Disciplines Of War
Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians.
Part Four
Leo entered the meadow and saw Jessica waiting for him, he also noted the different horse that she was tying up near by with a long rope it was Ninja's day off and she had told him that if he wanted to meet her today she'd bring some books on dressage including the ones with the photos of the airs.
Leo had agreed feeling it was time for Jessica to either show the proof of such a thing or stop telling him it was possible one of the two.
Her riding hat was off and her dark brunette hair was up in a ponytail and instead of the riding pants, blouse and high black riding boots she was in jeans and a t-shirt and a smaller boot.
Leo strode over glancing at the brown horse with a large white patch on its rump and tiny brown spots freckled within the white area.
" So who is this?"
" This is Dancer he knows dressage to medium class two he's a gelding and an Appy."
" Appy as in appetizer?"
" No Appaloosa" Jessica corrected gently " A breed of horse. Now here in Alois Podhajsky's book The Complete Training of Horse and Rider there are the photos of the Lipizzaners doing the airs. Alois was director of the Spanish riding school for some years and he was also an Olympic medal winner. In fact he was the director during world war two and during that time the mares and foals were in danger of falling into enemy hands and Alois was able to enlist the help of General Patton to retrieve the mares and bring them back home so the breed would not die out as it was feared would happen."
Leo listened but his eyes were busy taking in every detail of the pictures depicting the airs both with riders and without them. So Jessica hadn't been fooling him after all.
" What is this book here?" he pointed to one of the other ones.
" Well this is a reproduction of one of the oldest book you will probably ever find on horsemanship inside it mentions other books and what other people have said but those books didn't last through the years as Xenophon's book did.
Xenophon was a Greek who lived back around 400 B.C. and a lot of what he says about horses and the training of them is still used by dressage riders today. He even describes a passage in that book which goes to show how long these art has lasted for though I'm sure for Xenophon it was more for war purposes then art. He even recognized that horses were beings in their own right with feelings and nerves and all the sort of things that make us beings."
Intrigued Leo picked up the book and flipped through it noting different parts were highlighted and he stopped to read some of them.
Force will never produce any thing beautiful.
Don't overdo too much of ANYTHING is not good for horse or rider.
After a successful exercise dismount and lead your horse back.
Correct training makes horses more beautiful.
Young horses should be trained in such a way that they not only love their riders but look forward to the time with them.
The horse must make the most graceful appearance of his own free will. We teach him what we want him to do. ( A/N Quotes here are taken from Alois Podhajsky's book Complete Training of Horse and Rider and from Franz Maringer's Horses are Made to be Horses. Xenophon's book I do not own though my instructor owned it and I read it years ago very interesting. I believe it is called The Art of Horsemanship but I might be mistaken as it has been awhile.)
" So in essence he is the founder of dressage" Leo summarized.
" Sort of but almost all horse people can benefit from what he says though they might not agree with everything he says like the part about getting a horse to jump something that he refuses to jump Xenophon says you should dismount and show him the way and he is to follow after."
Leo laughed " You can lead a horse to a jump but can you make him leap? Talk about needing leadership skills."
Jessica chuckled " Yeah well years after Xenophon many horse masters believed the only way to get a horse to do these things was through brute force. They didn't seem to understand that if a dancer is to dance beautifully then you could not beat them with a rod or shove long spikes up their feet. Brutality will never make any thing beautiful."
Leo nodded he was all too aware of that fact. He had seen it countless times before the aftermath of brute force and violence on others. It wasn't what he wanted to think of at the moment.
" So do you know how often the U.S has won gold in dressage at the Olympics?"
" Well not really and besides for the equestrian events you can either do it individually or as part of a team. I do know that combined individual and team for three day events and dressage between the years of 1932 to 1992 the Olympics were held about ten times and the U.S won six gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals. I also know that the year the Olympics were held in Montreal, during those years the U.S brought home both gold and silver for individual three day event." ( A/N : I did a quick search on the Internet for previous Olympic medal winners for dressage and found a site that listed what years and medals each country had won. As it wasn't a thorough search there maybe some error on my part here this was more to give a general idea then anything else. As for the next part I make NO excuses for and I know the facts are true and I just have to put this in because I am Canadian and from British Columbia and I am proud of our Dressage team.) Jessica took a breath and continued, " As for the recent Pan Am Games Team U.S was hard pressed in dressage but we did win the gold while the Canadians took silver. In individual dressage however a Canadian rider from British Columbia won gold." ( thank you Leslie Reid our gold medal winner).
Leo arched an eye ridge giving Jessica an amused look " You haven't studied this at ALL have you?" he teased.
" Oh not in the least. It is of no interest to me what so ever" she admitted jokingly.
" Yeah I've noticed" Leo chuckled.
" Hey Leo can I ask you something personal?"
Leo considered her question before answering " Ask me and then I will tell you if I am free to answer it or not" He finally replied cautiously.
" Well I have told you before about my brothers and their taste in movies. In the movies though the ninjas all have smaller weapons as well as their other weapons. I know you have your swords but I was just wondering if you carried other things with you too." Jessica explained hesitantly she had never paid much attention to those movies but now after meeting Leo she had been paying closer attention to the ninja stuff at any rate.
" Ninjas traditionally carry all sorts of weapons or items that they might need on them in hidden pockets or as part of their disguise.
Smaller weapons, potions and powders, bits of rope climbing claws each ninja would decide what they needed and would take it. I carry smaller weapons in my belt pouches like the shuriken or throwing star." Leo replied as he fished out a shuriken to show to Jessica.
Jessica inspected the small weapon closely resting her finger lightly against one sharp point " I can see how these could hurt you if they hit you."
" Oh they do that all right especially when they dig into a real fleshy part of your body. I ought to know considering we fight another clan of ninja back home in New York."
Jessica turned to look at Leo " There is a clan of ninja in New York?" she asked skeptically.
" Yes there is, they act in secret and very few citizens are aware that they even exist but they are very much into crimes and causing trouble of all sorts and we are the only ones who seem aware of their activities." Leo explained.
" We? Who are we? You and the fellow who raised you?" Jessica pounced on the words.
Leo smiled " I haven't been fully honest with you Jessica but that was because at first I wasn't sure how much I could trust you with. It is highly imperative that those who know about us keep our secret. We do have a few human friends but we must be careful of who we invite to be our friends for we can imperil their lives and if they are not trust worthy they could endanger ours.
Our two closest friends are April O'Neil and Casey Jones it is their place we are staying at out here.
I have three brothers. Mike is the goof, Don is our resident genius and Raph he is the irritant of the family." He watched Jessica still handling the shuriken but her eyes were on him and she was attentive. " Do you want to learn how to throw that? I could teach you if you like."
" Really? That would be neat Leo. Don't worry I won't tell anyone about you or your family I don't think any one would believe me any ways but I promise your secret is safe with me."
Leo smiled " I all ready knew that Jessica or I wouldn't have told you in the first place. All right you have been teaching me about dressage lets see how well you can throw a shuriken. We'll keep it away from your friend there so he doesn't spook." Leo began picking himself up from out of the meadow grass his eyes scanning for a likely practice spot.
He knew by now that Jessica was safe at least with a certain amount of information.
TBC