Briarwood Elite Riding Academy: Take the Reins

Chapter 14: Kryptonite

“Ashley, you and Target Acquired can go with Blair and Ben over there.” Sebastian pointed the little blond girl in our direction and she quickly scrambled over; pulling a dark bay pony behind her.

Mentally I cringed away from both her and the pony.

I hated ponies with a burning passion; they were too stubborn to work with half the time and the other half they’re just plain devils.

And I had had some pretty rough experiences with younger kids as well; deciding that they just didn’t like me all that much.

So here I was stuck between hot yet awkward Ben, a devil and my kryptonite; all while being judged on this very activity, needing a perfect score to hope to even continue on in the competition.

“Hey there.” Ben smiled to the young girl.

Ashley danced about shyly; she looked up at us from under thick black eyelashes, her cheeks painted rosy with a slight blush.

“Hi.” Her voice was more of a squeak than anything and I had to admit she was pretty adorable.

While the other groups were being set-up I focused on getting Ashley to feel less awkward around us.

“My name is Blair and this is Ben.” I stated with an exaggerated grin. “How long have you been riding honey?”

“Um since I was this many.” Ashley sloppily gestured four with four plump fingers.

“I started riding when I was that age too.” I said, kneeling to meet her eye level.

She blushed and moved closer to her pony.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught Ben giving me a hooded look, a slight smile on his lips.

“And how long have you been riding this handsome boy?” Ben caught my eyes and moved on quickly walking to stroke Taz’s small neck.

“Since forever.” Ashley announced proudly; clearly less shy around Ben than me for whatever reason.

“Alright now that everyone is settled we shall begin.” Sebastian announced; “I will go around and examine each group closely as you teach your lesson. Your group will be judged on how well you understand the concepts of flat work and how will you can teach these concepts. At the end of an hour; your group and your young rider will have to do a mini flat class without your instruction.”

“Alright Ashley let’s get you mounted.” Ben smiled, swinging around a plastic mounting block and securing it at the base of Taz’s stirrups.

Ashley practically jumped up the stairs and stood expectantly on the mounting block for instruction. While she waited I gave a quick mental one-over of the little girl just to make sure her helmet was on correctly and everything was O.K.

“O.K Ashley step this foot into this stirrup.” I made sure to point to both her left foot and her left stirrup while Ben held onto Taz’s reins and with a little bit of help Ashley mounted successfully.

“Begin walking along the rail, please.” Ben smiled.

Ashley tapped Taz into a walk; though it was more of a dull moping than a walk but I didn’t want to push the pony too hard, knowing just how complicated those little beasts were.

“Tap him into a better walk.” Ben said pointedly; or not apparently.

Taz reluctantly picked up his hooves and gave a wonderful working walk; though he did bellow out loud snorts to show his disapproval of working.

“O.K good job Ashley.” I praised; “But I would like to see your pinkie finger outside of the reins; like this.” I gave a demonstration to the young girl and she nodded quickly before fixing her mistake.