Just ride (open)

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Carlos had only ventured into the indoor ring a few times, but today he'd deemed it too cold to ride outside and he really wanted, no, needed to ride. A phone call from his grandparents had left a bad taste in his mouth and he'd ended up hanging up on his grandfather, a thing that he'd regretted as soon as it had happened. Yes, they were in the middle of a fight, but Carlos thought he should have held it together a bit better. He shouldn't have resorted to yelling at his grandfather in their native tongue and slamming the phone down in the reciever, unplugging it, shutting off his computer, and silencing his own cellphone just so he didn't have to answer when, not if, the man called back.

It sorta made him feel like sitting down and hiding in the corner and sob... kinda.

He shook his head to rid himself of the lingering negative feelings (and to try and get his homesick mood gone), and led his mare into the arena. Lacera was tacked up in her english attire, a Dressage saddle rested on her back and a simple flash noseband bridle, with an O-ring bit, sat on her head. Carlos himself wore a pair of riding pants and tall-boots with his usual longsleeved turtlenecked shirt. He tossed his thick jacket over a rail, it was too bulky to ride it, and fastened his helmet, then vaulted up onto the mare's back.

"Let's go, chica." The teen intoned monotonously, picking up the reins and cueing the mare to walk the length of the arena, letting her warm up as she pleased. A few momens later he shifted just slightly, and Lacera, in tune with her rider, broke into a trot, then a moment later moved to a canter across the length of the arena. Carlos closed his eyes momentarily, feeling the wind from their canter cut across his face, and asked for a turn, which the mare performed almost the moment she felt her rider shift in the saddle. Back across the ring, slowing to a collected trot they went, Carlos barely having to shift his seat position, barely having to twitch the reins or move his legs before Lacera knew what to do.

Finally, they slowed to a walk, Carlos loosening the reins to let the mare stretch out and relax for a few minutes before he asked her for more work. The teen sighed and scratched the mare's dappled neck. He knew it was just a quick fix, but it helped... riding really helped him forget all his problems... for the moment, at least.

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The brunette couldn’t help the happy grin spreading across her face as she entered through the barn. Apoc was waiting ever so temptingly all throughout the day of classes and it had nearly been torture for her. Of course, she’d tried him out a bit earlier when she’d just gotten him, but she’d soon found out a few problems. The trick was to get the bay moving at first and then he did pretty well with a few reprimands in the middle of the lesson to keep him going. He was overall a friendly guy and she found herself getting along with him.

Avery wanted to give Tietro a kiss in the other barn, but she figured she might as well go there after she finished her ride with Apoc. It took her coming up to the gelding’s stall and sticking her hand out and clucking softly to get the horse to her hand and she gave him a good scratching with a chuckle. Apoc bent his head into it and Avery shook her head slightly, “Feels good, eh?” She did this for a few more moments before grabbing his halter and leading him out into the cross ties. There really wasn’t much grooming to be done, but she swept away at the dirt until he was shiny and grabbed the new tack she’d managed to get for him.

A few moments later, the brunette found herself riding somewhat relaxed toward the Benedict’s arena and to the gate. To her un-surprise, there was already another student inside, but it didn’t bother her much. She yelled out “Gate!” in warning before opening the gate and letting her and Apoc inside. She looked at the boy curiously, knowing she’d definitely seen him before, but she’d never really spoken to him. He was Spanish right? “Hola?” She attempted with a hint of a smile. With that, she focused back on her new horse and asked for a faster walk.

Apoc did so in zombie like fashion. Avery asked twice before giving him a light smack with the crop she’d brought along and he responded well enough. She succeeded in keeping him a bobbing walk for a bit, but had to ask the same way for a trot. She waited for him to become consistent and bouncy before she began posting.

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Carlos couldn't help but slip back into thought as he let the mare he rode amble around the arena for another few minutes. Gods, he felt so... aweful... A frown marred his face, a dark look clouding in his eyes for several minutes, until he felt the mare tense up, catching onti his anxiety and mood. With a slow smile, he forced himself to relax and reached a hand to stroke the soft furred neck. "Thank you, Lacera." He murmered softly, a fond look in his eyes.

He glanced up at the call of 'gate' and made sure he was away from it as the girl and her mount entered. He didn't mind sharing an arena at all, in fact, it was a pleasant surprise and he allowed himself to give a return grin, the smile widening slightly upon hearing the greeting. He'd seen the girl in another of his classes; she'd seemed a bit.. unapproachable... but maybe he'd been mistaken, he didn't know. He nodded back to her, "Hola."

Carlos made sure to keep to the far side of the arena, not taking up much space as it became apparent that the other rider was having to keep after her gelding. He didn't mind giving up the majority of the arena space to the girl if she needed it. Afterall, he was only playing... well, working, but playing too... whereas she seemed to actually be working and schooling her mount. Carlos asked Lacera for a series of circles, alternating directions here at there, working her at a trot, then a slow canter.

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A few minutes and three attempts to canter later, Avery nearly felt sweat tricking down her forehead. She didn’t think it was his laziness that was stopping her, but something else. She generally had a very light seat when she cantered, unless she was doing dressage and even then, her seat was still light. She definitely needed to work on the whole deep seat idea, but Avery was quite sure she knew how to get a horse to canter. She kissed at him in the corner, sat, slid her outside leg back and kept him collected. Apoc broke out into the canter, but fell again to the trot. 

Avery nearly groaned in frustration, before giving the gelding a smack that did no help other than make him trot faster. Finally, the brunette collected him back to a nice, clean trot before finally asking for a walk. She was in a quite frustrated mood at the moment, but she was determined to get at least one good canter out of him. Perhaps he responded to a deeper seat better? Avery raised a brow at this idea, before turning a bit red at realization the boy was still in the ring with her. 

She asked for the trot once more, getting it balanced and even before doing the same process, except sitting very deep this time and urging the gelding with her hip. Immediately, Apoc transitioned with his lazy style into the canter, but she managed to get him to keep it by using her hip to push him forward. To her surprise, it worked quite well. Avery couldn’t help the grin spread across her face – for some reason, she way too happy about this. Finally as they rounded to ‘C’ again, she pulled him back to a trot and then finally to a walk. Her eyes turned to the boy, feeling as if she had to exclaim her excitement with her new horse with someone – even if it was someone she didn’t really know.

Avery ransacked through her Spanish skills, unsure if the boy would understand her. All she knew was that he was from Spain, so she figured she might as well try out her language knowledge on him. She kept the proud little grin on as she turned “¿Has visto eso? El galope!” She grinned, hopeful the boy would understand her broken words. With that, Avery realized she was acting quite ridiculously, but she really didn’t care at the moment. She looked upwards, trying to remember something else to say before sighing with a guilty look. “¿Hablas Inglés?” Avery asked in her usual blunt manner, though it was more meek than usual due to being in a different language and her embarrassment. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be offended.

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He couldn't help but watch the girl as she attempted to get her horse into a canter, and he would have offered either advice or encouragement, but Carlos did neither, not feeling it was his place and too self-conscious to speak up even if he did know what to say to help her out. Instead, he focused on his mare, asking her to stop and pressing against her side with his heel lightly, succeeding in getting her to sidepass without having to use much more than a light pressure. While she was a good horse, Lacera didn't like to sidepass and it was something Carlos knew he needed to work on with her, as his next attempt failed and the mare shook her entire body, as though he were nothing more than a fly atop her back.

Carlos tilted his head to the side and studied the mare's neck, though he looked up when he saw from his peripheral vision the girl smack her gelding in frustration. He watched as she appeared to gain an understanding and managed to get her gelding to canter like she'd been trying to do for the past several minutes.

He saw the grin and understood what she was feeling in that moment. He himself had felt that way several times. He returned the grin with one of his own as he heard her speak in his native language, though her Spanish was a bit... well, he wouldn't mention it. "Vi. Dos haces una buena pareja." He said, though at her next sentence he had to laugh a little. Apparently she didn't speak much spanish, but still, it made him oddly pleased to hear his native tongue, even if for just a second.

"I do speak English." He told her, switching to the foreign-to-him language. His English was still highly accented, but it was understandable, at least. "You two look..." He paused, frowning as he struggled to put what he'd said in spanish into english. "You will be well-matched after he knows you and you know him." He finally settled, "He is terco... stubborn?" Carlos motioned to her horse.

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Avery sighed softly, exhaling as she let her horse come back to a walk. She did not let him get lazy at all however, and kept her leg on even when focusing her attention on her new aqquaintence. It was weird how she’d seen the kid for quite a while at the school and she’d never actually spoken to him. If she was correct, the boy was in a few of her classes? Avery didn’t know, nor did she really care much. The blunt brunette had a certain skill for not caring about things much.

Of course, that had gotten a bit ruined when she’d met Peter. Avery scowled as she realized she was acting like what most people called a “normal teenager” – thinking about some guy and not focusing on what she should have been. The girl forced her brain to the present and realized she had let Apoc slow down after all. Keeping the guy going was certainly not an easy task. Her legs were already aching and it hadn’t even been an hour. Avery looked up as the boy spoke back in a beautiful Spanish accent that she doubted she’d understand unless he said in the same choppy American accent she’d learnt all of her Spanish in.

Not wanting to appear stupid in his eyes however, she simply nodded with a hopeful look. Perhaps that was a good thing? It had the word buena in it… It really didn’t seem to matter much anyhow because the boy’s next words were English. Avery grinned as she realized he did manage to understand her question. The brunette waited for his next words and raised an eyebrow as he paused. What was he going to say? She exhaled as he continued with a nod, “Yeah. But so am I.” she responded curtly. She could win an award for her stubbornness. Avery looked down at her gelding; perhaps they could make quite the match if she ever figured out how to get him working with her and not against her. Eyes roaming around the boy’s mare, Avery squinted slightly. The horse was actually quite balanced and the boy had that kind of deep seat. “You’re a dressage rider?”

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He allowed the reins to slide through his fingers as his mare stopped to rest after another few attempts at a sidepass. He wasn't really that serious about working her just yet, this was just a fun ride for him. He knew she'd do it properly if he really asked her to. The dappled grey horse sighed and stretched her neck out, relaxing. Carlos getly scratched under her mane near the base of her withers.

After he spoke to her, Carlos could tell she hadn't quite understood his Spanish from her look, but once he switched to english, she'd gotten it. He gave her a small grin, not laughing at her, but just being polite. He hid a small laugh as she also mentioned her stubbornness matching the geldings and nodded, "I can tell." He said, glancing in her direction before turning his attention back to his mare, back to scratching her neck the way he knew she liked.

Carlos looked up quickly, eyes showing a slight surprise at her question. She could tell what style he rode just from looking at him? Confusion flickered across his eyes for a mere moment before he relaxed into another small grin, nodding slightly. "I am." He replied, "She, my mare, her name is Lacera." The affection and adoration he held for his horse was evident in his tone of voice and at her name, the mare's ears flicked back for a moment, but when no cue came to move off, she returned to ignoring the surrounding areas and standing still, just enjoying standing still.