Disconcerting: Day 1

Word Count: 6,052

Summary of Events:

Caetline arrived at the riding school for another day of helping out with the beginner class — as she was going to be starting to teach a second beginner class in the autumn. Macaulay and his friends watched the opening half of a friendly international football* match between Scotland and Poland, which finished in a 1–1 tie. Caetline participated in her lesson, watching her friends ride over the course as well as riding it herself; the last rider over the course was Jada, one of the most recent students to join the class despite her being the same age as Caetline and her friends . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

It would've been understandable if Jada had started riding later than Caetline and her friends, but, from what Caetline had learned, Jada — who had transferred from another riding school three or four years ago — had started riding at the same age as they had, so the fact that she didn't look as skilled as they did was surprising.

Everyone groaned as Jada took down a rail. Coraline was giving it her best, but something wasn't seeming all that right and Jada ended up knocking down more rails and bricks than she left up.

No one was surprised that this frustrated Jada, who roughhoused poor Coraline, jerking her around by her mouth and circling her in both directions.

"Jada," Mrs. Quincey said. "You know better than to haul on Coraline's mouth like that."

"She won't listen to me!" Jada snapped. "She ruined the whole course because she didn't want to listen."

"Come here please Jada," Mrs. Quincey said, that firm edge to her voice that everyone knew better than to dally after hearing.

It wasn't that Mrs. Quincey would erupt into a rage, but the next time there was the opportunity to do something fun whoever hadn't responded to Mrs. Quincey when she'd first used that tone would be forced to miss out as a punishment for not listening.

Jada, knowing that well, rode over to Mrs. Quincey, who surveyed Jada's legs both from up close and far away. She asked Jada to do a few things and Caetline watched intently, noting that there was, indeed, a time delay between when Jada started the cue and Coraline responded.

"Lucie, if you please," Mrs. Quincey said. "Can you come in and ride Coraline for me?"

Amélie took Avalon's reins from Lucie and Jada dismounted Coraline. Mrs. Quincey helped Lucie up onto the slightly taller horse and shortened the stirrups for her before asking her to run Coraline through the same paces Jada had.

For Lucie, Coraline responded instantly and seamlessly and Mrs. Quincey didn't have Lucie do half as much as she'd had Jada do.

"I thought so," Mrs. Quincey said.

Everyone waited for her to say more, but she let there be a long pause as she helped Lucie down from Coraline and thanked her for her help.

"You need a different horse Jada," Mrs. Quincey said. "Coraline is too short for you, thus you can't cue her properly. We'll have to look at some of the horses over fifteen hands for you next time to see how they work for you. You can finish the lesson on Coraline, but I'd encourage you to try and raise up your feet a little bit to get her to respond better for now."

Jada nodded, looking a little stunned. She got back onto Coraline without a word and everyone rode back to the smaller arena where they usually worked through a particular skill for their lesson.

Pronunciations:

Coraline: cohrahleen

Amélie: ahmehlee

*football is being used here for what North Americans call soccer.