Log: Adrienne and Sam

[x-cannonball.livejournal.com]

Adrienne wants to learn how to ride a horse. Sam was raised on a farm. It was an obvious choice.

Sam had brushed and saddled the horse he was going to use for Adrienne's requested lesson well ahead of when she was supposed to arrive. He stood now talking with her and petting her; he had always been told that it was easier to ride a horse that was your friend. After he saw how some people treated their animals and how they treated those people back, he believed it. He wasn't one to be late, either.

"Wow, that's... bigger than I thought it would be," Adrienne exclaimed when she turned the corner in the stable and spotted Sam with the large horse. "I thought it was going to be a girl horse?" Garrison's girl horse wasn't this big!

"She is a girl horse. Maybe just a larger breed than you'd seen before?" Sam kept his hand across the horse's nose, patting softly as Adrienne stepped in. "She's good for riding, though. And sweet as all get out."

"I've heard that before," Adrienne responded skeptically, eyes narrowing at the horse, "about a horse that is named Sudden Painful Castration." Though now that she thought about it, maybe Kane was making that name up?

"Well, she's named Ginger. Not quite the same, I don't think." Sam checked the saddle one last time. "And I'll be right here just in case you need me. And I figure because this is a pretense to some sort of talk we ought to be having, too." He didn't say it with any malice in his voice, just getting the fact out into conversation.

"Right here, in the sense that you're coming up onto the horse with me? Because I don't want to be on the horse by my-wait, what? What talk we ought to be having?"

"I figured you had a plan. I'm not the only person knows how to ride horses and I think you even have some close friends that are probably better than I am." Sam pushed a stool over with his foot, offering Adrienne his hand to help her up. "And I can ride pairs with you if you think it would be more comfortable."

"If pair means with me, then yes, it would," Adrienne nodded. "I picked you because you're the country boy," she shrugged, "you seemed the most logical choice to learn horseback riding from. Why shouldn't I have asked you?"

Climbing up first, Sam sat far back on the saddle. "I didn't mean it to be spiteful." He offered his hand to help Adrienne up. "I just didn't figure I'd be your first choice when I'm just a casual rider and we have Mounties and such about."

Adrienne eyed the horse wearily, not entirely sure she really wanted to do this. She took Sam's hand but couldn't seem to make herself jump up, remembering that Garrison had just pulled her up last time. "I wanted to surprise the Mountie by learning on my own, actually," she told him with a nervous grin. "Also, I think a part of me didn't want to face the teasing ridicule I'd be in for with him teaching me, and I knew you wouldn't make fun of my crippling fear of horses."

"We all have different fears." Sam nodded, helping to tug Adrienne up so she could sit in front of him in the saddle. "Wanting to surprise him makes sense. I'll do what I can to help you impress him." He reached for Ginger's reins, deciding to take them out of the barn before giving up control.

Closing her eyes as soon as she was on the horse, Adrienne nodded at Sam. "Thanks. Right now, I think he'd be impressed if I could sit here and not mumble about my legs being so close to its teeth." Which wasn't even a joke, considering her conduct the last time she'd been on a horse.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about her teeth much. I already fed her so she'll be plenty calm." Once they were out of the barn, Sam held the reins up for Adrienne. "Want to give it a shot?"

"Why do people always think it's comforting when they tell you they just fed the horse?" Adrienne asked nervously, "When all that really means is that now it has a taste for blood? Do I want to give what a shot?" She stared at the reins as if they were snakes.

"She ate apples and carrots; I'm pretty sure you're safe." Sam rested the reins in Adrienne's hands and helped guide her. "Not much to it, just try it out and you two will get a feel for each other. You're just guiding her, you don't need to be rough at all or she'll get moving faster than you want."

"Right, because apples and carrots are really filling," Adrienne scoffed, eying the back of the horse's head suspiciously. Sam's comment about being rough had her eyes going wide. "Moving faster? No, nonono, we don't want that. Don't want to be rough. Gentle, gentle, gentle. That's the name of the game. So this is horseback riding?" she inquired to distract herself from her fear of being rough and having the horse move faster. "You guide the horse and it takes you where you're supposed to go? How does it know where I'm supposed to be going?"

"She's trained to respond to the reins, you can just pull them the way you want to go. Ginger's a very responsive horse. She's also not very fast, so she's the exact girl we ought to use to get you accustomed to horse riding." Once Adrienne took a slight hold of the reins, Sam let his hands fall away to rest half in his lap and half at Adrienne's sides.

"Don'tletgodon'tletgo!" Adrienne squealed, panicked. "Whatifsherunsawaywithus?"

"Run away to where? She ain't interested in anything except what's here. I taught the other Guthries to ride before their teens; you can manage, I promise." Sam didn't reach for the reins but sat calmly behind Adrienne despite her panic.

"OhGodohGodohGod." The horse kept walking, slow and straight, and after a minute or two Adrienne's rigid posture started to relax slightly when she realized the horse wasn't running away with them. After another minute, however, she was back to looking panicked once again. "Here come the trees; what if it runs into one? How do I make it turn? I don't want to crash!"

"She's a horse, not a car. She doesn't crash, so relax. Just lightly move the reins to one side and she'll move on over that way." Sam kept his voice calm and soothing for Adrienne as much as Ginger.

"I don't know," Adrienne replied nervously, "I've seen some of those jumping horses crash into things on TSN news." She did as instructed, moving the reins to touch the right side of the horse's neck, impressed when the horse started moving left a little. "Hey, it's almost like a steering wheel," she mused. "Is this one of those jumping horses? Do you ever ride those and do those jumps?"

"I was never a competitor. We did a bit with Tennessee Walking Horses. They do exactly what it sounds like." Sam rode along without making any movements that would startle Ginger or Adrienne. "Most horses don't do that kind of thing without a lot of training unless they're scared."

"Exactly what it sounds like? So they... walked? You... competed with... walking horses?" Adrienne took her eyes off the road for a second to look back at Sam. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, since driving cars really fast in a circle is another favourite southern pasttime. But still... walking?"

"Well, they're show horses and we didn't show them or anything..." Sam sighed at the Southern comment. He decided to just let it die instead of getting into another game of defending his homeland.

"Show horses? Like a dog show?" Feeling brave enough to experiment with the horse, Adrienne put the reins onto the left side of its neck and watched it begin to plot right. "You know, I don't think this is so hard after all!" she commented, proud of herself. "So how have you been lately, Mister Guthrie?" she asked casually, changing the subject.

Seeing she was getting comfortable with the horse, Sam let himself relax and pay more attention to the conversation. "Not unusual, other than Jay leaving. I'll have to adjust to that again."

"No difficulties coping with the fact your ex-girlfriend has a new beau?" Adrienne inquired, looking down at her feet and then at the reins in her hand. "How do I make this thing change gears?"

"Just a light tap with the heels of your feet. I'd give it a bit first, you might feel adjusted but you want to take your time." Sam welcomed the chance to answer a horse question and let the other one pass.

Ignoring the advice, Adrienne dug into the horse's sides with her heels, eyes going wide when it broke out into a leisurely trot. She bounced in the saddle a few times, hitting her tailbone hard enough to send pain shooting up her spine. "Shit! How do I make it stop?" she cried out through gritted teeth.

Sam reached around Adrienne to tug back on the reins, slowing the horse to a near stop. "Horses only have a couple speeds. Better to get used to one before another."

Adrienne turned the horse around to head back towards the stable, using one hand to rub at her sore backside. "With the eating and the biting and the bouncing and the 'only a couple speeds', horses definitely seem like an inferior product to me," she grumbled. "So were you purposefully evading my question about Morgan and her new boyfriend?"

"Not something I care much to think or talk about." Sam stayed on the horse with Adrienne all the way back to the stable, climbing off and then offering his hand to help her off once they arrived.

"Understandable," Adrienne sympathized, taking Sam's hand and swinging her leg over the horse to dismount. She didn't really understand since she'd never been dumped, but she could pretend she did, because it seemed nicer than saying she didn't understand. And to a degree she was able to imagine what he must be going through- Morgan was a great person to have around and losing her would have made Adrienne pretty grumpy, too. "You know, my assistant is single," she pointed out to try to cheer him up.

"Not sure a woman who works in a place as nice as yours would be interested in me. I appreciate you, though." It was the nicest way Sam could think of to decline the pity match making and the assessment was probably true.

"Well, lucky for me," she grinned. "Still, I think you sell yourself short if you think someone like Amara wouldn't be interested in you just because she works at my modeling agency as my PA."

Sam shook his head, "I didn't know you meant Amara. I figure if she's interested she'll tell me?" He'd never considered it. He also didn't think Adrienne had mentioned this idea to Amara.

Adrienne frowned in confusion at Sam. "Why does the girl always have to tell you she's interested first? If you're interested, why can't you tell her you're interested? Are you interested in Amara?" She hadn't mentioned Amara for any reason other than to try to give him another option since Morgan was off the table, but really, why wouldn't a cute, polite single guy be interested in Amara? She had a lot going for her from what Adrienne could tell.

"She's pretty but I can't rightly say I know much about her." Sam began to remove Ginger's saddle so he could brush her and clean her shoes. "And women don't always have to tell me they're interested first."

Hanging around in case Sam asked her to help with something, Adrienne kept a good distance between herself and the horse. Even if she felt more comfortable about riding and steering one, she still didn't want to get near its mouth. "Well, maybe you should learn more about her. On a date," she suggested, grinning.

"Why the sudden interest?" Sam brushed the horse casually, rubbing her nose from time to time.

Adrienne pondered that for a moment. "I have no idea, actually. Might be because she's a nice, sweet girl, you're a nice, sweet boy and my recent adventures in dating has made me keen on hooking up all the people I think would be good for each other?" she suggested, as if she was unsure herself why she seemed to want to play matchmaker so often lately.

"Well, I appreciate you thinking of me. Maybe I'll ask her out sometime." Sam left it at that, possibly to appease Adrienne but there wasn't any way to tell for sure.

"Great! I'll tell her to expect a call from you," Adrienne answered cheerfully. Nothing like pressuring a nice boy about disappointing a girl, she thought to herself with a diabolical grin.