•Eraser Tales•(Aizawa)

Pounding Thunder (22)

Her body instinctively takes the jumping form but she is unable to pick up all the slack in the reins. She hears a loud tap sound of his front hooves hitting the top rail of the vertical fence. Pippa could care less if the rail stays up or goes down. The reality is, that this may end like it did three years ago. It has her breath stolen away. Her and Arnulf will hit the ground hard and he may not keep his feet under him.

Time slows....down...

...kuthumpy... kuthumpy...thump...

thud...left front leg...thump..

thud right front leg...thump

Scratch...dirt lifting...scratch...
dirt flying up

left hind leg slide...
...dig...dig..
right hind leg
...dig..dig in.

muscles rippling...
muscles heaving...muscles rolling.

blood rushing to the head...tears from the eyes.

Time speeds...up!

Gallump... gallump... gallump.... gallump..

Up...up...up...rushing of air...
down...down...down...
thump!

gallump... gallump... voices cheering cheering cheering!

loud blowing of nostrils in time with the sound of thunder

the pounding beats of Arnulf's black hooves
Skimming the grassy earth
His hooves are the sound of thunder in her ears

"Holy shit! That was a hell of a recovery!" Nemuri says loudly. "She won't win, took too much time to recover but the fact they didn't spill is amazing!"

"It's not happening again!" huffs Aizawa.

"What? Why Shouta? You're not like even her boyfriend... you're going to stop her?" laughs Hizashi.

"Goal to be girlfriend but will start with her changing to Yubusame...Pippa has immense potential in both don't you think?"

"Sure Sho..sure but the Dom thing isn't going to work," Nemuri laughed.

"Why not...I can be quite charming."

"She has 1200 pounds of well conditioned muscle between her legs that listens to her. How are you going to top that?"Nemuri laughs harder.

"Arnulf doesn't cook or give full body massages for starters," Shouta smirks.

Hizashi steps in "Yeah but horse girls are crazy. Look at all the stuff posted on line about marriages going array and such because the horse is first."

"Hey now! You're calling my future girl crazy?"

"Guys! You're not going to believe this! Pippa won! The last rider took a rail down so ended up being slower!" Nemuri says loudly due to the crowd noise.

The three UA teachers sit and watch the competitors enter back in and form a line. The line is pinned and the placings are announced. Arnulf is still full of himself so he's not wanting to stand still to stay in place. Pippa circles him, ribbon clipped to his bridle.

The announcer finishes by saying "Now everyone stand and clap for the victory song!" The traditional classical song is played and Pippa leads the victory ride around the course as Arnulf prances then throws a crow hop in and follows with cantering lively.

The three teachers meet Pippa and Arnulf at a practice arena. Pippa has just dismounted and the big bay gelding is rubbing his head vigorously on her back. Arnulf is shoving Pippa around and she giggles. "Okay Arnulf enough!"

She wraps her arms around his neck and lifts her feet. He shakes his head and starts walking to the barn, packing her for several steps.

"Congratulations Pippa!" Aizawa says.

"Pippa?" Nemuri asks.

"Oh well only her mother, dearest friend and I get to call her that name," he says smugly.

Aizawa is no longer smug when Arnulf puts his body between him and Pippa. Everytime Shouta moves, Arnulf moves to block him from advancing.

"Uhm... yeah Shouta, you may call her Pippa and want to start dating but you better call Arnulf her big brother and get permission from him, all 1200 pounds of him," Nemuri snickers.

Yabusame is a traditional form of mounted archery where competitors shoot arrows at three wooden targets while riding on horseback. There is a place just a couple of hours north of Tokyo by train where you can learn it for yourself!

We booked the experience through the "govoyagin" website which organised everything, including a guide-interpreter as we weren't Japanese speakers. The guide met us in Shinjuku and we took the train to Niihari where we were met at the station and driven to the stables. They gave us a quick tour and we met our horses for the day, as well as some of the miniature horses, dogs and even a wild boar!