Post by . Kyo Murasaki on Oct 14, 2008 18:05:31 GMT -5
dead is the new alive.
life's only living rival.
a casket built for two.
give in.
you play the game.
you'll never win.
Without much warning, Kyo released a loud yawn, wordlessly expressing his feelings on his early arrival to the barn. In his mind, he was all revved up to ride, but his body just didn't want to move. So, without much surprise, he used the excuse of his horse not being fed as an excuse to simply sit in the chestnut mare's stall as she munched contently on her bermuda hay and alfalfa pellets. Of course many sensible people would take into account the fact that the ground was an extremely dangerous place for a human to be sitting, but the arrogant, narcissistic Kyo thought he was out of harm's way. In fact, that was his view on everything. Like the majority of teenagers, he just didn't think anything bad would happen to him. But, of course, you had to expect that. Especially from Kyo.
Shaking his head slowly, Kyo rose from the shavings, instantly brushing the dirt off of the worn jeans he wore. Kyo sighed audibly as his mare slowly lifted her head to see what he wanted, her ears tilting back as he reached for the leather halter he had brought into the stall. "Sorry, Emily, but you've had enough; time to work." Kyo yawned once more as he gently placed the halter onto the mare's head, clipping the plain, nylon lead to it and led her out of the stall, in the direction of cross ties.
To tell you the truth, Kyo wasn't a fan of cross ties or tying a horse to a pole, especially after seeing at least two horses flip over with cross ties and pull back on a pole. But he didn't hesitate to tie his own horse; no, this wasn't due to his view on being invinsible, instead he just needed to cross tie the horse. First, there wasn't a pole to tie him to and he didn't feel like tacking her up in her stall. With one more exasperated sigh, Kyo stopped Emily and clipper the nearest set of cross ties onto her leather halter, patting her neck when she was securely clipped in. "You gonna be good today, Miss Emily?" Kyo asked his mare rhetorically, giving a light smile as she simply stared back at him. That was the great thing about horses; they were forever more oblivious about what you had to say. But, as long as you said anything at all, they loved you for it. No matter what exactly it was that you said, they still loved you for it.
In a matter of moments, Kyo disappeared into the nearest tack room and returned with his grooming box. His brushing process was quick when he was just working his horses; it was effective, though not overly so. So today, instead of brushign every little spec of dirt off the chestnut mare, Kyo simply burshed her down, quickly but effectively, and picked out her feet before disappearing into the tack room once again. This time, in exchange for the grooming box he had previously retrieved, he reappeared with a plain, leather surcingle in hand.
"Oh, pipe down," Kyo mumbled to the mare as she released a sharp snort in response to the leather surcingle as it was placed on her back. He slipped the crooper under the mare's tail before tightening the surcingle, sighing lightly as the mare flicked her tail back in an exasperated manner. Yes, he understood that she hated being worked on the ground, but Kyo wasn't wearing jods and, therefor, didn't feel like slipping around the whole ride on his cut back saddle. And, anyway, it was easier to successfully school his horse from the ground. After all, he could do the exact same thing while ground driving that he could undersaddle without his horse carrying him around.
Kyo couldn't help but break into a smile as his mare tossed her head in response to him exiting the tack room, driving bridle, long lines, and gloves in hand. He shoved the leather gloves into his baggy, faded jeans' pockets before moving over to Emily, tying the lines to the surcingle with a shoe string before moving to put the rein-less bridle onto her head. "Ok, let's go," Kyo said as he clipped one line on his horse's bit, grabbing the lunge whip on his way out. Before Kyo reached the round pen, which was, luckily for him, empty, Kyo untied the lines and let them drop to the ground, snapping the opposite rein onto the right side of Emily's bridle. Kyo stopped the mare outside of the pen, slipping on his gloves before parking the mare out and opening the gate. He asked for a walk by clicking his tongue, ground driving the mare into the pen before closing the gate behind them. He continued to walk her on a generally light line, walking about 10 feet away from her hind quarters, reins in hand. "Hmmm, this should be interesting, huh Emily?"
After several minutes of simply walking on a loose line, Kyo picked up the reins, clucking to the horse to get her attention. "Trot," he said, popping the lunge whip when she decided to simply pace instead of pick up a trot. The mare gave several bucks, which Kyo responded to with leaning back on the lines, abruptly backing the horse up. "Awww, knock it off, Emily; you know this stuff. All I'm asking for is a trot. Nothing fancy yet." Kyo sighed lightly, giving a little slack on the lines when the mare picked up a decent trot. Even though the trot was flat, he decided to live with it, well, at least until they were done warming up.
Kyo pulled the horse back to a walk and exclaimed "Hup!" As the horse turned, Kyo flipped the lines over her back, stepping over the dragging lines so that they were on his right side (you always want the lines on your inside so that if the horse takes off, you don't get tangled in them) and switching the hand his lunge whip was in. "Trot," he asked for once again, this time asking the mare for a frame, which wasn't given that easily. Instead of raising her head and dropping her nose, the mare got dumped over with her nose between her chest in more of a hunter frame. Kyo flicked the lunge whip once, which increased the mare's impulsion and, ultimately, raised her head.
Kyo clucked to Emily before dropping the lines and the whip, approaching her head with a pat on the neck. The mare picked up her ears and snorted audibly at the new horse, which led to Kyo parking her out to avoid the mare moving and getting tangled in the lines. Without further ado, he snapped an over-check to the top of the mare's bridle, sighing lightly to himself. "You know, you did this to yourself; I was just gonna work you without one." He moved back behind the horse, picked up the lines and clucked to her, satisfied with the mare's current head set. "Yeah, that's better, Emily."
word count - one thousand one hundred seventy five
eat that <3[/color][/font]
