Here, again

[Lexi Ford]

With Nightmare, she stood in the barrel racing arena.
It felt good to finally be ready to do real riding again. Since her ... incident, she hadn't done much. At least, not as much as she'd liked to. Just two years ago, she'd been given Nightmare. Now, it was time to change her past.
She saw a boy, looking about her age, doing barrel racing in the arena. Whoa...

[Elijah Taylor]

Eli had decided to use the barrels today to get his mind off of his mom's visit. It had been nice, but brief, and had shown only too well why he hadn't gone home to visit. He was glad to be away from all of the restrictions of dealing with Harriet. He'd groomed and tacked Nav in a daze, and then grabbed his helmet and headed towards the arena.

It seemed to be a popular spot, he thought as he approached. There was another boy working the barrels and a girl... Just standing there with her horse? He raised an eyebrow, then decided to help the obvious newbie, calling out "Either mount or get out of there! Do you want to get run over?"

[Lexi Ford]

Eli's yell woke Lexi from that dreamy state she, so often felt. She shook her head as she refocused her eyes.
"Yeah. I'm gonna ride," she said, "Sorry."
Although she still doubted herself. She felt like she had to relearn everything. But no matter what, she'd never go back to riding english.
She couldn't. Still she wasn't sure why she didn't want to ride english. Was it because they said she couldn't? Or because she didn't want to?
She took a breath and mounted. Easy... right?
Lexi wondered whether or not she should try to make conversation with the other guy.

[Elijah Taylor]

Eli considered heading for the reining arena instead, but it looked like the more serious of the two riders in the arena was leaving. With a nod of greeting as they passed each other, Eli let the boy out and entered the arena himself, checking Nav's cinch and then mounting, getting the gelding started with a walk around the edge of the arena. He kept an eye on the blonde girl, making sure to stay out of her way.

[Lexi Ford]

Okay. Really ride. Lexi gathered all her strength - which wasn't much, yet - and started getting Nightmare to work towards a lope. It had been so long since she'd done this; the move to BRRA and the family issues had been nothing but hectic. She hadn't had time to do much until now. She was still confused, though: mostly, because some part of her wanted to really ride and part of her was scared to be doing faster gaits without Aunt V to supervise. Aunt V would always warn her if Nightmare was going to do something he shouldn't be doing. And now... the only people with her were other riders. Strangers, that's all.
Deep in thought, Lexi wasn't paying attention to Nightmare. He was neck reined, something Lex hadn't ever wanted to learn to ride with. Nightmare sped up into a lope towards a barrel.
"Whoa!" Lex cried. Nightmare slowed into a trot, a walk and then finally halted. Nightmare never just stopped. "Maybe we shouldn't be doing this."

[Elijah Taylor]

Eli could tell that Nav was feeling his oats, and kept the gelding working at walk-jog-walk transitions longer than he normally would. Finally he let the Morgan do some loping, keeping his head straight despite the barrels in the arena. They both knew they were there, and they both knew that Nav would get his head once it came to that point.

But it didn't get to that point. A commotion captured Eli's attention, and he slowed Nav even as he turned to look. He frowned, but the girl had managed to get her horse under control. Maybe just a bit too eager to get going. Deciding that Nav didn't need to add to the energy right at that moment, Eli asked the horse for a running walk instead of returning to his loping.

[Lexi Ford]

With a sigh, Lexi decided that maybe it would be best if she just dismounted. And stopped riding for a while. Maybe Nightmare would be good being just led for a while. She figured it would be better to get help from Aunt Vanessa first. Yet, Lexi felt like she'd done enough. She couldn't keep bugging her aunt every time she faced a problem. Maybe, just like her mother, her aunt would tell her that she was being overdramatic. The truth was, she knew it was totally over dramatic. But somehow she couldn't get over the trauma of the whole thing with Apache. The way the horse refused that tiny jump... in front of an audience, yet!
"I've gotta go, Nightmare. And I still have to get you cooled off," Lex whispered to the dutchie. "I'll... try to ride you later. Maybe."
And with that, Lexi dismounted Nightmare and started leading him around the perimeter of the arena to cool off.

[Elijah Taylor]

Eli sighed as the girl dismounted and started leading her horse around. Obviously, quite the new rider still. He came closer to the pair, close enough to talk without yelling, and commented, "If you need help with getting started, Ms. Carr or Ms. Robinson may be the best people to talk to. They watch most of the new riders their first few times out." He kept pace with them, keeping Nav to a walk to hear the girl's reply.

[Lexi Ford]

Lexi snorted. “I know how to ride. I don’t need help.” And then that old spark of something she didn’t like came back. “This nag just isn’t trained well.”
It was fairly true. Nightmare did have a drive that Lexi hadn’t yet learned to control. Mostly, he used that drive to please Lexi as much as possible. Usually though, he messed up. And - this wasn’t his fault - he was only controllable by neck rein. He hadn’t learnt to sense what Lexi wanted yet, either, so it was harder on both teams. She held a glare, waiting for him to say something or make a move.
And I’m not going to cringe, no matter what he does… She shuddered inwardly, remembering all the things her father had said to her.

[Elijah Taylor]

Eli snorted at that, "A poor rider blames their horse. A good rider trains it." With that, he nudged Nav into a lope and pulled away from the pair, heading to the other end of the arena. He had half a mind to drop his reins, simply to show that he could, but decided not to, instead looping around the starting poles and heading for the cloverleaf in the middle of the arena, giving Nav his head to gallop.

[Lexi Ford]

Lexi was glad she hadn’t considered the possibility of making friends. Especially not when she had just moved here. She still had to consider a list she’d made - the laws of being the ‘new girl’. That was a role she’d had way too often before, and one she’d hated. But it had been worth it, because at least then, they were moving for her, so that she could do eventing. And become the next big thing. Dazed for a moment (hasn’t she been feeling that way a lot lately), she paused. Then she kissed Nightmare’s nose.
“It really isn’t your fault, buddy,” she said softly, quietly so nobody could hear, “I’m just having a really hard time adjusting.”
Lexi walked Nightmare away from the arena, as fast as her tired body would let her.