GETTING TO KNOW THE SURROUNDINGS
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with a snort and a swish of the tail, lilly had her gelding, st. barths, bending smoothly around her leg. st. barths, known as ben, gave another tail swish, and dropped his head as lilly lengthened her back taller, squeezed the reins for one stride and gave a gentle squeeze with her legs all at the same time. ben was easy to put on the bit, but after a few strides, he would be the hardest horse to keep on the bit. sure enough, in five more strides, ben's head started to rise, but lilly squeezed the reins a little harder and ben snorted as he put his head back down. lilly smiled, and sat into a bouncy trot. ben swished his tail again, knowing that lilly was asking for the canter soon. lilly asked for the left lead once she reached the top right corner of the arena, ben swishing his tail and gracefully breaking into a powerfully beautiful canter. although slightly small, ben had a powerful canter like a stallion of 17 hands. hoola-hooping with her hips to keep ben cantering, lilly did the same routine as earlier; lengthen her back taller, squeeze the reins and squeeze with her legs. ben put his head down and his mane blew in the wind beautifully. feeling him quicken as the reached the long side, lilly half-halted in the inside rein and ben's inside hind hit the ground. ben slowed, swishing his tail madly to show that he hated slowing down. lilly just smiled, pushing her inside leg into ben's side as the rounded the turn, ben rounding around her leg again. after making a 20-meter circle at a, lilly stopped hoola-hooping with her hips and sat back tall, ben's gait slowing to a trot then a walk within two strides. after walking a few strides at the walk, lilly dropped the reins to the buckle and rubbed ben's neck effectionatly. 'good boyy!' she exclaimed happily, knowing that what she had just done was like warm-up for warm-up. ben dropped his head and stretched out, neighing softly.


swinging her leg over carefully, lilly dismounted and quickly set up a few jumps. lilly remounted, warming ben up by trotting him over some trot poles. next, lilly cantered ben in a 20 meter circle, jumping a small 2'3" vertical in the circle. ben swished his tail again, wanting more. lilly cantered ben toward a wide 2'10" square oxer, feeling ben's back rising up and carrying her into a forward position. once they landed, lilly said, 'goooood boy!' and rubbed his neck with one hand, picking the reins back up and cantering toward the next jump. cantering powerfully, lilly spotted the sweedish oxer placed at about 3'3". ben saw it too, and pricked his ears as he ran toward the jump. lilly collected his stride, counting 3, 2, 1! and flying over the oxer gracefully. lilly brought ben to a walk, letting him walk a little bit before picking back up on the rest of the jumps.