Daily Checks (open)

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara stood in her bathroom, blinking against the light. Her head was pounding, but she pushed that to the background as she quickly pulled her hair back into a neat french braid which she then wound into a tidy bun, which was held into place by a dozen hair pins. She had just got back from gymnastics and was ready to start the weekend.

She walked back into her room and picked up the bag that was sitting on her desk, opening it to make sure that it contained everything she needed; her notebook, a tape measure, the pens she needed, her sketchbook and charcoal pencils, a bag of carrot chunks and a small bag of fresh raspberry leaves. She swung the bag over her shoulder, pushed her feet into her paddock boots and silently left her room and the Blue House.

Walking across the campus she kept her head down, studying the ground in front of her feet. Her new mare wasn't proving to be the money-maker that Mr Andrews had hoped and Cara had earned a shiner from defending the mare.

Walking into Evening Primrose, she quickly noticed that the mares had already been turned out, so after carefully skipping out the mare's stall - assuring the barn-hands that she was more than happy to do it as it also gave her a chance to see how much the mare had eaten of her breakfast - she lay down some fresh straw. Evening Primrose was the only barn that bedding the stalls with straw because shavings weren't safe for new born foals and it was just easier to have all of the stalls with straw in case it all hit the fan with any one of the mares.

She then grabbed the mare's grooming kit and a thermometer from the tack room and walked out to the pastures where the mares spent the warmer time of the day. She greeted each of the mares as she walked passed, each of them held a place in her heart, but her eyes were on the Haflinger mare that she was walking towards. "Hi Shiloh." She whispered as she reached the mare. A tiny smile touched her lips as the mare looked up and blew into the girl's face. "How are you feeling?"

Placing the bag on the ground, she opened it and took out the tape measure. Showing the item to the mare, she walked around to stand by the flaxen chestnut's shoulder and carefully dropped the tape over her back, then bending down to grasp the end under her belly, as she would a girth. Then moving the tape down so that it was around the mare's belly, she joined it and took a mental note of the numbers before releasing the tape and removing it from the mare. "Good girl." She whispered as she made a huge fuss over the small horse for standing so patiently.

She wound the tape up and dropped it back in her bag, she then pulled out the notebook and opened it to the graph that she had drawn up the day the mare was inseminated and she took a black pen and put a dot in the square that matched the date and size before she used a blue pen to draw a line from the last dot to this one. She carefully placed the book on the ground before she took up the thermometer and carefully took the mare's temperature.

She knew that she was possibly going a little overboard with the mare, as this was a daily ritual, but after Shiloh had lost her last foal without warning, she didn't want to take any chances this time and was doing a daily check of the mare. Going back to her book, she jotted down the reading and frowned to see that it had gone up since the day before. She made note to talk to Sir Solomon about it before she left.

She then put the book away for now and just spent time grooming the mare with a soft body brush. "I brought you some treats." She told the mare as she offered her the carrot chunks and the raspberry leaves - all of which the mare devoured - carefully pushing the plastic bags into the bottom of her pack.

Leaving the mare to graze again, she settled herself under a tree and pulled out the sketch book and pencils.

[Sir Peter Solomon]

Peter walked back from his apartment in the Brown Ribbon Dorm rooms, having taken a break to take Mei out for a walk. He didn't want the vixen to be alone for all too long, and since he didn't have to be in the barn every moment of the day, he took a break now and then to give her the exercise she needed to keep her from destroying the room while he was out.

As he walked past the pastures that were out behind the Evening Primrose barn, he noticed a small figure in the shadow of one of the trees. Knowing which mare should be in the pasture, Shiloh, he suspected who it might be. Seeing the flaxen chestnut mare near the tree, he approached, his suspicion confirming it quickly. He smiled as he stopped at the edge of the field, noticing the pencils and sketchpad. Not wanting to disturb the mare, he spoke quietly, "Good morning, Cara. How is Shiloh doing today?" He looked at the mare, thinking that she seemed healthy enough, although he wasn't close enough to see every detail of her shape.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara sat under the tree, making sure not to lean against it and mark the back of her jersey, and the pencil worked lightly over the page as she sketched a quick image of the grazing mare. On the stomach of the horse, she drew the mare's womb and what the foal foetus would look like at the mare's early stage. She wasn't really showing yet, unless you knew that the mare was pregnant, other than looking like a typically round pony.

The girl jumped and raised her head the same time as the mare, looking at the owner of the voice. "Good morning, Sir." She replied as she put the book and pencil down and rose to her feet, her training didn't allow her to remain seated when there was a man present, keeping her head down. She glanced at the mare, who ambled over to her. "She is good. Her stomach is steadily rounding, but not too quickly." She rubbed the mare's nose and pushed her away gently when she got too close. Pregnant or not, Cara wasn't going to allow the mare to resort back to her old ways.

She nodded as the mare took a step back and went back to grazing. "Her temperature has gone up a couple of degrees though. Nothing too high, as it is only one hundred and one, but that is two more than yesterday." If it had been any higher, she would have got the man straight away as anything above what the mare was, could mean infection and that's what the girl didn't want - thus her daily routine with the mare. "She is eating well though, and readily accepted my offering." She pressed her lips together to stop herself from saying any more, she was beginning to do what annoyed her about most other teens, talking for the sake of talking.

[Sir Peter Solomon]

Peter saw Cara jump and stepped back, "I must apologize, I didn't mean to startle you or Shiloh." He saw her stand and wished she hadn't, although he didn't say anything about it. He nodded as the girl reported on the mare's condition, "That's good to hear, that everything is going well so far." He knew to keep a close eye on the mare, while Cara wasn't around her, because he had heard the story of her last pregnancy, and he wasn't looking for a repeat.

He watched the interaction between human and mare, smiling slightly. He listened to the girl as she started speaking again, raising an eyebrow, "Two whole degrees?" That was slightly worrying, but it wasn't too much of a worry. He glanced at the water trough, wondering if the mare had been drinking enough, but since there wasn't any easy way of checking that, decided to just leave it to fluctuation for now. As Cara told him that she was eating, though, he decided that it was probably just a bit of an off-day, "What have you been offering her, if I may ask?" He had heard about Cara's affinity for herbal remedies, of course, and didn't mind her using them on her mare, but was asking more out of general curiosity.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

She saw his eyes move toward the water trough. "She's drinking, Sir." She said. "I turned off the automatic refilling system." She too had been concerned about the mare's fluid intake so she had turned the filling system off to the mare's trough a few days ago and because of it, she came to see the mare any chance she got to check the water level and top it up if need be - something she also kept track off in the mare's notebook.

She blushed as she was questioned about what she had been offering the mare. "She gets two handfuls a day, which is around thirty grams, of Raspberry leaves. It has properties to help strengthen and tone the uterine muscles to assist with contractions during foaling, checking haemorrhaging and encouraging cleansing of the afterbirth." She gave a small shrug, knowing that most people waited until the mare was well and truly into their pregnancies before feeding the herb to them, but as the mare had lost her last foal, and the chance of haemorrhaging was high due to his history, she had decided to feed it to the mare from the start. "And carrots, for no other reason than because she likes them so much more than apples."

She glanced at the mare, closed her eyes and lowered her head again. "I can stop offering her the herb if you would prefer."

[Sir Peter Solomon]

Peter nodded as the girl reassured him that the mare was drinking. He smiled as she told him that she had turned off the refill system, "That's fine, although next time, I'd prefer if you could come and tell me if you are planning on turning off the automated refilling, please." Keeping track of the barn and its pastures was his job, and he didn't want to be caught off guard with a trough not filling up properly. It would be easy to spot once one looked for it, but before then, a half-empty trough could cause some alarm, which he didn't really want.

He nodded as he heard that she had been feeding the mare raspberry leaves, and smiled as he heard about her preference for carrots. As Cara offered to stop feeding her the leaves, he shook his head, "I see no problem with it, and she is your mare to work with as you see fit." He looked at her, "Which you are doing a remarkable job of from what I have seen so far. I merely asked out of my own, personal, curiosity." He didn't see why giving the mare raspberry leaved earlier than normal would harm her, and there was, potentially, a lot to be helped by the practice.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara's shoulders dropped as she was told that she should have informed the barn manager about her having turned the refilling system off - in her mind, she had just committed a serious crime and would need to be reprimanded for it. "I am sorry, Sir." She said, her meek voice sounding truly abashed. "It won't happen again." If he hadn't noticed that she'd turned the system off on the trough, he probably hadn't noticed that she scrubbed it out every day too.

The girl glanced at the mare and over toward her sketchbook, but she dared not move until she had been excused by the man. Part of the many lectures she had been given by her social worker during their latest meeting was the way the girl's level of respect was slipping and that she was no longer waiting to be dismissed before she left the presence of her elders. It hadn't been an easy lesson to learn the first time that she didn't want the man to feel that she needed to go through the training once again.

The girl flinched as the mare ambled up and nudged her gently. "Sorry, sweetie." She whispered as she rubbed the mare's nose, knowing that it wasn't the mare's fault that her mind was everywhere but where it should be. "We will go for a walk later." If the mare's last pregnancy had been a success, she would be riding the mare until she was well into her pregnancy, but she was just as happy with talking the mare for a nice long walk.

[Sir Peter Solomon]

Peter saw the tiny girl nearly deflate at his words and tried to soften them as she apologized, "It's not a problem, but if the barn-hands aren't aware of what is going on, they may just turn it on again in the belief that it was malfunctioning." He gazed at the girl, "Which would hurt your records, as far as that went." He made a note to tell all of the barn-hands that worked with the Evening Primrose barn, to remind them that the water trough in this particular paddock was turned off by design, and not defective.

He saw the glance that Cara cast to the mare, and then to the sketchbook, and decided not to bother the girl any longer. After all, she seemed to be taking good care of Shiloh, and the mare was hers to treat during her pregnancy. Pushing himself away from the rail and brushing his hands off quietly, he smiled at Cara, "Just keep doing what you're doing, she seems to be doing wonderful this far." He turned to go, "I shall be in my office, if there is anything you need or want to tell me, or if there are any questions that may arise."

Giving her a slight nod, he walked towards his office, not wanting to disturb them any longer. However, once he had resumed his seat, he turned to the window and gazed out of it, watching the petite girl, whom he could barely see, and the mare.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara shrugged her shoulders ever so slightly. "If one of the helpers happened upon it and turned it back on, it wouldn't be too much of a problem." She said, it was a half truth. As she knew that the mare had been drinking well until now, so if the water system had been turned on again before she next came in, it would just muck up her records for the rest of the day, not too much of a problem.

She bowed her head at his next words. "Thank you, Sir Solomon." She replied. "I will come and find you should I need you."

Once alone again, Cara accepted the presence of the mare and pressed her own forehead against that of Shiloh's, just taking a moment to pull herself together before stepping away and rubbing the sensitive mare's forehead. "You are such a clever girl." She told the mare softly. "Your baby is going to be so healthy." She smiled as the mare nosed the girl's clothes and then shuffled off to graze once more on the short grass.

Cara walked back to the tree where her things were and lowered herself to the ground again. She picked up the sketch book and went back to her drawing, which were just silly pictures of what Shiloh's foal might look like. She wondered if the baby would keep his or her dam's colouring or if the sire's colouring would come through and the foal would have the few-spot gene that the stallion carried, and showed until he had greyed out - which the foal no doubt would if the Haflinger colouring didn't come through.

Shaking her head and moving away from fantasies, the girl picked up the mare's note book again and opened it half way through and started filling out the journal part of the book

Shiloh is doing well. She seems to be taking to being pregnant like a duck to water and is as healthy as I can hope for her to be. Today her temperature is two degrees higher than yesterday, but that is to be expected and as it still fits within the "normal" range, I will not stress about it - and won't be surprised if it had dropped again tomorrow. However, if it is higher, I will need to take action. She has not come this far to loose the foal, not when I am working with her this time.

She is readily accepting the raspberry leaves that I am offering her and always looks for more... or maybe it's more carrots that she's trying to find. I have spent the past year and retraining the mare so that she's not the brat she was upon arrival so I'm making sure not to over-treat her so that she doesn't come to expect them and become pushy if she doesn't get what she wants.

I would love to still be riding her, bareback of course, but I don't want to chance anything so I will just settle to walking her around the pastures and down to the trails where she can graze on the lush grass that grows there - as I have thoroughly cheeked the area for any plants that could endanger her or the unborn foal.

She put the blue pen down and closed the orchid coloured notebook. She loved that shade of purple on the mare, it was almost lilac and ever so slightly rose pink as well. And she always had a notebook to match the stable colour of the horses she worked with, as it make the book easier to pull out of her bookshelf in a hurry. All of Bunny's notebooks were red with gold cord down the spine, no other horse she ever worked with would have red, for that exact reason.