Welcome to Hickstead, home to both Seven Oak Stables, and Blue Acre - two rival stables. Both offer opportunities for their clients to reach the highest level of excellence. Each stable differs from the other, so choose wisely and never forget, loyalty is everything... Meanwhile as the stables battle it out, there's trouble brewing at the university. Be careful, if you don't pick a side you may get caught in the cross-fire...
This is an chilled out rpg with a super friendly and relaxed atmosphere! Remember to sign up with your characters full name in all caps and don't forget to do your claims! Thank you and Welcome, we've been established since 10th March 2009 but unfortunately have had to close guest view of our boards due to multiple sites ripping off our hard work, such a shame! Come chat to us in Discord before joining if you like!.
He grunted as they heaved a particularly large piece of beam aside, and he helped the other person carry it over to the wood pile, in awkward shuffling steps. The pile was growing - which was a good thing really. At least it meant the debris was out the way and then they could clear the wreckage and get it ready for the new barn. The site already looked a bit less of a wreck with some of the big pieces of the structure out the way. People scuttling around picking up items to bin or keep looked like giant ants as they went around fixing.
Logan let out a long breath as they dropped off that piece and went back for another, carrying over several big lumps in pairs until most of the barn was scraps and ashes. He dusted off his hands and head someone say they'd found something, and he glanced over with a raise of his eyebrows, wondering what it might be. His eyes searched for Chance again, having kept an eye on his head as he'd been moving things.
Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.- Ovid
Rather than going to help lift and move things, which there seemed to be a number of people to do already, Reni found herself in the tack room. she could be of some use in here, as she knew a lot of people's things by sight, and she also knew what her own things looked like, though with the most basic of gear, it would be easy to replace, even if the saddle had been a custom built one due to the shape of her chestnut Sell Francais' back. "How's it going?" She asked with a smile as she walked into the tent, her eyes sweeping what had been a room, taking a deep breath as she looked at the destruction. Being in here wasn't any easier than being out there.
Walking over to the wall where the lockers were still somewhat intact, she took a notebook from her back pocket and began to pull doors open taking note of the locker number and anything in there that could be salvaged - which was more than she expected. Leaving the tent, she went out to Naomi again and asked for some boxes so she could empty the lockers and label them for the owners.
Returning, she methodically went through each of the lockers, emptying what survived the heat into the boxes and labeled the top of the box with the locker number and carried them out to the table where found things were being placed. A lot of the thinner and flammable items had burned, due to the heat that must have built inside the locker, but the likes of grooming kits and other larger solid items had been saved in the steel lockers.
"Here, let me help with that," Jessie glanced over her shoulder with a grateful smile as a familiar face came jogging over to give her a hand. "Thanks Quinn," she said as she accepted his strength. Her arm was no longer in a cast but her muscles in that arm were somewhat weaker than the other - and even then she didn't think she'd be able to lift this one on her own merit. "You certainly know how to choose the heaviest chunk of garbage around,"
Jessie grinned and gave a small shrug. "Just making sure to earn my keep," She joked, trying to keep the situation light. This was shit, and the reason they were here was awful, but they were alive, and the horses were all okay and they were the most important things. She wanted to try and cheer people, and she did that by making little jokes and keeping positive, trying to boost morale. "Definitely over estimated my capabilities though, thanks for the muscles, Mister." She grinned as they hefted the piece of wood - mostly on his part though she put everything she had into it - and shifted it to the pile of rubble.
Daz watched them all flitting about like idiots for a few more minutes before he took his chance. He pulled the cap down low over his face, but left his hood down - he didn't want to pull attention to himself too much. He would have put the jumper there earlier if given the chance, but it had been too quiet, and the yard were on edge enough, this timing made the most sense. He grabbed a piece of wood and strode out from behind the building with confidence, throwing the piece onto the pile for the bonfire and melting seamlessly into the rest of the crowd.
He ducked around a couple of people and went toward a section of burned barn that had less people around - no point being part of the cluster. He bent down, using his broad back to cover his hands as he acted as if he were searching through the rubble, looking for something, and then he quickly chucked the jumper in under the rubble. He had already trashed it, covering it with burns to make it look like part of the rest of the ruins - but not enough so the obvious blue colour and the giant Seven Oaks Stables logo on the back couldn't be missed. Smirking slightly, he kept his head low and picked up another piece of rafter, hefting it up and heading back to the bonfire. Chucking the wood onto the giant pile, he then ducked low and snuck back to behind his hiding spot, waiting for the excitement to begin. It shouldn't take them long to find the out of place jumper, and then they could start to put two and two together.
Lily grinned as Naomi laughed at her comment, glad that she could give her a little bit of a morale boost in such a dark time. She headed to a part of the wreckage that nobody else was stood at, and started digging through the rubble. Sadly, a lot of it was long gone, and she quickly discarded several buckets of rubbish, feeling bad but at the same time better for clearing a small area. The quicker they were able to do this, the better it would seem - at least once the ground was clear, they could start to rebuild and wouldn't have to look at the sorry state of the ruins.
Something flashed in the corner of her eye and she frowned, turning her head she thought she saw someone duck behind on of the outbuildings, but a quick blink and she saw nothing. Someone else who was digging in the rubbish gave a shout - they had found something important and other people started to gather over in interest. Lily frowned, dropping another piece of ruined tack into the rubbish pile she was making and heading over. "What is it?"
Naomi did the vest she could, lifting the bits of timber that she could manage and putting them into a barrow, which was then taken over to the pile that would be a bonfire later, if she had an ounce of humour left in her, she might even suggest roasting marshmallows later, treat it as a ceremonial burning. As she worked, she did her best not to think about who's stall this would have been. Her memory wasn't anywhere as close to their eldest's, but she knew the layout by heart.
Her eyes glanced in the direction of their house, thanking the gods that they lived a good distance away from the barn. She pressed her lips together as the image of the house also catching fire gripped her. As bad as the fire had been, it could have been a lot worse.
"What is it?" The sound of Lily's voice pulled her out of her dark thoughts, and pulling her gloves off, she scrubbed the tears from her eyes as she made her way over to where the others were gathering.
He helped Dallas carry the wood over to the pile, gritting his teeth a little against the weight of it. "You had to pick the biggest bit?" He joked, seeing Dallas roll his eyes, "Makes us look more macho for the ladies?" Dallas retorted, and Leo grinned; though he only needed to look macho for one lady these days. Dumping the large item on the growing pile of rubbish - ironic that it would likely all be burnt - he turned back to the main hustle in time to hear someone shout. He frowned, glancing at Dallas curiously and then headed slowly back to the gathering group of people, wondering what on earth could have been found in all the rubble that was so exciting.
Angél grimaced as she looked down at the gloves she was wearing, knowing that they would be going in the bin when she left here, which was a pity as she had liked these ones. They may have been old, but they were comfy.
The young teenager quickly got bored of sorting through the stuff on the ground, though she watched as a woman came in and pulled a locker open, smiling when she saw that some of the things inside it had survived. "Silver linings." She whispered.
She finished filling her bucket with shiny things and stood up, brushing off her glittery black jodhpurs. "I'm going to take this outside and go toilet on my way back." She told the tent, so at least they couldn't say she had just walked out if her papa came to check on her.
Leaving the tent, she walked over to the table where things were being collected and she turned the bucket over a bin with other shiny objects and laughed as her collection clinked onto what was already there, moving her bucket around she could change the sound of the clinks - small things and all that.
Rather than heading to the toilets though, Angél went for a look around. She knew that by putting her into he tack room, her papa was trying to protect her from whatever horrible things might be here, but she was sure that there would be nothing that would give her nightmares, and she made sure to keep away from where everyone was, so that she didn't become in the way. "What's that?" She whispered as she could see something blue in the rubble. Walking closer, she frowned as she reached forward and pulled a familiar looking jumper from the rubble. She shook her head as she looked at it. "Papa!" She screamed.
Nic was busy sorting through things that had been found under something, the saddle was history, as the timber that had fallen in it had broken the tree, but the mounts still looked good. He straightened up and stretched out his back as he moved the leathers and stirrups into a pile of things that could be salvaged. "Papa!" He froze at the sound of his daughter's voice, the things he was holding falling from his hands as he turned and raced in the direction the scream had come from. "Hush mon petite." He soothed as he approached her. "What have you got there?" He frowned as he took the jumper from her trembling hands and opened it out, frowning as the implications of it because very obvious.
He heard the shouts go up as did the others - it was strange to have people shout, and he didn't quite make out the words but it seemed something interesting had been found. Perhaps there was a gold mine of tack? Or something similar to that? A treasure trove of untouched items? He dusted off his hands, figuring he should probably go over and check everything was okay. What if they'd found something awful? As far as he knew everyone had made it out okay but what if someone had been missing? He wandered over to the gathering crowd; it seemed everyone had the same idea - to see what was going on. As he approached, he saw a young girl presenting something in their hands to who Dallas presumed was her father. "That's one of the Seven Oak's jumpers..." He frowned, glancing to the others. "Isn't it?"
She gave Mik a brief smile at the thanks and then turned away to hand out another couple bottles to people as they passed by. It was kind of boring standing there in the warming sun as the worker bees flitted back and forth with debris and stuff to be saved. She didn't understand half of what they were carrying away that was considered 'salvageable', but then it wasn't surprising - she didn't know horses. She frowned too as everyone started toward a small group of people, the numbers growing. Curious, she knew she didn't need to get involved and it would be best to hang back, but she wondered what was going on. She grabbed a bottle for herself and popped the cap, wandering toward the edge of the crowd in time to hear someone say it was a Seven Oaks jumper. She didn't know what that meant but everyone didn't seem particularly impressed with it.
chance brushed his hands off as he dumped some of the smaller pieces of rubble onto the pile. it sucked seeing everything ruined like it was. he didn't want to imagine what could have happened at seven oaks. it was his home, he loved the horses that lived there and the people that came there. most of all he loved the family he'd been given when he'd stumbled upon the place a few years ago. he might only be a kid but there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for the barn and he knew that the riders at BA felt the same.
that didn't mean that they didn't have their differences. he'd seen a few of the BA riders glare at some of the SOS guys once of twice throughout the morning, luckily enough he hadn't been on the receiving end of one of them. he didn't think either place was better than the other, but he knew there was rivalry between the two. he picked his way back over the rubble pile just as there was some commotion over where angel was. he frowned a little as he walked over and spotted the jumper. "that's tripps ... isn't it? tripp callahan?" he said as he recognized it. the red headed teen was a few years older than chance but he'd been cool enough to let chance hang with him when they'd both been at the barn.
Mik dropped what he was holding as soon as he heard a girl cry out. There were enough young people around here that that panic was easy to tell, because young people were generally quiet around the barn, or if they weren't, it was a boisterous noise. He headed in that direction.
"that's tripps ... isn't it? tripp callahan?" Mik frowned, not a name he was familiar with, though the jersey in question had the wrong colours for it to be from one of the riders here. He frowned though, as he found it hard to believe that something like that had been overlooked before now. He looked from his fellow Blue Acres people to the Seven Oaks people, left brow arched, it had the pathological signature of set-up written all over it.
She heard the shouts go up as did the others and she frowned slightly in confusion, raising her head from her search and rolling her shoulders against the ache that had settled there from her bent over position. "What's going on?" She asked someone who passed her, before she decided to join the hype and headed over to the group converging around a found Seven Oak's jumper. Her frown deepened, and the name that was called she didn't recognise. But what did play on her mind - and she couldn't quite keep in the words - was "but why would it be here? Does this Tripp person come to BA a lot?"
Logan frowned at the scream, and straightened up, dropping the item he'd been holding and dusting off his hands. He turned toward the source of the noise, seeing a young girl and presumably her father and immediately heading over. On his way, his eyes sought out his son, making sure he was okay as his habit always was, and then he sought out his siblings, concern growing the closer he got - and then he saw the object in hand. A pretty well preserved Seven Oaks jumper. His brows pulled low over his eyes as he looked at it. "Where was this found?" He assumed in the rubble somewhere, but perhaps it had been left by a visitor.
"that's tripps ... isn't it? tripp callahan?" Logan looked over to Chance and then back to the jumper. He knew Tripp mostly by reputation, he had the same penchant for trouble that Leo had. But he didn't think he would be the type to get involved in something so serious. "but why would it be here? Does this Tripp person come to BA a lot?" He glanced to the woman who had spoken and then shared a concerned look with Lily. "I imagine he would have friends here?" He supplied, though he couldn't say he knew the young lad well enough to confirm.