King of the Canyon

[Deleted]

It was mid-morning on Saturday and the weather was great outside, so Julius decided to go for a long ride.  While on the Rocky Ridge Trail, he saw a canyon, that appeared big enough for him to walk though but not Solo, and had the overwhelming urge to explore it.  He road Solo to a nearby tree, next to the river and dismounted.  He tried him to the tree, with his lariat, and loosened his saddle girth.  He took off his helmet and set it on the ground and then double checked his rope.  Satisfied that Solo was secure and had access to water, Julius was off.

He walked far down the canyon, which he was glad didn't get much narrower, until he came to the end.  He was about to turn around when he realized that the canyon wall had a lot of ledges on it that made it look like he could climb it and that thought made him want to climb it, even though it was not something that he did very often and he knew that his riding boots weren't the best footgear for climbing in.  He placed his foot and hand on ledges and began to climb up, slowly.  It was a long climb, and he slipped a little a few times but he never actually fell, fortunately.  Eventually he managed to make it to the top. 

He looked around at his surroundings, first threw his eyes and then threw his binoculars.  Then he walked around on the canyon until he got to the end, and realized that he was very far up.  He could see a lot more then just Solo, drinking for the river.  He looked around, smiled and did an arabesque of victory, hardly realizing that he was doing so.  He felt like the King of the World, or at least the King of the Canyon.

[Brian Setliff]

All of the mucking and feeding had been done, and so the list of tasks Brian had dwindled, until he reached the only one that he could truly say was pleasant. Of course, working with students had its own rewards, but there was nothing like the chance to push what most people spent their free time doing into a work-day, and be paid for it too.

Of course, he was referring to riding... Or exercising the unassigned school horses, as it were. That was officially his job, after all. Whether he took them into the arena, round pen, or out to the trails, no one cared, as long as they got ridden somewhat regularly. Brian, being a trail rider as he was, tended to go out to the trails, although he knew it took more time out of his day. But then, he wouldn't be properly needed until dinner-time for the horses, and so had time to vary the scenery for his mounts of the day.

After grooming and tacking up Donovan, Brian left the large warmblood standing in the crossties for a moment and retrieved the basic trail kit which he always kept with him while out riding. It contained any necessities for emergencies, and enough to keep his horse nearby should he wish to take a break anywhere out on the trails. After fastening it behind Donovan's saddle, he led the gelding outside and used a nearby rail to mount the gelding. Glancing down, he adjusted both stirrups down another notch, more comfortable for his leggy frame, and then pointed his mount in the direction of the Rocky Ridge trail.

As he rode along, he spotted a horse further down the trail, but something looked off. As he squinted, he saw what it was, and resisted the urge to push Donovan into a trot. Scaring the horse ahead was the last thing he wanted to do, especially since someone had tied the poor thing by its neck. Instead, he dismounted, quickly slipping the rope halter he always carried over Donovan's bridle and tying the gelding to a nearby tree before he approached the other horse, recognizing it by his markings, "What are you doing out here, Solo?" He approached carefully, noting the slipped saddle that had cut such a strange silhouette, "Let's get that rope off of you before you break your neck." At the very least the rope assured him that the horse hadn't dumped his rider, but he knew that he, and probably the barn manager after, would be giving the appendix's rider quite the talking to.

Still working slowly, he looped the reins over the gelding's head, holding onto them before he loosened the lariat's knot and removed it from around the gelding's neck. Only then did he walk to the gelding's side to check on the saddle, noting that it didn't appear damaged, although as he checked the girth, he noted that it was loose. Accident or design?

[Deleted]

After looking out at the world around him, Julius looked down at Solo again.  He waited for Solo to finish taking a drink and then he whistled, which got the horses attention. He turned and looked up at Julius, with a confused look on his face. Julius could not blame him for being confused. It's not like he could get up here.  He saw that Solo's saddle had slipped to the side a little bit, about as far as Solo's breast collar would let it and Julius was glad that he had the breast collar on.

When Solo got tired of looking up at him, Julius turned around and walked back to the center.  There he spun around, looking at all of his surroundings again. He started spinning faster and faster.   It took a while, but eventually he started to get dizzy, so he stopped.  Fortunately, as a dancer, he did not get dizzy easily and he knew how to deal with it, when he did.

He saw that man, who looked like he might me Mr. Setliff but he wasn't sure.  Why was he taking the lariat off of Solo's neck?  "Hey," he called down.  "What are you doing?" 

[Brian Setliff]

Brian rubbed the gelding's neck after he'd removed the lariat, dropping the piece of rope against the tree and then moving to look at the saddle. As he heard a voice, he looked up, seeing a boy, vaguely familiar as the horse's rider, atop the cliff that marked the side of the trail. Raising an eyebrow at the questioning, he responded, "I could ask you the same thing. Come down so we can talk."

He turned away, not giving the boy a chance to talk back, and started to undo the cinch on the saddle before he shifted both saddle and pad back to their original position. Once he'd straightened them out, he redid the cinch and chuckled at Solo's chomping, "You're a good boy, Solo." To keep himself occupied, he turned to the lariat that had been looped around the tree, untying it and neatly coiling it before he looped it over the saddlehorn. Julius could move it to his preferred spot later, if he mounted. Brian wasn't quite sure what to do with the situation, but it would depend a lot on the young man who had been assigned to take care of the horse, and what he had to say for himself.

[Deleted]

Julius suddenly realized that the way he had climbed up had been difficult to climb up and that it would be harder to climb down, possibly too hard.  He did not like thinking that something might be too hard for him, but he could come up with many excuses.  He was wearing poor footgear for climbing and this was his first climb of the year and he did not climb rocks very often. 

He walked along the edge of the canyon, looking for an easier place to climb down.  He soon found one and it was closer to Solo.  He wished that he had seen it before he came up, or maybe not because this way he had gotten to try and succeed at the more difficult one.  He climbed down slowly and the way down was easier then the way up, but not by much.

When he was down on the ground, he walked toward Solo and Mr. Setliff.  "What's going on," he asked, crossing his arms.  He eyed Solo's now bare neck and the tree and wondered why he had untied him.  He had tied Solo up the exact way that he had been instructed, years ago, as the proper why to tie a horse up with a lariat.  He knew that some people preferred a halter and lead rope, and Julius used that on campus but on the trails he preferred the lariat.

[Brian Setliff]

Brian watched the student search out a route down, waiting patiently. He had nothing better to do, although he did think about his plans for the afternoon. If he could settle this on the trails, he could probably send Julius off, and then continue on his way with Donovan. If not, then... Well, then that would take considerably longer. What he did afterwards depended on exactly how long.

Finally, the boy reached the ground, and Brian watched him approaching. He was expecting some sort of apology, perhaps a question or two, but the boy's body language and words made him pause. The defensive posture certainly didn't help the boy's case any. Feeling his own temper rise in response to the boy's, Brian considered, then made a snap decision. Keeping his positioning calm, although his voice retained its authority, Brian spoke, "I think we'd better discuss that back at the barn." He nodded once, "Maybe that will give you some time to think about what's going on."

Still keeping a hold of Solo's reins, he turned away from the tree, starting to walk down the trail towards where he'd tied Donovan. After switching out the Dutch Warmblood's halter for his bridle, Brian stuck the halter back into his saddlebag and then mounted, holding Solo's reins in his hand as he settled in the saddle, then gathered Donovan's reins. After squeezing the gelding with his legs, the trio made their way down the trails, heading back to the barns. As he rode, Brian considered his possible options.

[Deleted]

Julius was really confused about what was going on and it sounded like he was in trouble but he could not think of anything that  he would be in trouble for.  He grabbed his helmet, from where he had left it and followed Mr. Setliff.  While Mr. Setliff was mounting his horse, Julius looked at Solo and stepped, in a pas de basque fashion, to the side and back again.  Realizing has nervous and silly that probably looked, Julius crossed his arms again.  Crossing his arms tending to keep her nerves from acting up, making them easier to hide.  Julius told himself that he shouldn't even be nervous, but just annoyed. 

He was confused and he was wondering whether or not he was allowed to ride Solo but then he realized he had not been told any reason why he couldn't so therefore he should be able to.  He quickly snapped his helmet and went to Solo and started adjusting his girth.  He had ridden Solo so many times that he knew, off the bat, exactly which hole to put it in.  Then he gripped the saddle horn with one hand and reached his foot into the saddle, swinging his leg over and bending his knee so that it would not hit Mr. Setliff or his horse.

[Brian Setliff]

Brian couldn't believe his eyes as he looked back at Solo to make sure that the gelding had settled into his position slightly off behind Donovan. Julius had not only followed them, but had the nerve to actually mount! His tone sharp, Brian spoke, "Dismount." After the boy had had enough time to do so, Brian continued, "In case it was not made clear to you by the fact that I am ponying your horse, or the fact that I told you we would meet back at the barns, you do not have the privilege of riding at this point in time." He resisted the urge to add any hint of the punishment coming to the boy, although he knew that he would be adding quite a bit to it for the boy's stunt.

"You will walk, and you will think about your behavior, especially your behavior after I discovered the way you endangered one of the Academy's mounts." Yes, he was very purposely reminding the boy that Solo was not his. "Perhaps the walk will give you a time to reflect on why your reactions were inappropriate." Had the boy just been polite, and accepted the correction, Brian would have had no issue sending him on his way without a further thought. But this? This was just the boy trying (and failing) to throw his weight around. Brian wasn't going to play that... Not with some teenager. People tended to forget that he had his background in problem stallions... He was no stranger to attitude.

[Deleted]

Julius gave the man an annoyed look, reluctantly dismounted and then listened to him, with his arms crossed, and then asked, "why?  What did I do wrong?  How was Solo possibly in danger?  He was perfectly safe, when I left him and, from where I could see, he looked like he was still perfectly safe and he still looks perfectly fine."  Julius really was not sure how Solo had been in danger, as he really had looked perfectly safe and he still looked fine.  He was pretty sure that he would be told what he did wrong, if he had done something wrong but the fact that Mr. Setliff was refusing to tell him made him suspicious.   

Julius was aware that he had an attitude, and not just any attitude but a snobbish rich kid one.  Growing up, Julius and his sister had sent many nanny's running for the hills because of their obnoxious attitudes, bit that was not exactly a bad thing because they would ease up on the few who were good enough to put up with them and stick around for awhile.  Julius sometimes wondered if maybe he had, unintentionally, sort of done that with almost every person he ever met.   

[Brian Setliff]

Continued here for the change in location!