A Jump Over the Water

Shortly after arrival, we all changed into our wellies and took a walk along the river front, watching people arrive. It wasn’t until we were halfway through our walk that something hit me.
‘Wait, are we all sleeping in the mini bus?’ I asked, the confusion clearly etched on my face.
‘Nope, and that’s where the rest of the surprise comes in’ Cameron said simply before carrying on as if he hadn’t said a thing.
Curiously I followed along, looking at Grace for any kind of hints. Nope, nothing at all. Guess, once again, I would just have to wait and see.

After we got back to the minibus, Zach sat in the drivers seat and started driving through the many fields and people, until we reached a fenced off paddock surrounded by bushes. Nathan jumped out the bus and opened the gate with a key from his pocket, allowing the rest of us to drive in. The sight I found once again took my breath away. These people were going to kill me with these surprises.
To the right of the paddock was a very large tent, a huge modern caravan and a horse trailer, all parked next to each other under a large maple tree. I glanced to my left to see another gated off area, only to find two of my horses in there. They were two of my favourite horses, simply because they weren’t the fancy show horses. They were simple and very hairy. The breed was called a Cob and they were such relaxed and gentle horses, practically bombproof and perfect for anyone. These two particular horses were called Bess and Jess. Original, I know.
Out of all of my horses, these two never failed to amaze me the most. I had rescued them from a horse auction, I bought them both for £100, simply because, if I didn’t, they would have gone for meat and I could see the potential in them both. No person had ever properly worked with them and they had been beaten and starved almost to the point of death, that was easy enough to see. It broke my heart to see them in such condition and that’s when I knew I had to rescue them. After some effort and a lot of time, they both began to trust me, everyone really. Now? They were two of of the most loving horses I had ever owned.
As we pulled to a stop, everyone started piling out of the mini bus and into the paddock, heading over toward the tent. As Cameron stood up from his seat next to me, I reached for his hand and stood up, next to him. He turned at me and smiled and I couldn’t help but smile back.
‘thankyou Cameron, thankyou!’ I said aloud, before hugging him tight. He kissed my forehead softly before pulling me with him in the direction of our best friends.

I took a step into the tent and was surprised at how big it actually was. There was three compartments, bedrooms almost leading out of the main area that was currently covered in beanbags and cushions. Zach and Michael simply leaped forward and disappeared into them all, all that could be seen was Mikeys hat and Zachs foot sticking out from under millions of cushions. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Next, Grace lead me to the caravan.
‘This is where all the cooking and washing will be done this weekend, the tent is simply for chilling out and sleeping in’ She said excitedly, I could see the happiness is her face. We had always talked about coming to this festival since before I could even remember.
It was an unknown secret about me that only a select people knew about, I loved folk music. I don’t know why, there is no particular reason it’s just that it speaks to me. It’s so unique and so different to everything you hear played on the radio these days that it just felt magical.

After unpacking the mini bus into the tent, it was 11am and whilst the boys were going to catch up on their sleep, Grace and I decided to take a walk around the site on horseback. After giving the two hairy horses a quick brush over, we threw their bridles on and jumped aboard, bareback. It felt more natural without a saddle and to me, a lot more comfier on these horses as their backs were so wide.
I smiled over at Grace before nudging Bess forward slightly with my heels, easing her into a nice steady canter, Grace and Jess closely following behind. Instead of stopping at the paddock gate, we aimed the horses at it and jumped it easily, smiling and laughing. We followed the path leading from our private area down to the main caravan park, where all of the festival crowd were staying and currently climbing onto their horses too. A herd of horses were walking in front of us, children no older than 8 years of age riding them simply and so relaxed that my words could not explain. We followed them, talking to a few and laughing. We ended up down by a wide river, not too deep and crystal clear water. Luckily, Grace and I were both wearing shorts, so we kicked our wellies off under a nearby tree and nudged the horses into the water, still following the crowd.
The feeling of water wrapping itself gently around yours and your horses legs was just mesmerising. So many gorgeous and pretty horses were surrounding us now and I had never seen Bess and Jess so excited and relaxed even though this experience was something completely new to them.
I think that this was quite possibly one of the best days of my entire life.