Duchess (No title yet, comment what it should be)

by Hannah
(Minnesota)

OK I know its not good, but I'm hoping to get it edited and make it much better.
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The day was beautiful. The wind was wiping my hair, and I felt the hoof beats thumping on the ground to the exact beat of my heart. I felt every muscle of the amazing horse beneath me. I leaned forward as we approached a fallen tree, and suddenly we were flying. No longer horse and rider, but one creature. Different bodies, but one heart, one soul. I gripped my legs around Duke's bare sides as we landed, then sat up again as we cantered through the hills, me riding bareback on Duke.

Suddenly I heard a strange buzz, sounding slightly like muffled words...."Wff Uff" It whispered "Wafe Uf" The words got clearer. "Wake up! Wake up! Please!" Suddenly Duke turned blurry, then disappeared as a fluffy pink pillow fell from the top bunk of the bunk bed I shared with my 6 year old sister, Alex.

"Wake up, please!"
I sat up so fast that I banged my head on the bed above me.

"Ow! What do you want Alex?"
"I'm scared" She whimpered sleepily, "I had a nightmare."
"Oh. Well, why don't you come sit with me for a while?" She nodded and climbed down the ladder slowly.
"Bring me your hairbrush" I told her gently. She nodded and grabbed it off her dresser, then brought it to me and sat down on the foot of my bed, her legs crossed under her.
I ran the brush through her hair slowly, and she slumped down and lay snoring softly in my lap.
I gently picked her up-she weighed nothing compared to my Western saddle-and tucked her into the bed. I climbed up to top bunk and fell asleep to dream about Duke again.

"Come on Monica!" My older brother Zack called.
"You have done this hundreds of times of other horses!" I nodded and turned Duchess in a circle. She was usually a broodmare, but because her foals were good in jumping, we were training her.

I turned her to face the jump and urged her into a canter. We cantered up to a 4 foot jump and soared over. Suddenly Duchess tensed. "Oh no" I thought. I leaned forward as she reared up, then galloped and jumped the fence. I pulled back on the reins and turned her in 2 tight circles.
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I'll add more later, I don't have enough time now. Comment if you want the rest or I won't bother posting. :)

Duchess - Part 2 or Just a Dream (Still haven't decided on the title!)

by Hannah
(Minnesota)

OK so here's where I left off....
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I turned Duchess in two tight circles. Zack came over to me and helped me calm Duchess.
"Well that was... Exhilarating" I said, a little bit short of breath.

"Yeah," Said Zach. "Well, I think that's probably enough for one night. We'll try again tomorrow."
"Yeah," I agreed sullenly. We had worked so hard. "Tomorrow."

We trotted across the arena and got ready to train some of our other horses.

In the barn, we owned around 16 horses. We bred them, trained them, sold them and bought them in an endless cycle-except for 4 of them, one for me (Zorra) One for Zack (Comet)One for Alex (Sunny) And one for Max (Rocket).

After a long day of hard work, I was relieved to finally collapse into bed.
And I slept well most of the night.

"Duchess!" I heard Zack yell, but it sounded far away. "Monica where's Duchess?" My mind was fuzzy but I answered the best I could.

"The...Barn" I said sleepily, then more clearly, "She's in the barn. You put her away remember?" I sighed and turned over on my pillow. The pouring rain tapping against my window put me to sleep.

"Monica!" Zack said again. "I went out to check on Duchess and she was gone! Did we latch the stall door?" I vaguely remembered putting her in her stall, but couldn't recall latching the door. Oops.

I jumped out of bed and through on my boots. Zack followed me as I raced out the door. 10 minutes later we were racing through the woods on horseback and calling out Duchess's name. We had checked the latch, and sure enough it was unlocked.
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I'll finish later... Comment on the title again!

Duchess 3 / Just a Dream

by Hannah
(Minnesota)

MAJOR WRITER'S BLOCK
Sorry to the people who read these, but I haven't been able to write at all. I know, the stories are getting worse, but I'll edit them and post a "Final Copy" On here sometime..
Here's where I left off (Sorry I'm not doing it in chapters really I'm just stopping when I need to get off the computer....)
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Sure enough, we had left the stall unlatched.

"Do you think we'll find her?" I shouted over the wind.

"I don't know," Zack replied, "I hope so"

Finally we reached the river.

"You go left," Zack told me, "I'll go right. Turn on your cell phone and call me if you find her. Meet back here in an hour."

I nodded and kicked Duke into a canter. Yes, the Duke from my dream.

"Duchess!" I yelled into the pouring rain "Where are you?"

After 45 minutes of searching, I started losing hope.

Then I heard the neigh.

"Duchess?" I called out. The rain was coming down harder than ever, and lightning flashed above.

"Duchess?" I yelled louder. Then I saw a horse. She wore a ripped blanket, and was soaking wet and covered in mud. Her lead rope on her halter was caught on a branch of a fallen tree(Though I wasn't sure why she was wearing a lead rope in the first place).

I walked Duke over to her and dismounted. Up close, I could see the terror in her eyes. But this wasn't Duchess. It couldn't be. I inspected her for injuries, then slowly reached my hand up to her face. She tried to move, but the rope held her in place.

Again I reached for the halter, but this time she stayed still. Then I remembered Zack.
After a quick phone call, Zack said he'd be at the river in an hour, and to try to lead the horse back.

So I did.
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"So, this is the horse?" My dad asked me.

"Yup" I replied. After a visit from the vet, a bath, and 2 weeks of good food, I was finally riding her, and we were all surprised at the outcome. She was amazing.

"Well, she'll make a great jumper." Commented my mom. We nodded in agreement. Nobody could replace the still missing Duchess, but now we had a new horse to occupy her stall and to train.

"Well why don't we start her on the jumps soon? She'll need a little bit more training on signals, but she should be pretty good." I nodded and hugged him. Lately my days had been packed. We had 3 new horses including this one, and nobody wanted to buy.
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Wow that turned out REALLY bad sorry about that everyone I'll try to make the rest better! I can't think when I'm sick (I've got the flu and I'm bored out of my mind!)

Duchess - Part 4

by Hannah
(Minnesota)

I know, it took me long enough to get this on here, but I followed the advice from a comment (thanks so much to the person who posted it!) and stayed away from writing for a while.

ALSO JUST WANT TO SAY I GOT THE PICTURES FROM GOOGLE! NONE OF THEM ARE ME OR MY HORSE OR RELATED TO ME IN ANY WAY! :)

Well here's the story ;)
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It was summer again, a year later. Still no Duchess. The worst part? Everyone had forgotten about her! Well, everyone but me at least. But I now had a new horse to occupy my time.

Yes, it was that new horse that I had found that rainy night searching for Duchess. She was amazing.

"Why don't you try that triple again?" My dad called out from the fence. "The horse was fine but you looked a little sloppy."
Of course, the horse had looked fine. She was perfect. Everything a rider could ask for, and more. She moved gracefully, her gaits were smooth, she followed my signals perfectly. She was completely amazing, and everything about her screamed "My owner was either really amazing or paid a lot of money to have me trained!" Though we weren't sure which. We had decided to name her Just a Dream, or Dream for short.
Again, we soared over the jumps.
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"Up next is Alex on his horse, Mystery!"
Mystery, a pure black Hanoverian, jumped everything gracefully, and got no faults. His time was 46.3 seconds, which was so far the best.

"Get ready Monica!" My mom said. I nodded, butterflies fluttering around my stomach. "And good luck!"

I nodded and jogged off to the stable to grab Dream.

As soon as I smelled the hay and horses, my nerves calmed. I walked down the isle, looking at each horse. I stopped walking when I saw one. She was dark brown, and I felt a tiny bit of recognition. She looked like....Duchess.

"Duchess?" I asked timidly. "Is that you?" I reached up and she nuzzled my hand. Suddenly I knew how to tell if it was her. Duchess had a little white mark on her neck. covered by her mane. It was shaped like a "D" which is partially why her name was "Duchess"

I reached over and tapped the horse's neck, which had been my signal to get Duchess to turn her head. The mare had her head swung around. I carefully lifted her mane, and sure enough there was a little white "D"

I couldn't believe it.
I'd found Duchess.

Suddenly I heard footsteps. I spun around and saw my mom.
"Are you coming? You're up! Good luck!" She turned and jogged back into the arena.

I grabbed the already tacked up Dream (The grooms tacked the horses for you right before you were up), mounted, and trotted through the barn.
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"Now, we have Monica, riding her horse Just a Dream!"

I patted Dream's clean white neck, and cantered her towards the first jump.

"One, two, three!" I thought, and we were soaring. I turned her left, and we jumped an oxer.
Almost a whole course later, we were at the last 3 jumps-three triples.

We cantered smoothly over the first and second, but the third was higher. I had a horrible image of Dream crashing into the fence and falling, and concentrated all my energy on helping her get over the jump.

But I was wrong to doubt Dream even slightly. She would never let me down, and we soared over the jumps just like all of the rest. She didn't even hesitate, even though she seemed to hate triples.

"What a beautiful horse! And a wonderful ride!" I looked at the board and grinned. Our time was 45! We won first place!

I leaned forward and hugged Dream around her neck as all the other riders trotted out and lined up. The judges came out and clipped the ribbons onto the horse's bridle. I grinned as Dream tried to shake hers off, and hugged her again. I grabbed the blue ribbon off her bridle and held it up triumphantly. We had won first place.