In search of the boss lady

[Byrne Murphy]

After a the few moments Sage spent wandering the academy, familiarizing himself with his new home and some of the horses he may be having the privilege to work with later on the Irishmen set off in the direction of White Oak Barn after stopping to ask a couple of young ladies for directions. He still needed to meet the woman who was going to be his boss during his stay, and hopefully make a good first impression before he found his apartment and got settled in with what little he had to put away.

Hauling his massive back-pack up the walkway and through the front entry way of the barn he slowed his pace, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he saw sweet, curious brown eyes stare at him from over the rows of stale doors. It felt good to be around horses again, kind of like that warm, bubbly feeling you got in your chest when someone you had your eye on talked to you for the first time. Those who were truly horse mad never grew out of the 'phase'. It was something that never left you, no matter how old you got.

Being sentimental aside, Sage continued walking and turned the corner near the end of the length of the stable, finding the tucked away door to miss Carr's office.
Taking a deep breath he stretched out his aching shoulder and rapped lightly on the frosted window, letting out a meek "Hello?"before stepping back and waiting patiently.

[Katherine Carr]

Katherine's office is to the left pretty much as soon as you get past the door that has been pushed back against the wall.

The barn manager replaced the phone with a little more force than was required. One of the Academy horses was here on loan from an old friend of hers, and the woman had heard stories that O'Malley wasn't being well looked after and she was sending out a vet to come and inspect the gelding's condition and removing him is the vet felt that the horse wasn't being taken care of.

She knew that there would be a new person arriving soon about becoming a stable hand, and she wouldn't say no to another keen worker. However, she was currently alone so she felt no guilt as she rose from her chair and walked over to the coffee pot and poured herself another hot cup. After adding just the right amount of sugar - half a teaspoon - she stirred it and walked back to her desk.

She had only just got herself settled when there was a knock on the door. When the knock wasn't followed by a person, she had the feeling that she knew exactly who it was, as all of the locals knew about her open door policy - if the door was partly open then anyone was free to walk in, if it was closed properly, then she wasn't to be disturbed. "Enter." She said warmly as she placed the mug on her desk and rose to her feet.

[Byrne Murphy]

The swung open slowly with a slight squeak of its hinges as a pale, scruffy chinned face peeped into the office apprehensively before stepping all the way over the thresh hold.
Sage's gray-blue eyes instantly began to wander the room with a nervous curiosity. Scanning over every little nook and cranny they could spy before they finally settled on miss Carr. This time taking their sweet time to search the woman over, even as his hands were busy setting down his pack before offering it to be shook.

The younger male never once looked away from the barn manager, never breaking eye contact once he had finished his mental once over of his new boss. She was surprisingly pretty with her neat brunette hair and serious brown eyes, despite the fact that Sage could tell that something had been getting her up in arms and frustrated just before he had walked in. She simply had that stressed and mentally tired air about her that was as easily read as a flashing stop sign. At first he wanted to take a step back and ask if this was a bad time for them to meet, but the little voice in the back of the man's head told him that he was probably just better off getting his meet and greet over with as soon as possible, being careful not to waste any of Carr's time with stupid questions and insecurities.

"It's a pleasure ta meet ya, Ma'am. My name's Byrne Murphy. " Sage offered a friendly smile, reaching up with his free hand to yank the paisley print bandanna off his head and hold it to his chest as if it were a hat. Setting loose his mop of shaggy brown-black hair in the process. "I hope I'm not intruding or coming in as a bad time, Ma'am. I just wanted to be sure to introduce myself and get to know what I'm dealing with before I just start running a'bou like a chicken with ma d**n head cut off."
he chuckled lightly in his thick accent, rubbing the back of his neck and shifting his body weight left and right on his feet.

[Katherine Carr]

Katherine's smile flicked from courtesy to real as a young man entered her office, her eyebrows rose as he began speaking and she chuckled softly as he finished. "It is a pleasure to meet you Mr Murphy." She finally said, her voice matching her smile. "It isn't a bad time at all. Please come in and have a seat." She gestured to one of the chairs beside her desk. "And please, call me Katherine."

She lowered herself back down into her chair and hit a button on her phone so that if it ran it would go straight to the answering machine. "I got a note that you had applied to be one of the barn hands." She lifted her eyebrows in question. "What attracted you to our establishment?" She would never turn a worker away, but she liked to know about why they wanted to work in the barn, and hopefully a little background. "And is there anything I can tell you about the place?" She lifted her mug to her lips and then lowered it again without taking a sip. "Sorry, where are my manners? Can I get you a drink, Byrne?" The young man obviously hadn't taken the chance to settle in yet, which also probably meant that he hadn't had a drink either.

[Byrne Murphy]

It took a moment for Bryne to react to miss Carr asking him to come and sit down, but the request eventually registered in the nervous man's mind and he skittered forward with a little awkwardness in his movements and sat in the chair across Kathrine's desk. Lifting his right foot up to rest in on his left knee as he fidgeted with his jacket and hoped that his dirty work boots hadn't tracked in dirt from his walking. The last thing he wanted was to make a mess in his boss's work space and cause her more strife.

Allowing himself to relax a bit when the manager asked to be referred to on a first name basis the Irishman smiled his crooked and good natured grin with a nod.
"Katherine it is then, miss."
He listened to her statement intently and though carefully before he answered her question.
"Well....in all actuality I don't see why anyone wouldn't be attracted to it. You're provided with a roof over your head, good pay, you get to work with horses to you're hearts content and board your own. All I've been asked of in return is to work hard."

With a shrug and a bright beam of a smile Bryne shrugged his shoulders. "In all honesty, I'm still waiting for someone to wake me up so I can find out I'm dreaming."
Now, if anyone else had said what had just same out of Bryne's mouth, it would sound like the corniest load of bull in the world. But Bryne meant it, he really truly did.
"Oh?" tilting his to the side slightly, Bryne politely turned down Katherine's offer for a cup of coffee. Even though the coffee machine was filling the room with the wonderful scent of brewing grounds.
"No thank you. Coffee doesn't agree with me, I'll be climbing up the walls after half a cup."

[Katherine Carr]

Katherine loved the way her office was set up. Her large mahogany desk was pushed up against the wall under the window so the woman could watch the comings and goings of vehicles and people outside the barns, and it also gave her a good view of the path that led to the pastures and Roscoe's arena. The two large comfortable guest chairs were more to the side of her desk so that if any of the students needed to come and see her about any issues they were having, they didn't need to feel like they were in the dean's office.

She sat silently as she listened to Byrne as the young man spoke of the reasons he was in her barn and why he wanted the job. She chuckled at his response to her offer for a drink. "Just because I live on the stuff doesn't mean it is all I have to offer. I have water, iced tea, juice." She liked what she had heard from him and was willing to let him loose in her barn.

"We all work together to make the place run smoothly." She told him. Even though she was the boss, Katherine still put in as much manual labour as each of the other people who worked in her barn "Each of the students are responsible for the upkeep of their own stalls, though we do have one or two who seem to think mucking out is below them. With that said though, I do have one horse owner in here who would take it personally if you did her work for her."

[Byrne Murphy]

Bryne's interest quickly perked when Miss Carr mentioned that she had other things to offer. It wasn't that he wasn't thirsty, his canteen had been empty for a few hours now, and when you were walking the way he had been it didn't take long for your throat to feel like you were trying to swallow sand paper.
"Actually, some water would be fantastic, that is if you wouldn't mind, Ma'am."
Calling her that was going to be a hard habit to break him of.
He was a humble, simple kind of man who you wouldn't have to tell twince to get to work. Though being a woorkaholic may someday be his down-fall, he was going to enjoy every minute of it while he could.

In a short lived burst, the man couldn't help but let out a laugh.
"Oh Aye? I suppose there'll always be a few of those kinds of people, no matter what age or where you go."
As the moments past, Bryne began to feel a little more comfortable, and as he grew more comfortable the more he started to belive that he made the right chocie coming here. He could see himself working here at Blue Ridge until he was either forced to retire or until he dropped dead. And he prayed that's how it would play out if he got lucky.
"Hm?"
One of his eyebrows arched just a bit when Katherine brought up one of her students taking offence to him taking over her chores.
"Mayhaps I'll be lucky enough to meet this young woman. She sounds like someone I'd get along well with."

[Katherine Carr]

Katherine smiled she got to her feet, walked over to her cupboard and took out a bottle of water and returned to her desk, handing the bottle to the young man.

The barn manager liked the man the more she got to know him. "There is no doubt that you will run into Miss Kitchi as both of her mares live in this barn." She said. A smile played across the woman's lips again. "There are a few small children here, relatives of the teachers here, The young horse owner I speak of, you will no doubt mistake for one of them at your first encounter, as Cara is on the tiny side."

She rose to her feet once Byrne had had a drink. "This will be the barn that you will be working in, so how about I give you a grand tour?" She suggested. Walking to the door, she pushed her feet into her field boots - the woman always made a habit to be dressed to be ready to mount a horse if she was needed. She led the way out of the office down the barn. "Tack room, feed room, equipment cupboard." She pointed to each as they walked passed. "That door leads to the wash bays, which also connects the two barns. Grooming stalls. And of course, all the horses." She stopped outside the stall of a jet black Latvian mare. "This is one of my collection." She nodded to the black tovero Hanoverian in the next stall - which was impeccably clean. "That is Ella, she belongs to the girl I was telling you about, along with the Morgan mare in the next stall over." There was an empty stall between the two mare's that belonged to the girl's third mare, but Jewel lived out so it was never used.