Ki Mint Vet, Úgy Arat

[Ráhel Sárközi]

Ráhel finished cleaning up her (second) classroom for the break and stepped out of the door, flicking off the lights with a feeling of finality. Of course, she'd be back within the week, preparing for the next chapter of classes, but at least she could take a couple of days off to just enjoy and pretend that she hadn't taken a job teaching children about the things she loved. She had thought it would be fun, and it was in a way. Although it hadn't quite been like she'd expected.

She stopped by her apartment to give Csende a break and to refill the dog's water bowl, before she changed into her riding gear and slipped on her boots. She hadn't taken Singer out to the courses for a while, and while she'd kept up on both horses' endurance, she really needed to get Singer back to jumping more often as well. Perhaps she'd even start competing again. It wasn't like she had anything to hide from anymore. And even if he did find her, so what? She wasn't going to be killed for getting cold feet. And there was nothing he could do to her otherwise. Singer was hers, fair and square.

After she finished grooming the red gelding, she tacked him up and then grabbed her helmet, buckling it on and leading Singer out of the barn. After boosting herself into the saddle, she walked the gelding out to the courses, knowing that there would be a field where she could warm the gelding up before she took him to the jumps.

So once she reached the courses, she made use of the field, which was flat enough to feel comfortable working across it. She asked Singer to move up into a trot, circling around in a curlicue and generally making use of the space without another rider to be concerned for. After having the gelding trot some 'paper clips', using each length to ask him to collect or to lengthen his stride, she looped around the field at a canter, before she repeated the process of collection and extension in a spiral.

[Abigail Sorenson-Faulkner]

Rabbit wasn't really a cross country horse, but it was a good mental exercise and offered a change of scenery from the arena. Besides, she explored the cross country course a little bit on foot earlier, and there were plenty of easier jumps that would just be good practice. She loved the white Thoroughbred and gave him all the attention and affection he wanted. Unlike the horses she catch rode as a girl, Rabbit wouldn't go away after the show ended. He was an ideal horse for getting back into the routine of riding. She swung into the saddle and walked him along the paths out to the trails.

Rod said he wanted to work on a training regime for the swim team and that he would be down by the pool all day. He had been saying that for much of the week, and Gail suspected he just enjoyed being by the water again. She still held on to a hope that maybe medicine would progress far enough to give her husband full use of his limbs again. Gail mentally kicked herself for getting distracted while she was riding. The horse always demanded full attention. There was another rider using the field, and Gail didn't see a ribbon tied to the horse's tail. Hopefully she wouldn't mind a bit of company so Gail could warm up before jumping. She cleared her throat to avoid giving the other rider too much of a fright.

"Beautiful horse you have. Do you mind a bit of company for a bit? I just need to warm up Rabbit, here. Name's Gail, by the way."

[Ráhel Sárközi]

Ráhel finally had Singer going nicely along the spiral at a canter and then brought the gelding back down to a trot, repeating the exercise, when she heard a voice and looked up, slowing the big gelding down to a walk as she listened to what the woman was asking, and then shrugged, “Not in the slightest. There are plenty of jumps and courses for everyone, and Singer doesn't mind sharing the field.” She patted the gelding's shoulder to clarify that it was the horse's name, then looked the other horse over briefly, “I've seen Rabbit around the barn, good to see that he finally has a rider.”

She had never taken the gelding out, in the brief time where she'd been riding the Academy's horses, simply due to the fact that she had other choices, and it hadn't been that long before Singer and Oil had joined her. “I'm Ráhel, sorry. It's a pleasure to meet you, Gail.” She moved Singer back into a trot and gave up on the spirals for the time being, instead going back to the more-predictable diagonals and straight lines, “I teach assorted science and social science classes while I'm working, what do you do?” Another new teacher, perhaps, and that could never go amiss. Not like Ráhel had met too many others yet around the campus.

[Abigail Sorenson-Faulkner]

Gail knew it probably wasn't the most typical situation to see a teacher being the primary rider of a school horse, but until the debt was paid off, Gail didn't want to worry about the expenses of horse ownership. Even prize money from competitions barely made the cost of showing break even. Flipping horses on the side was a possibility, but it rarely made much money especially in the hunter/jumper world.

"Likewise."

She moved Rabbit into a trot to let him stretch out some and look around the field. He collected and extended nicely and stayed on the bit. She could feel that the Thoroughbred gelding was happy to work with an experienced rider and to just be getting regular exercise in general. Before she came along, Gail had no idea how much dedicated work the horse was getting.

"I'm the hunter and jumper teacher. My husband is here as well. You might see him around; he teaches geometry and swimming."

Much of her work was in the barn and except for helping Rod set up the classroom, Gail wasn't planning on spending too much time inside the classroom building. She let Rabbit canter a few circles and think about collection. Gail assumed Ráhel wasn't American, though she couldn't really pinpoint any place in particular. Even though Gail was known on the American circuits, competing internationally was never an option. It was one of her biggest regrets from her competition days that she never took to the world stage despite having the horse and skill to be successful. The FEI World Cup was definitely at Jack's level, and she could have tried some of the European circuits. Now, they were just dreams as teaching was a full time position and didn't allow her to take time off to compete as much as necessary.

[Ráhel Sárközi]

Ráhel nodded as she was given the other woman's job, as well as the fact that she had a husband who was also a teacher at the academy, “That's nice. There aren't many married faculty right now, I believe.” She wasn't, for obvious reasons. She didn't want to be, either, though, so it didn't really matter, “While my classes are in different wings from the math classes, I'm certain I'll meet him at some point, and look forward to it.”

However, the fact that the woman was the jumping teacher couldn't be ignored either, and as Ráhel pushed Singer back into a trot again, having determined that Gail would probably understand a stilted conversation between focusing on riding, she considered the fact. The woman knew what she was doing, that much was obvious from her riding. Ráhel couldn't imagine teaching riding, better leave that to those who wanted it, like Gail, probably.

“I'm going to have Singer pop over a few jumps, if you don't mind. We'll be back sooner or later.” She completed one last circle of the field at a canter, before she pointed the red horse towards the beginner course, planning on using the smaller jumps to make sure the gelding was in form, and then go back to the advanced course for an actual workout. They popped over the first fence with ease, and Ráhel let the gelding's reins out more, asking him for a gallop as they closed the distance to the next. Was there anything better than this?

[Abigail Sorenson-Faulkner]

With the winter weather, Gail couldn't really blame her husband for wanting to spend his free time inside, though she found his complaints about the weather amusing considering he came from Minnesnowta. If it ever snowed enough to go skiiing, they could definitely have a fun outing together.

Gail kept her focus on Rabbit just as any good rider should. A horse perceived the world differently than the rider, and that shadow might come out and attack on the sixth pass. She could recall a girl at her old barn spraining her ankle in a fall that was completely preventable if she was only paying attention to her horse and not her cell phone. And that was back in the day of flip phones!

She nodded when Ráhel said she was going to jump a few. Gail took a few minutes to use up more space asking Rabbit for more bending and some lateral movements. She loved his demeanor and wished there was a student who would thrive under his care. If someone did need a good hunter, she would pass him on in a heartbeat because he deserved to make a difference in a student's life. Gail could keep him sharp, but she wasn't learning much from him. She rode him in the opposite direction of Ráhel to pop over a few low jumps. He didn't need a hard workout, and jumping over things in a different environment was good for the gelding. She asked for a steady canter and set him up to a good distance to jump over the line of logs. She liked the way he pricked his ears forward over the jumps.

The workout continued for another fifteen minutes jumping over more logs, a rolltop, a couple hedges, a small log house, and an oxer. She gave Rabbit a few god pats on the neck for his hard work and trotted him back to the open field for a cool down.

[Ráhel Sárközi]

Ráhel focused on the feeling of Singer under her as they took on the course, racing over the jumps and through the curves. Before too long, the end had come up, and she had to pull the warmblood up. Deciding that they might as well head back over the other jumps, going around those which were mainly one-sided, Ráhel let the gelding trot to the end of another course and then asked him forward again, loosening her grip on the reins as they flew back towards the starting field.

When she had returned, she could see that Gail had already returned, or at least, so it appeared. She joined the woman on the field again, focusing on cooling Singer off for a while before she spoke again, “I may seem uneducated, but I'll admit I've never come across the term until I started working at the academy. What specifically is hunter class? I know it's some sort of discipline, but I doubt that they would allow the students to actually hunt some creature for a show.” And that was what the name implied, at least to her. She'd hunted on horseback before, with dogs or not, although she'd never introduced Csende to the finer points. For her own dog, it had never come up, since their situation had changed before she was old enough.

[Abigail Sorenson-Faulkner]

Compared to the other English disciplines, hunters were pretty much only existed in America. What made defining hunters even more difficult was the distinction between a show hunter and hunt seat equitation. To a layman, she could sum it up as show hunters being focused on the horse while equitation was focused on the rider, but even that description wasn't entirely accurate. A good hunter trip required a good rider to really show off the horse, and a good equitation trip needed a quiet and obedient horse to make the rider look even better. And then there was the actual purpose of hunters which was to equip riders with the skills needed to be successful in the jumper ring.

"Actually, hunters as a discipline doesn't exist outside of the US. It's based off the style of English fox hunting, and that tradition does a lot to dictate rider attire and course design. A hunter is judged on style, and the jumps tend to be smaller than what's seen in the jumper ring. I guess the best way to describe a hunter trip is that it needs to look pretty and perfect."

Gail couldn't even count the number of hunter trips she had ridden over the years. Her best trips had scores in the nineties--perfect and then some. Sure, hunters always looked pretty, but the aesthetics had a purpose. She paused for a moment to organize her thoughts.

"There's this idea that form follows function and function follows form. A good hunter trip is pretty because the rider is riding correctly and able to control the horse. The style is dictated by what's effective, and what's effective is a correct position. Hunters are supposed to prepare the rider for moving on to show jumping and tackling the bigger jumps with good form and technique. I think that in Europe, a lot of riders get a foundation in dressage before moving on to jumping for the same reason. It's impossible to be a good jumper without a good base in technique."