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He stared at the beast before him with mixed feelings of excitement and anxiousness, fear and longing. It had to stand more than 6 feet above him since it was taller than his mother as well. He wondered how she got up onto the backs of these magnificent creatures without any help, any saddle, any restraints on their beautiful heads. He guessed it was a part of the mysteriousness of her power.
She kneeled infront of him double checking the tightness of his helmet for the third time, a mothers duty never ending. She stood back up, took the reins of the feisty big black stallion who was now prancing in place, and lead him to the spacious riding ring with her little beau right beside her. The sun beamed down and the wind blew softly to make this the perfect day for the little 6 year old to have his first riding lesson.

"Ready to ride munchkin?!"

He smiled from ear to ear. "Yes!"

She let go of the horses reins to pick up her son and place him in the saddle. He was still much too short to reach the stirrups, so the lesson on how to mount a horse properly had to wait a few more months. She repositioned the reins behind the horses head and gave them to her son.

"Now remember, be gentle yet firm, and remain patient and calm! As long as you're holding the reins and showing him who is boss he'll be in your complete control, so don't let them go or get nervous. We'll start off with just walking today and if you do well with that we can move on to trotting and cantering okay?"

"Okay, but when do I get to jump?!"

The little boy looked down excitedly to his mother.

"You aren't going to be ready for jumping for a long time Velsper. Let's just get through the basics for now."

His excitement quickly dissipated as he pouted, the horse however wasn't discouraged as he gave a little whiney to let them know he was all too ready to get started.

"Shuichiro's getting anxious so lets get going. Give him a little kick to the sides."

The little boy did as he was told and the horse began to move around the ring. His mother remained in the middle ready for any signs of trouble. Her 10 year old stallion, Shuichiro, had never before been handled by a child so young or anyone else but herself, because he usually wouldn't allow it. He had a fiery personality for a horse his age and a will of steel so if he didn't want to do something, forget it, it wasn't getting done! He was not the type of horse you start a child, or anyone unexperienced, off on, but today, as she watched him and her eager son go around the ring once, twice, three times, he was being on his best behavior. He showed no signs of aggression or of wanting to throw the child off his back, which made her very proud.

"You're doing very well Velsper! How about speeding it up a little? Do you think you can handle that?"

"Yes mam!"

"Okay then bring him to a stop by pulling the reins towards you gently and saying 'whoah'."

Velsper again did as his mother told him and the horse quickly stopped in place awaiting his next order.

She petted his neck and gave her son directions on how to get Shuichiro to pick up his pace from a slow walk to a gentle trot. She then moved back to the center of the ring and signaled him to start. Once he was moving again she nodded her head and Velsper signaled the horse to start trotting.

"Lookie mamma he's trotting!"

The little boy bounced up and down with the horses movement happily and patted his mane to let Shuichiro know of his happiness. The horse gave a happy whinny in reply as he continued to hold his head high and trot with great pride.