The slalom field. A place Clover both loved and hated. A skill that provided a real challenge. Six poles were placed directly in a row in a pit filled with sand. It wasn't hard to wear back and forth between poles, but doing so in the sand is where the real challenge came from. Eden had dropped her off with Hayley in the mid-morning and together they'd spent their time working on this particular skill. It wasn't a hard one to learn, it was more learning how to adjust her body and positioning based on how her hoof sunk into the sand. Hayley was relentless in pushing her. Cracking her whip for Clover to go every single time she finished a round.
"And again!" She'd called out, snapping her whip.
Clover would turn and take off at a run, slamming her hooves into the sand and darting back and forth between the poles, making her way towards the end, digging her hooves in, turning sharply, and returning the same way she came. Sure, at first she'd bumped the poles more than a few times and had wiped out enough times that she'd rubbed her arms red-raw from slamming into the sand. But Clover was relentless. Perhaps part of it was the disappointment of being told she wasn't ready to try the other course yet. It's not that she was arrogant, but she'd been ready to take on the challenge and had been denied on one jump. It flustered her a little and at times, she could be a bit stubborn.
So as Hayley cracked her whip hard again, Clover took off at a full sprint, each time she leapt between poles she only moved from one hoof to the other. She was very quickly becoming confident in her hooves and it was showing as she went from completing the run in 30 seconds, to close to 17. As she closed out the latest round she came to a sliding stop in front of Hayley who cracked her whip twice quickly and grinned at Clover, reaching up and tousling her blonde hair and smiling.
"Beautiful, Clover. You keep that up and you'll be competing in derby in no time!"
Clover tilted her head a little bit, unsure what derby was. She'd done plenty of research previous to her arrival but she couldn't remember anything called derby.
Hayley giggled, "Derby is just kind of a catch-all term for the competitive events we do. Agility, Carting, Dressage, etc. Etc. Derby is usually what the big get-togethers are called when we or another farm runs events." She smiles brightly, "Keep up the way you are, and perhaps come back to the farm after your trial and you might get to compete in one someday. You might even get a fancy pin for winning! We don't do ribbons like regular horse farms, we opt for pins representing the event in question." She motioned to a small pin on the collar of her shirt, it showed a flower painted in all the colors of the rainbow. The pin was outlined in silver, "Dressage competition during pride week. I got second place alongside my trainer."
Clover blinked a few times and looked Hayley up and down.
Hayley smiled, "Don't act so surprised. Almost everyone you've met here has spent time as a pony. Even Christoph spent some time as a gigantic stallion several years ago. I mean, how can you expect to teach someone to pony, without having done it yourself, right?" She winked.
Clover couldn't help but smile. She'd never looked at it that way before and had never considered that many of the trainers here had all been right where she was. They had found themselves in ponyplay and had decided to move forward to teach others how to love it too. She wondered how many of them missed it and if they even ever got in tack anymore? She thought back on when she was being tacked, the many different sets of tack hanging on the wall. She definitely hadn't seen that many ponies on the farm, it made sense that many of them had moved onto training.
Clover eyed Hayley with a newfound understanding and perhaps respect for her.
Hayley walked over to a bench, picking up a soft white towel. She spent a few moments wiping Clover's sweat-soaked form down and even tousling her ponytail a bit to shake out the sweat, "You've done wonderfully today Clover. I imagine your hooves are pretty sore and based on everyone moving towards the barn it's lunchtime. So why don't you trot off to your stall, get a bit of lunch and when you're done you can meet me back here. I've got to go talk to Mistress Aria for a little bit."
Clover whinnied happily and stomped once.
Hayley snapped her with the towel with a giggle, "Off with you then silly pony."
Clover jumped at the snap but trotted off towards the barn without another word. She was surprised at how well her feet were holding up today. Sure, they were still sore and achy but they weren't anywhere near the excruciating pain they'd been in the previous day and night. She trotted along happily towards the barn.
Near the barn, however, she nearly fainted out of fear as Daydream, the redheaded pony dropped down from the roof of the barn, landing like she was some sort of gymnast and grinning at Clover. She tapped a button on her tack and a polite nicker came from the hidden speaker. She trotted up to Clover and nuzzled her softly then tilted her head and made little lip smacks as she glanced towards the barn.
