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After hours of painstakingly fixing up an old tack set to make it look good as new, she looked at the time and realized that to enter for free she needed to go now. She threw the tack on Taco and galloped to the race. When she got there, she jumped off and called Taco to follow. Isabella got there just in time and ended up being the last free entry. Bella caught herself thinking about the prince and wondered if he would be here. Maybe she would see him again. No, that was just wishful thinking.
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A few hours later Luca came and got Jayce. "Your parents wish for you to go spectate and announce the race," his servant tells him. "Are they not attending," Jay asks confused then frowns some when he sees Luca nod, "oh- I see.. Well we should get going then." The two headed towards the race track and Luca asks, "Aren't you upset about your parents Prince Jayce." Jayce shakes his head some and walks up towards the royal spectating booth, "They are usually too busy for the race. Sometimes I will just go, like right now, other times none of us royals will go." Jayce waved to the crowd who cheered for the prince and waved back as he sat down on his chair and Luca sat on a stool beside him.
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As she checked her sinch and mounted again she stood waiting, hoping her horse could do it. KC needed them to win. She entered the warm-up ring and warmed up her crazy horse. Many of the nobles here had servants tacking up their horses, who decided not to warm them up. Bella rolled her eyes and urged her horse to a gallop. To win they must be fast. As she practised every pattern, her mind left her, leaving only instincts. At one point, Isabella didn't even notice the prince walking past. He may have even noticed her, maybe, or maybe not.
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As they sat up in the booth the entire area could be seen. Jayce could see servants tacking up horses and people walking around making bets. His eyes landed on the practice ring where a rider ran their horse around at a gallop. He though the rider looked familiar but it was hard to tell since they were so far away. He leaned forward in his seat to try and focus on the more but could only figure out that it was a female rider. Suddenly a couple trumpets played as a warning that there was only ten minutes left to warm up or to tack up the horses. "The race will be starting soon," Jay says to Luca who is watching a few horses be lead around.
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As the barrels are being set up in the ring, Isabella looks at the schedule and realizes that she is first. So, she trots her prancy horse over to the ring. As the gate opens to let them in the judge calls, 'whenever you are ready Isabella.' She gently squeezed her horse's barrel, and he shot off, faster than Isabella had ever seen him go. Isabella didn't even have to steer, as Taco knew the whole pattern by heart somehow. At one point Bella was tempted to stick her hands up in the air like they do at home.
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He listened as the announcer announced the first racer and eyed the horse and rider as they approached. He now recognized the rider as the peasant girl from earlier, the one that had bumped into him. He watched as her and her horse took off through the barrels and the crowd cheered as they galloped through the course. "She's really good," Jayce mutters as he watches the rider finish the course. Luca nodded in agreement before adding, "Not as good as you Prince Jayce." Jay chuckled slightly at the servant's compliment, "I don't know Luca.. She seems very experienced."
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The girl jumped off her horse and happily cheered. There was no way anyone could beat them, and she would finally be able to put KC down. Isabella might cry, but she would be perfectly fine in the end. Bella pulled out the ponytail in her hair and untacked her horse, jumping was next. And she signed up for bareback. She looked at the stands and saw the prince, the freaking prince. And he looked like he was smiling. Maybe it was just her hallucinating. Probably. Bella jumped back on her horse and cantered him in the jumping warm-up ring. She had to have him ready for it. The look on Taco's face was priceless. He had his tong stuck out as if he was telling Isabella, 'no, more, I'm, dying.' But his head was high and forward saying that he was ready for it.
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He clapped with the crowd as the winner was announced for the first competition, the peasant girl named Isabella. 'What a nice name,' he thinks as he watches the racers with a smile. The announcer spoke about the next competitions, jumping. They explained how there was normal jumping and bareback jumping, for the more ambitious riders. Jayce looked for the girl and saw her practicing for the bareback section. 'She's really confident if she believes she can do that,' he thinks, 'I haven't seen many people successfully do bareback jumping other than myself.' The announcer started the normal jumping section and Jay watched as the competitors went. Most of them had signed up for normal jumping and only the girl and three others signed up for bareback.
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As the announcer called her name she threw her hands up in the air. A few moments later it was bareback jumping, and she was first to go again. She confidently trotted her horse to the start and cantered him to the jumps. While most people would go for speed, the ring was too small to do a full gallop and make every jump. As she steadily cantered, her horse jumped every jump with ease. Taco wanted to go fast, but he trusted his girl's judgment. When her turn was over she got a total of 0 penalties, and 25 seconds. She has gone faster before, but this ring was smaller, meaning in a slower speed. All the other girls had tried to gallop, trying to out do Bella. Every one of them had either knocked every jump or fallen off. She closed her eyes as none of the other competitors had taken her advice and slowed down. 2 had fallen while the other had knocked ever jump. So, 2 disqualified, one in the 50s.
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He watched the competitors as they jumped. The first round was kind of boring but once bareback started then it got interesting. He watched as the peasant girl came forward first and made it through the course with no penalties. 'She is good,' Jay thinks, 'really good..' He watched as the other competitors went and 2 were disqualified due to falling off and the other penalized for knocking a few of their jumps. "She could win the whole thing," Luca says to him, "couldn't she Prince Jayce?" Jayce nodded in agreement, "Unless there is a challenge that she does not like then she has high chances of winning." He looked at the crowd and saw people exchanging money from loosing bets. 'A lot of people probably were not expecting her to win,' he thinks. The winners of jumping were announced, normal being a young noble while bareback obviously being Isabella.
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