True Height
True Height-An inspirational horse story
Her palms were sweating so badly she needed to release the tight grip on the reins to roughly wipe her hands on the new white jodhpurs her mother bought her.
She felt her bay mare paw at the ground with excitement and heard the loud cheers of encouragement from the stands.
She took a deep breath in trying, unsuccessfully, to settle the butterflies diving, swirling and zigzagging crazily in her stomach.
Eva Hensley was facing one of the toughest competition days of her life, The National Showjumping Competition.
Eva had felt confident about this day but now in the ring, painfully waiting for the start gun, she was a little unsure. She leant forward and felt her horses warm neck, gently giving her an encouraging pat she whispered “This is it…concentrate…concentrate…..get ready”
Eva heard the starter’s footsteps gently treading on the saw dusted ground “Are you ready to go?” He asked tapping her on the leg that was trembling in her stirrup. “Ready as we’ll ever be” she managed to squeak. Eva tightened her grip on the reins as the starter walked briskly away. The stadium’s crowd turned deafly silent as Eva nudged her mare ‘Marpy’ into a trot circling the arena.
After the second time around the ring she and Marpy flew gracefully into a canter.
The warning bell rang out.
{Warning bells give the rider 60 seconds to attempt any jumps they find a bit intimidating, unsure about or that they don’t like the look of. After that 60 seconds is up the starting bell sounds out and that’s when the rider must complete the course from beginning to end while trying not to knock any over}.
Eva had owned Marpy since she was a foal. Her parents thought it would be a good way for her to find some independence. They had a special bond and Eva trusted Marpy to look after her. The only time Eva felt safe and free of her handicap was when she was riding.
The crowd watched intensively as Marpy cantered around the ring, they wondered why Eva was not attempting any jumps in this 60 second period. Was she so confident of their performance that she felt she didn’t need to go over any practise jumps? After all they were quite high and only one other competitor had completed the round of 4ft jumps with only one rail down.
Time was up and the starting bell screamed out over the crowd.
“This is the real thing now...c’mon” she gasped to Marpy. She pushed her mare on and felt the quick movements of her turning around to face the direction of the first jump.
With thirteen smooth thuds of the hoof beats along the ground she felt Marpy soar over the jump and land neatly on the other side already turning to face the next difficult show jump.
Eva let out a greatful sigh when she realized Marpy had done it for her and now felt that familiar confidence sweep over her and knew she could do it. After everything they had worked for she wasn’t going to loose it now.
They were almost at the end, at the tenth jump, when all of a sudden Marpy slowed down. The crowd came out of their silent awe and gasped in unison ‘Oh no…it must be a water jump’ Eva thought quickly knowing that Marpy hated water.
She nudged her in desperation “Please don’t do this to me now”. She sat expertly out of the saddle and leant forward to place a shaking hand on the horses sweating neck.
With three hoof beats that matched Eva’s strained, pounding heartbeat perfectly, Marpy leapt from the familiar, solid ground using her powerful hind legs to propel the both of them effortlessly into the air.
On landing the crowd had risen to their feet and burst into loud applause for the two well deserved winners of the event.
Everyone was ecstatic about the win but it want just because Eva had worked so hard at this or because it was the highest the two of them had jumped before but because… Eva was blind.
Copyright 2002-Z.H.A
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