Hunter/Jumper 3.1

[Deleted]

Cora smiled, looking down at her watch. Her students should be arriving soon, and their class was sure to be interesting. She’d been thinking about such a lesson for a while now, and had decided that today would be the day to follow through with her plan. She’d notified all of her students to arrive bareback, and was quite excited to have a bareback lesson with them. She rode bareback herself at least once a week, and had done it more back when she was competing. It had made her strong as anything, and really helped her form her connection with Fin. She’d learned to anticipate his every move that way, and had carried it over to working in the saddle.

Standing in the middle of the jumping ring, she looked around at the course she’d set up. It was simple and the jumps weren’t very high. It consisted of two lines down either side of the ring and one line down the diagonal. Most of the jumps were simple verticals, with only a couple spreads, and none were terribly high. She doubted that any of the students would have an issue with the jumps, even being bareback. She’d made the course simpler than normal, knowing that some of her students probably wouldn’t be used to riding bareback.

When her students began to arrive, she instructed them, ”Please mount and warm your horses up.” She considered adding that she expected them to post at the trot, but decided to leave it out, hoping that the students would do so anyways. Yes, many of them were going to be sore after this class.

[Rose Hoff]

Rose had been interested to hear that she wouldn’t need her saddle for her hunter/jumper class, though a little bit wary. She rode Vintage bareback quite often, but it had been a long while since she’d had an instructed class while bareback. She’d certainly have to demand more from herself, and make sure her equitation was still perfect. Finding Vintage in her stall, she greeted the mare with a smile and pat on the neck before getting the mare’s grooming box from the tack room. Removing the mare’s blanket, she brushed over her thoroughly, making sure that the mare’s light grey coat was pristine. Once happy, she picked out her hooves and checked the time.

She’d gotten to the barn rather early for her lesson and found that she had time to do some braids she’d been practicing on Vintage lately. She’d been experimenting with different braids from a book she’d gotten for Christmas, and the one she liked most was a pretty French running braid that simply ran along the horse’s neck. She was able to do it rather quickly, just using a spritzer bottle she kept with her brushes to keep the hair smooth. The braid came out looking rather nice, with only a few stray hairs sticking out. For her tail, Rose just did a quick French braid that ran along the tail bone, and kept braiding a couple strands down to the bottom, so a long thin braid hung with the rest of Vintage’s tail. The braids certainly weren’t fit for the formal hunter ring, but they looked pretty and were fun for their bareback lesson. It gave them a bit of a more formal style despite their lack of normal tack. After putting on her helmet and gloves, she bridled Vintage and led her out to the jumping ring, where she was happy to find that she was the first student there.

She mounted outside before calling "Gate!" and entering the arena, closing the gate behind her. Greeting Ms. Addison, she settled into her seat quickly. One nice thing about riding bareback in the winter was that the horse’s body kept one much warmer than a saddle did. Pushing Vintage off to the rail, she walked her halfway around the ring to get settled before asking for the trot. She began to post, knowing that though she felt strong now, the lesson would grow more tiresome as time went on. After trotting around a couple times, she asked Vintage for the canter. This was more comfortable than the trot, though she still made sure to resist the temptation to relax too much and grow lazy with her position.

[Deleted]

When Kate had first heard about their bareback lesson, she’d groaned a bit, knowing how much the lesson would demand of her. She’d ridden bareback enough, but it was usually for fun, with none of the demands that a teacher would add. Plus, it had usually been on Madeline back at home, and the little Fjord had been a dream. The more she thought about it though, the more fond she grew of the idea. If would certainly make the lesson interesting, to say the least, and though she’d ache, it’d make her stronger. She’d been hoping to use Cailin for this hunter class, but having heard about the change from the norm, she’d decided on Poet. The equitation horse’s long, smooth strides would make it easier for her to focus on her riding, rather than trying to just keep her seat on Cailin’s stride.

Finding the seal bay gelding in his stall, she greeted him affectionately, ”Hello handsome.” Petting him a couple times, she removed his blanket and got his brushes from the tack room. He was mostly clean from being inside, and she just had to get some shavings out of his tail, which took the most time. Once happy with his appearance, she got his bridle and bridled him, putting on her Charles Owen and gloves afterwards. Leading Poet out to the jumping ring, she used the mounting block to get on and called out ”Gate!” upon entering, closing it behind her. She let herself get acclimated to his movements before walking him to the rail and asking for a trot. The ache in her thighs set in after posting about twice around the ring, and it became clear than this was going to be quite the long lesson.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara stood back from her mare, straightening up after applying the last of the black hoof oil to Ella's feet. She then ran a damp cloth over the mare's coat to remove the dust that had settled after the Hanoverian had been groomed. She knew that it was just a simple lesson, but she always wanted to make sure the mare looked ready for business - and she was the same; dressed in beige jodhpurs, a long sleeved mint green shirt and a hunter vest over the top of it. Her hair was in a neat french braid, which was then folded over and over to create a neat bun at the nape of her neck, held into place with pins and a hair black hair net over her hair to keep it all in place.

She checked the mare's hunter buttons and then the french braid that kept the mare's white tail looking neat and tidy. Please that they everything was in order, she removed the cross-ties and the mare's halter. She then held up the bridle and smiled as Ella readily accepted the bit and the girl fitted the bridle into place.

Lifting the reins over the mare's head, she led the black tovero out of the barn and toward the jumping arena. When she had received the news about that day's lesson, she had been ecstatic as she much preferred to working bareback than she did in a saddle. Arriving at the arena, she bowed her head to the teacher before leading the mare over to the mounting block, stepped up, vaulted onto the mare's back and then entered the arena.

Finding a spot on the track, she began to warm the mare up. Since she was bareback, she sat a little further back on the mare than she would in the saddle, but that didn't change any of the cues she gave the mare and it wasn't long before she had the normally antsy mare moving nicely beneath her. Happy and ready for that day's lesson.

[Deleted]

Olivia smiled at Blue as the mare lipped at her. She had just made her way to the mare's stall, and Blue was already hard at work, checking to see if Olivia had brought her any treats. After the mare had retreated with a snort of derision, after having found nothing, Olivia took the pony's halter off of the hook where it was hanging and buckled it onto the mare's head.

After finishing with grooming Blue, she pulled on the mare's bridle. The teacher had notified them that they would be working bareback today, which Olivia was comfortable with. She buckled on her helmet, then led the pony out to the show jumping rings. She let herself into the arena, calling out, "Gate!" as she did so, then led Blue into the middle of the arena and mounted. She nodded as she heard Ms. Addison's instructions and slotted Blue into a slot on the track. She noticed that she was the only one on a pony again, which didn't matter at all. After she felt Blue loosening up a bit at the walk, she moved the mare into a trot. Her posting was slightly off for the first lap, as she hadn't ridden bareback in a while, but she managed to correct it, and after a minute, felt comfortable posting again.

[Deleted]

On hearing that the class would be completely bareback, Henri had gone out and worked her legs around the track a bit in order to have enough stamina to go on without getting too sore after the class. She hadn’t been big on exercising since swim season hadn’t started quite yet and the brunette figured this marked her start of workout sessions. Still, she was rather excited to go bareback with Roxy as she hadn’t ridden the mare in ages since she’d left to BRRA. It definitely helped her a lot in any case as she’d ridden bareback a few times with her instructor back home.

Once again the brunette was overthrown with appreciation for Kevin’s kindness in buying the mare. Technically, the horse was his and his father’s but, he was so most kind to allow her to ride the calm grey. Due to Roxy’s sweet and gentle nature, Henri was quite sure the lesson would go well so long as they didn’t have to jump too high. With the bareback aspect however, the brunette was pretty much convinced the jumps would be set low enough. Unable to let the smile that had grown through her last class, Henri nearly skipped to the barn where Roxy was.

She entered swiftly, her mood only dwindling a bit due to the fact Hutch was in the other barn and she didn’t have enough time to say hi to him. Henri noted to take the gelding out on a trail ride later in the day or run a few times around the round pen to get his daily jitters out. The horse was rather antsy at times and she hated to see him cooped up for too long. A soft nicker caught the girl’s attention and she tuned into the gentle head sticking out of one of the stalls.

Henri gave the mare a soft pat, her eyes still amazed at the sight of her horse even though had nearly been a week since Kevin had surprised her with her. The brunette led the mare out with her pink equipment and started to groom her thoroughly. The girl smiled as the mare immediately accepted the bit as usual, and tested her helmet to see if it was in place. She had gotten a new one for Christmas and the velvety material was as shiny as ever. Henri pulled the reins over the grey’s head and led her out of the cross ties, heading over to the jumping ring.

To the girl’s surprise, there were already a few people before her there, though to her happiness she wasn’t too close to being late. Henri pulled Roxy over to the mounting block before vaulting onto her and balancing herself on the mare’s warm back. “Gate!” Upon yelling her warning, Henri let herself in before nodding to Ms. Addison and starting to warm her and her horse up. She began at a good working walk for a few moments and getting herself comfortable. After this, Henri finally asked for a trot and found a happy medium in posting up and down to the right diagonal. Roxy was rather easy to sit as she had a calm, smooth gait at which the girl relaxed against and set her back a bit further back than what she would have done in a saddle. Quite unsurprised with the ache that started to come around the ring, Henri simply just took in a breath of acceptance. She would end this lesson sweating in the cold weather. What a contradiction. 

[Deleted]

Sam smiled as she collected Des’s halter and lead from the tack room in white oak. While she made her way out towards the pasture her eyes fluttered around to the other students heading to their next classes. Her hand gripped the gate and the other hand worked on unfastening the gate. Sam called her Welsh Cob and soon enough the horse pranced his way over to the gate with a snow covered blanket. She shook her head with a light grin and began haltering him. Quickly they made their way to the barn to get cleaned up for Hunter/Jumper. It was rather strange to be going to class bareback, but then again it also sounded like a blast and Sam loved jumping bareback as well.

After Sam pulled off the gelding’s blanket she cleaned him up a bit, though it didn’t take long to do so. Before they left Sam stared at the halter that the gelding had on and the bridle in her hand. ”Nah….” She shook her head and removed the gelding’s halter and slid the bridle on carefully as Des took the bit easily. Finally she was ready to head out to arena for class. ”Let’s go big boy.” Sam patted his neck as they walked out of the barn towards the jumping ring.

The gate swung open slowly as Sam pushed it while alerting the others already in the ring. ”Gate!” She wasn’t particularly loud but she made her presence and the opening gate known to the others. Sam swung the gate behind her closed again and joined the others waiting for instruction. Once it was given she guided the horse to the side and vaulted herself onto the gelding’s back.

A soft sigh escaped her as she slid back and straightened herself up. She trusted Des more than any other horse except for Popeye. The gelding started around the arena at a walk, making a full pass before they moved into a trot. Sam kissed until the gelding picked up the correct gait and she posted around the ring, evaluating the course that had been set up.

[Deleted]

Even though it was his first day of classes, Cello was still a bit bored with them. He didn’t like school much back home, but then again, horse riding classes hadn’t been involved with the school back in Spain. Still, in this country, the classes started far too early. The good thing was however, they ended late. It made more fun for him after school, but he didn’t get much sleep. He didn’t have a hard time waking up despite the earlier time however. Due to his dear friend jetlag, waking up really hadn’t been that hard. It had been staying awake in his classes that were difficult as the day went on.

Either way, he’d gotten a notice about his new hunter/jumper class. They would be riding bareback. This had immediately perked the bored brunette up out of his usual dreary expression when he faced school. He was most definitely excited to get started with that. Back home in Spain, he’d done quite a bit of bareback riding despite his father’s dislike of the style. Still, Cello was a difficult child to control and Mr. Savoy had enough more important to try and rein in his son in. 

The brunette practically waltzed into the barn as the familiar proud whinny of the warmblood echoed throughout the airy space. Cello chuckled, coming up to the gelding’s stall as his large head hung over the door. “Neigh! To you to.” He replied, an amused look on his face before he grabbed the horse’s halter. He’d gone a few trail rides with the Tabiano before, but it had been a while since they had jumped. Still, due to the seven year olds love of jumping, Cello figured Max wouldn’t be too rusty. He was a young horse after all and liked to pretend he was some sort of bird when they went over anything- even a ground pole.

Going bareback meant perhaps a potential fall with Max’s rather excited ways of taking to things at times, but Cello was pretty cool about it. He preferred not to embarrass himself on the first day too badly, but then again, when was there ever a time the boy ever did get embarrassed? Grabbing the reins over the horse’s head, Cello slipped on his helmet and started to lead the gelding to the jumping arena. Much to his surprise, he actually wasn’t late, but he wasn’t the first either.

Already a bunch of girl were already there warming up their horses. Cello grinned slightly. There were so many pretty girls at this school. He wasn’t the least worried about being the only boy as he did pretty well in any situation- even with a group of two year olds. Vaulting onto Max’s broad back, the brunette eased the gelding a moment before going up to the gate and yelling out a warning. He nodded to the teacher with a grin that was growing ever so slowly. Seemed like he had his work cut out for him. Cello pushed his horse to walk around for a moment, which Max did with a few head tosses until Cello let him trot. The gelding’s trot was fast and choppy at first, which Cello fixed as quickly as he could to get a good seat. “Buen chico...” Cello’s voice was encouraging and soft as he knew Max was sure to get hyped up soon at the sight of the jumps.

[Deleted]

Nodding at each of the students as they entered, Cora considered what she would have them do before they jumped. She wanted to at least test their bareback skills a bit before throwing them to the wolves. She smiled a bit to herself at the phrase, hoping that it would not be the case for most of her students. She hoped that some of them would find it challenging, but that none were too overwhelmed. As long as they knew their horse well enough, and had a good balance and seat, they shouldn't have an issue jumping a course bareback. As her students began to warm up, it became clear that some of her students were quite comfortable riding this way, and she suspected that some of them did it regularly by the looks of their riding.

Once her students had been warming up long enough, she called out, ready to begin. "I'd like all of you to canter from C to A, and then trot in your half seat position from A to C. Rose, when you get to C you may start, and the rest of you may follow. She didn't say any more, though watched for her students' reactions. The trotting would certainly not be a pleasant exercise for them, but she wanted to make sure they could trot in half seat while bareback before throwing them onto a jumping course. Folding her arms, she stood in the center, watching each of the students for a little while. She wanted to get to the jumping quickly, but it was important to do this first.

[Rose Hoff]

Rose continued to warm Vintage up, happy with how the mare was settling with the other horses in the ring. She hadn't expected anything different, but she'd learned to be more on her toes by working with Eleanor. Vintage's smooths strides were nice to canter to, and weren't the least bit uncomfortable bareback. When Ms. Addison spoke up, she brought Vintage back to the trot and posted again. The posting bareback was a bit tedious, though it didn't bother Rose than much. She forced herself to post whenever she rode bareback, which was quite often.

Listening to the teacher's instructions carefully, she nodded a bit to herself, forcing herself to keep her expression neutral. Ms. Addison certainly seemed to mean business when it came to riding bareback, and Rose wasn't going to show any sign of annoyance or fatigue. It was, after all, good for her, and she'd do what it took to further herself as a rider. Trotting in half seat wasn't exactly her idea of fun, but it wouldn't be miserable, and she could deal with it. Anyways, the canter halfway around the ring would be the easier part, and she could at least use that time to prepare herself for the other part.

When she got to C, Rose asked Vintage for the canter, which the mare picked up, and Rose immediately got her into frame. She sat a little further back than she normally would have in her hunt seat position, but didn't let herself settle too far back, so that it looked as if she were cantering on a couch. Instead, she kept her legs steady and position as light as possible. When she reached A, she brought her back to the trot and rose into her two-point position, closing her knees firmly around Vintage's sides and making sure that she gave the warmblood enough leg to keep her moving at an even pace, but not so much that she extended.

[Deleted]

Kate was already annoyed with herself for not doing this more often, and forcing herself to work at it, since her muscles were protesting so quickly after beginning. She felt ashamed of it, and she certainly was going to try as hard as she could not to show it. Her strength from ballet helped her quite a lot, but she wasn't really used to this new sort of weak feeling. Thankfully, her balance wasn't the issue, and she wasn't worried about jumping. As soon as she sucked it up and held her legs still, she'd be fine for the rest of the lesson. What's more, she'd certainly be riding bareback more often and pushing herself while doing so.

Ms. Addison's instructions made Kate grimace a bit, and she didn't try to hold it back too much. She was sure that other students wouldn't be feeling too much better about it, and she wasn't going to hide it too much. She was behind Rose, so when the girl asked her mare for the canter at C, Kate collected Poet a bit before she reached C to give them more space before asking him for the canter at C. She figured that his strides would be longer than Rose's mare's, and soon found that she was correct. She kept Poet on the more collected side so they wouldn't end up to close to Rose, but focused more on her own position. Poet was fine, but she just needed to make sure not to lean on his mouth with her hands just because she didn't have a saddle. If her equitation and signals were off, Poet wouldn't put up with it, and he'd become lazy himself. She focused on keep still, but still holding her leg strong against him to keep him moving.

On her down transition to the trot at A, she had to take special care not to fall forward when asking him for the trot, but was a bit more forward than she'd have liked to be anyways. Poet flickered his ears back in annoyance when she bounced a stride on his back before rising into her half seat and holding herself up. This wasn't as much an issue as the posing was, and she just had to focus on holding it and keeping Poet in his zone.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara was sitting easily on Ella's back as she had the mare moving forward nicely in a walk and a trot. She didn't want to do any cantering during their warm-up as she knew that bareback work was a little more tiring on the horse than when she was wearing a saddle, and if they were going to jump the course that had been set up, she wanted the mare as fresh as could be, so they worked through a number of dressage figures while warming-up to make sure the mare was responsive, flexed and supple.

Without moving her eyes from between the mare's ears, she shifted her attention to the instructor as the woman began to speak. Cara nodded her head a she took it in, knowing that this wouldn't be a hard task to accomplish. As the two riders ahead of her led off, she supported Ella's outside shoulder with the rein and lightened the mare's inside shoulder by keeping contact with the inside rein, but not interfering with her mouth.

Leaning on her outside buttock by lightly putting her outside shoulder back, she asked for the canter depart by putting her outside leg back and touching lightly. Keeping her inside leg at the girth she nodded as the mare struck off perfectly, and the girl's upper body and legs didn't shift as the mare cantered around the half of the arena, her lower body moving in time with the horse's movement.

Two strides out from A, she gave a half halt, deepened her seat, tightened her tummy muscles and asked for a trot. She bowed her head as the mare made the easy downward transition. Not loosing contact, Cara asked the mare to trot a couple of strides - it was now time for her to move from a three point position to the two-point. She stretched her calf muscles so her legs wrapped around the sides of her mare. The small rider then lowered her weight down into her heels, securing her leg slightly behind the girth (or where the girth would have been). She then rose up from just her knees - so that her pelvis is suspended above the mare's back by just a few inches. Finally, she closed her hip angle. Making sure not to make the mistake of breaking over at her waist. Instead, she tightened her core muscles and bend at the hip. She maintained her balance by pushing her hands forward onto Ella’s neck, about halfway up the mane. Allowing her body’s angles to incorporate the motion of the horse, this acted like a shock absorber.

[Ben Hall]

Ben was eager to get to his first Hunter/Jumper class, as it would be the first of his classes he'd be attending on horseback. He had gotten the note from Ms. Addison, and he couldn't say that he was too thrilled about riding bareback, but he'd make the best of it. He'd learned a lot of his riding cantering across fields on his pony as a child, so he had a decent enough seat, but the judgmental watching that was sure to occur would be new to him. He met Lady in her stall and scratched her poll affectionately after hanging her bridle on the door of her stall and bringing the grooming box inside.

After grooming her to a shine, he carefully wrapped her legs in a light lemon yellow and bridled her. Putting on his own helmet and gloves, he made his way down to the jumping ring, calling out "Gate!" and nodding to Ms. Addison as he entered. Mounting, he guided Lady out to the rail and warmed her up.

Listening to his instructor's instructions carefully, he watched as a girl on a light grey warmblood strike off at C and did the same when he got there. Lady was even touchier when he rode her bareback, and when they reached C he lightly squeezed his leg to where the girth would have been, keeping his reins fairly loose but remaining in contact. Lady would throw a fit if he got too heavy on her mouth, and the last thing he needed was to fall in his first class. It would certainly make an impression, but not the one he was hoping for.

He managed to keep himself steady at the canter, sitting a bit further back than he would have had he been riding in a saddle. The hardest part was not getting stiff. This got more difficult when he down-transitioned at A and rose into his two-point. His balance was a bit upset when Lady threw out her nose and lashed her tail in protest to his half halt, but he quickly regained his position.