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!.
Lily was looking forward to meeting her first client of the week. She was full of optimism and positive spirit for this week. She had heard about the young lad she was teaching - through Leo of all people - and he seemed like a good kid with some real ambition. Lily was only too happy to help encourage the ambition and make it a reality. Having not seen him ride yet, Lily planned to make this a bit of an introduction for them both, so he knew how Lily taught, and Lily knew what level they were at - more so than 'novice'. She had set up a rudimentary showjumping course, including a couple of their cross country fences to see how they approached a solid fence, as well as coloured poles.
She surveyed her work and then gave herself a nod - they were all small fences, nothing crazy, as it wasn't about the height today. Once everything was set, Lily headed over to wait at the entrance to the school - She had made a note on the office lesson sheet for the day that Othello would be in the indoor school and to meet Lily there once he was ready.
Dice roll
Odd number - lesson goes poorly Even number - lesson goes well
Othello had signed up for the lessons before he had told his parents what he was doing, but they had been pretty okay with it, as he had told them that he was only doing low level lessons, so it wasn't like he was going to be going over Olympic sized fences.
The day had started pretty good, he brought Harry in from the pasture, gave him a thorough groom and tacked him up, making sure that his gear was clean and that he too was looking tidy. It was as he was leading his horse to the arena that he wondered if he should have signed up for a group lesson, but at least with just him and the instructor, it wouldn't be too embarrassing if he was sick in the middle of the lesson.
He paused at the entrance of the arena, giving the one person who knew about his medical issues, a nervous smile. "Hi, I'm Othello and this is Harry." The Suffolk Punch had some fancy show name, but Othello could never remember what it was, and with the lightning shaped star on the liver chestnut's forehead, Harry suited him.
Lily smiled in return, wanting Othello to feel at ease and not worry about anything. "Hi, I'm Othello and this is Harry." Lily nodded, "nice to meet you Othello, I hear you met my brother the other week, I hope he didn't annoy you too much." She joked, though really she knew how Leo could be and he did have a tendancy to poke people a little too hard. "Lovely to meet you too, Harry," she nodded to the horse, offering her hand for him to check out before she went to give him a quick pat. Always good to make friends on the ground with client and horse so they could build trust with the instructor too - that was also important as it was for the horse and rider to be working together.
"Alright, so you want to get cracking with eventing, is that right?" She asked, wanting to make sure she knew where Othello was at and what he wanted to get out of the lessons. "Is there anything in particular you've been struggling with so far, or want to improve on? Anything you have in mind that you really want to achieve or get out of this?" She smiled, "It can be something really small, or what you might think is small, but any target and achievement is huge." Lily hated to think that people thought their dreams were small. "When you're ready if you want to get on board and start getting warm, so we can get down to the hard work once you've both gotten moving and relaxed."
"nice to meet you Othello, I hear you met my brother the other week, I hope he didn't annoy you too much." Othello's grin widened. "He was really cool! Helped me find my way around the place." And then wondered if he was being too informal... oh well, to late for that. And Leo had been a great help for when he'd first arrived and wasn't exactly feeling the best. "Lovely to meet you too, Harry," He loosened his hold on the reins, letting the liver chestnut stretch out and say hello to their instructor.
"Alright, so you want to get cracking with eventing, is that right?" He nodded, though guilt gnawed at him a little. "Is there anything in particular you've been struggling with so far, or want to improve on? Anything you have in mind that you really want to achieve or get out of this?" He pulled a face as he thought of his answer. "It can be something really small, or what you might think is small, but any target and achievement is huge." He fiddled with the buckle on the reins. "I just want to show mum that I can actually do stuff on horses, not just walk around the arena." He shrugged with a sigh. "I'm not really sure what I want to do, but I've always watched eventing on the telly and wondered what it would be like to actually get out there and give it a go." He shrugged again, knowing that he was making a huge hash out of this.
"When you're ready if you want to get on board and start getting warm, so we can get down to the hard work once you've both gotten moving and relaxed." He smiled and nodded, as least this was something he could do! He pulled down the stirrups, tightened the girth up as much as he could and lifted the reins over the horse's head before swinging into the saddle. He rubbed Harry's neck as the gelding stood like a statue as the boy found his stirrups and then squeezed the horse forward, guiding Harry to the outside of the arena as they began their warm up, though his mind was going through his position in the saddle, going through everything his Grams had taught him about straight lines, shoulders and heels.
