xp_logs | Sooraya and Maya; riding lessons

Sooraya continues to teach Maya how to ride.

"A good seat is the most important thing." Sooraya explained as she held Hana's reins, Maya sitting on her back. "It's essential to keep your balance. Keep your back straight. Keep in mind when you ride a horse you should be able to draw a straight line through your ear, shoulder, hip, and heel. Your weight should be on the seat bones in your buttocks."

"Got it." Maya replied, her body settling into the perfect seat instinctively, but that didn't mean she wasn't listening. She discovered in her training with North that she couldn't always rely on just 'getting' physical instruction, not when it was likely to fade if her subconscious decided something else was more important. The joys of having absolutely no control over what her power would decide was important at any given moment. "What next?"

"Your legs. You have then turned outside a bit, but you have to turn them inside a bit... Like... you are hugging your horse with your legs. Just be careful not to really squeeze." Sooraya watched Maya shift her legs for a bit, then nodded approvingly. "Excellent. Now, make sure you have your toes up and your heels down."

"Why is this so involved?" Maya asked, correcting her toes and heels, a stab of irritation sounding in her voice. "I mean, shouldn't the horse just know where I want her to go?"

Sooraya raised her eyebrow at Maya. "How would they know if you don't tell them? It's not like horses are telepathic... But we are almost there. Remember me showing you how to hold the reins before we started?"

"They could be," Maya noted, showing Sooraya she still remembered by taking up the reins from her perfectly. "I mean, humans can't be the only mutants, right? Which would be hilarious, one of the 'paths having an argument with a telepathic cat would make my day."

She had to laugh at that picture Maya painted. "Well, until we do have telepathic horses, we'll have to it the old-fashioned way. Now... gently squeeze your legs against the horse's side." Hana started walking and Sooraya walked with her, her hand still firmly on the reins. "See what I mean?"

Maya’s body had automatically settled into a slight side to side motion, her hands loose on the reins as she slowly walked Hana forward, this was so cool, she was glad she hadn’t blown Sooraya off.

“This is so cool. What next?”

"Now I need you to lean backwards a bit, so that you sit deeper in the saddle. This is how you tell her to stop." Sooraya explained as she continued guiding Hana. "I usually also say halt."

Maya did as told, choosing not to vocalize as Sooraya had suggested, given that she wouldn’t always be with her instructor and it was better to do what she was comfortable with. Hana didn’t stop straight away and Maya had to make her sit back slightly more pronounced.

"Good." Sooraya nodded approvingly. She let go of the reigns and took two step backs. "Now... tell her to start walking again." She'd stay close and Hana would react to vocal commands.

Maya squeezed with her thighs as Sooraya had shown her, and grinned as Hana moved forward at a slow walk. She patted the horse on the side of her neck, being careful not to move her seating at all. While Sooraya had also been showing her rein commands, it seemed like she could control the horse mostly with her legs if she was careful.

"Give a little pressure with just your right leg." Sooraya directed her, still walking close by, then stopped as Hana turned to the left. "Exactly, that's it."

“You’re way too excited about leg movements,” Maya noted but her accompanying smile confirmed that she was teasing. “So, when do I get to run?”

"You need to walk before you get to run, my young apprentice." Sooraya grinned. "We'll do some work on steering and your balance first, but at the end we can see about trotting for a bit. How does that sound?"

“Sounds good, Darth Sooraya,” Maya joked with a grin, waiting for the next instruction. “And who showed you Star Wars?”

"I blame Angel for that." Sooraya replied as she took another small step back so she could see Maya's seat on Hana far better. "I just showed you how to tell Hana to turn left. Can you figure out how to tell Hana she has to turn right?"

Maya pressed down on Hana’s left side with the same amount of force Sooraya had instructed her to use on the right side, keeping herself steady as Hana obediently followed her command, although if Maya had been the horse, she probably would have bucked off whoever was riding her and taken off for the hills.

“Angel’s the super hyper cheery one dating Clint, right?” Maya asked, pressing down slight on her left to straighten Hana back out before looking over at Sooraya. “How do you stand anyone that happy?”

"That's it. Well done." Sooraya complimented Maya. "And yes, that is Angel. And how I stand anyone that happy? We've been best friends since I came to Xavier's over ten years ago. She was my first roommate and things grew from there. Even when I could hardly string ten words of English together we had that click."

“Must be nice,” Maya replied, her tone somewhat bland as she waited for Sooraya’s next instruction, while there were several people Maya felt she clicked with at Xavier’s, it wasn’t something she voiced aloud, or let herself tarry on for any length of time. People had a way of disappearing on you, even when the reasons for them doing so were completely above board and necessary. It was better to simply rely on yourself and not get too close to anyone. “So, you studied here too? What was it like?”

"Interesting. And very different to everything I was used to. I came here from Afghanistan, though I did stay at Muir a little while before that..." Sooraya told her as she took another two or three steps back. "Think you can go around the tree and back to me here?" Hana would respond to her vocal commands if she had to and Maya was picking up things really really quickly... Almost as if...
“I’ll try not to fall off and break my neck,” Maya replied wryly, squeezing her legs gently to get Hana moving toward the tree at a walk, enjoying the feeling of finally riding rather than just doing each move one at a time. “So, how long till I can gallop?”

The idea of being able to take off on a horse when she was angry, to go somewhere and have people not be able to follow easily was seductive in the extreme. Since she couldn’t drive a car, or even get in one currently, and bicycles were easily caught up with, being able to ride a horse was the next best thing to true freedom.

"You're making great progress, but give it a few weeks." Sooraya replied wryly. "Like I said, you have to learn to walk before you can run. But in your case, if you stay serious and work hard at it, I think it might go pretty quick."