Welcome to Hickstead, home to both Seven Oak Stables, and Blue Acre - two rival stables. Both offer opportunities for their clients to reach the highest level of excellence. Each stable differs from the other, so choose wisely and never forget, loyalty is everything... Meanwhile as the stables battle it out, there's trouble brewing at the university. Be careful, if you don't pick a side you may get caught in the cross-fire...
This is an chilled out rpg with a super friendly and relaxed atmosphere! Remember to sign up with your characters full name in all caps and don't forget to do your claims! Thank you and Welcome, we've been established since 10th March 2009 but unfortunately have had to close guest view of our boards due to multiple sites ripping off our hard work, such a shame! Come chat to us in Discord before joining if you like!.
Janie let out a yawn. Even though she was used to getting up early, she didn’t sleep well last night. It was because she was nervous but also excited about this workshop. Some stunt riders were coming and Janie was the first person to sign up. She hadn’t bothered looking at the list after that, but it sounded like a few people were going to be there.
Not wanting to take up anyone, Janie woke up and took the bus to the barn. The early morning summer felt good on the skin. It appeared that she was the first one there, but it was early. Not wanting to just sit and read, Janie, figured she could at least stretch while reading.
Finding some of the seating under some shade, Janie warmed up a bit with the ballet exercises she could do near the seats. Once her body felt warmed up, Janie slid into a split, her hips fair and square. She told herself she would read a few pages before switching sides.
Phoenix was excited about the day - a little nervous but she was more enjoying the idea of the day than worried. She knew her stuff and she was confident that Clay did too, together the two of them could at least give the customers a taste of things with trick riding and stunt riding. They weren't going to do anything too complicated, the idea was just to give them a demonstration of the range of things you could get up to, and then talk a bit about how to get into it, where you could go with it, what kind of horse you needed and a general open discussion. Then time to get the clients a little go at it themselves, so they could have a try and see how they felt. It was nothing like horse riding; if anything generally people who didn't ride and came from dancing or gymnastics were better at learning to trick ride as you didn't actually ride.
She had been up since the crack of dawn, making sure that both her horses were looking their best for the day as they would both be making an appearance, along with having her tack sparkling clean and preparing the arena with Clay. She hadn't wanted to miss anything or have him do everything, but together they'd made a decent set up. As the customers began to arrive she directed them to the temporary stands set up to take a seat. Teake, her Freisian, she had already lead out and was ready to go, standing politely in the arena with his head lowered as he waited. "Hey everyone! Thanks for coming," She gave a clap of her hands to bring the attention to them as they started. "My name's Phoenix, and I've been stunt and trick riding for almost ten years now." She glanced to Clay to let him introduce himself.
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He felt a nervous excitement in his body, the sort that came with the thought of being in front of people. It was nothing new to him - it came to him whenever he was on set of movies or TV shows. It just meant that he was feeling good. Though the thought of actually talking to a crowd was something else - he usually wasn't one for it, only talking when spoken to, remaining a shadow on the sidelines until he was needed but he wasn't going to try and shun the chance to try this out. He was glad that he wasn't alone, having Phoenix with him helped to stem those nerves enough that he wasn't a mess in the arena.
He'd been awake since stupid o'clock and gotten down to the barn early to give Ben his breakfast so he could sit and digest it before he was asked to work for the day. And now with the sun warming his shoulders, he sat on Ben's back and lightly massaged his neck. The gelding was still young and green and whilst they'd come a long way, this was his first crowd and Clay didn't want to leave him turned free and feel abandoned to all the strangeness.
"Hey everyone! Thanks for coming," She gave a clap of her hands to bring the attention to them as they started. "My name's Phoenix, and I've been stunt and trick riding for almost ten years now."
He sat a little bit straighter as he caught Phe's look and smiled, offering a brief wave as he spoke, "Hello, my name is Clayton, and I'm a professional stunt and trick rider for the past eight years."
It didn’t take long for people to start showing up and the instructors introducing themselves. The people, Phoenix and Clay, weren’t people that Janie had known. She didn’t quite pay attention to those that were in her field, which was odd for her. Maybe it was because it wasn’t something she could see herself doing for a job, but obviously – it looked like a field she could get into.
Janie looked around and it looked like she was one of the youngest people there. It made her nervous, but she was there to learn. Janie didn’t have the time to worry, she needed to be a sponge.
The line of introductions came to Janie at last. It took her a moment to register what was happening until someone nudged her that it was her turn. A bit embarrassed, Janie finally introduced herself. “Hi! I’m Janie. I’m an intermediate stunt rider. I have a background in ballet and aerial arts. I’ve been stunting for two years.”
She was pleased with the crowd that had turned up, it showed some promise for the popularity of lessons and that hopefully they might get quite a lot of interest in going forward with it. She felt that trick riding and liberty had risen over the years amongst the equestrians and she wanted to just continue to encourage it. "Hello, my name is Clayton, and I'm a professional stunt and trick rider for the past eight years." She smiled as Clay spoke, casting an eye over the group and picking out the excitement in some faces, the trepidation in others.
The group of people was small enough that Phe figured it wouldn't be too much of an issue for them to introduce themselves too. Her and Clay had talked about whether to do that or not, as it was a clinic and not a proper lesson, not wanting to put people on the spot as some were unlikely to have done anything of this caliber before. "Why don't we go around and introduce ourselves, get to know each other a little." She suggested, glancing to Clay then the students as they started mentioning their names and what kind of experience they had. Phe smiled warmly and nodded to each in a welcoming manner.
"That's great! It's lovely to meet all of you. So today is just kind of a 'taster day' I suppose, to show off what kind of things you can look to achieve and then we'll show you all something you can have a go at doing." It was going to be on the barrel horse but she hoped they'd enjoy having a go all the same. "You don't have to come from a horse background to be good at trick riding - if anything, it actually helps if you're not. It might sound a bit backward, but trick riding isn't like riding, so you almost have to unlearn some things to trick ride. Think of it as gymnastics on horse back. Liberty is different of course-" She looked to Clay to hand the reins over to him to talk.
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Clayton smiled at the gathered crowd, nodding as their own little introductions were done. It was always nice to get the crowd involved from the get go rather than addressing them as if they were in a classroom.
He watched Phe from the corner of his eye, before briefly checking in on Janie, making sure she was doing ok before stretching his arms over his head.
"Entirely right. Liberty is a class all its own, more about the horses forward movement over any actual tricks. It's not something you absolutely need to get into Trick riding or even Stunt riding, but it can provide some benefits. Liberty can be just as fun if you aren't looking to be jumping and tumbling from horse back, and it's an extension of your connection with your horse," he made a gesture to his own horse tied on the far rail, "Jax over there is learning liberty to help keep him supple and ready for when I do all manner of tricks. Having a good bond with your horse should come first beside your gymnastics, wouldn't you agree Janie?"
He looked over to her, handing her the stage to have her say on the matter.
“Oh, well..” Why was she called out so fast? She could all eyes plaster onto her as she stood there to think of her answer. “Well, I think it should be fifty-fifty.” Janie could tell it was the safe answer, as she hears the eye roll of other students. “In a sense that I personally don’t think you should necessarily go into trick riding with having a cold start in either thing. It requires different muscles for both disciplines and time for both. So..pacing yourself to have time to learn strength and bonding, makes it a bit easier. Only my opinion, of course!” The teen ended with nervous laughter, as she could feel herself shrinking away.
Janie had more years in the strength department, only because she hadn’t started riding until she could legally work. Work meant getting her lessons for a deal since her parents couldn’t afford full-time lessons for three, now four kids.
"Entirely right. Liberty is a class all its own, more about the horses forward movement over any actual tricks. It's not something you absolutely need to get into Trick riding or even Stunt riding, but it can provide some benefits. Liberty can be just as fun if you aren't looking to be jumping and tumbling from horse back, and it's an extension of your connection with your horse, Jax over there is learning liberty to help keep him supple and ready for when I do all manner of tricks. Having a good bond with your horse should come first beside your gymnastics, wouldn't you agree Janie?" ... “Oh, well..” Phoenix gave her an encouraging smile, knowing speaking in a crowd could be daunting but the group wasn't too large and everyone would have to take a turn to speak at points. “Well, I think it should be fifty-fifty. In a sense that I personally don’t think you should necessarily go into trick riding with having a cold start in either thing. It requires different muscles for both disciplines and time for both. So..pacing yourself to have time to learn strength and bonding, makes it a bit easier. Only my opinion, of course!”
Phoenix smiled to the group again as Jane and Clay finished speaking. "A bond is incredibly important in this line of work - you and your horse need to work together, and it needs to be safe. If your horse does not know what he or she is doing, you run the risk of injuring one or both of you." She warned, it was important to do so, as many people seemed to think of the fun and adrenaline rush part of it and not the fact that people died or were seriously hurt from these kinds of stunts. "You should never go past your ability; there's a difference between trying new tricks and being an idiot," She raised a brow but a couple of people chuckled all the same. "But there are lot's of different aspects and avenues you can take with this sport.. you can go into Liberty, or with the trick riding there are tricks of all caliber; from roman riding, to vaulting and drags. From there, there's also weaponry on horseback, which is a whole other ball game with their own required skill sets." She glanced back to Clay, once again handing over the reins.
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"A bond is incredibly important in this line of work - you and your horse need to work together, and it needs to be safe. If your horse does not know what he or she is doing, you run the risk of injuring one or both of you." She warned, it was important to do so, as many people seemed to think of the fun and adrenaline rush part of it and not the fact that people died or were seriously hurt from these kinds of stunts. "You should never go past your ability; there's a difference between trying new tricks and being an idiot."
"But there are lot's of different aspects and avenues you can take with this sport.. you can go into Liberty, or with the trick riding there are tricks of all caliber; from roman riding, to vaulting and drags. From there, there's also weaponry on horseback, which is a whole other ball game with their own required skill sets."
Clay nodded.
"You would be surprised what you can get into in terms of a career, but like anything, it's hard work and you get nowhere by slacking off. And as Phoenix said - there is a line in the sand when things reach a dangerous point. I have a cousin who has asked me to teach him to teach him to fire arrows off horse back despite having none of the base skills of archery. I am a professional stuntman, I work on all sorts of movies and TV shows where weapons, fire and other hazards are in play. You have to set a boundary and stick to it. And with that also comes the danger - anything can happen. I've fallen off many of my horses, which has led to plenty of times spent recovering from broken bones, torn muscles, sprains and so on. This is a dangerous sport."
He moved over to Jax, swinging up onto the back of his horse, "You need to have patience and dedication. Things will always fall into place."
He urged Jax to moved beside Phoenix, smiling gently as at gelding smiled without being prompted at the gathered group.
Surprisingly, Janie hadn’t fallen too hard from her lesson horse. She had gotten a few bruises, but most of her dangerous falls were from aerial arts. Also had seen a few people get some gnarly ones. Her worse incident was when she was learning a move in silks, and almost choked herself to death. Thank goodness she was low and her instructors were there to untangle her. Didn’t scare her enough to stop.
She eyes her instructor and the horse next to Mr. Clay. As a few more questions were answered and asked, Janie was beginning to fidget about what was happening next. Would they be doing some base sits or connections?
Thankfully, Janie didn’t raise her hand this time. Someone, albeit a bit rudely and with an uninterested tone, asked, “So what are we even working on today?” he asked. Janie frowned at the question, mainly by the tone of it – but she shrunk back – not wanting to appear as a goodie two shoes.
"You would be surprised what you can get into in terms of a career, but like anything, it's hard work and you get nowhere by slacking off. And as Phoenix said - there is a line in the sand when things reach a dangerous point. I have a cousin who has asked me to teach him to teach him to fire arrows off horse back despite having none of the base skills of archery. I am a professional stuntman, I work on all sorts of movies and TV shows where weapons, fire and other hazards are in play. You have to set a boundary and stick to it. And with that also comes the danger - anything can happen. I've fallen off many of my horses, which has led to plenty of times spent recovering from broken bones, torn muscles, sprains and so on. This is a dangerous sport."
Phoenix nodded to show her agreement. She felt it was important to make an impression about how dangerous the sport could be, and that whilst it was cool, and all fun and games, safety had a huge part to play in how it all went ahead. She watched her friend hop up onto his horse like he was made of rubber, "You need to have patience and dedication. Things will always fall into place." she chuckled at Jax as he grinned to the audience, hearing them give a surprising laugh at the expression. "Horses are a lot smarter than they get credit for - you really can teach them anything." She added, patting the horse and then moving over to Teake, standing so patiently, and she vaulted into his saddle, scissoring her legs in one of the many ways it could be done. “So what are we even working on today?” there was always one, a little too impatient. She refrained from rolling her eyes and fixed the crowd members with a look. "We'll give you all a shot at vaulting on, and then trying the drag move .. all from the comfort of Bill...the barrel horse." She added with a grin, leaning over the smack the barrel with her hand, the drum reverberating. "But first, a demonstration." Her grin lit up, as it always did when she was about to do something exciting. She gave a nod to Clay for him to take the lead and go first.
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