Making You Work

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    Cora watched as each of her students entered, smiling and nodding to each. She raised an eyebrow bemusedly at Serenity as the girl apologized for her appearance, and responded, "It's quite all right with such muddy conditions, Serenity." At Magnolia Acres, she would have sent her student back to the barn had they arrived turned out as such, but she could hardly blame these kids. They were responsible for their own horses, and they didn't have much time to prepare between classes, while the Magnolia Acres juniors rarely groomed and tacked up their own horses. The change from that to Blue Ridge had been refreshing, as her students here weren't able to hand off the reins to a groom as soon as they dismounted.

    After they had been given time to properly warm up, Cora began. "Okay, I think it is our time to begin. As you can see, I have a gymnastic exercise set up for you. For those of you who have worked over similar exercises before, you know that they can be tricky, so we'll be doing it a couple of times, possibly with different variants. For the first time, please trot to it and pick up the canter at the first cavaletti and canter through the rest of it. For now, only ride the line of jumps down the center and then return to the rail. While you are waiting your turn, please keep a working trot at the rail. Please consider your horse's striding. You may have to stretch them out or collect them to get the proper number of strides, and the striding in this exercise should not vary much between horses if you complete it correctly. Any questions?"

    After looking around for any questions, she called out the order. "Rose, please start, followed by Ben, Catia, Kate, Athena, Serenity, Zak, Becca, Peter, Emily, Gretchen, Morgan, and finally Dennis." The class was huge, and it seemed to be growing, and Cora knew that she would have to split it soon. 

[Rose Hoff]

    Rose tried to get Eleanor in frame rather than having the mare's head in the air, but she was only partially successful. She listened to the instructions, which were simple enough, but she knew it would be trickier than it was in theory. She trusted Eleanor to find her spots, but she'd have to put more thought into this. After turning off the rail, she built up the power of Eleanor's trot so that the mare easily jumped into the canter over the cavaletti and bounced over the cross rail directly after it.

    Eleanor easily took a stride to the oxer, though her head was higher than Rose would have liked, and upon landing, Rose could feel that the mare was powerful, and would try to get only one stride to the next jump, a slightly larger vertical. She sat deep and held her to the base of the jump before letting the warmblood pop over it and take a quick, powerful stride to the final oxer, the biggest jump. Eleanor arched gracefully over it with Rose over her neck.

    Cantering off, Rose patted the mare's neck, pleased with how they had done. The next times may be more difficult as Eleanor got more wired up, but at least they had gotten a good footing for the gist of the exercise and Eleanor hadn't spooked at anything. 
    

[Ben Hall]

    Lady was still antsy under him, and Ben was definitely thinking that the gymnastic exercise may prove to be difficult for them. Their turn came too soon for Ben's liking, and he turned Lady in, trying to collect the mare without her mincing strides. She leaped into a strong canter at the cavaletti pole, and over-jumped the first jump. Ben wasn't too worried about the first oxer, as he knew that Lady had better judgement than trying to fit in a bounce, but the two stride may turn into a one.

    Ben held Lady back strongly to the oxer and kept a contact with the bit over the jump, maintaining his control, but it wasn't enough, and Lady took off too early after only one stride for the next vertical. Ben was forced to release, give her her head, and stay off her back. Her hind legs rubbed the rail, but it stayed up. It was messy, and it was luck that they hadn't knocked it. The last oxer came up fast but they made it over now that Lady was more cautious. The ride had been disappointing, and Ben hoped that they would have a couple more tries so that he and Lady could redeem themselves.

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    Kate continued to warm Cailin up, stretching the mare out and then collecting her so that she would be supple and willing to do the same when they were jumping the exercise. Cailin's strides were shorter than that of most horses her size, so Kate would probably have to ask her to extend a little bit to get the correct striding comfortably. When their turn came, Kate centered Cailin towards the jumps and gave herself a little more contact with the mare's mouth, knowing that Cailin would want to get the canter a stride before the cavaletti, as was her habit. 

    As expected, the mare began to tug at the reins and ask for her head approaching the beginning of the exercise, and Kate had to hold her back, only allowing her to canter over the cavaletti and then pop over the cross rail. Kate pressed her calves into the mare's sides, asking her to extend more so that they would get the correct striding to both the oxer and the vertical that followed. They managed to get the correct striding in, and Kate pressed her to the last oxer, which Cailin took, but threw her head after. The mare didn't like how Kate had been in her face, the whole time, and the girl noted that next time she should let Cailin have her head more and trust her more to get her spots.

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He was running quite late and he knew it, but instead of getting frustrated, Tori kept his head and didn't rush through the procedure of tacking up Dachs. He'd make it to his jumping lesson, late or not, and be happy with it. He was still getting used to how things worked here at Blue Ridge. 

Finally, he led Dacks towards the jumping arena, feeling the horse quiver, in excitement or cold, he wasn't sure this time, as they neared the arena where both horse and owner could see several students going over a short course one at a time. Torsten paused outside the gate for a moment before entering when it was clear and led the big warmblood towards the instructor, clearing his throat to get her attention. 

"Sorry I'm late, ma'am. I lost track of time, but that's no excuse." He said, giving the woman a sheepish smile before waiting patiently for her to either dismiss him from the class for the day, which he'd understand if she did, or tell him to get up in the saddle and work. Truthfully, Tori wasn't sure just what he'd prefer the instructor to do... Dachs had been off in his right front for the past several days up until he'd blown an abscess two days ago, and while he was fine now, Tori wasn't a fan of making Dachs work much so soon after coming out of a lameness... Perhaps, though, he should ask the instructor. He'd been told by his step-dad that he was too protective of the big gelding... "Um, excuse me... may I ask a question...?" He asked, not waiting for a response before plowing ahead, "Dachs' has been lame for that last week and blew an abscess two days ago in his right front... is it okay for him to be doing stuff like this so soon?" He asked, clearly more than a little concerned over his horses well-being. 

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Leanne groomed her pony, she made sure Colato was spotless. No specs of mud or dust was allowled to be seen on her pony, she didn't want to start with a wrong impression. After she'd groomed and unrugged her pony she then tacked up, Colato was being a pain again and Leanne was starting to get annoyed with this after every time she tried to tack her up. She then said slowly and calmly to her pony "Coal, I won't let it hurt you. Why would I? I promise it won't hurt you." As soon as Colato had stopped bothering about it she managed to completely tack her up without a fuss.

Leanne then got herself ready, with a short dark green whip, a nice navy blue riding hat and dark purple chaps, she was also deciding whether to take her body protector in case of an accident. Leanne shook off the thought and carried on. She then tucked her whip into to her chaps save carrying it around. She then led Colato to the ring, as she entered she stood infront of her mare and said slowly. "Colato, chill out. I don't want to loose you, you just need to calm yourself girl." Leanne then put her right foot in the right stirrup and counted from three to one, she then mounted the mare.

Leanne said towards the Instructor "Hi, I'm Leanne Jacobs. I will be joining these lessons from now on" Colato was still excited so she started to trot off, Leanne gathered the reigns quickly and said calmly towards her rebellious ride "And Staaaaaaaaand!" Coal slowed down and eventually stopped, Leanne was now ready to start riding her mare. She said slowly and happily in a high pitched tone "Trot...On!" Colato leaped onward, her pace gentle and welcoming. After a set of four sitting to her trot Leanne started to rise and drop to her beat. Leanne thought in her head one,two,three,four,one,two,three,four etc...Eventually Leanne brought her to a halt in the corner, she patted Colato's neck gently as she calmed down.

[Athena Achilles]

Athena keep the gelding she was working at a working trot, making sure that his stride was powered from behind, as he had a habit of hollowing his back and dropping on the forehand. She kept most if her attention on the gelding, but also watched those before her as they went over the course.

When it was her turn, she trotted the gelding down the centre line, toward the grid and as soon as they reached the first caveletti, she asked for a canter and smiled as the dunskin skipped into his beautiful canter. As they had been trotting around the rail, she had taken a relative guess about the gelding's striding between each fence and made sure to collect and extend him where she knew he would need it, asking him to extend his stride a little more where she had misjudged the striding.

As they rode out of the gymnastic and joined the rail again, she leaned forward and rubbed the gelding's sandy coloured neck. The cross country trained horse had done really well for what she had asked of him, especially when extending and collecting his stride between obstacles was still a new thing for him. When on a cross country course, extending his stride meant speeding up, but in here she wanted to keep the same pace, just move his legs a little more.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity made sure to keep her mare between he legs as they warmed up, trying to keep herself as invisible from the instructor as possible. She would just need to remember next time to wear a tracksuit over the top of her riding clothes, and then take it off before mounting up. She angrily wiped away a tear that was running down her cheek.

Reni had pulled herself together before it was their turn to ride over the gymnastic, and she hoped that she would be able to ride it as well as the others, though she still had her doubts about Plot at times. Trotting toward the grid, she asked for a canter right before the cavelitti, which Plot didn't quite understand and they tripped over it. Shaking her head and rubbing the mare's shoulder she asked for the canter stride again and smiled when the mare cantered forward.

Out of all of the grid they only had one other incident, where Reni had misjudged her timing and they almost had a refusal before, at the very last second, Plot pulled herself together and did a deer leap over the fence. The rest of the grid passed in a blur as Reni joined those on the rail.

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 Zak was making Pleasure go at a working trot at a good pace before it was his turn. He was a bit worried about the exercise but he knew Pleasure could do it if she set her mind to it. When it was Pleasure's turn he trotted the mare down the centre line and when they reached the first cavaletti he nudged Pleasure into her elegant canter.

Pleasure took a good stride over to the oxer and jumped perfectly over it. Zak then kept Pleasure at a good pace to the vertical and Zak sat deep in his saddle before Pleasure jumped over it gracefully without fault. Pleasure got more powerful when it came to the final oxer but Zak controlled her as the went over it.

 The cantered back to the rail and then slowed down into a working trot again. Zak soothingly patted Pleasure's neck they had done good but they did not know what the teacher thought of them. Zak smiled to himself as Pleasure snorted. Zak made Pleasure go at a slower pace. Zak wondered if they would be doing it again to show the teacher how good they could be. Zak watched as the others after him started the exercise.

[Gretchen Holmes]

Bahir pulled eagerly on the bit as they trotted on the rail, waiting for their turn. With each horse that went Gretchen became more wary. She was just barely in control of the excitable gelding as it was, she'd never taken him over a line like this. Would she be able to control him? When their turn came, she prayed she could hold him. 

Directing Bahir towards the center line, her arms ached slightly as she held Bahir back, keeping him in a trot until they reached the cavaletti. Taking a fistful of his white mane, she finally gave him the slightest bit of rein, which sent him exploding over the first jump. Gretchen managed to keep up with Bahir over the first few jumps, however she gradually began jumping behind Bahir, clinging to his neck and mane in a desperate attempt to stay on.

Bahir tucked his legs up, lunging towards each jump excitedly and soaring far higher than necessary. He jumped rounded, knees even and high with his ears pricked. He would have looked like something out of a picture, if it weren't for his somewhat inexperienced rider struggling to stay with his large bounding leaps.

When they jumped the final oxer Gretchen managed to regain control and slowed Bahir back to a trot. The white gelding snorted, tossing his head before settling down. Gretchen patted and rubbed his neck, proud he'd jumped clean but overall not feeling very accomplished. She wanted to do well with Bahir so badly, but here in a new environment he was slowly proving to be too much horse for her.