At The Double!

[Anne McDermot]

Anne stood against the fence, watching as her students filed in one by one with their horses. She was not mad enough to take a class straight out onto the course when she didn't know them all as well as she would have liked. This was the start of a new year; there were some fresh faces around and the Scot wanted to make quite sure that everyone understood how this was going to be before they even thought about going over to the fences. And so she had set aside a lesson for warming everyone back up after the long summer, for working out who could do what and how, for establishing herself with the new students and reaffirming things with the old. After that... Well, then they could have some fun.

"All right, lads and lasses!" she called to the class once everyone had arrived, pulling the gate closed behind them and leaning back against it. "Welcome to cross-country! For anyone who doesn't know me, I'm Ms. McDermot. If I ask you to do something, I expect you to do it, unless you can give me a good reason why not. Being scared is a perfectly good reason why not, but if you don't tell me that you are then I'll just assume you're being awkward for your own amusement. Questions later, introductions later, for now, let's get warmed up. Open order, walk and trot on both reins, pass left to left, lots of transitions; we'll work in canter one at a time because this arena isn't big enough for my liking. Come on, we haven't got all day; let's get these horses moving!"

---

Gladys Madoc, Ivan Theodore Mallon, Karina Fuchs, Katherine Lorelia

[Karina Fuchs]

Karina was struggling to get back into the schedule of classes - Not that that showed in her appearance as she made her way to the cross country course. Rather, it showed in the sports bar she'd scarfed down in between tacking up Ella. She didn't want to bother braving the rush for the cafeteria.

Now, though, she put that behind her, and inclined her head to the instructor-slash-vice-principal as she walked into the arena, checked Ella's girth, and then mounted. She held the mare, waiting semi-patiently. She wasn't sure what the woman wanted by "open order", but having been the first to arrive, she decided just to start on the rest of the instructions, and turned Ella to walk along the track, giving her only a minute before asking for the trot.

[Katherine Lorelia]

Kitty blinked to herself at the woman's style of speaking; it was far too fast for her liking, and she had a feeling that she had only actually registered about half of the words that had come out of the VP's mouth, but she had caught the bit about open order, which had made her smile; she loved working like that. Nudging Pride forwards into a working trot, she turned to work in the opposite direction to Karina.

[Ivan Theodore Mallon]

Teddy groomed and tacked Avise, his arm only twinging the slightest bit. He could count himself lucky that it had healed as well as it had, although it did mean he hadn't really practiced any formal riding over the summer. He'd gotten help in exercising his horses, and the occasional walk onto the trails, but this would be his first time in the saddle after being medically cleared for action.

And yet, while he resented the interruption, he felt no concern about going back to jumping, or swinging himself onto Avise's back. So, he found the arena and entered with a smile, leading Avise to the mounting block and stepping onto the saddle (Okay, "swinging" into the saddle wasn't an option yet.) before he brought the mare over to stand beside Kitty with a smile and a quiet "Hey."

Once they'd been given their instructions, Teddy nodded and turned Avise, pushing her into a trot and picking a direction at random.