Alice looked out the window of the car as her dad pulled up to the stables, it was an early Saturday morning and she had some work to do before her lesson on Marty. Marty was one of the lesson ponies at Red Oak Stables, she took lessons on him once a week but she liked to pretend that she owned him. Alice was 12 years old, turning 13 in November and she had been riding for three years now. Her dad parked the car and she hopped out eagerly.

"Bye Dad, see you at 1 PM!" She blew him a kiss, she had a grin on her face like always when she's at the stables. "Bye Kiddo, I'll bring you lunch when I come and get you." He put his foot on the gas petal and slowly drove out of the stable's small parking lot and onto the main road. Alice headed into the stable and looked for Susan, the barn manager. "There you are!" The older lady said as she approached Alice. "I need you to muck out all the stalls in row three then groom and tack up Angel for the group lesson today." Susan spoke with a kind yet informative voice towards Alice. "Okay, you got it!" Alice replied in her usual peppy voice and headed over to the third row of stalls to start mucking out the stalls, she got the easy row today. This row is only half full so she got half of the normal work load, she began to muck out the stalls one by one until she finished all four of them. "All done." She said quietly to herself as she closed the door to the final stall then wheeled the wheelbarrow and pitchfork back to their normal place of rest.

She picked up the light weight saddle and swung the bridle over her shoulder, she had already put the saddle pad and grooming kit outside of Angel's stall. Angel was a small Connemara pony who was commonly used for the more beginner riders, Alice rode her a few times when she first came to this stable. After she hauled the saddle and bridle over to the mare's stall she picked up her halter and stepped inside of the stall with Angel. She put the halter over her head and buckled it up, she then led her out of the stall and clipped her up to the crossties. She grabbed the dandy brush and began brushing down her soft body and legs, she set the brush down and picked up the hoof pick and picked out her small hooves. After finishing grooming the mare, she places the saddle pad on her back then shortly followed by the saddle. She tightens up the girth, switching sides twice to put it up another hole. She then grabs the bridle and takes the crossties off of Angel's halter then puts the reins over her neck. She takes the halter off of her head and replaces it with the bridle, she hears noises of kids coming to collect their ponies for the lesson. She finishes buckling up the straps on the bridle and checks the girth, a little girl name Riley walks up to Angel and strokes her head. "Here you go." Alice speaks to the little girl as she hands the reins to her. "Thank you!" Riley chirps as she leads the pony out of the barn happily.