend their time jumping. Though Pebble had never had saddle sores while Sybil had owned him, she knew that with a past owner with ill-fitting tack, he had had them more than once, so she was always particularly careful to prevent them.
Once she'd finished with the body brush, she got Tom, who was still standing outside the stable door, to swap the curry comb and body brush for the hairbrush, with which she untangled Pebble's tail and mane. Luckily his tail wasn't too thick. She knew one of the riders taking part in the Chase Me Charlie had a cob, whose tail was a ridiculous size and it took Jenny seemingly forever to untangle all the knots from it.
For more formal competitions Sybil would plait his mane and tail, but it took too long for Sybil to bother with it most of the time. Last, but not least, was to pick out his hooves to remove any lodged stones or mud, of which there was always lots when he had been out in the field, particularly when the ground was wet.
As Sybil was finishing up, she was chatting to Tom about various things; how Tom's mum's birthday was coming up and Sybil was invited to the family meal, even though it would mean a trip to Ireland; how the sun had finally come out and hopefully it would stay that way; how Mary would have a struggle getting ready in time unless she turned up pretty soon.
Sybil handed the used hoof pick to Tom over the stable door to put back in the grooming kit and Sybil grabbed the bridle to put it on. Pebble was being very calm, which Sybil was pleased about, but he wouldn't open his mouth to get the bit in. This wasn't unusual for Pebble – he quite often didn't open his mouth and needed some encouragement. "Come on, Pebble," Sybil said gently. "Open your mouth," she said as she carefully put her thumb into the side of his mouth and applied gentle pressure again the part of his mouth with no teeth to get him to open his mouth, all the while holding the bit in front of his nose with her other hand. He opened his mouth and Sybil slotted the bit in and then brought his ears to the correct side of the headpiece. In moments she had pulled his forelock over the browband, fastened the nose band and the throat lash and was turning to grab the saddle.
She lifted the saddle, with numnah attached, and placed it gently on Pebble's back, adjusting it so that it was in the correct position. She pulled the girth beneath his chest and fastened the buckles. He and most other horses had figured out that if they breathed in when their girth was being done up, they could have a loose saddle when they were being ridden. Of course, most riders knew this and would do the girth up again before mounting up and then yet again once mounted, but before they started riding. But this didn't stop Pebble from making it difficult for Sybil at this stage.
"Okay," Sybil said, turning to Tom. "I need to get my hat and gloves, and then I'm ready."
She came out of the stable door and walked towards the tack room again to find said hat and gloves and returned with them on, and also a body protector. She had spotted it in the tack room and it occurred to her that perhaps it was a good idea to play it safe as she was planning on jumping some considerable heights. The last thing she wanted was to fall onto a pole with no protection whatsoever.
As she held Pebble's reins to lead him out of the stable she stopped when she walked past Tom.
"You alright?" she asked softly. "You look a bit… I don't know… off." She couldn't pinpoint what it was, but he just didn't look comfortable.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just don't fall off this time please," he replied, putting his hands on her waist gently.
She leaned up to kiss him and whispered, "I won't. I promise."
She mounted up once she was in the yard, with Pebble walking forward, as per usual, whilst Sybil was only half on. She adjusted her stirrups and tightened her girth before riding up to the arena, where a few of her friends had already begun warming up. Tom stood outside the arena, leaning against the fence, ready to film once the jumping started. Just as Sybil entered, she saw Mary leading Diamond into the stable block to get him ready.
"She's cutting it fine," Sybil said under her breath.
"Pardon?" Jenny said, as she walked past on General, the cob with the huge tail.
"Oh, nothing," Sybil said.
As all the remaining riders finished tacking up their horses and entered the arena, Sybil warmed up Pebble with a bit of walk, trot and canter on each rein. There was an excited buzz in the air about the upcoming challenge and Helen and Jack, the two who weren't riding, set up the first jump, on the smallest jump possible on the jump wings.
Tom took out his phone and opened the camera app. Though video footage of horses isn't what one would expect to find on Tom's phone, he had begun to realise how interesting it was since going out with Sybil. He realised that there was so much he never knew about horses, and besides, he knew Sybil would like to watch the footage of her jumping and learn from any mistakes.
There were a few other people standing by the side of the arena, whom he presumed were non-horsey partners or friends, just like him, some of whom were also preparing to film the event.
"Okay, who wants to start?" Jack asked the riders.
"I will," William said. Tom recognised William from when he first came to the stables to watch Sybil's clear round. That was the occasion when she had had to go to the hospital after falling off, which had frightened the life out of Tom. Ever since then, he had always thought of William as a kind-hearted and good person. Now Tom had seen him ride a few times and realised that he was a good horseman.
William squeezed his horse forward effortlessly. She was a relatively young grey Arabian mare called Luna. Tom had found it odd to start with that she had a more concave face than most of the other horses, but Sybil informed him later that it was simply a feature of Arabian horses. Luna was a forward going horse, and had rather fine features, but she was a good jumper.
She had a light canter stride, which hardly changed for the tiny jump, barely higher than a pole on the ground. Despite how effortless it was, the audience and other mounted riders applauded William before Mary moved forward to take her go.
She too completed the jump with no problem, as did all the other five riders.
Tom noticed how each horse was very different. They were all of different colours, shapes and sizes and they each had their own personalities. Pebble was good at doing what he was told, but could get a bit disobedient with the 'mob mentality' of larger events. Luna was only eight years old and had a lot more to learn, but William had trained her well and the bond he had formed with her from when she was a filly had only strengthened with time. Everyone knew that nobody could ride Luna like William could. Mary's black gelding, Diamond, was a good all-rounder and he and Mary had a good way of working together. Tom knew Toby, the huge 17hh gelding, but was surprised to find that he was an old boy and was no longer in the prime of his life, so he was mellow and extremely calm. Of course, if he had wanted to bolt, any rider wouldn't have had to strength to stop him, but it was so unlikely that he was often ridden by inexperienced riders to build their confidence. However, on this occasion, he was being ridden by Joshua, an experienced rider who had started riding at around the same time as Sybil. Jenny was riding General, who would never make a champion show jumper, but clearly loved jumping, despite his limited range. Delilah, who was younger than Sybil, rode a middle-aged, rather naughty little bay New Forest pony gelding called Polo. Last, but not least there was Harry, a thirty or so year old man, riding a chestnut thoroughbred called Lucy.
They all made the first set of jumps as expected and the jump was significantly higher by the time anything went wrong.
With each jump, Tom followed the horses with his phone, panning back each time to catch the beginning of the next horse's jump.
Polo almost refused the 2ft jump, and would have stopped completely if it hadn't been for Delilah showing the misbehaving pony who was in charge with a strong leg and a growl. At 2ft9, Toby lost his momentum and halted before the jump, causing Joshua to be thrown off sideways, almost landing on the jump pole itself. Toby had clearly worked as hard as he was going to for the rest of the day and Joshua knew he couldn't push him. But as a matter of principle, he mounted up again and attempted the jump a second time so that they could end on a high. With a bit of added encouragement, and cheers from the crowd, Toby made it over with a heavy thud, and was given a pat and a round of applause. They remained in the arena to watch the others and give them support, but Joshua dismounted and loosened Toby's girth to allow him to relax.
Polo knocked a pole down at the 3ft3 jump, as did General. It was hardly surprising, as Polo wasn't a large horse and Delilah wasn't massively experienced, so a jump that size was bound to daunt both horse and rider. As for General, he was large and muscly, so it took a lot of effort to get himself up off the ground. Nevertheless, both riders were happy with what they had achieved and sat back with Toby and Joshua to admire the jumping of the others.
"Only four left!" Helen said once she and Jack had moved the jump up again.
The jump got to 3ft9 before there were any other disasters. There had been a few minor problems before, involving Pebble losing concentration and tripping over his own feet, making Sybil circle again before the jump. There had been a few nudged poles, but none that had completely fallen and Lucy had decided to put in a couple of bucks at one point, which made great entertainment for the other riders as they knew Harry was a good enough rider to stay on without any trouble. But now at the 4ft3 mark, Pebble refused the jump, stopping dead in his tracks. As it happened, Tom sucked in a breath through his teeth as he thought back to that clear round, willing the same thing not to happen again, and luckily it didn't. Sybil lost a stirrup and ended up wrapping her arms around Pebble's neck to avoid falling on the floor, but Sybil had been riding long enough that she didn't panic, managed to shimmy herself back into the saddle and was able to retry (and succeed) at the jump this time.
William, Mary and Harry remained. They all cleared a few more jumps, but once the jump got to 5ft, the winner emerged. None of the three of them cleared it. Luna and Diamond knocked the pole off and Lucy ran out, almost causing Harry to fall off with the unexpected turn.
Helen and Jack, who had been working together to pick up the poles when fallen and to put the jump up when it had been cleared by everyone, decided that all three should try the jump again. If none of them cleared it a second time, then they would put the jump back down and take it from there.
This time Mary went first and again knocked down a pole, but despite this, she wasn't unhappy. Diamond had done better than she thought he would. William went next and cleared the jump, much to his own surprise, causing everyone to cheer loudly for him. Harry urged Lucy on, who this time, jumped it instead of running out, but did knock off the pole.
This led to William's victory and many congratulations from everyone. They all stayed in the arena for a while, walking their horses around to cool them off and having a chat about the event and how they all did. Sybil stopped at the side of the arena to chat to Tom.
"What did you think?" she asked.
"I thought we were going to have another trip to the hospital at one point!" he laughed.
"I wasn't going to let that happen!" Sybil smiled back. "Did you film the whole thing?"
"Yeah, and only a couple of mishaps," he said back.
"I haven't jumped that high with Pebble in months, and I wasn't expecting the jump to get that high by the end of it, so I think it all went pretty well, really," she said.
The gate to the arena was opened and everyone filed out, so Sybil followed, allowing Pebble to walk on a long rein, knowing that he wasn't going to go anywhere. She returned to the stable and untacked him, then brushed off some of the sweat caused by the exercise. She gave him another carrot as a reward for such good work, and let him eat it as she took the saddle, grooming kit and bridle back to the tack room, with Tom's help. Whilst she was there, she put her body protector, helmet and gloves back and wrapped her arms around Tom's neck to kiss him before leaving the building.
She found Mary and Joshua starting on their way to turn out Diamond and Toby, and as Sybil was headed towards the same field, she said, "Wait for me!"
They walked towards the field for the last time that day, Sybil and Tom not surprisingly holding hands again. Once the horses were turned out, they all stayed by the gate to watch Toby and Pebble roll in the muddy grass. Sybil knew that she would just have to groom all of that mud off him next time she rode, but for now she found it quite amusing. It was always good to see a horse roll. It was a sign that they felt safe and were happy, which Sybil always loved to see.
Sybil, Tom, Mary and Joshua walked back to the stable block to find William just taking Luna back out to the mares' field.
"Well done again, William. Luna was really good today," Sybil said kindly.
"Thanks, Sybil," William said as he walked past. "She was on top form today."
Joshua kindly offered to take Sybil's head collar back so that she and Tom could go home straight away.
"Would you?" Sybil said, surprised. "You're the best, thanks Joshua." She handed him the head collar and gave him a quick hug before she and Tom walked back to the car.
Sybil settled in the driver's seat with Tom as her passenger and before she started the engine, she turned to him and said,
"Thanks for coming. You didn't have to, you know."
"I wanted to," he said softly.
"I'm glad," she replied, before Tom leaned forward and caught Sybil in a passionate kiss, nibbling at her lower lip, joined over the division between the two seats. When they parted, both breathless, they stared at each other for a while.
"You know what I'm thinking now?" Tom asked with a cheeky smirk.
"You're going to have to wait until we're home for that one, sweetheart," Sybil said, turning to face forwards with her hands on the wheel. She turned on the engine and couldn't stop thinking of what was waiting for her when she arrived at home. She knew it would be a great end to a great competition.