it's the BiG times now;;{open

[Braelyn Wolf]

The air was warm and refreshing that Saturday afternoon as the young girl jumped off of her bicycle and pushed it under a tree. With a smile on her face, she walked briskly up to the gelding barn where her horse was stabled. She saw his jet black face immediately, as there were few equines that shared his features. You could see both his Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse traits in his face with the large expressive eyes, alert ears, and flared nostrils, and this is what Braelyn loved about her horse. "Hey buddy, ready for some jumping?" she asked her gelding, slipping the red nylon halter over his head and tying the white cotton lead rope to the ring in his stall. She held out her hand, a baked treat laying in it, and the gelding carefully munched it right up. With a smile, she undid the buckles on his red turnout/stable sheet and hung it up on his stall door. Soon she began grooming him, though it didn't take very long due to the fact that she had brushed him the previous day. After a few minutes spent on hoof picking and mane brushing, Corky was ready and tacked up with his Pessoa tack set. On his legs however were plain red polo wraps. After she strapped her Charles Owens helmet on, she and her gelding made their way to the jumping ring.

The first thing that Braelyn did was set the jumps to her desired height. They would be working on equitation fo rhunters that day, so the jumps were rather small, but still rather scary to get that factor in. Of course nothing was that scary due to the fact that both the rider and the horse were new to the stable, so everything already had a scare factor. The gelding stood patiently ground tied until his rider came back, pulled down the stirrups, and climbed up into the saddle. She nudged him with her spurs to get some energy into him, asking for a walk.

Once Corky felt limbered up, she asked him for a forward trot. Braelyn pushed him up with her legs and kept a steady contact with the reins that connected to his full cheek Dr. Bristol bit. She kept him in decent head set, but not dressage-worthy. That was for a different day. Today it was all about jumping, so Brae pointed the Appendix towards a grid of four poles on the ground to get some bounce into his stride. He lifted his feet well, but dragged a back foot on the last one. She shook her head, but it wasn't something to go back over. She bent into a two point and cued for a canter which he picked up rather lazily. "Come on boy, pick up the pace," she said, and urged him on with her leg and seat aids. He snorted and swished his tail but did as he was told. She looked around, wondering why nobody else was in the arena.

[BeLuna]

Leia was not a jumper. She had tried a couple times and was okay at it, but it wasn't her 'thing'. Affie and her were a well-oiled machine designed for barrel-racing and competitive trail riding, or just pleasure riding. They worked well together and performed with a passion and precision that most pairs of horse and rider could never hope to achieve. She hardly had to tap his sides to tell him to go. Slight shifts in her weight changed his speed and a mere twitch of the reins changed his direction. He had learned how to listen to his rider, had no need for a bit or spurs, and anything she asked for, he gave. As long as she kept treating him with respect as any good horse deserves, he would keep loving her and working his hardest with her.

They were not a jumping pair, but the jumping ring happened to be between the stables and the Western Ring. Leia and Affie passed it many times going between from the barrel-racing area to his stall and even out to the trails. Today, the dynamic duo was heading at a leisurely pace towards the trails, but they had to pass the Jumping Ring. Affie didn't normally like jumpers. For some reason, he seemed to know a jumping horse from a non-jumping horse and treated the jumping horses like they were inferior. He got all uppity and stepped as high as possible, showing off his stuff because he knew they would never have the speed and stamina he did. The black and white stallion today, however, stopped just on the edges of the Jumping Ring, outside the gates of course, and would not budge.

"Affie, you infernal mule, get moving!" Leia said affectionately with a little laugh. She lightly tapped his sides, like she always did to get him moving, but he didn't move.

Now no one knows why or how animals do or know the things they do. This particular day, Affie seemed to sense that no matter in the horse was a jumper, it was the jumper's rider who needed to meet Leia. He stood in place, obstinately, until finally he nickered in the gelding's direction. "Affie! Don't distract them!" Leia scolded, although her tone was far from angry. It was more amused than anything. "Sorry about him, he's just a little excited today!" she called to the rider in the ring, being a total hypocrite about distracting them.

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