If George Morris Said It, It Must Be True

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"Impulsion is the mother of equitation" -George Morris

   

    Cora looked over the course that she had set up for her hunter/jumpers, and she knew that they would like it as well. Composed of lines, diagonals, and an eggroll (a semi-circle-like pattern), it was a classic hunter course that her seasoned riders would know well, and her newer ones would come to know well. The smarter ones would realize that a course like this could only mean that nitpicking was in the imminent future. The course was a good height, though none of jumps exceeded 3', and none of the spreads were very large.

    Standing at the center with her clipboard, Cora waited for her students to arrive with their horses. As they did, she greeted them and told them to warm up as usual. All of them would have to be prompt, as she was eager to begin her lesson, and wouldn't react well to any latecomers. As each entered the ring, she considered the student and their mount, paying special attention, as she knew that one of the students may very well end up the rider or owner of Sophie. She liked the idea of letting some of them ride Sophie in the class.

Students:
@anna
Ben Hall
Danielle Green
@rhythm
@kate
@olivia
Rose Hoff
Thomas Oliver

[Rose Hoff]

    Rose was pleased as usual to attend her hunter/jumper class, as this was her comfortable discipline. She didn't have to worry about it as much as she did in show jumping with Eleanor, as Vintage was predictable and solid, something she could count on. She tacked Vintage up and pulled on her own helmet and gloves before leading Vintage into the indoor where the class was being held. After greeting Ms. Addison with a nod, she mounted the mare from the ground and tightened her girth once more before beginning to warm the mare up.

    Vintage was feeling steady, but a little too excited, and Rose did get best to calm her mare down, working the reins between her third ring finger while keeping the mare's impulsion. The course that was set up looked like fun, though she was sure that Ms. Addison had a way in mind to make it more challenging than it appeared. All of the jumps were appealing to horses, and the distances looked good, so she wouldn't be surprised if Ms. Addison ended up judging them as if they were in a show class. It wasn't something that Rose would mind, since showing in her hunter classes was one of her favorite things.

[Danielle Green]

Her first mounted class was in the extremely near future as she moved towards the Red Willow barn to get her assigned mount ready for their hunter/jumper class. Returning from the tack room with the mare’s groom kit, Danny slide the halter up over her ears and led her to a pair of cross ties and began to groom her. Remi acted like a perfect horse and stood still for the most part, the occasional step forwards or backwards or her raising her head was the only thing. The girl took the curry comb over her then a set of brushes, picked out her feet and combed out the little clumps of mud in her mane. Walking back to the tack room she had the mare’s close contact saddle, snaffle bridle, and a white saddle pad. "Are you ready mare?"

Danny tacked up the mare and walked the mare over to Benedict’s arena and saw that one person was already there, the girl smiled and mounted up and did as she was instructed. Warming up the mare, it wasn’t the first time Danielle had ridden Remi, but she was still getting used to the mare’s gaits and the way she moved. Another good thing about only ride one horse at a time, once you get used to the way they move you train your mind and body to react to it as oppose to two different ones.

outfit

[Ben Hall]

    Ben found Ram in his stall chewing at his water bucket, and poked the gelding's nose away once he entered. Ram was always trying to get into everything, and Ben noted to himself that he should get the gelding one of the toys that he kept in Lady's stall. His mare needed toys to keep herself occupied since she was very antsy, and though Ram was content, it was better for him to be occupied by a toy than with his stall. Ben groomed the gelding over and tacked him up in the proper equipment before donning his own helmet and leading his horse to Benedict's Arena where the class would be held.

    Once inside, he greeted Ms. Addison and mounted Ram who stood nicely while Ben tightened his girth once more. Once ready, Ben walked Ram to the rail and began to warm him up properly. He was now very familiar with the horse, but not nearly as confident as he was with Lady, and hoped that a course like the one that was set up would help with this. Ram was certainly a nice mover and a very good hunter, but Ben and he had yet to completely find their rhythm.

[Deleted]

    Poet was nearly always a very reliable mount, and it was very easy for Kate to forget that the gelding was known to buck when the weather grew cold. Usually he was fine as long as he had been schooled regularly, but when it turned cold, there was no avoiding it. After grooming and tacking her gelding up as usual, Kate led him to the indoor ring where their hunter/jumper class would take place. She mounted him as usual and guided him to the rail to warm up. At first, nothing seemed amiss with the gelding, but once she began to trot him, it became clear that Poet was not acting his usual.

    A few strides into the trot, the gelding threw a small, experimental buck that unseated Kate and took her by surprise. She managed to settle herself once more, this time deeper in her seat, though she tried to maintain her hunt seat position as best she could. Sure enough, Poet threw two more bucks, bigger this time, and Kate fully deepened her seat, and tightened her calves on Poet, pushing him forward. She collected her reins, knowing that she couldn't let him get her head down, and pushed him through, not allowing him to buck any more.

    Such behavior was very inappropriate for a hunter, and Kate was quite embarrassed. She continued to warm him up, holding him firmly all the while to discourage any more bucking. After a few laps, he was warming up and her worry ceased, and she allowed him to move more freely. 

[Deleted]

    Anna tacked up Essie as usual before her Hunter/Jumper class, using her navy saddle pad rather than the white that she would have preferred on another horse. With her classic training, Anna liked to dress herself and her horse professionally even for classes, and would have preferred white for herself and Essie, but instead they both wore navy (Anna in a navy polo). She only rode Essie in a white saddle pad for shows, since the mare was nearly white herself, but the shades didn't match completely, which bothered Anna. 

    Once ready, she buckled on her own Charles Owen and led Essie into the indoor ring for their lesson. Her hunter/jumper lesson was her favorite, as this was her focused discipline. Anna often wished that the academy offered an Equitation class, but there was nothing to do about it, and Ms. Addison critiqued them enough on their equitation in the Hunter/Jumper class for Anna to be satisfied. Still, she often taped herself riding and critiqued herself in her room after schooling.

    Once in the ring, Anna mounted Essie and began to warm her up at the walk, trot, and then canter in both directions, leg yielding a bit as well to get the mare fully warmed up.

[Thomas Oliver]

Tommy groomed his gelding ready for his next class. He loved the way the snowcap blanket seemed to stand out even more not that the gelding's winter coat had come through. He didn't ride Dragan as often as he rode Amber, but he was thinking that he should still get the horse clipped, and filed away a mental note to have a word with Ms Carr about it later.

Once they were both ready, the boy was sure that he'd got all of mud out of the gelding's dark flaxen mane, but hoped that Ms Addison wouldn't hold it against him if he'd missed a bit. It wasn't a competition, but hunter riding was all about looking good. He rubbed the gelding's nose as he left the horse to go and get his helmet.

Walking the horse to the arena, Tommy was lost in thought and jumped forward as Dragan walked into him. "Sorry, my firey pony." He muttered as he rubbed the gelding's forehead again. Arriving at the arena, he gave their instructor a bow and swiftly fixed his tack, swung his lanky frame into the saddle and squeezed the horse forward. "Walk on." He said as he pulled his gloves on and picked up the reins properly. After tightening the girth again, he began to warm his horse up. 

[Deleted]

Jason groaned as his black and white gelding sneezed, spraying moisture all over the hands that cupped his muzzle. "Gee thanks, Tickle. You can have this back." He said and promptly wiped his hands on his horse's shoulder. The grooming routine was soon complete, but tacking up took a little longer than anticipated. Tickle insisted upon thoroughly inspecting each piece of equipment that Jason tried to put on his back, despite the lack of new tack. Finally, though, Jason managed to secure everything, including his own helmet, and he quickly walked Tickle to their hunter/jumper class. Thankfully, Benedict's arena was quite close to Red Willow Barn, and the pair was not late. After a brief greeting to Ms. Addison, Jason mounted up and began his warm-up.

It appeared that Tickle had gotten all his wiggles out in the barn aisle, as he obediently followed Jason's directions. He asked for a nice working trot and circled the arena once before coming off the rail a little to loosen the Oldenburg's limbs with a some smaller circles. Returning to the rail at a canter, Jason quickly surveyed the course that had been set up. Most of the jumps were heights that he had flown over before, though a few were a bit higher than he had gotten to as his old barn. However, he trusted his horse to take him safely to the other side, and grew excited at the challenge.

[Deleted]

Olivia finished grooming Blue, removing the last of the dust from the black mare, before she started tacking up the mare, talking to her as she went, if only to remove the monotony, "You realize how lucky you are? Not everyone can work orange the way you do." She spread the fun-patterened orange blanket over the mare's back as she spoke. While it would never do in the show ring, once in a while, it was nice to have something fun for her mare.

After she finished tacking up the mare, she brushed her hands off on her beige johdpurs, then buckled on her helmet, leading the pony out of the barn and in the direction of the jumping arenas. As she approached the fence, she waited for a break long enough to open the gate, checking Blue's girth as she did so, then called "Gate!" and entered, leading the mare inside. She mounted from the ground, glad that she had a pony, then found a spot on the rail, where she started the mare at a trot, although after a few rounds, they moved into the mare's choppy canter. It wasn't really comfortable, but Olivia had gotten used to it, and denied having any trouble if anyone else asked about it.

[Deleted]

    Cora smiled at each of her students as they entered and watched them warmed up, pleased with her class. It was much smaller than her show jumping class, which was much better, and she did prefer teaching hunter/jumper to young people. She believed that it was the foundation to any sort of jumping, along with equitation, and that any student who aspired to be a show jumper should have a basic foundation in Hunter/Jumper.

    When she had given her students a decent amount of time to warm up since the last student entered, she spoke up to begin the class. "Today I'm going to be throwing you straight to the wolves. Since you and your horses are all properly warmed up, we're going to begin jumping right away, so we'll being skipping the flat portion of the lesson that we usually do to fit more jumping time in. Now, one at a time, I'd like each of you to trot your horse off of the rail to the line on the inside of the track. Please jump into the canter and count your strides. After landing, please call out the number of strides you got." She pointed to the line of two verticals: one at 2'3" and the other at 2'6". A medium sized horse of about fifteen to sixteen hands would comfortably get seven strides between the jumps. "You should all maintain a trot at the rail as your classmate jumps. Now, please come in the following order: Rose, Ben, Kate, Anna, Danielle, Tommy, Jason, and Olivia."

    She wanted to get her students to focus on finding their spot early and keeping it instead of deciding on a spot later on. Hopefully this would help them become more aware of their striding.

Note: Running, I have moved Danielle so that she is after the posts of my characters. I hope that you do not mind; it just makes things a lot easier for me. 

[Rose Hoff]

    Rose continued to warm Vintage up, doing her best to get the mare settled, and she was pretty successful. It usually didn't take Rose long to get Vintage in frame and working nicely, though there were occasions when the mare was having a bad day and grew irritable and stubborn. Today was not one, luckily, and Rose had Vintage cantering at a smooth pace around the ring, settled into her hunt seat position, body posed forwards and legs solid.

    After Ms. Addison explained the exercise, Rose waited to turn off of the rail, and then set Vintage up, steadying her towards the center of the vertical. Rose kept her hands steady on the reins, knowing that Vintage would try to extend and take a long spot if she gave her more rein. She was glad that the mare wasn't the type to fight her hands, so long as Rose didn't get in her face and just kept contact with the bit through the jump. She wasn't a fan of a huge release over jumps, and was much more conservative, especially with Vintage.

    Counting down her strides to the first jump in her head, Rose bent at her hips into her jumping position as Vintage took off, and reached her hands up her neck. Landing and maintaining contact, Rose kept her steady towards the second jump, keeping count of her striding. She'd found her spot shortly after the first jump and held Vintage to it so that the mare popped easily over the second jump. Cantering off, she called "Seven." and collected Vintage back to a working trot at the rail.

[Ben Hall]

    Ben did his best warming Ram up, trying to get himself well-balanced in Ram's long canter. Lady's was upbeat and quick, but Ram's was smooth. Ben had ridden this sort of canter before of course, as it was the epitome of a hunter canter, but he'd been riding only Lady for so long that Ram's was taking some getting used to. The horse often took a stride less than Lady would have in a combination, partially because he was on the tall side, and partially because of his long, ground-covering strides.

    After Ms. Addison explained the exercise, Ben watched Rose ride out of the corner of his eye. He'd gotten into the habit of watching to see how other riders took a course before he did, mostly out of show ring experience. The girl managed it well, though she did appear to be holding her horse back in the couple strides up to the second jump, which wasn't ideal for a hunter. When he got to the right place, he turned in and did his best to keep Ram trotting at the same pace even while setting him up for the jump.

    The horse leaped into the canter over the jump and cantered off of it. Ben tried to find his spot, but it was difficult, since he still wasn't completely sure about the length of Ram's strides. He finally decided on one and counted down, enjoying the gelding's easy movements, not varying in pace at all. When they took off, Ben realized that their spot had been a bit long, but he doubted that he could have fit in another one. It may have been better to collect through the whole line, but he didn't want it to look like he was doing so. As he brought Ram back down to the trot he called out "Six."

[Deleted]

    Poet's bucking had stopped, so Kate let him have more rein and allowed him to lower his head to a level that was fantastic for a hunter, but risky for a horse who bucked. Thankfully, Poet took the bit and settled into frame, though he still moved stiffly, his hind movement choppy and threatening, so she kept her seat deep between posting and squeezed strongly, not allowing him the chance to pause and buck. After a few more laps he was moving almost as smoothly as he always did, and she took note that it would be in her best interest to find the time to lunge him before the lesson next time.

    When it came her turn to jump the line, she collected her reins a bit more, knowing that Poet may take the jumping as a chance to catch her off guard, and she wouldn't risk it. She let the long horse into a canter, knowing that they might get a stride less, but she'd hold him back. Poet was primarily an equitation horse over a hunter, so his style was smoother and easier for a rider. Thus, his jumping style was flatter and flattered the rider, rather than a hunter who had a huge bascule and a large, round jump. 

    The first jump went fine, and Kate popped into her jumping position, a bit stiffer than she should have been, but she was worried about Poet acting up. She held him back to the next jump, but tried to loosen up, and flowed more over the second jump, though their spot was a tad short. Cantering off, she called "Seven!" a little late, since she was a bit distracted by focusing on Poet. She hated when he got like this. 

[Deleted]

    Anna continued to warm Essie up until the mare was feeling good. It was nice not having the only pony in the class, which was something that often happened. She listened to what they would be doing, knowing that Essie would get a stride more than most of the other horses even though she wasn't a very small pony. Sometimes they could get the same amount of striding, but Anna didn't like to extend her, especially in the hunter ring. 

    When her turn came, she turned Essie off of the rail, smiling at how the mare perked her ears as she realized that they would be jumping. The pony had a big jump for her size, and she loved it. The mare had locked onto the jump and Anna could tell that she wanted to canter, but she kept her at an energetic trot until they took off and picked up the canter upon landing. Essie had an energetic jump and often over-jumped, but Anna had grown used to the feeling and managed to smooth her jumping position so that she didn't stiffly pop into it as well. 

    She let Essie have her head to the second jump and the mare settled in and took her spot when Anna asked. As she brought Essie back to the trot at the rail, Anna called out "Eight."

[Danielle Green]

Danielle continued to warm Remi up as more people trickled in with their mounts. The mare was perfectly okay with having multiple horses around her and being able to focus on what she needed to do. Asking the mare to move into a left lead canter, she gladly took up the gait. Once going around half of the arena Ms. Addison called the group to turn their attention to her. Slowing the mare to a working trot she moved towards the rail and waited for her turn. Four students took their turn; all of their strides were average for the size of their horse.

Before she even rode the ‘course’ she knew that Remi should be from eight to seven in her stride, not collecting and not extending the canter. Once it was her turn, she turned the mare and lined her up with the middle of the jump, took off, and landed into the canter. Letting Remi do her thing Danielle positioned the mare to jump over the center of the next jump. Landing in the canter once more the sixteen year old slowed the mare to the working trot once more and called out her number of strides, ”Seven.”, just like she predicted.