Eenie Meenie Miney Mo (Misa)

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Kendall grabbed her two horses' halters and matching leads, thinking that she might as well take the pair out into the sunshine for a little bit, although she knew that some of the pastures might just hold miniature versions of the lake. However, she knew she wouldn't be able to ride today, as the change in the weather had left her aching, so the horses needed the exercise. Leaving her black jacket in Ash's tack locker, so that she was just in a simple t-shirt and pants, Kendall left the tack room and walked towards Ash's stall. Once she reached the leopard mare, she buckled on the mare's halter, then lead her out and towards Pompeii's stall, where she repeated the process. Once she had both horses walking with her, she walked out of the barn and towards the pastures.

As she walked down the lane, Kendall looked left and right, making her way all the way down to pasture three before turning back to the least-muddy of the five, number two. She let herself and the horses in before ground-tying Ash and moving towards Pompeii. She reached up to unbuckle Pompeii's navy halter, muttering under her breath, "Brat." Looping the nylon and lead over her shoulder, she turned towards her mare, Ash, who was still standing by the gate, as the gelding kicked up his heels and trotted off. After she had released Ash as well, the mare earning a pat by keeping her head down to make the halter more accessible, Kendall walked towards the corner of the pasture, close by the gate, but out of the way. She looped the halters over the rail, buckling them so that they would hang there until she needed to grab them again, then folded her legs, grabbing one of the sturdy wooden posts to help her stay steady until she was sitting, as her right leg threatened to buckle.

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Misa lead Jack of the trailer and knew right away that he couldn't be put right in his stall. She stripped the gelding on his travel gear and throwing it in the trailer.  She bypassed the barn all together and went right for the pasture. Most of them seemed like a muddy mess, and she wasn't in the mood to have to clean his white coat. However while she was thinking what to do Jack spotted two horses in the pasture. Letting out a low whine he thought it best just to make friends himself. "No, Jack" Misa said as he pulled her a bit. However as she put her heels down she felt the sharp pain in her right leg. The pain  made her release  the lead and put her hands there. "Damn" She sighed and looked up as Jack got to the gate. He eyed the woman sat there, before looking back to the horses with another loud whine.

Misa limped her way to the gate with a friendly smile. "Hi." She said lightly "Sorry about him, he loves making friends" She said as she took hold of the lead. Her eyes went out to the horses as her free hand rubbed lightly on her leg. " They really pretty" She said looking back to the woman. "I'm Misa La'Van the new Eventing teaching" She said lightly. She took this time to look the other woman over, she got the feeling she too taught riding.  Jack tossed his head in the air as he tried to get the other horses to come over to meet him. Misa gave a pull on the led. "Pepperjack" she warned as the gelding looked her over for moment. He took that moment to come to the thought Misa didn't really mean it. He turned his body a bit and once more called out to the horses in the pasture.

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Kendall heard a spoken expletive and looked up, seeing a horse standing at the gate, with his owner following not far behind. As the woman spoke to her, Kendall smiled, "Good afternoon." With a painful realization that she had better converse, and be polite about it, Kendall grabbed the middle rail of the fence and pulled herself up, obviously favouring her right leg as she hopped before shifting her grip to the top rail. Once she stood, she let go of the fence, walking over closer to the gate, "No worries." She smiled at the compliment to her horses, "Thank you." She looked at the gelding, "He's quite a looker himself."

As the woman introduced herself, Kendall nodded. It was not a name unfamiliar to her, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Misa." She decided not to mention that she had followed the woman's career, having pegged her as a likely candidate for the next Olympics. It seemed like Blue Ridge was for all of the retired big names, she thought with a slight wry smile. "I'm Kendall Salenk, I teach cross country." She wondered if her name would mean anything to the other woman, or if she was still before her time. The thought made her feel old.

As the gelding that the woman was holding on to called out to her horses again, Kendall glanced out, seeing that Pompeii's interest had been piqued. He trotted over, his head held high, and Kendall grimaced, "Is he very dominant?" She gestured at the grey gelding, that there wasn't a doubt about which horse she was speaking about, "Pompeii is rather possessive sometimes."

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Misa felt bad as the lady got up, she knew that look all to well. Though she knew better then to say anything of it. She nodded when thanked for her compliment. A smile graced her face when the woman spoke of Jack. "Thank you" She said rubbing his neck though he wasn't paying any mind to her. She took the time to introduced herself. "Its nice to meet you too" She smiled. She knew who Kendall Salenk, though she was a bit older she had been Misa hero once she got into eventing. She chewed on her lip a bit wondering if it was ok to say as much. Misa had always been outspoken, and had a hard time keeping her mouth shut.

Jack once more called for the horse, this time however it seem one of the horses was interested in him. Misa laughed a bit when the Kendall asked about Jack. "No. Pepperjack here is just friendly. Sometime he doesn't understand you can't be friends with everyone" She watching Pampeii for a moment. "Pepperjack is use to being the lower horse.... Peanut Butter was possessive" She said then wince as the word sank in. "Um... I'm sorry for bothering you. I was just looking for a place to turn him out. The other pasture seem way to muddy to be safe" She said. Finding herself feeling awkward, she could of kicked herself very rarely did she speak of the gelding. Pepperjack let out another call as he spotted the other gelding. His neck arced and he moved from leg to leg. He just wanted to make friends in this new this. His last friend was gone, and the pigs at the farm had just been a pain.

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Kendall nodded as she got the answer to her question, "As long as he's not going to challenge Pompeii, they should be okay together, if you want to let him out." She listened to the woman's reasoning, recognizing the wince of pain that the woman had when she spoke about the horse that she had crashed on. Unsure of how to reassure the woman, without giving away her history, if Misa didn't know of it already, Kendall paused, then spoke gently, "It's okay to mourn him, you know." She watched the other woman, "I know it's hard, losing everything."

After imparting those words of questionable wisdom, Kendall smiled slightly, "You weren't bothering me. He can join Pompeii and Ash in here, if you'd like." She leaned against the fence, watching as Ash slowly picked her way towards the group, obviously wondering if she was being left out of something. Kendall rubbed the gentle mare's nose, her own thoughts wandering to Traum, the stallion that she had spent so much time with before her career had come to a crashing halt. She still resented the time she had spent away from him, although it had been too painful to bear being near him for a long time after the accident.

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Misa smiled and nodded when told she could turn the gelding out. As she moved toward the gate Kendall spoke again. She stopped dead in tracks and looked at the woman. She nodded slowly taking the words of wisdom in. Her eyes moved back toward the pasture as she lead the gelding in. "He should be fine" Removing the halter she let Jack lose before moving to stand closer to were Kendall was. Her eyes was on the gelding as he dropped his head and moved closer to Pompeii. He reached out his neck and took a smell of the other gelding, letting out a friendly call.

Misa smiled as she watched the gelding. "He is too friendly for his own good sometimes" She said with a laugh.Her eyes went back to Kendall and let her mouth take over. "You were my hero you know... growing up. I lived on a pig farm, but when I started to ride and wanted to be a eventer it was you I looked up too" She blushed at how the words sounded. "Its funny how fast things can change." She rubbed her leg and watched the horses closely. She felt the wetness in her eyes, and tried to blink it away. "The school seems great. I'm excited to start teaching" She said, thinking it best to change the subject. Though if she had to say the truth it was that she didn't know how to talk about it. even after it had happened she could never explain it to people. Not her mother, step father, grandparents or her trainer. No one would understand it, she knew that now.

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Kendall watched Misa walking the gelding into the pasture, letting the woman decide if she wanted to turn her horse loose with Pompeii, after she had told the woman about his quirks. If the other horse, Jack, was as good as Misa said he was with other horses, she doubted there would be a problem. As Misa removed the halter and let her horse move into the pasture by himself, Kendall watched the pair, ready to intervene should Pompeii take beef with the other gelding in 'his' space. However, as the grey approached, Kendall watched her leopard stretch out his neck and exchange breaths with the gelding before turning and kicking up his heels, trotting away with his tail held high.

At Misa's words, Kendall shrugged, "That's alright, the world needs friendly horses." She patted a hand on Ash's neck, "This girl is usually nice as well, although she'll stay away from power games." As the mood turned serious again, Kendall stood quietly, listening to the other woman's words. Apparently she had misjudged Misa's age, if she had still been watching her when she was little. Unsure of how to reply, Kendall glanced away, "That means a lot to me." At the last seven words, Kendall nodded, "That it is. I know I wasn't expecting to lose everything that day." She was glad to let the subject drop, however, as Misa turned the topic back to Blue Ridge, "It's a great school, and most of the kids are alright." She smiled slightly, "What are you going to be starting them on in eventing, if you don't mind my asking?" She wondered which area of the school the woman would be using, since she tried to stay out of the way whenever possible, when she was riding.

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Misa watched the two gelding as she spoke to Kendall. The talk was too serious and soon she turned it back tot he school and students. She gave a small laugh when Kendall spoke of how most of the kids were alright. "They are teenager, they tend to have their moments" She spoke lightly. Misa once knew a woman who use to run a riding school and Misa could still remember how she would speak of the kids. She thought a moment about how she was going to start her lessons. "Well, tonight I have a jumping lesson. It had the most students and I thought it best to start there" She spoke softly. "I'm thinking I'll start with dressage, see how they work with horses and how they 'speak' to them" She nodded as she laid out her plan. "I learn early on that the way a horse and rider communicate will show how well they work together. Dressage is all about communication, and if they can communicate well then their jumping and cross country should be wonderful." Her eyes moved back to her gelding who was trying to get the other gelding to join him in playing. Jack  kicked up his heels and took off around the pasture.

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Kendall chuckled at the woman's insights to the world of teenager behaviour, "Well, I suppose so." She paused, "As long as they leave it all at the gate, right?" She couldn't stand people who brought their emotions into the ring, especially in lessons, since it usually translated over onto the horse. Or, usually even worse, onto other people, which made the lesson just plain unbearable.

As Misa started running down her list of ideas for her classes, Kendall nodded. The plan was a good one, and the way the woman had spoken let her know which rings would be in use when, "That sounds like a good way to go about it, if the connection isn't there, there's no way they're going to be able to keep going further." She had seen it before, while she was never one to tell someone that there was no hope, if there wasn't a spark of communication with the horses, it usually wasn't worth anyone's time to actually try and advance that student.

Dissatisfied with the treats to be had, Ash wandered away. Kendall watched the leopard mare ambling away, keeping her distance from the still-running gelding. Kendall watched Jack, glad that no fight had broken out yet, with Pompeii as intent in running his fastest as he was.