Taking him for a spin [open] - CLOSED

[femalefred]

Ella was excited. Hope had told her that, while it was fine for her to take Duke into beginner classes for this show season, she wanted her to ride in the advanced classes herself, and she'd offered her the chance to ride Music, the big blue roan warmblood. He was a fantastic horse, she'd seen as much from watching him in lessons and when other people were working him, and now it was her first time riding the gelding.

True, he wasn't as affectionate as Duke when she'd been grooming him and tacking him up, but then she'd never really been in close contact with him before, and she was pretty sure they'd develop a bond in the end. It was definitely nice to be able to get him into an outline without the endless effort it required to get her own gelding's head down, and he was sensitive enough to her aids to keep her on her toes a little.

Warming up, she began walking the gelding in first large, 20m circles, then 10m, and then asking him to trot the same, changing rein three times so as not to get him one sided. When asking him for canter, she couldn't resist but attempt a flying change on the diagonal - which the gelding performed perfectly.

"You're just absolutely amazing, aren't you boy?" the young woman asked, grinning widely and giving him and enthusiastic pat on the neck.

Drawing him down to a trot again, she turned to look at the jumps that'd been left out. As an employee at the barn it irritated her that someone had been so inconsiderate to leave them out, but then again she was secretly glad she didn't have to drag the wings and poles out from the store cupboard herself.

"Shall we see if you're that pretty over jumps then?"

[DJ]

Hope's boots clicked down the cement aisle quickly towards the indoor.

She stopped outside the wooden gate and poked her head in to peer around.

"Hello," Hope called to the rider and large Warmblood under her. "Looking good," she added as she pulled open the gate, somewhat slowly trying to avoid the loud, squeaking noise as much as possible.

"He's looking awesome," Hope added, shifting her eyes around the large course set up with almost all of the jumps in the storage room spread out around the ring, shocked at the time Ella must have taken setting everything up. There were at least 12 fences, looking correctly strided and decorated almost for a show with the liverpool and flowers boxes adding color to each fence.

[femalefred]

Music, unlike Duke, did not flinch at the noise of the gate opening and closing, and simply flicked his ears towards Hope for a moment as Ella trotted him down the long side. She'd been thinking about the fences as they were set, and wondering if it was worth dismounting and resetting them so they were a little larger - at the moment the biggest looked to be about 3', and she knew the gelding schooled at least a foot higher - when Hope came in, and she grinned at the other woman before bringing her mount down to a walk.

"I've gotta say, this horse is the best purchase you've ever made. He's fantastic! I'm kinda glad whoever was in here last left their course set up. I was gonna take him around."

[DJ]

Hope nodded and smirked. "Wait til you ride him on the cross-country course." Her eyes widened a bit in delight. The gelding was an absolute great ride.

"Oh." She paused for a moment. "I thought you set it up. I'm going to need to have to tell everyone to be suer to clean up the indoor when they're even though it's posted on the rules." She frowned a bit, never happy to tell someone something they should already know.

"Well, is he warmed up yet?" Hope was excited to watch the gelding move over the jumps, as she'd only ridden him, never seen him.

[femalefred]

Ella laughed, nodding and giving the gelding a free rein as they rounded towards Hope. He barely took it, almost seeming to want to keep himself in a nice tidy frame. "Oh, I know. I saw, and he looks amazing! You know, I'm even looking forward to doing dressage work with him. He pops himself into a frame all nice and neatly and you don't even have to try!" she exclaimed, drawing the gelding up beneath her a little more and taking back his head.

"I was surprised to see this much stuff out, I've gotta say. I think I saw Timmy heading out with... is it Talent, his gelding? Probably forgot to take it all down. It's a nice neat little course," she added, halting Music and glancing over the course. None of it looked too complex, unless you took it in an odd way and it was all very pretty. It looked like whoever'd been here had actually matched the poles to the wings, almost as though it was a show course.

"I haven't jumped him yet, but otherwise he's all set."

[DJ]

"I know." Hope smiled at the gelding, wanting to do what most horses despised. "He's certainly flashy also," wating to see him in the show ring.

"Ahh. Alrighty. Thanks." Hope crinkled her nose a bit, telling herself she'd have to go find Timmy later and remind him nicely to unset the courses in the indoor.

"Awesome!" Hope stood next to a fence, the safest place to be in a jump course, and watched Ella and Music flow together, looking fantastic.

[femalefred]

"Yup, he is. But I'm happy with flashy," she replied, grinning again. The gelding was watching Hope now, apparently with neither fascination nor trepidation but really just for something to do while he was stood still.

"I'll just take him round and see how we do," Ella called to Hope as she nudged Music forwards. He seemed eager to take up a trot, and his head rose a little from its perfect position in excitement, his nostrils flaring happily as the young woman asked him to canter. Like everything about the gelding, it was a tidy canter and as they moved toward the first fence - a 2' vertical - his pace remained the same until Ella gave him a little squeeze to ask him to move forwards a little more. The jump wasn't exactly tidy when the pair went over, but that just seemed to be because he was jumping in a somewhat ugly fashion, and perhaps because Ella had been a fraction behind.

She turned him towards a bounce fence made up of a vertical and an oxer. The oxer was probably the biggest fence on the course, and because it was a bounce it was absolutely crucial that she got the striding right. Music seemed a little more eager this time and his pace quickened, for the first time ignoring Ella's signal to ask him to collect. The second time she did, he paid attention, but now his strides were a little off and she was pretty certain they would touch the oxer, if not knock it completely. Gathering himself, Music flew easily over the vertical, and to Ella's surprise hurled himself into the air, clearing the oxer in a manner reminiscent of Duke when he wasn't entirely sure about a fence - at least a foot above it and as fast as possible.

Gasping as they landed, Ella drew the gelding in, taking him down to a trot before looking over at Hope in astonishment. "Well, he sure knows how to correct mistakes!"

[DJ]

Hope watched the two take off over the first fence, a small vertical. Although Music was excited, Ella seemed to follow easily besides a bit of restriction in her elbows.

"Nice job," Hope called as the continued to a bounce.

Hope watched Music intently, watching the gelding perk up, happily bounding towards the fence. He leaped over it a bit early, but cleared the jump with ease, although the early jump set him off stride for the oxer. Saving himself, and Ella, he launched himself over the oxer, almost immediately after the vertical, not using the space for one stride he may have been able to slip in.

Hope eyes popped and her jaw dropped as the possible disaster ended quite gracefully with the gelding's hooves hitting the sand after the oxer, cantering off.

"Wow." Hope was speechless at the gelding's performance, and Ella did a great job hanging on.

[femalefred]

Ella shook her head, sitting to Music's energetic trot and bringing him to a walk. "This horse is actually a genius, Hope," she said, bringing him around past the other woman before asking him to pick up a trot again.

"I'll try that bounce again in a minute, but I'm gonna take him over the liverpool and that triple first," she said, gesturing towards the three closely spaced fences. She was slightly shaken by the gelding's response to the bounce, and because of that she circled him, asking him to canter and keeping the circle as she brought it down from a working canter to a collected canter. The gelding had his head down and his neck well arched as she broke the circle to move towards the liverpool. The jump hadn't been set particularly high, and Music popped over it neatly - probably the tidiest jump so far.

As they moved towards the triple, Ella felt herself tense a little and forced herself to relax. If she were riding Duke he'd already have responded to that tension, stuck his head up and probably missed a stride somewhere, but luckily Music was a much more forgiving mount and continued at the same steady pace as before. He cleared the first two parts of the triple neatly, but on the third - probably due to her mild surprise and relief that there hadn't been another hurling of the pair of them into the air - Ella managed to ask him to jump a stride too early. For a second it looked as though they'd clear it, but even Music wasn't clever enough to keep from knocking the fence.

"Oh well."

[DJ]

"Nice fence," Hope called as Music and Ella glided over the liverpool, the horses didn't bat an eye at the large blue tarp-assembled piece.

Onto the triple they went, cantering smoothly, exactly what a hunter looked like, even though the horse had probably never shown hunters.

Hope counted backwards, the strides to the jump. "Three, two, one, up!" She murmured to herself, watching the horse clear the fence, using the small space large enough for one stride to the next fence and popping over that one as well, cleanly.

Hope watched the gelding and began counting two strides between the second and third fence, but the gelding took a half stride for the second stride and it seemed Ella asked a bit too soon over the last fence, Music leapt over, trying to save himself, but could not accomplish it this time, as the large wooden pole clanked off of the gelding's front cannons, the only part of the cannon not protected by his boots, and landing with a soft thunk onto the sand footing of the indoor.

Hope jogged over to replace the pole onto the cups. "It's alright," Hope told Ella, seeming a bit disappointed, not at herself, or the horse, but just because the pole fell. "I know it's hard to jump combinations, especially triples, but try your best to recover as quickly as possible after each jump, and collect and prepare yourself for the next fence, as soon as you land from the one before that."

Hope motioned with her body, the descending of the jump, pulling her body up while collecting invisible reins quickly, before throwing her body forward again, her hands extened in front of her. She didn't want to make it look easy, because that was one of the many things it wasn't, but she wanted to show Ella at least what to try to do.

"Still on the jumper course, larger combos are one of the only things I have trouble with, but keep practicing, we can also put you over some gymnastics, and you'll improve greatly and it will get so much easier."

She smiled and scanned the course.

"Back to the bounce?"

[femalefred]

Ella nodded, bringing Music down to a walk again and again giving him a free rein. She wouldn't have let Duke have this much control over what was going on, but hey, she appeared to be riding a genius horse who wasn't going to bolt over a plastic bag, so she was pretty certain it'd be alright. She needed to work on her combination fences, she knew that, and Hope was giving her good advice. It was so frustrating, when she was riding cross country she knew what was going on and paid more attention to both her own riding and the horse. Showjumping was all over so quickly, more often than not in less than 2 minutes, that she often found it a little difficult to concentrate.

"I think I get what you mean. I always have trouble with combination fences as well. A single one's alright, because it's just there, but when there's more than one I'm much more likely to freak out," she said, smiling grimly. "Helps having a horse that doesn't freak out if you do though," she added, giving Music another gentle pat on the neck.

At the suggestion of the bounce, she gathered her reins up once again and urged the gelding to a canter. Keeping in mind what Hope had said and the messy jump they'd made last time, she kept it to a tidy working canter, and mentally counted the strides as they approached the vertical first part. This was a much cleaner jump, and the gelding actually took the one stride there was room for before the oxer. Again, he threw himself into the air a lot higher than needed, but in a much tidier way, and this time Ella was neither left behind nor frightened.

[DJ]

"That's looking better," Hope called.

"The gymnastics should also help with the over-jumping and rushing a bit, although neither are very bad compared to others I've seen." Hope smiled a bit, wondering if Ella wanted to do any more, or if she was done for the day.

"Well, he's certainly going nice today," she added, admiring the handsome, pleasant moving equine.

[femalefred]

"I thought it would," she called back, grinning a bit. She kept the gelding at a working canter this time, circling him so that he wouldn't lose concentration and thinking about what to do next. She'd intended to take him over the entire course, and then maybe put them all up a hole on the wings just for practice, but doing that seemed a little much for today.

"I was going to take him round the course once or twice, see if we can both keep our concentration up for long enough," she said, grinning wryly. "Got any ideas for a course that'd help us out, or should I just go for it?"

[DJ]

"Well," Hope scanned the course. "Start with the small vertical over there, make a turn to that oxer, jump the liver pool, onto the triple, over that vertical, and you can take it from there."

Although it sounded like a large list of jumps, there were no sharp turns, difficult angles, or awkward stridings. It was all pretty straightforward with simple lines.

Hope smiled and watched Ella steer Music toward the first fence.

[femalefred]

Ella nodded silently and turned Music to the first fence Hope had pointed to. It was a neat little jump, the only distracting thing being a flower box that Music seemed to take no objection to whatsoever, and hopped over without a fuss. The oxer was slightly larger and a tad more daunting, but again the pair took it without a problem. They were working together much better now than when they'd first taken the bounce, and Ella didn't feel the need to keep the horse's gait as controlled as when they'd first taken the liverpool and the triple.
Again, the tarpaulin structure didn't cause them a problem, and Ella was determined not to cause them to knock the final element of the triple this time. As they approached, she mentally counted out the strides and took the first two parts of the fence neatly. The third fence, though it was better than the previous time, still unnerved her a little and while she didn't urge Music to jump too early this time, she managed to get a little bit left behind. The gelding didn't touch the fence, but now their line for the next vertical was a tiny bit off, which Ella corrected after a few strides.
After the vertical there were 2 more oxers and the bounce to take, and it would probably be best to take the smaller oxer first, then the bounce, then finally the larger of the two remaining oxers. Thinking about that, rather than the fence, meant that Ella was caught a little off guard and again got a tad left behind, though less so than for the final element of the triple. Determined not to fall behind the intelligent horse, she turned towards the smaller oxer which Music leapt over enthusiastically. He seemed to rather enjoy overjumping, and his pace quickened as they approached the bounce. He obviously recognised this as a fun spot to overjump, and Ella had to half-halt him to get him to steady his canter to one suitable for the closely set pair of fences. The steadier pace seemed to surprise both of them, and instead of overjumping, Music actually knocked the second rail of the fence with his left hind hoof. He almost appeared surprised when there came the sound of the pole falling behind them, and slowed his canter to one with an extremely bouncy, very short stride. Urging him forwards, Ella was smiling. Sure, they'd knocked the oxer down, but he hadn't leapt insanely high over it, and she didn't even mind when he overjumped the final oxer.
"Good boy! That was excellent," she enthused, letting the gelding canter to the end of the arena before she took him down to a trot and turned back towards Hope.