Krabat and the camera

Triss and Krabat on some competition I will mostly go for fictional competitions with my characters and only enter those I really feel for now in the future. I work bad with deadlines when it comes to art and I like this a bit more realistic way of competitions. Most out there always have some weird twist (Which is fun and inspirational!) but sometimes you just wanna be regular.
And I'm really happy about getting Krabat to actually look like a slim, sporty horse as he should be

I need to train to draw women. Dear god.

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The alarm went of 05:15 that Saturday morning. Triss made a loud groan and slowly sat up in bed, trying to hit the snooze button. He knew he couldn't snooze though, it was competition day. So he dragged himself out of bed and wrapped himself in his blanked as he made his way out in the kitchen to put on some coffee. His two cats just purred from their place in the sofa, looking very comfortable. Why couldn't he be born a cat? Triss really hated mornings, but he had such a fighting spirit and loved competitions that it still felt okay.

He was soon ready and drove down to the stables. There the staff was already taking out the horses from the different stables. He had asked them not to take out the horses from his, just give them feed, so that Krabat didn't get anxious, being left alone in the stable. Aly was already there, braiding Krabats mane as the chestnut gelding happily chewed on his hay.
“Morning!” She greeted with a big smile. Triss just shook his head.
“Thank you for not saying it's a good morning.” Aly laughed at his words.
“Yeah, not until 12 o'clok it's good, right? Are you ready for today? Krabat seem very focused!” She smiled and watched the gelding that seemed really excited, like he knew something fun was up. Triss stopped out side his stall and smiled.
“Yeah! It'll be fun! We'll get good weather as well, cloudy but no rain, so perfect!” Trss and Aly started to make the last preparations and putting the tack inside the trailer. They weren't going far, just south of town, as the competition was a small one. It was just a so called one day event, where you started with dressage, then show jumping 30 minutes after, and taking the cross country last on the afternoon. It was perfect for Krabat who was very green. Triss had big expectations in his youngster. He had Sazha who were amazing in dressage and show jumping, but a bit slow in the cross country, then he had his 8 year old thoroughbred who were so good in cross country and show jumping, but had such boring gatis that he never scored any high in dressage. And then there was this chestnut anglo-arabian who was both brave and fast in the cross country, careful in the show jumping and had very fine gaits to impress the judges in dressage. Oh well, he was still young and there was many years of training ahead, but he had the potential to become a eventer for championships. And it was a very nice and friendly horse as well. Thinking of it, all three of Triss horses was very friendly and gentle to handle, much unlike Alys, and not to speak of Dunais nightMARE. Alys big stallion Kaskelot was Triss true nemesis, the stallion once thrown him off so badly he had broken his arm. Her akhal teke mare was not so nice either, not being mean but very bossy. No, Triss liked his gentle and calm horses (or at least calm to handle) even Sazha being very friendly for being a stallion.

Those were the thoughts Triss had as they made the drive to the stable that held the competition. Well there they had to sign in, and then it was on with the dressage attire and dressage saddle to warm up. Krabat was very excited over this new place but Triss was still impressed how the gelding still listened to him and stayed focused on the task ahead. The dressage program was very easy, Triss almost felt bad for entering such a low competition, when he actually had his other horses on one to three star competitions otherwise. But his horse was new at this, so it was okay. They only had started two other eventing competitions this year, and a couple of dressage and show jumping, just to give him some experience. After the dressage it was a bit of a hurry to change attire and tack to show jumping, they only had 30 minutes to go in the show jumping after they've finished the dressage. Both Triss and Aly knew though that they needed to stay calm so they didn't fire up Krabat, that still was a hotblooded horse. The show jumping went well, Krabat was a bit tense and they had one pole down, but Triss was still pleased with the gelding. Now there was only the fun part left.

There was a longer pause during midday, were the riders could walk the cross country course and rest their horses for a bit, as well as getting lunch. Triss who was a vegetarian always packed his own food as these competitions mostly just served hamburgers and hot dogs. Aly on the other hand enjoyed the greasiest burger Triss had ever seen. Krabat had stayed calm through the break and seemed eager when they started to tack him up for the cross country.

“Oh Triss, look at him!” Aly smiled as she fixed the last on Krabats tack. “He knows what is going to happen! This one will be a real champ when he'll be older” Triss looked at Krabat that stood there, head high and ears picked, his eyes alert. He got warm inside and almost blushed with pride.
“Thank you Aly! I'm really happy with him!” Aly helped Triss up on the gelding and wished them luck as they went towards the warming area. On their way there, a young girl with a camera around her neck went up to them.
“Hi!” She had a big smile in her almost childish face. “Your horse really has some special coloring! I've never seen light eyes like that, he's really cool!” Triss looked down on the girl, realizing she probably was almost his age, just very petite.
“Yeah, he's a real eye catcher, aye?” He smiled towards the girl that was now walking beside them.
“Really! Okay, I'm not gonna bother you now, but I've taken some photos of you guys, so I'll find you after your ride if you wanna see them?” Triss was relieved that she not was going to follow them and ask a lot of questions, he really wanted to focus now, this close to the start.
“Oh, that will be nice! We have a grey Volvo and a large, blue trailer. Says Runåker Säteri on it” He smiled towards the girl that smiled back and gave him thumbs up.
“Thanks! Good luck now!” Triss just nodded and smiled, he never said thank you as it was bad luck.

The cross country went really good, they had no faults on any fences and was within the time. Krabat did really grood and had still a lot of energy left when they came across the finish line. All that interval training during summer had paied off. The pole down in the show jumping had cost them the first place though, but Triss was really excited over being in second place. Back at the trailer, Aly and Triss was washing of Krabat and bandaging his legs as a short, brown haired girl approached them.
“Hiii..” She said, a bit hesitant. Triss looked up an recognized her as the girl with the camera.
“Oh hi!” He smiled at her and suddenly became aware of how cute she was with her big brown eyes and rosy cheeks. He became disturbingly aware of his sweaty hair and dirty hands. Embarrassing.
“Congrats! How fun you got a placing!” She came closer to them and let Krabat sniff on her hand, then she turned to Triss, that big smile on her face, slowly pulling back a stray of hair that had fallen into her face.
“You wanna see some of the pictures?” Triss only nodded as he couldn’t get out any words. Aly watched it all and just laughed, that laugh she had when she knew exactly what was going on and no one else did.