Off Of The Slopes

[Liana Mars]

Liana's holidays had been nice, some skiing, lots of sitting in ski lodges looking perfect, but now she was back at the academy and ready to get back to riding. Her tack had been sent to a saddler over the holiday for a thorough going over, and was back, looking better than before. Regular maintenance was key to maintaining quality.

After tacking up Nasir, she shrugged into her new Noel Asmar coat (a Christmas present) and headed for the dressage arena. Time to put the so-called "all weather rider" coat to the test. She curled her nose as a student with a fuzzy, unclipped horse passed, then let herself into the dressage arena - at least it was empty now. She mounted and then gathered her reins, her mind back on her riding.

[Tara Macmillan]

Naturally, Tara had had a wonderful Christmas. The first week had been spent in New York, where she had been to a masquerade ball at a house which even she would consider to be enormous, and that was saying something! Of course, she had been considered to be the belle of the ball- the blonde would have been shocked had things been otherwise- and she'd met some very nice boys, none of whom conformed to her standards of looks, unfortunately. Still, since it was Christmas, she had been charitable and pretended that they might have a chance until it came to the time to leave, at which point she firmly withheld her phone number.

For the second week, she and her family had been skiing in Italy, as was their custom. It was hard work of a different kind to that which she was used to, and as Tara led her mare down to the dressage arena, her legs protested at the action. About to enter, she paused, frowning, at the realisation that the space was already occupied.

"Hey, gorgeous," she greeted the other girl, "Would it be awful of me to ask if we could join you?"

[Liana Mars]

Liana glanced over - she hadn't quite hit her stride yet anyway, so the blonde's greeting broke in quite easily. She recalled their last interaction, but time had passed, and to be honest, Liana was willing to forgive and forget. It was hard to find decent people at this school. No need to push away one of the few that were acceptable. "Not awful at all." She halted Nasir, far enough away from the gate, but not too far to hold a conversation, "The arena would only be enhanced if you joined us."

[Tara Macmillan]

Tara made a point of having a selective memory. She remembered only those things which it benefitted her to remember, and therefore, whilst of course she recalled her previous incident with this particular girl, she was very much determined that she would not if she were asked. The past was in the past, after all, and there were only so many people at this school who were worthy of her attention; Liana Mars, she reluctantly concluded, was going to have to be one of them. So, she had to confess to being rather glad at the girl's words.

"Flattery will get you everywhere, honey," she returned breezily, letting herself into the arena and closing the gate behind her.

[Liana Mars]

Liana chuckled, "Truer words have never been spoken." She knew the power of flattery, of course, and was glad to see that Tara seemed to be of the same mindset as her about their previous encounters. "Is there anything specific you were planning on working on?" She had her plans, but she didn't want to be too much of a nuisance - And spirals weren't exactly an ideal thing to practice when one was sharing the arena. She would have to adapt.

[Tara Macmillan]

Tara nodded solemnly as she led her mare across to the centre of the arena, making a brief adjustment to the girth before lifting herself gracefully into the saddle, dropping a stirrup slightly and arranging herself elegantly. "I thought I'd try a few flying changes, some leg yielding, pirouettes..." The blonde shrugged. "Little bits. It's been rather a while since Genevieve did any dressage, so we ought to go over a few things. How about you?"

[Liana Mars]

Liana nodded at the list, "I was going to do some bending work. I don't think we'll get in each others' way. Nasir can always use some help with that." Spirals were bending, after all. So were all sorts of other exercises she could work on. "You're more of a jumper, if I recall?" They were in hunters together, but something about the girl seemed more tuned in to the show jumping side of the 'send horse over fence' group.

[Tara Macmillan]

Tara nodded- there didn't seem to be anything particularly problematic in that list, and she saw no issue in the two of them sharing the arena. "Actually, I'm a dressage rider for preference," she confessed with a smile. "But it can all get a bit intense, so sometimes it's good to take a bit of a break and just point the horse at the jump." She nudged the mare forwards into a walk. "And how about yourself?"

[Liana Mars]

Liana inclined her head, "Definitely agree on taking a break occasionally." She grinned, "Honestly, I prefer hunters overall, but dressage would be in second. They're similar in some ways, so it's nice to practice both, but hunters has the benefit of some flying in between." She grinned as she thought about the jumping portion, "Jumpers occasionally, although really only for fun. And Nasir here is trained for cross country, although I can't claim much experience there."

[Tara Macmillan]

"Definitely," the blonde agreed with a smile. "It's always good to have a break every once in a while. Otherwise, you'd keep on doing the same thing, over and over again, and in the end, it would drive you insane, don't you think?" Certainly, Tara thought that her own exemplary sanity would undoubtedly be thrown into question in such circumstances, hence the reason why she was rather glad that not only she herself but also her mare was well adapted for a variety of disciplines. Heaven knew she couldn't do dressage for the rest of her life. "God, anything but cross country..."

[Liana Mars]

Liana laughed, "Yes, change can give you a different perspective that proves invaluable." She tended to take her change in the form of other sports than equestrianism, though. She asked Nasir for a few half passes away from Tara, before then reversing direction, in order to remain close enough to continue their conversation, "Agreed. Not necessarily something I have plans to gain further experience in."

[Tara Macmillan]

Tara nodded solemnly. "There's nothing more useful than perspective," she agreed firmly. "That's why I'm so glad to have someone like you here- other people are nice enough, but they don't see things in the same way as we do." After all, people such as she and Liana had to stick together, because the rest of the world just didn't understand them.

[Liana Mars]

Liana chuckled, "You've got that right." Nasir decided to use that moment to perk up and attempt some flirting with Tara's mare, picking up speed and prancing. Li rolled her eyes and tightened her grip on the reins, turning him to the side and bringing him in a small circle, muttering under her breath, "You. Are. A. Gelding." She flashed a grin at Tara, "I think I'll have to entertain the beast for a little bit. We should continue this chat over coffee instead." Yes, her horse wasn't perfect - But she'd rather have some spirit than a push-button, broken horse. And spirit, Nasir had plenty of.