Just Another Day (Cara)

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Ryan's heavy boots crunched through the snow as he walked towards the barn. The sun shone brightly off of the snow, and a slight chill was in the air, but Ryan didn't mind. A light sweatshirt was his only protection, since he didn't expect to be standing around too much anyway. He entered the Red Willow barn and walked down to where Daredevil was stabled, smiling as the mare and her grey neighbor stuck their heads out toward him. He pulled the carrot that he had brought out of his pocket and snapped it in half, then held out half each to Daredevil and Sunny. After the bay mare had finished her treat, Ryan slipped her coral halter onto her head and led her out into the cross-ties.

After brushing and tacking the mare, Ryan grabbed his helmet and then led her out into the sunshine. He used the mounting block to get up in the saddle, then adjusted his seat. Satisfied, he used his legs to ask the mare to walk forward, leading her in the direction of the Green Hill trail. He preferred the simple trail to the other two that were available to the students, simply because it was easier, and wider. As Daredevil walked along, her ears twitching as she took in the snow-covered grounds, Ryan focused on the trail ahead of them, which had already been broken by someone since the last snowfall.

Tag: Cara-Jean Kitchi
Notes: Sorry, it's a bit horrid. It will get better! :- D

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara walked into White Oak, massaging her left shoulder. The age old injury seemed to be playing up quite a bit as of late, and this in itself amused the small girl, as she wasn't working any harder than she had at any other stage of her life.

Pushing the stiffness to the back of her mind, she walked down the aisle until she reached the stall of her grey mare. "Hello beautiful." She whispered as the mare walked forward to greet her. "Would you like to go and have some fun?" The mare had done brilliantly at the recent horse show, so rather than putting the mare straight back into training, in the arena, she was going to go out to the trails and have some fun.

Leading the mare out of her stall, she clipped the cross-ties onto either side of her blue-violet halter and headed into the tack room. Walking up to the grey's locker, she opened it and quickly changed out of the tracksuit she was wearing and into the jodhpurs she always kept in the locker, she then pulled on a long sleeved polo and her microfleece zip jacket. Picking up the mare's grooming kit, she hurried back out to where the Holsteiner was waiting for her and went through the motions of grooming her and getting her ready for a trail ride.

Once the mare was dressed up to the nines in; her blue-violet Equine Couture Paxsion all purpose saddle pad, Havana brown Bates Caprilli Close Contact Saddle and matching bridle and to protect the mare's legs, the girl had put her violet Hexa Airflex tendon boots on. And with her Charles Owen helmet fastened under her chin, she removed the cross-ties and led the mare out of the barn.

After tightening the girth and pulling the stirrups down, Cara used the concrete edging in the garden as a step-stool, and vaulted onto the mare's back. Without even bothering to find the stirrups, she took up the reins and squeezed the mare forward. She used her seat and legs to guide the mare down the path toward the trails as she slipped the balls of her feet into the stirrups.

Tag @ryan

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Ryan soon felt that Daredevil was starting to loosen up, as the mare started stretching out, asking to move faster. With an eye on the snow, and the churned trail, Ryan grimaced and kept his grip on the reins short, hoping that the mare wouldn't pick up speed. He didn't want anything to happen to either of his two academy-assigned mounts, but since the trail ride wasn't even for a class, he would feel twice as bad if anything happened to the mare. While the mare flicked her ears back as he didn't ask her to trot on, she seemed to settle into a natural walk, if not happily, at least peacefully, for the time being. The mare was always very complacent with whatever he wanted to do, Ryan mused, although she did seem to know what she would prefer. He didn't feel too badly about denying her the option, not with the snow underfoot, slippery and hiding any holes that might have been burrowed into recently.

As the ride went without any problems, Ryan found his mind wandering again, to the question of if he wanted to transfer up into one of the more advanced classes, in either English or Western riding. He had been avoiding the issue, mostly because he didn't want to start jumping yet, but knew that his father would expect him to take a class that would challenge him, not to stay in the beginner class for his whole high school career.

As Ryan worked to refocus on what was happening around him, he decided to try something his father had taught Jack and him when they were younger. He stopped Daredevil, dismounted, and led the mare off of the trail before crouching down next to the trail. As the bay mare started nosing at the snow, Ryan scrutinized the trail, testing himself to see if he could still identify the number of people, or horses, that had passed by since the last snowfall.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara sat lightly in the saddle, her hands holding the reins with enough contact to keep her mare calm but not too much that she interfered with the grey's head. As she didn't know how the uptight mare was going to react to the trails, she wanted the mare to be a loose as possibly, if she asked for too much contact, Mouse may interpret that as her having to watch out for something that might attack her, if she sat too deep in the saddle, then she was telling the mare that there was no trust and she thought the mare might vanish from under her.

They made their way down the trail, Cara allowed the mare to pick her own path as she trusted the mare's instincts more than she did her own, and she also knew that Mouse was clever enough that as she put her hoof down, if she didn't trust the ground under her, she would take another path.

It wasn't much longer before Mouse was pulling at the reins, asking for a little more speed. "Sorry girl." Cara whispered. "Wait till we get to a bit with no trees." She knew that there was too much of a chance of there being ice hidden under the wet snow. Even the slippery wet mulch that had been created by the fallen leaves was dangerous enough at this time of the year and the last thing she needed was an injured horse, especially after the mare had done so well at the show, giving them two firsts - she had picked up a second with Ella.

They turned the corner and saw an easily recognisable Daredevil on the nosing at the side of the trail. "'Wabbit hunting season'?" She asked when she saw Ryan studying the trail.

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Ryan frowned as he tried to work out if one of the prints that he was seeing was a single print, of one horse that had dragged its hoof forward a bit more than normal, or if another rider had been by and had had the fortune of his horse stepping in the exact same spot. Finally, using the rest of the tracks, he shrugged, guessing that around three riders had made their way down this particular trail. Nodding at the result he got, he switched to scrutinizing the shoeprints, which were much easier due to the variety of treads. Just as he was finalizing the number he had gotten, he heard a voice. Grinning at the joke, he turned to see Cara on a grey horse. Turning serious, he shook his head, "Duck season." He hadn't watched the cartoon where that argument came up in a long time, but hearing the comically mispronounced word reminded him of when he and Jack had watched it, on some base... He thought back, trying to remember which one, but didn't quite recall.

As Daredevil raised her head from her foraging and nickered at the grey horse that Cara was riding, Ryan tightened his really loose grip on the mare's reins just a touch, biting the inside of his cheek as he thought about how he could ask what he had been thinking about for quite some time now. He had heard about the movie premiere through the school's network, and as soon as he heard it, he had had a crazy idea, one which he had decided to act upon, with no small part in that decision falling to the derisive voice in his head that mirrored his older brother's mocking tone whenever they talked about Ryan's exploits which had gone wrong.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara smiled and shook her head in amusment. She didn't have time to watch television, and if it hadn't been for an English teacher who thought he was hilarious, had screened the Loony Tunes clip during class when they had been learning parts of speech - as the Warner Bros had meshed a clip together where the argument between Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck turned into the duck talking about the proper use of pronouns. She then shrugged her shoulders. "Each to their own, but you're more likely to find rabbit prints than you are duck."

Cara sat deep as her mare threw her head up and Mouse danced backward when Daredevil's head popped up. "Easy girl." She whispered as she rubbed the grey's neck. "And here I was with the belief that other horses couldn't see grey horses, not that grey horses couldn't see anything else." She settled Mouse down and the mare finally stepped forward again, her neck stretched out as she blew out toward the other horse.

"How are things going with Daredevil?" She asked, as she knew from personal experience that the mare could be a complete brat when she chose to be. Although she had at first been happy to be on the trails alone, she was now glad for the company.

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Ryan chuckled at Cara's deflection, but nodded at her point, "All of the horses scared them or covered their tracks, though." He hadn't seen a hint of rabbit prints, but he knew they tended to avoid the well-travelled trails anyway, so it wasn't a big surprise for him. However, the point about duck prints was valid, as no one in their right mind would walk on snow if they had wings, not even ducks.

As he prepared to rise from his crouch, he saw Cara's mare jerk her head up, dancing backwards from where Daredevil had picked up her head. At Cara's comment, he shook his head, "I don't know where you might have gotten that idea from." He gestured at Daredevil, "She blends in perfectly until she moves!" He felt Daredevil step forward as Mouse settled down, her nose reaching out to exchange breaths with the other mare. He kept a firm grip on the mare's reins, making sure she couldn't quite reach Mouse, because he wasn't sure about the training that Cara was doing on the mare.

Cara's question came out of the blue, and Ryan looked at Daredevil for a moment before he found his answer, "She's been wonderful to me, I think she's really enjoying the direction we're taking in our lessons." He rubbed the bay mare's neck fondly. Taking the easy way out, he nodded at Mouse, "How is Mouse doing?" He knew that Cara had purchased the mare at an auction, and that there had been quite a bit of training... Not that he was really watching what the petite girl was doing, of course. Trying to find a segue into the question he really wanted to ask, he asked, "Have you ever seen the movie War Horse?"

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara nodded. "Rabbits also aren't stupid and they know that they have a better chance of foraging in the underbrush than on the trails where everything is trampled flat." She shrugged, at least that's what the rabbits had been like in England. She glanced back at Mouse and suddenly wished that it was Bunny with her on the trail, with her bow strapped on one side of the saddle and her quiver on the other - she had made something that resembled a saddle bag that lay over the mare's withers that held her bow and quiver, it didn't fit the bigger mare though so her treasured things remained at the Academy in her tack trunk (the arrows had rubber tips, which made them useless as actual weapons).

The girl's lips flickered in a tiny smile at Ryan's next words. "That she does." Cara let her mare be the judge of how close the other mare could get, and she nodded her head as the grey mare reached her nose forward and shared scents with the other mare.

Cara nodded as the boy spoke about the mare he rode. "It's always good when things go like that." She replied lightly. "She's doing well." She rubbed the mare's nose but took her hand away as the Holsteiner pressed against her hand. "She'll allow me to hold a toy mouse now and will walk past it when it's on the ground. As soon as the thing moves though and she wants nothing to do with it, or me while she can still see it." She shrugged. "However, I don't plan to enter her in any shows that also have mice." The male's next question caught her off guard and she straightened up a little. "No Sir, I haven't." Shaking herself when she heard what she had said. "Sorry. No, I haven't seen War Horse." In fact, she couldn't rightly remember the last time she had seen any movie. Including the ones they had to sit through in class.