Back to Basics

[Katherine Carr]

Katherine walked into Benedict's arena, which she used for her mounted classes, no matter the weather, as it was easier for the students follow her directions without the distractions the others offered.

While it was just her in the arena, she began to get it ready for the day's lesson. Walking over to the equipment cupboard she took out four cones and set them up down the left side of the arena, in off the track so they wouldn't be in the way while the riders warmed up. She then pulled out four trotting poles, carrying two at a time, and set them down the right side of the arena, again off the track. She set them at a walking distance for a sixteen hand horse, which meant that the smaller mounts would just take more strides between the poles. After they had been over them once, she would know if they needed adjusting to. The woman then walked over and waited by the gate, opening it as each student arrived. As she had a few new comers to her class, she was going to start it with a lesson on mounting.

Once the majority of the students had arrived, Katherine got things started. She decided to use the one student completely new to riding as her guinea pig. "Welcome, everyone." She greeted the students assembled in front of her. "This is may make you groan, but we're going to start the lesson off with a mounting tutorial. I know that it's baby stuff, but something that's quite important when riding, as how well you mount, generally sets the precedence for the rest of the ride. Maeve, if you can bring Remi up to the mounting block, we'll get the show on the road." She waited while the girl brought the two toned Curly up to the mounting block.

"Line your mount with their left side nice and close to the block, rub ther inose and ask them to stand. Now you lower the stirrup on the off side of the saddle, that's the right-hand side." The woman walked up to stand at the mare's right so she could hold the stirrup and stop the saddle from slipping slightly. "Now, step up onto the block, tighten the girth another hole, if you can, and pull the left stirrup down. Gather the reins in the left hand and, grip a bit of mane and tuck your right hand around the other side of the pommel, not the pommel itself though. Put all of your weight into your right foot and place the ball of your left foot into the stirrup. Now shift your weight from your right foot to your left, and swing your right leg gently over your mount's hindquarters. Be sure not to kick your mount while doing so, as this could cause her to move forward and unbalance you. Slide your right foot into the stirrup, you need to try and do this without looking down as looking down knocks your balance off. Make sure the balls of your feet are centred in the stirrup and your heels are down and close to the horse's body. Put your reins in your hands. To hold them; make sure that they are not twisted, and put them inside your closed fists with your thumb folded over your reins, also, the reins should flow between your ring finger and pinky. Place the excess, or bite of your reins, to the right side." She patted the mare's shoulder. "Squeeze lightly with your legs." She looked over the mare's neck to regard the rest of the class. "There is a firm no kicking rule in this class. Next, loosen your hold on the reins, asking her to walk forward. In the middle of the arena, sit deep, squeeze with your legs, but close your hands on the reins and ask her to halt again. Once she's standing, ask her to walk forward again and take her to the rail, which is the edge of the arena." As Maeve moved Remi off, Katherine remained where she was and assisted the others in mounting before taking up her position in the middle of the arena.

Moving into the centre of the arena, she stood so that she could see each of the riders. "Just to be boring, most of today's lesson is going to be done at the walk." She told the students. "As you have been moving around the arena, you will see that I have set up a few things for you to work your mounts around and over. I don't care which one you start with, but I want you to wind your way through the cones and then go over the poles. The idea of the poles is to get your mount to walk confidently over them, but not to rush so that they end up clipping the poles with their hooves - front or back."

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Luke Brown
Maeve McKenna
Paige Wilson

[Maeve McKenna]

Maeve couldn't believe how exhausted she was after a morning of academic classes. She had been sitting in class for the morning, so why was she so tired? After a speedy lunch, she had changed into her riding clothes; navy and pink jodhpurs to match the navy and pink hello Kitty polo she put on, and rushed down the barn.

Thankful for the guidance she had had over the summer months, she confidently tacked Remi up, under the supervision of one of the barn staff, she was sure she was ready for her lesson as she clipped the helmet under her chin and led the mare toward the indoor arena.

Her eyebrows flew up in panic as she was called forward and with a quick nod, and a silent prayer to Poseidon for guidance, she led the mare forward, though it took her a couple of goes to get the mare lined up at the mounting block. She listened carefully as the instructor spoke, while trying to keep up. She drew in a deep breath as she placed her left foot into the stirrup and swung the right over the saddle, releasing the breath in rush as she did her best to find the other stirrup.

She grinned as she squeezed the mare forward, though she was certain that Remi moved forward because it was what she was supposed to do next, rather than because she was told to. She followed the instructions to ask for a halt and her eyebrows when the mare stopped moving and she closed her legs around the mare again and they ambled toward the wall.

Maeve was elated that they were going to remain at the walk, she wanted the lesson to be enjoyable for the mare, and her bouncing around like a sack of potatoes - as she was sure she would at the trot - wasn't going to be enjoyable. She did her best to pretend that she was in control of the mare, and they made their way over to the cones. She wondered if the cones and poles were something they were allowed to use outside of class, as this looked like something that would be good for practice in their own time too.

[Luke Brown]

This was possibly a little more basic than Luke had been anticipating, but he followed the instructions nevertheless. Personally, he preferred to get on from the ground since he found it far less awkward than trying to hold a horse steady in front of a mounting block at the same time as fiddling around trying to actually get on it. Still, orders were orders and so they had to be obeyed... or something like that. And so he waited his turn to take the horse up to the mounting block and go through the aforementioned fiddling around.

[Paige Wilson]

English riding was something that Paige had never been totally able to understand, but at the same time, it held some form of intrinsic fascination to her, and she had to confess that the dressage that she'd seen on TV did look a bit more her speed than barrel racing, for example. Of course, she'd been accustomed to the Western style from a young age, and speed held no fear for her, but she wasn't such an adrenaline addict as her sister, and so she wasn't opposed to trying something new. Like, apparently, using a mounting block instead of a fence rail.

[Katherine Carr]

Katherine silently observed her riders as they found their stride, and got comfortable as they moved around the arena. At least with a small class, she didn't need to worry about them not having enough space, and she could quite easily have them riding a good distance apart if need be. "I would like everyone on the track at a posting trot." She watched as they followed her instructions. "Maeve, you are on the wrong diagonal. Please sit for a stride and start posting again. If it helps, just remember: rise and fall with the leg on the wall. She watched Paige too, as posting to the trot would be something new to her, where the girl would have no issues with sitting to the trot.

She returned to being a silent observer once more as the students found comfort in their new gait. "For those of you who are more comfortable on your horses, feel free to trot them over the poles." She would now need to decrease the space between them, though she would do that once she had seen a horse trot over them, as she would then have an idea how much change it would need.

A frown marred her features as she watched Maeve, wondering that with some private lessons, she could bring the girl up to at least the same speed as Luke, and then she could work on progressing their riding as well as the girl who was a complete novice when it came to the actual riding.

[Maeve McKenna]

Maeve had just found a rhythm with the mare's walk, and doing her best not to wobble around too much, or to just sit there like a sack of potatoes either. She felt out of place in this class, just from watching the other two, it was easy to see they weren't as new on horseback as she was, and the last thing she needed was to end up completely embarrassing herself.

She turned her head to look at their instructor and then managed to embarrass herself anyway as the mare turned into the middle. "Sorry, girl." She whispered as she circled the horse back to the track. Closing her eyes to centre herself - and to try and envision the book she had been reading the might before - she drew a deep breath and then released it before she squeezed with her legs and was trowing out of the saddle as the mare bounced forward into a gentle trot.

She ducked her head as her name was called out. "Sorry." She did her best to sit to the trot and then looked down at the mare's shoulder and did her best to time her movements with the mare's outside leg.

[Luke Brown]

Having managed to make his way through the mounting process, the boy settled himself more comfortably into the saddle and moved out onto the track. Ace was slow to respond initially, still not fully awake, but they got there in the end, and so he nudged his grey into a reasonable trot, though he had to say that it wasn't a particularly comfortable one- Ace had an exceptionally bouncy trot at the best of times, and it was all that he could do to sit to it, so he was thankful that that wasn't called for at this moment in time. He glanced anxiously down at the horse's shoulder as Ms. Carr called out to Maeve, confirming that he was on the right one. Would he try the poles? Yes; yes, he would.

[Paige Wilson]

The girl had to resist a groan at the instruction that she was given. Posting was singlehandedly the absolute worst part of English riding and she couldn't get a grip on it at all. She had enough trouble with the whole going up and down thing, never mind doing it at the right time compared to what the horse's legs were doing... She would swear that whoever had come up with the idea had deliberately set out to make it as difficult as humanly possible, and they'd certainly succeeded in that because she hadn't a bloody clue what she was doing. Still, she made her best attempt at it- up, down... up, down... No, that couldn't be right, could it?