Hitting the Trail After a Long Rest (Glen)

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        A tall man walked beside his big black and white horse. He was itching to get back on the trails before starting class since he would be able to figure out what trails would be good for class and ones that were not good for class. He sighed as he lowered his trail saddle stirrup to where he mount up on the huge horse. 

        He reached down and stroked the gelding's black neck. He had the basic trail tack but for a softer buffer across the gelding's nose since he did not want to rub it raw as he was doing a course. He has his sunglasses on because his blue eyes did not like sunlight that much. He also had his cowboy hat on besides a helmet because he knew that Major would not do anything with his owner on his back. They had been through too much.

        Adam clicked and squeezed the black sides of the horse to get the huge horse to go into a walk. He just wanted to warm up the horse before he did anything serious because he did not want his friend to pull anything when it was just the first outing. Some people thought he loved the horse more than himself but Adam did not. They just had an understanding that made their relationship look easy. He often missed being in the saddle but you could not always being in the saddle. 

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Glen threw Murdock's saddle on his back and then ducked down to grab the girth, although she didn't have to reach too far, the gelding being far taller than average. When he was being mean, as he was being today, the gelding delighted in lifting his head, forcing her to jump up trying to get his bridle done. Frustrated, Glen tugged on the bottom of the halter, "Behave yourself, Murdock." Finally, the Holsteiner complied, and Glen fastened his bridle before he could rethink things. She buckled her helmet on, force of habit even if it wasn't mandated for teachers, then lead the gelding out into the sunlight.

Not wanting to walk the whole way to the cross country courses, Glen used the mounting block in front of the barn and managed to get onto the gelding's back, a strange sight as it always was, the mismatched rider and horse. They walked to the courses, where, to her surprise, Glen saw someone already riding in the same field that she had been hoping to use. As she approached, she hailed the man, "Do you mind if we join you, or would you rather we take another course?" She wouldn't want to intrude, but then, she needed to keep all of Murdock's skills sharp, not just the advanced ones.

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Adam turned his head at the voice. He slowed Major from a lope to a trot to a walk until he got closer. "There is enough trail for us both." He said in his southern accent. He also tipped his head and tan cowboy hat to her. "I am Adam Bales, the trail riding teacher." He said to the female. He reached down and stroked the mare's sweaty neck. "Maybe you can show me around the trail or are you just on a short ride?" He asked her. He did not want to press himself on to her if she had a limited time to work the big horse under her. He was about the same size of Major.

The mare under him whinnied and pranced around as she wanted to go but Adam held onto the reins tightly so she could not go until he loosen the leather straps a little bit for her to walk. Adam smiled at the female and pulled back so the mare backed up a couple of steps so that she was not right in front of the female so she could walk on and not want to show him around the trails. He always figure them out on his own if he had to. He knew they were on the cross country course. It would be nice to go around with someone other than just the horse and rider, though sometimes that was not a bad idea to clear his head.

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Glen waited patiently as the man riding already slowed to answer her question, but as he did answer, she frowned, "There's only the one intermediate course, actually, which is why I asked." She held Murdock in check, even though the gelding wanted to go make friends. As the male introduced himself, she nodded, "Glen Aulin Ó Raghailligh, just Glen's fine, though. I teach cross country and eventing." As Murdock kept playing brat, she circled him once, then asked him to stand again.

Adam's question was strange, considering they weren't on the trails, "I wasn't planning on heading to the trails. If I had, I would probably have headed to the actual trails, which are that-a-way." She gestured in the general direction of the trail, "Did you managed to get lost?" It was strange, she already knew the campus like the back of her hand, but she remembered struggling to get around the first few weeks, "I was planning on making sure Murdock here," she indicated her horse, "Remembers the intermediate stuff as well as the advanced, because I've learned if I don't give him a refresher once in a while, he starts rushing them, and then we end up losing points."