Please Just Behave (Avery)

[Becca Walsh]

Becca made her way down to the barn after she'd finished her homework for the night. Evening was already setting in and it was already getting dark, the cold air settling in for the night. She wore her kelly green Patagonia fleece over a thermal and jeans with her hunter wellies, liners in them to keep her toes warm. As she walked down, she pulled her straightened hair into a high ponytail, and shivered a bit as the cold wind swept across her neck. She should have brought a scarf, but it was too late.

She'd been told that if she spent more time with Frye and enforced him using his manners he'd get better, but she wasn't so sure. The gelding seemed pretty set in his ways and she hated arguing with him. She'd thought about riding him today, but was honestly far too exhausted and irritable, and had instead decided to just groom him in the cross ties and make sure he behaved. She always groomed him in his stall, afraid that he'd hurt someone if she used the cross ties, but she wanted to be able to groom him in the cross ties eventually, and now seemed as good a time as ever to start. The barn probably wouldn't be crowded, and there were usually only a couple of people at this hour. If she had any luck, none would be around his stall, or there'd be none at all.

Entering the barn, she immediately felt much warmer because of the lack of wind, and got her brush box from the tack room. She walked to Frye's stall and greeted him. The gelding waited at the door, clearly interested, and only pined his ears back when she opened the door. Placing the brushes outside of his stall, she led him out and clipped him into the cross ties outside of his stall. The gelding seemed a bit surprised and at first tossed his head up a couple of times in protest, seeing if the ties would hold. When they did, he seemed to become more annoyed and stomped a couple of times, very antsy. He'd been better since Becca had started lunging him regularly, and lately she'd been in charge in the round pen thanks to Ms. Chevalier's help. Annoyed herself, Becca placed her hand firmly on his bright chestnut neck to let him know that she was there. She then picked up a hard brush and started to brush down his neck, warily keeping an eye on his head. The last thing she needed tonight was another cut from his teeth.

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[Avery Jacobs]

Avery was in a bit of an aloof mood at the moment. She had just gotten back from going around town and after seeing everyone there, she felt like spending some time with Dev. The young horse was probably up to who knew what in his stall, about pissed since he’d had to stay inside the majority of the day. The other day, Avery had noticed some abnormal swelling in one of his fetlocks and she’d immediately decided to let him spend the time in his stall to get him rested up. She really didn’t want to have to deal with a lame horse long term and she hoped it was nothing serious.

Still, her horse was probably one of the only things in the world that Avery had quickly grown to love immediately and she worried about her darling gelding. The brunette’s rubber boots moved soundlessly in the direction of the Red Willow Barn; her eyes catching it’s well painted walls in the last rays of the sunlight. The darkness was quickly sweeping in and Avery reminded herself she needed to go finish her homework. On other days, she might’ve said screw it, but the girl knew that now she had made a promise to her Grandmother and now she’d met Peter, she wanted to actually attempt.

Stepping into the barn, she unzipped the Northface jacket and grinned as Dev’s familiar head stuck quite wide out of the stall. He threw his head up in a loud whinny, quite annoyed that he hadn’t gotten to go out at all yesterday. Avery sighed, going immediately to her tackbox and grabbing a carrot for the creature. “Chillax Dev. Your carrot is coming.” she said it somewhat sternly, but with a hint of playfulness as she let the horse inhale it down.

Dev tossed his head, realizing that was all he was getting and moving back to search the ground of his stall for more hay. Avery smirked, before grabbing his halter and sneaking into the stall. Immediately, her emotions turned mixed. His leg was much less swollen and looked quite normal, but there was a beautifully made rip right down the side of his blanket. Avery gaped at him, annoyance building up in her expression. “d**n it Dev. How the heck did you manage this?” she sighed, reaching out to touch the rip. Before she could express any other colorful wording on the matter, a scuffle told her another horse and human was there. Avery whirled around, somewhat surprised to see a girl getting her own horse groomed up.

Outfit <3

[Becca Walsh]

Becca proceeded up brush down his neck until any clumps of dirt were gone and there was only a little dust. When she neared his withers, she stopped and put her brush back. Unbuckling his hunter green blanket carefully, so that he wouldn't kick out at her when she unclipped the belly and leg straps. She folded the blanket over his back before taking it off and folding it smaller, placing it beside her brush box for now. The gelding seemed to get crankier for the absence of his rug, and Becca scowled at him when he lashed out at her. It seemed to be more of a warning, since he didn't get close, but it was already clear that Frye was in an especially bad mood. She didn't blame him too much for missing his blanket, since the thoroughbred was muscular, but still rather skinny. Becca had been trying to put weight on him, since he'd lost a lot after Kaitlin's death, but she didn't want to increase his feed too much since it just made him crazier.

Picking up her brush again, she worked down his body, trying not to press too hard. Frye was extremely sensitive, especially when grooming, and it didn't take much to get him in a bad mood. His back was already very clean, so she moved to his haunches which somehow had gotten a bit dirty. He tolerated it well enough for a couple minutes, but once she stated to move lower down his hind leg, he raised it in warning. She pushed him back insistently, but he did the same thing again when she continued brushing. Standing up fully, she glared at him and almost growled at him, her voice low and threatening, "I swear to God Frye, if you don't stop that this instant I'll--" She stopped abruptly at the sound of another girl's voice, who seemed to be upset with her horse as well, if one were to judge by the interesting language.

She turned around to see a girl across the aisle in a horse's stall, a large tear visible on the horse's blanket. Becca grimaced and spoke strongly, though not enough to startle any of the horses, "Wow, sorry." It was unclear as to whether or not she meant about the blanket, or threatening Frye so loudly when the other girl was there. Gesturing to the blanket at her feet she continued, "It's only a matter of time before he'll do the same to his rug." It was true; the rug was rather new but she knew that it wouldn't last very long with Frye, who was overall very destructive. All the while, she stood half facing him to let him know that she still had her eye on him. She'd learned not to take her attention fully off of him the hard way.

[Avery Jacobs]

In the short time Avery had grown to know her first owned horse, she had immediately fallen in love. Of course, Dev could be a pain in the butt at times, but she treated him as if he was her own child. Strict, but fair and most of the time teaching him right from wrong. Growing up with a breeder that didn’t know what she was doing, the gelding soon developed quite a bit of nasty habits, though he had a lot of hope for improvement due to his usual chill nature. Of course, he didn’t mind sharing his opinion on things from time to time; especially when he was refused his precious pasture time.

With time however, Avery had soon gotten him to behave the majority of time, but even the girl knew she couldn’t control what he did in his stall when she was gone. She sighed flicking her hair off to the side, quite annoyed with the fact she’d now have to go and buy another rug for the animal. Dev gave her an innocent look, then swiveled his head around to butt the door suggestively. Avery raised a brow, but before she could even start to try and begin to check his leg out, the sound of another person spooked her a bit.

The girl whirled around at the redhead’s voice, shaking her head slightly. “It’s not your fault.” her voice came out in some sort of grumble, edged with the annoyance she had for her horse at the current moment. Her eyes flew over the other girl’s horse however and she nodded in reply to her next comment. “Yeah, he looks a bit high strung.” Avery observed, noticing how the girl didn’t want to take an eye off him. She let a little smirk out as she noticed both the horse and the rider were ‘redheads’.

Avery turned her attention back to her gelding, wondering where on earth she would be able to get a blanket fast enough. She hadn’t been at BRRA long, so she wasn’t quite sure about all the places in town. There had to be some kind of shop for that here certainly however. She needed to get one fast though, due to upcoming winter weather so poor Dev wouldn’t have to pay too much of a consequence for his little mischief. Finally, Avery whirled around again to face the girl “Are there any tack shops or places that hold stable equipment around here?” her voice held a bit of hope to it, but as usual was emotionless.

Outfit <3

[Becca Walsh]

Becca's relationship with Frye was complicated to say the least. Most of the time she felt as if she was trapped with the gelding, and he'd been forced on her, but the she had to remind herself that she'd taken on the challenge herself. At the time, it didn't seem like she'd had a choice in the matter, as she couldn't just let her parents sell her sister's horse. Even now, with Frye making life especially difficult for her, she couldn't imagine selling him. Though she dreaded working him sometimes and was easily angered by his antics, she felt as if selling him would be like betraying Kaitlin. Frye was a talented horse, and would be a great eventer in the right hands, but Becca knew that most people wouldn't consider him because of his bad attitude and horrible manners. Chances were that the gelding wouldn't end up in the best home, and Becca couldn't risk that happening after all he'd meant to Kaitlin.

Becca often wondered if her having Frye was considered him being in bad hands. She was a strong rider, and had learned to handle him, but she sometimes wondered whether she could be making him worse. It wasn't as if the gelding was especially green, or required much more training in his discipline, but he and Becca were certainly not the best of matches. When Kaitlin had ridden him, she'd taught him to cooperate with her, and learned how to manipulate him into doing what she wished. Becca however fought fire with fire and she felt as if working with him was an endless fight. They'd definitely gotten better from when she'd first started working with him, but there was still a massive power struggle between the two.

Becca shrugged slightly at the girl's response, understanding how frustrated she must have been. Her next comment made Becca chuckle. High strung was a word often used for fiery horses like Frye, but he took it to another level altogether. "Yeah, you could say that." she agreed, still grinning a bit at the understatement. As if to agree, Frye began to sidestep in the cross ties, throwing his head as high as he could again. Groaning, Becca stepped back to him and grabbed his halter, moving him forward a step and then back. Frye's eyes were still wide, but he held still as Becca continued to brush his back leg.

She looked up again, placing her hand firmly on Frye in warning when the girl spoke again. She thought for a moment, trying to remember the name of the tack store in town. She hadn't been there herself yet, as she'd brought all her things with her and hadn't needed to buy anything new yet. "There's a place downtown, though I can't remember the name of it at the moment." Becca responded, shrugging apologetically.

[Avery Jacobs]

Dev had certainly been quite the handful when he’d come to Avery. He really had just come with her to the academy and she was still learning about him. As she learnt however and as she taught him, the horse was slowly maturing into somewhat of a quieter creature than what he had come as. He had developed terrible habits in his old home, such as kicking and biting when things didn’t go his way. He’d also learned little tricks to escape bits when people rode him which soon led to Avery putting a flash on him. Still, with all the fighting the two had accomplished together, Avery had soon grown to be quite close to the horse.

It was a very quick relationship as both of them needed things that needed to be rebuilt. Avery had soon learnt training and working horses was like working with your own problems in life. When you built your horse up, you built yourself up. Of course, Dev was most certainly not the only thing that had managed to save Avery from turning up in a jail cell, her grandmother had played quite a bit role in it. Of course, the sixteen year old was a bit oblivious to this and probably would be until she grew up.

Avery looked at the obviously frustrated girl with a bit of curiousness. The horse and its owner seemed to have somewhat similar problems to her own, though the brunette had no clue about the two and rather wouldn’t know. She didn’t have time to waste talking and socializing. Avery held that thought as it came however, the crystal clear image of Peter’s handsome face appearing in her head. So she’d given him her time to spend and it had turned out amazing… Avery looked at the girl again, supposing she could at least attempt to be nice.

The girl watched the horse as he redhead responded to her little observation. She realized that might’ve been a bit of an understatement as the horse paced back and forth. He seemed a bit unpredictable, but she immediately gained a bit of respect for this new acquaintance for having enough guts to take on such a creature. She raised a brow nodding slightly “Seems like a handful. But you seem to be handling it.” Avery commented in her blunt tone, emotionless yet true to her thoughts.

The brunette eyed the other girl closely, sighing softly as she responded to her question. Still, that gave her hope. Perhaps if she marched around downtown a bit she’d come across it. At least she knew one existed now. Avery nodded slightly “Looks like I’ll have to go find it. But thanks.” she frowned, rubbing the rip again. Dev snorted, starting to paw at the fact he wasn’t being let out. Avery smacked the horse’s shoulder “Stop that.” Pawing was rude and the gelding had a tendency to do it quite a bit. Still, it showed his fetlock was a lot better.

Outfit <3

[Becca Walsh]

It was taking Becca a much longer time than it should have to clean one of his hind legs, and she was getting more than a little annoyed at this point. When Frye raised his hoof threateningly for the third time, she slapped him to get his attention, and sure enough, the horse's head swung around. It wasn't a terribly hard slap, and she'd given him worse, but he was really being terrible. Sighing, Becca grabbed his tail and pulled it hard towards her, holding it taut. It forced the gelding to lean on the leg she was cleaning so that he couldn't try and kick her. It was a trick she'd learned from Kaitlin, who'd had the same problem with Frye, and worked very well, though Becca preferred to use it as a last resort as it unbalanced her a little bit too.

Finally finishing, she stood up and was ready to move to another part of him when she heard the blunt tone of the girl who she'd been speaking with once again. "Thanks," she responded. It was probably one of the most meaningful compliments she could have gotten that day, but she didn't give her full on smile as she sometimes would have.

Looking over at the girl and her horse, Becca commented, "He seems like quite the character himself." She gestured to the gelding who had been stomping a couple seconds before until the girl had stopped him. "He's gorgeous." It was true, and that's why Becca had said it. The gelding was very handsome, and Becca quite admired him, so she said it. She felt as if it were her duty to let people know when she liked something, and wasn't shy of giving compliments.

She recognized the girl vaguely, which made sense because Blue Ridge was rather large, and the girl could have very easily been in one of her classes. Picking up a soft brush, Becca began to go over Frye's coat again. "What's your name?" she asked, rather abruptly. She liked to know who she was talking to, especially if she could accompany the name with anything she'd heard.

[Avery Jacobs]

Avery actually wasn’t exactly quite sure what her plan was for the gelding. She knew she had come to relax and check out his leg, but it seemed Dev managed to do just the opposite of that. She hated asking her grandmother for money because that forced her to actually communicate with her, but she’d need it if she wanted to buy her horse another blanket. Placing her hand on Dev’s neck, the brunette slid it down the horse’s shoulder and down to his front fetlock. The heat had seemed to go away as did the swelling, but Avery wanted to be absolutely positive he was sound.

She had planned on hosing it down with cool water and then taking him out to one of the round pens and running him at all gaits to check if he was even with all feet. Earlier, he had most certainly been not when she’d started cantering and it had freaked the girl out a bit. Turquoise eyes watched the redhead with a slight curious smirk. The girl seemed to be having difficulty with her horse, but she finally managed to clean that last hoof. Avery realized she probably had a lot of guts to manage that.

When the girl thanked her for her comment, Avery realized it could’ve been seen as a compliment. She shrugged slightly, making a nonchalant face. It as the truth as usual and she felt it was her need to share her opinion on it. Her teacher’s absolutely hated her for her opinionated sentences, but Avery really couldn’t help it. She was a bit curt in a way, but the girl did have a heart as other’s had figured out. The brunette couldn’t help the slight chuckle as the girl commented on Dev. “He’s definitely got a personality, though he’s a lot better than he used to be.”

Avery gave the gelding a look as he attempted to try and nip at her jacket in hopes of going out. Smacking his head away, the girl kept an eye on him as her acquaintance complimented her quite randomly. The brunette smiled at this however, feeling as if she actually meant it. The girl had a strong voice, a quality Avery found quite reassuring. It was nice to know she wasn’t talking to one of the dumbas*es in the school. “Thank you.” the girl paused, sizing up the other horse in her eyes. “He’s quite a looker as well. The fiery coat and all.” Avery smirked slightly; she liked chestnut horses as well as bays.

Holding the gelding’s halter in one hand, Avery quickly slipped it on, catching the horse by a bit of surprise in which he sidestepped. The brunette gave him an apologetic look for scaring him before leading him out of the stall. She made sure to keep a lot of distance between her horse and the other girl’s horse as she clipped him up in the wash stall. Before she was able to grab the hose however, the other girl’s response caught her a bit off guard. She raised a brow, allowing a little chuckle to escape her lips. The fact this girl wanted an introduction so quickly struck her as funny, but she complied figuring it wouldn’t hurt to know what her name was as well. “Avery.” She gave the girl a look, before smirking a bit “And I suppose you have a name too?” she asked, figuring this was the moment she told her what her name was.

Outfit <3

[Becca Walsh]

Becca grinned in response to her chuckle and response. The fact that the girl acknowledged the progress they made please Becca, but made her think herself. She rarely thought of the progress she'd made with Fyre, but more of how far they still needed to go. The approach was rather pessimistic, and maybe she had to consider trying to change that. She did, of course, have the motivation already.

Compliments from Becca weren't particularly rare, but only because she didn't like to hold them back. She meant every one of them, and she just vocalized them while others may have just thought them. She saw no reason to withhold a compliment within her, where it did no good. Becca simply nodded in response to the girl's thank you, her hand resting on Frye's withers. She watched the girl's eyes as she looked Frye over, and was pleased with the compliment she'd gotten in return. It hadn't seemed fake, like just an exchange for the compliment Becca had given, and the girl took it rather seriously, "Thanks." She knew that Frye was quite handsome, with his impressive height and flashy colors, and the horse, despite his attitude, knew just when to show off.

Even though the girl and her horse kept a distance when walking by (for which Becca was immensely grateful), Frye still pinned his ears flat against his skull and snaked his neck out towards the other gelding, even though he had no chance of reaching him. Becca didn't think it was odd at all to be asking for an introduction so early, but she wasn't particularly fazed by the girl's chuckle. She was pleased when the girl replied, and told the girl her name immediately, "It's Becca." She knew that she'd heard the girl's name somewhere, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Avery was probably in a class or two of hers, but she was sure that she'd heard the name somewhere else.

[Avery Jacobs]

One thing the brunette certainly didn’t enjoy was small talk. If two people weren’t meant to talk, why fill the air with wasted words? She didn’t waste her breath on people like that and was quite glad to talk to someone less pathetic than the usual people. The brunette made a little half smile as the girl just as curtly thanked her, already figuring she could tolerate her. At most times, Avery didn’t like to bother with people in general. Friends, in her opinion were overrated. Anything that could disappear in the matter of a few seconds was overrated and she had soon gotten rid of everything close to her. Of course, Peter was a whole other story.

Avery certainly didn’t mind the small sections of silence throughout their conversation as her attention returned to her horse. No surprise lit in her eyes as the girl’s horse tried to take a pretty bit out of Dev’s butt as she walked past. She had known to keep her distance from the fiery animal as she’d seen him react around his owner. Dev had been a bit like that, but more in a mischievous way than in a hurt way. The other horse however had a certain sad aura to him, like something that had been hurt mentally more than physically and now was trying to push everything away. Something a lot like her.

The brunette clipped the gelding into the cross ties, making him stand somewhat still as she started to unbuckle his blanket. The hole flapped a bit as she pulled the thing off the animal’s back and set it somewhat orderly on Dev’s stall door. She nodded once in acknowledgement at the redhead’s name. Becca seemed to fit the somewhat sweet look the girl had going on, though Avery wasn’t one to trust based on looks. Keeping the place quiet for a few more moments, the brunette finally figured out how to work the hose and switched it on.

Water sprayed out with the perfect amount of pressure and Avery started to soak Dev’s fetlock. It didn’t look that bad and as the horse began to prance around a bit more, she figured the animal was certainly good enough for a little test run around the round pen on a lunge line. He certainly needed to get out the little jitters that were in staying inside anyway.

Outfit <3

[Becca Walsh]

Becca was certainly glad to see that the girl hadn't seemed startled or offended by Frye's threat to her horse, as it could have been the start of a bad situation. She didn't slap Frye's neck as she sometimes would have, but instead stepped back into his space in warning. Had she hit him, he'd probably have freaked out, and she was trying to find different ways on punishing him, as this didn't seem to be helping.

Grabbing a soft brush, she began to go over his coat again, getting off the dust and light dirt that had collected after she'd used the hard brush. She usually only used a hard brush unless she really needed to use a curry comb. Frye' was easily irritated by the curry comb, probably due to his lack of a heavy fur coat and skinny frame. He didn't really seem bothered by the soft brush, and only flickered his ears back a bit when she neared his belly. Frye had been quite a bit better now that she'd started lunging him regularly, and was usually good when she rode as long as she exercised him regularly enough. She'd probably take him out on the cross country course later in the week and run one of the courses with higher obstacles.

Becca continued to mull over the girl's name, bothered by how she couldn't remember where she'd seen it. When it came to her, she grinned. It'd been in the gossip for the past two issues if she remembered correctly, both times next to the name of a boy that was in a couple of Becca's classes. Becca did like to keep up with the gossip, as silly and petty as it seemed. So far her name hadn't been mentioned, which was a relief, but she really enjoyed hearing all about what her fellow students were up to. It was sort of fun to guess what would show up in the next issue, and how much she'd noticed on her own.

[Avery Jacobs]

Avery did not get angry for things that weren’t other people’s faults. As for horses, they tended to hold a rather softer side of the brunette and she rarely got angry at them unless they were being extremely rude. She believed that all her animals should have manners, and even though Dev could be a brat sometimes, the girl loved her horse to bit and pieces no matter what. Horses had seemed to be the only happy thing in her life when everything had gone down. It was a good thing she had them too or Avery might have resorted to criminal things to spend her anger with.

At the moment, Avery hadn’t been set back with her horse’s little injury thank goodness and the girl hoped it wouldn’t become much of a problem. She needed her mount for class and above that, she didn’t want her horse to be suffering. Smiling softly as the horse affectionately lipped at her head, Avery let him do as he wished while she soaked his leg and quickly the two reached a happy medium of where they would stand. Dev stopped side stepping and walking around the place much to the girl’s happiness which earned him a pat with Avery’s other hand.

Noticing the girl grow a bit quiet, Avery looked at her somewhat curious as to why she was thinking so hard. Certainly, she didn’t know her…. The brunette knew quite well about the gossip and after seeing it for the first time, she’d been sure not to read it again. She honestly didn’t like these eyes on her and Peter, especially since she liked her privacy. She’d had some colorful language for that gossip girl until she’d cooled her temper and decided to ignore it completely.

Satisfied with her soaking, Avery turned off the hose and gently placed it back in its spot. Her eyes flashed back to Becca, and she gave the girl a somewhat genuine smile. From what she’d heard, Avery actually didn’t dislike her, and supposed she might actually be a person she might actually hang out with. Mulling over this thought, Avery unclipped Dev from the cross ties. “I’m gonna lunge him around… so I’ll see you around.” Her closing was to the point, but nice in her own way and with that, Avery walked off in her usual confident stride; picking up a lunge line and lunge whip on the way.

Outfit <3

[Becca Walsh]

Becca's issues with Frye always occurred on the ground. She'd figured out how to manipulate him into cooperating him when she was riding him, but as far as his manners went on the ground, she'd only learned the best ways to avoid his teeth. His attitude actually seemed to sort of give them an edge in the ring, with surprised Becca at their first competition. He really did know when to show off, which amazed her, and as the saying goes, Well behaved horses rarely make it to the Grand Prix. Yeah he was hot, and sure, he could be nasty, but as far as talent went, Kaitlin couldn't have picked a better competition horse. It had always amazed Becca how her sister had dealt with Frye's rudeness on the ground, but still managed to sweep up blue ribbons at shows, but now she sort of got it.

That wasn't to say that she would have chosen Frye for herself, as she and the gelding were certainly not the best match, but they managed and were getting better. She often envied the other students and their horses who seemed to get along so well, but she was beginning to accept it.

Looking over to Avery again, she frowned a bit to see the girl soaking her gelding. She hoped the horse was okay, as he seemed to be nice and Avery obviously adored him. When she got up to leave, Becca smiled and waved her goodbye, keeping her other hand firmly on Frye's neck. After the other girl and her horse had left, Becca looked Frye over, and patted his neck. The gelding was clean, and she was happy with the time she'd spent with him. Returning him to his stall, she blanketed him and scratched his forelock softly before retreating back to her dorm.