Life Goes On (open)

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Although she still felt as though her world had been torn apart, Cara knew that life still had to go on. And, as well as her gymnastics training, she still had horses to work with as part of her equestrian duties. Even though her stomach tied itself in knots as she got dressed into a pair of spotless beige jodhpurs and pulled a light blue polo shirt over her head, she knew that she had to go down to the barn and do what needed to be done. Pulling her still damp hair back into double French braids which she doubled over and secured into place with black hair-ties and used strong-hold hair spray to keep it all in place. She ran her hands over the top of her head to make sure that all of the hairs were sitting flat and where they should be.

Walking out of the bathroom, she flicked the light off as she pulled the door closed behind her – rooms never looked tidy when they had an open door in them. Walking over to her wardrobe, she pulled the door open and reached down for her paddock boots – which she cleaned religiously each night so that they could go away in the wardrobe at night. As she lifted the boots out, she caught sight of a piece of paper. Lifting the paper up, she saw that it was a newspaper clipping of the first show she had done with Phoenix. She gave a small whimper and pressed her lips together as she opened one of her sketch books and slipped the slipping inside. She still didn’t, or couldn’t, cry but it ripped her up inside to think of what her best friend might be going through. Although it was hard to think about, she almost hoped that Mr. Andrews had taken the mare away and had her euthanized. She didn’t want Phoenix to be in any kind of situation that would make her unhappy.

Leaving her dorm room and House, she headed down to Evening Primrose barn, stopping off at the cafeteria to get a small bunch of grapes - getting the woman at the counter to weigh it for her - and skinning them before she ate them, shuddering each time she swallowed. At least she could honestly tell Lee that she had eaten.

She entered the building without the hesitation that she was feeling. “Hello beautiful.” She greeted the first mare she came to, Nightshade (or Herb), a bay Thoroughbred who had arrived at the academy recently. Walking further along, she stopped at the stall that housed a beautiful jet black filly with a small white star and a white pastern. “Would you like to go and play?” She asked as she took the halter off the wall by the door and let herself into the stall. The filly, who was almost as tall as the girl, turned her back on the human and flicked her tail. Cara laughed at the small horse’s antics as she walked around the Hanoverian and slipped and arm around her neck before she slipped the halter over her nose, flicked the strap around her neck and did it up. “Good girl.” She whispered as she clipped the lead rope into place, confidently walked the youngster out of the stall and out to the arena that was at the back of the broodmare barn.

Glad that the arena was empty, so that there would be a little as possible to distract the filly who seemed to notice everything, especially when she was being taught something that she felt she already knew and really didn’t need to go through again. “Stand.” She said softly as she put her arm out in front of the filly’s chest so that if she stepped forward, she would walk into the girl’s arm – a barrier – and not move further forward (or at least that was the idea which sometimes the filly ignored and pushed straight through). “Good girl!” She praised in a bright voice as Mirrhi came to a perfect square halt. The girl hadn’t taught the filly to halt like this as it seemed to come naturally, Cara just hoped that as the horse got older and taller she would keep her natural halt.

Today, she planned to work on getting the filly to yield to pressure. This was an easy, and gentle, lesson to teach and once the filly got the hang of the exercise, it would be beneficial to her in years to come when she was trained under saddle. Clicking her tongue, she wiggled the rope a little until the filly flexed her neck and turned slightly to look toward the girl. Cara placed her fingers just behind the horse’s elbow, about where the girth would sit, and squeezed/tickled gently. The filly looked at her but didn’t budge. Cara pressed a little harder – not so hard though that she caused the baby pain or knocked her off balance – and grinned when the filly crossed one foot over the other as she did a yield of the forequarters. “You are so clever!” She praised the filly as her rubbed her forehead.

She led the weanling around the arena again, asking her to halt at random points and asking her to pick up a trot down the short side. Asking her to halt again, she once again asked for the flex and pressed against her side. “Well done!” She beamed as the horse moved away from her hand, neatly crossing her leg closest to Cara over her other leg before moving the back leg so that she had turned slightly.

“That will do for today.” She said as she hugged the filly. “Come on, let’s go find your sister.” She led the filly from the arena and down to the pastures. It didn’t take them long to find the pasture that was used for the weanlings. “There you go.” She said as she led Mirrhi through the gate and turned her to face the gate before she removed the halter. She leaned against the gate and watched the young Hanoverian kick up her heels as she turned on her hindquarters and raced off to join Keiskei and the dark bay Andalusian colt that the girl had nicknamed Storm Trooper.

[lorilie]

The lanky teen was a slim figure in the world of muscular horsemen. Seamus was easy to pick from a crowd with his tall body and somewhat unusally slender body.

It was a random thing to think about today as he exited his dorm room, his Saluki dog by his side. But, his figure was something he needed to be attentive of. With his stallion for sale, and him about to breed his mare, he would soon be on the lookout for another horse. He'd probably need a tall gelding, something good at dressage. A gelding who was young, but not untrained, and somewhat experianced.

But more thoughts on that later. Right now, he and Neith were off to pick up Loki and bring her to the broodmare barn for inspection by Mr. Cole.

The man was amazingly hard to find. Seamus was thinking about commiting a whole just to find him, or hiring a bloodhound. Neith may have been a dog, but her sense of smell wasn't the sharpest. She was a sighthound after all.

The pair breached the barn, and Seamus made his way over to Loki, who looked at him tiredly, and a tad irratably. She wasn't one for mornings. Nevertheless, Seamus took her halter and lead, shackled it to her, and led her out. Neith, who had always enjoyed waiting for Seamus outside the barn, joined them as they exited the building.

Seamus was silent on his way to the mare barn, Loki not exactly being in the mood to chatter, and Neith being too shy to hold a decent converstation. Besides, his thoughts were entertaining at the moment.

His eyes were glazed slightly as he walked, focased more on his mind than his surrondings. So it was his surprise to introduce his face to the doorframe of the mare barn. He backed up slightly and his hand went to his forehead, features showing pain. Loki spared him a dry glare before returning to her stony state, and Neith cocked her head sympathetically.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara pushed herself off the fence and exited the pasture with the filly's halter and lead in her hand. Even though she would like nothing more than to spend the day watching the youngsters independently search their new area of freedom, only every now and then one of them would lift their heads up and call out to their mothers, the mare in their own shared pasture hardly even bother to lift their heads. Daisy had been through this before and Stella was showing her known, I don't care about you, tendencies - thankfully she had waited until her son was weaned before deciding she wanted nothing more to do with him.

She massaged her temple as she walked back into the barn, already working through what she needed to do: clean the stalls belonging to Mirrhi and Keiskei, check on Papillion and Púca and take them out to the pasture while the sun was shining so she could give the stall a good cleaning, give Fairy a good groom, take her out, and clean her stall. She blew out a breath, wondering if she was going to have enough time to check on Titania's legs before that afternoon's lesson, and before she had to go to her academic classes. And thinking that she would need to go back to her dorm and shower again before classes. Yes, she's obsessed with being clean, leave her alone!

Her thoughts strayed to that morning's gymnastics session, she was pleased with what she had accomplished. However, the fall from the bars still made her furious whenever she thought about it, but that would wait for another day. She bit her lip as she thought about standing on the scales after the session. She chewed on the flesh on the inside of her lip as she thought of the reading, not sure whether she was happy with it or not. She was pleased that she had managed to drop it a little (she was now down to 68), but she knew that her past coaches would tell her she still had more to lose.

She folded her arms over her stomach as she entered the barn, just in time to see someone else walking in from the other end. "Watch out!" She warning fell on deaf ears and she winced in empathetic pain as the other person walked onto the doorframe. She picked up her pace and dropped the halter and lead over it's hook as she passed the door. "Are you alright, Mr O'Bryne?" She asked, automatically slipping into the formality that had been drilled into her. In all honesty she had recognised Loki before she noticed the person leading her.