Post by Kallistos Rolleston on Aug 1, 2015 13:40:53 GMT -8
-Winston Churchill
Kall was awake with the birds, which was pretty normal for him, and after his morning chores, we went for a run - giving his Quarab time to eat and digest, he headed back to the barn with a plan firmly in his mind.
After giving the flaxen chestnut a complete grooming and tacking him up in his close contact saddle, blue saddle pad and snaffle bridle, Kall put the gelding's blue all-purpose boots into place and led the horse out of the past, all the rings and down to the open area that led out to the cross country courses.
Pulling the stirrups down, he tightened the girth, checked the boots and then swung his tall frame easily into the saddle. Nudging get gelding into a walk, and then a trot, they began their warm-up - at least the horse was partly warmed-up from the walk here. When he was happy that Cue was loose and supple, he circled the gelding and they rode toward the first of the jumps on the novice course. He knew that this course was way under the gelding's abilities, but it would be great for a warm up course.
After going half way around the marked course, the boy turned the horse away from the next obstacle and looped him back to the beginning. "Easy my man." He laughed as the gelding began to dance and prance around, not at all happy he'd been turned away from the fences he was having so much fun jumping. After a bit of work to calm the gelding down, Kall turned him toward the first fence on the next course.