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!.
Logan arrived a little later than his siblings. He'd needed to wait on the yard for a delivery, which had timed just right for bring Chance with him who had needed to finish at school. Maybe it seemed a little odd to bring a young teenager to a wreckage but Logan thought it was an important lesson - to think of your actions and the implications before just diving in. Whoever had burned down the barn may not have thought of the consequences and the devastation - he hoped they had realised it now.
"Be careful please. No lifting anything big or trying anything silly, okay? This isn't a playground, people can still get hurt." He warned Chance - he knew the kid wasn't stupid and wouldn't take unnecessary risks, but he wanted to make sure he knew the boundaries, and he was likely to hurt himself trying to help someone that being stupid like his own brother would. He let Chance loose and went over to help with some of the aforementioned heavy lifting.
Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.- Ovid
Serenity pulled into the carpark of what used to be the Blue Acres barn, she rested her arms on the steering wheel and rested her chin on them as she just looked at the mass now in front of her. She had been the first to put her up up to investigate the fire, and the chief had told her that she was too emotionally involved, so she had told him he would have her resignation that afternoon and she would start her own private investigation. Working with the pyro-technical investigators, all they had deduced was that it had been arson but not a lot more than that.
She shook her head out of her thoughts as she sat up and opened the car door, she was here to help out with the cleaning up, and to poke around a little more. She was here as a civilian, but with the authority of her badge should anyone want to cause any trouble while here. She looked around at the number of Whites she could see, as well as the Blue Acres people. This could be a fun, fun day.
Heading toward the table where she could see Naomi standing, she gave the woman a warm smile. "Just take things one day at a time." She said softly as she gave the woman a hug, enveloping her in positive energy as well as her arms. She stepped back and glanced at the blueprints and drawings. "It's going to look amazing. Let's get it tidied up so that those images can become reality." She gave another warm smile before pulling her gloves out of her pocket, pulling them on and heading toward the mass. She wanted to go an check on her two horses out in the pasture, but knew they could wait until later.
Jessie had been here for hours - she'd been up at the crack of dawn, unable to sit and wait until later to turn up. Stopping by at Starbucks to pick up a decent coffee and a scone for breakfast, she continued on to the barn - or what was left of it. They were lucky there hadn't been any serious injuries, people had mostly gotten out unscathed, thankfully so had the horses. But there was a lot of damage to fix and Jessie was all about getting her hands dirty. The quicker they could get things moving, the sooner a new barn could go up and things would feel better - or close to. She'd sorted her horses as soon as she'd arrived, leaving them out in the fields whilst things were sorted - they could enjoy a couple of weeks off, it would do them some good.
As soon as the others started to turn up and Naomi was out directing people, Jessie delved in to helping dig out some of the potential treasures. Piling them into two types - absolutely trashed and potential to fix. She had good fingers for fixing things but even some of these were outside of her help. She winced as she tried to lift up a heavy chunk of wood and it slipped, almost landing on her foot - whoops. "Someone give me a hand?" She called out, trying again to lift it and failing without help.
Daz watched the gathering from afar and smirked. He found it entertaining how idiotic people could be. He had no interest in the stable rivalry, he didn't even like horses, but he was often bored and looking for people to screw with - the two stables were already butting heads, it was amusing how little it took to send them truly at logger heads with each other. With the tension already rife, not one person had questioned whether the barn fire was started with someone outside of the yard, so convinced they were that it had to be one of the rivals - pathetic. Now, he just needed them to find the evidence he had 'accidentally' left behind to really point it toward the White's.
It wasn't even personal, he had no vendetta against them - he had plenty of others but neither the White's, nor the Clarke's had pissed him off, he just needed to take the heat away from himself. The police had been sniffing around him recently, and what better way to pull their attention of his situation than by sending it elsewhere; plus... well, entertaining wasn't it, to watch them all run around like headless chickens. He would wait out of sight for now, and intervene soon enough to help them find his parcel. Plus, he might start some other trouble whilst he was here - why not. Feeling smug, he returned to hiding behind the out building, giving them further time to find it before he went out there.
"Here, let me help with that," Quinn like usual appeared out of nowhere. Somehow, he was certain that specifically that skill of his was exactly what had charmed his wife years ago. No matter how often she told him to get lost, the man would simply appear wherever she least expected him - at the barn, her work, her house. The last one was a particularly sore spot until an unexpected visit from an unknown and good timing on his part made it rather fortunate. That specific appearance secured Naomi's goodwill.
Shaking his head from more pleasant memories than those that had occupied his mind in recent days, Quinn turned his attention back to red-headed woman struggling with a piece of wood. His hands in battered work gloves - he wondered where exactly he had destroyed them, they were brand new that morning! - gripped the edge of the chunk, ensuring that it didn't injure anyone. "You certainly know how to choose the heaviest chunk of garbage around," he joked.
That was the only thing left for him to do - laugh and tease and keep a light demeaner even if it never reached his eyes. The fire engulfing the barn was burned into his subconscious, erupting in his dreams again and again. He had relived that night countless times. Cleaning up the rubble was tough - he hadn't realized how he learned every scratch and rough grove on every wall and stone over the years. Even now, he could almost see what part of the barn this specific piece came from.
“One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.”
Lily gave Naomi a sympathetic smile as the woman turned and looked up at her, enveloping her in a warm hug. She couldn't imagine what she would do if it had been her, she couldn't do anything but support Naomi and her family as much as possible. They might well be rivals, not that Lily saw things that way, but she refused to let that kind of thing come between things when the situation was dire. "Thank you so much for coming to help." Lily nodded and stepped back, "Of course, we couldn't not." She promised, she was a huge advocate for women supporting women especially in business. "Pretty much damage control, clean up. That's where the tack room was, and we're still trying to see what can be salvaged from it, there are buckets in there, and a table over there for what it found."
Lily nodded, taking a look at the wreck and trying to control a grimace. It looked awful, though she hoped if anything could be salvaged it was something. She saw her brothers peel off to start helping, glad that Leo kept his grumbling to himself; even he knew the seriousness of this. "I'll try and help search through and see what can be salvaged - a woman's eye is normally much better at that," He half smiled, knowing women were good at mending and some men liked to throw things.
"I'll try and help search through and see what can be salvaged - a woman's eye is normally much better at that," Naomi couldn't help but laugh at that, as it had been proven that women tended to not look through things like a lot of males did - not that she would say this in front of the men though.
She felt her emotions threatening to take over again, at the number of people who had come to help. She only knew a handful of them, which told her that a large number had to have been riders from the other barn. She was pleased when the young girl was pushed toward the tack room tent. Even though she was sure there was nothing left that she wouldn't mind Emma seeing, she was happier for children to be where she knew they weren't going to find anything that might give them nightmares.
She ran her hands over the pictures on the table again before she gave a small smile, pulled her work gloves on, and went to help with removing the burned wood. Many hands really did make light work, music probably would have been a good idea, but she hadn't thought of that earlier.
Leo heard Dallas call out about needing some help with heavy lifted and he beelined over to flex his muscles. He wasn't sure he'd be that good at picking through the rubbish, he tended to throw things if they broke and then had to endure Lily being pissy and fishing it back out of the bin to mend. It wasn't like he had endless supplies of money either, but he just didn't have the energy to try. Lifting though, was his thing. "Here, I'll help," He gave Dallas a nod, knowing him well from Seven Oaks; it was nice that some of their yard had come over to help, it alleviated the tensions a little - though it was a little obvious about who stayed away. Together, they lifted the large panel of wood, Leo coughed as a cloud of dust rose from beneath it, along with a few remaining tendrils of smoke. Beneath was a cornucopia of tack items and he raised his eyebrows. "Buried gold over here!" He called over his shoulder to whoever, helping Dallas walk the piece of wood out of the wreckage and over to the steadily growing bonfire for burning.
Chris wasnt sure what to do at the current moment so he deicided to start carrying some logs for the barn. He also decided to get the hammers and other things from the trucks. He really didnt know what to do. He ran his hand through his hair he wasnt sure where he was supposed to bring these things. But he was going to pick up one of the beams he couldnt carry everything but this was something he could do.
Angél all but bristled with rage as she felt herself steered in the direction of what looked like it would have been the tack room before the fire - her temper could match that of Tinkerbell's. "I can lift things too!" She sulked, but held back from sticking her tongue out at her father, as that would be the one way for them to be heading home, her proving that she was a child who couldn't handle this level of maturity. "Yes, Papa." She said meekly. "I shall remain in here and sort through the ashes." She muttered something in French that would have had her mouth washed out if the man hadn't been so distracted.
Picking up a bucket, which she guessed were for collecting things found, she found herself an area and started going through what she could see on the ground. She pressed her lips together as she lifted up what remained of a bridle, the fancy blue, pink and silver browband a charred mess, and she angrily scrubbed at the tears she could feel on her cheeks as she removed the buckles from the bridle and placed them in the bucket and the ruined leather back on the ground as she carried on.
With a slightly amused smile, Nice left his incensed daughter to her own devices as he made his way over to where he could see others lifting off the large ruined beams. He was a little hesitant as it didn't take much to imagine what could be hidden underneath them. Sure, he wasn't as horsey as his daughter, but he was empathetic to know that the loss these people felt.
"Buried gold over here!" The voice drew his attention and he walked closer, giving Leo a nod. "I'll help you sort through it, see how much of it has survived to see another day." After all, people and animals survived disasters by being buried under something bigger, so it could happen with gear too.
Dallas nodded to a couple of guys he didn't know as they came over to help him, taking a good hold on one of the rafters and being careful to lift with his legs - he didn't need to put his back out or he'd be no use to anyone. Together they lifted one of the fallen rafters, unearthing another load of lost and burnt items. He guessed when the roof caved, it must have just caught everything left inside beneath it - they were damn lucky it was just material stuff and not a horse or a human. Although...
Dallas grimaced at the mess buried beneath one of the plans they lifted. "Should we be glad the rats didn't make it out or not?" He called over his shoulder, feeling bad for them but at the same time.. well, a rat was a rat.
A couple of people paused in their work to come over for a quick drink. She handed the water bottles out gladly, keeping herself busy to avoid having to deal with the family members loitering around, and the awkwardness she felt about being here. She saw Leo glance over and she caught his eye, narrowing her gaze slightly. She dared him to come over, he could go get a drink elsewhere.
"I'd love a chilled bottle of water." The other reason for her awkwardness. She glanced over the Mik, the recent argument rising to her mind. "Sure," she said without one of her usual quips. Turning around she reached for one of the coolers, she'd tried to fit as many as possible in there and whilst it was open she added more from the packaging to replace those she'd already handed out. "Here you go," Straightening up, she offered up the cold bottle.
"Here you go," He gave her a smile and a nod as he took the bottle, making sure that his hands didn't go anywhere near her own, as even with the gloves on, he was sure his hands were anything but clean. "Thanks."
He stepped away before opening the bottle and drinking half of it. Heading back to his vehicle, he bent over and emptied the rest of the chilled water over his head and neck, shaking his head to remove and water from his eyes. It wasn't much, but it helped him feel a little fresher. Opening the cargo bay, he threw the ruined gloves into the back and grabbed a new pair from his box of spares and pulled them on.
Heading back into the barn, he skirted around the people carrying timber out and went back to the area he had previously been working on. He was tempted to turn on the music on his phone, but resisted the urge for background noise, as he didn't know if the others would appreciate the noise, but they needed something to lighten up the atmosphere in here, so he began to whistle as he worked.
She glanced around and saw the bucket where people were putting tack pieces, dumping the half charred bridle that might have been salvageable. She didn't know everything about horses yet, but some of the bridle pieces might be able to be cleaned up and used. She headed back to her post, upending a couple more wooden pieces and then frowning as she came across a piece that looked less burned that the rest. Interesting. She hefted another bit of barn wall out of her way, ignoring the splinters that dug into her skin and she tipped the wood over, uncovering an expensive looking saddle that had managed to avoid the fire. "No way." She smiled, it felt like finding gold in the desert. Grabbing the saddle she hefted it up, minimal damage, it looked just a little dirty. She hurried over to the barn owner with it, "Naomi, this managed to survive! I don't know if you'd be able to identify who's it is?" She asked, knowing that it was likely one of the liveries and they'd be glad to have it back intact.