Butterfly Acres: Tales from the barn

The Triangle Exercise

"Come on Valen, we have time before our afternoon classes." 

"Absolutely no we do not, Kass." Valen turned away from their essay to look into Kass's giant puppy eyes. 

"We have 3 hours, that's totally enough time." Kass rubbed Valen's shoulders, "Look it's a half-hour drive so that's one hour, one hour of riding, and then one hour of tack up and clean up. Totally enough time." 

Valen held their face and a breath before slowly releasing both. "You are not gonna stop asking are you?" 

"Either way you're not going to finish that essay so you may as well come to the barn. I already pulled out your breeches come on." He dropped the pants in their lap and dashed to get their paddock boots. 

Valen gave a long sigh as they saved their work and started to change clothes. 

"So here is the plan," Kass sped down the highway out of town, "We get to the barn, you tack up the horses and I set up the arena. That way we save time and when it comes to the end you put away and I tack down." 

"What fancy thing did you see on Instagram this time?" Valen worked on their long hair, knowing full well that Kass couldn't be stopped once he got something on his mind. 

"It is called the triangle and it looks just like a delta and I couldn't resist trying it out." Kass was bouncing with excitement. "It's three long elevated poles so you have to bunny hop them!" 

"You think Divi is ready for that? He is still pretty green to jumps."

Kass laughed as he pulled onto the side roads, "Absolutely not, but I have another cavaletti set I found that is good for building his confidence I want you to try and I want to warm up on."

Valen just turned away, yes they were happy to not be in their small dorm room in the busy city but they had projects to work on and essays to write. They were in their sophomore year and needed to look good to apply to their departments in a few weeks. Kass was going after a biotechnical degree to work tech for companies running lab tests and creating new medicines. Valen was aiming for a generalized computer science and math degree to set them up for whatever tech job seemed good and accepting of them. 

As soon as Kass parked the car he was out of it and running off towards the arena. Valen watched him go and slowly moved towards the barn. Divi and Pi were in the front pasture turn out and while Divi was willing to wander towards them, Pi was refusing to be caught. The older thoroughbred was running amuck and playing chase. 

When Valen finally got Pi caught and brought in with Divi, there was five-year-old Equulei wanting to help. A long sigh and a puppy eye child meant Valen had a 'helper' with grooming and saddling, making the task take longer. Lei was impossible to say 'no' to at times and Valen was pretty sure she knew their weak spots. 

At the end of the day though, it didn't matter since when Valen finally got the horses tacked up and ready and said sorry that they couldn't watch Lei ride so she couldn't ride with them for the thousandth time... Kass was still messing with the poles.  

"What happened to it would be quick to set up?" Valen handed the dapple gray gelding to him. 

"What took so long tacking up? I thought you were a 'master groom'?" Kass took Pi and continued to mess with the triangle. 

"Lei happened, and Pi was playing chase again." They mounted the small pinto mustang with ease. "Hurry up or you won't have any time to actually ride." 

"Oh is she coming out to ride too?" He finally mounted his tall gelding. 

"No I told her it was going to be a quick ride and we could not closely watch her this time." Divi was smooth in their trot as Valen took him through circles and weaves. 

"Work him through the cavalettis," Kass called as he warmed up Pi. "Do the first line, the one without the crossrail" 

The pair worked the geldings through the courses and Kass took on the triangle. On the first pass, Pi dropped his shoulder and jumped sideways. Kass wasn't ready and was launched from the saddle. Off went Pi and Valen rushed to his side, jumping from Divi. 

"Hey, are you okay?" Valen looked over their friend, he didn't appear to be injured.

"Didn't you warn me about his shoulder dropping yesterday?" Kass pushed himself up to his knees. 

"Yeah, but are you okay?" Valen started dusting off their Nintendo shirt and breeches looking for signs of injury.  "Does anything feel broken?"

"My pride."

Valen stopped in their tracks and got up to fetch Pi. 

"You set me up for that!" Kass finished dusting themselves off as he stood. "Thank you for collecting Pi for me." 

"Sorry I care about you," Valen mumbled grumpily as they handed over Pi. "Have fun doing it now that Pi knows how to get out of it." A smirk crossed their face and Kass returned it. 

Now Kass was determined to beat this triangle thing and it took a long time to finally get over it the way he wanted to. Going from the vertex to the base instead of the base then vertex. Pi had slippery shoulders for sure. 

Valen had finished a while ago with Divi, happy with the confidence he had over the crossrail and the happy chill attitude the gelding was having towards the jumps. Now they just coached Kass. Another pass and Valen dismounted, trying to signal that it was time to leave and Kass wasn't getting the message. So they started cleaning up the cavalettis and with that done, Kass was still not done. 

"Kass, it's time to go, we have class soon." 

"One last pass." 

"No more, I'm cleaning up now." Valen took the poles down and put them away as Kass cooled out Pi. 

When the triangle had finally been put away, Pi was cooled out so Valen worked with Kass to tack down and clean the horses and put them away quickly. They were rushing the whole time and Kass continued the rush into the drive home. 

"What about being on time for class?" Valen put their knees up into the dash as they waited in traffic. 

"Look that triangle had it coming." 

"I'm not agreeing to do this ever again." 

"What if I buy you panda express after class." Kass also knew Valen's weak spots. 

"Panda and you also explain to the professor why we are late, not leaving out the part where you fell off." 

"But my pride?" 

"You said it was already broken, it couldn't have already healed." Valen knew some weak spots too.

"Ouch!" Kass clutched his heart, "That hurt; but you have a deal."

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see the art on deviantART here -> https://www.deviantart.com/kyraltre3/art/The-Triangle-920968937