Mr. Steed led Tommy and the horse to the ring. They looked a little odd together, with Tommy in overly formal attire and a slightly crooked helmet, and his instructor who was questionably underweight and underdressed compared to Tommy, along with a very well put together, proud and regal horse.
When they walked into the ring Tommy realized how big the arena was. Tommy guessed that it was probably about fifty meters wide and eighty-five meters long, maybe more.
The ring had a sandy floor, and looked like someone had recently sprayed water on it before letting a few horses on it to mess it up, leaving some spots neat looking and raked and other spots with horseshoes.
The ring had no walls, only thick wooden pillars that held up the ceiling, which looked like the ceiling of a really big gym. On one side of the arena, behind the fence that encircled it, most likely to stop the horses from running off, there was a stand. The stand was completely empty, although like the rest of this area it was incredibly clean.
On the part of the arena that you ride on, there were two people other than Tommy and Mr. Steed. One of the people was on a bay, it looked very similar to the one that Tommy had admired earlier. Maybe it was in the last chapter.
Unlike the previous bay though, Tommy could see that it had tall black stockings. The other person, the one who wasn't on a horse, was shouting instructions at the person on the horse. It looked like a lesson. Other than them, there wasn't anybody else in the arena.
"That's Whiskey there. He's beautiful. Nice ride, too." Mr. Steed watched Whiskey and his rider for a minute.
"Okay, do you see that tiny staircase over there?" Mr. Steed asked, and contrary to usual, hy waited for a response from Tommy before continuing. When Tommy spotted the staircase, he nodded. Looking at the staircase, he agreed with Mr. Steed that it was tiny. It was two steps tall, with a large landing at the top. It also looked hollow, Tommy guessed that was so it would be easy to move if the need were to arise. "Go stand on it and I'll lead Zelda over, and you'll mount. Don't worry about anything though. I'll walk you through how to get on, and Zelda probably won't drop you."
Tommy walked over to the steps as instructed, climbed up and waited for Mr. Steed and the horse. Hy came over with the horse, and slowly walked Tommy through how to get on.
"Put your foot in the stirrup,"
"What's the stirrup?"
"The triangle. No, other foot." Tommy put his foot in the stirrup. "Now put your hand on the front of the saddle, other hand, and the other on the back. Just like that. Now swing your other leg, the one not in the stirrup, over her back, and put that foot in the other stirrup." Tommy didn't say anything as Mr. Steed gave him instructions, he was very focused. It did, however, take a couple of tries before he managed to get both his feet in the stirrups.
By the time Tommy was on the horse, the original people had left, the ones with the horse named after a drink.
Mr. Steed then led Zelda to the center of the arena, and left Tommy and her there, saying that he was going to go check on the other students and see where his assistant was, he couldn't deal with fourteen horses on hys own hy said.
Hy came back a moment later, with a lady following. She was really pretty, with elaborate makeup on.
"Tommy! This is Marshall! She's my partner, and she helps me run this class. She'll also be helping you today, next week, and hopefully for a long time, should you be at this school."
Slowly more horses trickled in, until there were the promised fourteen horse and rider duos. This included Tubbo, who was on a short, gray, barrel chested horse. It was well sized in Tommy's opinion, Tubbo being short and all.
Even though there weren't many people, it was still a lot because of the horses. Compared to his other classes, there were about half the number of kids.
Tommy was sitting on Zelda, in the dead center of the arena, watching his classmates walk their horses around the border of the arena.
Mr. Steed, who had been on the other side of the arena, told the class to trot, and went over to Tommy. Zelda was fairly happy to just stand and not work, while Tommy sat atop her and tried to hold on.
Tommy was very impressed that none of his colleagues had fallen yet.
When Mr. Steed reached Tommy, he looked at him a moment, and said, "The stirrups are too short. I have to adjust them." He then continued to adjust and readjust the stirrups, making Tommy balance in different positions while he figured it out. Finally, and to Tommy's relief, Mr. Steed decided that the stirrups were at a reasonable length, and he grabbed a lunge line. It was a long rope that was about twenty feet long.
Hy walked back over to Tommy and clipped the lunge line to Zelda's bridle, and started her walking in a circle. Marshall took over with the rest of the class, doing different exercises, and occasionally having one person do something on their own.
Tommy was very focused on what Mr. Steed was saying, and by the end of the class Tommy was off the lunge line, which he was very proud of himself for.
At the end of the lesson, Mr. Steed asked Tommy to come on Wednesday after his last class for some extra help, and Tommy was very happy that he was required to go, because even he knew that he needed a little extra time with the instructor to really get the new skill down.
After Tommy got off Zelda, after several tries, mind you, his legs were shaky from using so many new muscles. He walked back up to the barn and found Tubbo there, waiting for him. Tubbo was stroking the nose of the horse that looked like Whiskey.
"Did you like it?" Was Tubbo's immediate question when he saw Tommy. He looked very excited and happy, so Tommy assumed that he had had a good ride.
"Yeah! It was a lot of fun, and Mr. Steed let me ride without the lunge line at the very end!" Tommy added on the last bit quickly, he was happy about his achievement. "But why was I on such a big horse? I've never ridden before. AND WHY DO MY LEGS HURT SO MUCH!"
Tubbo laughed, "You've never ridden is why your legs hurt. And you were put on Zelda because you're tall, and she probably won't drop you. Mr. Steed likes putting people on horses that are a reasonable height in comparison to them and have similar personalities. So you're tall, and you ride the taller and more energetic horses."
"Huh. Makes sense I guess."
"Yeah,"
They waved goodbye to the instructor, and walked back up to the castle for their next class, which sadly for Tommy, was German...
Word Count: 1198
A/N: German is hard, and I'm making the characters learn French too, lol
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Boarding School - SBI
FanfictionTechno, Tommy and Wilbur had been adopted by Philza, and since then they had been homeschooled. When Philza decided to send his kids to go to school, they find adventure. --------- I started working on this back in 2021, and for whatever reason neve...
