Sophie's partner hadn't said much yet, so Sophie sort of figured she needed to take some kind of initiative. She looked at her partner first, then Botros, and then the horse. So before she really got good and started, she needed to more or less make friends with her horse.

Lovely.

"Sooo...," she said to the horse. "I don't really know what I'm doing in this class, which shouldn't make you feel too bad, but I think I'm supposed to put some runes on your saddle. It'd be really awesome if you'd just stand there quietly and let me get that done." She reached out and sloooowly brought her hand to the horse and began to pat him.

We good now, horse? Because I'm about to get started...