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[Aria Lockhart]

Aria sighed as she walked into the large, empty ring with Disney. She was only holding him by his halter, and she kept him close to her body. He was prancing around, but he didn't dare do anything that could injure himself or Aria. In her left hand, Aria held a long, royal blue, longe line. It matched Disney's halter. Everything of her horses' matched. Halters, lead ropes, saddle pads, wraps, polos, and even earplugs! She liked having specific colors for her horses, and it was very easy to tell the differences between each of her horses' gear.

As soon as they were both securely in the ring, Aria clapped the longe line onto Disney's halter and closed the gate behind them. Using the end of the longe line and a quick command of "go", she successfully shooed Disney away from her. She got the Thoroughbred gelding trotting and made sure she was always square to him, always following his every move with her body. When he tried to slow to a walk, she flicked the end of the longe line toward him and had him canter. When she wanted him to stop and change directions, she flicked the longe line in front of him and they started in the other direction.

He was strong, and very excited. He bucked quite a few times at the canter, tossing his head and -once- almost pulling Aria off her feet. But finally, he stretched his neck down and calmed down. Aria smiled, had him go for a few rounds, and then had him slow to a walk and brought him to her. She unclasped the longe line from his halter and rolled it up, leaving about two feet unrolled. She flicked the end of the line at him and told him to go. This time, she took a square stance and moved with him every second, never taking her eyes off of his head. She kept him moving with the occasionaly flick of the lead rope, and had him change directions with a step toward him to the right or to the left, depending on which way he was going.

First signal. His inside ear flicked toward her. He was paying attention to her, listening to her. But she kept silent, urging him on with her body and movements.

Second signal. Five minutes later, he slowed his canter pace, and Aria allowed him to, but urged him to keep moving if he tried to stop. No skipping stops, now.

Third signal. About five minutes later, Disney stretched his head down, almost touching the dusty sand in the corral. He was asking her to let him stop. She let him, dropping her longe line and removing all commanding thoughts from her head.

He stopped, and she turned around, facing toward the barn. She heard his footfalls coming toward her, and she held her breath. Soon she felt his hot breath on her neck, nibbling at her shoulder. She exhaled and smiled. Aria turned around very slowly, and without looking him in the eye, she reached up and rubbed his forehead with the palm of her hand. She then turned back aroung and started walking around the ring. Wherever she went, he went. Aria was restraining herself from crying out in excitement. No matter how many times she did this, knowing that Disney wanted to be with her, wanted to follow her around and trusted her always made her feel amazing. She didn't know how long this would last before she needed to do another one, but she didn't worry about that.

Finally Aria reached the middle and turned around. Disney lowered his head to her and she wrapped her arms around the middle of his face, kissing his forehead gently. "Good boy," she murmured. "Good boy."