WATTS, Henry

[Henry Watts]

HENRY -- JAMES -- WATTS!

BASICS...

Face Claim: Sean Maher
Full Name: Henry James Watts
Nicknames: Henry, Mr. Watts
Hair Colour: Brown
Eye Colour: Blue
Height: 5' 10"...Which he definitely claims is 6'.
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Occupation: Teacher/Trainer (History, Jumping)
Category: Teacher?
Goal for AEA: Stay at AEA, stay constant. Do nothing exciting. Do something that he actually enjoys. Help at least one student become a better rider. Basically, he wants to find balance and not think about things like his family.


Five Likes:

• Springtime. He likes to see baby animals and flowers and things, it's pretty awesome.
  
• Storms, the kind with lightning and hail and thunder that shakes the floorboards. The kind where the shingles on the roof clatter like alligator scales. He loves them.
  
• History. He didn't really know that much about it until he started teaching it, but now he knows much more and it actually kind of interests him. Probably because it's fixed, not variable like the future. He's afraid of the future. History is a safe haven.
  
• Scaring children. There's really no other way to put it, he really does like to terrify them. Ok... not really, but he's not exactly a stickler for convention and definitely not a typical history teacher or trainer. He likes inventive solutions to complex issues.
  
• Books. He didn't have a lot of time to read when he was doing the show circuit, but he does now and he enjoys it. Most of his reading consists of... Historical novels and biographies... but the occasional work of fiction does worm it's way in there. And he almost constantly has a book on him nowadays.
  

Five Dislikes:

• Phones. He really doesn't like them at all, which is a little weird for a guy his age. He's not that old.
  
• His family. He really doesn't like to talk about them or think about them, not even his sister. He cares about them a lot, especially her, but it's a subject that he avoids stolidly.
  
• Young children. They just aren't his thing in the least. They're pretty disgusting, and they have sticky fingers and... yeah, he doesn't want to be around those little human things.
  
• People who recognize him. Which is practically anyone who paid attention to the jumping scene at all ten years ago. He's changed a lot since then, but when people know they've seen him before and where they've seen him... it's pretty uncomfortable.
  
• Snow, the cold in general. He's generally only happy on the outside anyway, so anything that makes him more unhappy is unwelcome. Snow and cold just make him feel worse. He hates to be outside in it, and refuses to ride under certain circumstances.
  

HOME LIFE...

Parents: Colin Watts, Emma Nelson Watts.
Siblings: Hannah Watts, his older sister.
Other: -

Riding History: Henry's family is a lot more wealthy than his current state of living indicates. They always indulged him and his sister (seven years his senior) in every pursuit. So when young (nine year old) Henry decided that he wanted a pony, they obliged him with a gorgeous large hunter and a lavish trainer. It was the beginning of a lifelong pursuit, because Henry actually liked it for the most part. He moved from his hunter up to a jumper when he turned thirteen, almost moodily, trying to prove that he had guts. He was always picked on at school for being a little more... feminine. He rode "ponies" after all. So he decided to prove that he was braver than he looked. Although he didn't succeed, he was pushed even further into the horse world.

When he was 16, he went to spend one summer with famous trainer Summer Johnson, more family to him than his actual family. She drove him harder than any other trainer he'd worked under, and recognized the talent in him, if not in his current horse. So he stayed on with her, continuing his education while living with Summer, riding for hours a day on her horses. He began to show on them, a fairly busy schedule. He went to shows almost every weekend and racked up ribbons on fancy warmbloods of all kinds, but he never seemed to stick with one horse for very long. It was around this time that he latched onto the dream of becoming an Olympic rider (as Summer had been), and she encouraged the dream.

Four years later he was riding in Nationals, and at the age of twenty he was introduced to a big flashy bay gelding named Gilligan, who was for sale. The horse had caught Summer's eye, but he was a toughie. He didn't like to cooperate and only liked a certain style of riding, very light-handed and correct. Summer made Henry get on him and try him out, and in the end Henry's parents bought him. For Henry, Gilligan became the perfect partner to seize his dreams with. Rider and horse understood each other, they were a powerful competitive force that became well-known in the jumping community... and at the age of twenty-two Henry was added to the US Olympic show jumping team.

They were one of the favorites going into the competition. The young, handsome Henry aboard the big bay sport horse, who it seemed could jump the moon. However, he was not destined for gold, apparently. They were sailing around their first course in the official games when Gilligan did something... or Henry did something... they hit a jump wrong, Gilligan did something he had never done before. He fell, badly, landing awkwardly and hard on legs that buckled beneath him. Henry's face hit the dirt, came up bloody, he passed out before he hit the ground. Gilligan almost fell on top of him, ankle broken, but still trying to run, confused about the lack of a rider.

They put him down right there, on the course, on national television, and Henry was whisked to the hospital. His partner was dead. It was assumed that he would ride again when he came back to life, but he woke with the realization that everything he had worked for was gone, his friend was dead, he was dead. He did not ride again, not even when his broken nose and broken ribs had healed, he shut himself away. He went back to live with his parents, locking himself away from the world. He refused to speak to Summer, his trainer and his only real family... Two years later he went back to school and majored in history and teaching, trying to get as far away as possible from his past and his parents.

When he learned that his sister had Huntington's, that she was going to die, slowly, painfully, it became necessary that he obtain a higher-paying job, to help her in the only way he knew how to anymore. So he applied at Aspire, since his only other skill in the world was riding. He was accepted, but he was forced to ride again, of course. So he started just this summer, riding the school horses during the holidays. But he knows that he will never be at the top again, and that he will never even attempt to get there. The heartbreak is just too much for him.

--------------------------♥----------


ABOUT YOU...

Age: 17
Years RPing: I don't know. More than three.
RL Horse Experience: Owned a horse, volunteer at an OTTB rehoming center. I showed in hunters for a time, did a little jumpers. Now mostly I chill out, ride some really cool horses, and go on some beautiful trails.
Example Post: HEY LOOK IT'S HENRY BUT HE WAS A DRESSAGE TRAINER.

He figured that he had to ride eventually, even if the thought of doing so on a horse that, technically, he was responsible for, was unbearable. Still, Henry had to admit that it was a little nice to be around horses again after so long. Horses didn't want to slowly crush the life out of him, which he had the distinct feeling that his family was trying to do. Besides, he was supposed to be a teacher now. Admittedly, it didn't feel like that, but teachers were expected to at least show some degree of ability to ride. And they were also supposed to have horses. He had one of those, now, albeit a hyperactive idiot and young to boot, and he knew that he at least had to ride the gelding until he could find some student to stick on him for a little while. Without work, Locke would become a total hot mess, and he'd probably forget anything that he had learned. Henry had only ridden him twice, of course, once when he'd first met the gelding and once when he'd bought him, but he already had a pretty good idea of how this whole deal was going to go.

Locke was sticking his head restlessly over the stall door when Henry walked into the barn, shaking his mane and nickering to the horses on the other side of the row. Every so often he'd crane his neck and just be able to place his chin on the partition between his stall and the stall next to his and get a glimpse of his neighbor, but everyone seemed to be ignoring his antics. Henry was glad enough of this, Locke certainly didn't need encouragement. "Hey pretty boy," Henry called down the row of stalls, but Locke pretty much ignored him. There wasn't a real bond between horse and owner as of yet, and even though Locke liked pretty much every human being he didn't view Henry as anything special or impressive. Henry, hoisting his saddle and bridle, made his way down the row of stalls and dumped the tack into the appropriate places. He groomed and tacked Locke as quickly as possible.

...Well, as possible, because Locke kept moving around restlessly while Henry tried to groom him and saddle him. His ears had perked up at the sight of the tack and low, rattling snorts built up in his flared nostrils. He pawed at the ground while Henry did up the girth. "Well... this is going to be an interesting ride..." he murmured out of the corner of his mouth, "easy does it, Locke... No need to be in such a hurry." Eventually he did get the bridle on and headed out to the arena with Locke prancing at the end of the reins behind him. He'd figured on using the indoor seeing as how usually not as many people rode there, but to his slight mortification there was already a student up and about, mounted on a pretty painted warmblood mare who seemed a lot more professional than Locke, who was still jigging about like a half-broke colt.... It must be the move, the horse had acted fine when Henry had last ridden him.

"Heads up, gate!" he called across the arena, opening the gate and strolling in. he checked the girth quickly to make sure that all Locke's prancing hadn't gotten it to where it needed to be tightened and then vaulted onto the colt's back while he was still moving... They'd work on manners when Locke was in a more reasonable state of mind. Already the colt was tossing his head and prancing about, so Henry sat back and deep and asked him to collect a little more... It kind of worked, but Locke was so hot that he wasn't paying much attention to his rider. Henry tossed a sympathetic glance towards the other rider, who he figured for a student, although some of the students here were not much younger than the staff. It could be hard to tell sometimes... "Easssy boy, don't worry. We'll get that jig out of you as soon as possible..." He urged Locke into a slightly faster pace, hoping to get his attention into moving forward instead of into the excitement of being ridden. This actually worked up to the point where Locke got out of his own head and noticed that there was another horse in the arena. He craned his neck and let out the loudest neigh possible, at which Henry rolled his eyes in exasperation. Yeah, this was definitely no Grand Prix horse.

[[ADMIN RILEY]]

ACCEPTED.

----------------------------
^{welcome to AEA.}



[/center]