City Girl Gone Country

[Jude Dorrian]

"Hang on a second," Jude muttered, then swiftly swung his legs off Graphite again, and spun himself around behind Ailith.
Settling himself in the saddle behind her, and prodding her forward a couple of inches, Jude reached around her waist to take the reins.
"Hold these," he told her, "not too tightly mind, but have a firm grip on them. Remember not to pull on them too much, or you'll confuse him."

[Ailith Rayner]

Ailith nearly pis... Ailith was very shocked at Jude's fancy maneuver and watched the space he recently filled with wide eyes. He poked her in the back a few times so that he had space enough on the saddle to sit. Ailith felt Jude arms take the reins and she looked down. When he spoke as if nothing awesome had just happened Ailith turned her head to look at him.
"That was wicked by the way. And I never use that word, so feel privilaged."
She looked back at Jude's hands and held them in exactly the same way he did, baby-finger and fore-finger over the top of the reins everything else below.
"And you turn by pulling on the hand that's in the direction you want to go in?" Ailith guessed.

[Jude Dorrian]

Wicked?!
Awesome.
"That's right," he encouraged her, resisting the temptation to show off any further. "Okay- as you apparently already know, you need to kick him to start him off. Kick him a bit more if you want to make him trot. And so on and so forth..."

[Ailith Rayner]

Ailith gave Graphite a good firm kick and he began to set off at a walk. She kicked again and he speeded into a trot. It felt no different to what she had done before but now she could see where she was going. She pulled on her left hand and the horse changed his direction. Oooh that was interesting... She pulled on her right and Graphite was on the home straight again. Feeling rather happy that she hadn't got herself and Jude bucked off the big, grey and, until recently, scary beast, and also quite proud that Jude hadn't told her she was making a hash out of it, she gave Graphite another kick and they reached a... canter? Or something ... maybe. Unexpectedly, Graphite increased his speed yet again, Ailith was sure she hadn't kicked him so one of two things could have happened, Jude or Graphite.
Suddenly, a thought cropped up in Ailith's mind... it was a little thought, but quite significant and since they were about three-quaters of the way there she thought she'd better ask.
"Not that this isn't great or anything but just to make sure how do you slow down?"

[Jude Dorrian]

Jude leaned around Ailith, looking on at the stables and gave Graphite a good kick so that he would speed up. The horse grunted beneath them, its hooves pounding the ground as it sped up to an incredibly quick canter. Jude had to say, he was incredibly impressed by the way Ailith was handling the horse. It was such a contrast to a hour ago! Hour and a half? Hard to say. He tended to lose track of time out in the fields.
"Not that this isn't great or anything but just to make sure how do you slow down?"
Jude grinned sheepishly, realising he probably should've explained that to Ailith before he let her take the reins. "See that post over there?" he called pointing. "When you get there, pull the reins back and just say, 'Whoa', real calm and soothingly. Okay?"
Ailith- true to form- followed his orders perfectly. Jude directed her to the stables, and they both got off easily, Graphite looking quite keen to get back inside. Fortunately for them both, the farmer had black-mailed some Orchid first-years into mucking out, so they were free to go.
So Jude took her hand shyly, surprised by its warmth considering the cool winter breeze, and together, they headed back up to the school.