Rebound *Book Two*

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Two

At sixty-five degrees and sunny, the weather is perfect outside. It is now four in the afternoon and the dressage for the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event has come to a close. Mark left a few minutes ago to get my dressage test results. I sit nervously outside the tack room, bouncing my legs up and down. I have changed out of my dressage clothes and into a pair of sweats, Sperry's, and a hunter green Rolex sweatshirt from a few years ago when I went as a spectator.

Matt is removing Rebound's ice boots while April is holding his lead rope in the aisle, mumbling inaudible words to him. GiGi, Drew, Dee, and Mom left to go and watch the Kentucky Reining Cup and wished me good luck with my placings.

"Get over here and help my with Rebound, Ali. You need to be occupied or you are going to explode." Matt says to me, shaking the ice out onto the grass from the boots. "Grab the poulticing and Magic Cushion stuff, will you?" Matt asks me, setting the boots down.

I walk into the tack room and grab my large bucket of poulitce equiptment and Magic Cushion, and walk back out to Matt and April. Setting the bucket down, I grab two pairs of latex gloves and hand one pair to Matt. I pull my pair on and fill a smaller bucket with lukewarm water. Poulticing helps relieve heat, inflammation, and soreness in horses after strenuous activity. Rebound will also be poulticed after cross country and show jumping, in addition to his hooves being packed with Magic Cushion. Magic Cushion has a similar effect like poultice, but it reduces pain and heat resulting from concussion and trauma within the hoof structure from hard exercise. This will be done after competition throughout the week as well.

"I will do the front if you do the back." I tell Matt. He nods to me and we both take a large glob of the Uptite poultice in our hands. I evenly spread the thick, sticky mixture on Rebound's front legs from just below his knees to his fetlock joints. I wait for Matt to finish the back legs before tearing two pieces of poultice paper. I soak the paper in the lukewarm water before ringing both of them out. I wrap Rebound's front legs with the paper as Matt does the same with the back. The paper helps prevent the wraps from sticking to the poultice. Then, I take one of my white front No Bow wraps and wrap it around Rebound's leg. I prefer the No Bow wraps over quilt wraps because the No Bow's memory foam material prevents bunching up and bowing of tendons. Then, I take a hunter green stable bandage and wrap it around the No Bow wrap. The stable bandage will keep the wraps from slipping. I do the same to Rebound's other leg and help Matt finish up with the back.

"Now time for the Magic Cushion." I say to Matt, wiping some poultice I got on my arm onto my sweat pants. I put on a new pair of latex gloves and open up the container of Magic Cushion. I take a handful of the disgusting, sticky, and sap smelling substance into the palm of my hand and pack it into Rebound's hoof. Matt walks over with a handful of stall shavings in his hands and pats it onto Rebound's hoof, covering the Magic Cushion. Covering the hoof with shavings, or wrapping it, keeps the Magic Cushion in place.

By the time we finish all four hooves, Mark is back. The minute I see him pull up in the golf cart my nerves bundle up again. In the golf cart with him is Dee, Mom, GiGi, and Drew. They all are clearly trying to hide their smiles. Dee waves a white paper at me, which I know is my dressage test marks. Matt walks Rebound into his stall and quickly puts away the equiptment we used. April takes the dirty gloves from me and tosses them in the trash.

I watch as everyone climbs out of the golf cart. Mark smiles at me as he takes the test out of Dee's hand, and walks up to me. "Why don't you look at the test first." He says, as everyone surrounds me, curious to see my reaction.

~

Taking a deep breath, I unfold the test and glance down. I have no clue what to expect. Since there are three judges, their scores for each movement get averaged together for the final score. I have had some judges before that love me, but another one doesn't and I get a poor score.

My eyes pop out of my head as I see the scores that each judge gave me. Jaw dropped, I look at the scores again just to make sure my eyes don't decieve me. The judge at E gave me a 72.67. The judge at C game me a 70.00, and the judge at M gave me a 70.67. Letting my eyes wander I see that the average and actual score I got is a 43.3! This score is enough to get me in the top 10 after dressage!

"What... What are my placings?" I manage to spit out. I have to close my eyes for a second to recollect myself. "Oh my god..." I say to myself. Suddenly I feel dizzy and light headed. Mark smiles at me.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" Dee hands me a white score sheet titled, "Rolex Dressage Leaderboard".

I run my eyes up the paper until I see "16 - Allison Michels - Back In Action". Then, I run my eyes across the paper to see what place I got after dressage.

This is it.

When I see my placing, the paper drops out of my grasp.

Oh.

My.

God.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hehe how do you guys like the cliff hanger ;) Well anyways it is spring break for me so I am doing a lot of writing. I am going to Chicago for the weekend but that is pretty much it for my spring break, other than riding four + horses everyday. Who needs a break? Not me!

Thanks for reading!!