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Description

Show: HCL FINALS SYDNEY

TEAM: Space Shuttles

Rider: Laura Bassett

Horse: SLS Jantar

Representing the team or riding as an individual? Representing! #ONELASTTIME

Beginning | Previous

“I am... 86% sure it’s going to kill us. Just look at it; sitting there all smug. It knows it has control. Power.” Laura peeked inside the hotel room through the crack of the partly-open door she clung nervously to.

“It won’t hurt you,” Suri side-eyed her friend as she stood, arms folded, from the other side of the door.

“I’m telling you, it’s waiting for us. It knows.”

“It’s a spider,” Suri replied flatly.

Laura snapped the door closed as it suddenly scurried forward across her bed, sending chills down her neck, and her shoulders scrunched up in response. “Could you… just…” She stuck a hand through the gap and motioned the spider away. After a few moments, she reopened the door and glanced through, seeing Suri now sat on her bed with the spider nowhere to be seen. “Did you get rid of it? How-?”

Suri shrugged, smirking at her friend's fear. “Magic.”

Laura paused mid-step as she found herself inside again, hesitatingly scanning the room once more.

“It’s gone, I swear! But we need to go now,” Suri jumped up and threw Laura her show jacket, moving her outside.

Upon reaching the showgrounds, Laura and Suri made their way through the heavy crowds of people who were eager to catch the conclusive thrills of the competition. And why wouldn’t you want to witness it all in person? The scores were all incredibly close, the results could go one of many ways. They eventually found themselves sat in the calms of the private area, covertly observing from afar, Laura noting the children among the families in the crowds excitedly tugging their parents to the main event; the next generation of jumpers, she thought. She broke off her people-watching and quietly glimpsed at Suri next to her.

“You never did say how you got these. Are they burns?” Laura curiously eyed the long scars across Suri’s face and gestured towards them, but Suri flinched her head back.

“That’s a story for another day.”

Laura, abruptly shut down, opted not to pursue her interrogation and left it at that for now. They continued to sit in silence, watching people pass for a few minutes, Suri the first to break that silence.

“Acceptance.”

“What?” Laura looked back at her.

“The final stage of grief,” a smile etched itself across Suri’s face. “Everything you’ve gone through hasn’t gone unnoticed and I realised its a pattern.” She continued,” It’s okay that you’re not okay. And you might never be truly okay with things, and that’s okay, too.”

“You know what’s not okay?”

Suri shook her head.

“The amount of times you said ‘okay.’” They both paused before bursting out laughing. Fellow athletes started to make appearances as they walked past the pair, which was Laura’s cue to get going.

“Go on, go get them one last time,” Suri said, standing.

Laura patted the collar of her shirt down, “Is it really the last time, though?”

-

Out on the course, Showbiz was as energetic as ever; as if it was his first time being in an arena. Laura hadn’t quite worked out how the heavy stallion kept excelling in these warmer climates, but she wasn’t about to question it when he never made any fuss. They took up a gallop up the long side of the arena before steadying again as they came to the Shuttle-themed jump on the far side. They took the risk in coming in at an angle, which wouldn’t normally have been a problem for Showbiz, but then Laura caught sight of the flowers at the base of the jump.

The same flowers she’d wear in her hair when she was little. The same flowers that decorated the envelope of the letter. She hadn’t noticed them in the bustle of the coursewalk earlier on and it caught her completely off guard, now. On their approach to the jump, her lack of concentration caused Showbiz to falter and he threw his head up in confusion.

Thoughts clouded Laura’s head in an instant. She thought about where she was only a year ago. She thought about where she was when she found out she was accepted to take on the League. She thought about Vienna and the whirlwind of affairs that developed soon after. She thought about where she found herself now.

Back in Caesarea, LDN had come forward after her round to offer her the sponsorship Josie told her about; the chance to move forward and explore new adventures with the company was worth the effort and strength she had built over the season. In fact, Showbiz was now sporting the fresh new saddle from them, with the added promise that their stirrup leathers would stay intact.
On top of that, Laura was met by reporters who wanted to interview her, wondering how she felt and how she accomplished the win. It was an entirely new life for her and she found herself moulding to it remarkably well.

The truth of it was, it's so hard knowing there's so many options as to who you could be and where you could end up, but you only have one life; you can't do them all at once. And that's where the doubt starts to sink in. You start to wonder if you're making the right choices. Laura thought back over the competition season this year and began to think that maybe her choices were indeed the right ones. She was moving forward, at least.

Back in the reality of the saddle she sat in, she wrestled with Showbiz, desperately pulling him towards the jump. With the hold of his breath, and a tad far from ideal takeoff point, Showbiz curled his legs up and finally set up to fly.

In the end, if you lose someone but find yourself, you’ve won.

‘You don’t need to look up to see me because I’m always here right beside you.
Your journey is only just beginning.
Mum x’

Word count: 994

Fini
--

Me: I won't use pastels for a little harpg piece cause they pricey.
Also me: PASTELS.

Sorry this scanned so terribly x_x

I've never drawn a full background, or actually anything to this extent, in pastels before and I can't say I'll be quick to do it again :I My transfer paper betrayed me and didn't want to transfer my first sketch onto the pastelmat, so I started to sketch straight onto the pastelmat but then realised I'm incredibly uncomfortable drawing horses facing right, so dug some different paper out to transfer from instead. I drew this shit out 4 times. I rubbed pastel into my eyes. The beginning of this was such a mess, it almost never happened.

But here we are.
If I'm needed, you can find me laying face down on the floor somewhere. Prod to reactivate.

Aaaaand if anyone's interested, I recorded the process of the drawing and popped the video up on Youtube in the worst quality ever (with a fail at the end) - youtu.be/f_7yc0pjHuU

Also who clocked that I followed the 5 stages of grief as themes throughout this shitshow of a story? Probably none of you cause I missed half of the denial chapter that never ended up getting officially uploaded, but cake for whoever did catch on xD

--
Commentary notes:
- Laura brings back SLS Jantar, who she won the Caesarea leg on. He's been quite the extraordinary boy since most of the horses in his lineage are primarily western-trained, but thanks to prior training at his previous home (Garden Eden Stables ), he's proved to be quite the jumper. He can probably owe some of the jump talent from his grand-dam, RPS Sex With My Ex. He's also been excelling in the warmer of environments which is unexpected, considering his breed (Ober). He isn't as experienced in turf arenas so this might be a testing round.

- Laura's best success so far, like Jantar, is her win in Caesarea which she managed to do with no stirrups. This time, their tack is fully intact x)
- Laura's riding style is quite loud, vocal and expressive, particularly with her hands, which mirrors Jantar in that he bucks and has a rather bouncy stride.
- They're going to be going all out for the final - using pace, inside turns and leaving strides out where they can, which people have become accustomed to seeing from them by now.

Showbiz reference
Clouds reference
Flowers reference
Method: I free-handed a complete digital version of this entry (eye-to-hand) to base this piece on and then gridded it onto the pastelmat. Minor digital touch-ups were then done and I added the HCL/Cadeaux logos in post, too.
Materials: Rembrandt soft pastels, Stabilo CarbOthello pastels pencils, Faber-Castell pastel pencils, pastelmat, blood, sweat, tears.

/letsendthewalloftexthere
/actuallylemmejustsaytheshuttlesarethebestteamandilovethemallthankyougirlsforthisyear
/okayimdone

--
Laura, Suri & Showbiz © EquineRibbon
Art © EquineRibbon

Description

Show: HCL FINALS SYDNEY

TEAM: Space Shuttles

Rider: Laura Bassett

Horse: SLS Jantar

Representing the team or riding as an individual? Representing! #ONELASTTIME

Beginning | Previous

“I am... 86% sure it’s going to kill us. Just look at it; sitting there all smug. It knows it has control. Power.” Laura peeked inside the hotel room through the crack of the partly-open door she clung nervously to.

“It won’t hurt you,” Suri side-eyed her friend as she stood, arms folded, from the other side of the door.

“I’m telling you, it’s waiting for us. It knows.”

“It’s a spider,” Suri replied flatly.

Laura snapped the door closed as it suddenly scurried forward across her bed, sending chills down her neck, and her shoulders scrunched up in response. “Could you… just…” She stuck a hand through the gap and motioned the spider away. After a few moments, she reopened the door and glanced through, seeing Suri now sat on her bed with the spider nowhere to be seen. “Did you get rid of it? How-?”

Suri shrugged, smirking at her friend's fear. “Magic.”

Laura paused mid-step as she found herself inside again, hesitatingly scanning the room once more.

“It’s gone, I swear! But we need to go now,” Suri jumped up and threw Laura her show jacket, moving her outside.

Upon reaching the showgrounds, Laura and Suri made their way through the heavy crowds of people who were eager to catch the conclusive thrills of the competition. And why wouldn’t you want to witness it all in person? The scores were all incredibly close, the results could go one of many ways. They eventually found themselves sat in the calms of the private area, covertly observing from afar, Laura noting the children among the families in the crowds excitedly tugging their parents to the main event; the next generation of jumpers, she thought. She broke off her people-watching and quietly glimpsed at Suri next to her.

“You never did say how you got these. Are they burns?” Laura curiously eyed the long scars across Suri’s face and gestured towards them, but Suri flinched her head back.

“That’s a story for another day.”

Laura, abruptly shut down, opted not to pursue her interrogation and left it at that for now. They continued to sit in silence, watching people pass for a few minutes, Suri the first to break that silence.

“Acceptance.”

“What?” Laura looked back at her.

“The final stage of grief,” a smile etched itself across Suri’s face. “Everything you’ve gone through hasn’t gone unnoticed and I realised its a pattern.” She continued,” It’s okay that you’re not okay. And you might never be truly okay with things, and that’s okay, too.”

“You know what’s not okay?”

Suri shook her head.

“The amount of times you said ‘okay.’” They both paused before bursting out laughing. Fellow athletes started to make appearances as they walked past the pair, which was Laura’s cue to get going.

“Go on, go get them one last time,” Suri said, standing.

Laura patted the collar of her shirt down, “Is it really the last time, though?”

-

Out on the course, Showbiz was as energetic as ever; as if it was his first time being in an arena. Laura hadn’t quite worked out how the heavy stallion kept excelling in these warmer climates, but she wasn’t about to question it when he never made any fuss. They took up a gallop up the long side of the arena before steadying again as they came to the Shuttle-themed jump on the far side. They took the risk in coming in at an angle, which wouldn’t normally have been a problem for Showbiz, but then Laura caught sight of the flowers at the base of the jump.

The same flowers she’d wear in her hair when she was little. The same flowers that decorated the envelope of the letter. She hadn’t noticed them in the bustle of the coursewalk earlier on and it caught her completely off guard, now. On their approach to the jump, her lack of concentration caused Showbiz to falter and he threw his head up in confusion.

Thoughts clouded Laura’s head in an instant. She thought about where she was only a year ago. She thought about where she was when she found out she was accepted to take on the League. She thought about Vienna and the whirlwind of affairs that developed soon after. She thought about where she found herself now.

Back in Caesarea, LDN had come forward after her round to offer her the sponsorship Josie told her about; the chance to move forward and explore new adventures with the company was worth the effort and strength she had built over the season. In fact, Showbiz was now sporting the fresh new saddle from them, with the added promise that their stirrup leathers would stay intact.
On top of that, Laura was met by reporters who wanted to interview her, wondering how she felt and how she accomplished the win. It was an entirely new life for her and she found herself moulding to it remarkably well.

The truth of it was, it's so hard knowing there's so many options as to who you could be and where you could end up, but you only have one life; you can't do them all at once. And that's where the doubt starts to sink in. You start to wonder if you're making the right choices. Laura thought back over the competition season this year and began to think that maybe her choices were indeed the right ones. She was moving forward, at least.

Back in the reality of the saddle she sat in, she wrestled with Showbiz, desperately pulling him towards the jump. With the hold of his breath, and a tad far from ideal takeoff point, Showbiz curled his legs up and finally set up to fly.

In the end, if you lose someone but find yourself, you’ve won.

‘You don’t need to look up to see me because I’m always here right beside you.
Your journey is only just beginning.
Mum x’

Word count: 994

Fini
--

Me: I won't use pastels for a little harpg piece cause they pricey.
Also me: PASTELS.

Sorry this scanned so terribly x_x

I've never drawn a full background, or actually anything to this extent, in pastels before and I can't say I'll be quick to do it again :I My transfer paper betrayed me and didn't want to transfer my first sketch onto the pastelmat, so I started to sketch straight onto the pastelmat but then realised I'm incredibly uncomfortable drawing horses facing right, so dug some different paper out to transfer from instead. I drew this shit out 4 times. I rubbed pastel into my eyes. The beginning of this was such a mess, it almost never happened.

But here we are.
If I'm needed, you can find me laying face down on the floor somewhere. Prod to reactivate.

Aaaaand if anyone's interested, I recorded the process of the drawing and popped the video up on Youtube in the worst quality ever (with a fail at the end) - youtu.be/f_7yc0pjHuU

Also who clocked that I followed the 5 stages of grief as themes throughout this shitshow of a story? Probably none of you cause I missed half of the denial chapter that never ended up getting officially uploaded, but cake for whoever did catch on xD

--
Commentary notes:
- Laura brings back SLS Jantar, who she won the Caesarea leg on. He's been quite the extraordinary boy since most of the horses in his lineage are primarily western-trained, but thanks to prior training at his previous home (Garden Eden Stables ), he's proved to be quite the jumper. He can probably owe some of the jump talent from his grand-dam, RPS Sex With My Ex. He's also been excelling in the warmer of environments which is unexpected, considering his breed (Ober). He isn't as experienced in turf arenas so this might be a testing round.

- Laura's best success so far, like Jantar, is her win in Caesarea which she managed to do with no stirrups. This time, their tack is fully intact x)
- Laura's riding style is quite loud, vocal and expressive, particularly with her hands, which mirrors Jantar in that he bucks and has a rather bouncy stride.
- They're going to be going all out for the final - using pace, inside turns and leaving strides out where they can, which people have become accustomed to seeing from them by now.

Showbiz reference
Clouds reference
Flowers reference
Method: I free-handed a complete digital version of this entry (eye-to-hand) to base this piece on and then gridded it onto the pastelmat. Minor digital touch-ups were then done and I added the HCL/Cadeaux logos in post, too.
Materials: Rembrandt soft pastels, Stabilo CarbOthello pastels pencils, Faber-Castell pastel pencils, pastelmat, blood, sweat, tears.

/letsendthewalloftexthere
/actuallylemmejustsaytheshuttlesarethebestteamandilovethemallthankyougirlsforthisyear
/okayimdone

--
Laura, Suri & Showbiz © EquineRibbon
Art © EquineRibbon