[Phase 3] Forever Friends

Isabelle had Termite for 5 months now, he made progress but not without a few tantrums,setbacks, and a lot of long days. All the training has led up to this moment, there was a local show to showcase people who have taken on rescue horses and show the progress for them. There were a few other loshenka’s there so Isabelle was happy she wasn’t the only one. She made sure her horse was presentable. Seeing the other people and their horses made Isabelle nervous, maybe she didn’t do enough with the way she dressed, maybe she didn’t do enough training. She noticed the glances at her and thought the worse, with her head spinning in thought she almost missed the call to go out to the ring. 

“Coming up to the ring is Contestant 6468 Termite and his Handler Isabelle O’Hara!” The announcer's voice echoed through the arena. Isabelle had a grip on Termite’s lead as they were next up in the halter category, this was the moment all her hard work was finally able to be shown off.
“You ready boy?” She asked him gently, giving him a pat before she clicked to get him to move forward with a tug on the lead. Isabelle never did well at shows, having to dress up, the lights, the crowd, the fear of her horse acting up. She walked out into the ring more nervous than Mite was. They emerged into the ring, the light shown on them and the crowd let out an applause as they walked out. To Isabelle’s surprise Termite didn’t spook at the size of the arena, due to his previous situation he never did well in larger spaces. The pair made the lap around the ring, Isabelle was over analyzing her steps, her turns, the way she held onto the lead, the crowd murmurs, the judges table, everything was on her mind. She glanced up at Mite and noticed he was completely cool and collected, he was taking the laps around like a champ. Seeing him calm made her take a breath and collect herself. If he’s not nervous she has no reason to be.
The pair finished the course, and eventually stood waiting for the results. Isabelle looked at Termite so proud of him, and herself. As the judges called out names and numbers Isabelle grew more nervous thinking she didn’t place. She started tapping her foot and tightened her grip on the lead. Mite pushed his nose on her hand and made her give him a pat calming her down. She smiled and relaxed.

“ And our 2nd place overall for the Halter Division is...6468,” Isabelle almost missed the announcer before one of the judges came up and gave her the ribbon. Isabelle took the ribbon before wrapping her arms around Mite’s neck. The two left the arena soon after.

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Later that night Isabelle set Termite in the pasture. He trotted off before the other horses in the pasture came up to him. Usually this would cause him to become sour and kick at them before running away but he has warmed up to the horses in the pasture. Mite has taken a friendship with Isabelle’s personal horse Pretty Boy. The two had been together through all the training as Isabelle used Peeb for some training elements. 

Isabelle smiled watching her boys get along. 

“I heard you won.” A warm voice from behind her sang out, Isabelle turned around to see Amelia standing behind her. The woman’s ginger hair shining in the setting sun, her green eyes and skin almost glowing as she looked at Isabelle with a warm smile.

“Oh.. uh yeah yeah-wait no! I mean uh we got 2nd, we didn’t win” Isabelle stumbled over her words seeing her laughing nervously and blushed slightly seeing her.

“Well That’s still good!” Amy chimed in and leaned on the fence next to her,” You deserve it, you did a good job with him.” The two girls watched as Mite and Pbs groomed each other and played together.

“Guess He’ll need a new nickname since he isn’t chewing through our fences anymore” Isabelle chuckled

“No I think it suits him, and after all You always have the funniest names. He’ll be a great addition to our team” Amelia replied with a smile. The two girls talked for a while longer until the sunset fully. Isabelle headed back inside for the night looking out at Termite one last time, knowing she had done everything to make sure he would have a normal horse life.