* the pic above is of Camino, isn't he cute?!!!!*

"Emily, head up, heels down and elbows bent!" Said my trainer, Janet Barkley, through the ear set she and I were wearing.

         Janet is and older lady in her 70's, but she is sharp as a knife when it comes to seeing issues with the rider and horse.
      Janet is a high level judge who can judge the Grand Prix.

     "Emily, gently squeeze the reign using your ring finger, like squeezing a sponge. Good now for this last thing halt him in the middle of the arena, nice and square!" She cried.

        I did as she said and he halted at X perfectly, on the bit and square just like she asked.

I hopped off of the small cherry bay quarter horse and gave him a big pat on the neck.

        "Thanks Camino!" I said wearing a huge smile that could put the Cheshire Cat to shame.
        Camino and I will be ready for the next show coming up! I'm sure we will do real well!
           I gave Camino one last pat and started walking up the hill to tack him down.

I started riding dressage about two years ago when Camino got hurt. The owner of Camino had a second horse named Jackson, a crazy, half blind, ex-grand prix jumper.
       Almost nobody could ride Jackson because every time he picked up the canter he would crow hop every stride either getting the rider to fall off, or scare them so that they never rode him again.
          I though, couldn't ride any other horse because he was the only horse left for Pony Club that I could ride.

          He scared me half to death, but I was, and still am, the only person who can ride him with out him going crazy, or crow hopping all over the arena.

       One day, Janet saw me cantering in the arena and gave me some pointers, she is the reason I haven't ended up in the hospital recently.
          But lately, Jack has been off in the back, so after Camino recovered, I tried Camino out at dressage. We went to a show with only three days of dressage training, and we won our class and got qualified for nationals!

       Before riding Dressage, I used to do small jumping, but it really wasn't my thing, I'm not naturally very brave, and it always seemed like something was missing.
     When Camino got hurt about 2 years ago, he had snapped his suspensory ligament right in half. It took him a year to recover.
       While riding Jackson,and working with Janet, I found dressage as my true passion. Ever since I can't even think about riding any other way!

After un-tacking Camino and putting his mash into his stall, I put him away, and texted my mom to pick me up.     

         Even though I'm 16, I don't even have my permit yet, it's quite sad actually.
        My mom arrived 15 minutes later and I hopped into the old Honda. My mom is about 50 years old with dark brown hair with a sliver of gray in the front near the part from the years of stress.

      "I had a good lesson today, Camino and I are going to win at this next show, big time!" I said with a grin.

       My mom returned it with a weak smile, and I knew something was wrong.

       "what's wrong mom, is everything okay?" I said with concern.

        "I'll tell you when we get home, but just know, you aren't going to like it." She replied......

* so I know there is no heart break yet, and no chocolate, but when writing the story, I wanted to leave a cliff hanger! So this is going to have a part 2. I'm sure you have already guessed what the heart break is going to be about, but if not, the good! See ya next time!😁*