Something In That Tree

[Serulis Keller]

Serulis had a lot of time on his hands, he had gotten his horse ready. Standing in the middle of the arena with his head resting on Luckies he whispered a few words to his steed. "Please don't try to kill me today, I know this is only your third time in an outdoor arena. But please behave." Serulis then moved to his horses shoulder and managed to do a swing mount. He walked him around the outside of the arena for five minutes, checking his breaks, his leg aids and his school figures. He then gently squeezed him into a trot, Luckie was easy to sit to. He felt like a smooth rocking horse, not bouncy, not sharp. Luckie was in a good outline which meant he was concentrating and enjoying his tasks, Serulis made him do half halts, half passes, leg yeilding and changing his stride length from long to short and back to long.

Not aware of anything else, he circled his horse down the C end of the school, something caught Luckie's eye. He stopped, ducked, veered off to the side and then galloped towards the exit. Serulis managed to stay on, saying soothing words to his horse "wooo, Luckie. Good boy slow down, there's nothing to be afraid of. Wooo Luckie." slowing him down and then eventually stopping. "Well, I guess we know now that you are not a fan of outdoor arena's buddy. Good boy, now lets go walk by that corner again."

[Liana Mars]

Liana chuckled as she led Nasir out into the sunlight - The gelding's head immediately flew up, and he started to prance, as if the sun was a spotlight, just for him. However, the grip she had on his reins didn't falter, and the gelding was content to prance along beside her, just a bit excited. Nothing a good ride wouldn't solve.

She paused at the junction between Roscoe's arena and the ones further on, glancing both directions. Seeing more movement in the dressage arenas, she turned towards the main outdoor arena. There was only one rider there. She paused, watching their practice, then raised an eyebrow as the horse spooked. The boy managed to get the horse back under control, but was now close enough to have seen Liana, standing there with Nasir in hand. The Arabian had been excited by the commotion, and was fidgeting around, ears pricked into the arena. She considered her options briefly, deciding between leaving and barging in, then shrugged and decided to play nice and ask, "Would companionship bother your horse?"

[Serulis Keller]

Serulis was now walking around down the A end of the school, he saw the girl and he spoke with a thick english accent "sure, he's not that bad. Make yourself at home." Serulis slung his leg forward, adjusting his girth. He had done it but after that gallop he was a hole looser. He had a smile on his face, he was thinking of how to act. He was normally forward and overly flirty, but he decided to play it cool. "I'm Serulis by the way, most call me Li. Thought you should know since, you know being in an arena with me." He sent her a head tilt and a wink.

Still walking around the top end of the school, he looked the girl up and down and then the same to her horse, he had a love/hate relationship with arabians, he loved riding them, he just didn't like how cocky and boastful they were. Very pretty to look at though he thought to himself, not sure which one. Walk to canter was a good start, cantering his steed down to thd other end of the school, he circled at C then patted his horse passing the scary corner. He could feel his horse getting less tense, so he passed it again Luckie was calmer, he was back in his outline.

[Liana Mars]

Liana pursed her lips at the comment about making herself at home - The audacity! From a new student, no less. But she entered anyway, pushing open the gate and then latching it behind her before she led Nasir into the middle of the arena. She checked his girth, then mounted fluidly, only half-listening to the boy's introduction, "Tell me, Serulis, why your name is important? All I care about is that you don't allow your nag to crash into my horse, and that you don't get in our way." She refused to call him Li - Her own nickname, although she wouldn't deign to tell him that. "If you must, you may call me Liana." Too cocky by half, this one was. And a wink? Seriously?

She moved Nasir into a walk, falling onto the track in the same direction that Serulis was using. She had to reevalute her goals for the ride today slightly, since she had another rider in the arena, but that didn't matter too much. Nasir was a hot horse, and she'd found that a calm warmup did well for him. Some cantering, yes, but no dramatic changes. Everything was meditative, helping the gelding find his brain cells, as it were, and engage them for what they would be doing.

[Serulis Keller]

All he could do was laugh at the girl, he wasn't dazed in the slightest with her comments. Being used to sly comments in england and it wasn't to different over here. He was annoyed at the fact she felt entitled to belittle him. He replied with a cold tone. "Well common curtesy i would say. Also, i won't get in your way if you don't get in mine. It works both ways darlin' im afraid" His tone turned into a mocking one. "Sorry your majesty, I mean Liana." he forced a smile.

Still riding around he started doing line work keeping his steed straight, he did more half passes and leg yeilds. Trying not to get into the rude little girls space. Which he was really tempted to do. But he fought his temptation to not have his head bitten off by a girl.

[Liana Mars]

Liana raised an eyebrow, "I know I won't get into your way, though. No need to announce that. I don't know you, and all I know of your horse is that he can and will bolt on you." She smiled, specifically ignoring the mocking tone, "At least you got something right."

She kept a vague note of where Serulis was in the arena on her mind, and otherwise ignored the boy, focusing instead on warming up Nasir, finding his weaker points that day and formulating a plan around what she'd work on. He was responsive and ready to work, which was at least a benefit of having someone else in the arena, annoying as they might be, but his lateral work to the left could use some fine-tuning. It was definitely his stiffer side, and with the gelding still new to hunter classes, she needed him as supple there as he was with dressage.

She worked him on his right side first, doing some shoulders-in, then straight, then haunches-in, alternating every few strides to get the gelding into the swing of things. Once she was happy with that, she glanced around, made sure of Serulis' position, and then used a diagonal to cross the arena and switch direction, putting herself behind Serulis in a way that gave her the most work time before they would cross paths again.

[Serulis Keller]

Serulis had nothing else to say to the rude girl, riding his horse around. He couldn't care less about her position in the school, he kept his horse in a steady canter and used the center line from A to C for straightness. He used a half-halt at the end of the line to change the rein and diagonal of the canter. Working on his steeds worst rein. Luckie seemed fine to start with, keeping up and staying happy with what was asked of him. He let off a buck and Serulis laughed sitting to him. Luckie was testing him, trying to show off for the other gdlding as well as tryig to annoy Serulis to the point of him getting off and taking him back to the barn. He three an even bigger buck causing him to change his hind canter lead.

Serulis took him to a trot, turning his horses head left, right, left and then right so on so on. Before letting his head fall this worked most days to get him to behave but today. Lucki had a boost of energy he had never seen before. Lumbering around like a race horse or something as high spirited as that. He raised his voice at his horse "Will you bloody stop it! I will not take you in and if you carry on I'm going to use the stick you stupid animal!" he used to much force kicking his horse instead of nudging him. This sent Luckie into a bucking frenzy for a few strides before starting to lut his head down and behave again.

[Liana Mars]

Liana was focused on Nasir as she rode, knowing the gelding was showing off, but he was doing so in a productive way, at least. He was still attentive to her for the most part - Until, at least, the other gelding started getting ideas.

When Nasir got totally distracted, Liana brought his attention back to her, and then glanced behind her, catching Serulis' horse's second buck, and the ensuing dramatics. She rolled her eyes and muttered to her own horse, "They should have told him this is a school for proper riders, not bucking broncs." All the same, she kept a closer eye on her companion and his horse, and made sure to keep Nasir on the far end of the arena, giving Serulis as much space to fix his issue as possible.

"And a temper, huh?" She kept commenting briefly to Nasir, knowing the murmuring would bring part of his attention back to her, although she had little hope of the collection needed while there was such a scene nearby. So she didn't even bother trying, instead just working the gelding in spirals, smaller, then larger, then turning.

[Serulis Keller]

After Serulis got after him, Luckie put his head down and quit the fight. Serulis cut across the school, leaving about half a horses length between himself and the girl. He grinned back at her "Oh, sorry. I didn't see you there." He then moved off, he was focusing on Luckie's bad rein, trying to make him more accepting of the work load. Serulis kept checking his diagonals, sitting up tall and straight using his butt muscles to feel the saddles movements. He could normally tell if there was something wrong, just through the feel, he thought that Luckie might have been running away from the pressure of something. But he felt good, normal. He cantered down the center line again this time making his horse do a piaffe and then canter the opposite way, his horse was starting to relax now. Throwing his feet out in front of him in an extended canter.

Serulis was in an annoying mood and he was going to try his best to get some foul comments from this girl. His horse seemed to agree, not fighting his commands and listening to his rider. He seemed to laugh at himself thinking he was doing a good job of annoying her. Purely for the fact that she told him not to, why would you even tell a guy not to do that? That was stupid from the get.

[Liana Mars]

Liana could see Serulis coming, but hadn't quite anticipated that level of incompetence from anyone. Luckily, she managed to pull Nasir up, halting the gelding sharply. That earned her a snort of disapproval from the horse, but she'd rather that than deal with an idiot right in front of them.

"If your vision is so bad, let's just split the arena for everyone's safety. I'll even let you pick which side you'd like." Liana didn't rise to the bait that Serulis tried dangling in front of her, although on the inside, she was fuming. Why would he think that that was okay? Even on a normal horse that hadn't just freaked out, it wouldn't have been an acceptable, or safe, maneuver, let alone on a horse that obviously had issues!

After Serulis had moved away, she moved Nasir on again, dropping what she'd been working on and just letting the gelding lope for a moment, before they worked on some collection again - Both for the horse, and for Liana's thoughts.

[Serulis Keller]

Serulis nodded slightly as he brought his horse down to a walk to give him a rest. Moving into the inside track, he dropped his reins into one hand resting it on the saddle. Luckie dropped his head and walked slowly around, the horse was gaining back his stamina and breath at this point. Serulis turned his head to look at the girl and her horse with a grin on his face. He had no idea what he was going to do next, he had done so much in so little time, he started to think of a new plan for the session.

He laughed at her, it was a loud laugh. He replied in yet another mocking tone. "You can do what you want. Not like your doing anything anyway." he carried on, starting to pat his horse. He then said "Why are you so hateful? Is it how you were raised or is it learnt? Because it really is quite ugly." He nudged his horse forward slightly making him walk a little faster. Using thr inside track he used his legs to make the horse do circles, 20m, 15m, 10m and 5m. Then he would make him extend his walk on the longsides and collect on the short. He was focusing now, more on his horse and spacial awareness. Ignoring the fact that girl was even in the ring.

[Liana Mars]

What an idiot. Liana shook her head and ignored the boy's taunts, instead leading Nasir over to the gate and dismounting, before she led him out of the arena. She didn't say another world, although she would have loved to scoff at who the boy was calling hateful - because she wasn't the one who had tried to cause a collision, and she definitely wasn't the one being hateful!

After making sure the gate was latched behind her - She was, after all, the better person - She remounted Nasir and pointed him in the direction of the trails at a canter, deciding that they had done enough work for the day.