Hand-grazing the old girl, (open)

[jillaroo]

Cindy walked down the path towards the barn. The morning was pleasantly cool, and she wore only a pair of jodhpurs, and a crisp white shirt. A baseball cap was pulled down low over her brown hair, and she looked more like a teenager than a librarian.

The barn was quiet, with most of the horses out in the paddocks. A familiar head popped out over the top of one of the doors, and Penny nickered happily when she saw who it was. Cindy smiled and patted the horse’s neck. Her ears were pricked, and she looked a picture of good health. Cindy still couldn’t believe that the mare was hers. Finally after all these years, a horse of her own!

A young girl with a blond ponytail led her horse past, and Penny lifted her head and looked expectantly after them. Glancing down at her watch, Cindy let herself into the stall, and clipped on the horse’s lead rope. Penny nibbled on her hair, and Cindy laughed, planting a kiss on her velvety muzzle. She led the horse out into the aisle, amazed at how easily Penny trusted her. She was nothing like the frightened, half-starved horse that had been led off the trailer at Hope for Horses.

Penny picked at the grass that grew outside the front of the barn. Cindy stood by her shoulder, shooing away the flies. Two students walked past, and she waved to them. They were chatting noisily, but one of them paused in mid-sentence, and flashed Cindy a friendly smile. She smiled back, thinking how lucky she was to have found herself here.

[sepia]

"Ah, this is the life, huh boy?" The question was addressed to the Peruvian Paso currently grazing in a field, looking remarkable unconcerned about the fact that Theresa was approaching him with a headcollar. Apparently he wasn't all that bothered about being caught, as he lifted his head willingly enough to let the woman slip it over his head. The braided piece of equipment was well-worn, having been his for several years, and fitted him well, complementing his somewhat stubby head.

Leading the chestnut to the gate, Theresa swung it shut behind them, flipped the latch on it, then gently tugged Conker's head up from where he'd been sneaking towards some grass. The pair of them slowly began to make their way up to the barn, Theresa considering what she'd be doing with him today - a trail ride, she thought, given the weather. Dressed in jodhpurs and a dark blue shirt, it was fairly obvious that she was about to ride, though her braided hair was uncovered and she wore no gloves. Conker wasn't the type to need that - not now, anyway - when working on the ground with him.

Realising abruptly that she was heading towards the wrong barn - having horses with names at opposite ends of the alphabet was mildly irritating, given the stabling system of Blue Ridge - she corrected their course and they veered back towards the right barn, Theresa waving a friendly hand at a student leading their own horse down towards the pastures. She liked that the whole student-teacher thing was quite casual, here, horses acting - as always - as a great leveler.

Approaching the barn, her attention was caught by a woman hand-grazing another chestnut horse, and purely on a whim, Theresa decided to stop to chat. Conker was hardly going to mind the opportunity to nibble away at some more grass, after all, and naturally gregarious, she was finding that uprooting herself into new surroundings meant she rather lacked companionship. No time like the present to start sorting that out!

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" she said, coming to a halt a decent distance away from the woman had her horse, in case the mare decided to take exception to new arrivals. "You could almost live of air this clear." She grinned, turning her face upwards towards the sky, enjoying the play of cool air across it. Bringing her gaze back down to bear on the person she'd randomly decided to approach, she didn't lose her smile. "I'm Theresa Godfrey, by the way, geography teacher... and pretty new here, so I'm still managing to get myself lost everywhere."

[jillaroo]

Penny stood in the shade of the barn. Cindy let the rope drape loosely, enjoying the few moments of peace and quiet before class let out for the afternoon. She let her mind wander, and grimaced, when she thought of what a state the library was in. The last librarian had left in a rush, and Cindy had been dumbstruck when she saw boxes of books piled up almost to the ceiling in places. It would take her weeks to get everything back in its proper place, especially when she still had to learn where everything went in the first place!

Cindy was startled from her daydreaming when Penny suddenly let out a loud whinny. She found herself staring into the face of a cheerful looking young woman, and she blinked in surprise. The woman enthusiastically introduced herself, and Cindy liked her immediately.

Cindy raised her eyebrows. “Better not tell that to your students,” she laughed. “I’m sure their parents would be thrilled with the idea of a geography teacher whose idea of direction is walking in circles.” She smiled brightly at Theresa. “I printed up a map before I got here, but I don’t tell anyone it’s not the Art of Training I’m reading, but how to find my way to the bathroom!”

[sepia]

"Liking geography does not, unfortunately, grant me with an innate sense of direction," Theresa responded, with a laugh. "You're probably right, though. Looks bad if I'm trying to teach people map-skills and yet can't manage to figure out which barn I'm supposed to be in. Though," she paused, as a thought struck her, "Maybe if I went around with a compass I'd do slightly better..." Alright, so it might look slightly ridiculous, but if it worked... She'd have to consider that.

"Your way of doing things sounds very sensible," she added, glad that she seemed to have managed to find someone as willing to be friendly as she was. "Now why didn't I think of a map?" Conker, at this point, came to the conclusion that they were clearly going to be a while, and so advanced towards what he'd decided was the nearest patch of grass around. Unfortunately, this was beyond the length of the rope Theresa had allowed him, and so she found herself jerked off her feet by her pony, his short frame plenty strong enough to dislodge her feet from their nice safe position on the ground.

She squeaked, briefly, as she managed to regain her feet, Conker entirely unsympathetic to her plight as he stuck his head down into his chosen patch of grass, and began to tear away at it, strong teeth making short work of the juicy stems. "Manners, apparently, aren't an option for the day, either," Theresa said, frowning in entirely good humour at her willful steed.

[jillaroo]

Cindy clapped a hand to her mouth and giggled. She didn’t mean to, but it had been pretty funny. The woman looked a little flustered, but at least she hadn’t been dumped on her butt. The pony-sized chestnut looked to have an attitude, and Cindy was relieved Penny was much more calm and easygoing.

Theresa was wearing slim-fitting jodhpurs and shirt, and Cindy envied the woman so much that it hurt. Even though there were plenty of horses she could ride here, it wasn’t the same as having one of her own. She missed having the feel of a horse under her, and it had been so long since she’d ridden, she thought she might fall off if the horse went any faster than a trot!

“So you off for a ride then?” she asked, trying her best to sound enthusiastic. “Nice enough day for it,” she added quickly, swallowing her jealously. It wasn’t fair to be jealous of Theresa. The woman was one of the nicest people she’d met, and Cindy desperately wanted to fit in here. It wasn’t like it was Theresa’s fault that she had a horse she could ride, and Cindy didn’t.

OOC: And now the realities of having a horse she can't ride sink in

[sepia]

"Don't laugh at him!" Theresa cried in response to Cindy's giggles, though given that she was laughing herself, it was unlikely that she actually meant the words at all seriously. "It'll only encourage him, and believe me - he really doesn't need it! You're willful enough as it is, aren't you boy?" The last words were directed at her steed, recriminatory tone entering them as she finished. Conker flicked a mild ear at her, and continued to eat, unperturbed by the scolding tone directed at him. Theresa gave up with a shrug, turning her attention back to Cindy.

"Yep," she confirmed, tone gleeful. "I'm going to check out the Rocky Ridge Trail... I hear it's more difficult than the other one, which I tested out the other day." Conker had been most unimpressed with it, the hardy pony clearly wanting something more of a challenge. More steep slopes to scramble up, a few rocky sections, and perhaps a few rivers to ford and he'd be happier. "Want to join us? We'd love the company, and you could help with the whole 'getting lost' thing I've got going."

The offer was made purely on the spur-of-the-moment, Theresa's gregarious nature kicking in and deciding that company would be a delightful thing. Not being the most subtle of people, she hadn't noticed the thing threads of envy winding through Cindy's words, and was half-thinking that Cindy had been asking in the hopes of getting an invitation to come along. Theresa knew she might well do something of the sort in her quest for people to know, and didn't think it unlikely that anyone else would do the same.