[CARA-JEAN KITCHI]

our voices carry

careful words we can barely speak out loud

“The secret of flight is this
you have to do it immediately,
before your body realizes
it is defying the laws.”
- Michael Cunningham

The sun was just caressing the tops of the trees as Cara led the Irish Draught stallion out of the barn and after tightening the girth, she used the arena fence as a mounting block and mounted the giant horse. "Easy, boy." She soothed quietly as the horse shifted uneasily under her, throwing his head into the air, blowing steam out his nostrils, as though he could sense that something different was going to happen today. After all, they weren't in the arena, or the pasture where they normally worked, they were out in the open. "You're okay. Let's go and have some fun." She took up the reins and squeezed the horse forward, using her seat and legs to guide him as they headed down the path to the cross country course.

Reaching the gate, she asked the grey horse to halt as she leaned down and unlatched the gate, pleased that all the work she had been doing with the stallion was working, and asked him to move forward as she opened the gate enough so that he could walk around it without catching his hips, and then turned him back to the gate as she pushed it closed and latched it again. "Let's go and fly." She turned him away from the gate as they headed toward the course, asking him for a trot as she let him have a look at the jumps of the novice course she planned to take him over. She was sure that the stallion would make a good eventer, she just had to convince the horse that he wanted to.

When she was happy that he was warmed up, she quickly checked her phone to make sure she still had enough time, and then rode Apeiros back to the start of the course, rode a circle and asked for a canter as they came out of the circle and she rode the stallion toward the small log that started the course. "Un, deux, trois," she counted softly as she rose into two-point, "et plus." She grinned as the stallion lifted into the air, clearing the log as though it was three times the size, and Cara was already looking in the direction of the next jump, rubbing the stallion's shoulder as he gave a playful, ready for the next jump, pulling at the reins as he fought for his head, wanting to gallop.

OpEn

###

NOTES

ulla