| ~ | It's not e n o u g h for a person to l e a r n how to r i s e, he must l e a r n how to f a l l | ~ |
Lily Grace ~
Lily was stopped by a reporter who followed the course during the whole time. "Excuse me, miss, but do you concider it right to use bitless bridle against the rules of using bridles with bits?" she asked. Lily winced. That was stupid. She frowned at the woman and gripped the reins tighter. "Yeah, I concider it right. Because bits are painful for a horse's mouth," she snapped as Cortes tossed his head over to the woman before walking off after the other riders by his own rider's command. "Stupid questions.. So what?" Lily murmured to herself and dismounted the friesian stallion, leading him to his stall.
Once at his stall Lily untacked the stallion and groomed him down again, she felt like doing something right - and she was. She remembered the last time she used a bit and the so-called move called 'sawing' [where the reins are pulled in different directions depending on the sawing, causing the horse teeth and mouth damage], and that caused an awful mouth damage to her previous horse. She ignored the thought for now and began picking out the stallion's hooves one by one, carefully and gently. Cortes neighed softly and flicked his tail. This was the start of a new relationship between horse and rider... Not painful, as before.
Once ready Cortes got tacked up again with his dressage equipment and Lily was dressed in the dressage clothes she brought. Cortes neighed and followed his rider to the exit before he got mounted and they trotted to the dressage ring. Lily wiped her brow and kicked her stallion into a walk, walking around on the inside of the dressage arena to warm up a bit before starting. She then stopped him at one end of the ring and pulled the reins, bringing Cortes' head down so his chin was almost touching his neck. The stallion began lifting his front legs one by one high up, doing the so-called 'Splash Walk'.