That which goes unseen

[Mycroft Hollins]

As Mycroft tightened the girth on his new mare a final time, he felt both excited and a little anxious about teaching eventing. In his youth he'd been an exceptional upcoming rider, a hopeful for the British Olympic Eventing Team. While it had been a long time since he last competed in a three day event, he hadn't forgotten a single thing he'd learned. He only hoped he could fully impart his knowledge onto his students.

Today he didn't particularly intend to teach them anything though, instead he just wanted to see what he had to work on. Leading his pretty grey mare outside, he mounted her easily and headed out to the beginners cross country course to wait for his class. He'd been out on the course all morning setting up a few, 'surprises' for the horses. He adjusted his reins in his hands and gave Flower a pat on the neck while he waited. She stood quietly beneath him, and he couldn't really ask for much more than that from her. 

Once all of his students had finally arrived he started class. "Hello, my name is Mr. Hollins, I'll be your eventing instructor. Today I'd like to get to know a little bit about you and about your horses, so today we're going to do something that in competition you will never be allowed to do. We're going to walk this cross country course with your horses. We're going to slowly introduce your horse to everything they might encounter on a cross country course, so that both you and your horse can feel more confident. The last thing you want is for your horse to spook at a jump that will not fall down when you crash into it."

Once everyone seemed to understand, he turned Flower around and had his class follow him down the course to the first jump, he'd decorated it with bright plastic bags which fluttered in the breeze. He slowed his mare down and had his class halt beside him. Already he could see some horses' discomfort. "Now, I want you to simply walk your horse up to the jump, at their own pace. Let them see it, sniff it, circle it a few times to see it from all angles. Make your horse look at this jump until they are downright bored with it. If you are unsure how they will react, I suggest you dismount and walk up to the jump beside your horse, so that you can look at it together as a team. You'd be amazed just how common it is for a plastic bag to blow onto the course, and your horse can't shy away from it."

With that, Mycroft let his class go to examine the first jump, and prayed no one would fall down on his first day teaching. 

@neigh
@running9
Fionn Paquet
Gretchen Holmes
Katja Eder
Serenity Oliver

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity shivered as she walked down the laneway, swinging her bay mare's halter at her side. "Come on, Lil' Miss Dainty." She called to the Selle Françias mare who was standing nose to tail with Cedar. "Sorry bud, I'm taking away your electric blanket." At least she guessed that the two horses were sharing heat.

With the halter on, Reni led the mare back to the barn where she went to work; removing her rug, brushing her, cleaning her legs to make her look presentable, and then tacking her up, ready for eventing class, wishing that she was wearing earplugs as the mare kept calling out to the other horses in the barn.

Once Plot was tacked up, had her all-purpose boots on and Reni had her body-protector on and helmet fastened, she led the mare outside again where she tightened the girth and swung her small frame into the saddle. Squeezing the mare forward, they headed toward the cross country course - the main reason she was using Plot. She patted the mare's neck as she raised her head and called a greeting to the dainty Egyptian Arabian mare their instructor was riding.

Their first lesson was beginning to sound interesting and she followed the man toward the first jump. "Hush little girl." She soothed as she felt the air changing around them as the mare's energy began to bubble, and she sat deep as Plot dance backward before she settled again and stepped forward at her rider's signal.

Reni looked at the jump through unfocused eyes, trying to see it as her mare would, but that wasn't working. She applied a little pressure with her lower legs, asking Plot forward once more, and released the pressure as soon as the mare moved in that direction. They got close enough to the jump that Plot could almost touch a bag if she stretched her nose out, but at that moment a wind rustled the bags and the bay mare shot backward, almost leaving her rider behind.

Reni laughed as she pushed herself up off the mare's neck, which she had grabbed on to and thanked her training in gymnastics to stop herself from pitching over the horse's shoulder. "You're ok, big girl." She soothed as she rubbed the mare's neck and circled her away from the jump before asking her to walked toward it again. She nodded as the mare walked right up to the jump this time and tired to grab hold of one of the bags.

[Fionn Paquet]

It felt strange as Finn bypassed White Oak and walked into Red Willow. He had been using the other barn since he had arrived at the academy six months ago that he almost felt like a traitor for using the other barn, but this barn was where his horse lived. He shook his head in slight disbelief, he actually owned a horse.

It didn't take him long to get Spur ready to be ridden and before too long, he was mounted up and heading toward the cross country course. He gave Serenity a bright smile and laughed as her horse called out a hello - at least that's what he assumed it to be - and settled in the saddle as he waited for the class to start.

After listening to the instructions, it didn't seem all that hard and he nudged Spur forward. He waited until it seemed that the girl in front of him had things sorted before he cued the Mustang gelding to walk forward. However, as the mare had been slightly hesitant and spooky, Spur didn't even blink at the rustling of the plastic bags as Finn circled him around the jump. Even as the boy stretched over and shook one of the bags, the gelding just looked at it, flicked his ear and looked toward the next jump. Spur was obviously a horse who knew his job.

Though he knew it was stupid, Finn was slightly disappointed that Spur didn't react the way the bay mare had.

[Gretchen Holmes]

Gretchen hoped with all her being that deciding to take Bahir onto the cross country course for class instead of Pegasus was not a mistake. As they headed out to meet the rest of the class, it didn't seem to be. Bahir was calm beneath her, the new bit and running martingale doing wonders to help her maintain control. She'd been working with Bahir as much as possible since the Turkey Trap show, determined to ride him just as well as that girl had in the show jumping ring, and her eventing instructor had for dressage. She considered it her New Years Resolution really. 

Pulling up alongside the rest of her class, she patted Bahir on the neck while they waited. He stood relatively quietly, occasionally taking a small step forward or sideways. He pricked his ears and watched attentively as everyone else. Once everyone was there her instructor began telling them what to do, and Gretchen felt her confidence grow ever so slightly. If there was one thing she could be sure about, it was that Bahir wasn't afraid of anything.

Gathering her reins, she and Bahir stayed towards the front of the group as they approached the first jump. Plastic bags fluttered in the breeze and the first horse to approach shied away. Luckily the horse's rider didn't fall though, Gretchen would have felt bad if that happened. The next horse to approach didn't seem very afraid either, he regarded the jumps almost like the plastic bags were boring. Collecting her reins, Gretchen had Bahir trot up to the jump. He sniffed eagerly at the jump, mouthing the plastic bags and rubbing his nose against the top of the jump. Gretchen could tell from how energized Bahir became as they circled the jump that he wished to jump it, but Gretchen kept him reined in and pulled him up several feet away to wait for everyone else, patting him when he stood still. He was tense, coiled like a spring, but he stood patiently enough for Gretchen to know she hadn't made a mistake. 

[Katja Eder]

Katja was still 'officially' focused on all of the aspects of eventing, although she wasn't quite sure why. She knew that she was doing the best in dressage, and Mukki was no different. They both enjoyed it, why did they have to keep up the charade of the rest?

Politics and parents, it seemed. Her parents had decided that knowing all three disciplines would give her the best chance of advancing in the future, in favor of just focusing all of her attention on dressage. Well, they were the ones paying, so she had to go with it, and the variation did have its uses... Just less of it would be fine, thank you very much.

However, Katja got Mukki tacked up and herself ready for Eventing class without a comment of that sort to anyone, and they were headed out to the course. After smiling briefly at the teacher, and greeting Serenity with a nod, she waited patiently for the class to start, playing with Mukki's mane. As she heard the idea of the class, she smiled. This would be interesting, at the least.

As they were told to approach the first jump, Katja hung in the middle of the group, looking ahead and spotting the plastic bags a moment before Mukki began dancing. When it was their turn, Katja asked him forward, but he refused halfway to the jump. Shaking her head, she dismounted easily, taking Mukki's reins and walking him away before circling back, this time leading him towards the bags. The gelding followed, although he was wary of stretching out his nose to investigate. When he finally did, Katja smiled, patting his neck, "Mein Guter." They retreated, to let the other students have their turns, but when everyone had gone, Katja approached again on horseback, patting Mukki's neck as he at least approached the things that worried him.

[Deleted]

Amber groomed Rapunzel, saddled her and put protective boots on all four legs. Then she took the bit warm off, pleased that the bit was actually warm, and  bridled her horse. 

Amber was excited about doing cross country today. It was a fun event. Amber, her brother and both of their horses had loved galloping threw the fields and sometimes sneaking onto their neighbors actual cross country course. Their neighbor caught them once and they got in big trouble, so they didn't do it again after that but it had been fun while it lasted. At least she had gotten to get the experience of a real cross country course, because otherwise she wouldn't have but it's not like they didn't have a lot of riding advantages. Other then the trails they had a large arena to ride in and they had jumps and poles for show jumping and space to work on technique and dressage and they had even had barrels for barrel racing and they set up little trail courses and flag races sometimes.

Amber lead Rapunzel onto the course and said quick hellos to Serenity and Finn.  She mounted Rapunzel and listened as the instructor explained.  She listened as the riding instructor explained and it sounded like this was going to be a weird class.

On their turn, Rapunzel sniffed the jump and nudged the plastic bag, soon realizing that it was nothing to be afraid of.  Rapunzel soon seemed board, so Amber decided that it was time to move on to the next jump.