Early Birds (open!)

[rouge]

It was almost five in the morning, yet Caitlin O'Connell was quite awake, and so was her horse. Rose walked in steadily and quietly, ready to get to work. She didn't know as much dressage as Cait's stallion Supernova, but she was much more trustworthy. Caitlin shut the gate behidn them and swung up onto the dapple gray mare. The girl was dressed in her pink pinstriped black breeches and a pink tank top with a black sweatshirt pulled down over it. Though the day would grow to be warm, the morning still had it's midnight chill hanging about. When asked to, Rose started walking on the rail.

Though it was pitch-black and unlikely that it was allowed to be riding at that hour, the lights still shone down onto the arenas like they always did, bathing the rings in light. Rose at first consumed herself in looking around and observing her surroundings. Caitlin allowed her horse to do this, wanting to make sure she would not spook later in their ride. Once the Trakehner licked her lips slowly and lowered her head, now uninterested in the world outside the ring, Caitlin smiled and gathered her reins, asking the mare to lower her poll into a good head set. "That's my girl," she said softly. Rose snorted softly, and picked up a trot when her rider asked for it.

Once they were maintaining a good trot, Caitlin asked for a roughly fifteen meter circle. She pushed the mare out with her right leg, but made sure her outside shoulder didn't bulge out by keeping a good contact in the outside rein. "Good girl, now let's try something else," she said and asked for the beginning of a figure-eight.

[carajean]

After returning to her room and grabbing a tracksuit, a pair of socks and her paddock boots, Cara-Jean hurried down to the Pandora Barn where her stallion had spent the night.

"Have a good sleep, hun?" She asked quietly so not to disturb Taquilla as she let herself into his stall and was happy that it wasn't messed up from a restless night. "There's a good boy." She whispered as he walked up to her and thrust his nose trustingly into her chest. "Shall we go for a walk?" She removed his web halter and replaced it with the rope halter she was holding. "Come on." She clicked her tongue and led the stallion out of the stall, leaving a note that she would come and clean it out later.

As they walked toward the arena's she placed her hand on the stallion's neck as he spooked at everything around them. "Easy baby." She soothed. "I'm still here." At the sound of her voice Vendercross rested his nose on her shoulder as they walked along. Taking the long way to the arena, the girl just worked on soothing the horse, and making sure he was happy with everything around them. Once she was happy that he seemed happy, she took the direct route to the arena.

Her attention was caught by the movement of a horse in the arena. "Looks like someone's beaten us to it, hun." She said as she paused at the gate to watch horse and rider work their way around the ring. "Wonder if she'll let us use half the ring?"

[rouge]

As they completed the second figure-eight, Caitlin asked the mare for a canter. Soon the dapple gray mare and her rider were pulling away from the figure-eight pattern and onto the rail with a right lead canter. "Good girl, you're doing really well," she said and gave the horse a brief pat on the shoulder. Caitlin pushed her heels down and tried to keep her bottom in the saddle, rolling her hips with the mare's stride. She kept her hands steady and her shoulders square as she turned the mare into a twenty meter circle. "Good, that was nice," the Irish girl said, knowing Rose responded well to praise.

As they downshifted to a walk and Caitlin let the mare onto a loose rein, a girl and a horse entered. The stallion looked a bit worked up as they entered, but the girl seemed to have a spell over him that calmed him down well. Caitlin respected this, so decided she could shorten her circuit to leave them half of the ring or so. "I'll stay out of your way down here," the black-haired girl called out, with a shadow of a smile on her face. Rose snorted and tossed her head, looking to the other horse. She wasn't that outgoing of a horse, but liked to know who entered her arena. "We'll meet him when they're done," Caitlin said and laughed softly before gathering up the horse and reversing her with a turn on the forehand.

[carajean]

Cara-Jean gave a shost of a smile in thanks. "We only need a 12 metre circle." She told the rider. "So we will only use the very end to still allow the two of you pleanty of room." She led the stallion down to the far end of the arena and asked him to stand.

Turning around to assess the horse, she took in his clamped tail and flared nostrils with a frown. "We need to get you to relax before I ask you to do anthing else." She said as she stepped up to his side and began to work TTouch circles down his neck and back. Once she had done both sides of him, Vendercross relaxed his neck and let out a deep rumbly sigh.

"Now it's time to work." The young girl said as she flicked the end of the rope she was holding to get the stallion;s attention. "Good boy." she said as his head shot up and he suddenly looked alert again. She then placed her hand just behind his elbow to ask for a flex and with her other hand on the girth area, asked for a hindquarter yeild. "Good boy." She praised the horse as he crossed one hind leg over the other.

She continued to work the horse though his moves on both sides, hind and forequarter yeilds, reinbacks, sidepasses and so forth, beofre she asked him to stop again and rewarded him with some more TTouch.

[rouge]

As they finished warming up, Caitlin slowed her horse down to a slow walk on a loose rein. The mare tossed her head and swung her head around to look at her rider, wondering what they would do next. It had been quite a short work-out compared to what they normally did. "I'll set up a few jumps," Caitlin told the horse as she patted her neck. The horse, named Rose, snorted and halted when she was told to as her rider dismounted and set up five jumps at about two foot six inches. Rose stood quietly, not feeling the need to run away like some horses did. Once the jumps were set, the girl walked back over to the equine.

As she mounted up, Caitlin noticed the girl who had entered before doing some work with her own horse, except not in quite the same way. She kept her horse standing on the loose rein as she watched the other pair work. It interested Caitlin, and she called over to them. "What's that you're doing with your horse?" she asked, purely interested. She walked Rose over a little closer to get a better look.

[carajean]

Cara-Jean was working on getting the stallion to back out of her personal space. This would be the hardest lesson as she had asked him tom place his trust in her and he felt safest when he was right up close. Holding the rope in one hand, she pointed the index finger of that hand at a space behind the stallion, when he didn't move, she twisted her wrist, still when the stallion wouldn't move she moved her hand to her chest as though stabbing herself, the last phase was to "send a snake down the rope", which ment to crack the rope and make the horse move. She didn't want to do this, but each phase had to be played out until her horse got the idea of the game. As she cracked the rope, Vendercross leapt backwards and stood at a distance snorting in surprise at his trusted friend.

"Good boy." She said as she welcomed him to come back into her bubble again, which he didn't even hesitate in doing. "Shall we try that again?" She pointed her finger at the horse, and only had to begin twisting her wrist when the stallion ran backwards a few steps. "Who's a clever boy?" She said as she welcomed him back to her. the next time, all she had to do was point and the stallion ran backwards. He gave a huge snort as he started to enjoy the game they were playing.

"Come here, my sweet." She said with a smile. When the stallion came back up to her, she noticed that the other girl and her horse had come closer, as had Vendercross. She placed her hand on the stallion's nose as he flattened his ears. "It's okay, pet." She told him. "I'm here and you are safe." The stallion nuzzled her and pricked up his ears again. "Vendercross and I are getting to know each other." She told the other girl. "I'm getting him to yeild from a feel. Once he's back to his normal self, I'll teach him how to yeild to a suggestion."

Her hand was working small circles on the horse's neck. "What I'm doing now is called TTouch, it's a way to help horse's unstress and relax. He had a rough time yesterday that I'm still trying to get to the bottom of." She gave the girl a slight smile. "Where are my manners today? I am Cara-Jean."