I woke up in the small living room. I was laying on top of a black and comfy couch in front of the big TV of the living room.
What the fuck?
I remembered yesterday’s events with a blur but couldn’t make out how did I get there. Stella obviously didn’t carry me, horses couldn’t climb those stairs, the floor was too slippery for them.
I stood up and grabbed my helmet and gloves which were just beside the couch, on the floor, and headed the small arena.
“Hey, María!” Oriol called me from the medium sized arena. “Meet Supernova” he pointed a dark chestnut pony beside him.
“Good morning! Oh my god, she’s adorable! When did she get here?” I asked as I opened my arms to hug her neck.
“About two days ago, only me and some kids have ridden her, although we think other people could ride her aswell”
“Oh, cool” I stroked her between her ears whilst she closed her dark brown eyes, loving the touch. “By the way, how did I end up in the living room?”
“Oh, easy! Stella carried you to her paddock, but since she had the saddle and all, I untacked her and carried you to the couch so you could get your rest… in at least a comfy place” he grinned.
“Thanks, you’re the best” I smiled him back. His face tensed and his smile fell a bit. We stood in an awkward silence.
“Hmm… you didn’t tell me you relapsed, I saw it when I was lying you down” he almost whispered. Fuck. I was speechless.
“Mari…” he walked to me and I let my arms let go of Supernova’s neck. Oriol stood in front of me with a concerned look in his face and put two fingers under my chin so I was looking at him. “Why?” he simply asked, a bit hurt.
Oriol knew everything about me and my past; when I first started horseriding here I was a complete mess, I couldn’t do shit. I didn’t trust myself, even less than now. Throughout the years, Oriol had seen my scars and cuts; when I fell down he was the first one to get to me and before my mom or anyone got to me, he got the chance to look at my wrists whilst I managed to cover them up discreetely. He never said anything, just some random comments when we were alone, and I thanked thim for that.
“I-I just-“ I started, nearly breaking down. He pulled me into a hug.
“Hey, everything’s gonna me okay, you hear me? I don’t call you the brave one for nothing” he said. He took a deep breath before continuing, “Who was it, that boy with the strange hair or Mikel?”
“Mikel” I mutered. “And a bit of Jack, but it was Mikel’s fault” he pulled me closer.
“What a douche” he said pulling away but placing his hands on my shoulders. “If something else happens, let me know, okay?” he tried to smile, I nodded.
“Thanks, Ori. I don’t really know where I’d be without you” I said, starting to calm down.
“Everything for my blondie” he chuckled softly. I gave him a small punch in the shoulder. He laughed a bit. “That’s my blondie!” I laughed with him and we stood in a comfortable silence when Supernova caught out attention.
“What were you going to do to her?” I asked.
“Oh, we’re just preparing that mid-fall minicourse-“ I cut him off.
“You guys are starting today, right?” I asked. He nodded and continued.
“Yes, you wanna join us? As an instructor?” he asked hapily.
“Yeah, sure” I grinned.

---

The rest of the morning went smoothly. Oriol and I rode Supernova, because she was new and a bit scared (also a bit jumpy) so she calm before any kid jumped on her started kicking the hell out of her. She tried to buck me off three times and tried to buck Oriol off once.
After that lovely morning, some kids started to fill up the small square between reception and the living room. They were between the ages of 6-14 and most of them were adorable. Of course, there were the typical preppy girls, who eyed me like I was a monster or something.
What, haven’t you ever seen an equestrian with stretched ears and tattoos?
I stretched my ears when I was 17 to a 16mm gauges. And I had rose tatoos on my hands, elbows, shoulder and both sides of my neck and deer antlers just below my collar bone. The deer antlers represented nobility and each one of my roses had a name and the place and side meant what each rose did for me but my right hand was empty and waiting to be named.
There are two kinds of equestrians: the preppy asses and the normal ones. The normal ones tend to be in group making some stupid joke or alone and just chilling and they acted normal and looked at you weirdly, but in a friendly way. The preppy asses were just the typical preppy kid ninety times worse, especially if they went horseriding. They looked at you over their shoulder and tried to look like they knew more about horses than you. Their stare was full of shit and they looked brainless.
After dividing the kids into different groups and asigning a horse per pair, some of them tacked the horses up and headed the arenas to begin their first class. The other ones stayed with me and other extra instructors to do theory class. The group I had the first hour and a half was amazing. I found out there was a thirteen-year-old brunette who knew who I was and there was this twelve-year-old girl with dirty blonde hair who was a fan of mine.
The brunette one was a a bit taller than the rest and had bright hazel eyes. She had some spots at the side of her face, but you could barely see them due to her wavy long hair and her tanned skin. She was american and apparently she came to Spain every year to do horseriding and to spend her fall and winter break here. Her name was Hayley.
Then there was this blonde girl. She was the opposite of Hayley; he skin was pale, her eyes were bright grey, a bit blue around the outside part of the iris, her hair was short and straight and she told me she was british, although I already noticed. She told me her family were moving to Barcelona due to business and since I was here she wanted to be near me. Her name was Alice.
We didn’t really do theory class; I only taught them the different types of coat colors (there are only 7), and then we talked about ourselves and got to know each other. Then we went to have breakfast and they went to get their horses.
In the afternoon, instead of class we untacked the horses and tacked the ponies up. We did some activities in pairs and the ponies were assigned randomly by raffle.

---

The week went like that until the third day. It was in the afternoon and Alice was riding Supernova in the small arena, a 20x40 rectangle.
The side of the arena which touched the small hill of the stables, instead of a normal fence, had a small fence on the ground; a long pice of wood sticking out and it was about 15cm above the sand of the arena. We were riding bareback. Those who wanted to, could canter a bit and maybe jump over a 40cm cross.
Alice was moving a bit too much on top of Supernova and looked nervous, she was trotting and willing to canter. When she got to curve next to the small hill, where there was no fence but a small fence on the ground, she started to fall towards the inner part of the arena. She grabbed Supernova by her mane and pulled herself up to keep her balance but just when she did that Supernova did a small jump to start to canter and completely unbalanced Alice, making her fall outside of the arena, straigh on the tiny fence.
I rushed beside her whilst Oriol walked quickly to Supernova. Alice quickly stood up but you could see the pain she was in.
“Alice, you okay?” I asked when I was beside her. She nodded but then shook her head and took off her helmet. She started to cry a bit, trying to told back her tears.
“Don’t hold them back or you’ll explode later, trust me” I assured. “Deep breaths, sweetie. In” I inhaled, “out” I exhaled. She copied me and cried harder, then she hugged me and continued crying. “Shht, it’s okay. Where did you get hit?” I asked. She pointed her back, just where the pelvis bone does that curved shape. Shit, that hurts.
“I don’t think it’s broken though” she tried to breathe in.
“Alice sit down” I said, she sat on the wooden little fence and tried to breathe. Oriol walked beside me.
“Was it the pony who bucked you off or-?” Oriol started to ask.
“No, no, it was me. I unbalanced and froze” she quickly explained. I sat beside her.
“You wanna ride her again?” I asked.
“Well…” she hesistated. That was a normal reaction. “I don’t know…” she turned to me, “what would you do?”
“It’s not about what would I do, it’s about what you want to do” I said, she pursed her lips and looked over Oriol’s shoulder to see Supernova being held by Marcus, another extra instructor.
“I just wanna be like you… I wanna be strong…” she cried again leaning into my shoulder.
“You know what I’m very sure of?” I asked, she looked up a bit with a sniff, “One, you don’t wanna be like me, and two, you are strong. The best thing you could do is ride again, honestly, but that’s up to you. Are you scared?” I asked her, a bit concerned, she hesitated, “Be honest here”
“Yes” she sniffed. She looked at me “But I wanna try again” I smiled and pulled her up so she was standing up.
“Can you walk?” Oriol asked.
“Yeah. Just one thing… could I ride with the saddle, please?” she asked quietly.
“Sure” I said and walked to Supernova’s saddle, that was on the normal fence. I girthed her and Alice hopped on the saddle.
“Yeah! That’s the spirit!” Oriol cheered, causing all instructors to chuckle. “You know, falling down is like a tasting coke for the first time, it’s weird and gross at first but then you get used to it” he joked. Alice laughed a bit.
“Yeah, now I’m kind of anesthetized from the fall” she joked with Oriol, kicking a bit Supernova so she could start to trot.
The other kids were done, but I made Alice stay for a while so she could canter and jump properly, which she happily did.
When she came out of Supernova’s stall after untacking her, I came to her and hugged her.
“You know I’m so fucking proud of you” I said when we pulled away. She smiled and held back a tear. “Don’t hold them back” I insisted.
“I don’t know why I’m crying, really.” she trailed off.
“It’s the shock, don’t worry. But let the tears fall, or you’ll burst into tears at home” I chuckled a bit, being serious. She heard my serious voice and nodded, letting her tears fall.
“Thankyou” she shouted when she got to the ramp, her mom waiting for her on the other side.
I waved my hand to her and went to Stella’s paddock. Alice was so strong she didn’t even know.

Notes

Filler chapter, woo! I was supposed to be writing other stuff, but I thought a nice filler chapter would be nice. I'll try to upload the next chapter as soon as possible!
By the way, I added my Instagram to my homepage. I have some photos of Igor and me there :)

Title credit: Carmen by Lana del Rey.