Child's Play

[Deleted]

Today's focus, and tomorrow's focus, for her eventing classes would be dressage. Glen Aulin had followed the lead of other teachers and had split both of her classes into two, which meant smaller class sizes. She might not like having to teach four classes rather than two, but it was definitely worth it if she didn't have sixteen horses in the arena at once, or out on the course for cross country.

The time for class found her in the dressage arena, pacing around the inside across the shifting sand as she waited for her class to arrive. She had chosen not to saddle Murdock today, for this class, because she had something different in mind for them. Perhaps they would like it, perhaps some would complain, but today, they were going to be doing it, and that was that.

As her kids started arriving, she retreated to the centre of the arena to give them space to warm up, greeting those that greeted her, but standing still, so that they could work around her if the track wasn't giving them enough variety. It was only a matter of time before she started the class, but as she glanced at her watch, she realized that she was running slightly early, that there was still time, so she stayed silent and watched her students.

@alec
Athena Achilles
@adalina2
@surfsup
Peter Holden
@samie

[Athena Achilles]

Athena took her time in grooming Bear's sandy coloured coat, making sure to be gentle with the clipped areas, and once he was groomed to her own standards of perfection, she wrapped his legs, tacked him up and led him out toward the dressage arena. She was dressed in white breeches, a black long sleeved polo with a vest over the top keeping her torso warm, her feet were covered in her field boots and she held a pair of white gloves in her hand.

She bowed her head to woman in the arena. She then fixed her tack and swung her small frame into the tall horse's saddle and then squeezed him toward the gate, which she opened, guided the gelding around and closed again. She squeezed him forward away from the gate, and a little off the track, before she halted him and made a huge fuss over the gelding for doing so well with the opening and closing of the gate - which was something she had been working on for the past few months and it seemed that the gelding was finally getting it.

She then squeezed the dunskin forward once more and began to warm him up around the track.

[Deleted]

Kennedy had made a fast track to the stables as soon as classes were out for the day and had spent the last several hours grooming Duran. The cremello gelding didn't get extremely dirty, but being cremello, what little dirt and mud he did get on him stuck fast. It had taken her a while to get his coat back to gleaming, especially since he wasn't clipped or anything.

When the time came for her eventing class, Kenna saddled the big gelding up and led him towards the arena. Before opening the gate and entering she shed her leather Harley Davidson jacket and laid it over the arena railing. After closing the gate, she gave the instructor a small smile and swung into the saddle, taking note that the instructor's mount was unsaddled. She wondered why, but passed it off as unimportant.

Picking up the reins, Kenna put a light pressure on the left side, asking Duran to flex his neck around, as she always did. She did the same to the right side, then asked him to walk off, warming up. From the way he held his head and eyeballed the other two horses in the arena, she knew it would be a bit difficult to get him to focus on her. Duran was feeling pretty fresh from both the cold weather and the fact that he'd been in his stall most of the day.

[Peter Holden]

    Peter found Thimble in her stall before their eventing lesson and got right to work grooming her and tacking her up. The mare always looked good in winter with her clipped coat. Her winter coat was a different color from the clipped parts of her coat, and her hunter clip looked very sharp. He'd ended up doing Kate's horses too, since she had always hired someone to clip, but Peter was able to do a good job himself.

    After Thimble was tacked up, Peter led her out to the dressage ring where their lesson would take place. Thimble was quite good at dressage, so he was hoping that it would be a good lesson for them. He mounted and began to warm the mare up. He didn't do anything out of the ordinary, and just focused on getting her in frame as he trotted and cantered her in both directions. Luckily, Thimble was in a good mood. The mare could sometimes get moody, which was the only time that she wasn't decent at dressage. Needless to say, her pinned ears and swishy tail were not good for her performance. This lesson was looking good though, since Thimble's ears were pricked and she was moving nicely as she warmed up.

[Tyler Reynolds]

Tyler made his way out of the Blue Ribbon house with his riding attire on. Walking to White Oak barn, which he had spent most of his day in two days ago as that was when Roman arrived, he had bundled up as much as possible so he could still do his job in the saddle. Entering the barn he saw Roman standing with his head out of the stall, ”Hey big boy.” The horse wasn’t that big at all, he was an average sized horse standing only 15.2 hands high.

The Standardbred wasn’t dirty and so Tyler wasted no time in tacking him up in his dressage tack. The instructor had told them that they would be working on their dressage riding today. The sixteen year old despised snow with a passion and that was the only reason he liked living in Texas, there was no snow. Walking his horse out to the dressage arena, Tyler and Roman entered to see three other students were already warming up their mounts. ”Gate.” He thought it would be respectful to call gate to let the rest of the class know that he was here. Mounting up, he began to warm up the gelding.

outfit

[Deleted]

Glen waited a few minutes past when class should have started, glancing at her watch once in a while, then walked into the centre of the arena, "Hey, guys, if you could gather around." She waited for the four students to comply, then smiled at class, "Welcome to dressage. We're going to be doing something that I hope you find interesting today, although if not, feel free to tell me, because it's an idea that I'm still ironing out."

Launching right into it, she began to explain, "We're going to be playing a version of follow the leader. So, Athena, you're going to start, give everyone a lap around the arena to settle in, and then you get to do whatever dressage movements you would like. Do four or five, calling out what you're doing as you're doing it, and then, when you're ready to switch out, bring the line back around to the centre and call 'break'."

She looked at the other students, "Then you three will go the opposite direction from whichever way Athena chooses to circle to get to the end, and Kennedy, you will pick up the lead for the next few movements. Same thing, and then Peter, you get to go, followed by Tyler. Once you're done, call halt, and we'll evaluate." She looked at the four of them, "Any questions? Otherwise, feel free to get going. I'll be watching all of you, if something is above your level, feel free to do the closest approximation that you or your mount can manage." She walked to the fence and climbed over, giving the class the full arena to work in.

OOC;: Murdock's not in the arena, he's in the barn. Sorry that I didn't make that clearer, Adalina.
@alec
Athena Achilles
@adalina2
@surfsup
@paisley
Peter Holden
@samie

[Athena Achilles]

Athena brought Bear back to a walk and then reined him in not too far away from the teacher, but giving the gelding enough space so that he wouldn't feel boxed in by the other horses. Her eyebrows flew up at the woman's next words, but she nodded.

When told to move off, she asked the dunskin to return to the track as they led the way, clockwise, around the arena. As they made their way around, she had the gelding extend his walk and as they hit A for the second time, she asked for a trot - figuring that she wouldn't have to verbalise that, as it wasn't exactly a dressage move. As they reached the corner of the next long side, at M, she knew what she wanted to do. "Collected trot to shoulder-in right." Her voice was loud enough to carry, but not commanding or bossy, as though she were talking to her gelding as she cued him for a collected trot and then shifted her hands and legs, asking the gelding for a shoulder-in. Once she got to B, she asked the gelding to return his shoulders to the track.

"Collected canter, with two tempis." She had been working on Bear's flying changes and felt that he could handle it. "Atta boy." She whispered as he made the two flying changes without any issues. She kept him at a collected canter. "Canter pirouette." She turned the gelding toward the middle and he executed an almost perfect movement. She brought him to X and reined in. "Break" She rubbed the gelding's shoulder and released the reins as he stretched his neck out.

[Deleted]

Alana finished running the last few strokes of the brush through Domi's black and white coat as she got him tacked up for their next class which was Eventing. She made a quick check of things before smoothing out her usual polo and dusting off her jodhpurs. She untied the crossties holding the gelding in place and led him towards the dressage arena where the lesson was held today, as she was informed.

Once she has arrived, she greeted the instructor, who she guessed was the woman standing in the middle of the arena, and informed her that she was a new student here just like she has been with all her other teachers. She mounted the gelding and walked him off. Transitioning through different gaits to warm the horse up and get him ready for what was in store for today. She observed as the gelding made smooth strides, even if it was just a warm up, and she knew it will be smooth sailing today.

She listened as the instructor informed them the instructions for today's task and applied pressure to the gelding's sides to follow the girl, Athena, clockwise around the arena. After their one lap around, she watched her movements as she went into a trot before going into a collected one to having the horse shoulder-in right. Later going in to a collected canter with flying changes of two tempis and a canter pirouette, having it a bit hesitant, but they completed the last movement as they came in back in the center. She released the reins and let Domi shake his mane out before taking the lead, knowing it was her turn. She hoped her movement towards the front showed that she was starting.

Leading them the opposite direction this time, which was counter-clockwise, she called out the first move. "Working trot to canter." She started off as she let the gelding take a few even elastic steps and then shifted into asking the horse to go into a true canter. After they come to circle the first corner, she spoke the next one. "Counter canter." She made sure the gelding had the right rhythm as they kept balance to maintain the move. After circling another corner she asked the horse back into a canter. "Canter half pass." She shifted her weight and positioned her leg into transitioning the horse for a canter half pass.

She smirked, pleased in Domi obediently transitioning into the move, getting ready to finish their turn in leadership, bringing them back to X. "Break." She called out as she reined in, patting the gelding's shoulder in praise. He let out a snort in response before bobbing his head, waiting to continue.