Working on the Weak

[Deleted]

Though some students had no problem with this activity, he did hear some sighs and mumbles from other, speaking into his headset, ”I understand that most of you could do this on your own, but this a class,” Drew put emphasis on class, ”ladies and gentlemen that means you learn and work on things. Yes, course we will be doing courses, actually we will start that next class, but remember who the teacher is, if you don’t approve with my teaching you are welcomed to drop the class and transfer to another one.” He put on a sarcastic smile and then added, ”There will be no hard feelings.”

Drew walked through the students and their obstacles they were working on. He seeing that one boy was having trouble with his mare not staying still, ”Mr. Mackenzie keep your weight balanced just as you would if you were actually moving and lean forward.” Hearing the harsh instruction from a little blonde Drew spoke up, ”Miss Rutherford please worry about yourself and your mount. I am the teacher and I like my job, unless you would like to teach the class.” He wasn’t about to let a student do his job and so he figured he would nip the problem in the butt quickly.

Drew disregarded Tommy’s comment as it was a good suggestion. He focused on the other students, ”Very nice Miss DeFoe” Looking at Blythe he nodded to himself, ”Miss Rutherford, if you feel he is going to spin, he deep in your saddle and ask him to go. It doesn’t matter if it is through the cones or not. Just get him to go forward; you can work on the weaving at a later point.” Onto the next student he looked at Cortney, ”Miss Smit you and your mount were doing great, don’t go through the whole thing. Take it in steps. Taking on straight and walk to the corner and back up, do that a few times and then try the whole L, it will take a few tries.”

”Mr. Bailey, redirect her attention to something she is good at and then come back to the mailbox. When you come back try positive reinforcement, place your hand on it like you are going to open it, if she doesn’t react reward her, give her a pat or something of the sort and work from there. I’m guessing bad run in with them? It will take a while for her get the idea that they aren’t all bad.” He walked back around to see if the students tried any of his suggestions.

[Deleted]

Giving up all hope on the gate once one of the girls gave him a prissy set of instructions, he rolled his eyes and took Tommy’s suggestion. He walked off to the poles. Fore was get at lifting her legs at a trot and not going into jumping mode, even though she was trained in jumping. While walking to the ground poles he listened to Mr. Rhodes instructions, next time he would try that.

Even though that’s exactly what the cheerleader said, he accepted it from Mr. Rhodes as he didn’t say it like he knew everything. He trotted over the poles a few times and then worked the Paint mare at the canter over the few ground poles. She did great as usual and then it was time, Jackson decided to go back to the gate.

He didn’t really understand why it was such a problem for either of them. Taking a deep breath before starting Jackson sat in the saddle keeping his weight balanced. He leaned forward as if his hips were hinges only going forward and backwards. Attempting it the first time the boy positioned the mare’s head parallel to the latch and then leaned to unlatch the gate. Before he breathed his sigh of relief he unlatched the gate fully and moved the mare with his legs through not letting go of the “gate” and then relatched it. ”Good girl!” Jackson patted Fore’s neck and then took his sigh of relief.

[Amelia DeFoe]

Amy smiled at Serenity as the girl offered her keys, “Thank you.” She asked Tommy to step up to the mare, although she kept enough space from Red so as not to crowd the mare, as she reached out and took the keys, dropping them into the bucket once she'd returned to it. Tommy twitched at the sound of keys hitting the plastic button, but as Amy repeated the procedure, he'd sorted the sound and stood steady.

Hearing the teacher's voice, she inclined her head the slightest amount, then asked Tommy to circle and approach the obstacle anew, picking up the bucket by the rim rather than by the handle so that she could shake it, causing the keys inside to rattle around. While Tommy's ears flicked at the noise, he didn't let himself be bothered, and they finished the obstacle without problem before repeating the procedure to return the bucket to the starting point for Serenity, in case the girl's mare was up for it.

Looking around, Amy looked at the various obstacles that were in use and those that weren't, before picking the bridge. Sure, it was one of the paint's favorite obstacles, at least it seemed to be, but most everything else was taken that she might have made it look like they were actually working on something, so the bridge it was.

Turning Tommy towards the obstacle, she smiled as the gelding passed by Wolf, perched on the mounting block, with only an ear twitch in the dog's direction, more of a 'he's still here' than worry. The two were a fantastic team, and she was lucky for that.

[Adonya van Rutherford]

Blythe released another sigh at the man's words, muttering softly enough that he wouldn't be able to hear it, “I don't know if I approve of your teaching or not. You haven't done any of it yet.” What a waste of time, but again, she didn't want to actually do anything. Maybe she should consider another unmounted class in its place, none of the teachers could be as bad as this.

As she heard the teacher's comment to her, she rolled her eyes, this time not moderating her response to be quiet, “It's van Rutherford, and now you're teaching? Finally.” She ignored the situation she left behind her as she approached the cones, forcing herself to relax slightly as she had Kodak walk up to the obstacle. However, it didn't escape her that the other commenter's comment was not rebuked.

The teacher came to her, and Blythe glared, “This is the later point. If I'd wanted him to run over the cones in a line, I wouldn't have asked him to turn. And it's still van Rutherford.” The gelding had no issue going forward, it was the half-turning that threw him, because he tended to overturn in these. Not so much in their spins, where he was at most slightly off, but whatever. This teacher didn't even look like he understood what a valuable horse looked like, let alone knew how to train one.

Instead, she had Kodak back up and then slipped out of the saddle, taking the rommel reins and leading the gelding, going through the course before she bounced back into the saddle, pointing Kodak forward for another try.

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney rolled her eyes as the teacher spoke. "In competitions, we call them patterns. She muttered. "A course is something that a jumper goes around." and damn-straight she could be working on things like this in her own time. In class she should be working on how to perfect her timing on the pattern as a whole.

She arched an eyebrow at Mr Rhodes comment to her. "Yes, because in a competition it's all about doing things in parts!" She muttered as she walked Olé back through the L-poles and prepared her to start reversing her again. Then shook her head, having another idea on how to handle her current problem. Nudging the mare forward, she asked her to exit the poles and walked her over to a completely empty area of the field. The mare's strengths were in jumping and dressage, so she was going to work on the mare's dressage moves.

After spending some time working on getting the mare to turn on the forehand and haunches, as well as getting her to back up and stop as soon as she was asked, Cortney was ready to try the L again. Walking straight through the L and before Olé's hindquarters were completely out, she asked the mare to stop. She then asked her to back up into the L, when her hind feet are about one and a half feet away from the back pole, she let go of the reins and sat up straight, giving Olé the cue to stop, rubbing her neck when she did. Releasing a slow breath, it was time for the nest part, what they had just been working on. She asked the mare to move her hip - like she had with the turn on the forehand that they had been practicing. She then ask her to take one step with her shoulder - as with the turn on the haunches - and then, with a smug smile, she asked the mare back the rest of the way out of the L.

[Thomas Oliver]

Tommy sighed as the boy, Jackson walked away from the gate and Tommy squeezed Dragan forward and they approached the gate. reining the gelding in, he reached forward for the rope, unclipped it, asked the gelding to walk forward, turn on his haunches to that Tommy could clip the gate closed again they were done. He reined the horse in when Dragan tried to walked forward again, no doubt to see if he could fit under the rope they had just come through.

Turning the horse away from the gate, he rode him toward the cones that Blythe was working on. He was going to offer to lead her through them, but bit back his comment with the attitude that she struck with the teacher, suddenly feeling that even his charismatic personality wasn't enough to thaw her current mood. Asking the gelding to side step away, pretending they had never been there, he approached his sister and Amy who were working with a bucket and reined the flaxen bay far enough away from them so that he wasn't in the way, but close enough so they could bounce ideas off him should they feel the need.

He was hoping with the information they had given the teacher that day, the next class would have a pattern set up to reflect all of their strengths and weaknesses.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity rolled her eyes toward the teacher - very unlike her yes, but she felt that he was patronizing her friend - then returned Amy's thanks with a smile of her own. She tightened her hold on the reins as Red skittered backwards as the keys were dropped into the bucket and then again as Amy shook the bucket. She frowned, it had never occurred to her to desensitize the mare to a sound like jingling keys, but it was now something she would need to work on, in her own time of course.

She moved forward as Amy put the bucket back in the starting place, even if she wasn't going to pick the bucket up, she still needed to retrieve her keys. She felt the mare tense beneath her as she reached for the bucket, so she picked the bucket up, letting the keys in it rattle ever so slightly, and she closed her legs around the mare as Red skittered backwards, trying to get away from the sound - which followed her of course. "Silly girl." She laughed as she dropped her stirrups and swung out of the saddle. "See, it's a bucket." She carried the back to the horses head and let the mare have a good sniff of the object before she bounced the keys inside it around. "It's not going to hurt you." She soothed as the mare's head shot up, but because Serenity was there, the mare didn't run away.

Taking the keys out of the bucket, she pocketed them and rubbed the mare's nose, showing her the now empty bucket and laughed as Red tried to shove her nose into the object. "Silly goose!" She vaulted back onto the mare and smiled toward her brother.

[Deleted]

Laughing to himself, he knew that most of these students came from riding backgrounds but they were obviously in this class for a reason, to work on their trail class skills, which some of them seemed to think was below them. Drew looked at it as he would only work with students that wanted to work with him, even if they didn’t like his ideas of teaching, attitude wasn’t the best way to deal with him as he gave it right back most of the time.

Drew watched Jackson and his mount as the boy brought his mare back to the gate and retried with success. ”Very nice Mr. Mackenzie.” He skipped Amy as she was doing well with Tommy and he had no criticism for her. Next to his favorite student. He didn’t know what he had done to deserve such attitude from Miss van Rutherford. He brushed off the comment from her and looked down at his clipboard, ”Look at that, I’m sorry Miss. van Rutherford.” He corrected himself and listened to her reasoning behind rejecting his help.

”Again I’m sorry, let me rephrase that, after you have completed the half turn then ride him forward, if he wants to continue turning with the moving forward will break the habit, although if you chose to not attempt my help, go ahead and continue struggling.” He was done with her and moved on to the next student.

The next one was also moving up in his ranks of favorites. Hearing her comment about his suggestion he raised his voice, ”Miss Smit if you haven’t noticed we are not in competition now are we, we are in a class.” These two lovely mouths were the type of student he was not willing to work with and so he moved on just as quick as he walked to her.

Drew nodded at the twins as they were both doing nicely. ”Well done Mr. Oliver.” He walked to Serenity, ”You’re doing nicely Miss Oliver, Red will progress in time, but I think you already know that.” He smiled and walked back to the middle of the field.

”That’s all for today, class is dismissed.” As the students made their way out he smiled to himself as he saw Blythe leaving. ”Miss van Rutherford could you stay after for a few minutes?”

[Deleted]

The boy smiled at Mr. Rhodes’s positive comment. Jackson attempted the gate one last time and conquered it before he decided that was enough progress for one day and he went on to something else. The something else was the bridge, it could be worked on and he knew they were decent enough at it.

He walked to the bridge and asked Fore to step up onto it. With ease the mare did what she was asked. Jackson then with a little leg moved her towards the other end and then off of it. He circled back around and then asked her to do it twice more, before he felt they had enough of the bridge under their belt.

Jackson went back to the ground poles and did some work on those once again, just to see if Fore wanted to test her rider and jump them at the canter, which she sometimes tried. As he rode over them three times at the trot his mare did perfectly fine, riding through the middle of the pole just like they were supposed to, though when they got to the canter the last two poles, Jackson felt the mare getting ready to jump. He asked the mare to descend to the trot before she could.

Once Mr. Rhodes dismissed the class Jackson was the first one out, just as he had been the first one to class. He dismounted and walked Fore back to the barn and untacked her there.

[Amelia DeFoe]

Amy urged Tommy on to the bridge after he'd reassured himself that the canine was still around, waiting for Jackson to finish before she asked Tommy to walk over the obstacle. She wasn't expecting any trouble from the roan gelding, and he didn't offer any, and after looping around and going through it again, she looked around for something else that wasn't in use.

Spotting the gate, that was empty for the first time in a bit, she asked Tommy to trot over, halting the paint in front of the gate before leaning down, unlatching the gate and having the horse step through before she turned to relatch the gate. Just at that moment, Tommy shifted his weight slightly, and the rope slipped from Amy's grasp. Shaking her head, she turned the gelding towards the other post and ran the rope through her hands before she had the clip in hand once again, then turned to secure it properly.

While she considered her options, she heard Mr. Rhodes' voice and stopped, walking Tommy over to the mounting block before she dismounted next to it, careful of her landing, before she loosened the gelding's cinch. After grabbing Wolf's lead and Tommy's reins, she made her way out of the arena, back towards the Red Willow barn to groom and untack Tommy.

[Adonya van Rutherford]

Blythe gave a small smirk as he corrected himself. Of course she knew her own last name, even if this teacher didn't. She continued with what she was doing until she was sure that he had turned his attention away, then moved Kodak back to the front of the cones, asking him to turn and then, when he tried continuing, simply pushing him forward.

The horse seemed confused at first, but after they'd gone through the process a few times, he seemed to be grasping the concept. Another glance at Mr. Rhodes, and then Blythe moved on to the mailbox, asking Kodak to step up to it as she opened the flap, then closed it once more. Moving Kodak out towards the bridge that had just been cleared, they crossed it without issues, before it was time for the end of class.

Hearing the teacher's words, she slipped out of her saddle and was about to leave when she heard Mr. Rhodes' words. Rolling her eyes and sighing, she turned on her heel, stalking over, “What now?” Of course, she could have been worried, or even contrite, about being called back, but that wasn't Blythe's style, and her tone was as brusque as always. It wasn't like this teacher could really do anything to her anyway.

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney rolled her eyes at the man's reply to her snipped comment and gave him a sugar-sweet smile as he moved on to the next student. "Yet, if you were talking to someone about gardening, you'd still call a spade a spade." She muttered, her voice too low this time for anyone to be able to hear her. "Even though it's just a class, you could still talk the damn talk."

While others in the class seemed to be moving on to other things, she kept working Olé on the one obstacle until the mare seemed that she could do it in her sleep. Giving the horse a rub on the shoulder, she asked for a trot and moved away from the poles, making their way over to the cones that Blythe had recently abandoned and she got the mare to weave through the cones before she backed her through them.

She dropped her stirrups as soon as Mr Rhodes said that class was over, though she raised her eyebrows as Blythe was asked to remain behind. "See you in the studio." She said quietly as she continued toward the gate, her legs hanging at the mare's sides, as she was heading to the cheer studio after this for a cheer meeting that Andie had called.

Approaching the barn she slipped to the ground, not bothering to halt the mare while she did it. She then lifted the reins over Olé's head and led her into White Oak where she replaced the bridle for halter and clipped her into the cross-ties for a thorough grooming before taking her back to her stall, promising to be back after practice, and before she headed to Evening Primrose to held with the bedding down.

[Deleted]

Finally the class had ended, though he loved teaching, some of these kids made it hard. Though he was almost positive that it was just because it was the first class with a new teacher, luckily this class wouldn’t be getting a new teacher for a long while. When his favorite student made her way back towards him, he gave her a genuine smile. ”Well Miss van Rutherford you see I will not take what happened here in class today lightly.” His voice was calm, just as though he were having a normal conversation with anyone else.

”You might be asking yourself what I’m going to do about it, well I’ll tell you.” He chuckled and then looked at her. ”I can tell you don’t take liking to me, so I’m gonna make your life heck for a while, you’ll be my assistant or whatever you’d like to call it.” The smile morphed into a smirk, ”Yes, you’ll have to do what I say for as long as I say.” Nodding his head he thought for a second, ”Oh and if what you pulled today continues,” his voice got deadly serious, ”there will be further repercussions.”

Taking a deep breath he gathered himself and the smirk reappeared. ”Savor this day while you can, tomorrow is when your job starts, meet me at the Red Willow Barn at 6 A.M. sharp.” Another thought came to his mind, ”Oh yes another thing, I will inform you’re coach about your punishment so you don’t have to.” He waved his hand to dismiss her and went to work cleaning up the obstacles; he figured he would give her the rest of the day to herself.

[Adonya van Rutherford]

Blythe resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the man's statement, noting that at least he had had the decency to get her name straight. She wasn't all too worried about what he might throw at her, but then again, perhaps it would be advisable not to antagonize him further... just yet. Until she saw what kind of teacher he was.

His assistant? What in the world did that mean? She frowned as she considered the punishment, although internally, she shrugged. It couldn't be too bad, although she wouldn't let it show that she thought very little of the punishment as stated. At least he wasn't calling her father, that would get sticky for her, very quickly.

Hearing the time she had to be up and at the barn, her eyes narrowed and her frown deepened, but all she said was a curt, “Fine.” As he said that he would tell Andie, Blythe wasn't quite able to keep the worry out of her expression. If he told Andie, and her coach sided with him, she would possibly lose her spot on the cheer team... Or even just her co-captaincy, which would be bad enough. Feeling as though she had been dismissed, she turned on her heel, Kodak almost trotting to keep up with her.