When you see me Riding

[Fiachra Fitzsimmons]

Fitz loved the weekends! He only worked until one, so that meant he had a few hours of daylight in the winter months to go riding, and today he decided that he would take Shell for a jolt out on the Township Trail. He had no plans on going to the shops or anything, though if it was too cold, a stop off at the coffee shop would be appreciated by both of them, as he could get a hot drink and something warm for the mare as well.

Once he'd finished grooming the mare's almost black dappled winter coat, he saddled her up and led her out of the barn before he swung up into the saddle. "No running into low hanging branches, eh girl?" He said with a laugh as he patted her shoulder and then squeezed her forward.

[Ráhel Sárközi]

Ráhel was hoping to mail a parcel to her mother, something she'd found and just never gotten around to shipping, so a trip to the post office was warranted. Deciding to make use of the Township trail, for the first time since arriving, she headed out to the barns, looking between Oil and Singer as she considered. Finally, she picked up Oil's teal halter, reckoning that the Arabian would be the more dependable on the trail. He was a strange one, this hot-blooded horse that was more dependable than her warmblood.

After saddling the gelding, she shouldered her backpack and led the horse outside, swinging into the saddle and then pointing him in the direction of the Township trail. His brisk walk belied his calmness, and she patted his neck, "Warm-up first, you know the drill." However, she did let him extend his stride, and soon enough, they were among the trees, and Ráhel saw that she wasn't the only one with this plan. "Coming up behind you!" she called out as she approached the other horse and rider.

[Fiachra Fitzsimmons]

Fitz was enjoying being outside. Sure, the breeze was bordering on cold, but it was great to be out and away from the air conditioned office he seemed to spend his life in. He shook his thoughts, as they were unfair and he loved his job as a receptionist.

He looked over his shoulder at the sound of a voice behind them, and smiled at the woman approaching them before he returned his attention ahead of them. "Lovely day for a ride." He said.

[Ráhel Sárközi]

Ráhel smiled at the man's response, "That it is." She was looking forward to the summer, where she had hopes of riding in a few endurance races while she was here. There were only few very close, but she had no problem traveling if necessary, and living out of a trailer wasn't a new experience either... She'd have to borrow a truck and trailer, though. Her Tesla wasn't exactly ideal for towing.

She drew even with the other rider and smiled at the horse that he was riding, "Nice horse. What breed?"

[Fiachra Fitzsimmons]

Shell flattened her ears as the other horse drew even with them, though her ears quickly popped up again, one turned back toward Fitz as though to pretend she had never dreamed of being nasty. "Ignore her." He said with an amused shake of his head. "She turned weird after motherhood." He was seriously beginning to wonder if she was having hormonal issues, but nothing was so out of the ordinary that he had thought to have Dr Carr check her out... maybe this was that time.

"Thank you, she is a Connemara, Standardbred cross." He grinned and shrugged. "I have no idea which parent was which breed, but she's a good horse. How are your classes coming along?" He knew that he shouldn't be out here talking shop, but it seemed the easiest way to start a conversation.

[Ráhel Sárközi]

Ráhel kept an eye on the other horse's reaction, ready to pull away if necessary, but after a brief moment of temper, the mare seemed fine. She nodded at the explanation, "Mare." That explained most of it. She patted Oil's neck, "I don't envy you."

At the answer to her question, Ráhel raised an eyebrow, "Interesting. But it seems to have worked out." And she moved nicely, too, "Did you say you bred her? Did you keep the foal?" She was curious now. Not her choice of breeds at all, but it was always nice to talk horses. She brushed off the question about her classes, "They're going alright, thank you. The students are alright, and I'm starting to get to the point where I don't feel completely adrift."

[Fiachra Fitzsimmons]

Fitz arched an eyebrow at her comment, it was almost like how some women said men when their respective partners had bought some new gadget or something like that.

He pursed his lips at the question. "She was bred with one of the stallions at the stud I was working at when I purchased her. My boss' daughter offered to compete Shell for me, see what she could do rather than have her standing around a field and doing nothing, and when she did well, Enika decided she wanted a foal so Shell was bred and when the colt was weaned she picked him up." That young woman had been the reason he had ended up here, but he'd never look back now.

He chuckled lightly. "Don't let the kids know they, or they'll do something to upset the apple cart."

[Ráhel Sárközi]

Ráhel nodded at the arrangement, "Sounds like a win for both of you." She considered the mare, "Must have been a cute foal, too." She didn't particularly enjoy the breeding side of things, the dealing with youngsters - She preferred them old enough to start under saddle - but you had to admit, they could be adorable!

At Fitz's advice, Ráhel smiled, "I won't, thank you. Hopefully we'll make it through the end of the year with no incidents." She smiled, "I'm entertaining the fantasy of running away for a few weekends, though." She patted Oil's neck, "Oil and I used to compete in endurance rides, and now that I've got my feet under me, I've been looking around for those. But we'll see if it works out."

[Fiachra Fitzsimmons]

He grinned as he thought about the little colt. "A little splash chestnut." He said. "Yes, very cute. And will stand out on the show circuit, as that's really all his owner cares about." Yes, there was bitterness in his voice, and a touch of venom too, though he had seen her ride a number of horses into the ground in the past, and didn't think that she would have changed much as she aged.

He arched his eyebrows at her plans. "Sounds like a great way to spend your weekends." He said, no hint of sarcasm in his tone. "I'm sure that if you mentioned it in the barns, you'd have a few students that would jump at the change to help you out." Ok, he might have been pushing it, but he was sure that there would be one or two who would be keen for a learning experience.

[Ráhel Sárközi]

Ráhel raised an eyebrow at the tone as Fitz talked about the foal, but she didn't comment, not wanting to pry into that situation. She liked a good drama occasionally, but not when it was such a nice day out. She'd rather not sour her riding companion's mood.

As he suggested that she might find some students who'd like to come along, Ráhel paused, thinking, "I hadn't considered that, but you're right." There were always student volunteers when she'd ridden in Washington, and she'd even done her share of scribing. "Maybe I will, but not for the first one I go to. I'd rather see how they're organized out here." She considered, "Although it'd be nice. I don't think most people realize that endurance is really a sport, not just a 'go hack' thing." She grinned, "When they say 100 miles, they mean 100 miles."

[Fiachra Fitzsimmons]

He smiled when she liked his idea about asking students, though it was understandable that she would want to do the first event by herself, dipping her toes in to test the water he guessed. "There are still people that don't realise that horse riding is a sport, rather than a fun hobby." He said with a laugh as he patted Shell's neck, the mare was walking along happily now that she had deemed the gelding worthy of her company. "What drew you to endurance riding?" Not that he really knew what the sport was about or anything.

[Ráhel Sárközi]

Ráhel chuckled at that, "That's very true! I was lucky, my family growing up had a horse background, so I never had to have that discussion with them." Other riding friends of hers had not been so lucky. They'd had to persuade their parents that riding involved more than just sitting there. As he asked what few her to endurance riding my Ráhel shrugged, "I liked cross country riding the most of the evening disciplines, but there's no real circuit for it outside of eventing. I stumbled across endurance riding by accident and decided to give it a shot, and fell in love with it." She shrugged, "Not that endurance and cross country are that similar, but still. It's an excuse to go ride in the woods for a few hours."

[Fiachra Fitzsimmons]

He nodded though didn't add to her comment, as Family was one thing he didn't talk about ever. He listened to her, wondering what life could have been like had he had a... normal upbringing, though there was no time to dwell in the past, as his had taught him some valuable lessons and it is where he had discovered his love in music. Horses had come at probably a much later age to him than most people, but he enjoyed working his hands, and working with horses had just come so naturally... riding them no so much. "Any excuse to escape for a few hours has to be a good thing." He commented.

[Ráhel Sárközi]

Ráhel smiled and nodded, "Exactly the way I see it. But at least it has a fancy name and sounds complicated, so everyone thinks there's something special about it." There was, there was a strategy and a method to the vet checks and such, but it still didn't compare to cross country in terms of in-the-moment difficulty.

As the fairgrounds came into view, Ráhel smiled at the man, "Thank you for the lovely company, Fitz. I'm headed to the post office now to mail a package, where are you off to?"

[Fiachra Fitzsimmons]

Fitz grinned, it seemed a lot of the different equestrian sports had a different fancy sounding name for the same thing, but he guessed that was part of the attraction.

He was surprised to see that they had reached the end of the trail and he bowed his head at her thanks. "Thank you!" He replied. "It was a very good ride. I just came out for a ride." He confessed with a grin. "And since I wasn't planning on doing anything too out there, I thought this trail was best as it seems to be less popular than the others." And, as much as the thought of continuing into town sounded like a good idea, he also knew that he needed to get back to campus in case he was needed.