For Good Health

Horse: 
Sejrbank Spiegelau
DWB Gelding | 15 years

Show: First Annual Welma H. Memorial Show
Class: Dressage
Test music: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGFuTY…
...because every time I write Simon Guldborg + Spiegelau I almost write 'Simon Spielberg', lol

Feat. Colon cancer awareness ribbon in bridle (other ribbons on the rail), 52-banners (background) and flowers in the colours of the awareness ribbons ^^


Placing: 1st place + Grand champion  
     



Extra points for this show:
¤ Story (1000+ words): +15
¤ Donation (points): +10
¤ Advertisement (custom box): +5
¤ Advertisement (image): +20




Story:
Probably requires that you're up to date on season 2 of my storyline to make sense of  
Read from here if you're not, and don't want to miss out, haha xD

,,Have you seen this? This is terrible!”
Simon held up his iPad to his groom. The browser was landed on the front page of the Danish dressage hub and displayed a grim headline in black block letters against the white background: ‘’After accident: Goldenweiser retires from dressage”.
,,That’s terrible,” Lisa the groom agreed in a low voice. Of course she had heard about that too. ,,That must be hard on you –“
,,That’s one way to put it – I mean ‘Goldberg’? For fuck’s sake, it’s ‘Guldborg’; what kind of hopeless intern wrote this?”
Only now did Lisa realize that Simon was not, in fact, talking about the main headline. Instead her eyes trailed down the page a bit and caught another, smaller headline: ‘’Simon Kvark Goldberg victorious at Flyinge” – they had spelled his name wrong.
,,Disastrous,” she said diplomatically.
,,I know right?” Simon concurred. ,,And on that note, what is UP with putting the headline all the way down there? It should have been the main headline; we actually broke the cup record!”
,,There was a weird few seconds where I thought you might even have been upset by the main headline.” Lisa said.
Simon frowned and studied the front page again, although he went quiet for a few seconds, almost pensively.
,,Well… Yeah.” He said. ,,I mean… it sucks; that whole thing with Connor and all. But come on.”
He turned off the iPad and put it away. It was a bit early to start warming up for the ring, but he didn’t want to speak with Lisa so he started tacking up his horse anyway. He had a feeling the groom would pursue the subject of Connor’s accident, and if there was something he was damn tired of hearing/talking about, it was that accident. Perhaps because the details were so hazy – the Goldenweisers were so annoyingly private. Rumours had buzzed over the last few weeks but so far the only officially confirmed detail was ‘broken neck’… until yesterday, of course. Connor himself had posted a statement on his Facebook wall declaring that ‘’he would be retiring from dressage as he was no longer fit to answer the physical demands of riding.’’ – understatement of a century. He was paralyzed from the neck down according what his sister had relayed to Simon at the Flyinge competition. It was probably she who had written the retirement update too.
Spiegelau accepted the bridle without a fuss.
‘Retirement’ – it was so bizarre to think about. Simon had been – what, 10? – the first time he had gone toe-to-toe with his old rival. All the way through their pony years he and Connor had battled it out; pretty much taking turns placing 1^st and 2^nd despite their dramatically different riding styles. When they had moved on to Junior- and Young Rider classes they had been right next to each other too. Four years ago they had been on the gold-winning team for the Scandinavian Cup together; a peak in both their careers – and the last time they had competed in the same league. Connor’s horse at the time, the Wesphalian mare ‘Glücksvogel’, had been sold right under his nose after that competition, leaving him without a Grand Prix horse for the higher classes. Of course that had been Simon’s luck – he and Spiegelau had been practically undefeated since. The chestnut gelding had matured from a nervous 11-year old to a seasoned dressage veteran of 15 years in that time. A regional celebrity, just about – until his recent injury, that was. Four months had it taken before he was declared ‘sound’ again, and four months was JUST what it took for Connor to sweep in from the side on the horse he had spent the last four years training to this level and snatch the spot on this year’s team for the Scandinavian Cup. ‘Sagadir’ was the name of his new horse – at only 9 years, this grey stallion would have his debut in a Grand Prix class at a very young age.
...or WOULD have had. The situation was markedly different now. Connor’s accident of course prevented him from making the team, and Simon got his spot back. And while Simon had been ecstatic about setting a new Cup record and crushing his competitors, he felt disappointed too. The premise of meeting his old rival in the ring once more was something he had looked forward to. Now they would never compete against each other again… such a pity.

Tacking up was done and Simon led the warmblood from his stall and towards the warm-up arena. The facilities here at the De Rege Manor were impressive, to say the least. Almost like something out of a fairy tale. The ‘manor’ could more accurately be described as a castle, and according to the staff it was something one could easily get lost in. Simon had thought of it as a joke until he had been handed a map of the estate – one brief look at this map confirmed the statement, however. It was huge.
Just as impressive as the castle itself were the arenas in front of it – two of them, more precisely, with seating for 5.000 people each. He could only hope that 5.000 people would be watching his ride today.

The warm-up arena was busy, but busy spaces did not bother Spiegelau in the least. The horse chewed calmly on his bit as he walked on a long rein. Simon watched the red neck in front of him and took in the sight of the perfect braids adorned with purple roses. Lisa may be an insensitive person, but at least she was a dedicated groom.  In the bridle were ribbons; blue for colon cancer awareness, like he had requested. His own mother had been claimed by this very type of cancer 6 years prior, which was also his motivation for participating in this event. Awareness. Good health was a gift so utterly unappreciated, and so quickly could everything fall apart in case good health failed. That was true for his own mother, for his old rival and…--
A snort from Spiegelau as he was denied a ‘snack’ from a flower pot made Simon smile to himself. At 15 the gelding was at the peak of his career – provided the injury did not return. Good health of course applied to horses as well - another thing that troubled Simon. He was cautious and attentive to his horse in a way he had never been before, because the injury had made him realize that the gelding was not, in fact, invincible. Was this injury the beginning of his decline? God, he hoped not. 

Word count:1.106 

WHAT ARE LEGS
WHAT ARE THEY
FRIGGIN
These hooves are some of the worst, lol; I am so sorry


Alriiiiiiiiiiiight, so I haven't really formally introduced this guy, but... BOOM, HERE HE IS
He'll make a small cameo in my storyline this season. Not a large role. Just a lil appearance  
#because 

Nope, he's not supposed to be a particularly likeable guy, haha. 
Today he rides for the Faroe Islands in honour of his late mother c:  







These kiddoes reside with meee
Own ground texture
Background refs provided by host (I stalked, forgive me)
The spectator people are nobody in particular; I just thought the empty seats looked sad, lmao xD
References: s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/o… (shading) and pose (own) 
Brushes: Carl's Foliage Brushes  |  Environment-Brushes  |  Foliage Brush Set