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!.
"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."
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Piper was nervous but was also excited. She was nowhere near the expertise of her sister, but Piper felt like she was ready for a good competition this round. She hadn’t been able to do too much, with school and all. But Amanda and her parents had been extremely supportive.
Boogey was probably happy to not be sitting around all day either. He was a high-energy horse, that kind of needed a job – but he took to jumping quite well. He was becoming more tuckered out with all the prep Piper had been doing.
When given the signal to go, Piper guided herself and Boogey over the course. There were a few close calls, but Boogey did it. Piper finished her run with a big smile, hoping to see if Ronan saw her run. If he didn’t, she would talk his ear off about it later.
It was the first time Ash had ever competed since coming to this town many years ago. Perhaps it was odd to choose now as the time to do so but he felt that him and Bravado were in a good place with their training, things at home had settled somewhat and he felt he owed it to the horse to try and get competitive; if only to stick it to the other stables and show them what Seven Oaks was made of. Ash was loyal to a fault when it came to things in his life like family and the yard was a little bit like that. He took his time warming the horse up. This was new to Bravado and the gelding spooked at everything from the decorative plant pots, to the shouting coaches at the sides of the ring. Ash settled him as best he could, popping a cross pole several times before they went higher.
He felt ready as they entered the ring, and he felt the horse switch a little beneath him, a hum of energy setting him alight. He felt the horse was nervous and gave him time to look at the ring as they waited for the bell. He wasn't sure how well it would go but as they approached the first, he clamped his legs around the grey and pushed him on, instilling a confidence in Bravado that set them up for the whole course. When they landed clear at the end, Ash gave him a well earned scratch on his neck. There had been a couple of sticky moments but he'd done well and gone forward on each stride, even when he'd felt unsure. Extra carrots had definitely been earned, no matter what happened in the jump off.
A vet check had proved that his horse was fine after their disastrous show jumping round, and the horse had been a drama Queen when leaving the arena with a limp, and there was nothing wrong with his leg - which was good - and after a gentle ride around the grounds, it was obvious that the horse was moving freely and Mik felt confident in continuing on.
Swapping his show jacket and shirt for a long-sleeved polo, he pulled his medical armband on - not that he had any medical issues (on paper) - and pulled his protective vest on. He knew that the extra stuff was needed, but he didn't realise how much the vest would help as it sat tight and held everything in place and allowed him to breathe a little easier.
After another ride around, just to make sure his horse really was sound, they made their way over to the cross country course and he worked his horse in until their name was called and he rode into the starting box, circling Fire around and held him in place. The horse felt like a coiled spring, just waiting for the word to go. "Settle, lad." He soothed. As soon as the bell sounded, the horse was off as though he had been fired from a cannon and Mik just went along with the ride, keeping his eye on the jump ahead of them.
Much to the large horse's disgust, Mik asked for a half halt as they got closer to the log and Fire obliged before he cleaning jumped the log, shaking his head when they were on the other side, once again asking if he could go faster, throwing a small buck when the answer was a negative, and Mik laughed as he got the horse to concentrate as they jumped the tyres.
The rest of the course went mostly the same way, the geding asking if he could just go all-out and Mik asking for a little control here and there, especially on the fences that needed it, and the horse would show his displeasure, but didn't baulk at any of the fences and cleared them one after the other.
Fire shook his head as they cleared the second to last fence, once again asking for his head and speed up when Mik did as his horse asked, standing in the stirrups as they approached the last jump at a gallop and they charged toward the roll top, Mik keeping his weight off the horse's back as Fire seemed to want to do things his own way. And then they were over the jump and galloping through the finishing flags before Mik sat back and reined the horse in, though kept him trotting around and then walking until he had cooled off, knowing that the horse, who was drenched in sweat, was going to need a thorough hosing when he was cool enough. "Good lad" He praised. "Mayhap things would have gone better in the show jumping if I'd let you do that at a hand gallop too." He'd never been a horse who liked to do things slowly.
Dallas was looking forward to getting the horses back out and eventing. The weather was finally on the turn out of winter and the cross country courses were beginning to open again. He'd entered an array of classes at the show in order to get the horses out and about again, to blow off the cobwebs and get out that first competition excitement so they were settled for the eventing season and had their heads screwed on right. So far it had been going well but there had been a couple of hiccups. It was nice the horses were feeling so fresh and strong though, so Dallas couldn't complain.
Aftershock was buzzing beneath him to get going. The 10 year old had plenty of experience under his belt now but could be a handful when he was giddy. As they entered the start box, the chestnut threatened a rear. Dallas eased him and circled, settling him just as the final count came and then... Off. Shock shot off like a bullet and Dallas, prepared for this as always with the chestnut, lightly brought him back before they could overdo it on the first fence. The horse gave the first a quick glance, chipping in slightly as he checked it out, and then they moved on. The horse was eager and gave Dallas a run for him money as he held on and tried to keep him together as well as he could. He never really settled but aside from a couple of removed strides it was a good round, and Dallas was pleased. He gave the horse a happy pat once they crossed the finish line and asked him to come back to a walk, letting him stretch out and cool off.
Angél checked her pony's gear for what she was sure was more times than she needed to, making sure the saddle was sitting right, the boots were the right way up - she'd learned not to trust her papa to help with them, and when she was finally happy with the tack before cross country, she pulled on her medical arm band and knew she was ready.
Riding the gelding over to the starting area, she let him look around, letting him take in the arena of jumps, as arena eventing was a little different to the course they went over at Blue Acres and nothing like the jumps they went over on the trails when they were at Seven Oak, and it was the cross country where everything had gone so horribly wrong at their last competition.
She rode the buckskin into the starting box and circled him around to face the way out, rubbing his neck when Ripple sighed, silently hoping that the pony wasn't bored, and then they were off! She squeezed the Welsh into a canter and asked for a cross country gallop as they headed toward the first fence, knowing that she wanted to try and get everything done as quickly as possible, but not risking a flat-out gallop so that she could quickly rein the pony in if they needed it. "Atta boy." She whispered as they cleared the log and turned toward the next.
She realised that the worst thing about arena eventing was keeping track of where she was going, and as they cleared one jumps after the other, she prayed, to any diety listening, that she was still on the right track, as one jump had kind of blended onto the next at this speed, even though she had walked the course earlier. She pushed her worries out of her head though as they headed toward the water jump, knowing that Ripple would need her head in the game for this one, so that he knew he could get out of what would feel like quick sand. "Go, go, go!" She chanted as they landed in the water and then powered on.
After flying over the last two fences, she galloped through the flags and reined the pony in, trotting in circles as he cooled down from their run. "You are such a good boy!" She praised him as she hugged his sweaty neck, and then sat up to let him stretch out his neck.
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