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So this is finally posted and its epic For a long while *LeavingNeverland and I have been trying to find a show where we could enter a mum and baby team, so when the pairs jumping appeared, we had to go for it. So yay - Aphie gets to compete with her first foal, a now fully grown mare, Misty Mountains' Angel Dust.

Typically we would suffer from a major artblock right before the deadline, but we struggled through it, and we have an entry

Show: Fox Run Farm's Winter Extravaganza
Host:
Stables: Lakewood Farm Misty Mountain Stable
Horses: Lakewood's Walking With Angels and CS Angel Dust
Class: Pairs Jumping; Day 5
Number: #04

Relevance: Arrival Image
Setting: Fox Run Farms;

Entry will be a collaboration between *LeavingNeverland and myself.

Training:

Arrival:

Previous Showing:

Notes:

Nev is responsible for the amazing lineart, as well as all the colour and shading work on the horses and riders, there, while I used my beloved airbrush for the very snowy background and the slightly quirky candy cane jump behind them

Chess is jumping in her side saddle, as usual (and I only had to help with some minor arranging of legs there, because google is hopeless for side saddle refs at this angle). Not only is side saddle jumping - for those of you who aren't familiar with it - completely safe and a sport in its own right, but it helps here, too, because there's only one rider's leg between the horses. There's less chance of them kicking each other and Aphie's quarters can be partially kept in line by Dusty (who she won't kick because it's her daughter). So it's all good.

As for the hand holding/crossed reins...You get more points for holding hands, and I had the idea to cross the reins like you see on horse pairs in driving. Risky, yes, but we have got training images to prove it wasn't all easy sailing, and we were allowed to take the chance for the show. Plus it makes for more interesting art .

Nev's submission: [link]

---Nev wrote a story on her submission of the same image, and this story snippet takes place after that---

They touched down after the last fence and cantered away, flicking packed snow into the air behind them. Aphie snorted, chucking her head and her ear flickered. It had barely left Dusty and Malachi's direction since they'd traded reins and gone in and Chess - despite Mal's default grumpy setting (and that was polite) - was grateful that he was such a skilled rider. He'd not once yanked her rein and seemed to determinedly ignore the mare's small quirks. She was still glad she'd used a hackamore, since Aphie put up with poll pressure far better than on the mouth, but it couldn't really have gone better.

They trotted out, Chess still beaming and in high spirits, Malachi still scowling (though Chess suspected he was secretly thrilled) and they separated, handing back their reins to walk off the horses. Chess let Aphie's re-buckled reins lay over her withers and grasped the leaping horn of her saddle so she could swing her right leg down and sit astride the mare, if a little oddly. She rotated her ankle and loosened up the joints, slipping her left foot from the stirrup too and turned her gaze to Dusty.

Mal was walking her on a long rein, too. The younger mare's bright chestnut coat gleamed under the muted sun and though she blew out cold breaths of air and walked with her neck low, her ears were pricked and her tail was high.

It was the strangest thing, to steer one horse whilst feeling another's weight on the end of a rein, but Dusty was a sweet, if sensitive, mare and over time had grown used to the double direction. She'd done very well. Mal had, too - Chess appreciated that he'd remained focused and quiet throughout the ride, and even more that he'd been very careful to keep his aids subtle and not once touched Aphie by accident (they'd learned once that didn't usually end well for anyone) - but no matter how well he'd done, Chess would stay quiet. She didn't think he'd appreciate her telling him that in a surprised tone of voice, which was pretty much the only way she imagined she'd manage it.

A few more circuits and the horses were breathing steadily. Aphie had lifted her head and Chess quickly gathered a light contact on the reins. The hackamore may not touch her mouth, but that didn't mean it was any less severe than a bit; she had to be careful to keep the touches light still or the mare would be rearing. Aphie stopped, though. Chess patted her solidly, feeling the chocolate coat warm but dry beneath her hand. She signalled to Mal, who seemed to shrug it off, but he appeared behind her as she rode Aphie out of the gate.

They left the warm up ring and made their way to the lorry in the field. Much of the snow had turned to sludge and around them were empty spots where people had left, or trailers with warm lights glowing inside as people settled for the evening.

They weren't doing the same. They were leaving tonight - a flight had been booked to take them back to Lakewood overnight and Malachi and Dusty were flying from there to get back to New Zealand the next afternoon. Chess was fond of messing with people's heads, and being so hyperactive around Malachi seemed to do that just fine, so she kept it up, but she was tired and she couldn't wait to get back home, see the other horses and crash while letting Austin and Becca deal with him until he left. Mal seemed to appreciate that Austin was down to earth (at least the most of anyone on the Farm) so that would work.

They both stashed tack, sponged down and rugged up then got the mother and daughter loaded up into the back of the lorry. Chess let Peanut out for a quick run as they tidied up their patch of snow covered grass and then they were all piling into the cab.

The sun was going down. Chess turned on the headlights and Peanut curled up on the seat next to her. Mal hunkered down on the far side near the window. He appeared to have forgotten his concern with allowing her to drive, so Chess stayed quiet, flicked on the radio and began steering them off the farm.

Mal reached over and pressed a button on the console, flicking off the country music and the droning sound of a traffic news report filled the cab.

Chess scowled at him. Peanut whined and lifted her head to gaze at the lit up radio like it had done her a personal insult.

"What?" Malachi demanded? We've got a long drive ahead; this is relevant!"

Chess stuck her tongue out at him and pointedly switched it back. She really did it just to see him get annoyed. That and she hated listening to travel news. "I'm driving. I'll get us there on time. Go to sleep and leave me with my music."

"You call this music?" He muttered, turning to the window.

Chess refrained from snorting. She really wanted to meet Marianne and Chris now, just to congratulate them on not having throttled the guy. But then...they really were tired, and he'd be asleep in no time...there might be a sharpie in the glovebox - she'd have plenty of time to use it before they were at the airstrip.

XD - these two get on when it comes to their horses, and they can at least appreciate riding talent, but boy do they not like each other much when the horses are out of the equation Malachi's such a straightforward, serious person and Chess has never had a straightforward or serious day in her life. But much more is hopefully to come with Misty Mountain and Lakewood, so the stories hopefully won't end here!

Haha - is it blatantly obvious that I hate drawing bare trees? It should be. That aside, I love how this came out and its awesome we got these two horses together for a competition Thanks, Nev, for struggling through your art block to get it in on time!

Between us, we've worked on this over the last week or so, but as you can tell from all the extra images, its been in the works for longer.
Not sure which refs Nev used, so see her submission.
This photo used as a ref for the background as supplied by *Spotz-Stock - [link]
Right-hand characters, Chess and Aphie, copyright to *Tattered-Dreams
Left-hand characters, Malachi and Dusty copyright to *LeavingNeverland
Do not take, copy, edit, redistribute or manipulate.

Description

So this is finally posted and its epic For a long while *LeavingNeverland and I have been trying to find a show where we could enter a mum and baby team, so when the pairs jumping appeared, we had to go for it. So yay - Aphie gets to compete with her first foal, a now fully grown mare, Misty Mountains' Angel Dust.

Typically we would suffer from a major artblock right before the deadline, but we struggled through it, and we have an entry

Show: Fox Run Farm's Winter Extravaganza
Host:
Stables: Lakewood Farm Misty Mountain Stable
Horses: Lakewood's Walking With Angels and CS Angel Dust
Class: Pairs Jumping; Day 5
Number: #04

Relevance: Arrival Image
Setting: Fox Run Farms;

Entry will be a collaboration between *LeavingNeverland and myself.

Training:

Arrival:

Previous Showing:

Notes:

Nev is responsible for the amazing lineart, as well as all the colour and shading work on the horses and riders, there, while I used my beloved airbrush for the very snowy background and the slightly quirky candy cane jump behind them

Chess is jumping in her side saddle, as usual (and I only had to help with some minor arranging of legs there, because google is hopeless for side saddle refs at this angle). Not only is side saddle jumping - for those of you who aren't familiar with it - completely safe and a sport in its own right, but it helps here, too, because there's only one rider's leg between the horses. There's less chance of them kicking each other and Aphie's quarters can be partially kept in line by Dusty (who she won't kick because it's her daughter). So it's all good.

As for the hand holding/crossed reins...You get more points for holding hands, and I had the idea to cross the reins like you see on horse pairs in driving. Risky, yes, but we have got training images to prove it wasn't all easy sailing, and we were allowed to take the chance for the show. Plus it makes for more interesting art .

Nev's submission: [link]

---Nev wrote a story on her submission of the same image, and this story snippet takes place after that---

They touched down after the last fence and cantered away, flicking packed snow into the air behind them. Aphie snorted, chucking her head and her ear flickered. It had barely left Dusty and Malachi's direction since they'd traded reins and gone in and Chess - despite Mal's default grumpy setting (and that was polite) - was grateful that he was such a skilled rider. He'd not once yanked her rein and seemed to determinedly ignore the mare's small quirks. She was still glad she'd used a hackamore, since Aphie put up with poll pressure far better than on the mouth, but it couldn't really have gone better.

They trotted out, Chess still beaming and in high spirits, Malachi still scowling (though Chess suspected he was secretly thrilled) and they separated, handing back their reins to walk off the horses. Chess let Aphie's re-buckled reins lay over her withers and grasped the leaping horn of her saddle so she could swing her right leg down and sit astride the mare, if a little oddly. She rotated her ankle and loosened up the joints, slipping her left foot from the stirrup too and turned her gaze to Dusty.

Mal was walking her on a long rein, too. The younger mare's bright chestnut coat gleamed under the muted sun and though she blew out cold breaths of air and walked with her neck low, her ears were pricked and her tail was high.

It was the strangest thing, to steer one horse whilst feeling another's weight on the end of a rein, but Dusty was a sweet, if sensitive, mare and over time had grown used to the double direction. She'd done very well. Mal had, too - Chess appreciated that he'd remained focused and quiet throughout the ride, and even more that he'd been very careful to keep his aids subtle and not once touched Aphie by accident (they'd learned once that didn't usually end well for anyone) - but no matter how well he'd done, Chess would stay quiet. She didn't think he'd appreciate her telling him that in a surprised tone of voice, which was pretty much the only way she imagined she'd manage it.

A few more circuits and the horses were breathing steadily. Aphie had lifted her head and Chess quickly gathered a light contact on the reins. The hackamore may not touch her mouth, but that didn't mean it was any less severe than a bit; she had to be careful to keep the touches light still or the mare would be rearing. Aphie stopped, though. Chess patted her solidly, feeling the chocolate coat warm but dry beneath her hand. She signalled to Mal, who seemed to shrug it off, but he appeared behind her as she rode Aphie out of the gate.

They left the warm up ring and made their way to the lorry in the field. Much of the snow had turned to sludge and around them were empty spots where people had left, or trailers with warm lights glowing inside as people settled for the evening.

They weren't doing the same. They were leaving tonight - a flight had been booked to take them back to Lakewood overnight and Malachi and Dusty were flying from there to get back to New Zealand the next afternoon. Chess was fond of messing with people's heads, and being so hyperactive around Malachi seemed to do that just fine, so she kept it up, but she was tired and she couldn't wait to get back home, see the other horses and crash while letting Austin and Becca deal with him until he left. Mal seemed to appreciate that Austin was down to earth (at least the most of anyone on the Farm) so that would work.

They both stashed tack, sponged down and rugged up then got the mother and daughter loaded up into the back of the lorry. Chess let Peanut out for a quick run as they tidied up their patch of snow covered grass and then they were all piling into the cab.

The sun was going down. Chess turned on the headlights and Peanut curled up on the seat next to her. Mal hunkered down on the far side near the window. He appeared to have forgotten his concern with allowing her to drive, so Chess stayed quiet, flicked on the radio and began steering them off the farm.

Mal reached over and pressed a button on the console, flicking off the country music and the droning sound of a traffic news report filled the cab.

Chess scowled at him. Peanut whined and lifted her head to gaze at the lit up radio like it had done her a personal insult.

"What?" Malachi demanded? We've got a long drive ahead; this is relevant!"

Chess stuck her tongue out at him and pointedly switched it back. She really did it just to see him get annoyed. That and she hated listening to travel news. "I'm driving. I'll get us there on time. Go to sleep and leave me with my music."

"You call this music?" He muttered, turning to the window.

Chess refrained from snorting. She really wanted to meet Marianne and Chris now, just to congratulate them on not having throttled the guy. But then...they really were tired, and he'd be asleep in no time...there might be a sharpie in the glovebox - she'd have plenty of time to use it before they were at the airstrip.

XD - these two get on when it comes to their horses, and they can at least appreciate riding talent, but boy do they not like each other much when the horses are out of the equation Malachi's such a straightforward, serious person and Chess has never had a straightforward or serious day in her life. But much more is hopefully to come with Misty Mountain and Lakewood, so the stories hopefully won't end here!

Haha - is it blatantly obvious that I hate drawing bare trees? It should be. That aside, I love how this came out and its awesome we got these two horses together for a competition Thanks, Nev, for struggling through your art block to get it in on time!

Between us, we've worked on this over the last week or so, but as you can tell from all the extra images, its been in the works for longer.
Not sure which refs Nev used, so see her submission.
This photo used as a ref for the background as supplied by *Spotz-Stock - [link]
Right-hand characters, Chess and Aphie, copyright to *Tattered-Dreams
Left-hand characters, Malachi and Dusty copyright to *LeavingNeverland
Do not take, copy, edit, redistribute or manipulate.