PM to join Riding isn't that scary (Alexander Faircroft)

[Jade Laken]

40th Winter 515 A.V.

Jade smiles as she drank her tea in front of the fire at her shared apartment. Having a peaceful day off was just what the young blond haired beauty was looking for after a long week at work. Taking a deep breath looking around the young woman, she wanted to stay and just have a relaxing day not doing anything. But. Diria needed to have her legs stretched so the young woman made up her mind to take Diria back out to the Track and field past the stables and ride her around to work out the stiffness that is most likely in the mare's legs from being cooped up so long. Stretching out as she finished her tea the woman stood to her feet from her position on the floor in front of the hearth.

"Time to go see my baby," Jade said with a smile walking to the kitchen area putting her cup away and going to get ready.

Jade walked to her room and got out her hair tie putting it around her wrist the young girl pulled her hair up into a ponytail. Smiling the woman put on one of the heavier shirts to keep warm as the snow was still falling outside. Pulling on her shoes by the door to the apartment Jade left a note telling Ferrin where she was off to in the event she was not back before he returned once more. Making sure she has the key he gave her the young woman slipped it in the pouch with her money and walked downstairs once again. Waving the young woman signed greetings to the woman behind the desk.

Jade walked out into the snow and smiles closing the door heading to the stables eager to see Diria once more. The crunching under her feet began to grow louder as the woman walked faster and faster to the stables wanting to be on the mare's back already. Soon the young girl was running for the stables her blood singing in excitement in her veins. Opening the door quickly the young gray eyed woman saw the mare. Diria snorted and nickered seeing her rider appear in such a worked up state.

"Be ready girl we are going to show those knights exactly who we are," Jade said with excitement and ran to grab her yvas from the tack room as most everyone who came into the room knew which horse was owned by the young drykas worker.

Jade grabbed the yvas and moved as quickly as she could back to Diria. Putting on the yvas was nothing for the young woman as she had done it many times in the past. Making sure everything was fastened tightly to the mare Jade mounted up and rode Diria out of the stables. Stopping shortly after the young woman jumped down closing the door before returning to the mare's back and pushing her mare to race ahead towards the track and field course.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

The morning had started the same as any other. Don armour, head to the field, swing sword. The simplicity of his life was now beginning to drag on him. He needed to practice the one thing he’d never quite managed to get around too. Riding by far and away his weakest area. Alex had decided to ask his patron for a leave for the rest of the day to practice riding. Though unbeknownst to him the fields. His footsteps slow and heavy unlike usual. He wasn’t looking forwards to this. Trudging through the now snow laden streets. Alex stepped slowly begrudgingly, why did he have to ask for this? Why did he have to ask to go training on horseback?

The slow trudge ended up slipping the white blanket of snow into the now sticky and sodden mulched earth. The short trudge to the stables wasn’t long but felt like an eternity. The slow clamour of steel and leather against wet earth, he hated it. Marching up with a certain exhaustion to him he looked across the counter to the stable hands and just said with a glum edge to his voice.
“I’m looking to borrow a horse for training purposes. I’m not fussed as to breed.” The stable hands nodded and lead him through to a mottled colour splash horse. Nodding slowly and in full armour he ended up saddling and bridling the horse himself. He wasn’t the best at it but some practice had come his way through travelling with the caravans across Sylira. His hands fumbled with the belts lightly but he kept his calm. There was nothing worse than being in an enclosed space with a spooked horse. Finally after a good five chimes of affixing the saddle and the bridle he’d managed to get the horse ready.

Leading him out of the stables he closed the gate after him and with some difficulty swung his leg up to sit atop the horse. Leading it slowly out of the stables he took it to the filed. Still unsure of how to correct his balance atop it he rocked from side to side lightly to keep his posture. And then it happened. He over corrected and slipped from the horse landing with a clamours clatter of steel and chain on the ground, luckily back first to spread out the impact. Wheezing lightly he looked skywards taking a moment to suck the air back into his lungs. Why me?

[Jade Laken]

Jade smiles and jumps several of the obstacles on the field having the time of her life. Slowing Diria to a trot she noticed a knight in full armor swaying like the grass back home did against the wind. She chuckled lightly watching him slightly amuzed.

"He will fall if he keeps swaying," Jade said and had to forcefully hold in the laughter that dared to escape seeing the man topple over like a tree freshly chopped down.

Jade snickered as she rode over to the man. Hopping down she walked over and gently took the reigns of the stallion and calmed him with a soothing voice, before looking down at the man on the ground. She cleared her voice before trying to attempt speaking to the man for fear of laughing at him.

"Do you need some help?" Jade managed to ask while keeping a semi-straight face.

The woman would never have shown such restraint should it have been a drykas back in the pavilion. The young woman helped the knight up and clicked her tongue causing the stallion to stop fidgeting and look at her calmly.

"Calm now," Jade said looking at the stallion holding the reigns with a calm reassurance, "oh uh excuse me for being so improper my name is Jade."

The young drykas bowed her head to the man before her with a smile. She did not want to seem like a snobby know-it-all but the man clearly needed some kind of help learning to ride.

[Alexander Faircroft]

[b]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Looking skywards from the sudden plant on his back Alex coughed lightly realizing that he’d been dumb yet again. He wasn’t fully used to riding in full armour yet and as such without guidance he was more likely to fall than not. Hearing the soft clop of hooves nearby and then a small thud as someone dismounted a blonde haired woman game into his eyesight. Now sure he was caked with mud all up the back of his armour he groaned. He could see the crawl of a smile across her face even as she contained it as best she could. She offered him a hand up.

“Thank you.” He responded in his ever soft and light tone. He hauled himself up off of the wet earth with her simply watching him fail substantially. He watched her look over and calm her horse down with two words and a simple tongue click. Perhaps she was an experienced rider? Alex sighed slightly and heard her name “Jade”. Simple and to the point. To him pride wasn’t really a thing. If he could learn from someone to get better. Then he would do his best to do so. “I could use a hand really…I’m not used to riding in full plate yet.” His words carried in the same light tone.

“If you’re willing to help that is.” A small pleading smile plied his lips as he spoke. He was reluctant to ask primarily as he wanted this over and done with. But if he could garner the assistance of someone else, then it would aid him greatly. “The name is Alexander. Alexander Faircroft, squire for the syliran knights.” He smiled lightly and took a small bow. Dipping his head lightly ad only just managing to go eyelevel with her as he did so.

[Jade Laken]

"Well nice to meet you, Alexander. First thing I noticed you are way too tense when you are on the horse. Relax your muscles and let your body move with the horse's movements. If you are so stiff when riding the horse is just as uncomfortable as you are and knows you don't trust it. Without a mutual level of trust with any horse you ride the experience will be very painful for both of you," Jade said with a soft smile explaining what she witnessed.

Jade smiles and checks the bridle not having hardly any experience with such things. She scrunched up her nose wanting to just rip off the stupid contraptions as the stallion was used to the saddle and bridle, but Jade knew it was uncomfortable.

"I will never know how people ride with these things on their horses," Jade said more to herself than to the knight watching the girl as she moved around the horse with an air of confidence in her knowledge.

The stallion snorted and watched the woman before clawing the ground with his front hoof looking at the mare across from him. Jade pats his neck and went over Diria taking out a sugar cube.

"Here big boy a treat for not bolting," Jade said with a smile and offered him the sugar cube.

The stallion whined and ate the sugar cube content that she was messing with him still. Jade smiles and pets his muzzle before continuing on with the inspection to make sure everything was secured.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Her initial reaction to him was one of someone who’d been around certain situations for too long. Apparently it was his fault for being too tense. His horse could tell he didn’t trust it. Thing is that wasn’t entirely right, the one who he didn’t trust was himself. Perhaps the horse was picking up on that? Stretching out the new pain in his back he spoke softly once again. “It’s not that I don’t trust the horse. It’s that I don’t trust me, to not hurt him.” A soft sigh escaped Alex as he watched her feed the horse and inspect the saddle. She didn’t know how people rose on horses with those things?

“The saddle’s for knights mainly. It’s pretty much a chair on the horses back. It’s so we…don’t fall off.” Alex sighed again. The creeping embarrassment crawling up his face. “So, jade. Seems like you’ve a fair bit of experience with horses.” He stepped up to the colour splash that he’d borrowed for his training. And softly patted his hand along the horse’s side. “Fancy giving a squire a few lessons on how to ride one properly?” He smiled lightly turning head over his shoulder to face her the soft green of his eyes conveying an honesty that his words mirrored.

Slipping a foot into the stirrup he pushed his weight up onto the horse and swung his body around to sit back in the saddle. He wasn’t the best rider but in this armour he was far from a good rider. The difficulty came from trying to control the shifting of the plates around his body as he rode. If he could master that and not feel the weight pulling him from side to side. Then and only then could he manage to get the horse to do what he wanted.

[Jade Laken]

"Loosen up and trust yourself. Any kind of distrust to yourself or your mount will cause the horse to not trust you. The biggest example is when a rider who has even the slightest doubt in him when performing a jump with the mount; the mount will refuse to do the jump and could very easily throw his or her rider," Jade explained and smiles making sure the flap were in front of the skin where his leg armor is.

Jade grabbed a rope from her yvas and put it around the stallion. Stepping back a good distance but still close enough to control the stallion, she snapped the rope on the ground beside her. The sudden noise made the stallion snort and start walking with the man on top of him. Jade watched the squire as he rode watching for when he became too stiff once more.

"Don't over think anything. Use the horse's movements as your guide, allow your body to move with the stallion. Learn the movement of your mount by just walking then as you become used to the movement begin to pick up speed each time you are used to the speed," Jade said with a smile happy to help the young man out with his training.

Jade smiles as the stallion continues to walk showing no bother as the fully armored man was on his back. She was happy to see the stallion was used to the weight of the armor and appeared to have no issue walking. Diria snorted and grazed not far from the three. Jade was not surprised that Diria was used to her randomly helping someone learn to ride as she had often done the action back at Endrykas with the smaller kids.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Right now Alex felt like a child. A giant child atop a horse. Without the armour on he was at least OK riding it was simply the weight and stiffness of it. Being in an armour that didn’t fit well, and was starting to rust a little. He could feel the shifting of the plates with every step the horse took. His body swayed with the horse again trying to use momentum to right himself. Her words were easy enough for her to say but she wasn’t riding in almost eighty pounds of gear. It felt like he had another person sitting on his shoulders almost.

Being lead around the field was a little…Humiliating to say the least. Don’t over think and don’t over correct. Move with the horse. He thought he was doing that, but correcting his movements was the problem. He wanted to control his motions atop the horse. Looking over his shoulder he spotted the horse she had rode on not moving. Steady and still. Trained to do nothing but what their master said. Alex on the other hand was still new to this whole affair. His sways atop the horse slowed slightly as he could begin to feel the rhythm of the horse’s movements beneath him.

The ease of motion it appeared wasn’t really an issue for him to attempt to deal with, it was simply a lack of confidence on his part. Then again he did prefer solid ground. Or to ride in a cart, Directly on horseback never quite sat as well as it should have with him.

“So Jade, I take it you’ve been around horses a long time? You seem to handle them and yourself pretty well around them.” A half compliment a half observation, but a full question. He was curious about how much time she’d spent around horses and other such creatures. But still he couldn’t quite feel as if he belonged on horseback himself.

[Jade Laken]

"I am from Endrykas. So it is very safe to say that I grew up on a horse's back. I know riding on your own is a whole new challenge to face down. It took me a long time to learn how to trust what my father taught me while riding on my own," Jade said knowing that this was probably embarrassing and a little humiliating for the man, "just remember you have to trust yourself as well as your horse."

Jade couldn't help but keep stressing the issue about trusting his self more than anything else at the moment. Letting the rope go slack some she stopped and let the stallion walk ahead of her some. Gripping on the rope again she stayed in one spot and let the stallion walk around the girl. Making sure to hold on to the rope in case anything should spook the stallion and cause him to throw the knight on his back was key for the girl to remember while letting the girl circle her.

"Good boy nice and easy," Jade coos to the stallion to make sure he knows she approves of him keeping it slow.

"Ok I am going to get him into a trot so just take a deep breath and let yourself bounce as your moves with the horse," Jade said and let some of the end of the rope go to the ground using all her strength the girl popped the end on the ground causing the stallion to pick up his speed into a slow easy trot.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Endrykas? A place he’d heard about but never really learned about. He’d heard something about it being a home to the “horse lords”. So she was almost quite literally raised on horseback? He could believe that pretty fully. Her words about trusting the horse as well as himself. He could trust the horse not to do something wrong but himself on the other hand…That was the challenge. A slow circle of walking around the girl upon the horses back. He wasn’t doing much about controlling the horse but he was learning how to hold his balance.

Perhaps that was the whole idea for him to learn how to hold himself up on the back of a horse. After all she did watch him tumble arse over tea kettle. Still he could feel himself getting the rhythm of the horse’s strides beneath him the slow padding. He braced his feet into the stirrups and eventually felt himself not moving too much as the horse moved beneath him. Then the rods about the horse going faster came out. His hands tightened on the reigns, not pulling but his grip got firmer. Half bracing himself for the motion he was about to undergo, and then she yanked on the rope and the horse sped up.

As the horse picked up its pace Alex didn’t shift nor start swaying he instead bounced with the horse. He was beginning to get the hang of this.

Taking a little initiative he leant to the side and pulled on the horse’s reigns lightly prompting the horse to break the circle and head off in a straight line for a few paces. He pulled back on the reigns lightly and the horse came to a stop. “I think I have the hang of this now.” He turned to look over his shoulder at jade, a small smile on his face. She’d significantly helped him.