Uma Musume: Become a Legendary Trainer

Chapter 25: Debut Day

Now, Kitahara is no longer surprised at Oguruma's "comprehension ability".

The characteristics of this talented horse racing girl are very obvious. She can't really understand pure theory, but once it is combined with actual combat, she can react instantly.

For example, this time, she not only understood Kitahara's analysis of the pros and cons of the desire to win in seconds, but also heard the latter's subtext.

Kitahara did have other intentions.

"Whether it's mud or grass, when many horse girls run together, it's inevitable that mud, sand and dust will be splashed," he explained patiently:
"It's okay if you're tall, Little Limao. If you were shorter, you'd inevitably get splashed with mud during a game, which would affect your vision."

"With a blocked view, not only can you not see your opponent's movements, you may even miss the distance markers on the side of the track, leading to misjudgment and missed opportunities."

"But you are used to keeping your center of gravity low, so it's no different from being short."

“So, now that we are lagging behind, we can also adapt to the mud and sand kicked up by the players in front of us, that is, adapt to the environment and break through it.”

"You must break through all the interference of the environment."

When it comes to the determination to win and the adaptability to the venue, Kitahara actually combined the experiences of two lifetimes.

In another world, when top riders ride novice racehorses, they will deliberately control their speed and fall behind in their debut race and in subsequent races.

Because horses are actually creatures with a strong desire to fight, they have a natural obsession with the "leader". They are also very spiritual and sensitive, and they fully understand what winning and losing are.

Therefore, in the novice period, when there are no strong opponents, it may be okay to always lead. However, if you get used to leading and encounter strong opponents and fall behind in the later stage, it is easy for the horse to become angry or suffer a heavy loss, and thus lose control.

In this way, the novice period allows the horse to lag behind in its racing habits, which is precisely the necessary means to train its mentality.

The same applies to adapting to mud, sand and dust.

Historically, when the famous jockey Taketoyo rode the famous racehorse Tokujou, he deliberately kept Tokujou behind in his debut race to train his horse to adapt to the flying dust and sand.

In the first season of the anime "Uma Musume", the mud throwing training that the protagonist Tezuka Zhou's mother gave her when she was little was based on historical facts.

Uma Musume is the embodiment of the horse in this world, and her temperament is the same as that of a racehorse. Kitahara confirmed this through his past memories, which is why he gave the previous advice.

"Yeah, I understand."

"…Hey, hey? How come you understand it again, Xiaoli?"

There is an obvious difference in the talents of Oguruma and Shining Glory.

Although the former would fall asleep during class, that was because she had too many theories involved. When it came to specific running methods, her comprehension was undoubtedly at the genius level.

The latter are the average people who listen to the lectures carefully but take time to understand.

After understanding it, Oguruma showed his extraordinary comprehension.

"Then I still have a question. If you want to get used to being at the back, why don't you run at the back and chase?"

Kitahara had already analyzed this problem a long time ago.

"Actually, it's for similar reasons, to train my mind," he said with a smile.

"Neither of you has participated in a formal competition yet, so you may not understand that when someone is desperately chasing you, the pressure is actually terrifying."

"Or, Xiaolimao, imagine... Well, it seems that you can't understand this at your speed..." Kitahara was about to make an analogy, but after thinking for a while, he changed the subject:

"So Guanghui, can you imagine that when you are running, there is a little chestnut hat chasing you at full speed. How would you feel?"

Shining Glory understood immediately, "...Please, please stop talking. If Oguri were to chase us from behind... that speed and that noise would be too scary! It would be like being chased by a monster!"

"Ah! Sorry, Xiaoli, I didn't say you were scary... I meant..." She didn't know how to explain it for a moment and hesitated.

"Oh, a monster? It sounds very powerful." Xiao Limao was surprisingly satisfied with the name "monster". She nodded, but then became a little puzzled. "But is it really that scary to be chased by someone? I don't quite understand Guanghui's feeling."

This time, Kitahara spent a little more time thinking, "If you, Oguruma, run to the cafeteria with Fujimasa behind you, and she passes you, she will eat up all the food in the cafeteria..."

"Beiyuan, don't say such terrible things. I will die without food. This is a terrible thing."

Without thinking, he replied seriously. In a moment, Xiaolimao was thoughtful. "I see, I understand what you are talking about, Kitahara."

Kitahara laughed, "Well, actually what I just said was just a metaphor. When you are actually being chased in the arena, your feelings will definitely be different from what I said, but I'm telling you in advance so that you can be mentally prepared."

"I understand," Little Chestnut nodded, "Then the way to run this time is to go first."

Seeing that Oguruma agreed to his proposal, Kitahara nodded with satisfaction, and at the same time seemed to understand something.

Historically, Oguruma's prototype horse basically used two running methods: front and center. In the game, Oguruma's adaptability in these two running methods is also A-level.

The reason for this is that the prototype horse has well-developed hind limbs and relatively weak forelimbs. Choosing a backward position can save energy and make it easier to exert the key advantage of explosive speed in the final sprint.

For Ogurume, who is a horse girl, in addition to the reasons just mentioned by Kitahara, there is also Ogurume's unique running posture.

Oguruma has high body flexibility, which allows her to maintain an extremely low center of gravity, reducing wind resistance without affecting her stride, saving more energy in the early and middle stages of the race.

If you want to run at the front and make the most of your saved energy, you need complex skills and experience, or simply "escape" at all costs and use up all your energy.

But for Oguruma, a naturally gifted idiot, many of the techniques designed for training are not as effective as her running based on instinct, so those techniques are too ineffective.

The "Great Escape" style of running is completely life-threatening and there is no guarantee of winning, so Kitahara was reluctant to let Oguruma take that risk.

"So if nothing unexpected happens, the way that Xiaolimao will run in the future will be to act first."

Kitahara thought, "In this case, what needs to be strengthened most is the ability to grab position and sprint at the end of the game. Not only in the future, but I have to start training more now."

With the special training some time ago and the targeted arrangements today, there is basically not much to be neglected in Oguri's preparations for his debut battle. At most, after the Fujimasa March comes out, Oguri will just have to run around in the field and fill in the gaps.

The waiting time for Fujimasa and Shibasaki to come out was not very long, probably only more than half an hour.

Two groups of horse girls who were going to participate in the same debut battle met their trainers at the entrance, but the two participating horse girls just looked at each other and didn't say anything. Only the trainers greeted them briefly.

When testing the adaptability of the venue at the Kasamatsu Stadium, Kitahara casually asked about the reunion of Oguri Hat and Fujimasa March:
"I thought that after meeting Fujimasa March, Oguruma would say something to her, but in the end, he said nothing... It seems that you are very confident?"

Xiao Limao's response was simple:
"The competition is all about the game. That's what I think, and she should think the same way."

"You two do have a lot of common topics, even though you don't say anything." After teasing, Kitahara didn't say anything else and devoted himself to training Oguruma.

The same was true for the following training days. With such focused concentration, whether it was Kitahara, Oguruma, or Shining Glory, they all felt that time passed very quickly, and May 5th arrived almost in the blink of an eye.

That was the day of Oguruma and Fujimasa's debut match.

Like other racecourses, Kasamatsu Racecourse also has a lounge for horse girls, which is used for horse girls preparing to participate in the competition to make pre-race preparations or discuss precautions, competition tactics, etc. with trainers.

For example, many horse racing girls participating in the competition that day were discussing with their trainers in their respective lounges.

Kitahara didn't say anything more to Oguruma, but went to the audience seats early. Because in his opinion, everything that needed to be said had been said. If there was anything missing, it could only be Oguruma's practical experience and his own lack of ability.

Shin Shin-Gwang-ki, who came to watch the game with Kitahara, was very uneasy.

"Mr. Kitahara, do we really not need to say anything more to Oguruma? I see the other trainers are in the lounge..."

Looking around the arena, Kitahara smiled casually:
"You've asked this question countless times. What else do you think you can say?"

"I've told her about the special training on the mud and sand track, the running tactics, the race details, and even the appearance at the 'pre-race demonstration' and the final 'winner's stage'. I don't think there's anything else I need to tell her."

(End of this chapter)