Feeling At Home [Riley]

[KATE!]

Chad rolled over and groaned as he heard his alarm go off at 7 AM. He hit the off button and rubbed his eyes. He wasn't much of a morning person, but he was beginning to get used to it. The thought of being able to ride, or possibly a lesson, later motivated him to get going even more. He swung his feet over the side of the bed and sat there for a moment. He finally got up and went into his bathroom and brushed his hair and his teeth. He then headed back into the bedroom and quickly threw on an old pair of faded blue jeans and a t-shirt before heading downstairs.

He smiled and said, "Good morning" to his parents who were at the table eating breakfast. He assumed his younger sister, Julie, was still asleep. He grabbed an apple from the fruit basket and kissed him mom good bye. They waved good bye as he walked out the door and into the garage where he was allowed to park his old Ford Ranger.

He climbed in the truck, smiling. He loved this truck. He had managed to save up enough money doing odd jobs since he was about 13 and his parents had matched what he had made and he was able to buy this for his 17th birthday. The truck roared to life and he backed out of the garage and headed to the barn, about 20 minutes away.

When he arrived, he parked his truck and headed into the barn. The horses all nickered a greeting to him, and he said good morning to each one as he went down the line and fed them all. After they were all fed he cleaned their water buckets and refilled them before starting on stalls.

He was finishing up one of the horse's stalls he liked and gave him a pat and said, "Just wait a little bit boy, and we'll go out for a ride..." He stood there petting him for another few moments until he heard footsteps coming into the barn and looked to see who it was.

[FREE ♥]

Riley was up bright and early, as usual. After her early morning run with Bear, Riley was ready to head to the stables. She loved the summer, because she could choose any activity she wanted. When school was in session, she had to squeeze running and practice and riding all into the spaces between classes and it got pretty hectic. In the summer she could sit back and relax, and hey! even have a social life. Avery was just like Riley, except her social life was even less than Riley's because she chose to hole up in her room and study all day. Not really, but that's what it seemed like to Riley.

Riley whistled a tune to herself as she got out of the car she had pooled with her sister and bought, slamming the door and opening the trunk, pulling out a tall stack of multicolored, freshly clean saddle pads. The colors ranged from neon yellow to hunter green, and patterns from flowers to cheetah print. You could tell a lot about someone from their saddle pads, and Riley certainly liked using bold colors and making a statement. She ceremoniously slammed the trunk as well, balancing her purse and keys in one hand and the stack of saddlepads in the other arm.

She walked quickly but smoothly into the barn, noting that Chad's car was parked out front. "Morning Chad!" She called as she entered the barn, making a beeline into the tack room to lighten her load. Or at least, switch it out. She put the stack of pads in the top shelf of her locker. She'd pick one or two to use for a week, and then throw them in the bottom of her locker until she ran out and had to do another load of laundry. She grabbed her saddle and bridle, selecting a lime green saddle pad to ride in. She exited the tack room, strolling over to Blackie's stall. Blackie was a tall black mare (named with little imagination) who had plenty of spirit, but also plenty of patience. Riley tended to have a bit of ADHD, so Blackie had gotten her share of riding around under a western saddle, trail riding, and even neck reining. Riley was the kind of girl that would expose a horse to new and potentially scary things all the time, turning the horses she leased into often bombproof packers.

Riley started leasing Blackie at the beginning of her senior year in high school, so they had been a team for a little over two years. Riley really enjoyed the mare, and kind of hoped to buy her. She slung the saddle over the stall door, strolling over to the stall Chad was in. "What's up, Chad?" Riley asked, leaning over the stall door and petting the horse in it.

Black Jack aka Blackie

[KATE!]

Chad smiled when he saw who is was. It was Riley. They had become fast friends when he had first started working/riding here. She was a great person to be around, and had actually helped him with his riding, since she rode a little bit of everything. He heard her voice and saw her walk into the tack room and hollered back, "Morning Riley!" He shook his head, thinking about the pile of saddle pads she had just brought it. She had the most expansive color collection he had ever seen, but hey, he didn't mind. He sighed a little before deciding that he should probably get back to work. He gave the horse, named Major, one last pat and then went and emptied the wheel barrow and brought back some fresh bedding. Cleaning stalls wasn't his favorite part of the job, but hey, he'd do anything to get a chance to ride. Besides, he wasn't the only one that did stalls, he did about half of them and another person usually came in to help too.

He dumped the new bedding into Major's stall and then headed onto the next one. He had become fairly quick at it. When he had first started it had taken him forever, but now he just did it and it didn't seem to take as long. He quickly started cleaning that stall, but then was distracted when he heard Riley's voice . He turned and looked at her, smiling as he said, "Not much....just trying to get these stalls done so that I can take Major out for a ride before I have to be back here to do the other chores..." He finished the stall and walked over to the door and said, "What about you? Are you taking Blackie out today?"

As he waited for her answer he pushed the stall door open and brought the wheel barrow out, glancing down the shedrow. He had about 5 more stalls left to do, and that would probably take him about an hour, so he should have plenty of time. Unintentionally he let his mind wander and started thinking about what he wanted to do with Major today. He was thinking about just a trail ride, but if he wanted to get good enough for the Olympics, maybe he should do some dressage work, or go out to the cross country course.

[FREE ♥]

She watched him as he worked. She had cleaned her fair share of stalls when she first got started here, because her parents weren't willing to pay anything until she had proven she was going to stick with it. Horses weren't cheap, even just leasing one. Now, they had picked up some of the bills so that she could stay in class and participate in sports all at the same time as riding. For her, it was the best possible deal. As long as she worked hard and kept her grades up, they were happy to help. She nodded, snapping off a piece of the carrot that always stuck out of her back pocket for the horse in the stall he was currently working on.

"Yep, we're going to school some jumps. She gets overenthusiastic when the jumps are over three feet." Riley rolled her eyes. Blackie was talented. But the placid manner she maintained with jumps three feet down was replaced by a raving lunatic when asked to jump higher courses. Not really, but Riley has a flair for exaggeration. Riley just needed to school her and make sure she kept hold of her brain. The mare needed to still be sensitive even when the jumps were harder and higher. Riley enjoyed working through issues, especially when she could come out on the other side triumphant.

"What are you planning on doing? We might join you if she calms herself down fairly quickly." It was always more fun to ride with someone else who could look at you objectively and give you pointers. When you're jumping, you can't think about your heels, legs, hands, upper body, the horse, and the next jump all at the same time. You had to schoolschoolschool to make sure that every part of your position was rock solid, and then you could focus on the jumps and the course and how exactly you were going to make it work. Dressage was tricky. The amount of control you needed plus the strength to do the movements made it hard to keep the right position. However, having been trained in Dressage before she was ever allowed to jump, Riley had a pretty solid seat. She might not have the patience for Dressage all the time, but she was pretty good at it.

[KATE!]

Chad looked at Riley a moment before nodding. He remembered her telling him before that Blackie got over excited about jumps, although he also knew that Riley was probably exaggerating, even if it was only a little. He said, "Sounds like it's going to be fun" He leaned against the outside of the stall for a moment, pondering. Major was usually pretty good over jumps, so Chad figured it would be a good ride for him to sharpen his skills, and he also figured that Major would be able to have some fun with it.

He finally said, "Well, if you give me a few minutes to finish up a few of these stalls, I was planning on taking Major out and doing some flat work and a course or two...I need the practice.." He knew he really didn't, that he was a pretty good rider for the experience he had, but hey, that was one of his faults. He never really had any confidence in himself, he was always doubting his ability.

He looked at the wheelbarrow and said, "Hold on, let me go dump this...I'll be right back.." He went and dumped the wheel barrow and got fresh bedding. He took it back and dumped it in the stall and quickly spread it out, glancing at his watch as he did so. He knew it didn't matter if he finished the stalls right now, but he normally liked to get his work done before he went riding. He looked at Major and suddenly a big smile came over his face and he made up his mind and said, You know....never mind about the stalls right now, I'll ride now with you before it gets to hot, if your sure you don't mind that is.."

[FREE ♥]

Riley smiled and nodded. "Definitely fun. But who would like riding if all our horses always did as asked?" For one, she would. But it also held no appeal. What would she be working for? The physical strength to do the movements and the jumps? Riding would turn into just another sport where you pit your strength and skill against someone else. Riley already had two of those, she didn't need to add another. She nodded as he offered to come to them when he was done. "Kay. We'll be warming up and starting to work as soon as I get her tacked up."

Riley walked over to Blackie's stall, feeding a little carrot to the tall mare. Riley wasn't very tall, so she didn't actually need a tall mare like Blackie, but once you got into higher competition, the shorter horses couldn't keep up with the taller horses. Riley was a wiry girl, and had more strength than taller girls trying to ride, so she wasn't really concerned. She grinned as Chad amended his statement, grabbing a curry brush from her grooming box to start on Blackie. "I knew you couldn't resist my charms!" she replied with her best evil laugh. "Of course I don't mind. If nothing else, it's always safer to have someone around while you ride. But I want you to watch and tell me what I do wrong." It was easy to slip into lazy habits on smaller jumps with a talented horse like Blackie, but those teensy habits could turn into disasters over bigger jumps.

Riley quickly but thoroughly groomed Blackie, taking the time to curry extra hard in the mare's favorite spots. Her hands expertly groomed while her thoughts wandered. It was weird that Avery was dating before Riley in college. Riley had always been the flirty type, while Avery had always retreated into her shell around guys, and even just other people for that matter. Riley shook her head, taking one last swipe with the dandy brush before grabbing the saddle pad. She settled it on the mare's back, admiring the stark contrast between Blackie's coat and the bright color. The saddle was also black, sandwiching the bright color between two black holes. Riley tightened the girth and then ran (walked quickly, she didn't want to startle any horses) back to the tack room to grab Blackie's boots. Boots weren't quite as inexpensive as saddlepads, so Riley had one pair of all purpose black ones, which she grabbed now, and a set of purple, the color she had chosen for Blackie's halter and such things like that.

Riley finished tacking up Blackie and put on her helmet. She led the mare out of her stall, waving at Chad. "We'll be warming up!" The mare took this opportunity to snatch at the carrot still protruding from Riley's back pocket, munching happily on it around the bit. "Did you have to do that, Blackie? Seriously? Now I'll have to clean orange off of the bit and you'll be flinging little bits of carrot all over the arena." Her voice floated back to Chad as she got farther away into the indoor arena. She mounted with the use of a mounting block and set out around the edge of the arena, doing a couple stretches with Blackie and doing circles and turns. Then she moved up to a trot, repeating the lap, adding leg yields and shortening and lengthening strides. As she started to briefly school at the canter, she started looking for Chad. He should have had enough time, at least by now, to get Major tacked up and at least beginning to warm up.

ooc- sorry, went a little in depth there. xD

[KATE!]

Chad's blues eyes sparkled as he laughed at what Riley said. He knew that even if all the horses behaved perfectly, the two of them would still be riding. It would still be fun, just not as much of a challenge he guessed. Then again, he hadn't ridden too many horses who acted up. Major was as steady as they came. Chad just didn't have the confidence in himself. He knew he was pretty decent, but he wished he could be as fearless and as confident as Riley always seemed to be.

Chad raised his eyebrows at her playfully and said, "Oh is that what you called that? Charm?" He knew she would know he was just messing around. It was something they had always done since they had hit it off soon after he started working and taking lessons here. He nodded at the next thing she said and replied, "Yah I guess your right, but you need to tell me if I'm doing something wrong too..deal?" He took the wheelbarrow and moved it outside, so it wouldn't be in the way, and then grabbed some brushes and headed back to Major's stall.

The bay horse nickered at Chad and the blonde couldn't help but smile. This was one of the only horses at the barn that the young man had a connection with. He gave the horse a quick pat before putting him in the cross ties. He quickly brushed him, but made sure to be thorough about it. After he brushed him he got Major's tack off the rack with his name on it and made sure he had everything.

He put the saddle on and did up the girth before putting Major's boots on. Chad then grabbed his helmet and put it on before putting the bridle on. It was then that he heard Riley's voice and saw her wave as she walked out of the barn. "Alright, I should be there soon." He double checked his boots and saddle before heading out to the arena.

Riley was already warming Blackie up, so Chad quickly checked his girth before swinging easily into the saddle. Major stood still until Chad applied gentle pressure with his legs, signaling the bay to walk off. After a lap or two at a walk he asked Major for a trot and the horse gave a little head toss before doing what was asked of him. Chad laughed and said, "Major's a little full of himself today.."