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Post by Kristen Caroll on Oct 7, 2011 19:07:14 GMT -5
Kristen Caroll walked along a path with a Hanoverian gelding walking on behind her. Flier's ears perked as they approached the jumping area. "Wow, it looks bigger then the picture." Kristen smiled before patting Flier again on his neck.
The rider is new to the academy and still not used to the huge school. Kristen sighed softly as she snapped her chin strap, to her helmet, together as she and Flier walked onto the jumping area. Flier's ears perked as he scanned the vast arena and sighed loudly as Kristen did the rounds of checking the girth, bridle and the martingale that helps keep the horse's head down. After a few minute check, Kristen then quickly heaved herself into the English saddle.
Kristen sighed as she softly nudged the gelding into a slow walk. After a 5 minute walk, she then tapped her heel and clucked to get Flier into a fast trot. The young woman smiled as she posted along with the steps to the slender Hanoverian gelding who started to snort as he started on his workout. About 3 times each direction, near the fence, she finally felt that Flier is ready for some jumps. Smooching loudly and nudging the gelding with her heels, Flier shook his head as he started into a slow canter.
Kristen easily turned the gelding in full circle to the right before choosing a jump. The jump is about 2 feet high and fairly decorative and smiled as they went at it. "One and a two." she whispered as she timed the bounds before leaning into the flying mane as Flier soared over the jump. Landing a bit strangely, the gelding snorted as he got back in stride. "Okay, that needs to be tried again." the young woman said, before turning Flier around at the trot. Facing the same jump, she urged into his slow canter and soared over the jump. This time, Flier landed a bit better then last time.
(Is martingale the right word? or is it another name for English riding?)
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Post by Alyssa Schueler on Oct 7, 2011 20:58:38 GMT -5
The young rider walked down the barn aisle with her horse's tack. She stopped at the stall belonging to Arti, setting the saddle on the ground. She slid open the stall door and grabbed the halter and leadrope, securing the horse to the stall while she groomed and tacked. It took no more than ten minutes total and soon enough, Alyssa was ready to ride her warmblood gelding. "Okay, Arti. I know you're not a jumper, but I want to see what the jumper ring is like and Misty has already been ridden. I promise I won't make you jump over three-six."
Ali donned her helmet and grabbed a stick before leading her horse out towards the jumper ring. Ali had always been a hunter and equitation rider. That was her comfort zone. She hoped that the ring would be empty, but as was the case with many things, there was already another rider. Ali mounted her bay horse and walked forward, tracking in the same direction as the girl was jumping. Ali thought that the horse looked good enough but the rider was a little less steady in the saddle.The German girl warmed up her horse with lateral movements, lead changes, and a couple figure-eights. Alyssa cantered around the rail until she decided which jumps she was going to take. The girl settled on the angle line consisting of a vertical, a four stride line, and an oxer. "Angle line!"
She approached the line on a steady beat, quietly counting 'one, two, one, two...' and rode her horse to the bottom of the jump and allowing the horse to come towards her for the two point. She settled back over her leg to get out of her horse's way. She pressed through the line to make the four, but chipped in the last stride making it four and a half. Still, that small error wasn't going to disrupt her jumping and neatly cleared the jump. She asked her horse for a lead change and got it after a quick half change. The next obvious jump was the single riviera. "Riviera!" She rode the line towards the single jump, half halting to prevent the gelding from getting too strung out. He left long and was cantering on the wrong lead for a couple strides until Alyssa corrected it. Next was the outside line, two verticals to be jumped in eight and Ali wanted to practice rollbacks. "Outside line!" She pulled her horse together and kept him cantering in front of her leg. Ali was impressed with Articulate's performance. She wasn't trying to show off at all, just practice. She met the first jump in perfect stride and marched down the line in eight, floating over the second jump and preparing for the rollback. She straightened her horse out for jumping the in backwards and left the ground at the bottom of the fence. The girl prepared for the lead change and the horse switched leads effortlessly through the corner. The next choice was the jump the other girl had jumped a couple times. "Single angle!" Articulate was getting comfortable and let his stride open up, carrying him to the jump, but left long despite Ali's efforts to bring him back to her. It was a definite and obvious fault, but Alyssa's performance made it look intentional.
The girl brought her horse back to a working trot, patting him on the neck and whispering praises. "Good boy, Arti. This is best you've done in awhile." Ali brought her horse down to a walk and gave him a long rein to rest for a bit before she tried some more courses. She had pretty much ignored the other girl's presence except to call out her intentions. When riding, it was just Alyssa and her mount.
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Post by Kristen Caroll on Oct 7, 2011 23:09:07 GMT -5
Kristen took the outer edge of the arena at a canter to move to another section of the jumps. Flier snorted loudly as they made way to a 3 and half foot tall jump. "One and two. One and two." Kristen counted the strides before she went into two point and leaned forward slightly as Flier jumped and arched over the jump. They landed safely which made Kristen beam happily. She then went to the next which is two in a row and nudged Flier into a faster gait and easily flew over those. Flier landed safely but jerked his head slightly as they got closer to Alyssa.
"Easy, there." Kristen said to Flier who snorted loudly before easily lashing his tail as they slowed to a matching trot to Arti's gait. "Hello." Kristen said politely as she reined in Flier who nodded his head at the pressure. "My name is Kristen." the young woman said to Alyssa with a friendly voice. She then loosened to the rein to a slow stride walk. Kristen patted Flier and gave him kind words which made his ears move to catch them. He then perked his ears at Arti as his brown eyes shined softly with interest.
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Post by Alyssa Schueler on Oct 7, 2011 23:24:28 GMT -5
The other rider introduced herself a Kristen. Alyssa made a mental note but appeared not to have heard. She wasn't trying to be disrepectful, but she wasn't sure as to how Articulate was going to react with his new horse even if he was rather bomb proof. Several strides after the other girl had slowed down, Alyssa brought Arti down to a walk. She patted him lavishly, pleased with the performance. Quietly, she walked him over towards the girl. "Sorry for have to ignore you for a bit. I really needed to focus on relaxing my horse. Anyways, I'm Alyssa Schueler and this here is Articulate. Who's your horse?" Arti snorted, but otherwise remained still under his rider. The horse showed only the mildest of interst in the other horse.
Ali looked out at the arena, quietly planning a new course to ride. Hey, maybe they could turn it into a friendly competition just to get practice. Riviera away, outside line toward, angle line away, single toward, and finishing with a single angle away. "Hey, I was planning on doing this alone, but I won't object to your presence. I'm working with Arti on courses, want to join us? Your horse looks pretty good over the jumps. How about the riviera away from home, the outside line in eight towards home, back to the angle line away in four, the single on the quarterline towards home, and a strong finish with the single angle away from home."
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Post by Kristen Caroll on Oct 9, 2011 23:23:47 GMT -5
Kristen watched the girl walk away and stopped Flier to give him a round of polite pats and rubs on his neck. His head with a blaze nodded happily as he sighed when he felt the polite and pats from a kind hand. Kristen looked up as Alyssa came back. She smiled politely and nodded before saying.
"Its alright, I know that horses needs some relaxing time after a good round of cooling down. Nice to meet you Alyssa." Kristen nodded her head in a polite greeting. The girl on her Hanoverian gelding paused as she realized that she forgot to introduce her horse. "Oh, this is Flying through the Clouds, but his barn name is Flier." she said as her gelding perked his ears as he heard his name. His brown eyes blinked softly before reaching a little closer to Arti with a polite snuff though his noise.
Kristen then heard into Alyssa's plan. "Sounds good, Alyssa. Do yo want to go first or should I start the round?" Kristen asked as Flier leaned down to scratch his nose on a foreleg. Kristen smiled again before rubbing the gelding's neck again softly.
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Post by Alyssa Schueler on Oct 10, 2011 9:38:24 GMT -5
"Its alright, I know that horses needs some relaxing time after a good round of cooling down. Nice to meet you Alyssa. Oh, this is Flying through the Clouds, but his barn name is Flier."
Flier, nice name. Alyssa wondered if Flier was Kristen's only horse or if she had one or two more. Ali had Arti and Misty here and she was aware that some girls had four or five horses. Even when the new horse tried to reach over and aniff Articulate, the gelding didn't seem to mind. Alyssa kept a steady hold on the reins just in case something went wrong. The girl decided that if Flier didn't like Arti, getting them separated would be the best action to take quickly. She crossed the reins and held them with one hand so that she could pet her horse's shoulder. Arti was a good horse most of the time.
"Sounds good, Alyssa. Do yo want to go first or should I start the round?"
"I can start. Oh, if you feel confident enough, would you mind critiquing my position? There's a show coming up and I want to look my best. However, I bet that the famous riders are going to win hands down. They have the best horses." Alyssa turned her horse to that they were tracking left and picked up a trot. She trotted once around the arena to remind her horse that now was the time for work. Near the in-gate, Ali kicked for the canter and circled once, setting the pace that she hped t maintain throughout the course.
Approaching the first jump, Ali let his stride increase slightly, but held it once it was big enough. He cantered to the bottom of the gate before jumping over it, his knees squared and his head down. Alyssa balanced in her stirrups, just barely moving her hands forward on the neck. Landing, she brought him back to her and rode down the long side of the arena, preparing to turn for the outside line. She asked her horse to open up his stride some and he responded likewise. They chipped the first jump of the line, but her horse's stride was still fairly large and only required a bit of pressing to make it in a perfect eight. A stride before the out and Ali felt herself creeping up into two-point and was almost on Arti's neck by the time he actually jumped the vertical. The girl kept the momentum through the short end of the arena before turning down onto the line for the angle jumps. Knowing that her horse would get a bit racey, Alyssa held her horse back sme so that he wouldn't enter the line on a massive stride. She moved into two point just as her horse came back to her and used an automatic release over the jump versus a short crest release. In the line, Arti wanted to move forward, but with pressure from the leg to maintain impulsion and the reins to prevent him from speeding up, Alyssa was left thinking nothing other than, Hold, hold, hold, hold--. The horse launched himself at the oxer and Alyssa was left behind some. She still made it into two point, but it was far less graceful than intended. The pair landed and Ali stepped into her left stirrup and kicked for the lead change. The gelding switched and Alyssa was turning for the single on the quarterline. She met the jump in perfect stride and her two point was flawless. Alyssa sat back slightly, but still kept a light seat in the saddle through the turn and down to the final jump. She let her horse open up some and march down to the base of the jump, only moving into two point and an automatic release when her horse rocked back into her hand.She stayed balance and off her gelding's neck. Land and press with the right leg for the lead change. She circled at the far end of the arena and brought her horse back to a working trot and then returned to Kristen at the walk.
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