Photo Op (Open)

[Olivia Cheyenne Kwinn]

"Barčinka, Barčinka, whatever shall I do with you?" Olivia was perched on the rail of the rehabilitation yard, Nikon in hand, looking at the mare that she had worked with throughout the semester. The Czechoslovakian Small Riding Pony had come around wonderfully, had even rounded out and now looked the picture of health. What one wouldn't see, just by looking at the mare, was how she still disliked having her legs handled. She was still wary about being handled at all, but her legs were a definite no-go zone, which meant that, while the rest of her was sparkling in the sunlight, her legs were dusty, and her hooves were still overgrown. Olivia bit her cheek as she watched the mare, who had investigated her for treats before returning to nose at the snow in a corner she apparently had not searched for grass yet. Olivia raised the camera to her eye, supporting the lens with one hand and the main body with the other, and zoomed in on Barčinka's pretty head. As the mare turned, now facing about forty-five degrees right of the camera, Olivia let the camera focus and then the shutter clicked rapidly, loud in the quiet day. Barčinka's head came up, and she regarded the girl for a moment before putting her head back down and resuming her search.

[Rose Hoff]

Rose had been busy as anything since she'd started at Blue Ridge at the beginning of the school year. She'd started with Vintage, who she had brought with her to the academy, and ended up with Papillon and Dolly through her classes and activities at Blue Ridge. Making it onto the equestrian team meant that she needed an alternative mount, which had brought in Fallon, the mare she rode quite often to know her pretty well in case Vintage went lame. And, of course, there was Eleanor. She hadn't meant to buy another horse, but she couldn't imagine letting the chance to have Starlight's foal go. Though she was busy, she was happy though, and she'd adjusted to balancing all of the horses. Today she was going to work with Dolly, who she'd been working with for quite some time now.

Making her way down to the Equine Clinic, bag over her shoulder, she shivered a bit. The cold months had set in on them, much to Rose's dismay. She loved the winter, just not the cold. She'd dressed warm in her wool coat and winter wear, but there was no avoiding the chill. Making her way over to the paddocks, she found a girl with a camera, and smiled at her calling out, "Hello!" just loud enough for the girl to hear. She wondered how the photos would come out. They were sure to be pretty with all the snow.

Walking to the tack room, she got Dolly's lead and brush box and walked back out, placing the brush box and her bag outside of an empty yard and entering the pasture. Clipping Dolly's lead on, she led her back to the empty yard and brought her in, grabbing the brushes on the way in. Once inside, she began to groom Dolly with a hard brush. The mare didn't like the curry comb even though she'd filled out, which Rose had expected, because of her breed.

clothes

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara stepped out of the girl's changing room in the gymnastics studio, dressed in beige breeches, a black long sleeved polo shirt and a light blue vest. On her feet were her black Ariat paddock boots. With a slight bow toward Coach, she left the studio and made her way toward the equine clinic. So much of her time lately had been taken by making sure her horses went to good homes - other than Ella - and completing her holiday assignments, that she hadn't been spending enough time at the clinic - something she would need to apologise to Dr Carr for.

Arriving at the clinic, she slipped in through the front entrance and then, when finding the veterinarian's office unoccupied, she headed down the hall to the barn. "Hello my little Fairy." She greeted Fée with a warm smile. The little Mustang was coming along in her lessons in leaps and bounds and the triplets (even of the little colt was a month older than the fillies) had been assigned their own stalls. "I'll come and work with you later." She told the filly as she tickled her behind her ears.

She then headed down to the stall that housed the chestnut pangare Brumby's stall. "Hello Gem." She greeted the mare who was standing at the back of the stall. The girl felt a swell of pride when the mare's ears flickered toward her and the pony took a step forward. "That's a good girl." She said as she took up the mare's halter and entered the stall.

Leading the mare out of the stall, she picked up her grooming kit from the tack room and then led the pony outside to the yards. As the weather was quite nice outside today, she didn't bother to throw a blanket over the mare's back. She was a little more than surprised to see that the yard area was busy that day, but not too surprised as a few of the horses from the rehabilitation class still remained on campus. Keeping her concentration on the mare she was leading - as the one thing she had learned over the months she had spent working with the Brumby, was that the mare needed a confident handler who she could trust and hide behind. She led the mare into an empty yard and unclipped the leadrope from the halter, letting the mare move away from the gate, before she closed and secured the gate.

[Olivia Cheyenne Kwinn]

Olivia heard the voice behind her and flinched slightly, since she had been concentrating too much on finding just the right angle in her viewfinder. She lowered the camera and turned to Rose, "Hi." She smiled briefly, but when the girl continued onward, she turned back to look at Barčinka, who was looking after the other girls, ears pricked in interest. Raising the camera again, Olivia squinted at the viewfinder and snapped a few shots while the mare was still interested, stopping as the pony looked over her. She lay the camera in her lap and just sat, watching her mare, who seemed to have lost interest in the clicking box and instead was looking at a point behind Olivia.

Turning on the rail where she was sitting, Olivia could see why the mare had been so interested. Cara had just led her Brumby out into the yards. Olivia smiled at the other girl, who she knew had a lot of experience working with horses, then turned back to Barčinka, watching as the mare let out a whinny of greeting with a grin. The mare liked to 'talk' sometimes, that was for sure. It was a change of pace from Blue, who might be friendly, but was almost too quiet at times.

[Rose Hoff]

Rose continued to groom Dolly until the mare was fairly clean. Once she'd stopped, she put the brushes back in the box and returned them to the tack room. She'd been planning on doing something more with her today, but seeing Olivia taking pictures had given her an idea, and they really didn't need to work. Dolly was doing well, and Rose should probably take advantage of the warmer-than-usual weather to draw Dolly a bit. Her time with the mare was probably going to be ending soon, and she didn't know whether or not she'd be able to see her much, or at all, if the mare didn't stay on campus.

She returned to the yard and looked over at the other yards around. Olivia was still there taking photos, and Cara had arrived with her Brumby mare. Rose had been meaning to ask the girl about any herbal remedies she could give Eleanor. Cara spoken to Rose about them in the past, and she wanted to try some with Eleanor, to see if any would help with her nervousness. She didn't want to interrupt Cara though, and decided that she'd approach the girl later about it if she wasn't busy.

Grabbing her bag from where it sat, she climbed onto the fence, in the same way that Olivia was sitting. She pulled a sketchpad from her bag, as she usually carried it with her. Opening her tin of pencils, she took one out and put the rest back in her bag, which she placed on her lap with the sketchpad balanced on top. Pulling out her phone, she took a couple pictures of Dolly so that she'd be able to finish the picture later once she'd left. She then began to sketch, outlining the basic shape of the thoroughbred mare. She wanted to have at least something to remember Dolly by once the mare had left.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Thanks so much Cymilla!! I'm now going to delete all of the OOC posts, as though they never happened

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

After she had made sure that the gate wasn't going to become unlatched on its own, she walked into the middle of the yard, placed the grooming kit on the ground by her feet and holding the lead rope in her hand by her side. She then held her right hand out to her side, in line with her shoulder. She didn't speak, nor did she even look at the mare. Her stance showed that she was relaxed and happy for the mare to do as she pleased, but she was there if Gem wanted to come close.

It had taken a very long time to get to this point, but she now had the faith in the mare that she would, in her own time, choose to be with the girl. And because of that, there was nothing in the girl's body language that was ordering the mare to do anything. Though she did follow the mare with her eyes, watching as the Brumby explored the snow built up against the fence posts with her nose. It was only a few more moments though before the mare walked up to the girl and placed her nose into her empty hand. Smiling, Cara clipped the lead rope onto the halter, not that she needed it, and lay the end of it over the mare's neck so she couldn't step on it.

She then set about grooming the little pony, taking special care to make sure she cleaned out Gem's hooves. The rest of the world ceased to exist as there was nothing other than herself and the mare she was working with.