Barrel Racing Class

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Olivia walked by Elphaba's stall and stroked the mare's neck. "Not today girl." She whispered. She kissed the horses face and smiled, then headed towards the barrels arena.

Today she wanted to just meet her students, scope them out, learn a little bit about them. Today would be an unmounted lesson. She also wanted to see what the students knew based off their knowledge of barrel racing. Tomorrow they'd get to show off their skills, but today would just be theory lesson.

Olivia had a pretty good intuition. She was known for seeing right through suck-ups, and she absolutely did not take attitude. She wanted her students to like her, but she told herself she wouldn't be at a loss if they didn't.

Earlier she had posted a note in each of the student barns that read:

ATTENTION ALL BARREL RACING STUDENTS: 

Today's lesson will be unmounted, so all you'll need in class today is yourself!

-Ms. Song

She hoped they all bothered to look at the bulletin boards in the barn, or else she would have to have them tie their horses up. She found some chairs out from the side of the arena. The barrels had already been set up, so she pulled enough chairs for her class to sit in to the middle of the three barrels. She wanted them to be able to walk the barrel pattern and to see it from the ground. When she had finished putting the chairs out, she took a seat in the chair that sat in front of all the student chairs. She took a deep breath and smiled to herself.



@calebm
@hound3
@derrick
@mandolingirl
@john
@surfsup

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John had seen the paper notifying them of the unmounted status of the class earlier, when he had grabbed Lilja for Natural Horsemanship, but it wasn't until he was walking back to the barn with the mare, making plans to groom her before tacking her up, that he realized he didn't have to worry about it. So, instead, he left the mare outside, put away the gear, and instead grabbed her rug. After tossing the blanket over the mare and securing it, he led her out to the pastures. After turning out the mare, he looked at the lead rope in his hand, unsure of what to do with it, then shrugged and hung it around his shoulders. The note had said no horses, but it had never said anything about no lead ropes, and he would be able to get her as soon as they got out. With that decision made, he walked out to the barrel racing arena.

Once there, he saw the chairs in the middle and entered, choosing a seat at the end of the row. However, before he sat down, he nodded at the teacher, "Good afternoon, Ms. Song. I'm John." With that, he sat down on the chair, watching the other students arrive as he used the toe of his boot to draw circles and other patterns in the dirt.

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Everleigh walked into the barn, happy to see Hollywood again. She stroked the horse's beach and fed him a carrot she had gotten from the cafeteria. She walked him towards the grooming station, but stopped when a note on the bulletin board caught her eye. The note was from the barrel racing instructor saying that today's lesson would be unmounted. She sighed as she turned to her horse. "Guess there won't be any barrels for you today, boy." She told the horse. If horses could look disappointed, that was definitely the look on Hollywood's face. Hollywood loved to run barrels and Everleigh knew that. That was why she had signed up for the class. She wasn't particularly find of barrel racing, but she knew Hollywood loved them, and she wanted to reward her horse for being so good and moving to a new place, so she signed up for the class.

She put Hollywood back and his stall, and headed for the barrels arena. Already in the arena was the instructor, a young looking woman with with wavy, layered hair, redish brown on the top and blonde towards the back of her neck, and another boy who she assumed was a student. The instructor, Ms. Song, she assumed, smiled at her. Everleigh smiled back and said shyly, to both the instructor and the other student, "Hi, I'm Everleigh."

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Chelsea wasn't sure how she felt about any instructor that used an exclamation point in their notices to students. Second thoughts ravaged her brain, and she didn't know just how to feel. Another thing... she was here to work with Shy. She was here to learn how to take the world by storm. This traditional education thing... she still wasn't so sure. Spending all the previous years in a home school environment to be thrown into boarding school as a senior... what the hell had she been thinking? What the hell was on her mind? Chelsea couldn't tell you, but she curled up in one of Charlie's big shirts and made her way outside. Charlie had only just come back from basic, a reservist... and then she had to leave. She missed her brother. Damn it, she sounded like a child. More internal scolding.

But she would do her best to keep an open mind. The young woman curled down deeper into the thermal shirt that hung from her lithe frame, pulling it closer. It still smelled like Wyoming dust and the laundry detergent they used at home. At least it was warmer here. Optimism at it's finest... or un-finest. Chelsea would try, but she wasn't making eye contact as she took a seat at the other end. Far away from the people... plenty of space. She needed space.

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