Baby Steps - Well, Jumps...

[Katherine Lorelia]

Kitty hummed placidly to herself as she sat atop the fence, swinging her legs gently. For once in her life, she'd actually arrived somewhere early, and, not being one to waste time, by dint of the fact that she generally had so little of it to spare, the blonde had occupied herself by setting out a course. Planning showjumping courses was one of the blonde's favourite amusements, and how she occupied a reasonable proportion of her spare time, so it hadn't taken her too long to come up with something, though she had had to keep reminding herself to keep things small and not to have any particularly tight turns going on- she'd done a bit of first aid training, but that didn't mean that she wanted to be forced to put it into practice.

It might have been her imagination, but she thought that Fee had given her a reproachful look as she made her way out of the barn. Still, it couldn't be helped; she was supposed to be helping Cass out, and the last thing that she needed was to worry about an unpredictable horse.

Caspian Collins

[Caspian Collins]

Cass thanked his lucky stars that he was still at the Academy, and smiled brightly as he rode Slick toward the show jumping ring where he had arranged to meet Kitty.

It had turned out the pain in his leg a week earlier was from blisters under his prosthetic, and since he'd left it a couple more days before telling his parents, things had got slightly worse. He'd listened to what felt like a million lectures; from both parents and doctors, and had been fitted for a new prosthetic. His mother had tried to convince him to use his chair while he only had one leg, Cass didn't want to, so was more than happy on crutches, and one leg.

"Hey, coach." He called brightly as they reached the arena where he spotted Kitty. "What are we doing today?" Slick's head popped up as he looked into the area, ears pricking forward when he looked at the colourful jumps.

[Katherine Lorelia]

Glancing up at the sound of a familiar voice, Kitty smiled brightly and waved as she slid off the fence that she was perching on, taking a couple of steps towards the gate and opening it for him. "Hey, Cass!" And then, of course, because she couldn't possibly forget him, "Hey Slick!"

"What we are doing today is trying not to fall off," she told the boy firmly as she closed the gate behind him and made her way across to the centre of the arena at an unhurried pace. "Very much keen on things staying up." Yes. Him up on the horse's back, and, for preference, the poles up on the wings. It wasn't that Kitty couldn't manage to pick up a few poles, but there wasn't an awful lot of her- which meant in turn that her legs were rather short, and by the time she'd got to any fallen pole, she'd probably get it up just in time for Cass to knock it down again.

[Caspian Collins]

Cass returned the wave and laughed as Slick's ears flickered back at the greeting and he was sure the horse would have arched an eyebrow - if he had them - before he shook his head with a snort.

He pulled a face at her words and then nodded, as falling wasn't one of his plans for that day, and he was going to do his damn best not to drop any of the poles either. Making too much clatter would draw attention to their arena, and he could do without drawing a crowd on his first time going over fences, especially of the adult kind. "I think it would be a safe bet that the poles will remain where they are." He gave the fences a glare. "They wouldn't dare fall down, else I'll turn them into kindling!" Ok, now he was just making a fool of himself, but he felt confident about this... or at least he was working with the fake it 'till you make it philosophy.

With a grin he clicked the horse forward and they started their warm up. "You didn't bring your mammoth to step over the jumps?" He asked with raised brows. "Any particular order you want me to jump them in, or is it a free for all kind of thing?"

[Katherine Lorelia]

The blonde grinned at the horse's reaction, brushing a few specks of sand from her jodhpurs in preparations for... well, to get even more sand on them over the course of the lesson, she supposed. Still, it was an instinctive action, and that meant that it didn't have to be logical. So there.

Kitty giggled. "Don't bully the poor poles!" she protested. "It won't make them any more likely to want to help you. Besides, I don't think the principal would be too happy with you if you started turning her poles into firewood, do you?" Although, to be fair, it wasn't as if there was any shortage of them at the Academy; when she'd been getting together the things that she needed for this little session, she'd been amazed at the sheer volume of poles that there had been to choose from. Naturally, she'd elected to use the pink and white ones- a girl had a theme for a reason.

"Nope; I'm going to stay on the ground so that I can catch you when you fall off," she told the boy, as seriously as she could contrive- which was not very. Of course, there was a chance that she might be able to catch him. There was a rather larger chance that she wouldn't. "I don't want to be the one explaining to the nurse exactly why you broke your neck. And there absolutely is an order- what do you take me for; some kind of Western rider? Number one is in the corner; come up the long side to number two; around on the left rein in the far corner and down to number three; come around that jump in the corner and across to number four. Number five and six are the two down this side." As she spoke, the blonde pointed out the particular jumps she was referring to. "Got all that?"

[Caspian Collins]

Cass stuck his tongue out, feeling like he'd just been told off for being mean to the poles. He didn't think there would be any chance of the principal being unhappy with him, he didn't have the balance to lift and axe; so, she'd be mad at whoever he paid to chop up the poles into firewood.

He couldn't stop the laugh from the thought of her trying to catch him if he fell, but rather than saying anything he bowed his head in apology and waited for her to continue. He chuckled again at her affronted response to the question of order, and his eyes carefully followed the jumps as she pointed them out.

He nodded at the question as he kept warming his horse up. "I apologise of anything I knock down. I promise it's not intentional." And he was dead serious there.

Riding around the arena at a trot, he circled the horse between the first and last jumps and asked for a canter as they rode out of the circle, lining the gelding up for the last fence. He was every intention of jumping them in order, just the reverse order.

Slick seemed a little hesitant as they approached the first jump and had to jump as the last minute to get over the fence - good thing they were only small - though by the time he was heading toward the next fence he was pointed at, the Mustang knew what was wanted of him, and he took the job at hand.

After jumping the last fence, which should have been the first, Cass leaned forward and hugged his horse. Sure, they had knocked a pole on the third and fifth fences, after completely taking out the one in between; but he had remained on the gelding's back for the entire time. "I had to do it." He said with a grin, though he hadn't really. "Didn't want you thinking you'd have no work to do."

[Katherine Lorelia]

Kitty grinned and rolled her eyes as the boy stuck his tongue out at her; it was such a juvenile reaction, and yet she had to confess that it would probably have been hers too, in the circumstances. Well, life went on for a long time; if you didn't enjoy the little things and find your inner child, then it would feel like an eternity, and it would be so incredibly boring!! Who on earth would want to live like that? Certainly not the blonde; she was out to enjoy life to the full, and she had every intention of achieving that aim.

She shrugged. "I'm going to wait to see how many do get knocked down before I decide whether to forgive you or not," the blonde told the younger boy with a grin. "Until then, I guess I'm going to have to keep you in suspense." With a final nod, the Irish girl made her way across the arena and established herself comfortably in a corner which should probably be well out of the boy's way. Probably. When horses were involved, one could never be a hundred per cent sure of anything. Still, if the worst came to the worst, she could probably vault the fence and be well out of the way before there was any danger.

A frown crept over the blonde's brow as she tried to work out what on earth the boy was up to... Well, apart from knocking down poles. She winced as each one hit the ground, almost hating to look. Still, Cass stayed on the gelding's back, which was something, she supposed.

"I could have sworn I said something about an order," she commented, giving the boy a pointed look as she passed him on her way to pick up the poles from the floor. "Funny thing about courses, Cass; if you jump them the right way round, they're often a bit easier."

[Caspian Collins]

While he was thrilled to be jumping again, he was furious that he'd knocked so many poles down - and taken out an entire jump. He rubbed slicked neck as he trotted the gelding in a large circle.

"Sorry, mom." He replied to Kitty's comment, with just the right amount of petulance, though he did refrain from sticking his tongue out. "Hey, you made the knock about there being an order and it not being western riding, so I thought I'd see your order and then flip it around." He gave her an angelic smile. "If I promise to jump them in the order you gave them, can I have another go around? I'd even let you have a ride on Slick after... uh, as long as you don't mind riding with only one stirrup." The offer had come out before he remembered that he wasn't wearing the prosthetic, thus the other stirrup not being there.

[Katherine Lorelia]

The blonde rolled her eyes, although she couldn't contain a giggle- the idea of her ever being anyone's mother was one which just seemed ridiculous to the Irish girl; she wasn't wired the right way to deal with that, she didn't think, and even if she was, she had no intention of dealing with it yet. She had plans; she had a degree to get through, a job to establish herself in, a home to find, and then, maybe, once she'd done all that, she could possibly consider having a baby or two. But all that was an awfully long way in the future.

"I suppose," she relented, with a grin. Kitty had most certainly not assembled all those jumps for Cass to just take them once and give up! "Though if it's all the same to you and Slick, I'd prefer not to have any stirrup at all." Having one stirrup, she felt, would make her quite incredibly lopsided.

[Caspian Collins]

Cass beamed when she agreed to letting him jump again, and then nodded to her comment about using no stirrups. "You make a good point, and if you want a ride after, feel free to remove the remaining leather. I guess I've just adapted to the one leg thing, and at least one stirrup seems to be a requirement in the showing thing."

With another grin, he looked over each of the jumps, putting their order in mind and then circled the gelding and asked for a canter as he rode out of the circle and toward the first jump. If there was one benefit to having lost one leg, Cass would have to say that it was his now great thigh muscles as he rode easily in two-point as he used the slightest amount of neck reining to guide the gelding, while not pulling on his mouth too much.

He pumped his fist into the air as the finished the course, this time only tipping one pole on the second to last fence and he rode a circle after the last fence as he brought the gelding back to a trot and then a walk. "Yeah, much easier when done in the order the instructor gives you." He said with a nod, ignoring the pain he could already feel in those great thigh muscles he was earlier crediting.

[Katherine Lorelia]

Kitty nodded with a bright smile. "I will bear that in mind," she assured him cheerily, sticking her thumbs through the loops on her jodhpurs as she walked back to her previous position by the fence, having carefully reassembled all the damaged fences. It was a good job she'd had some experience of this kind of thing, she reflected; she knew some people who'd been riding for years and yet wouldn't have had the faintest idea of how to put a jump together because they had always had an instructor to do it for her. Herself, however, Kitty had always been more or less left to get on with things, and so she was quite capable of doing that sort of thing.

"Told you so," she returned sunnily, combing a hand through her hair and grinning up at the boy as he passed. "Not just a pretty face." Not even a pretty face in her own opinion, but they couldn't all be good at everything, after all, and she was quite happy to stick to her horses, thanks. Modelling held no attraction for her in any case.

"So... Did you want to go over again?" The Irish girl surveyed the course contemplatively. "I could put some of them up a bit, if you feel like it?"

[Caspian Collins]

Cas returned her grin. You are way more than just a pretty face!" He told her, and then gave a self-conscious laugh as he ducked his head in embarrassment; though wasn't sure how to take it back, and then making it sound like a backhanded compliment.

He shook his head to the question, and then even harder at the suggestion. "I'm not sure that I'd be able to walk tomorrow, if I went over the jumps again." No matter how much he wanted to. He decreased the circles he was riding Slick in and halted the gelding in front of Kitty. "He's still fresh, should you want to go over them?" He was already thinking that he might being feigning an illness for the next few days. If he was stuck in his chair, there was no way he was going to be leaving his room.

[Katherine Lorelia]

The blonde flushed bright pink, even as she burst into a fit of giggles. To be honest, she wasn't entirely used to receiving compliments, chiefly because it had to be said that she didn't exactly invite them, but mostly because... well, she probably never would get used to it; she set far more store by them than a lot of girls, and so the amount of blushing which resulted was exponentially greater also.

"Fair enough," she managed with a grin, turning away from her studied examination of the course (which she knew perfectly well; she'd set it out) to face the boy, and giving him a joking salute as he came to a halt in front of her. Dressage had never been a passion for Kitty the way that showjumping had, but she recognised its value nevertheless. "And sure, I'll have a go... If he'll tolerate me."

[Caspian Collins]

Cass chuckled as Kitty blushed up a storm, but didn't say anything about it as he was worried that the girl might spontaneously combust of she blushed any more.

He returned her salute. "He's a therapy horse, he'll tolerate anyone." He replied with a grin. "Just give me a minute to get off." He asked Slick to back up and then turned him toward the arena fence. Without his prosthetic on, dismounting was a little less graceful than what it normally was - if you could call his form of dismounting graceful - and slid to the ground, wincing as ill-used muscles in his thighs screamed for mercy.

Remaining leaning against the fence, he pushed his horse's shoulder until Slick was facing Kitty. "He'll come if you call him."

[Katherine Lorelia]

"But he's never met me before," the Irish girl countered with a broad grin. It wasn't that she was an unpleasant rider for a horse at all- at least, she hoped she wasn't; not being able to speak horse, she naturally had no way to make sure of the fact. It was just that she was very much one of a kind, and well aware that there were a number of humans who didn't tolerate her very well; never mind animals.

Her eyes widened melodramatically at the new information. "Call him? Like a dog, or more..." The blonde paused, trying to think of the words for what she meant, and eventually shrugged helplessly. "I know what I mean, anyway."