a new sweetheart

[Snowflake]

Stella? Get over here. Marissa called. I dropped what I was doing immediately; whatever Marissa wanted, it sounded urgent. After quickly dumping the saddle I was cleaning back on it's rack, I hurried out of the tack room to the wealthy sister of Sarah Star, who owned Green Horse Stables. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of me. Sarah wants you to try one of the new fillies. The bay, Sweet Points. My heart stopped momentarily, and when it started pumping again, it was going twice as fast. My jaw dropped in amazement. So far, the only horses I got to ride were the two maiden turfers, Amazing Grace and Macho Man. Sweet Points was already a proven runner, with three wins down on her record already. She also prefered the turf.

Really? I asked, a little incredulous. I would have thought that Sarah would have wanted to keep the better horses in her charge, rather than under another jockey. This was excellent! Yep. Now get your riding clothes on, and get down to the turf. Marissa said, grinning in spite of herself. I could tell she had wanted Sweet Points for herself, and, judging by the state of her jeans, the filly had decided she didn't like her. I dashed away up to the employee cottage I lived in, threw on my riding outfit, and raced back out down to the turf.

I was out of breath when I got there, and doubled over for a minute or so to catch my breath. Everyone had grins on their faces; apparently I was a bit of a crack up. My eyes swept over the filly's bodice. I liked what I saw, and very much. She had long, shapely legs. Her bay coat had a healthy shine to it, and underneath it I could see the ripple of muscles as she side stepped. Her eyes were bright and intelligent, and she watched me with curiosity. A grin spread slowly across my face. She was perfect.

Stella, this is Sweet Points. From Cold Creek Inc. We have half ownership in her now. Sarah said. For a few moments, I was quite speechless. I stepped forward and offered the gorgeous filly my hand to sniff. She's really something to look at, isn't she? I said finally, awe in my voice. Everyone nodded in agreement. Well, Stella, we want you to give her a try, to see how she goes for you. Sarah said. Up you get. She steered me around to the filly's side, then James hoisted me onto Sweet Point's back. Just take her for a lap on the turf. Test her paces and obedience, and try her gallop. See how she responds to you, and if you two work well together, we might make you her jockey. Cold Creek will have to approve you, though. James said.

I nodded, and then, with a grin still wide on my face, I steered the filly away from the three and onto the turf track. She was certainly lively, but not hard to handle, and had a lovely, prancing walk. Sweet Pea. I said aloud. That's your new nickname. I told her, taking a hand off the reins to pet her neck. The pretty bay bobbed her head as though she knew what I was talking about, causing me to grin again. After a couple of minutes, I decided (or rather Sweet Pea decided for me) that we'd had enough walking and it was time to trot.

She had a nice trot, though it could not be described as smooth. It was, at least easy to ride. I noted that she was very enthusiastic, but not hard to handle in the least. She wasn't trying to launch herself into gallop like some of the other horses I'd ridden, but was minding me politely. I could feel the power circulating in her, and longed to let it out, to go for a good, long, fast gallop. But I had my instructions; I had to test her in every single pace the best I could, first. I turned her through a few warm up exercises to see how she would take it. We often did these with either bored horses, exciteable or unruly horses, or horses who needed a little extra to warm up. Most of the time we just turned them in circles and figure eights to keep their minds on the work.

Good girl. I said approvingly, when she did exactly as I had asked for. I really liked Sweet Pea, she was definitely of champion caliber, at least in my eyes. And her record said it all - 7-3-1-1. It was a fabulous record. I tapped my heels to her sides again, this time urging her to canter. She dropped her head as she switched into the three time pace, lapsing into a smooth canter. As we neared the turn, I switched leads to canter on the inside leg, and held in at a steady pace around the turn. With half of the track spent in warm up, I felt it was finally time to gallop.

Sweet Pea was going well, her eyes trained intelligently on the track ahead, and her ears pinned alertly, listening to all the different sounds around her. She was utterly responsive. Feeling a sense of mounting excitement, I tapped my heels behind her girth, simultaneously slipping her an inch or two more rein. Sweet Pea switched to gallop gracefully, gaining speed quickly, but settling into just a reasonable pace. I could tell she was waiting for me to tell her to really go, and I appreciated this greatly. CCI had done an excellent job of training manners into this one.

We galloped up the backstretch of the turf, and I could tell she like the feel of it. The turf was springy under foot, with just the right amount of give.