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Post by Brandwyn on Nov 10, 2011 15:04:51 GMT -5
Description of class: Pippin puts you and your horse through a series of tests and determines your riding ability. If she feels you are ready, whe will teach you some trick riding that could come in useful during certain situations.
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Post by Brandwyn on Nov 10, 2011 15:20:34 GMT -5
Tory figured she had about one hour to kill between classes and she saw Pippen and a boy a bit younger than her near some of the horses. Since she was already on Chip, Tory figured maybe this would be a good time to ask for her riding assessment. She was curious as to where she fell in the grand scheme of the rangers, most of whom were excellent riders.
Personally she felt she was better than a great many of them, having been riding battle horses all her life up until she got Chocolate Chip. Oh she'd been on draft horses and palfrey's as well, but she'd been able to control powerful battlehorses when seasoned, well-muscled squires and even some knights were having trouble with them.
With Chip, they were so in sinc with each other that he was an extension of her body - her legs and she was his brain and arms. They moved and even thought as one. The slightest tightening of a leg, thigh or buttock muscle or shift in weight and Chip responded instantly. She figured she could probaly ride circles around most of those at the Gathering, but then she hadn't yet seen what Pippen could do, nor had she seen most of the other rangers ride any farther than into camp and dismount, so she could be way off the mark. After all, she told herself, they do spend hours every day in the saddle.
She rode up to Pippen and Chip slid to a stop a few feet away. "Umm, hello. You're Pippen, right? I ummm heard that you teach a riding class? " Tory asked a bit self-conciously. "I was wondering... if you have time sometime... umm maybe you could assess my riding?"
She saw the young man next to her, "Um, that is if you have time. Looks like your busy right now, sorry." She said quickly and then remembered her manners, "oh, Hi. My name is Tory. My mentor is..." this is where she always got stuck it seemed. "Well Ringulf and Tandar. It's a long story. I just need so much help I had to have two mentors." She joked and laughed at her own silliness. "What's your name?"
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Post by Firehead on Nov 14, 2011 14:19:07 GMT -5
Pippen was giving Gedric the basic pointers about him and his new horse when Tory came galloping up and skidded to a stop next to them. "Ow-whee, girl! That was some stop!" Pippen exclaimed, interrupting herself.
"Umm, hello. You're Pippen, right?"
"Last I heard." Pippen replied, good-humoredly. "Whatcha need?"
" I ummm heard that you teach a riding class? " Tory asked a bit self-conciously. "I was wondering... if you have time sometime... umm maybe you could assess my riding?" She saw the young man next to her, "Um, that is if you have time. Looks like your busy right now, sorry." She said quickly and then remembered her manners, "oh, Hi. My name is Tory. My mentor is..." this is where she always got stuck it seemed. "Well Ringulf and Tandar. It's a long story. I just need so much help I had to have two mentors." She joked and laughed at her own silliness. "What's your name?"
"Well, sure I got the time. Do you?" Pippen chuckled good naturedly. "It was Pippen, last time I checked." She sensed that Tory was nervous talking to her and threw her all into making her relax. "Now, now, there's no need to be nervous around me--it'll go straight to my pretty head, otherwise." She told Tory, putting a hand delicately on her chest and fluttering her lashes outrageously.
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Post by Brandwyn on Nov 19, 2011 12:49:33 GMT -5
"Now, now, there's no need to be nervous around me--it'll go straight to my pretty head, otherwise." She told Tory, putting a hand delicately on her chest and fluttering her lashes outrageously.
Tory blushed, "It's just that...well... Rick said that...you are the best rider in the Corps and... well...I just..." Tory said haltingly. "Never mind," she mumbled and then looked Pippen in the eye and then glanced at Ghedric.
"I have some time now, but I don't want to interupt you and your apprentice." Tory said. "I can come back later if you like." She looked at Chip's ears. His head was cocked and he was looking at her out of one eye as if wondering what her problem was. "I was hoping I am good enough to learn some tricks." Tory went on. "I have experience riding my father's retired war horse. Old Dodger is a handful, that's sure, but he listens to me. Chip and I have been together for two years now and have saved each other's lives on a couple of ocassions. I am real glad he can swim!" She shuddered at the memory of the river crossing in Gallica that had nearly been the cause of her drowning.
"So what you want me to do with him? Ride around at a walk, trot and canter or something else?" Tory asked Pippen. "Or should I show you the few tricks I already know?"
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Post by Firehead on Feb 4, 2012 10:37:13 GMT -5
Tory blushed, "It's just that...well... Rick said that...you are the best rider in the Corps and... well...I just..." Tory said haltingly. "Never mind," she mumbled and then looked Pippen in the eye and then glanced at Ghedric.
"I have some time now, but I don't want to interrupt you and your apprentice." Tory said. "I can come back later if you like."
"Oh, there won't be a problem." Pippen said, waving aside Tory's worries. "Now that I have another victim, I can show Gedric here what he's going to be learning from me." she gave a mock evil grin.
"I was hoping I am good enough to learn some tricks." Tory went on. "I have experience riding my father's retired war horse. Old Dodger is a handful, that's sure, but he listens to me. Chip and I have been together for two years now and have saved each other's lives on a couple of occasions. I am real glad he can swim!" She shuddered at the memory of the river crossing in Gallica that had nearly been the cause of her drowning.
"So what you want me to do with him? Ride around at a walk, trot and canter or something else?" Tory asked Pippen. "Or should I show you the few tricks I already know?"
Pippen's eyebrows shot up. "You know some already? Wonderful! Yes, indeed, show them to me." Pippen turned and bounded up into the saddle of her Ranger horse, Stryker, and swung around to sit sideways in the saddle, facing Tory. "Your audience is now ready to view your performance. You may begin at any time." she grinned expectantly at Tory.
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Post by Brandwyn on Feb 16, 2012 12:11:07 GMT -5
"You know some already? Wonderful! Yes, indeed, show them to me." Pippen answered and Tory nodded and then thought for a moment before she moved Chip.
Tory was trying to figure out just what she was going to show Pippen, since she'd now opened her mouth and put her foot in it. She glanced around the glen looking at the trees just above head height. Then with a confident nod to herself and a mischievous grin, she turned Chip and urged him into a fast canter, leaning forward to urge him faster. She glanced back to make sure Pippen could see her and then kicked her feet out of the stirrups. Her eyes were on the target ahead as she placed her hands on Chip's whithers just in front of the saddle and pulled her feet up into the saddle's seat.
Her target was a branch draping over the faint path ahead. She stood up in the saddle when Chip was still about 15 feet from running under it. The branch was a fair distance above her head, even with her standing up. She gauged the height and then she crouched down and suddenly launched herself up off of Chip's back toward the branch as they started to go under it.
Tory hoped her timing and distance was right. The last time she'd tried this she had ended up flat on her back on the ground with the wind knocked out of her.
For a moment she thought she was going to miss the branch entirely and end up on her stomach this time. The thought of more broken ribs made her stretch and put some extra "umph" into her jump and she felt her hands close around the top of the limb. Using the momentum from the jump, she pulled herself up and onto the limb and lay there for a moment in relief. But only for a moment before she got to her feet on the limb.
Chip continued to canter and then turned to the right around a clump of bushes. Tory listened for his hoof beats and counted to 10 while she scampered over to the tree trunk. She pretended there was someone pursuing Chip and hid on the far side of the trunk. After waiting a moment or two she slipped off her belt and wrapped it around the tree trunk and slid to the ground, crouching near the trunk.
"Chika-dee-dee-dee. Chika dee-dee-dee" Tory perfectly imitated the tiny black and white bird's call and then began running at a right angle away from the way Chip had originally been going. She heard his hoof beats coming up behind her and adjusted her speed. Without looking behind her, she reached up and grabbed Chip's mane with both hands, running beside him for a few steps. Then she jumped up, swung both legs forward and then back, kicking off the ground, and pulled herself up into the saddle, remounting without either of them breaking a stride.
Tory circled Chip back around toward Pippen and then performed her old routine she used to do on Dodger when she was a kid. She hadn't found a practical use for most of these maneuvers but they would demonstrate that she and Chip were a team and worked well together.
While he was still cantering, dodging trees and underbrush and generally going in a large circle, Tory did a shoulder stand with her toes pointed straight up, then a handstand on his shoulders which she turned into a somersault on his back to come up standing on his rump. Then she slipped back into the saddle, but with both legs on his right side, one foot in the stirrup. She gathered herself on the one side so that anyone looking at Chip from the left side would think he was riderless. The only thing showing was her knuckles tucked into his mane as she clung like a tick to his side.
Then she climbed back into the saddle and did almost the same thing on the left side, but this time she had her bow in her left hand. She looped a leg over the saddle pommel and knocked an arrow on the string at the same time. Leaning down and forward, she dropped almost up-side-down until she could see under Chip's neck and pointed the arrow toward a knot on a tree trunk and fired. She missed the knot by an inch too low. "Drat!" She muttered as she clambered back up into the saddle.
Then she tossed her throwing knife into the dirt in front of them and as they rode past, she leaned way over, clinging to the saddle pommel by her toes and one hand on the stirrup as she reached down and scooped up the knife with the other hand.
Completing the circle, she up-righted herself and leaned back in the saddle, still not touching the reins, and Chip slid to a stop in front of Pippen. Both she and Chocolate Chip breathing heavily.
"It's not much, but that was all I could think of right now." Tory shrugged. "He also swims and has towed me across a river before, but that is really his trick, not ours together."
She looked up at Pippen anxiously, "So, what do you think?"
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