Blue Ridge is a fictional town located deep in the heart of Kentucky. It is home to one of the most well known equestrian academies in the United States. Students and staff from all over the world join the academy for what it has to offer. Do you have what it takes to join us and learn from the Academy?
Smilys were made by Sapphire Heaven of LiveJournal.
The mini-profile hover follows a tutorial by Kagney of Adoxography.
Photos in the skin used under CC from Flickr.
Post by Kate Richardson-Hall on Feb 12, 2017 10:00:58 GMT -8
"Nice to see that I've got some enthusiasm already." Kate replied with a grin. She would have asked whether or not the other students in the group knew anything about driving already, except... he didn't know who they were. Excellent. Doubtless, he would know them when he met them- the school didn't seem all that large to Kate, although it was still bigger than anywhere that she was used to in Britain. But that really wasn't all that much help to her now, unfortunately.
"She is, yes." Kate was fairly used to people knowing her horse before they knew her- Lipizzaners hadn't been all that common back in England- so the boy's explanation was merely a detail.
Post by Martijn van der Berg on Feb 12, 2017 11:09:29 GMT -8
Tijn chuckled, "Yeah. At least, driving is easier for me. I know how to do that." He shrugged, "I'm in the process of learning dressage, but it's a long road."
As he heard that he'd been correct, Tijn nodded, "Makes sense." He paused, "I don't know as much about the horses over there, so I can't even give you a rundown of her neighbors."
Post by Kate Richardson-Hall on Feb 12, 2017 11:19:24 GMT -8
Kate nodded thoughtfully as she slowed the horses back to a walk and turned across the arena. She was wondering whether all her students were going to be like this. If they were, then she was going to have to rethink some of her (vague) lesson plans. If not, then she was going to have trouble dealing with the mixture of abilities, because from what she'd seen, Tijn was already a pretty capable driver. Hmm. Tricky.
"I've met one of two of them." the blonde responded, smiling at the memory of one particular encounter.
Post by Martijn van der Berg on Feb 12, 2017 11:40:14 GMT -8
Tijn was quiet to let the woman focus on the horses for a moment. He was glad to find that the boys were behaving, and apparently that he hadn't taught them too much silly stuff - They could still be driven by others.
He nodded as Kate said she'd met the neighbors, "Of course." He paused, "Where are you from, if I may ask? Your accent suggests outside of the US."
Post by Kate Richardson-Hall on Feb 12, 2017 11:44:40 GMT -8
Kate glanced over at her neighbour as the boy went quiet for a moment, and she was about to ask if there was anything wrong when he began to speak again. That was all right, then. Nothing to worry about.
And oh, what a question. Honestly, the blonde was surprised that it had taken this long to get to it- usually, it was the first thing that new people said to her. "The UK." she responded with a smile, and then, anxious that she seemed blunt, she added a question of her own. "This is a lovely pair; are they yours?"
Post by Martijn van der Berg on Feb 12, 2017 11:56:05 GMT -8
Tijn nodded as he heard that she was from the UK. That made sense, although he hadn't wanted to wager a guess and be wrong. Accents weren't his strength.
His horses were a topic he could go on at length about, so he grinned at the question, "Yeah, they are. They're half siblings and only two days apart in age, Ritske being the senior." That left little question as to which side they were related on, "My family used to breed Friesians, and my dad was a big driving fan. He did a lot of competitions, and he's who taught me." Tijn had done his fair share of competitions too, but only with a single horse. He hadn't been old enough to do more in formal competition.
Post by Kate Richardson-Hall on Feb 12, 2017 12:10:37 GMT -8
The blonde turned in a wide circle and brought the pair to a gentle halt, passing the reins across to her neighbour. She had, after all, interrupted his driving session, and she didn't want to completely deprive him of any chance at practicing. "Your turn." she grinned.
It was always interesting to hear about people's history, and even more interesting to find out about their horses. Of course, most people would likely have put these in a different order, but then Kate wasn't most people. Kate was entirely unique, thankfully, because the world certainly couldn't have handled two of her. "That's good." she responded. "I don't come from a particularly horsey family. I probably wouldn't ever have even considered driving; I was training for the UK showjumping team. Then I had an accident and I couldn't ride competitively any more. For a long time, driving was the only way that I could work with horses." Kate felt it was only fair to give out a little of her own family history.
Post by Martijn van der Berg on Feb 12, 2017 12:30:21 GMT -8
Tijn grinned as he was handed the reins again, "Thank you." He arranged them in his hands, then clicked at the geldings, getting them walking again.
He listened to Kate's story as she shared it, nodding as she said she had had an accident. It wasn't completely unheard of in driving circles, that accidents brought people to the sport. Especially for recreational driving, it was less physically involved than riding. "I'm sorry about your accident." To be so close and then to have it snatched away... He could only imagine. "An accident was what brought me to the academy too, but not mine." He looked forward, urging the horses into a trot to break that discussion, "So what made you decide to come to the states?"
Post by Kate Richardson-Hall on Feb 12, 2017 12:46:00 GMT -8
Kate sat back on the bench, keeping her eyes on the horses- not out of any desire to be antisocial, but because it was the best way to avoid a stiff neck. Trying to have an involved conversation with someone right next to you for any period of time could become quite uncomfortable.
"Thank you." she murmured in response to the boy's sympathy. It had been awful at the time, and to be told that she might never ride again had been a big blow to the blonde. But she was recovering. Her leg was much better, and now she could ride again- not competitively, now, but that didn't matter. The competition had been a side effect. As long as she could ride, and ride well, she was happy.
"I came here to take this job, actually." she responded. "It seemed like a good opportunity to work with horses, and I like people as well, so it was a win-win situation. Did you say you came here to study dressage?" Kate had a terrible short-term memory.
Post by Martijn van der Berg on Feb 12, 2017 13:14:15 GMT -8
Tijn nodded at the reasoning, "That makes sense. Sounds like a good job for that." Horses and people, there were enough of both at the academy.
The question caused him to shrug, although the woman possibly didn't see it, "Officially. In reality, I came here to keep my horses from being sold, and at the time I wasn't willing to consider driving again for anything." They'd gotten here anyway. "My father was killed in a driving accident. My mother didn't want to keep any of the horses, but I managed to convince her to let me keep these two as long as she didn't have to keep the farm to have a place for them. So I started working on learning dressage and teaching them dressage, but it's slow."
Post by Kate Richardson-Hall on Feb 12, 2017 13:45:04 GMT -8
"I hope so." Kate replied with rather more confidence than she felt. Honestly, she wasn't entirely sure what she was doing. Not in the slightest. In fact, she was still rather shocked to find that she had got not only one post but two. The blonde had to keep telling herself every morning, and some days she still didn't entirely believe it. It was a dream come true for the blonde, working in a fantastic place like this, and she couldn't wait to get started with her classes. As they were extracurricular or optional, hopefully the students that turned up would be genuinely interested and keen, so she wouldn't have too much trouble. At least, that was the theory.
"That's bad luck." she murmured softly as Tijn spoke of his father's death. "Dressage is the most challenging discipline, I think. Every little thing has to be perfect."
Post by Martijn van der Berg on Feb 12, 2017 13:51:07 GMT -8
Tijn shrugged at the point about dressage, "Yeah, but it's not like I could train them in barrel racing." The Frisians weren't great for that! "It wasn't any huge desire to actually be competitive in dressage." He knew it was a difficult discipline. It was still the one he'd actually been able to make sound plausible, "And they had a little bit of prior training in it. Not much, but a little bit."
He slowed the geldings back to a walk, "I still haven't worked up to too long workouts with them, I don't want to overwork them." He shrugged, "Driving is something slightly different from riding, after all."
Post by Kate Richardson-Hall on Feb 12, 2017 13:58:21 GMT -8
Kate chuckled. "Very true." she agreed. It was strange how horses had developed to suit different disciplines. Humans had domesticated horses, and then they had invented sports to use them in. And then they had bred the horses to be better suited for the sports which had been invented to suit them in the first place, and in the process, had changed the face of an entire species. Funny how things happened. "Not everyone wants to ride competitively." It certainly hadn't been the first thing on Kate's mind.
"Avoiding overstretching is very important." the blonde agreed. "We tend to forget that driving is actually harder work for the horses than riding, because it's rather less exertion for us."
Post by Martijn van der Berg on Feb 12, 2017 14:10:16 GMT -8
Tijn grinned, "Yeah, but try telling some of the people here that. If your horse doesn't have a hundred blue ribbons, it's not worth anything."
He let the geldings walk for a little while, then stopped them in front of the gate, "Exactly." He smiled at the woman, "So I apologize, but I think we're done for the day." He hopped down and unlatched the gate, then just walked the geldings through before he returned to do up the latch, "If you'd like, I'm just going to the hay barn to get rid of the phaeton, you can come and see it, or I will see you for class."
Post by Kate Richardson-Hall on Feb 12, 2017 14:26:48 GMT -8
Kate chuckled. "Oh, I know! People like that really get on my nerves. One should ride for the pleasure of the sport, not in hopes of winning a little bit of card and fabric."
"A good decision." the blonde grinned, hopping down from the phaeton a little more stiffly than she had climbed up. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I suppose I really should get going and do something useful for a change." As to what that would be, she hadn't the foggiest idea, but she would think of something. And besides, there was so much more around to see! She couldn't stay still all day! So she held out her hand to the boy. "Nice to meet you. I'm sure I'll see you around."