A Lesson [Damien]

[D E M O N //]

okay, Demon had no ideas for a topic title...shut up.

Removing the key from his car, a tall figure stepped out of the rather expensive red car slamming the door uncaringly behind him. He didn't care about it. Even if it was probably the most expensive thing he owned, he couldn't care less. Actually, he'd enjoy totaling it just for the look on the face of the person who bought it from him. He hated the car, and if he had another way to get to the stable he wouldn't drive it.

But unfortunately, he didn't. And getting to the stable in a timely fashion was worth more then his pride, or what ever he had left of it, which wasn't much. But walking would take longer then speeding way above the speed limit, and would leave him less time i the comforting aroma of the thing he loved so much.

True, he had not been here long, but any place with horses was good enough for him. A place he had never been that had but a single horse, was better then even his home. Well, that didn't say much, because Daniel wasn't particularly fond of hi house, which would explain why he had moved out before he was legally an adult. Which might explain why his fathers name was on the lease.

Walking over to a stall the beast with in turned around to stick his but in the males face as soon as he stopped in front of the door. However, he was singing a different tune as soon as the hand came out of his coat pocket revealing a couple sugar cube. Quickly, the thoroughbred turned around and snatched them up from his owners grasp as if he was afraid that the teen would change his mind.

"I'll take you out later, I promise," he said stroking the thoroughbreds nose. "I have to teach some idiot the correct way to put on a saddle." As soon as it became clear that he was not either going out or getting more food the thoroughbred turned back away from the teen and kicked out at the door of his stall sending an echoing thud threw out the barn. Chuckling under his breath the teen walked over to a dapple grey's stall. He didn't know who this Damien was, and there for he had no way of recognizing him, so therefore he figured this was the best way of finding him.

[femalefred]

Damien had been told when he'd phoned up again to reorganise his lesson that he would be riding Nell and that a guy named Daniel would be teaching him. As the last time he was here, his sister was dropping him off, and, for once, she wasn't panicking about being on time. The sixteen year old was getting increasingly nervous as they drove at what he considered a ridiculously lesiurely pace to the stable, his sister looking at him sidelong and giggling occasionally.

After what felt like half an hour, but was probably nearer to fifteen minutes, they finally arrived. "I'll pick you up in about an hour and a half. Enjoy, kid," the young woman called out the window as her younger brother fairly leapt from the passenger seat. He didn't bother waving to her as she drove off, but headed straight towards the main large barn. He'd been told the horse's stall number, and it only took a moment to work out where 28 was. Daniel - he assumed that the guy, who could only've been a year or two older than himself was his instructor, anyway - was already there, looking nonchalant and painfully cooler than Damien would ever be.

"Sorry I'm late."

[D E M O N //]

"Don't tell me, tell her." said the older teen nodding at the mare in the stall. "When working with horses, or any animal really, routine is one of the most important things to develop. It creates a bond of trust, even if it's minimal." He said patting the mare's neck. When riding, the most important thing to have, was trust. If you didn't have that, your horse had to reason to listen to you. At this level, riding a school horse who probably wasn't sure who he was, it probably didn't matter, but in Daniel's opinion it also showed a lack of dedication.

"Do you know how to put this on and attach a horse to cross ties?" he said holding out the horse's halter and leadrope. He wasn't sure if he did, but he hopes so. He didn't know how much experiance this guy had around horses. Daniel disliked crossties, but figured if he was going to learn to tack up, he was probably better off with more room in the aisle then cramped in the stall.

[femalefred]

Damien nodded, silently and took the halter. He'd been told how to put a halter on when he'd been riding at camp, and the research he'd done before even organising a lesson had taught him how to safely tie a horse. He didn't mean to be rude or awkward, but his social centre had shut down a little bit now. The horse in the stall didn't look particularly pleased about the whole situation either, she was standing back from the door and twitching her tail a tad nervously.

"Shall I put it on her then?" he asked, a little quietly.

When Daniel nodded the younger boy carefully slid back the bolt at the top of the stall door and stepped inside. Nell looked at him, again with slight nervousness, but she stretched her neck out to the boy, sniffing at his shoulder and then the halter. She looked expectant, and quietly lowered her head when he stepped a little closer to her, and didn't fuss as he slid the halter over her head and buckled the poll strap. The mare's tail was still twitching nervously, and she shifted away a little when she felt Damien take the leadrope, watching him carefully.

"Where now?"

[D E M O N //]

"Lead her over to these cross ties over here." he said calmly walking over and holding onto one of the ropes watching to make sure that Damien was doing it right. Okay, so Daniel never led Dose the right way, but it was an important thing to know, particularly with horses that you didn't know. Although he wasn't necessarily being very helpful he wanted to get an idea of how much he actually knew.

After all, he knew it would be annoying to tell him things that he already did know that were as easy as the correct way to lead a horse, and Daniel didn't exactly like extended conversations, though of course, he would give instruction where it was needed. But as he had never worked with Damien before, as long as no one was i ndanger, he'd prefer to observe where he stood now.

[femalefred]

Damien nodded quietly again. Both having ridden at camp and his research led him to stand on the mare's left, with one hand under her chin and the other further down the rope. Nell turned to look at the boy again, and almost appeared to sigh as he stepped forward. She wasn't the best horse in the world at being led apparently, as, though she moved off quite happily she seemed to be walking a little nervously, her ears flicking around and shifted away from the teenager as soon as they were out of the stall.

A little confused by the big horse's slight skittishness, Damien mumured quietly, trying to calm her down, which didn't have any noticable effect to the uneducated, but a horseman might've noticed her wide eyes narrowing a little again. When they reached the cross ties, the boy hitched her with a tiny bit of trouble, but it didn't take him long and the mare now stood, still with her ears flicking all over the place and shifting her weight from hoof to hoof. At least she wasn't skittering about.

[D E M O N //]

Daniel watched as the sixteen-year-old led the mare forward. He didn't really know all that much about the school horses yet, but anyone could see that this paticular one was more then slightly skittish. Nodding an almost undetectable nod of approval as he began talking to the mare to calm him down, once he had her clipped to the cross ties he handed him a curry comb.

"Remember, always curry in circular motions," he said, still unsure of exactly how much this boy knew. Stepping forward he stroked the mare's neck trying to calm her down a little a began telling her that it was okay. reaching into his pocket he pulled out a carrot, and breaking it into peices fed it to her. Her ears pricked forward as she muched on the morsel.

[femalefred]

"Uh. I haven't groomed a horse before," Damien said, a little nervously and avoiding eye contact with the instructor. Daniel clearly expected him to know what currying was, which he didn't, and had handed him an item which he assumed was the agent of the currying process, but he wasn't sure what to do now. "Do I just run it across her in circles? Like this?" the teenager asked, turning to face the horse and made a small circular motion on her shoulder

Nell seemed to be calming down a little, though she almost flinched when Damien laid a hand on her. The scent and sound of a carrot being broken into pieces, however, was certainly distraction enough for the heavy-set mare, so much that she was totally ignoring the boy stood beside her.

[D E M O N //]

Sighing, Daniel prevented himself from rolling his eyes because that would be uncecicerily rude. Though he acted like it sometimes, he wasn't a mean person, and he figured ignorance was not a crime. "Sort of," he said taking the brush back from him. "This is a curry comb, you want to push, not to hard, and move it like this." He said demonstrating starting on her shoulder. Usually he'd start on his horse's neck, but he could tell that she was already slightly nervous and he didn't want to agonize that any more then her had to. "This is to loosen any dirt or shedding hairs that might be stuck in her fur."

Daniel thought it was kind of sad that he didn't know how to groom a horse. Personally, he felt, that no one should be allowed on a horse until they knew how to take care of them. Well, not enough to a point that they could be incharge of their care, but enough to be able to groom and tack up. Handing Damien back the currycomb he watched what he did continuing to stroke the grey's neck.

[femalefred]

Oookay. So, this guy didn't really appreciate his ignorance. That was reassuring. Stepping back from the horse's side, Damien watched the brush, rather than Daniel, and nodded silently. It was a sensible thing to do, by the looks of it. Get the horse clean and remove all the loose hair so they didn't get matted.

"Ok. So I do this all over her?" he asked when his teacher handed back the curry comb. Moving back close to the mare's side he carried on currying where Daniel had left off. Nell was relaxing slightly now, she'd stopped shifting about at least, even if her ears were still twitching about. Being groomed wasn't something she had issues with, apparently.

[D E M O N //]

"No, you do not curry the legs, or head of your horse," he said calmly watching Damien. Well, at least he was doing it right, he seemed to be picking it up rather quickly. Not that currying was particularly difficult. "Usually, I wouldn't, but today I think that you should skip her neck because she already seems a little jumpy, so go do her other side, and don't walk behind her."

Getting out the hard brush Daniel quickly went over her side starting at her neck and quickly covering her whole body. He figured that this would save time as Damien was currently currying her other side, and then he would show him what to do when he was done. Talking to the mare he noticed that she seemed to have calmed down a little.

[femalefred]

"Ok," he said, nodding to Daniel's first comment and carrying on across the mare's stomach, back and haunches. When he said to switch over to the other side the sixteen year old nodded. When he walked up to her head to step around her, Nell looked a little nervously at the boy and stepped backwards, her head raising a little.

"It's ok," Damien said softly, a little surprised that she reacted so much and reaching up a hand to gently stroke her neck. That calmed her a little, but the big horse still watched him warily as he moved around to start on her right side, working the curry comb through her coat. It was done fairly quickly, and he'd noticed that Daniel was working her over with a soft looking brush.

"Do we need to do anything else?"

[D E M O N //]

Placing a hand on her rump, Daniel spoke outload to the mare and walkd behind her practically touching her tail. Though probably not the smartest idea with such a jumpy horse, Daniel always had complete trust in any horse he rode, which was oly good to a certain extend. Who knew how many times this had gotten him injured.

"Your going to brush her with this flicking the dirt away at the end," he said. He couldn't really think of how to word this descriptively so instead e demonstrated once more before handing the brush to his fellow to let him try.

sorry, short.

[femalefred]

"Ok," he replied, taking the brush and handing the curry comb back to Daniel, not sure what else to do with it. He had been surprised to see Daniel walking behind the mare, nervy as she was, but she seemed to barely object to him moving behind her, her only acknowledgement of it apparently a slight glance backwards.

She was definitely calming down a little bit, and she didn't shiver or even react really when Damien began to brush her, flicking the brush a little at the end of each fairly short stroke, removing what little dirt there was in her nearly white coat.

[D E M O N //]

Daniel nodded his approval as he took back both brushes. "Usually I'd have you do it, but as you've probably notice, she's pretty jumpy, so if it's okay with you to just watch for now." He said not really waiting for an answer. Though it had been fraised like a question, but it had never really intended it as one. Running his hand down her neck and leg he lifted up her leg. She resisted slightly not fully comfotorble and even more skittish not having all four feet on the ground.

"Though she can't feel most of it, a horse is sensitive in their frog which is this little triangle in the middle of her hoof, you have to be careful not to touch that." he set deftly scraping out all dirt and rocks with the pick. There wasn't much in therre to begin with. "It's important to pick your horse's hoves because if you don't they can get a rock stuck in their shoe and go lame." he said finishing the two back hooves. "Ready to try?"