Learning to Love [open]

[Bree]

Micheal moved through the stables. One objective lay in the midst of her mind, one objective. Paladin was getting better now, enough to try riding. Nothing too hard for the healing horse but enough to start training in need be and to start conditioning if not. Walking down the aisle, Micheal didn't stop to glance at the other horses. Thoughts clouded her thought, thoughts of what would be the best things to do. If need be she wouldn't ride today.

Grabbing her tack items from the tack room she lumbered over to the stall of the buckskin tobiano. His coat had a crisp shine to it, the result of good nutrition.
"Well this is it."
The stallion's placid eyes turned from his hay to look lazily at the girl standing at his door.
"That's right you lazy lump."
She untwisted the lead line from it's neat knot and stood to see if the horse would walk up to her. One second of flared nostrils was all she got in return. Micheal sighed and let herself into the stall. She was so used to Piceous, a horse that obeyed her every whim and every askance.

Pushing the horse's neck up she tried to get him to pick his head up from his steady eating. The horse stole a few extra mouthfuls before slowly picking his head up.
"Go ahead take your sweet time."
The horse fought against her to put his head back down. Struggling keep it up, she clucked sending him into a back up.
"I didn't mean in literally. I was being sarcastic."
The horse snorted as Micheal blew a stray strand of hair from her face.
"Pain."
,she murmured slipping the bridle on his head and latching it.

After hooking the lead line to the halter she led the warmblood out of his stall, picking up the tack on her way. A quick brush later she was heading out toward the Merry-Go-Round Pen for a lesson. Who was going to teach who was yet to be decided.

The tack jingled as it bounced on her hip as she led the stallion into the pen.
"Now what?" ,she sighed flinging the saddle over the top bar. Paladin shied back pulling her along with him.
Crap, you're not Piceous.
She walked slowly back up to him, after his little party, to comfort the agitated horse.
"This is going to be fun isn't it?"


OOC: If I don't get any replies I'll move this to the training logs.

[femalefred]

Ella didn't, sadly, have time to work Duke properly today. They way she figured, it'd be ok. They'd done a good hour and a half dressage session yesterday, he'd leg yielded to the trot - not prettily, but fairly smoothly and they'd got across from the three quarter line by B - and she'd managed to get him to extend his canter without going crazy on both leads. Maybe at the weekend she'd try to put it together into a miniature 'test', see if he could hold it together for longer than a few movements before getting a reward. Hopefully.

That aside, though, she had been intending to lunge him, and as someone else was working in the round pen the merry go round was the next best thing. The gelding was walking close to her shoulder, sticking his nose into her hair and huffing gently now and then and in general being a bit too affectionate and not really well mannered enough, but the young woman could forgive him this for now. It was only when she saw the saddle slung over the gate to the arena that she realized that this wasn't an option either. Hearing Micheal's voice, though, Ella carried on to the gate, the coils of the lunge line she was leading Duke on - bad practice, she knew, but it wasn't like he'd behave a whole bunch better on a leadrope - slapping gently against her legs lightly as she stopped.

"Need a hand at all? I was just gonna lunge this one for half an hour but seeing as this and the round pen are both being used we can wait a bit and I can help out if you need."

Duke's response to seeing another horse was as eager as ever, and he stepped forward, unintentionally knocking Ella in the shoulder and calling happily over to the tobiano stallion. They hadn't met before, seeing as Duke's only pasture mate was Dazzle and his stall was about as far away from the stallion stalls as you could get, and that made things even more exciting.

"Calm down, brute," Ella said with a roll of her eyes. "I'll get rid of this one in a second, of course."

[Bree]

Micheal looked back out the sound of a familiar voice. It must be Ella. The thought crossed her mind about their last unhappy leaving. She would have guessed that Ella wouldn't have wanted to see her for a while after her un-thankful approach to her new saddle. Again she was lost in her thoughts with out a response.
"I'm not sure what I need right now."
,she smirked with a half-grimace smile. At Duke's call Paladin looked back his tail flicking up and down fast as he tried to back up.
"Knock it off."
,she warned, staring at the horse. She figured that once Din had some groceries in him he wouldn't always be his sweet, lovable, hurting self; she was right.
"I'm still not sure if he's started yet or not."
A question mark formed with her eye-brows as she watched the horse dancing on the end of the lead line. While she'd never started a horse before she did have some practice with problem horses when she first started to ride.

Micheal reached out for the horse to smell her hand as she stepped closer to him. His nose quivered slightly but he stood still. Walking up to his neck, she began rubbing along his back, putting extra pressure on him.

[femalefred]

Ella glanced over the now almost-healthy looking horse stood inside the pen. He didn't seem as keen to get to know Duke as Duke was to get to know him, and he certainly didn't seem too well acquainted with basic ground manners on a line. The young gelding at her own side snorted softly, and turned to look at Ella with either reproach or sadness that Paladin hadn't called back, she wasn't quite sure.

"Hmm.. well I can give you a hand with whatever you need, even if it's just me hanging around out here and watching how he reacts. I find it's often easier to know what's going on in a lesson or training if someone else tells you how you're both going," she said, reaching up and giving Duke a gentle scratch on his velvety muzzle. The dapple exhaled heavily at this and stuck his nose into her hair, nibbling at it gently.

"Stop that," the young woman murmured, smiling and ducking out of the way of the gelding before turning back to look at Micheal and Din again. "It's pretty hard to tell from just looking. I'd personally treat him as if he hasn't been started. It's not bad to re-learn stuff he's forgotten," she added as the seventeen year old began rubbing along the stallion's back.[/size]

[Bree]

Micheal smiled softly. She certainly might need the help later on. Of course his ground training came first. The obnoxious stallion pranced around with the air of one to good for the ground he walked on. If anything needed not be around a barn, an obnoxious stallion was it. Although he'd never shown any real affection for Micheal she was sure it had to be lying around in him somewhere.
"Thanks, I think he needs to go back to basics."
,she answered back. Returning her full attention back to the stallion, she twisted her body the make him walk in a circle which Micheal took as an opportunity to walk up to him. He sniffed her hand and snorted, looking back again at the other horse behind "his" fence.
"Should have named you Prig."
,she whispered to the horse in a loving manner. Okay, let's go. She grabbed the lead-line with a firm hand and led him around the pen. Each outburst or any other manner of rebellion deserved one good 360 turn. Giving up was not an option for the stallion. He pranced beside her with every muscle in his body. Micheal ran through her head what could be making him so energized. His feed was good, he hadn't been on any high energy oats. He'd had sufficient pasture time. Micheal sighed, her arms started to grow numb from the constant pulling.