Jack Has Plans(Trail Group B)

[Jackson Gailson]

Jack felt way better after meeting with the first group of trail students. They seemed like a talented bunch of riders that would be fun to teach. He might even throw in some extreme trail type stuff just to keep them on their toes. Jack was eager to met the second group now through. Jack was mounted on his mare he never know when that was come in handy. She was pretty useful as a demo horse. As students arrived he told then to warm up their horses.

Cara-Jean Kitchi

Jessamine Smith
Laurie Anderson
Mikala Palakiko

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara hummed softly as she groomed Tex and made sure that the gelding looked perfect before she tacked him up in his close contact saddle and the suede square plum coloured pad under it. Once he was tacked up, she put his all purpose boots on, just because she didn't know what they would be facing in the arena and the gelding was good at kicking himself if he spooked or got worked up. With the pony ready, she clipped the helmet under her chin, led him out of the barn, mounted up and rode toward the arena.

Entering, she bowed her head toward their instructor and began to warm the Welsh, section B up, putting him through his paces, and using the odd dressage move to make sure that the flaxen chestnut was listening.

[Mikala Palakiko]

Mika laughed as he prepared O'Malley for trail class, honestly wondering what the priggish gelding would think of trail class, and as Ms Carr hadn't told him to ride another horse for this class, he knew that the woman didn't have an issue with him riding the horse.

Once the gelding was tacked up, he led him out to the arena and mounted up after entering and began to warm the horse up, getting him settled under the saddle as he waited for the lesson to start.

[Jessamine Smith]

Jessa patted Zo's neck as she finished tacking him up, "We'll be good today, right? Put on a good face for the new teacher." She wanted to make a good impression before Zo had one of his freakouts - Although those were happening less and less! Jessa unclipped the cross-ties and then grabbed her helmet before she led the gelding outside and to the trail arena. She brought him inside before mounting and starting on their warmup.

[Jackson Gailson]

Jack looked around the gathered riders."Please line up facing me."When the riders had done that he went on speaking." First things first, I'm Jackson Gailson, but you all must call me Jack. Mr. Gailson is my father. I well be your new trail trainer. I have been riding my whole life. I grew up on a ranch in Texas. I have three horses, Calgery here, her son Black and Hecate. Now I want to here about you, so starting in order go around and tell me your name your horses name, want events you ride,how long you have been riding, and what you want to get out of this class."

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara had just got Tex to the point where the forward moving pony was listening and they were called into the centre. She reined the pony in and turned him in toward the rider, asking him to back up a few steps before asking him to step forward, just a small reminder that she was the one still in charge here and she rubbed the pony's neck once they had halted and he lowered his head.

She listened as their instructor introduced himself, her eyebrows shooting up at addressing him so informally, so she would make a point of not having to speak to him first. She blanced at his instructions, as she hated talking about herself and she thought of the quickest way she could get through everything that he had asked for. "I am called Cara and this is Texas Hold 'Em. I have been riding for twelve years." She pressed her lips together, knowing that she had overlooked two of the questions, but she couldn't think of how to answer either.

[Mikala Palakiko]

Mika wasn't impressed as they were called in, and less impressed as the man finished introducing himself and then wanted them to do the same. Mika, O'Malley, everything, as long as I can remember, and I want to learn to ride tail patterns, rather than warming my horse up to just stand in a group so he can cool down again." Yes, he was probably a little short with his answers, but he couldn't understand why they warmed their horses up to now just be standing around!

[Jessamine Smith]

Jessa listened to the introduction, and then the introductions of her classmates. She couldn't help but agree with Mika's last sentence, although she hadn't planned on bringing it up. As it came to her turn, she said, "I'm Jessa, and this is Zo. I've been riding for some time now, and we mainly do barrel racing, with a bit of trail for fun." She ignored the last question - She wasn't sure how to answer it now, after Mika's statement.

[Jackson Gailson]

Jack listened and watched."nice to meet you all."He ignored the students tone about standing still.Here is your first pattern. Jog thru the cones and over pole in pattern show. Continue to jog through the L as shown. Stop and back thru L. Upon completion of the back thru -lope right lead poles in pattern shown. Walk into box and do a 360 degree turn to the right. Side pass poles in pattern shown. Walk to bridge and over it."
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[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara listened intently as the man explained the pattern, and she followed it with her eyes. She frowned at the way he was explaining it, as it sounded like he was reading from a piece of paper - a paper that they didn't also have, as the words pattern shown must mean that they really needed to see what was on that paper to understand how to do the pattern.

She felt cold as she squeezed Tex forward, and quickly shook her insecurities off as that was the last thing she needed the pony to pick up on and she squeezed him into a trot as they moved into the cone weave, and over the pole before completing the cones. Once they were inside the L, she had reached her first problem. Was she supposed to continue all the way to the end of the poles and then back through the whole thing? Shaking it off, she halted the gelding when they reached the end of the poles and with a kiss and a squeeze, she asked him to back up, then at the corner she asked him to turn his hindquarters and then the fore and they continued to reverse.

When the gelding's feet reached the end of the chute, she squeezed him into a canter, making sure to use the correct cues for a right lead, and they moved out chute and around toward the box. This was where she approached her second problem. Mr Gailson has said to walk into the box, but the instruction on the lope was to be over poles, and leaving the chute, they once crossed over one pole, though the two in front of her would take her straight through the box. Is that what she was supposed to do and circle to the side of the box? She licked her lips as her stomach began to knot from the stress that was building up, and she had no choice but to keep the gelding going forward as her nerves were beginning to feed his flightiness.

Cantering through the box, she did a U-turn and half-halted the gelding and asked for a walk before they entered the box. She closed her eyes as she cued Tex to turn around, using the chance she got to try and regain her equilibrium, and when he was back to where they had started from, she squeezed him forward. The last bit explained itself, as she'd half-passed around a box before and it wasn't soon enough before they were walking over the bridge.

She halted Tex near the others but kept her back to them as she battled the need to throw up that was still hovering over her, and silently begged the next person to have their turn before she could find out how badly she had done.

[Mikala Palakiko]

Mika's eyebrows shot up as their obviously clueless instructor failed at explaining the pattern he had set up for them. "As shown what? You haven't shown us anything." He said. "And I tip my hat to you for giving us one of the hardest movements to do in our very first class." Sure, doing a little reverse work was great to do, but to back through an L, that was like asking a novice rider to ride a Grand Prix dressage test!

He fell silent as he watched as Cara and her pony moved off, at least watching another rider do the pattern would give him some idea of what had been said. However, he could see the girl falter, and even from where he was, he could see that she was second guessing everything she was doing.

When the pair had finished, he didn't say anything; just nudged O'Malley forward and they entered the pattern. He went through each step, exactly as Cara had demonstrated and while it seemed that the gelding thought that this was way below his level, they didn't have too many arguments and he rubbed the gelding's neck as they halted after coming over the bridge.

[Jessamine Smith]

Jessa listened to the instructions as Jack provided them, confused more and more as he went on. It was like he was repeating from a diagram that he hadn't shared with them, because there was nothing "as shown" about what was going on here! She was glad as Mika pointed it out, but they still had to struggle through the pattern. Jessa did her best, but she was sure it probably looked nothing like what it was intended to be. That was the instructor's fault, though. If he'd wanted to see their capabilities, he should have been just a little bit more clear.