[Antinous Training Grounds] Riding Practice [Solo]

by **Ball** on February 28th, 2014, 5:45 pm

61st of Winter, 513AV

Ball decided it was a good day to take Imass out to the yard for some good old fashion mount-riding. Surely the pycon rode Imass around the city on a common basis, it was a far faster mode of transportation for the three inch squire than his own two feet. Today it was time to get into a better relationship between his mount and himself. So Ball had left all his belongings in his order-approved trunk, including the large sums of mizas that was his. Riding bare-clay the squire and mount had trotted into the mostly empty private grounds of the Order.

With no weapons the pycon was far lighter than normal, this meant he would need to be extra careful in riding as not to be thrown from Imass’s back. Luckily today Ball didn’t intend on any heavy duty butt-kicking riding techniques, he did plan on getting Imass to better understand Ball’s non-verbal and verbal commands more. The dog understood that obvious nudges the squire gave it to move forward, go faster, run, trot, and stop. But he wanted to teach his mount how to turn on command and how hard and fast. Ball wanted to teach Imass how to attack while Ball still on his back. How to take maneuver while in combat. The pycon also thought it might be good to teach the dog how to take control of the situation if Ball was unable to give commands.

Standing in the center of the grounds Ball examined his surroundings, a nudge to the left side of his dog-mount cause the dog to arch in that direction by not quite turn.

Created goes to Euthisa

by **Ball** on April 1st, 2014, 5:44 pm

Ball growled and nudged Imass’s left side a bit harder, this time the dog did turn, but it was to bite at the offending ligament, but he couldn’t quite reach it. Ball was glad his position on the dog’s back made him a hard target to attack for the dog. Luck was on the squire’s end of things, another nudge to the dog’s side this time Ball accompanied it with a yank of the dog’s neck fur. It was the rough combination that helped the squire succeed in his goal, the dog rotated in a left-handed rotation until Ball released the pull on the dog’s fur. The dog settled back into a panting stance before Ball nudged the dog’s side again…

This time the squire’s mount did as he commanded, it wasn’t a full circle turn but it was a partial, and that was without the demanding fur tugging. Another nudge to the left and Imass made another partial turn. It was progress and Ball realized that he only needed the dog to make partial turns with each nudge, too much of a turn and Ball could find himself spinning in circles during combat… And what good would that do for the pycon? Heh, not much that is for sure. A pause in the left hand turning gave Ball an idea.

This time the squired pycon nudged the right side and the dog responded in due diligent, shifting his facing direction to the right, continuing this motion Ball finally had the dog position in a perpendicular position from his original placement. Double knee nudges to both sides and the dog started to move forward in a trot, a second double knee nudge and the dog moved faster, gaining speed. Time to test reflexes.

When ready Ball nudged Imass’s left side and then squeezed both knees. The dog shift his direction to the left and sped up, the squire was pleased and nudged the dog’s left again, another turn and then a double squeeze and the dog sped up more. So far the dog was obeying commands. A tap on the head and the dog huffed and Ball held on tightly, the dog did nothing but continued straight, a small rock wall was coming close and Ball wanted to jump off to the side but held on tightly instead.

Imass was nearing the rock, the choice to jump it and land on whatever was on the other side, or veer off in either direction following the wall itself was the mount’s decision…

Created goes to Euthisa

by **Ball** on April 15th, 2014, 6:25 pm

Ball gritted his mouth together, bits of clay dust flecked away as both pycon and dog ran headfirst for the wall barricade… If the pycon had any sort of visible eyes right at this moment he would have squeezed them tightly shut, so tightly in fact that they would’ve squeezed out a bit of clay from between the lids like when one squeezes to pieces of wood together tightly and the extra wood glue squeezes out from between the two pieces.

Luckily he didn’t though cause otherwise Ball would be blind for what Imass did next, the dog jumped when he got close, throwing both rider and mount over the wall and into a tumbling roll on the other side, throwing Ball from his back Imass came to a rolling skid of a halt. The dog huffed as he sat up, coughing and pawing at tongue and mouth as plods of dirt and grass rolled from the dog’s snout. Ball on the other hand sat up, his upper body was squished rather painfully into his lower half, causing it to mushroom outwardly and the pycon had to take the time to pull his form back together.

It took several chimes for Ball to get his body to some resemblance of what he would normally take on before he could stand up and stagger to his mount. The poor dog had gotten as much dirt, grass, stone, and mud from his snout and body as it could, yet Ball had a feeling he would need to give the poor dog yet another bath before the day was over… Luckily he had more time for the wind to aid in getting junk out of the mount’s long fur.

So for the next four bells Ball and Imass spent time trotting and jumping small obstacles before the squire decided to call it quits and take the dog to the baths before heading back to the dorm to rest off their aches.

Created goes to Euthisa

by **Radiant** on April 16th, 2014, 6:26 pm

Ball :

Notes :

My radiance is not bright enough?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, beam me a PM and we can work it out.

Skill	XP Earned
Riding: Dog	+2 XP
Animal Husbandry	+2 XP
Endurance	+1 XP

Completed [Antinous Training Grounds] Riding Practice [Solo]