Why Me

A lot of things happen for the rest of the day. We have to help set up, and have to get our horses ready, and we have to change clothes.

I’m getting Shah ready when Henry comes to Shah’s stall. He’s wearing his normal jumping clothes. A light blue shirt, navy pants, and a jacket. “Are you feeling any better? I hope you are.”

I smile a little bit. “I have a question for you, Fae.” Henry says. “No offence, but why are you still doing the competition?”

“The competition is important, and I can not back down from it now. I’ve gotten so far with my training, and if I don’t do this now, I’ll never be able to do this again.”

“Ok, good enough for me. Well, I need to go get Shadow ready. Good luck!” He then leaves. Shadow is Henry’s horse. He is an 8 year old black Quarter horse.

Katie is getting her horse ready in the stall next to mine. Katie’s horse is named Trixy. Trixy is a pinto pony, that is 4 years old. “Don’t think about what happened today. It will only mess you up. You are the best jumper here; we know you can do it. Don’t look at the audience and only focus on the jumps.”

I then go and change into my clothes. I’m wearing my khaki colored jumping pants, my white shirt, and a navy jacket.

I lead Shah out to the arena. I get on him and start warming him up. I check in and get my number. I’m number 7. Henry and Katie come out. Henry is number 4, and Katie is number 12.

There are a lot of people I was competing against. I start to get nervous again.

“Don’t worry, you’ll do great!” Katie says, seeing me getting nervous.

“Ya, you’re the best on our team!” Henry puts in.

And with that, the competition starts.

First up is some guy named Andrew Elm. He is on a horse named Thunderbird. He scored a 10, 9, 7, and a 10.

Henry is getting ready. He looks a little nervous, yet calm at the same time.

Durring the next few, I look around. The arena is huge. There are 6 jumps in all. All the jumps except the 6th one, are all 5 ft tall. The 6th one is a 6ft jump, and it has 5 poles on it. Durring practice Shah kept knocking 2 poles down. ‘I hope Shah can jump over that jump without hitting the poles.’ I think to myself.


When it is Henry’s turn, he just went for it, and he does great. He only makes one mistake. His scores are 10, 9, 9, and 9.

My turn is coming up soon. My mind goes crazy with many thoughts. I think about how I worked so hard to get this far, about what happened earlier today, and that my parents aren’t here again.

“I told you not to think about it. Just focus on the horse. It’s your turn. Good luck!” Katie says to me while calming her horse down, which is going crazy.

I get going. I turn the corner towards the first jump. Then the second, third, fourth, and fifth jumps. I get to the last jump, and I remember all the times Shah knocked off the poles, but this time, he doesn’t knock any down!

When I get back, Katie and Henry are there. They are very happy for me. “I told you your were the best.” Katie says. My scores are 10, 10, 9, and 10.

Mark comes up to me. “Fae, you did a great job! I’m proud of you. I’m leaving, but I wanted to congratulate you. I’ll see you after school.” He then left.

I then think to myself, ‘I thought no one was gonna come to see me, but Mark came!’ I don’t notice Katie jumping up and down, yelling my name.

“What Katie, what?”

“You won! You got gold! You did it! You did it!” Katie yells.

I’m so happy I forget about my family not being alive, and that moment.