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Post by Briar on Aug 20, 2023 21:47:03 GMT -6
All this, she was familiar with. Then, he produced a little treat for her, holding it up so she could see. Recognizing the morsel for what it was, she darted closer, but Briar closed his fist and brought his hand down, lower and lower, with the Galabex’s nose following it. It wasn’t until her hooves touched the ground that he let her have it.
This was just the first attempt, and he hadn’t even bothered with throwing in the new hand signal, but eventually they’d get there. It would just take time.
When Briar next noticed the Galabex in the air, he did the same thing -- getting her attention, then showing her a little snack, and holding it close to the ground until she placed her feet back down. And again, a third time. By the fourth, she seemed to be picking up on what he wanted.
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Post by Briar on Aug 20, 2023 21:48:17 GMT -6
She reacted more quickly, and he didn’t have to lower it quite so much before she landed, so she had probably figured out some of it.
After that, he began introducing the hand signal. He worked it in right after showing her the treat. He had worked with her enough that she had grown used to paying attention to his hands. Galabex weren’t exactly attuned to people with quite the intensity of a Houluh, but Briar felt that this Galabex liked him enough now to want to work for him.
He had gotten better at telling when she was aloft too. It turned out the key was to listen for when he couldn’t hear her hooves anymore. She might have simply gone still, startled by something -- she still had that Galabex skittishness about her -- but the garden was actually fairly quiet most of the time, and this was territory she was familiar with.
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Post by Briar on Aug 20, 2023 21:49:15 GMT -6
More often, if he couldn’t hear her walking about, it was because she was flying instead. It seemed so simple now that he had noticed it, but it wasn't as if he had worked with a hoofed animal who could fly before -- and even then, most of the ones he saw around town had wings.
After several repetitions, Briar tried the signal without showing her the reward, and was pleased to see her do as he asked. He did still reward her, of course. It was too early to stop doing that just yet. But once the command was better established, he would slowly reduce the occasions where he gave her a treat.
They practiced this command over the rest of that week, alongside whatever else he was teaching her, to reinforce it. By that point, Briar felt that he could reliably get her to land, so they moved on to other things.
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Post by Briar on Aug 20, 2023 22:08:03 GMT -6
The rest of what they needed to work on was all riding related, so Briar saved those for after he was done with his general work around the garden, or when he meant to take a longer break. It wasn't really practical to work that kind of thing into his actual gardening chores. Sitting atop her back again, he reviewed her regular riding signals with her first -- the ones she already knew. It was a warm-up for her, but it was one for him too. After a pause in actively doing work with the Galabex, he had… not lost his touch exactly, but stopped thinking about it, maybe. How did he teach her all these signals? It felt like ages ago, though realistically he knew it couldn’t have been that long.
Well, now he had to teach her some new ones, to be able to direct her while she was in flight.
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Post by Briar on Aug 20, 2023 22:08:51 GMT -6
The first thing he had to teach her was a signal for her to go up in the first place while he was riding in the saddle. She knew how to fly, but she hadn't flown with him yet.
From his place atop her back, Briar thought hard about what would be suitable. It had to be something he could do without involving his hands, which limited his options, especially considering the signals he’d already established. Did he simply lean back again? No, that would be too confusing for her, he thought. After ruminating on it some, he decided to squeeze her sides with his knees, rather than his heels -- the latter being the signal for her to start moving.
On this first attempt, she mistook it for him asking her to go, so she began walking. But Briar kept giving her the new signal, and after several squeezes, she stopped, then started, then stopped again.
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Post by Briar on Aug 20, 2023 22:09:09 GMT -6
It was something they had established over the course of her riding training that if he kept nudging her, it was because she hadn’t yet done what he wanted. But now she had to figure out what it was.
The longer this went on though, the more Briar began to wonder if he ought to just… wait for her to do it on her own. But he didn’t know how long that could take, and the days of her wandering around with him just sitting on her back were long gone. The doe’s ears were canted back towards him, and he could tell she was trying, but he wasn’t giving her enough guidance either.
… Wait, maybe if… Briar frowned slightly. He had an idea, though he didn’t know if it was going to work. Still, it was worth a try. Going back to the signals she did know, he steered her down a garden path.
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Post by Nadia on Aug 22, 2023 0:19:47 GMT -6
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