Blue Ridge is a fictional town located deep in the heart of Kentucky. It is home to one of the most well known equestrian academies in the United States. Students and staff from all over the world join the academy for what it has to offer. Do you have what it takes to join us and learn from the Academy?
Smilys were made by Sapphire Heaven of LiveJournal.
The mini-profile hover follows a tutorial by Kagney of Adoxography.
Photos in the skin used under CC from Flickr.
Post by Jennifer Hart on Aug 15, 2015 16:17:09 GMT -8
Jennifer smiled at the mare's head, popping out over her stall, "Want to go out and play, princess?" She grabbed the mare's lime-green halter and lead set and reached out to buckle it on, before she undid the latch on the mare's door. After shoving the door open, she clucked to the mare, leading her outside and then pausing for a moment to close the stall's door again. After that, they were on their way out to the pastures.
The balmy evening was a nice temperature, cooling down after the heat of the day, although the sun was still out and lighting the campus. Only one more day before the school year started for good, and Jen found herself cherishing the moment she had now, the time to take a break. Her thoughts were interrupted as they reached a fence, and Jennifer glanced around, surprised to see that she had already walked halfway down the lane to the pastures, "Well, kid, guess you're going in here. Glad I found the right place!" She opened the gate and then led the mare inside, latching it before she undid the mare's halter.
Dropping the halter to hang over the fence, Jennifer watched Spot take off, bucking and running as though she hadn't seen the outside in weeks... Which was certainly not the case! She boosted herself up onto the top rail of the fence and then settled in to watching the mare, to make sure that she didn't get any silly ideas into her head about taking off... One of the problems with an animal that had the ability to jump, and to jump high.
Jennifer Allison Hart | 'Jen' | Principal | 41 Snakes 'N' Ladders | 'Spot' | Show Jumping + Cross Country
Joss wasn't quite sure yet why Smooch was quite so determined to make Pasture Two her home when put out to pasture. There was nothing overtly special about the place. If anything, it was further away than he would have thought to place her himself from the stables...and yet not for the first time was she determined to head that way, and Kovar, the odd little Western school mount he'd managed to make friends with, was all too happy to follow after her. Perhaps it was some odd rebellious phase Smooch was going through -- one of those things children did where they wished to venture away from the safe confines of a familiar environment, but not so far away as to be completely out in the open and alone.
And so Joss let his mare and her stable friend take him where they pleased. Paused, and sighed softly, shaking his head in long-suffering good humour when the path brought another horse already loose in the paddock, and the apparent owner still present. But if anything, he knew he should be pleased that his horse made friends so easily. He could only wish to be as easygoing and extroverted as Smooch was...though any shyness that crept up in that moment might, just might have had something to do with recognising the human body as the Principal of the Academy. That gave Joss a long pause, pulled forward again only by the insistence of the two horses.
Another soft sigh escaped him then, and he readied a crooked little smile just in case Jennifer deigned to look his way, before shifting the two lead ropes into the hand not attached to his bad shoulder so that he could open the gate. Paused in doing so when Kovar went to push past [he'd be asking the stable manager for permission to work with that one in the natural horsemanship arena, he rather thought], spine stiffening and shoulder shifting into the gelding's chest. The motion worked, with the horse huffing deeply, but otherwise stilling his movements until Joss had given him leave to follow after, and nothing else. Would definitely be asking if he could take him with him into the arena; he was too smart not to. Too smart and twice as clumsy, bless him. Absolute fun to work with, and an absolute pleasure if Joss made any progress with him. One thing at a time though, and for now, Joss slipped the halter first off one horse and then the other, slapping Smooch's broad rump gently to urge her off after the others, before stepping back towards the fence and Jennifer.
"Silly girl," he hummed softly, turning the sugar cube he'd nicked on his way out over on his tongue as he watched the dapple greyed Amazon of a mare trot springily after Kovar and towards the other mare. Turning his mind, just for a moment, to the memory of the filly that had once been, and still was occasionally -- all wicked good humour and showy potential. She still was, in a way, was Smooch...just a little older now. Heavier set. A little more cautious. Scarred, and the remnants of it on her hide only the surface as to how deep the damage had gone, and how it had changed the movements of the mare. But even that being said, he'd almost be tempted to go after them, play a little, get Smooch running, even if it was after him and sugar cubes--
--oh. Right. Person. Other person.
"...I'm sorry ma'am. I didn't mean to seem ignorant," he said softly, sheepishly, finally turning his dark gaze to Jennifer. "I'm...not very good with...I think you would call it 'small talk'."
A failure to his charming Italian heritage, really.
Post by Jennifer Hart on Aug 31, 2015 18:13:52 GMT -8
The fact that Jennifer was constantly watching her mare was a good one. She probably wouldn't be able to stop the mare if she got it into her head to leave, but the woman knew the mare well enough to prevent most such instances, and it would give her a head start in following. However, just then, the mare's turned head and pricked ears alerted Jennifer to something new.
The woman turned her head to see what had caught the mare's attention, smiling briefly as she spotted the Natural Horsemanship teacher with his own mare, and one of the academy horses. However, she turned her attention back to her own horse for the moment, ready to run interference if it looked like Spot might bother the man. However, the zorse waited just out of reach, until the two other horses were released and running around, before wheeling around and chasing along with them.
The man's voice brought her attention back to Joss, and she looked over, reassuring herself with the thought that Spot was at least occupied for the time being, “Oh, it's not a problem.” She smiled at the man, hearing his apology for the lack of small talk, “That's fine.” She nodded out at the horses, “The fact that you brought out someone to hound Spot into running for a bit is enough to grant you all the pardon in the world. She's an escape artist in the pastures, usually. The only reason I have to stay out here.” She shrugged, “Anyway, I knew that in getting her. Comes with the cross. Are you ready for classes to start?”
It was a simple response, but experience would dictate that Joss did not tend to operate outside of simple, to the point responses. Not outside of the aforementioned classes, anyway. But he was ready, and certain he was ready, comfortable with being ready, and that was all that was needed. The rest, such as the students being ready, would come with class and the students themselves. Joss was not the kind of teacher to force things on his students; he preferred to give them the tools needed and let them figure out the rest, and simply ask for help in between. He'd never understood the American way of spoon-feeding their students -- how did that make them think for themselves? No, short of them hurting an animal, which he'd never allow, he preferred his way.
"She's...a showjumper? Or an eventer? Makes more sense, that does, if she is not afraid to take on any obstacles. They are bred fearless." And he smiled for a moment then, and it was a curious smile. For it held, for just a moment, a kind of wistful nostalgia, almost a regretfulness, as he watched the horses -- Smooch's naturally playful nature filtering into her already enthusiastic greeting, and Joss watched with a kind of long suffering affection now as she nipped playfully at Spot's rump, goading the other into a chase. Testing her bounds just slightly, but mostly seeing if this one was indeed a fellow comrade in arms, or an absolute party pooper. Otherwise, his mare was absolutely the gem of the paddock; she wanted to be everybody's friend, and if she bossed any around, it was usually the geldings. The males period, really.
Joss wondered, not for the first time, at the female sisterhood.
"And...Spot?"
Apparently he wasn't the only one to come up with absurdly adorable nicknames for his precious equines.