Keep Your Head Down

"No, seriously, what are you even looking at?" Kent asked the horse in an amused manner, more talkative around the horses than he was around people. The dark bay Rico was standing next to him, head high in the air, sharp gaze angling out toward the pasture. Rico had only recently come to Valkyrie, but had so much potential that he was going to be raced in a prospect soon. It wasn't his first time, but in his previous race he hadn't done quite as well as his bloodline thought he should, so Kent was hoping a little tune-up training would do the trick. Plus, he was a big, sleek yearling, so he had a lot of natural, mature muscle already working for him. Perhaps it was just a matter of getting the experience to know what was needed of him.

Kent gave one jerk on the line to get the colt's attention, and Rico turned his head as if he had truly forgotten the trainer was there, but didn't have an issue with shifting his focus. The colt was fully tacked, reins tied back, longe line running through the ring on his bit and around his poll to the other side - about as close as he could get without actually getting up on the horse. As a yearling, Rico couldn't have that happening too often, so training from the ground would suffice since he was comfortable with a rider. "Alright, time to work. You can visit with your new friends later." Kent backed toward the center of the ring, jerking the line whenever Rico tried to follow him, signalling his desire to keep him where he was. Rico's training and intelligence allowed him to understand the old man quickly.

Kent clucked and lifted the lunge whip with his right hand, and Rico obediently began trotting to the left. The colt had the deep, sweeping strides of an older horse, telling Kent one thing - he'd definitely had good training where he'd been before. After a couple of minutes, Kent clucked again, signalling Rico into a canter. The colt lengthened his stride but didn't raise his gate, so Kent slapped the ground with the whip, eliciting a buck from the young colt. "Enough of that," Kent said firmly, slowing the colt to a trot then asking for the canter again. This time Rico complied with only a toss of his head. Better, but they'd have to work on the coltish displays. After a few minutes he stopped the colt, and repeated the whole process to the right. It wasn't a matter of building up the colt's muscle, because he already had that down. It was more of making sure he was used to the feeling of the saddle and willing to listen to a human's command. It didn't require a long work, just enough to get him focused. As it was, Rico was only sweating lightly when Kent asked him to stop, patting the colt's neck once before leading him out. Hopefully the colt had matured enough since his last prospect to do well in the upcoming one, because he knew what he was supposed to do. It was up to the horse, at this point.