Going Round the Bend

[Bruce Ropata]

Bruce led the last of the mounted games ponies out to the yards near the games arena, as of next week the students will be responsible for bringing their own mounts out, but today was more of a welcome back or welcome to the class thing, so he felt it would be easier to have the mounts in the yards waiting for the students to arrive. He had brought their gear out before collecting the ponies so that was all their waiting in front of the yard for each respective mount.

With the ponies happy in their yards, a full bucket of water and a salt lick to keep them occupied, the Maori male made his way into the arena and set up two rows of four poles with rings attached to the tops of them down one end and down the other end he set up two rows of stepping stones - cylinder blocks. As he had a class of nine students this year, he would watch them during their warm-ups and then break them into two groups of four, with two spare riders, the two teams would work through a sword race and the reserve rider would work on their dismounting and mounting as they worked over the stepping stones and then he would send out a rider from each of the sword players and bring the swap them with the extras, so that by the end of the hour, everyone would have had a turn with going over the stepping stones.

Once the majority of his students had arrived, he smiled in greeting. "Welcome to a brand new year." He greeted. "Just a reminder of pony assignments for those who are returning; Ria, you're on Fern. Becca you've got Chris, for the time being, you worked well last year and as of yet I don't think I have enough of a challenge for you to change your mount. Cortney with Mo. John you're with Rocky, for the same reason Becca is still on Chris. And Serenity, I'll keep you on Pixie, who I paired you up with for the clinic." He looked at his new student. "If you will follow me, I'll introduce you to your new friend." He watched as they each went to their respective pony. "Once you and your mount are ready, please take them to the arena and begin to warm up." He turned and walked to the edge of the arena, giving the students the room to warm up and also so that he would be on hand when, and if, the new students bothered to show up.

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney put Olé back into her stall after her dressage lesson, after cooling the mare down and then giving her a bath of course, with the promises of returning later to feed the mare and release her in the pasture for the night. She then quickly rushed into the girl's toilet and changed into a clean shirt and socks before pushing her feet back into her paddock boots. She then raced back into the tack room, grabbed her helmet and headed at full speed toward the mounted games arena.

She skidded to a halt as she approached the area, as she didn't want to spook all the ponies by arriving there at top speed. "Hey Mr R!" She greeted the teacher as she looked toward the yards and instantly spotted her flaxen chestnut gelding, however, since it was the start of the year she waited for the class to start.

When they were given the word that they would go to their mounts, she hardly waited for their teacher to say her name before she headed to Mo's yard and ducked under the rope gate. "Hey baby!" She greeted him with a hug. "Let's get you ready for some work." She left Dolly where she was curled up. in the middle of the gelding's back, as she got the grooming kit and went to work picking out the gelding's hooves and then brushing his coat, finally sending the Ragdoll to find another place to curl up.

Once the gelding was ready, she led him to the arena, tightened the girth, pulled the stirrups down mounted. Settling into the saddle, she took up the reins and squeezed him forward into a nicely paced walk as she started his warm-up.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity headed toward the mounted games arena. She carried her helmet in one hand and brushed shavings off her shirt with the other. Red's favourite trick at the moment was to drop down as soon as she was in her stall and kick the shavings around, no matter if there was a person in the stall with her or not, and she had got Serenity with a good spray of shavings.

Reaching the area, she saw a handful of students already there, lingering around the teacher, so she remained with them, rather then heading over to the pony she had ridden during the clinic. She listened to Mr Ropata as he spoke and followed the others over to the yards and ducked into Pixie's "Hey, precious." She whispered as she approached the mare and held her hand out, waiting for the rose grey Welsh to accept her presence before she stepped forward. "Let's make you look even more beautiful than you already are." She ducked under the rope and grabbed the grooming kit before returning to the mare's side. After cleaning out the mare's hooves, she picked up the mare's baby soft brush and went over her coat, taking care over the scars that were left from the accident the mare had been in long before Reni joined the Academy.

After saddling the mare, she led the pretty pony into the arena where she vaulted into the saddle, which was easy to do since Pixie was two hands shorter than Red. She then crossed the stirrups over the pommel and squeezed the mare forward, letting her legs hang as she started the mare's warm up, she would take the stirrups back after she'd tightened the girth when she asked for a trot. 

[Deleted]

Ria left her pony Moo in the pasture, where she had been attempting to draw the mare, and grabbed her helmet as she prepared to go to the mounted games class. Since she had almost no schedule, except for her morning home-schooling classes, which came whenever Will wasn't out and about making sure everything was safe, she spent a lot of time in the pasture with her pony. However, today was different. Today school had started again for the rest of the kids, and that meant that Mounted Games was happening again.

As she approached, she beamed at everyone, greeting those she knew happily, while she just smiled at those she didn't, not wanting to ignore them. When Mr. Ropata released them to prepare their mounts, Ria walked over to Fern's yard, smiling at the pony as she let herself in, "Hi pretty girl!" She had only ridden the mare once before, in the summer clinic when her assigned mount had changed, but so far, she was happy with the change, "Let's get you cleaned!" She started grooming the mare, happily telling her about Moo and her lessons, until the mare stood, tacked up and ready.

After buckling on her helmet, Ria led the mare out of her yard and into the arena, mounting up from the ground, although she didn't try vaulting, as she knew the mare was taller than Glory. Once she was in the saddle, she asked the mare to walk on, and began a simple warmup.

[Deleted]

John left Lilja in her stall with a promise to return after Mounted Games, after checking on her water and haynet. Twirling his helmet carefully around his finger, making sure it didn't fall, he walked towards the mounted games arena, counting the people there as he arrived. With a nod to Mr. Ropata, he leaned against Rocky's fence, listening as the pony assignments were called out. Grinning, he turned to the gelding and climbed over the fence, "Looks like you're stuck with me for another year, Rocky."

He took his time grooming the gelding, making sure that they were still on 'friendly' terms, and then tacked him up before putting on his helmet and leading the shorter pony to the arena, where he vaulted onto the pony's back easily, since the gelding was two and a half hands shorter than his mare. He relaxed once he was in the saddle and asked the gelding to walk around the arena, which went rather well, as did the trot. Only when they got to the canter did Rocky act up, jumping around in the fashion that had given him his name. Grinning, John stuck it out, pushing the gelding toward the centre of the arena as not to bother any of the other riders, as his rocking horse bucked and reared. Finally, the gelding tired of his game and allowed John to resume their warmup, and so they did, John unabashed by the scene that his mount had caused.

[Becca Walsh]

    Becca grabbed her helmet and made her way to the mounted games arena, excited for this class. It was always fun riding Chris and having a different sort of fun while riding. She loved jumping huge fences and working with Frye, but once in a while, it was great to have some good, competitive fun. With Frye there was a lot on the line, but when she was in mounted games, she could relax a little bit.

    Once Mr. Ropata began the class and sent them off to their ponies, Becca found Chris in his usual yard, and greeted the pony by rubbing his neck. Chris was tough and brave, and Becca was glad that she would be paired with him for yet another year. Grabbing his tack and grooming supplies, she entered his yard and groomed him, currying off the dried mud that the pony had managed to get on himself. When he was groomed, she tacked him up and clipped on her helmet before leading him into the arena.

    Once inside, she mounted and began to warm Chris up, marveling in how steady he was in comparison to Frye once again. Another pony was having a fit, and Becca was just glad that she didn't have to deal with that with two horses rather than just one.

[Bruce Ropata]

From his place on the outside of the arena, Bruce kept his both on the students warming their ponies in the arena and on the possible arrival of any other students. His eyebrows rose when Rocky went into one of his rodeo performances. The instructor chuckled and shook his head when the gelding tired of his antics and went back to being a well behaved mount once more.

When the ponies were well warmed up, he entered the arena. The man shot a sympathetic look at the ponies who were still in their yards and made mental notes on exactly what he was going to do with the latecomers. "Bring your ponies in please." He called, not a hint of his disappointment to the missing students was in his tone, as he wasn't at all disappointed with the ones in the arena. "I had big plans today to split the class into three groups, but that's not going to happen." He removed one line of bending poles as he spoke. "John and Ria, you are going to make one team. Cortney and Serenity, you will make the other. Becca, that leaves you as the reserve rider." He gave the girl a smile. "While the others are working through their game, I want you to work on your mounting and dismounting. In doing this though, I want you to work through the stepping-stones game." He pointed over to the cylinder blocks. "There is a barrel either end to mark your start and finish line. The gait you work at is up to you, but the idea of it is the speed that you mount and dismount."

He turned back to his teams. "I wanted to do this by having three people on each team, but it will work with two, it will just mean that you will both start at the same end and run twice - up and down the row - it'll be up to the rider at the time on whether they pick up two rings or one during the run." He handed a wooden sword to one of the riders from the two teams, and walked around checking tack as he went. "If you are going to collect two rings on the one run, one must be collected going one way and the other when returning to the other rider. Then you will need to hand the sword, rings and all, to the other rider and then they get to go. You may not touch the blade of the sword, nor may you touch the rings with your hand." If anyone happened to drop a ring, he would explain that they could then be touched and the rider could hold the blade of the sword while mounting and dismounting, but he felt that if he said anything now, he would be cursing them.

He waited for the four riders to sort themselves out. "Ready, steady, go!"

OOC: I waited and waited for the others to post (I gave almost a MONTH when I normally only wait a week, and I posted a reminder in the C-box two days ago). So, if you haven't already posted, you next post will be to arrive at the arena and await instructions from Mr Ropata. Cymilla, Becca will get a go with the sword race the next time around.

And, just so you can picture the "sword"; 61 cm long blade, a hilt 30.4cm long (that's the cross-piece the rings will rest on) and handle 30.4 cm long.

[Cortney Smit]

Corteny, with the knowledge that the pony she was riding was an allrounder, put him through his paces, encouraging him to move from his hindquarters and to stretch out long and low. She pretty much warmed him up the same way she would have warmed up her own pony, back in the Netherlands, before a competition - not that she rode her pony in gymkhanas much - and was happy when the Welsh was in a nice frame, and decided that he'd put any dressage horse to shame.

She reined him in when they were called into the centre, and rubbed his neck as they listened to Mr Ropata's instructions. She smiled at Serenity - whom she'd met at the clinic during the summer vacation - and accepted the sword when offered. "One up and one on the way back?" She asked as she squeezed Mo forward with the slightest of cues. "I'll grab the first on the way down and the second on the way back." Which was the first and third rings.

She sat in the saddle, her weight in the stirrups, balanced on her knees. She held the sword in her right hand and the reins, along with a handful of the gelding's flaxen mane in her left. At the instructors words, she pushed her weight forward as she squeezed with her inner thighs, and the gelding shot off into a canter as they headed toward the line of poles. Moving into two-seat, she aimed the sword to the middle of the first ring and as they passed it, the blade easily went through the ring and she felt a slight pull as the rubber band holding it onto the pole snapped as they shot past, leaving the ring on the sword.

They carried on down past the other poles, after they had passed the last pole Cort sat back into the saddle, shifting her weight a little to the right as they circled the last pole and then made their way back to the start line. Lining the sword up with the second ring in wasn't as easy as the first had been, but she refused to slow the gelding's pace and she just managed to snag it. As soon as the metal ring had slid down the blade, Cort gave the gelding his head "Go!" She whispered and grinned as he burst into a gallop as they headed back to where Serenity was waiting. "Slowsie, Mosie." She said as she collected him a little as she held the sword out for the other girl to take and then opened her hand as they shot passed, hoping against hope that the other girl had managed to close her hand around it.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity took her time warming the mare up, and even after tightening the girth, she left the stirrups crossed and did the complete warm up without stirrups. She could easily tell - without any knowledge of the mare's training - that the mare had been handled by a sympathetic trainer and needed a light rider, meaning someone with subtle aids rather then the weight having to be light.

The girl took the stirrups as they were called into the middle and she bowed her head when she was paired up with the cheerleader. She listened as Cortney spoke and nodded her head. "Sure, sounds good." She replied, making a mental note of the two rings she had to collect. She didn't have a problem with the older girl taking leadership of their team and happily lined Pixie up behind the gelding.

She watched as Mo ran up the poles, rounded and then raced back to them. She was ready to go, weight forward, reins and mane grasped in her left hand and right arm outstretch, hand open and waiting for the sword. As the other horse and rider reached them, she closed her hand around the sword handle and then let it slip down till the hit her closed fist and she squeezed the mare forward. "Hey!" She exclaimed, almost getting left behind, as the Welsh mare shot forward.

She easily speared the two rings that she was after, only struggling on the second one as it was as they were coming out of their U-turn and they thundered toward the finish line. Serenity had never done team games, but she had mucked around enough, racing Tommy, at home and hoped that it would help them when the real competitions started.

[Deleted]

Ria moved Fern into the centre of the arena when they were asked to do so, and the sweet mare obliged willingly. As she listened to Mr. Ropata's plan for the day, she glanced around, noticing for the first time how small the class was. As she was paired with the only male student in the group, Ria grinned brightly at him, then turned her attention back to Mr. Ropata, who was giving instructions to Becca at the moment.

Once he turned back to their group, Ria took the sword, feeling its weight in her hand. As she listened to the instructions, she looked out at the rings that he was talking about, nodding as she figured out what they were doing. As Mr. Ropata had given her the sword, she assumed that she was going first, and as John made no move to take the sword, she lined Fern up at the starting line, her eyes on the ring that she wanted to try for.

When they were told to start, she asked Fern to canter, holding the sword as steady as she could. The first ring proved easy enough, and it rattled down the length of the sword before coming to rest on the crosspiece. They spun around the barrel at the other end of the lane and headed back, and while Ria managed to get the ring with her sword and pull it loose, it landed on the ground. Disappointed, she slowed Fern to a trot to give the sword to her partner, hoping he wasn't too angry with her.

[Deleted]

John finished his warmup with Rocky well enough, now that the gelding was cooperating, and when they were called into the middle of the arena, he did so, and the pony followed his cues as they joined the group. He listened to Mr. Ropata's beginning impassively, he had been on time, and as such, he didn't really mind that the groups would be smaller.

As the teacher started explaining what they were doing, John listened, watching his partner getting the sword first. That was good, he'd be able to watch her, and the other rider, on how they were doing the game. He lined Rocky up behind the girl's mare, holding the gelding steady as the first two riders left their positions. He could see that his partner was a bit slower than the other girl, but that was alright. When she dropped one of the rings, he frowned, but didn't have much time to react, as she was already coming towards him. After his hand wrapped around the hilt of the sword, John clapped his heels to Rocky's sides, and the Connemara took off.

The first ring was easy enough, and John slowed Rocky only a tiny bit to whirl around the barrel... Perhaps he should have asked if the horse was trained enough to do it, but then, they did alright on the turn. Back down the lane they galloped, and John almost didn't manage to nab the last ring, but at the last moment, his sword managed to pull it off of its rubber band. Once they were across the finish line, John slowed his mount, grinning, as he held up the sword in his left hand to pat Rocky's shoulder, a job well done.

[Deleted]

Still trying to learn his way around campus, and trying to read a map, made Tyson late for his class, "Which way is North?!" he aggrivatedly muttered to himself as his gaze shifted from the map, to the campus in front of him. Taking a lucky intuition feeling, the eighteen year old headed left, and saw an arena, with horses in a few paddocks ahead. It looked like some had already been saddled and were being ridden around. Wait.. they were a little short to be horses... Tyson figured they would get taller as he got closer, but that didn't appear to be the case. The horses looked like ponies, and the riders looked like eight graders. Great, what did he sign up for?

To be honest, he only took the class because it looked easy and the only sport he played was baseball. A taller, Hawaiian looking man caught his attention, and Tyson knew he must be the instructor. Clearing his throat, Tyson approached him, "Um, excuse me Mr..." he looked down at the schedule in his hand, "Ropata," he assured he got the name right, "Sorry I'm late, I'm new here, Tyson Hallman," he introduced himself, before looking around the ring at the other students and mounts.

[Bruce Ropata]

Bruce turned as he heard a throat being cleared behind him, the man was not impressed that the other member of his class hadn't shown up and it this was one of them, their punishment was about to go from being harsh to severe! His face softened as he saw a boy he didn't recognise and listened as the student spoke to him. "Welcome to my class, Tyson." He said as he exited the arena and looked the boy up and down. "Follow me."

The teacher led the way to the yards where the ponies were dozing, he slowly walked past each one until he arrived at the yard of a bay dun Quarter Pony. "Tyson, this is Joe. I'd like to see you riding him today. I know he may look a little short, but size can be deceiving, especially in this class. Joe is quick on picking up on things, so if you let him get away with something once, you'll have issues not letting him get away with it a second time. His gear is on the ground here outside is yard." He indicated to the English saddle, snaffle bridle and Egyptian blue saddle pad. "Bring him to the arena when you're both ready and I'll give you further instructions there."

Once the boy had brought the pony into the arena, Bruce watched him mount up. "Keep to this half of the arena and get to know Joe's paces and then you can do what Becca is doing and work with the stepping stones. The idea with that game and speed dismounting and mounting." He wasn't going to comment that the boy's height might be a disadvantage in the game, but he would see how it went.

[Becca Walsh]

Becca continued to warm up Chris, keeping an eye on the other riders for safety purposes, since she did not know the other ponies very well. When asked to, she slowed Chris to a walk, which the pony did willingly, and guided him over to the instructor, where she stopped. She listened to the instructions for both games that she would be doing so that she would be ready when it came her turn. When the other riders broke into their teams, she walked Chris over to where the stepping stone game was and lined herself up to begin. 

When Mr. Ropata signaled for the other riders to start, Becca did the same, starting at the trot. She trotted Chris quickly to the stepping stones and a couple of step before them, she vaulted to the ground. She was a bit jarred, and hesitated for a moment before she kept running, stepping quickly and carefully on all of the stepping stones before launching herself as lightly as possible back into the saddle. Her hesitation had left her a little behind Chris, which made mounting harder, but she made it, even though she was a bit off balance. Rounding the barrel, she did the same thing on the way back. 

Pleased, she let Chris rest for a few moments as she sorted out what she would do next. Deciding that a canter would be possible, she lined herself up once more and signaled herself to begin this time. She did the same exercise at the canter, and it went rather well despite the increase in speed. Granted, the canter was collected, but she was still happy with it. The smoother gait made vaulting up easier even though it was faster.

[Bruce Ropata]

OOC: I'm posting this as though Tyson has already warmed Joe up and has gone through the stepping stones game a couple of times.

IC...
Bruce Watched as the riders raced through the game.

When Ria finished her turn and John headed off he walked up to where the girl sat on Fern. "The next time that happens, just dismount and pick it up." He gave her a grin. "It's the only time you're allowed to touch the rings or the blade of the sword. Sorry I didn't go over that at the start." He gave Fern a pat on the neck as he went back to watching the two teams racing and the riders working over the stepping stones. At least with Tyson's arrival, it gave Becca someone to race with.

After the racers had completed their turns he walked around to stand in front of the two teams. "You all did really well." He said. "You had good communication before you started and you stuck to your chosen game plan." He raised his voice slightly. "Becca and Tyson, can you please being Chris and Joe over here. Serenity and Cortney. You will now go and have a turn on the stepping stones." He took the rings off the swords and looped them over his left arm as he walked over to the box he'd left at the edge of the arena. After letting the rings drop off his arm, he then pulled out another eight rings, attached to a rubber band each, and walked along the poles, pulled the nail out of each pole and replaced the rings before he headed back to the start line. "You are going to collect two rings on the one run, one going one way and the other when returning to the other rider. Then you will need to hand the sword, rings and all, to the other rider and then they get to go. You may not touch the blade of the sword, nor may you touch the rings with your hand. However, if anyone happens to drop a ring, they can then be touched and the rider could hold the blade of the sword while mounting and dismounting." He knew that he's already been over the rules, but since Tyson hadn't been here the first time, he felt the need to repeat himself - this time adding the extra about what to do if a ring was dropped.

He waited for the four riders to sort themselves out. "Ready, steady, go!"