Making You Work

[Deleted]

    Cora was quite proud of the gymnastic exercise she had set up for her students' show jumping class today, though she wasn't sure that they could like it so much. She'd put tricky spots in that they would have to adjust individually to their horse's stride, and if she deemed them ready, they'd have to thrill of going stirrupless! What fun! The jumps were set an manageable heights for all of her students, though she planned on raising some of the jumps for those of her students who felt comfortable. It was difficult having a class with students of different levels, but she found a way to make it work.

    She sat on the fence of the outdoor jumping ring as she waited for her students to show up, clipboard in hand. As each arrived, she greeted them and instructed them to warm up their horses in preparation for the lesson. At this time of year, many mounted classes were being held indoors, but she held true to the philosophy that show jumpers could endure anything, so her students would be doing just that. They had a large, fully equipped arena dedicated to jumping, and they would use it. She had decided to leave Fin in his stall today unlike the last class, as she thought that it would fit her lesson better. 


course (jumps are a more reasonable height)

Students:
Athena Achilles
Becca Walsh
Ben Hall
@brookem
@jasper38
Gretchen Holmes
@kate
Peter Holden
Rose Hoff
Serenity Oliver
@jasper32

[Rose Hoff]

    Rose tacked Eleanor up in her usual jumping tack and bridled her before putting on her own helmet and zipping up her field boots. She had been working Eleanor more and more at jumping, and she was amazed by all that her mare could do. She hadn't yet found a height that the mare couldn't jump, and she had very high hopes for the young mare. It was difficult not to push Eleanor too far, but Rose managed to build her up slowly and carefully, and all of her hard work was finally paying off. She hoped that it would show in this class.

    Leading her out to the show jumping ring, Rose was glad that the walks were shoveled, because Eleanor was an absolute princess about the mud and snow. Rose had found her a couple days earlier waiting impatiently by her pasture gate when it has been snowing, wanting to come in from the bad weather.

    Once she reached the ring, she greeted Ms. Addison with a nod and mounted Eleanor. She patted the mare's neck before beginning to warm her up, glad that they were the first ones there, as it would let Eleanor settle a bit. Eleanor was feeling hot and slippery, something that Rose had grown used to over the year, but was still a bit unnerving. She was hard to hold, and extremely sensitive, and Rose had to focus on even getting her to canter in a straight line. Yet, this paid off with the mare's responsiveness on course.

[Ben Hall]

    Ben tacked Lady up carefully, which proved to take longer than he had expected since Lady was very antsy and kept moving around her stall, even when Ben put her in the cross ties in her stall. She was sure to be a spitfire today, and he was glad that he had started getting her ready early so that he would have more time to warm her up before the lesson. She wouldn't be at all productive like this, and they would make a fool of themselves if he didn't iron out her energy a little bit before the class.

    When the mare was tacked up and ready, he led her out to the ring where the class was being held and mounted once inside with the gate closed behind him. Lady stepped in place under him, and he quickly gathered his reins to begin working her at the rail. He trotted her in small and then big circles in both directions, and then cantered figure eights, getting flying lead changes down the diagonal. He tried to keep her occupied and focused as best he could, knowing that it would pay of later in the lesson if he was able to succeed.

[Deleted]

Catia walked to the barn and groomed Raisa. She quickly tacked up the chestnut mare in her usual jumping tack. She put her helmet on and secured it on her head. Catia checked the mare's girth and went up a few holes on the non-elastic side. Catia lead the mare out of her stall and latched the stall door. She walked outside of the barn. It was snowing lightly but Catia didn't mind even in her black long sleeve shirt. She could tell Raisa didn't mind either. She was used to the cold and snow. 

Catia lead Raisa to the show jumping ring. She noticed that only two other students were there along with the instructor. Catia didn't recognize the other riders though so they probably hadn't meet before. Catia greeted the instructor with a hello before checking Raisa's girth. She went up a few holes on the elastic side and let down her stirrups. She put her foot in the stirrup and mounted up in the saddle. She picked up her reins and started to walk around the arena warming the chestnut mare up. 

Catia warmed the the mare up sufficiently. The girl loved the snow and cold. She hadn't ridden the mare bareback in a few weeks and made a note to do it soon.  In Russia she would jump the mare over a few logs in winter. She loved it. It was often hard to do though because the snow would cover the logs up completely. It was sometimes even hard to ride in the open because the snow would completely cover up any rocks,logs or holes in the ground. The girl trotted the mare asking her to lengthen and shorten her strides. She did this with the walk and canter as well. The mare felt good. It was probably the first time in weeks it was snowing and the snow was a few inches deep. 

[Deleted]

    Kate was quick finding Cailin in her stall and grooming the mare for their show jumping class. She was always excited for this class, especially since it was now the only once that she shared with her brother, Peter. She used to be able to ride with him all the time, but now they were both very busy, and they ended up schooling their horses at different times. She wished that she could spend more time with her brother at Blue Ridge, but she saw him a lot less here than she used to when they lived at home. They did, however, still make a point to eat dinner together a couple times a week, which was very nice.

    Once Cailin was tacked up, Kate led her out to the show jumping ring where the class would be held. She mounted her mare once inside and checked her girth once more. Studying the ring before she began to warm Cailin up, Kate was pleased to see that there was a gymnastic exercise set up. Cailin was typically rather good at these since she willingly took any spot as long as Kate asked for it clearly enough. That said, Kate would have to he careful to keep her leg on Cailin through the entire exercise. Guiding her mare to the rail, Kate began to warm Cailin up at the trot and then the canter.

[Athena Achilles]

Athena hid behind Bear as she got the gelding ready for class. She knew that she wasn't going to be the first to arrive, she just hoped that she wouldn't be the last. She ran the baby-soft body brush over the gelding's coat. Now that he was clipped, she had found a softer brush for him, as he didn't seem to like the one he currently had on his now more sensitive skin. She ducked her head and hid behind the horse every time she heard a noise.

She was never an extrovert, but her reason for hiding today was from the unscheduled meeting she'd had with her social worker at lunchtime. Since it had being during school hours, Ms Kallias had dragged her into one of the empty counsellor offices and their talk had taken place in there. It seemed that the woman wasn't too impressed with the girl, not that she was ever that impressed with her as it was, and Athena had felt a little more than the sharp side of her tongue.

Once the dunskin was ready, the girl led the tan horse out of the barn and used the hitching rail as mounting block to swing onto his back and squeezed him forward. They rode silently toward the arena where the class was meeting that day and she bowed her already lowered head even lower to Ms Addison as a greeting, and a reply to the instruction to warm up.

Riding Bear into the arena where they wouldn't be in the way of those already warming up, Athena tightened the girth and then moved to the outside track where she began to warm the gelding up, just keeping him at a free walk for the first couple of laps before she picked up the reins a little and asked him to extend his stride a little before moving into a gentle trot.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity was on cloud nine when she raced into the barn to get Plot's halter and then raced out to the pasture to bring the mare in. She was seriously considering getting the mare to change her mind about enclosed spaces, but she wasn't too worried about it. She collected the mare and took her up to the barn, thankful that it wasn't raining. "I'm going to at least get you used to going into the barn" She told the mare as she tied her to the hitching post. "If it's pelting with rain I can't groom you out here." She hurried into the barn to gather what she needed.

The reason she was feeling so high, was because she had spent her lunch hour working through the lessons that their parents sent them, and today she managed to complete one of the lessons, so she was on a high because of it.

It took her a while to get the mare spotless, as even with a winter coat on, the bay mare seemed to have got mud everywhere! She then tacked the mare up, mounted and rode her toward the arena where the class was. She glanced down at herself as they approached the arena and cringed. "Sorry I'm a mess, Ms Addison." She apologised. "Plot was a little dirtier than I expected." She rode the mare into the arena and began warming her up, suddenly feeling a little deflated. 

[Deleted]

 The smell of hay at his nostrils was a calming smell for whenever Zak entered the barn where his mare, Pleasure now stayed. He went over to his Paint horse with her gorgeous palomino overo coat and stroked her neck soothingly as he put her head collar on and took her out of her stable with a lead rope which he tied to the crossties. Pleasure nudged Zak for treats but did not get any as he did not have any with him, "sorry girl" he said to the mare as he started to groom his horse's coat. It was nearly time for his jumping lesson and this was his first jumping lesson at Blue Ridge and he was very excited about it and wondering what he would learn. He and Pleasure were used to show jumping as he used to take part in horse shows at home.

 Zak finished grooming when Pleasure looked almost spotless and he put on Pleasure's jumping tack, Pleasure pawed the ground impatiently as she was leaded out of the barn by Zak and when Zak reached the ring where the class was he mounted his mare and started getting warmed up by trotting small then large circles and then cantered a figure of eight, hopefully that would have warmed Pleasure up for the class.

[Becca Walsh]

    Becca had to be especially careful today watching Frye as she tacked him up, as the horse was proving to be awfully aggressive. Tightening his girth was naturally the worst part of the process, and he usually did it with one hand, the other raised to shove him away if he came too close. She made it though, and the horse was fully tacked up in his jumping saddle, figure-eight bridle, and running martingale.

    Once she fastened on her GPA, she led Frye out to the jumping ring, which was quite a feat, but they made it. She would have preferred that the lesson be inside, as Frye didn't respond well to the cold weather, but there was nothing to be done about that. It took her a while to get Frye to stand still enough for her to mount, and once she did, she immediately began to warm him up, knowing that the faster she could get him focused, the better the lesson would be.

    Frye was obviously already very distracted by the other horses around him, and it took Becca a while to get him to focus on her, and even then, he was hot and hard to handle. This gymnastic exercise was going to be very tricky if he stayed like this.

[Peter Holden]

    Peter's fingers were beginning to experience a rather numb sensation by the time he brought Thimble into her stall and fumbled the cold latch closed. It was too cold to go without gloves, and so he spent the next several minutes digging to the bottom of his tack locker in search of gloves. He knew he had them somewhere. His show pair was with his show clothes in his closet, but he could have sworn that he had another pair! The first proved the hardest to find, and its twin was uncovered even quicker, most likely because of the renewed hope and vigor with which Peter looked for the second glove. Satisfied, he returned to Thimble with a brush box and her tack, and proceeded to prepare his mare for their show jumping lesson, which if he didn't hurry, they would be late for. All for a pair of gloves!

    Fortunately, Thimble hadn't rolled at all, and the toughest mud was just around her legs, which wasn't awfully difficult to get out. Peter led his mare out to the show jumping ring with a little time to spare, and greeted Ms. Addison upon entering. After mounting, he began to warm Thimble up, hoping to shake his own chill in doing so.

[Deleted]

   Evan tacked Dreams up in her usual jumping tack, her dapple grey coat was already quite spotless. It was quite quick and easy to put the tack on Dreams mainly because she was not aggressive and very calm. Evangeline tightened the girth slightly before taking her out of the barn. The problem with Dreams was that Evan did not know how much energy Dreams had for the class until she got there as she never got too excited for it.

  Evan and Dreams made there way to the ring where the class was taking place and Evangeline mounted Dreams without problem.

  She started getting warmed up by nudging Dreams into cantering a circle and changing the rein in trot. Hopefully Dreams would do good in the lesson. Dreams and Evan were good at show jumping competitions but she did not know what the teacher would think of her and Dreams. Evan was pleased to know that it would be a gymnastic exercise as she had not really done them before and Evan was willing to try it out. Before finishing her warm up she started doing figure of eights in trot then in canter to see how much Dreams had warmed up.

[Deleted]

Cassidy arrived to the barn with more than enough time to spend with her horse and get to class. She had a pleasent-looking dark blue hard-shell and hoodless jacket on, with plenty of fill to keep her warm until she got on. On the back was the Kentucky Horse Park logo, a souvenier from the last and only time Cassidy had been lucky to attend the Rolex Three-Day Event. It was her favourite to wear - light enough to be comfortable but warm enough for all temperatures with a layer or two. And her winter plaid breeches - those were one of her favourite pairs. Feeling good, Cassidy brought her mare in from her field and took her blanket off to reveal a shiny coat. Her chestnut Thoroughbred mare had never gotten the hang of growing a real winter coat, so Cassidy always had to blanket her in the winter. Still she spent time brushing her down to get all the itches out and tended to her hooves. The mare contentedly munched on her hay as Cassidy threw her navy blue saddle pad and Stubben saddle on, though she flicked an angry ear when Cassidy did up the girth. When she finished tacking, Cassidy led the mare out of the stall (though she was reluctant to leave her hay) and threw on a quarter sheet to keep her mare warm while they warmed up and if they had to stand around at all, then, too. She proceeded to walk her horse to the ring, thinking about how glad she was to have splurged for snow pads on her mare's four shoes.

She angrily noted the snow falling as she called "Gate!" and stepped in once the rail was clear. (Cassidy was not fond of the cold or snow). Shutting it behind her, she climbed up into the saddle from the ground, and started noting the horses warming up. Ugh she thought as she saw all of the horses schooling around in differing and complex figures. This is a collision waiting to happen.... Still, Melody didn't feel like joining the fray, and she didn't want to pound her horse too hard in warm up, either, for it seemed the exercise that Ms. Addison had in store for them would do that later. So, she picked up her reins and headed for the rail, moving her mare lightly off her legs. Bend, Counterbend, Forward.... Move your shoulders in, move your shoulders out... Pick your frame up, relax it down... Steadily feeding out the reins and keeping her horse in front of her legs as she went along. Though she wanted to get distracted watching the others, Cassidy worked calmly and methodically to get her mare on the aids. Cassidy worked almost entirely at the walk, only picking up a roung or two at the trot and a couple laps at a canter to enforce forward and get the mare's heart rate up, then calmly returned to walk work. By the time she and everyone else had finished their warm up, Melody had accomplished what she wanted - a relaxed and loose back, and a horse on her aids.

"Atta girl, Melody," she cooed to her mare with a pat.

[Gretchen Holmes]

Bahir eagerly headed towards the ring, prancing and pulling Gretchen along. She kept a slow pace walking beside him, tugging gently on the reins every so often in an attempt to quell his excitement. The cold didn't bother her much, having been born and raised in upstate New York, in fact it almost felt balmy down in Kentucky. 

When they reached the arena Gretchen tightened the girth, a task nearly impossible as Bahir sidestepped and walked circles around her. Finally she got it though, and quickly pulled herself onto the big thoroughbred mix. Excitedly, Bahir headed towards the rail to warm up with the other horses. Gretchen kept a tight rein on him, making sure he remained at  walk in both directions. He pulled on the bit impatiently, but Gretchen wouldn't allow him to budge her.

After walking in both directions, she loosened her grip on his mouth ever so slightly, sending him into a fast paced and spirited trot. He eyed the jumps as they passed them, Gretchen could feel the tension in him. He was like a coiled spring, waiting to explode and fly over everything. She had a feeling he was going to be very frustrated today, with an exercise like the one that seemed to be planned out for today, Bahir was not going to be able to simply race around the course and jump everything in sight haphazardly. Patience and control were going to be the name of the game today, the two things Bahir didn't understand the meaning of.

[Deleted]

It was time what he had been looking forward to before he even arrived, Show Jumping Class. As he reached the barn he went into the tack room and grabbed Berry's tack and headed for his stable. "Afternoon girl you ready for some jumping?" He had noticed a few other people getting there horses whether it was for jumping or some other class he wasn't sure. Once he got all the tack on right he led Berry out of the barn and mounted her. Once on he slowly headed towards the Eventing Arena's from there he would know which arena was his.

As they reached the jumping arena he could feel Berry starting to get excited. She loved to jump about as much as himself. Reaching forward he patted her neck and smiled. "Won't be much longer now girl than you can jump." He pulled her lightly to a stop as he reached the teacher there where several other students. He waited for the person ahead of him to finish warming up before entering himself. He didn't want to push Berry to hard Morgan wanted to make sure she would be good for class. He started off at a gentle slow pace and eventually went into a trot. After warming her up he led her back to where the teacher was waiting.

[Deleted]

  Dennis had been excited about his first show jumping class at Blue Ridge even before he came. He reached the barn where his mare Mulan was being kept. Her bald face appeared from the stable door when Dennis entered she nickered soothingly when Den stroked her neck. Den quickly grabbed his jumping tack from the tack room and checked the time on his watch before tacking up Mulan. She seemed spotless then again she had not been here long and neither had Dennis but he was looking forward to it. This was the moment to show off what he could do and to make his father proud of him.

 Dennis took Mulan from her stable and walked with her to the show jumping ring where the class was held. He vaulted softly onto Mulan's back and started to warm up by doing trotting circles on different reins then cantering. Then did some reinwork then legwork on his mare before going back to where the teacher was. He was hoping that he and Mulan would impress the teacher after all this was his first jumping class at Blue Ridge and he wanted to impress and he did not care what the others would think of him.