Cross Country 2.II (Students)

[Kendall Salenk]

Kendall whistled as she left her office and made her way towards the White Oak Barn. She had planned a bit of a race today, to see how her students would hold up under real pressure, although they would only be racing over the intermediate course, for the comfort of some of the lower-level riders. She pulled Pompeii out of his stall, then clipped him into the cross ties before she grabbed her grooming kit and set to cleaning the gelding's mostly-white coat of dust.

After grooming Pompeii and tacking him up, Kendall picked up her clipboard, which acted as a container for her stopwatch and pens, unclipped the gelding, and then led him into the sunshine. She laid the clipboard onto the hitching post, balancing it carefully, before she led the black leopard gelding to the mounting block. After pulling herself into the saddle, she asked Pompeii to move to the hitching post, where she picked up her clipboard, then pointed the gelding in the direction of the cross-country courses.

Once she had arrived, Kendall rode the gelding along the line of jumps once, checking that all were still where she remembered, then stopped the appaloosa in the field and waited for her class to arrive. As the students trickled in, she greeted them, then asked them to warm up their mounts for ten minutes before the class would fully begin.

[Becca Walsh]

When Becca arrived at Frye's stall to prepare him for their cross country class, the gelding pinned his ears at her immediately, expressing his displeasure at the company. She knew then that it was going to be an interesting lesson. When Frye was in a particularly bad mood, he had a lot more power, and if one could channel that, it would be good for a cross country class. Unfortunately, channeling Frye's power was not always the easiest of tasks. The cold weather had had the gelding in horrible moods lately with his cold back, and just the other day he'd set off bucking as soon as she'd gotten on. It was certainly not a regular occurrence, but Becca would be sure to be light on his back when she mounted today.

Grabbing her brushes from the tack room, she groomed him quickly, half at a time so that she could keep his rug on for as long as possible. The thoroughbred's mood would only worsen when he got colder. Once finished grooming him, she got his tack, and fastened on the boots she used for cross country that were easy to spray off. She used his hunter green pad and a fitted pad over it, before putting her saddle on and tightening the girth. Frye snaked his head around, ears pinned back, but Becca was ready and was able to get out of the way, smacking him. Putting on her helmet and winter gloves, she bridled Frye carefully, having to catch his nose so he couldn't raise his head out of her reach.

She led him out and mounted him with the mounting block before walking out to the cross country courses. Frye walked quickly and had his head raised high. She had to work to keep him at the walk, as the thoroughbred was nearly prancing. He knew his way to the cross country courses by now, and if there was one thing Frye liked, it was cross country. He pulled at the reins, and Becca was reminded of the bruise on her shoulder that she'd gotten from not being careful enough around him.

Greeting her instructor with a smile when she arrived, Becca followed the instructions and began to warm Frye up immediately. Moving to a good place, and began to trot him in large circles, letting him extend, and switching directions after a couple laps. Frye definitely got better once he was moving, and Becca cantered him a little in both directions too, but not too much to get him too strung out before the lesson.

[Erica Jane Morgan]

Erica quickly scurried along to the White Oak barn. She needed to get Ace ready for cross country class today before she would be considered late. Though that has never happened before, yet. She clipped the matching Grey lead rope to the gelding's halter. Leading him to cross ties and switching over, tying the ropes on either side. The horse was a bit energetic today as he bobbed his head away from the cross ties, but it was too late. The blonde was confused about what got the Friesian in a frisky mood, but just shrugged and started to run a brush through the horse's coat.

Once she finished she started to tack Ace up. As would any other riders would. She added on the saddle pad and smoothed it out onto the gelding's back, before fitting on the saddle. Making sure she made the right choice of notch to use, she then grabbed the bridle and slowly tried to get the horse to accept the bit. Ace gave a snort towards the piece that was suppose to go in his mouth. He shied away and pawed at the ground. The girl groaned. 'It had to be today that he has to be so picky?' She muttered in her mind, all frustrated before the Friesian was as annoyed as she was and finally took the bit in his mouth.

As they took a minute or two, she untied the cross ties and checked her mount to make sure everything was secure. She took hold of the reins and lead Ace out of the barn. As soon as they passed the entrance, the blonde halted the horse in its place and mounted him up. She hoped she wasn't late to class as she asked her mount to go into a smooth collected trot towards the Cross Country course.

It came to view that there was only one student that has arrived first, and obviously as well as the teacher. She opened the gate to the course and entered with the horse. Now asking the gelding to slow down into a medium walk over. She greeted the instructor before starting her warm up. She patted her horse's tense shoulders to relax. She can tell the horse wanted to just play around. She kept the horse calm as they walked around the arena. After one lap of walking, she asked for a trot for the next lap. Accelerating into different gaits for each separate lap, all the way up into a canter, and soon slowing down back to a walk for a few more laps. Doing a few more warm ups as she waited for other students to arrive.

[Avery Jacobs]

Avery was quite happy to end with the usual academic classes for the day as she’d been excited for her first cross country class after winter break. She’d missed the rush of excitement over the nature made jump and the view between her horse’s perked ears. Dev certainly had missed her as well, though she knew that he’d gotten very good care while she was away. Nearly skipping her haste to the barn, Avery took a calming breath before moving on in her usual confident, but quick strides instead. The last thing she needed was to look like a mouse scuttling around.

Upon entering the barn, a soft whinny responded to her footsteps. Avery let a grin pull up on her face. “Hi Dev.” The words were the closest thing Avery had ever come to a coo. Of course, the brunette never cooed. Never the one to waste time, the sixteen year old grabbed the gelding’s halter before slipping it on and leading the horse out of his stall. She shook her head slightly as she noticed one of the clips on the horse’s blankets had come undone. “I don’t know how you manage these things mister.” she chided gently before clipping him back in the cross ties.

To be optimistic, it was one less clip to undo to get the blanket off. Avery groomed him as extensively and carefully as she could before placing his new tack on with a large grin. The new saddle she’d gotten for Christmas from her aunt was quite lovely, and Avery couldn’t help but feel excited to use it. Putting on her helmet, Avery led Dev out and to the mounting block before vaulting on and riding over to the cross country course. The brunette raised a brow as she realized the girl she’d met earlier was in the class.

Avery offered her a curt smile before moving greeting the teacher. As usual, with equestrian related things, the brunette was rather serious and preceded on to immediately start warming up. She trotted the gelding around in circles, trying to calm his obvious excitement to go over cross country jumps. Finally, after trotting in both directions, Avery got the collected gait she was looking for and allowed him to go at a slow canter in both directions.

[Micheal 'Mike' Guiliford]

Mike walked over to the pastures to collect Staff for their cross country class. He purposely left the boys out so hopefully they would have burnt some energy off before one of them was set out on the course. Ike was gonna hang back for today and relax for the next cross country class since he rotated the boys. Mike slowly reached the gate while whistling to Whistle by Flo Rida. He called out to the horses and quickly both had trotted their way to the gate. He greeted both horses and handed a treat to Ike before walking his bay gelding back to the stables and promised to get Ike inside after his class.

When he reached Saff's stall he slipped off the gelding's stall and let him search around the stall before removing his blanket which he let sit over the stall door. The grooming process didn't take long since Saff had his blanket but his legs needed some work. The gelding began nibbling on a salt block while Mike finished up. Immediately afterwards he collected his tack and finished up his preparations. "Ready beast?" He grinned as they walked out out of the stables towards the course patting the gelding's neck.

He approached the others and gave the instructor a quick greeting before vaulting himself into the saddle. Saff shook his head as Mike straightened himself out and buckled his helmet. They walked until Mike believed Saff to be ready then they picked up the pace, trotting gracefully around. The Arabian snorted as he danced before moving to a smooth canter.