Let's Get Started

[Katherine Carr]

Students:
@jenna
@rowena
@samantha
Stefano Rice
@tess

---

Katherine decided that her first class for that year would be an unmounted class. She knew that two of her five students owned their own horses, while the other three were assigned school horses, yet she wanted to use this class to get a handle on how much each student knew about horses.

The classroom that they were using was pretty empty, there were only half a dozen desks in the room, this way the last student to arrive wouldn't be stuck with just one table to pick from. The desks were set in a crescent so that the centre front of the room - the whiteboard, her - would be the main focus of the students. On the desks she placed three worksheets: Parts of a horse, face markings and leg markings. She had other things for them to work on too that day, but that would be copied off the board. There were enlarged copies of the worksheets on the whiteboard, that would be rolled away later to uncover the rest of the work, so that the class wouldn't just be the students with their heads down and pens busy.

She smiled and greeted the students as they arrived and gestured for them to find a seat and once they were all seated she walked to stand by the whiteboard. "Today we will be looking at Horse Parts (Getting to know about horses). To be able to properly identify the parts of a mount and to properly describe a mount's marking, coloring and height.

"You will find three worksheet on your desk, it is up to you what order you complete them in, and no you do not have to complete them in class today, though you will be handing them in at the start of the next class." Part of their stationary for this class had been a three-ring binder, in which they would put the worksheets. "You can get started."

She gave them ten minutes before she picked up a pen and uncapped it, standing beside the sheet with the face markings on it. "Who would like to give me a face marking?" She asked, looking at each of the students. "The number of the picture and the name of the marking, if you would please." She felt it was best to clarify what she wanted, rather than just have them randomly blurt a marking out.

[Stefano Rice]

Seth was dressed in worn jeans and a long sleeved polo shirt as he made his way toward the building that housed the theory equine classes, the bag over his shoulder held nothing more than what he needed and he was a little surprised when he saw that he was the first student to arrive. With a grin toward the teacher, the very barn manger who had assigned him Raisa to ride, he looked at the set-up of the tables and went to sit in one of the desks on the side of the crescent and pulled the folder from his bag.

He looked through the worksheets, raising his eyebrows and ever so thankful that all the words were actually there for them, it was just a matter of matching the right word, or number, with the picture. He listened to the introduction and nodded, sounded easy enough, and when they were told they could get started, he decided to work on the two sheets of markings before he went on to the parts.

His hand rose when Ms Carr spoke up. "Um... horse head number five has a bald face." He offered, his voice sounding a lot more confident than he actually felt. It was actually the easiest to work out because the word kind of gave it away.

[Deleted]

Samantha made her way quickly towards the theory equine class. Her hair flowed loose down past her shoulders like a fiery waterfall, she wore a black t-shirt with the words If Found, Please Return to Horse on the front in bold white letters, black riding trousers and dark brown leather boots.
Her own backpack was rather heavy, what with the laptop in it just in case she needed to make any notes or access any source of information required online. She found that she was the second student to arrive, at least she was not the last. With a smile she recognised the other student already in the class. "Hey." She greeted him warmly as she sat down next to him, glancing at her own sheets briefly before unpacking her laptop.

As she waited for the machine to warm up, Sam studied the sheets but she did not offer an answer. She also started on the markings, aiming to complete the sheet before she offered an answer to Ms Carr or she was chosen to provide an answer.
Sam was glad when Seth provided an answer, it meant that she would not have to and thus not need to speak in front of the class when the rest of the class showed up. Assuming they would show up. It might feel a tad awkward just being the three of them, two students and one lecturer.

[Deleted]

Jenna got ready early the afternoon of her equine class. She was dressed in a loose, comfy black short sleeved dress and a pair of white leggings. She jogged down to ber class, carrying a small bag full of pencils and a small binder for notes. When Jenna walked in to the classroom, she was just 3 minutes early. She got out her mechanical pencil and waited for class to start.

When class did start, Jenna listened to Mrs. Carr's direction, and then immediatly got to work on the worksheets. The worksheets wern't very hard, but a few questions, Jenna struggled to remember and had to think about for a moment. She had been riding with Sunday for quite a while now, and Jenna had learned the basic gear, yet she had wanted to take this class to relearn and make sure she had been taught correctly.

At the mention of face marks, Jenna ducked down in her seat and didn't raise her hand. She did have the answers right in front of her, as she had just wrote it down, but she didn't really want to speak in front of the class, even though the class was tiny. She watched as a few of the other students spoke up about everything. She nodded to show that she understood, and that she was actually paying attention, something she hadn't done back at home. Jenna followed the conversation as much as she could, and even took some quick dot jot notes.

This class was okay so far, manageable, and fun enough to the point where it wasn't a class to sleep through. Jenna hoped that more after it would be like this. As long as most of the class was a lecture, and there was more talking than written assesments, Jenna usually did fine. Jenna relaxed a bit in her seat and did her best to follow the conversation.

[Deleted]

Tess was getting ready for her afternoon classes. She took a quick, hot shower and threw on a cute light pink top and a leather skirt. Tess put her long hair in a braid and put on some flats. Tess was ready early, and she still had time. It was now 12:30 and Tess sat down to reveiw some notes for her classes. Unfortunatly, she couldn't focus very well. Tess decided to just take the longer way to class so that was wasn't too early, but also wasn't late.

Tess walked quickly, checking a white watch that she had on every 5 minutes. She slid into the classroom, not too early, not too late. Just on time. A few other students were already in the classroom, which was good, it meant that class would start soon. Tess watched the door for a minute after getting settled. After the last student came in, she saw that class had started.

The students had been given 3 worksheets. Tess smiled, these would be great study guides. She got excited when Mrs. Carr said they could work on them in their dorms, that meant she could bring her papers back and make a study guide out of them. Just in case she needed the information. After being told to start, Tess quickly began, she was stumped quite often, and had just finished the last question when Mrs. Carr moved on to face markings.

Tess watched a boy she knew went by Seth answer first. The other kids stayed mostly silent. Tess shifted akwardly. She loved horses, but wasn't very good at remebering equipment and things like this. Tess wished she could shoot her hand out and be confident about the answer like she used to at her old school, but for the life of her, Tess couldn't bring herself to answer.

Suddenly, a boost of confidence seemed to shoot out of Tess's head. Tess raised her hand and answered "Number three is Blaze, right?" She wished she had stayed silent, as she was burning up. She had the confidence. Why had she said 'right'! The answer was either correct or incorrect. There should have been no questions about it. She reminded herself that at least she had given an answer. Tess sincerly hoped that she had gotten the worksheets right, she knew if she got these wrong, this class would start out as a bad grade for Tess, and Tess didn't do bad grades. Not if she could help it, anyway.

[Deleted]

Rowena was late for her equine class, well not late, but she was the last one to arrive, after 4 students. She took a seat in the back as she got there just before class started.

Ren grabbed her pencil and put it on her desk. She looked at the sheets and sighed. Just what I need Rowena thought. The first thought that Ren had had that morning was why don't I just ditch class today and sleep in until my afternoon classes? Then Ren had remenbered the deal she had made with her parents, get through school, then you can go off on your own.

Ren listened carefully to her teachers words before quickly filling in all the answers. She had owned a horse for as long as she could remember. It had always been Greeny and Ren, Ren and Greeny. She knew all of this stuff, and has no trouble at all. Then Mrs. Carr started talking about face marks.

Ren didn't want to raise her hand. 2 students had already answered, but as there were 5 questions, she was pretty sure she wasn't getting off that easily. Ren sighed again, quietly of course. She licked her lips quickly and decided that she would answer. "Number one is stripe." Ren said. She talked quickly, but loudly, wanting to be heard.

[Katherine Carr]

Katherine wrote down the markings as she was given them. Which leaves number two, the snip and four, the star." She said as she wrote these onto the page as well. She turned to look at the class. "There are only five people in this room, and if you wish to pass the class; Jenna and Samantha, you will need to participate verbally, as the class isn't only theory."

She tapped the next sheet of paper, this one with the leg markings. "On to leg markings. Sine there are six of them, I'll give you one of them. Leg number five is ermine spots in a stocking. Seth, can you give me another marking next, please?" She didn't think that she needed to name any of the others, as she was pretty sure that she'd made it clear enough that everyone needed to take part in the lesson, unless of course they wanted an F. She was a fair teacher, but she was also firm, and everyone took part in her lessons. When they weren't on horseback, that meant she expected everyone to offer answers, not only did it allow the students to learn from each other, it also gave her a good idea of what they did or didn't know, and that's what this class was all about.

[Stefano Rice]

Seth nodded his head to show that he understood when Ms (not Mrs) Carr said that everyone needed to participate, which made sense since they were such a small class, it wasn't like they were talking out in front of a class of thirty or more students, not that that even happened here as none of the classes were that big.

He sat up a little taller as he was called on to give the first leg marking, which should surprise him as he spoke up first with the face markings. "Um... leg number one has a coronet (band)." He said quickly, he knew that the worksheet didn't have the word band after coronet, but that's what he'd learned that they were called when he had been working at the barn before coming here.

Pushing that sheet to the top of his desk, so that he could make sure that he had the others correct, he turned his attention to the sheet that hard the parts of a horse, as he guessed they wouldn't be doing that one as a class, and he wanted to try and get at least some of it down before they moved onto the next part of the lesson. Admittedly most of the part were easy, as the main body parts were the same on any animal, and he was sure that once he had them down, the rest would just fall into place, and if all else failed, he could just work on the power of deduction, and the ones he didn't know would just name themselves. He had a pretty decent knowledge of a horse from the ground, it was just the riding he needed lessons in, and he was sure that Ms Carr had a lifetime of knowledge that she could impart on them and he wanted to learn it all.

[Deleted]

Samantha grew hot from embarrassment and ducked her head. She did not take to kindly to such a public humiliation. The lecturer may have however had a point, but by embarrassing Sam in front of her classmates would unfortunately have a negative effect on her, thus making her less likely to speak up.
She did not mind speaking on a one to one basis, even with a small class Samantha was unlikely to speak up unless called or chosen to do so.

She listened to the answer that Seth had given, it matched what she had written herself. Hopefully it would prove to be the right answer. One of the other answers, Sam scribbled out writing something different, deciding that it was in fact the wrong answer.
Sam decided if she could summon the courage to speak to Ms Carr after the lecture to explain why she was reluctant to speak out. It would after all be unfair to fail because well she found speaking to be difficult. She needed to do whatever it took to the pass, perhaps as time went on and she grew more confident, Samantha might find herself able to answer more questions in the class.

[Deleted]

Cole had been sitting in class, quickly and quietly working through the simple worksheets. It was strange being back in a classroom after so long being homeschooled and he looked around to see what was socially acceptable. At home, he'd kick his feet up onto the computer desk as he worked, but quickly saw that a more proper posture was needed. He also saw he looked a bit out of place, but that couldn't be helped. For a moment he wondered if he would be permitted to ride in jeans or if he would have to acquire breeches for this class. He inwardly struggled with the simplicity of this, he had known parts of a horse before he knew what his own elbow was, the same for colors. he was three years old before he stopped referring to blondes as palominos. Despite the simplicity, he has to admit it was necessary for the instructor to do. If you didn't know the basics, nothing else would go well. He inwardly listed off face markings as he wrote; star, snip, strip, blaze, bald face, badger face. As he filled things in, he added extra tidbits. A top heavy blaze pointed to frame overo, bottom heavy was usually splash related etc. He did the same as he got to leg markings.  It was in his nature to overachieve. 

When it seemed to be his turn he raised his hand and volunteered an answer when he was acknowledged. From his first sylable his southern accent was apparent. When he spoke it was all matter of fact, he had no desire to sound cocky. 

"Ma'am, Example number two is a stockin', the horizontal nature and height of it leading me to believe it's caused by splash white, vs a more pointed sock or stockin' would point more toward sabino."