Bareback

[nyxelestia]

Title: Bareback

Rating: PG-13

Summary: When a wild mare is finally declared as useful for nothing but dogmeat, Merlin decides to give riding her a shot. Arthur adds to incentive by promising to ride HIM if Merlin can do it. Fluff, with hinted smut.

Pairing: Arthur/Merlin

Warnings: Er...innuendo?

Episode warnings: None

Beta:

Comments

[lady_drace]

Mmmmm.... bareback riding. Yummy.

And if you ever find a plot-bunny-gun, I'd like to borrow it...

*glares at G/B bunny farm eating wallpaper*

[nyxelestia]

I'm glad to hear you liked it.

...and I honestly wish I could say that might be soon, but, well, I can't...

[special_schizo]

Even though I know next to nothing about riding (the extent of the `next to` consisting of a couple of horse stories about 8 years ago and one cruel 7 year old who indirectly made me draw horses a lot), I still love this. Then again, that could be the mental image of the bareback riding, which is an odd obsession-thing that shows up in my brain from time to time.

Weirdly enough, Merlin running after the horse made my odd brain conjure up an image of George of the Jungle... Then again, I also thought `no, Tornado!` when he named her Tempest, so I guess it's in a referencing mood.

I hadn't realised Arthur/Bradley was a bad rider. How can you tell?

[nyxelestia]

I'm glad you like it, despite not knowing much about riding. (If you really want to know, I don't know all that much, either).

And, well, wow...George of the Jungle? I have no idea how you got that. *scratches head* Ah, well - weird things happen among the minds of the insane geniuses. :D

As for Bradley's riding - the way he sits on the saddle. When your horse is just walking, or even doing a light trot, then yeah, you can get away with just sitting in a saddle (that's why all the trail rides that let you ride a horse with pretty much no training are always done in a walk).

But with a brisker trot - or a canter - or with a full out gallop, you have to move with your horse. It's called gaiting, I think (I don't remember what it was called, but I remember how to do it).

When your horse moves that fast, you will bounce up and down a bit, no matter what. If you move correctly (almost 'stand' in the stirrups, or move your body in time with the horse so you aren't bouncing so much as rocking, and when you go 'down' on the bounce, you

[special_schizo]

Hey, the George of the Jungle thing did actually make sense. There's a scene maybe 2 thirds of the way through with George in one of those baggy-flowy white shirts running around with horses, with loads of girls drooling over him. It's complete and utter Brendan Fraser love. With horses! :P

Wow, thanks for the (yes, long) explanation! I do like to know these things, so I appreciate being told. Oh dear, I can tell already that I'm going to be watching this whole series squinting at the cast every time they start riding. I guess riding lessons aren't part of their priorities for getting in character, since I guess they wouldn't particularly think about it. I agree that it's weird for Arthur of all characters to suck at it though. Maybe they just don't talk about it? (Except there's supposed to be jousting in this series, which could be, er, painful if done wrong, I'm guessing.)

(...Yes, I want a Merlin version of A Knight's Tale. Is that so wrong?)

[nyxelestia]

*lmao* That George of the Jungle scene sounds fun. ^_^ And, Merlin a'la A Knight's Tale sounds fun! ^_^

Anywho, they aren't actually bad at it, and to be honest, I didn't even really notice until someone else commented on it.

Whenever they're just riding around kind of for the heck of it, they tend to do that more, but scenes where they're galloping to someone's rescue, they're a little better about it (somewhat, anyway).

And the jousting's already going to be painful, no matter how well you ride. :D

[annephoenix]

Ponies!!

[nyxelestia]

*lmao*

[ravenflight21]

I enjoyed that! Arthur may ride a horse like a sack of potatoes, but I'm sure he's an expert at riding Merlin ;)

[nyxelestia]

Oh, yes, yes he is. We'll find out once I get around to the sequel.

[helva2260]

For some reason I'm inordinately fond of stories where unexpected characters manage to gentle and ride a wild horse - I had thought it was a particular kink for Methos in the Highlander fandom, but apparently it now extends to Merlin too! Yay (and thank you

[nyxelestia]

Horses, at least in fiction, seem to have an affinity for the gentle. In my real life, too - when I went to riding school, THE biggest horse (out of like 50 on that ranch) was the one I got along with the most when I was a tiny and underfed little 8-year-old. One of the ranch hands would have to put his knee on the mounting black for me to get up. ^_^

I know there was a similarity between the styles of medieval and Western riding - Western and medieval are both for either war or work, whereas in English it's largely show and plain ol' transportation - but it's the terminology, itself, which is what I'm trying to avoid.

And I love making Merlin not clumsy, especially since I think he is. I feel the need to point out that all the freakin' time in the show, Merlin will run across distances to chase after someone that took much longer to cross the same distance. Either he's more graceful and faster than he thinks, or magic is helping him along significantly - which works for me, either way. ^_^