How Green Becomes Wood

"I hear donkeys are really smart," Xander agreed. "Oh, Nina is waving for us to stop. You'll want to pull on the reins. Start off lightly and increase the pressure slowly until you feel him responding. When he starts slowing down, release the pressure and let him stop on his own."
 
"Okay," Daizi nodded, carefully doing as she was told and hoping she interpreted him properly. When Big John came to a stop, she both praised and thanked him quietly while stroking his neck. Then she asked, "Now what?"
 
"We've reached the time limit for Big John. Nina's coming over to take over, and Joey is getting the mounting block to help you down," Xander explained. "I need to move forward out of the way, but I'll be close."

"How do you feel?" Nina asked, walking up to Daizi. "You did really well for your first time. I'm impressed." She put a hand on the saddle as far up as she could reach, resting near Daizi's hand but not touching her in case she didn't want that.

Xander moved ahead to get out of the way. Big John heaved a big sigh, his sides expanding then contracting sharply as he shuffled his feet and stood politely waiting for people to do their people thing.
 
"Okay," Daizi nodded, taking a deep breath. When Nina walked up, she easily accepted the offered help while mentally storing away a joke for when she was recounting this to Dark later, "I feel good. A bit tired, but that doesn't surprise me. I really enjoyed it."

Once she was back on her feet, she stumbled a little bit as she readjusted to standing on still ground, but after righting herself, she stretched deeply.
 
Nina made sure she was stable, putting a hand on her shoulder to help her. When Daizi started stretching, Nina snickered lightly. "Big John is watching you. I think he's afraid you are going to fall over."

The big horse put his nose near Daizi, trying to understand what she was doing.

"I should take him back," Nina said. "Xander's running a bit of energy off of Mudslide before rejoining us. Would you like to help me brush him down? It's a lot like brushing a dog, but less squimy. And bigger."
 
Nina guided Daizi back to the barn where there was a small concrete pad outside on one side of the barn and a tie for horses as well as brushes and hoses. Big John did not need a hose down, but brushing was pleasurable for the horse. Once Big John had his saddle and bridle removed and was tied in place, Nina gave Daizi a soft brush and showed her how to use it in long strokes against his sides. Nina would get the ticklish spots and his legs by herself. Big John relaxed fully, lowering his head and propping one hoof up on the tip.

Xander came over several minutes later. "Hey, Mama. Is he more or less hairy than Enkidu?"
 
Daizi was glad to take the care into brushing him. It seemed peaceful for him and she found the feeling and sounds of it relaxing too Often she'd pass one hand over his body before following it with the brush so she'd know exactly where she was taking the brush. For Big John, this added the benefit of additional affection.

"I think he is less hairy," She answered, "But his hair doesn't clump as nicely as Enkidu's fur."
 
"When he starts shedding in the spring, then it'll clump," Xander assured her, smiling as he watched her work. Big John was clearly relaxing thoroughly into the affection and grooming, and Daizi seemed to be enjoying herself. A win-win!

Once Big John had finished his brushing, Xander took Daizi around to explore other areas of the stables and showed her the simple obstacle course. None of the "obstacles" were even knee high, but they lay scattered about the larger arena to create an interesting but still controlled environment for horses and riders.
 
"Either way, your father will be glad only Enkidu walks around shedding." Daizi laughed, taking the time to carefully finish grooming Big John. Once she was finished what she could do, she spent a little bit more time petting and speaking lovingly to him before walking with Xander to explore the other stables and the obstacle course. She was glad to get to walk through it even though she doubted she'd remember it when she was here next, "Do you do this course often?"
 
"Yeah. Not as much anymore, now I can do the more advanced one with Mudslide sometimes, but we come back here a lot to work on basics. Both of us," Xander told her. "Most of these obstacles are actually pretty light, so I and other riders can move them around and mix things up. Otherwise, the horses would get either bored or lazy."
 
"It's more crowded for one thing, with weirder looking obstacles, and some bars set a bit higher so a horse has to either jump or step higher. You can things that move like flags or plastic bags, too. It's supposed to help simulate a real trail ride. There's an even more advanced course, but I've never been on it," Xander told her.
 
"That's interesting," Daizi mused, finding some banal enjoyment in tapping her cane around the items in the obstacle course, "I bet it's fun to be on the horse when they jump. I bet you'll get to be on the advanced course, one day."
 
"Mudslide hates jumping," Xander admitted. "I'm not sure why. He might do a hop, but he hates jumping. He'll run like nobody's business, and he's ridiculously mischievous. I bet someday we'll get to the advanced course, but we gotta work on his jumping issue. Mostly to figure out why. If he don't wanna jump, it's okay, I'm okay with not jumping, but what if there's a reason behind it beyond just doesn't want to?"
 
"Once Enkidu stepped on a bee going on the steps to our front porch. For months after that, we had to carry him down those steps, he refused to walk. He'd walk down the steps to the backyard, but the little step on our front porch became the bee step, and he was too afraid to attempt it," Daizi told him, tapping around the obstacles quite well with her cane, "It was a gradual process teaching him he wouldn't get hurt again."
 
"When I was a kid, I had to go through something called Obstacle and Mobility Training. O&M. It teaches you how to tell where you are in your environment and how to safely move about it. They had us do obstacle courses so we learned how to use the cane." Daizi explained, carefully navigating around one of the blocks, "They started taking me when I was just a toddler and I went until Saladin sent me to New York."
 
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