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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 4:42:50 GMT -6
Morgan was sure that they could probably force the creature to do it; but that wouldn't help in the long run. Instead, Morgan passed their hands down the creature's neck and part of the way down their spine, petting a little hard since the creature was so thickly feathered. After a moment, Morgan hefted the saddle up again, and put it on the creature's back, gently hooking it to the creature. Morgan was a little rusty; they'd been taught how to do this by the Jackalope, but still wasn't the absolute best at it. The wiurn shook a bit, but was unable to dislodge the saddle.
Morgan stepped away, still holding on to the chain but allowing some distance between them so that the wiurn could get used to the saddle. Morgan pulled out a big piece of galabex jerky, and broke it into a couple of pieces. Then, Morgan fed one piece to the wiurn, gently, avoiding bites with their speed and dexterous hands.
[4]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 4:48:48 GMT -6
Morgan was at least pretty deft with this sort of thing. The wiurn devoured both pieces, and Morgan got away with all of their fingers, luckily. Morgan knew that repetition was absolutely required at this point. As soon as the creature seemed to get used to the confines of the saddle, Morgan took it off, and then slipped it back on pretty soon, running their hands across the creature to soothe it. So far, so good. Another piece of jerky later, Morgan repeated the action, taking the saddle off again, and then putting it back on. The creature was growing visibly more used to what Morgan was doing; and the entire saddle aspect.
After another thirty minutes of repetition and careful treating, as well as putting the metal bridle for wiurns that they had fashioned themselves, Morgan felt like the creature had taken to the tack quite well, accepting it with the ease Morgan had expected from a creature that was beginning to be used to a person. Wiurn did not have a lot of fear.
[5] - [END of Tack Up]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 4:56:36 GMT -6
Time to move on, Morgan decided. The next most important thing on the list, in Morgan's opinion, was the ground tie. This was going to be the hardest part, because the creature was, well, floating. That was odd in and of itself. However, Morgan had a trick up their sleeve for this one. Morgan grabbed the creature's chain, and then walked over to the post that they had used to work with Cyrus the other day. Morgan then tied locked the chain up on it, and tied it quite good. Morgan then began to walk away. Of course, Michiryuu knew, at this point, where the treats came from. When Morgan walked away, the wiurn tried to come too, and found itself tied to the metal stake.
Morgan took a quick jog a few feet down the park road and then back, not staying away longer than two minutes, and then gave the creature a jerky treat for staying in place, even though he'd tried to come with.
[1] - [START of Ground Tie]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 5:02:51 GMT -6
Morgan was planning on working on getting the creature to accept a rider after this; and it was going to be rough unless the creature stayed in place. Morgan was sure that this would be the best order of working on this in. Morgan ran their hands along the long creature's big fluffy form, down the neck and onto the back. The human had chosen to leave the saddle on the creature this last time, to let it continue to get used to it. Morgan then walked away again. This time, the wiurn watched after them, or rather, after the box of jerky they had with them, but did not jerk on the pole. Morgan could tell; because it didn't make any noise, unlike earlier.
The human returned in about three minutes, and then gave the creature another piece of jerky, making sure to keep their hands clear of Michryuu's mouth. This was going decently so far.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 5:12:10 GMT -6
Morgan knew that pretty soon, they would have to start with the wiurn decidedly not tied to the pole. That would be the real test, but it was going to be rough! Morgan wanted to try it with the creature tied to the pole just one more time before trying anything flashy. Morgan walked away from the pole again, and by now the somewhat dull-witted creature seemed to have realized that it didn't have to do any work to get a treat, at this point. Morgan came back in about five minutes, and did indeed give a treat, to make sure that the creature realizes that this is a normal thing.
At this, Morgan un-clipped the chain from the pole, but made sure that the chain was in the exact same spot. Morgan was not going to stay gone long. Morgan backed up a few steps, and then about ten feet. Waiting.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 5:18:04 GMT -6
The wiurn, of course due to being lazy and not at all that smart, stayed in place, expecting a treat for doing nothing. Morgan walked back, and gave a treat. Now, for the continued testing, right? Morgan had a good idea of what to do next. Morgan held a visible piece of jerky and stepped away from the creature, slowly. The creature was much more interested in something it could see at the moment, and began to inch forward. Morgan immediately walked to the creature and put the jerky away. The creature nuzzled Morgan's side, trying to get to the jerky, but could not. Morgan then stepped back, pulled a jerky piece out again, and backed up again.
Once again, the creature tried to move forward. Once again, Morgan put it away and walked forward. This was repeated multiple times, until eventually, frustrated with the situation, the wiurn did not try to follow after Morgan.
[4]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 5:22:57 GMT -6
Finally, Morgan felt like they were getting somewhere. Morgan was incredibly lucky that the creature was taking to this easily, because Morgan did not have patience to deal with how it could have went, had they decided to work on this at a much lower level of psycho-social bonding. The human continued working on this, until finally they were able to walk down the road with the jerky and the creature would stay put where it was. Now, for the second aspect of the training. Morgan grabbed the chain, and lead the floating creature out to the middle of the field. Then, Morgan dropped the chain, and did the same thing, taking the jerky piece and walking away with it.
To Morgan's surprise, the creature did not waste the energy to try to follow after them, and instead waited to be rewarded. A few more tests of this revealed the same; no matter what happened, the wiurn would not move from the spot that he was left when the chain hit the ground.
[5] - [END of 'Ground Tie']
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 5:32:49 GMT -6
Finally, on to the next thing! Morgan was not gifted with strength, they knew. Instead, they had to rely on their dexterity, their ability to move, leap, and react in incredibly quick ways in order to get by. In order to break Waar, Morgan had even managed to hold on entirely by dexterous movements and tying their hand to the saddle. It had been a bit of a gamble, but it had paid off in the end. Morgan now would have to lean on their dexterity to mount the wiurn, with the wiurn most likely not accepting them as a rider right off. Luckily, the creature didn't hate Morgan automatically anymore, so it should be a bit easier.
The bespectacled human grabbed onto the chain, and used their own weight as a force to pull the creature down, and then swing their-self up onto it's back. The creature was startled; and immediately took off.
[1] - [START 'Accept Rider']
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 5:48:43 GMT -6
Morgan knew that now that they were on the saddle, they needed to get their feet in the stirrups and hands on the chain. Morgan quickly settled on the seat of the saddle properly, despite the herky-jerky movements of the large creature that had never had a weight on it's back before. Morgan knew that the battle was not even started yet. Morgan pushed their boots into the stirrups, and then grabbed for the chain, nearly falling, but catching theirself quite easily enough, their reaction time quite a bit quicker than most people. Morgan managed to get their hands on that precious chain, and then held on, wrapping it gently around their hand in a loop. The entire time, the creature was winding and twisting, trying to dislodge Morgan.
The human knew that it was not doing this out of meanness, or anger, but out of fear. Morgan gently used their off hand to try to calm the creature.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 5:54:31 GMT -6
Morgan was wanting to spend as little time as possible fighting the creature, so they used their words, somewhat abnormal for them. "Michi, Michiryuu, calm down." Morgan said, holding on as tight as possible and counteracting the creature's squirming in the air with Morgan's own movements and by leaning back into the tall saddle back. "Michi. Michi, it's me." Morgan said, clucking their tongue and gently petting the creature's neck. After a few moments of squirming, leaving Morgan's sides a bit sore, the creature slowly calmed down. Soon, it flipped it's head back, looking at Morgan confusedly. Wondering perhaps why the human was on it's back now instead of down where they could be seen.
Morgan gently leaned forward, and produced a piece of jerky for the wiurn, which was accepted. Morgan jerked their hand away just before they could possibly be bit. Morgan knew that they still weren't quite done, yet.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 5:58:55 GMT -6
Morgan gently practiced leaning around on the saddle, and surprisingly enough, the wiurn was more powerful than it looked. It was huge, and fluffy of course, making it look even bigger. Floating up in the sky made it look like it was a lot lighter than it actually was, which was shocking once Morgan got a feel. Morgan didn't really weigh enough to give the creature pause whenever they leaned one way or the other in the saddle, and wasn't really strong enough to guide the creature any way other than the bridle they had made. Well, that was fine. The training guild required 'Bridle Knowledge' and not individual commands, so this wasn't too much of an issue.
Morgan made sure that the creature was used to them completely by mounting and dismounting over the next hour, and eventually the creature acted like he didn't even notice that Morgan was even in the saddle. It must have been easy to realize that Morgan was no danger immediately up there, anyway.
[4] - [END of 'Accept Rider']
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 6:04:06 GMT -6
The last bit was going to be the hardest, Morgan knew, and Morgan was already so sore, continually using muscles that were decidedly weak to pull up and down off of the creature's back. The floating kinda sucked, and Morgan planned to teach the creature eventually when to get lower so that Morgan could more easily mount and dismount the beast. Morgan's sides and biceps were the absolute worst, but Morgan figured they would manage. Michiryuu seemed to be getting along quite fine, no longer trying to hurt Morgan, or even really concerned of Morgan's presence. It was the start, Morgan knew, of that psycho-social bond, and it was horridly convenient.
Morgan got up into the saddle one more time, knowing that it was time to work on the bridle knowledge. The sun was high in the sky and quite hot. The pair had come out in the early morning after sunrise, and it was now noon. What a bother.
[1] - [START 'Bridle Knowledge']
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 6:19:08 GMT -6
Bridle knowledge was always pretty hard for Morgan to really comprehend. They'd much rather work through the typical paces; right/left, stop/go, faster/slower, etc. However, Morgan was sure that teaching it with a bridle wouldn't be that hard, either. They just didn't understand why it would normally be considered much easier at all. The bespectacled human adjusted their glasses, and then got to work, taking the reins in their hands, which were connected to the bridle in the creature's mouth. Then, Morgan gave a quick flick to the reins, and tried to lean forward. The creature did not at all move.
Morgan squinted, trying to figure out how this would work with such a big creature, and then got an idea. They did the same action, only this time they dug their heals into the creature, just a bit. The wiurn immediately moved forward in a quick jerk. Well, that was a start.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 6:23:46 GMT -6
Morgan knew that after a bit of working, that the bridle flick would work quite well for getting the creature to move forward. They flicked the reins and then gently applied pressure to the creature's sides, soon getting it to move forward at a better rate. That was a good start, Morgan figured. Then, Morgan pulled on one side of the reigns more than the other, still holding both as firm as possible. The creature turned in that direction almost immediately to relieve mouth pressure. Oh, oh! That was what made this easier, right? It made sense for the creature to try to move in a way to reduce pressure.
Morgan then turned the creature toward the right with the same motion on the opposite side. Now for stopping, right? Morgan pulled back on the reigns a bit, slowly pulling back, and then stopped squeezing the creature's sides. The wiurn stopped moving forward entirely, roughly.
Well, this was a start.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on Jun 6, 2019 6:30:27 GMT -6
Morgan hoped that this training would continue to be this easy, but knew that it may not. As soon as they were stopped, Morgan gave the creature another jerky piece. So far, so good, minus the rather herky-jerky movements that they made, and the fact that Morgan was basically still learning too. Would it have been like this with Waar? The unbidden thought made Morgan's throat dry and eyes wet. Morgan ignored it, and pushed the thought down. Morgan was not going to play that game today! Instead, the human patted the creature (not affectionately! for a purpose! for science!) and then started back up on the work again.
The human shakily worked on this until they were moving smoothly, the rider and mount in tandem, the Morgan growing confident enough to lean back into the wiurn saddle's back instead of trying to stay leaned forward, which was hurting Morgan's muscles. Now, it was time to work on speed, Morgan thought.
[4]
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