it's all under control [tobin]

[victoria eleni winters]

Wand? Check. Full cheek snaffle? Check. Rope reins? Check. Circle Y Saddle? Check. Neck rope? Check. 'Cowgirl getup'? Check.

Well, it seemed like she had all of her stuff together. Most of Tori's training supplies had been stored in her trailer until after school started since she was pretty sure the rest of the staff would be utterly scandalized by her methods. Training a dressage horse in a Western saddle? Starting over jumps in a snaffle? The absolute horror!

Tori couldn't help but grin as she dumped her stuff in the aisle next to Zombie's stall. The bay gelding poked his nose out to give her and her gear a cursory sniff before continuing on with his hay. That was just fine with her; the more he ate the happier he would be.

Since her father was supposed to have here two hours ago to drop off Pet, Tori had decided to work with her personal horse a bit while she waited. It was a long drive from her family's farm to White Oak, and they had probably had trouble loading Pet onto the trailer.

A seventeen point three hand three year old, versus a short middle aged man and a girl in a wheel chair. Yeah, loading trouble was pretty much guaranteed. And that was without taking into consideration Pet's bulk.

Tori shook her head as she slipped into Zombie's stall. "How they thought the two of them could get that hippopotamus into a trailer I will never know." The far more petite stallion nuzzled her shoulder affectionately in reply. "Okay, okay." She laughed, grabbing a rubber curry from the open tack trunk beside his door.

[Tobin Shae Kelly]

Toby was furious. Did the plans that she made not even go through to people? She was pretty sure she told Caden that she needed help with Brody today at four. And up to about three minutes ago, all was good. But three minutes ago, the blond sent a text that she couldn't make it because she was with some boy. A boy? You can't worry about boys when you're at an elite equestrian school! You have one job; to make it to the top! When Toby won some huge equitation thing at Maclay, or Washington DC, she wouldn't be worried about how much arm candy she had.

So the huge bay warmblood would soon be tackled by the small girl, apparently. The one who could barely sit his trot, let alone jump him. He had a huge stride, and a jump big enough to knock you out of the tack. Another thirty or so pounds and she'd be fine, but at a mere 95, it seemed dangerous.

And maybe Toby was a little, teensy-eensy, small fraction of a percent scared of the gelding. Maybe a hoof in the chest, not once, but three times could do that to a person. And she wasn't even behind him, she had fallen off and he had done nothing to avoid her. Nothing.

Tobin took a deep breath and set her grooming box right outside Brody's door. "Hullo Bro." She said quietly, walking softly across the shavings to where he stood in the corner. Brody swung his head toward her, inches away from making contact. Before she started doing anything with this horse, she wanted to make sure someone was nearby. She looked to either side of her, and her eye was caught by an older looking woman looking more like a cowgirl then a hunter princess, or dressage queen.

Hm, was that the new trainer? Like the one who rode student's horses when they didn't have the time or the body mass? It seemed so. Unlike Caden, Toby wasn't afraid to ask for help. If it could benefit her riding, or her horse it was worth it.

"Excuse me." Tobin called softly through the stall bars. "You're the new trainer?" She looked back toward Brody and upward toward his withers. "Do you think you could work Brody at all?" She wouldn't give an excuse, not yet. Hers was fully truthful, and easily understood, but Toby didn't like talking that long anyway. The trainer would probably ask.

[victoria eleni winters]

"Is that your itchy spot?" Tori crooned quietly to her stallion; Zombie had his neck stretched out to the far corner of the stall and was rhythmically biting at the air. A quick glance backward showed her that his left hind leg was kicking gently toward the wall behind him as well, as though pantomiming her currying.

'Excuse me?' Tori looked up and around to the stall next to Zombie's. A petite girl was standing near the bars talking to her. The blond left off grooming Zombie to step closer, ignoring his snort of annoyance. Zombie would love to be curried all day if he had his way.

"Yes, I'm Victoria Winters." As she spoke Tori followed the girl's gaze up to the horse behind her. Wow. The bay was massive. And his build was impressive. Her gaze swept down over his top line and she had to bite back a whistle of appreciation when she saw his shoulder. Tori would bet money the horse could move. And this girl wanted her to ride him. Yes, please!

Of course, there had to be a reason the girl wasn't riding him herself. She glanced back at Zombie. The stallion needed a little more work on his ground manners but that could wait.

"That's quite a large Holsteiner you've got there." The horse was big for his breed but the other characteristics were unmistakable. "Of course I'll ride him." She raised an eyebrow at the girl, pausing before getting straight to the point.

"But what's wrong with him?"

[Tobin Shae Kelly]

What was wrong with him? Toby contemplated the way she should put it for a couple of seconds and finally decided on this: "I don't have enough leg to wrap around him to keep him going, and he needs it all the way around the ring." No, Bro wasn't a bucker, or a rearer, he just had no idea that the peanut of a girl was sitting on him at all. Really, he was nearly an angel if you had someone capable of pushing him around.

Tobin slid open the stall door a tad, inviting Victoria inside without saying a word. But this was about horses, a topic Tobin could easily keep up, so why not? "He's a sweetheart, really. He just doesn't listen to cues very well, his transitions take many strides, and has a hell of a jump, but only if you can actually get him to jump. Anything under three six is a raised cavaletti, and he'll stop right after, like it was nothing." Yep, a lot of talking, but once the brunette started introducing her horse she became a whole bomb of chatter. "He's not.. dangerous." She paused before saying the word. "Just difficult. When he's having a rather oafy day, I just can't handle all of him." She looked at the other woman. Should she be ashamed of not having the ability to handle an 18.1hh Holsteiner? Toby sure thought so. While she could ask for help, she'd much rather do it herself. She'd never had a horse she couldn't ride before, it seemed like a waste of money.

But she knew that once Bro listened to leg cues, he'd be the perfect large junior hunter, or even Children's horse for someone else looking for a catch ride. But until then, she'd have to get the gelding to become somewhat reliable, or get someone else to exercise him every once and awhile.

[victoria eleni winters]

Tori slipped out of Zombie's stall and into the other gelding's. The horse was even more impressive this close. She offered her empty palm up to be sniffed as she listened to the girl talk.

Well. The problem was obvious to Victoria; "I will never understand why people your size so often insist on riding monstrous beasts like him." She turned to eye the girl carefully. She didn't seem the type to cry, but appearances were often deceiving. It would be just her luck if she got in trouble the first day for making a student cry. Whether they deserved it or not.

"Let me put it simply; a tiny teenager has no business riding a horse this size." Tori turned back to the horse, running her hands over his well muscled neck and down the slope of his shoulder. Of course the horse was pulling this kid around. He knew that she wasn't strong enough to make him do what she wanted.

"Every bad habit you've just described can be caused by two main factors; bad training, or a lack of respect for the rider." Her tone was matter of fact. Victoria wasn't mad at the kid. Hell, if she was mad at anyone it was the kid's trainer, or parents, for letting her get on something this size. No, he wasn't intentionally dangerous, but things happen.

She sighed and slid the stall door back open. Zombie would have to wait. Or...She grinned. "I'll teach your lovely horse some respect right now, if you'll be so kind as to do some work with Zombie for me." Tori gestured to the bay stallion whose nose was now pressed up against the bars in an attempt to smell the other horse.

"You can do ground work or flat work, but no jumping."


OOC: I hope you don't mind ^^

[Tobin Shae Kelly]

Toby stepped aside as the adult entered the stall door. Brody wrapped his nose around to greet her, nickering slightly at the other horse. Tobin had heard this several times over, and nodded knowingly. Well, the story was nice and simple. She'd catch ridden him a few months ago and sweeped the division. Not only had they won, he was a complete sweetheart. He was easy to ride, and acted like a combination of Cheers and Caden's mare, Fiona. AKA perfect.

But once the forms were signed and the gelding was brought home he realized what advantage he had. His size. Tobin thought it was just because he had recently been moved, and his surroundings had changed, but the horse still kept up his behavior. Now all Tobin wanted to do was get him sane enough to put him back on the market. He would be a great derby, or adult mount, but the Juniors just weren't working for him.

Tobin wasn't going to say 'I know.' She wasn't going to say anything. She agreed completely, and while she did want to keep the gelding, she understood how much of a danger he could be.

Wait, ride her horse? He seemed friendly, on the ground at least. She knew how much a horse's attitude could differ on the ground and in the ring. He was a stallion, she picked that up. Toby had never ridden a stallion before, since showing one in the hunters or eq at her age was illegal anyway. But she could definitely manage, right?

"Sure." Tobin had catch ridden many horses before, and this one would be no different. Only flatwork? That sounded good. Usually she would use her own tack, when she rode other horses, but since Victoria was a trainer and owner of 'Zombie', she figured she would wait for that instruction.

[victoria eleni winters]

The girl was tough, that was good. She would need it for this horse. Tori could only do so much herself. But she could give the horse a lesson in listening to the wand, which would help this kid immensely. At least if she was willing to ride with a piece of dressage equipment.

Tori reached down into the girl's grooming box and pulled out a rubber curry, going to work on the gelding's neck immediately. She didn't look up from her task as she started giving instruction.

"Zombie still needs to be brushed and have his hooves picked. Careful with the rear; he will try to jerk them away and that is a habit I don't want him learning." She moved on down the horse's neck, grateful that he wasn't particularly dirty.

"If you have a wide tree saddle you're welcome to use it, just make sure you pad it enough. Otherwise you can use that Circle Y." It took her a moment to remember this kid had probably never sat in a Western saddle in her life. Right, this was a solely English encampment. "Or, if you'd rather, there is a nice Stubben jumping saddle in the tack trunk outside his stall."

Tori didn't even look up to see if the girl had heard her, just moved on to the gelding's other side, working the curry vigorously over his smooth coat. If she was a smart kid she would figure it out, and if not; well, if not than she really had no business riding, did she?