Not Natural

Wheee

I'm back from holiday. Hooray

Horse: Madame Emma Bovary
Rider: Pascale de Neveau
Show: #Summer-Dressage-Show 2012
Class: #5, Au Natural
Training pictures: [link] [link]
Supporting artwork: [link] [link] [link]

Beau's original design is by *AmigoGirl

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The bet, on reflection, may not have been the best idea. The dare hadn't been a great idea, but then betting on the outcome of the dare? Well, Jemima and Aaron were enjoying it. They seemed to have opened a book on how soon into the routine Beau would manage to throw him off.
This was despite months of work and the fact that they would have to take Marion's word for the time - if he was bucked off, that was. He wouldn't be. Pascale was confident of this fact. He had to be - if he wasn't, he'd be on the floor before they even entered the arena. Beau knew the routine by now, just as long as she remained calm it was probably going to be ok. Well, he hoped she'd be ok. Or that she'd just go through the motions. Or at least not try to throw him off at the first opportunity.
The mare just preferred wearing tack, it seemed. It had taken hours and hours for her to just accept the slightest, gentlest aids. To be honest, it'd taken hours for her to stop charging around the school at top speed. After several sessions of being carted around at a gallop, Pascale had been about to just give Aaron the hundred pounds and give up - but then, the mare seemed to have had a breakthrough. She had actually accepted his aids, and walked instead of charging, and even to a small extent started to collect her gaits. Maybe it'd even be good for her, this extended training without tack. To be honest it was unusual for her to be ridden with just a single bit, so for her to be controllable (well, not entirely out of control, anyway) while entirely naked was completely astionishing.
The hours seemed to have paid off though, and the warm up they went through - like most of the other contestants in the Au Natural class, entirely without tack - went calmly and easily. Pascale was sure of the test and by now Beau had been through it often enough that she could probably do it without any real encouragement.
So it was with a smile and wave that Pascale nudged his brown mare into the ring. It was with a confident grin that he saluted at X, and a proud and certain nod that he asked the mare to trot on. It was with an entirely different expression that he reacted to Beau's happy little rear.