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!.
"Then I think you've got more exploring to do," Lani grinned and nodded. "That's very true." She nodded again. "A tour guide would be handy, or at least some company." Plus, having another person with her would mean that she would have someone else to carry some extra stuff - like food.
"How childish," She gave him an angelic smile and then laughed. "Naturally." Being mature was so overrated, and life was too short to be sensible all the time. "like still water?" She pulled a face. "It just tastes like static to me, like what pins and needles feel like." She laughed. "Well, that's one way of describing it. A good description too."
"And what's the first word? Handsome? Charming?"Mine? She grinned and nodded. "I'd add sweet to that list too." She needed to get him out of the hole he was stuck in, but needed a way to do it where it was his idea. "A change of hands is always difficult to process, but at least if they're keeping you on, that's a good sign. No mention of 're structuring?'" She pulled a face and shook her head. "Not yet, anyway." And god only knows where she would go if she lost her job at the ranch. "Congratulations on your GCSE, you sound like you're busy. You're taking care of yourself, right?" She beamed, it felt good to finally be a high school graduate, her parents would be so proud. Her nose scrunched up at the question and she shrugged. "Busy is good." She said instead, her version of pleading the fifth. "It keeps me out of trouble. Does tend to stop me from getting out an exploring though." She pouted. "I think my camera is feeling a little neglected, because the stuff I have to do for my course is a little more vanilla than I'm used to." And if she went climbing, she really did need another set of hands, or eyes. "I do need to go and get some sunrise photos for an assignment, so that should be fun." Though she'd need to fit that into her days off, which she hardly ever actually took.
"do we have many wild horses around here?" Lani couldn't help but laugh as he voiced her internal question. "I was wondering the same thing. The answer to which, I wouldn't have a clue - which probably means I haven't done enough exploring."
"You're a sparkling water drinker?" She rolled her eyes. "one of those people? I had no idea. Oh no, this is never going to work..." She stuck her tongue out at him. "As much as I would like something stronger, I can't." Well, she probably could, but had been advised not to until she had finished her antibiotics, not that she was going to tell him that though. Joel had enough on his plate than to worry that she hadn't been well.
She knew she had said the wrong thing when she'd asked how he was, she could see it on his face. "I'm fine," and hear it in his tone, no matter what he was trying to show the world, it was all over him that he wasn't as fine as he was making out to be. "But we don't want to talk about me, very boring same old same old... how are you?" She gave him a cheeky grin. "Old, is the last word I'd use to describe you." She pressed her lips together as she thought about how to answer his question. "Things have been busy. Someone bought the ranch, so there have been a few changes, still don't know what I think of the boss lady, but I still have a job, so I can't complain. I now have my GED... no, sorry, my GCSE, and I'm doing a photography course through correspondence, so I scoop poop during the day and I'm a student by night."
"Hey," Lani gave a warm smile as she slid into the seat he had indicated to, straightening out her top as he sat to make sure it was sitting properly. "Thanks for meeting me," She grinned. "Wild horses couldn't have kept me away." And she meant that too... or was that say too American? She didn't think this area was known for its wild horses. She gave herself a mental shake to get out of her own head. "Uh, drinks? You want a drink?" She pursed her lips in thought. "Can I get a sparkling water, please?"
She studied him for a moment. A lot had changed since he'd left and returned, even since his return he had changed, and it worried her. While she hadn't wanted the first thing she said to him when she arrive was to inquire about his health, but she really did want to know. "How are things?" She asked softly, deciding to make the question more open, rather than it just being about his well-being.
Lani smiled as she danced around the dorm as she got ready to go out. She was probably a little more excited about going out than she should be, but she was going out with Joel, and she was happy to be seeing him.
She frowned as she looked at the limited choice of clothing she had, and her frown deepened as she tried to work out how to make anything she had look like she wasn't about to head out to the barn, or go running. "What to wear? What to wear?" She muttered as she pulled out something and quickly discarded it, the pile on her bed quickly grew, until she had to go through that pile until she had a tidy pair of skinny jeans and a red jersey. And then headed back to the bathroom to put on her makeup, enough to cover the scar above her eyebrow, and to add colour to her cheeks and lips, not so much to look like she was trying to hide something.
Arriving at the pizza place, she paused long enough to take in a deep breath, and try not to look like she'd been working since the sun had come up. Pushing the door open, she walked in, her eyes sweeping the place before they landed on Joel and with a smile approached the table he was sitting at. "Hey." She greeted. She knew that most people would inquire about how the other person was, but she knew from experience that the words 'how are you' got to be grating after a while.
Lani was so happy that the weather was warming up, and she shoved her frozen hands into her pockets as she headed from the building she now lived in and toward her boss' house. When she'd first arrived at the ranch, and been given a home here, she had lived in a cabin, but that had changed when the ranch had sold and the new owner came in and Lani had found herself moved into a building that gave her a summer camp feel, just she was the only one at summer camp - which worked well for her, as she wasn't surrounded by other people's germs.
She knew that this meeting should have happened when the woman first took over, but Lani had been pushing it off as long as she could, and even when she wasn't feeling one hundred percent, she still did her best to keep up with her chores, and night classes, and everything else, so that it would keep Kegan's attention off her.
Pulling the bottle of decongestant nasal spray from her pocket, she used it to clear her nose before shoving it back into her pocket and drew in a deep breath before she lifted her hand and knocked on the woman's office door. She drew in a breath when she was given entrance, pulled up her big girl panties and opened the door. "Hi... Eh, good evening." She gave a nervous cough. "I'm Lani, thought I'd come and say hi, make sure everything's good."
Lani pursed her lips together as she thought about the horse. "I guess if when he's lying down, if he tumps his tail on the ground, I could get the name." She shrugged. "My name means 'the heavens', and I'm anything but an angel, so I really can't say that a name suits someone or not. The one thing that he has with the rabbit, is that he's cute." She shrugged and grinned again. "We don't often work with the cows, but he knows his stuff, might have even been used for cutting before I found him." She hadn't asked too much about his past, and the person selling him hadn't offered much, other than he horse being stubborn and lazy. "His first few weeks here, I had him grazing as near to the cattle as I was allowed, he was spooky at first and then less so, and now he just jumps the fences when he's sick of where he is." He never jumped into the fields with the cows though.
She rolled her eyes in mock annoyance at the cow, though she kept looking around to make sure that they didn't get any unwanted company since the sun was setting. She stood up in the stirrups, which didn't help much, as she looked around. "Stand, Bear." She said as she kicked her feet out of the stirrups, and moved until she was standing in the saddle, arms stretched out to keep her balance, as she looked around and smiled when she spotted the other cow. "Yeah, she's found some tasty heather. Shay was probably on her way to join her when she found the hole." She lowered herself down and sat in the saddle again.
Lani gasped and gave Sam a horrified look when he mentioned she'd need to help get the cow out. "What? And ruin this manicure?" She asked as she held up her hands, which hadn't seen a manicure since she was last in Colorado. With a grin, she jumped off her horse with a firm. "Stay." She'd learned better than telling him to sit, and headed over to where Sam and Shay were. "Easy girl." She soothed as she slowed her steps. "I'm here to help."
Lani knew she had given him the answer he didn't want, she could feel the disappointment more than she could see it - the joys of having disappointed her parents all her life - but she knew she was doing the right thing... well, for now at least. "Worried that you might start trying to tear my clothes off if we're alone, right?" She giggled as she looked up at him, her eyes darting over toward his friends before looking back at him with a bright smile. "You'd think that, wouldn't you?" She teased lightly, making it all the harder that she was going to be going home alone. "I'll be sure to call you all the time. You might even be tempted to change your number." She pursed her lips, pretending to take this into serious thought. "That would never happen." She said with a soft smile and then shrugged. "It would be easier to buy a new phone than change my number, then remembering who I need to give the new number to and who shouldn't be getting it..." She shook her head with a dramatic eye-roll. "Takes way too much energy." She had no intention of being any further from her phone than she needed to be, so that she could always pick it up if it rang... or if she saw something that needed to be caught on her camera and she didn't have her camera handy.
She knew she should leave, but he was here, and she was worried that if she walked away, when she turned around, he would be gone again, and she would be all alone, worried about his well-being. She closed her eyes as she rested her head against him, telling herself not to start crying again, trying to gain the strength to walk away so that he could head home.
Lani couldn't help but chuckle at the name of his other horse. "How did he get the name Thumper? I know how the rabbit in Bambi got the name, but a horse?" She shrugged about the mare he was riding. "A horse doesn't have to love bovine to have good cow sense." She reasoned. "And the one thing I've learned about horses, that's it's always best to take things at their pace, rather than try and rush them and having to start from the beginning all over again." She'd picked up a lot about horse training since she had been offered the job here, and she was happy to take in everything.
She reined Bear in when she saw that Damsel had stopped and asked her horse to back up as she waited to see why the mare had stopped. While her horse didn't mind being around cows, he didn't exactly have cow sense, and seemed more annoyed that they had stopped moving than looking around, so Lani sat quietly in the saddle as she watched Sam's mare, tightening her hands on the reins as the mare spun around, a laugh escaping her. "Would be a little embarrassing if she had." She said with a chuckle.
She released the reins as they headed in the direction the mare had turned in, making sure to keep the gelding's pace with the mare's as the last she wanted was for a huge horse to come barreling on stressed out cows. "Easy girls." She soothed as they got closer, closing her hands on the reins so that Bear slowed down even more, allowing the smaller mare and Sam approach without the cows feeling like they were being cornered.
"Just the hat, huh? If you wanted to see me naked you just had to ask." Lani giggled and arched her eyebrows. "Promises, promises." It was easy to fall back into the teasing routine of before he went away. Just for a moment to think that it was only a week since they had been rock climbing, rather than the chasm of time it had really been since she had last seen him. However, that haunted look that Joel had in his eyes reminded her just how much time had passed, and she pressed her lips together mentally shaking off images of the same look being in her father's eyes more often than not after their car crash.
"Does right now count?" She gave him a soft smile, wanting to hug him again but not sure if she should because she'd no doubt start bawling again, and never want to let him go. "As much as I want to say, yes. I think you need your friends more than you do me. You can call me at any time though."
Lani grinned. Life at a racing stable worked fast, so one had to learn to keep up with the pace, or get left behind. It didn't mind her too much, because she lived life in fast forward anyway, so the racing barn was a great fit for her. And now she was here, and life was a lot slower.
She glanced over at Sam and Damsel, making sure to keep a little space between the mare and the gelding, as she didn't want her horse to upset the other, and getting Damsel in trouble. While she seemed calm in the saddle, her eyes didn't stop surveying the area around them, keeping a watch on what was happening and looking for anything out of place, while also listening to the surrounding area. She nodded as Sam answered her question, which made sense.
She gave Bear a pat and nodded her head to his thanks. "Having a big horse means that he won't worry if he has to carry a calf." She replied. She wondered if the calves had found trouble, which is what had pulled their mothers away from the rest of the herd. "Sorry?" She shook her head as her brain caught up with the question asked and she grinned, leaning forward to rub both sides of the gelding's neck. "I went to the sale yard to look for a good horse, not that I had a lot of money, and all the good cow-ponies were well out of my price range. And then I saw this grumpy guts here. It was just meant to be. I don't know how to explain it. Boss-man wasn't happy when he was dropped off." She laughed. "Got even worse when Bear seemed to hate cows." She gave a bright grin. "We've sorted that small issue out though, and he's good with them now though, so don't worry about that." She assured him, the gelding would even be happy to carry a calf. "Easy bud." She soothed as the gelding released a snort.
Lani couldn't help but smirk at his response to her teasing, she could imagine that this is what it would have been like to have a brother... though she didn't think wasn't sure what it would be like to have added another person to her family. With an older sibling, she would have at least had someone to turn to when her father had a bad day.
She made a big fuss over the gelding, pulling a mock offended face at Sam's words. "Why? Because he's huge, and I'm not?" She asked with a pretend hurt look, and then grinned. "We kind of found each other at the sales yard, and I couldn't leave him behind." That, however, was a whole different story for another day, when they weren't worried about missing cattle.
Sitting in the saddle, she checked her saddle bags, making sure that she had everything she might need, including a small digital camera - she didn't go anywhere without a camera - as well as a portable charger. She grinned as Same joined them and shrugged. "I can harness a Standy in under five minutes, so tacking a horse up is child's play compared to a harness." She rubbed Bear's neck as the gelding tossed his head, eager to get moving. She grinned and bowed her head, touching the peak of her helmet, as though it were a western hat, and clicked her tongue to get the horse moving and they headed in the direction Sam had mentioned. "What are we going to do when we find them?" She didn't even know what Bear would do, he wasn't in any way afraid of cows, but he'd never been worked around them before.
"Shit," Lani grinned in amusement at his reaction, or lack thereof. "Woah, Sam, hold it in there!" She teased.
She bounced on the balls of her feet, waiting to see what his answer was, her smile brightening at his reply. "Are you good with taking one of your horses?" Her brows arched. "I only have one horse, and as I spend all my working hours scooping poop or exercising the horses here, Bear would love a run." She grinned again, pulling at her lower lip with her teeth before she glanced over at where her Clydie was splitting his time between grazing and watching her. She gave a whistle and clapped her hands as the gelding broke into a canter and easily cleared the fence before he cantered up to her, sliding to a stop before shoving his big head into her chest. "Give me five mins to get him clean and tacked up." She tipped her hat before she walked into the barn, the horse trailing behind her with his chin on her shoulder.
It didn't take her too long to give the gelding a once over with the brush, paying attention to where the saddle and bridle would sit and picking out his hooves, before she threw the blanket and then the Synthetic Saddle and she did up the cinch before slipping the snaffle bit into his mouth and slipped the crown over his ears and did up the throatlatch before leading the blue roan back outside, where she finished tightening the cinch and led him over to the mounting block where she swung into the saddle.
Lani had finished her jobs for now, but rather than head back to her bunk room, she remained around the stables. As she knew they were bringing the cows in, and she was there as an extra pair of hands if they needed it. Plus it gave her a chance to get photos of the cattle handlers at work, as well as the cattle, and good, natural, photos were never bad for business.
Seeing that the cowboys had a good hand on their own horses, she became an extra and decided to head over to the pastures to hang out with Bear, before dinner. "Lani, hey," She turned when she heard her name and smiled toward Sam. "What's up?""I need a sanity check with the cattle herd. Do you see Daisy and Shay? The herd just came in but I can't seem to find them and...I'm worried." She gave a teasing smile. "Don't know how much help I'll be with the sanity check, but I can give the herd a once over." She climbed up on the bottom of the fence so that she was taller than the herd and she quickly scanned the herd, frowning and she went over them twice more and shook her head before jumping down. "If you think you're crazy, I'm going to be in the straight jacket beside you. They aren't there." She knew that the herders wouldn't have let two stray, so that meant that Daisy and Shay weren't there to start off with. "Do we tell them," she nodded in the direction the herders had gone with their horses, "or do we tack up and go and find them ourselves?"
She felt the absence of his arms as soon as they were gone, and there was a part of her that wanted his arms around her again. She felt safer there, and a part of her felt that she could keep him safe.
"You wouldn't like to see me in a cap?" She pressed her lips together and shrugged. "Not when I want to see you wearing the hat I forgot." She said with another shrug. "I pull anything off." She grinned, her cheeks heating up a little. "Oh, there was never any doubt in that!" She willingly let him take her hand and beamed as he kissed it. "I am glad you did, thank you for coming." She pressed her lips together again, willing herself not to start crying again. She'd never been one of those girls, but she also wasn't annoyed that Joel brought these emotions from her. "Give me a call when it would be a good time for me to visit." She knew it wasn't the same, but she remembered the recovery time her dad had needed after their car accident, so she assumed that Joel's situation would be the same, and he would need the time to find himself again, without too many distractions... like her.
Lani knew that her tears were stupid, but it took a while to stop them from falling and she wanted to hold him close as he moved away. Though she released her hold on him, remembering the cast and the crutch. She scrubbed her hand over her face, regaining her composure, as she shot Dustin a quick look and gave him a silent thank you.
"I would have liked that." She returned his smile. "Is it too late? Gift shop maybe?" She pulled her face, her smile deepening, and shook her head. "I'll pop it on you head the next time I see you." She told him. "I think all the gift shop sell are baseball caps, and just no." She'd had one of the few friends she had left from school send her chocolate coloured leather hat and she had attached a blue ribbon as the hat band positioned just above the brim and she had printed the words cowboy up on the ribbon. So, when she really thought about it, she was actually pleased she hadn't brought the hat with her, as cowboy up was definitely the thing that Joel had done.
She gave Joel a warm smile. "I had better let you get home, I just needed... I needed to see you."