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Description
Previously:

Monday. Arguably that day of the week that holds the most general disapproval in the public opinion. Kaisa could only agree to that - it was a long standing tradition here at Zdarloch that Monday was dressage lesson day. And despite all her -in her own opinion, at least- valiant attempts of trying to make sense of and eventually imitate this discipline, her love of 'dressage monday' was still a long ways off. She liked Connor a lot - but he was a boring, nitpicking teacher who could take the joy out of any fun activity... Unless, of course, one considered 'the relentless, disciplined strive towards perfection and utmost control' a fun activity. Steinadler had been even worse - she shared all of Connor's obsession with the pursuit of technical perfection, but none of his charm and even less of his politeness. It had even been a relief to get Connor, or Gideon as he preferred to be called now, back for the past few months.
Today, however, would be her first training session with her new teacher - and the thought already had her envisioning various nightmare scenarios. If Simon Kvark's teaching was anything like his personality this was sure to be a lesson from hell. Whether he was the type to sit in the corner and roll eyes at her while dropping acrid comments or the type to scream profanities each time she made a mistake she was not sure of, but either way she anticipated that this would have a bad outcome.
That his teaching was different from Gideon's and Stein's became apparent the second Kaisa and Kvante stepped inside the indoor arena: he was already there, waiting for her. Kaisa blinked, brushed the raindrops from her brow and sent him a confused look.
,,What are you doing here?" she blurted out with all the social graces of a warthog at the opera.Sim
on looked up from his phone.
,,Waiting for you? We have a lesson, right?"
Kaisa was not sure if she detected any anger or annoyance there - she had never been good at reading people. Simon's bashed face still held a minor swelling near his eye that made him look as if he sported the vague squint people wear when they are silently judging someone. Well, maybe he was - the squinting seemed to increase the longer she looked. Oh right.. people tended to dislike it when you looked for too long. She blinked.
,,Yeah. But I haven't warmed up yet. Conn--err, Gideon's lessons always started when we were already warmed up. More time efficient.",,Well, I am not Gideon." Simon pointed out and rose from the mounting block he had been sitting on. ,, I don't care about time efficiency. My lessons start when I say they do and end when I say they do - I consider the warm-up as important as the training itself and I'm curious to see how you do it. Up you go. We're started."
Bossy, huh? They were off to a great start, Kaisa though to herself as she settled herself in the saddle and urged Kvante forward into a walk. And not the passive sort either...
Simon had detached himself from the corner and moved to the center of the arena.
,,You have a good posture," he announced unexpectedly. Kaisa whipped her head around; her confusion expressed in a deep frown. Was that a... compliment? Or was it sarcastic?
,,What?"
,,I said you have a good posture. You sit well." Kaisa was still not sure what to make of it - in all her imagined scenarios of how this lesson would unfold she had never expected Simon to be a positive teacher.
,,So - a youngster? Where did you and Gideon leave off?" he went on before Kaisa had time to think of a semi-decent reply.
,,Well, Kvante is five... almost six. Wasn't started under saddle until earlier this year. Seven months ago, give or take.."
,,Right, so fairly green. So our focal points for now are building balance and strength through correct form and working towards introducing spurs and eventually lateral movements."
Kaisa made a discreet wrinkling of her nose.
,,I don't think I'll need spurs or whips for this one. She's already plenty forward."
Even for someone so notoriously bad at reading faces Kaisa could have sworn Simon's jaw would have hit the ground if it had been less firmly attached.
”If you think either whip or spurs is to speed up the horse then I’m glad you’re not using either right now, because you clearly don’t have a clue what their purpose is in dressage.”
Kaisa frowned.
,,Well, if I don't need 'em?"
,,How can you say that if you don't know what they're for?" Simon flashed her an insolent smile. ,,I could ride a Grand Prix in swim trunks and a rope halter, but why make things more difficult for yourself? Spurs and whips are your friends, your helpers, your translators to ease communication - not tools for torturing your poor horse. See, that's exactly the reason you see faulty use of 'em in sport - clueless people pricking their horse into submission, thinking that's what spurs are for." he shook his head, sighing deeply and ever so slightly theatrically. ,,Yeah. You haven't earned your spurs yet, Kaisa, but I'll get you there in due time. Besides, it doesn't matter whether you think you need 'em or not, rules are rules. You don't have to rise very high in the levels before they become mandatory."
Kaisa sucked on her teeth but chose to hold her tongue. Such arrogance... such a condescending prick. Such--
She hissed a long exhale out through her teeth and willed herself to relax her tightly-clenched grip around the reins. Maybe this prick had a point. If it did not take more than this to rattle her and get her to clench her fists like this it was probably a good thing her heels were not adorned with steel points. Urgh, so this guy was not only an engaged and positive teacher, he also saw right through her. How incredibly annoying.
The warm-up progressed with little drama. Simon had her draw lazy serpentines and circles across the arena in what he called 'pony trot' - for a while this seemed almost too easy. It was when he began to demand an increasing degree of bend and collection from Kaisa and the young mare that Kvante started responding adversely. The horse suddenly tossed her head up; coiling up like a spring ready to launch herself upwards into a series of bucks... that never came. Nevertheless Kaisa tensed up in anticipation, frozen in place in the saddle.
,,What's going on?" Simon inquired somewhere to her side. ,,Why'd you stop riding?"
Why indeed?
Kaisa huffed and urged Kvante forward again. Once they hit the corner the same thing happened and with the same outcome. Three times. Four times. The fifth time Kvantespring's front legs came off the ground for a brief moment and Kaisa swore the world turned black and white for a second. She could hear her own heartbeat pounding in her ears and felt her fringe sticking to the cold sweat that sprung from her forehead.
,,-ening to what I'm saying??" she heard a faint voice speak at the periphery of her consciousness. ,,Hello-oo, Earth to Kaisa?"
She turned her head towards the sound... right. Simon. Lesson. Focus. Her lack of it was ridiculous - these tiny bunny hops would hardly classify as 'bucks', yet to her it sure felt like it. The smile she attempted did not seem to have its intended effect as it only made Simon's squint more pronounced.
,,What's so funny?"
Nothing was funny - aside from the obvious absurdity of her fear, that was. Kaisa was an eventer - now she could not even sit through this without losing herself. She shrugged:
,,She's just being a mare, I guess..."
,,How long has she been doing this?"
,,Err... on/off for the past week or so... Every time I ask her to bend."
Perhaps something did show on Kaisa's otherwise emotionless face that got the 'please don't ask me to ride through it' message across. Simon watched her in pensive silence for a while.
,,Alright. Let me try."
Kaisa retreated to the corner of the arena and watched with equal parts curiosity and glee as Kvantespring repeated her earlier contortions with Simon in the saddle. As he asked for bend the mare replied as she had done previously: by tossing her head and hopping in place. Kaisa felt a strange wave of relief to witness it - for a while she had worried it had been her fault or something she did that triggered this behaviour in the horse. Unlike her Simon did not freeze in the saddle - he took the fight, did not budge but kept asking -or rather demanding- that the horse responded. Kvantespring did respond: she reared up.
It was one thing to have seen Simon train Sagadir or compete Spiegelau - at that level in dressage everything seems fluent, effortless and for the untrained untrained eye it may be mistaken for 'easy'. Seeing Simon work with an obviously disobedient horse was something else. Every single aid was visible, uncensored and obvious enough for a child to follow it. What more was: it was consequent, logical; almost mathematic to behold. It followed a strict form: horse does this = Simon does that. It made sense.
The longer Kaisa watched the more complicated the equation became: Kvantespring attempted other ways of evasion and Simon countered those accordingly. Sweat started springing. Froth started flying each time the horse tossed her head. And slowly, slowly, those equations translated to curves, parabolas and circles as the shapes were drawn out across the arena.
At some point Simon removed the saddle from the equation and almost instantly the math added up: order was restored. Kvantespring willingly allowed herself to bend in either direction.
,,Rearing should never be the answer, but I think something about that saddle is bothering her." Simon concluded as he slid from the mare's naked back. 40 minutes of heated arguing had her covered in sweat that drew frothing stripes across her neck where the reins had rested. ,,I assume you already suggested to Andy to have her teeth looked at, but I think you may want to make an appointment with your saddler too."
Kaisa blinked. He was already two steps ahead of her. It seemed... logical to have these things checked, however. Maybe this guy was not so bad after all.
,,Right..." a brief pause. ,,Thank you?"
,,Don't thank me. I'm here to protect your horse's interests, not yours. One more thing --" Simon huffed as he handed the reins back. ,,- I think both you and your horses would be far better off if you discarded the prejudism and refrained from placing your perceived gender stereotypes onto animals. There is always something: 'she's just being a maaare, just being a cheeeestnut, just being a zleeesdin --'. You don't solve any problems with that lazy mindset. Thats why I’m a grand prix rider and you’re not.”
...or maybe this guy was still just a condescending prick.

Next: 4.5: Good Note

...what's up with Kaisa??
Same thing that's up with Simon: fear.
:' >

You doooo remember the fall she had with Zdrasti, yes? Fear of jumping and all that?
It got worse

Kaisa, Simon and ZS Kvantespring reside with meee
Dem textures from cgtextures and from self
No ref

Description
Previously:

Monday. Arguably that day of the week that holds the most general disapproval in the public opinion. Kaisa could only agree to that - it was a long standing tradition here at Zdarloch that Monday was dressage lesson day. And despite all her -in her own opinion, at least- valiant attempts of trying to make sense of and eventually imitate this discipline, her love of 'dressage monday' was still a long ways off. She liked Connor a lot - but he was a boring, nitpicking teacher who could take the joy out of any fun activity... Unless, of course, one considered 'the relentless, disciplined strive towards perfection and utmost control' a fun activity. Steinadler had been even worse - she shared all of Connor's obsession with the pursuit of technical perfection, but none of his charm and even less of his politeness. It had even been a relief to get Connor, or Gideon as he preferred to be called now, back for the past few months.
Today, however, would be her first training session with her new teacher - and the thought already had her envisioning various nightmare scenarios. If Simon Kvark's teaching was anything like his personality this was sure to be a lesson from hell. Whether he was the type to sit in the corner and roll eyes at her while dropping acrid comments or the type to scream profanities each time she made a mistake she was not sure of, but either way she anticipated that this would have a bad outcome.
That his teaching was different from Gideon's and Stein's became apparent the second Kaisa and Kvante stepped inside the indoor arena: he was already there, waiting for her. Kaisa blinked, brushed the raindrops from her brow and sent him a confused look.
,,What are you doing here?" she blurted out with all the social graces of a warthog at the opera.Sim
on looked up from his phone.
,,Waiting for you? We have a lesson, right?"
Kaisa was not sure if she detected any anger or annoyance there - she had never been good at reading people. Simon's bashed face still held a minor swelling near his eye that made him look as if he sported the vague squint people wear when they are silently judging someone. Well, maybe he was - the squinting seemed to increase the longer she looked. Oh right.. people tended to dislike it when you looked for too long. She blinked.
,,Yeah. But I haven't warmed up yet. Conn--err, Gideon's lessons always started when we were already warmed up. More time efficient.",,Well, I am not Gideon." Simon pointed out and rose from the mounting block he had been sitting on. ,, I don't care about time efficiency. My lessons start when I say they do and end when I say they do - I consider the warm-up as important as the training itself and I'm curious to see how you do it. Up you go. We're started."
Bossy, huh? They were off to a great start, Kaisa though to herself as she settled herself in the saddle and urged Kvante forward into a walk. And not the passive sort either...
Simon had detached himself from the corner and moved to the center of the arena.
,,You have a good posture," he announced unexpectedly. Kaisa whipped her head around; her confusion expressed in a deep frown. Was that a... compliment? Or was it sarcastic?
,,What?"
,,I said you have a good posture. You sit well." Kaisa was still not sure what to make of it - in all her imagined scenarios of how this lesson would unfold she had never expected Simon to be a positive teacher.
,,So - a youngster? Where did you and Gideon leave off?" he went on before Kaisa had time to think of a semi-decent reply.
,,Well, Kvante is five... almost six. Wasn't started under saddle until earlier this year. Seven months ago, give or take.."
,,Right, so fairly green. So our focal points for now are building balance and strength through correct form and working towards introducing spurs and eventually lateral movements."
Kaisa made a discreet wrinkling of her nose.
,,I don't think I'll need spurs or whips for this one. She's already plenty forward."
Even for someone so notoriously bad at reading faces Kaisa could have sworn Simon's jaw would have hit the ground if it had been less firmly attached.
”If you think either whip or spurs is to speed up the horse then I’m glad you’re not using either right now, because you clearly don’t have a clue what their purpose is in dressage.”
Kaisa frowned.
,,Well, if I don't need 'em?"
,,How can you say that if you don't know what they're for?" Simon flashed her an insolent smile. ,,I could ride a Grand Prix in swim trunks and a rope halter, but why make things more difficult for yourself? Spurs and whips are your friends, your helpers, your translators to ease communication - not tools for torturing your poor horse. See, that's exactly the reason you see faulty use of 'em in sport - clueless people pricking their horse into submission, thinking that's what spurs are for." he shook his head, sighing deeply and ever so slightly theatrically. ,,Yeah. You haven't earned your spurs yet, Kaisa, but I'll get you there in due time. Besides, it doesn't matter whether you think you need 'em or not, rules are rules. You don't have to rise very high in the levels before they become mandatory."
Kaisa sucked on her teeth but chose to hold her tongue. Such arrogance... such a condescending prick. Such--
She hissed a long exhale out through her teeth and willed herself to relax her tightly-clenched grip around the reins. Maybe this prick had a point. If it did not take more than this to rattle her and get her to clench her fists like this it was probably a good thing her heels were not adorned with steel points. Urgh, so this guy was not only an engaged and positive teacher, he also saw right through her. How incredibly annoying.
The warm-up progressed with little drama. Simon had her draw lazy serpentines and circles across the arena in what he called 'pony trot' - for a while this seemed almost too easy. It was when he began to demand an increasing degree of bend and collection from Kaisa and the young mare that Kvante started responding adversely. The horse suddenly tossed her head up; coiling up like a spring ready to launch herself upwards into a series of bucks... that never came. Nevertheless Kaisa tensed up in anticipation, frozen in place in the saddle.
,,What's going on?" Simon inquired somewhere to her side. ,,Why'd you stop riding?"
Why indeed?
Kaisa huffed and urged Kvante forward again. Once they hit the corner the same thing happened and with the same outcome. Three times. Four times. The fifth time Kvantespring's front legs came off the ground for a brief moment and Kaisa swore the world turned black and white for a second. She could hear her own heartbeat pounding in her ears and felt her fringe sticking to the cold sweat that sprung from her forehead.
,,-ening to what I'm saying??" she heard a faint voice speak at the periphery of her consciousness. ,,Hello-oo, Earth to Kaisa?"
She turned her head towards the sound... right. Simon. Lesson. Focus. Her lack of it was ridiculous - these tiny bunny hops would hardly classify as 'bucks', yet to her it sure felt like it. The smile she attempted did not seem to have its intended effect as it only made Simon's squint more pronounced.
,,What's so funny?"
Nothing was funny - aside from the obvious absurdity of her fear, that was. Kaisa was an eventer - now she could not even sit through this without losing herself. She shrugged:
,,She's just being a mare, I guess..."
,,How long has she been doing this?"
,,Err... on/off for the past week or so... Every time I ask her to bend."
Perhaps something did show on Kaisa's otherwise emotionless face that got the 'please don't ask me to ride through it' message across. Simon watched her in pensive silence for a while.
,,Alright. Let me try."
Kaisa retreated to the corner of the arena and watched with equal parts curiosity and glee as Kvantespring repeated her earlier contortions with Simon in the saddle. As he asked for bend the mare replied as she had done previously: by tossing her head and hopping in place. Kaisa felt a strange wave of relief to witness it - for a while she had worried it had been her fault or something she did that triggered this behaviour in the horse. Unlike her Simon did not freeze in the saddle - he took the fight, did not budge but kept asking -or rather demanding- that the horse responded. Kvantespring did respond: she reared up.
It was one thing to have seen Simon train Sagadir or compete Spiegelau - at that level in dressage everything seems fluent, effortless and for the untrained untrained eye it may be mistaken for 'easy'. Seeing Simon work with an obviously disobedient horse was something else. Every single aid was visible, uncensored and obvious enough for a child to follow it. What more was: it was consequent, logical; almost mathematic to behold. It followed a strict form: horse does this = Simon does that. It made sense.
The longer Kaisa watched the more complicated the equation became: Kvantespring attempted other ways of evasion and Simon countered those accordingly. Sweat started springing. Froth started flying each time the horse tossed her head. And slowly, slowly, those equations translated to curves, parabolas and circles as the shapes were drawn out across the arena.
At some point Simon removed the saddle from the equation and almost instantly the math added up: order was restored. Kvantespring willingly allowed herself to bend in either direction.
,,Rearing should never be the answer, but I think something about that saddle is bothering her." Simon concluded as he slid from the mare's naked back. 40 minutes of heated arguing had her covered in sweat that drew frothing stripes across her neck where the reins had rested. ,,I assume you already suggested to Andy to have her teeth looked at, but I think you may want to make an appointment with your saddler too."
Kaisa blinked. He was already two steps ahead of her. It seemed... logical to have these things checked, however. Maybe this guy was not so bad after all.
,,Right..." a brief pause. ,,Thank you?"
,,Don't thank me. I'm here to protect your horse's interests, not yours. One more thing --" Simon huffed as he handed the reins back. ,,- I think both you and your horses would be far better off if you discarded the prejudism and refrained from placing your perceived gender stereotypes onto animals. There is always something: 'she's just being a maaare, just being a cheeeestnut, just being a zleeesdin --'. You don't solve any problems with that lazy mindset. Thats why I’m a grand prix rider and you’re not.”
...or maybe this guy was still just a condescending prick.

Next: 4.5: Good Note

...what's up with Kaisa??
Same thing that's up with Simon: fear.
:' >

You doooo remember the fall she had with Zdrasti, yes? Fear of jumping and all that?
It got worse

Kaisa, Simon and ZS Kvantespring reside with meee
Dem textures from cgtextures and from self
No ref