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!.
Marie smiled as she settled into the mare's stride, holding the reins at the buckle as she let the horse walk down the path. This was why she had given up competing and did what she did. She loved moments like this, especially the bantering with her husband.
She raised her brows with an angelic look and then crinkled her nose. "You might just want to not worry about things like that." She warned. "Otherwise, you'll just spend the whole day wonder what I have or haven't done and if you need to be worried the next time you go to put your boots on." She gave a devilish grin. "Or the next time I offer you a coffee." She'd grown out of stupid pranks like that before she became a working student, but it didn't hurt to keep her husband on his toes.
"Okay okay. She'll be internet famous for both." She smiled and nodded as she flicked a bit of the mare's mane back over to the correct side of her neck. "I just want the best for her, and her babies." She rubbed Wander's neck as the mare tossed her head, that bit of mane flipping back over again, causing Marie to sigh.
She laughed as her mare raced down the track, though looking under her arm, she could see that the other pair were rapidly gaining on them. "That was sneaky of you! What does the winner get?" She laughed. "Loser does the night checks and the early morning start, so winner gets an early night and a sleep in?" She could see the gate ahead of them, and knew that the mare had a little more in her, but just as she was about to ask for that bit more, she felt the mare gait change, and not in the way she wanted it to, as Wander's hoof dislodged a stone in the path and she stumbled. "Easy baby." She soothed as she sat back, hoping that her shift in weight would help the mare shift hers enough to keep her momentum and remain on her feet. "Atta girl." She said with a laugh as the mare kept moving forward, rather than down. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you just threw that race."
As Marie poised her face into the very expression that someone might mistake her for an angel if they were to get thrown from their horse did she then crinkle her nose. John knew that little move well from his wife, and the man was certain that she would be coming up with a quippy misdirect in no time. They were always merely threats, the days when she had acted on them had long since gone by, and yet, her tone and the mere delivery seemed to always keep him very much on a playful edge, "Is that so, my dear wife?" he asked with a laugh, flashing that award winning smile, "I may have to call your bluff. I can't remember the last time I found the ole rubber snake in the boot or creamer in my coffee."
Even though John liked to tease his wife over how she treated her mares and foals, it was often hypocritical of him to do so given that like Marie, he wanted the horses to go onto illustrious careers as well. One, well, they deserved their time in the spot light, and two, well, it was nice for the bills. But John was always proud when he saw a Ryan horse go onto make a name for themselves - even when they move on from the homestead. Wander, and for the record Winnie as well, didn't seem to care for their humans emotional thoughts over their well beings though, like all animals, they likely just wanted to return to their stalls and eat their grain.
But sentimental thoughts had no room when it came to racing, especially a gleeful one such as the one he found himself in against Marie. These moments had been few and far between ever since the kids had entered their lives, but now that they were all grown up and living their own lives, John loved how they were creeping back into their married life. While it had never lost its spark, priorities had shifted for over twenty years, but now they were coming into focus, not just with barn but with themselves as well, "Sounds like solid winnings! You're on!" He called out to her as they closed in, and the gate was approaching. The mares were neck and neck now, and Winnie, despite her pregnant belly, appeared to be all in for leaving her barn mate in the dust.
Still, he made sure to hold her head back just slightly, more for their own safety as the stormed down the field. And then, as they pulled ahead, there was commotion just behind them. Glancing over his shoulder, blue eyes saw that Wander had stumbled, but thanks to Marie's form and the mare's sheer determination, the pair kept up right and on course, although the stride had been lost, "Looks like you and I are going to win girl," he muttered to the mare, patting her neck as they crossed over their imaginary finish line. John pulled back now, shifting from gallop to walk and then turning her around to face Marie, "And the crowd goes wild for John Ryan!" He faked some cheers as they walked over, "But he will happily submit his winnings to his lovely wife so that she may have her beauty sleep and a night of sitting by the fireplace with peppermint hot chocolate."
Blue eyes fell to the mare once more, "And how is your racer? I had a moment of worry before I realize you'd never forgive me for going easy on you."
Marie laughed and blew her husband a kiss, rather than rolling her eyes at his smile. He'd already won her, the smile had no more effect on her, though her brows shot up. "Rubber snake? Puh-lease! Give me some credit! I'd put just enough water from the dirtiest trough in your boot that you'd have to change socks, or I'd leave something warm and stinking in the toe for you." She gave an innocent smile. "You don't even want to know what I could do to your coffee."
Marie loved the worked she did with her mares and the babies. She loved that they got the right, and slow, start to their working careers, as too many sporthorses were ruined in the first six to twelve months of their lives, and she made it her job to teach them that working with humans was a fun and exciting thing, and by the time they were ready to head off to their new homes, they wanted to learn new things.
She laughed and rolled her eyes at John's reaction to reaching the gate first, getting the feeling that even his mount was rolling her eyes at his antics. "Nope, you can have the early night and the sleep in." She said with a grin as she dropped her stirrups, swung her leg over the mare's neck and slid to the ground so she could check the mare's feet. She rolled her eyes as she checked each hoof, shoving the mare when the horse tried to lean her weight on the woman. "While I'm honoured that you think I'm strong enough to hold you up, I can't, so stand nicely." She was pleased to see that it had been something innocent, rather than the more having thrown a shoe. "You are such a klutz! I'm so glad it's a personality flaw and not a genetic trait!" She kissed the mare on the nose and flashed a grin toward her husband before looking around for something to use as a mounting block. "She's an idiot who may have tripped over her own shadow, but she's all in one piece." She led the mare over to a tree stump and swung back into the saddle. "Well, that's enough excitement for one ride. I think we should remain at a walk for the rest of the ride." She tapped the mare with her heels, and rode over to where the other pair were. "At least at a walk, I we can ride side by side... She gave a wicked grin. Well, as side by side as we can get with these whales."
At his wife's revelations about the things she could do to his boots alone, John couldn't help but to grimace. He clearly had stepped in something by saying that she had long been off her game, and perhaps, may have just summoned Marie back to her full prime. Hopefully that wouldn't be the case, although the threat of his coffee was too much for the man to handle, "Woman - do not touch my coffee. Not until I get that personal assistant job filled up." At least then, if his coffee was ruined for the day, he would have extra help in getting his mind on task verses fretting over everything and anguishing over his coffee at the same time.
Even from the distance, John could just feel his wife roll her beautiful eyes over his antics - by now though, this felt like a daily ritual. He'd say something silly, and Marie would just merely roll her eyes. He didn't mind though, the immature boy inside of the man often felt pride and accomplishment whenever he got such a reaction out of her, and qualified it as a win. They approached now, and he watched Marie slide off the mare now to investigate her hooves. Blue eyes could not help but to watch when she bent over, adjusting Winnie so he could get a better look. A snort escaped the mare, and John merely chuckled, "Hey, I'm allowed to admire. And who says I am not concerned for your fellow pasture mate?"
Before he could even ask Marie if everything was okay, her conversation with the mare confirmed that everything was fine, "I'm glad to hear that. I don't think I would want to have to call the vet or farrier over and explain that we were drag racing pregnant mares." Of course, he was merely exaggerating the explanation, but it still painted a delightful picture in John's head. Once she was mounted back up and joining them again, the man let out a gasp, "Did you hear that Winnie? She called you a whale. I, for one, think you still look like a distinguished lady."
He couldn't help but to flash a smile before nodding, "Walking sounds good. I think even Winnie was huffing towards the end of that race. Shall we do a lazy loop around the barn property and then give these gals a good days of rest?"
Marie laughed and gave her husband an angelic look. "I'm not silly enough to touch your coffee." She said sweetly. "At least not your first cup." She gave a musical laugh. "I don't think I could live with myself, if I unleashed an uncaffeinated bear on our business." She was waiting for him to work out that she had brought him a coffee that morning, and begin to workout if she had done anything to it. Of course, she hadn't, but it was fun to watch the wheels turning in his head.
As she checked Wander's hoof, she chuckled as she heard the chatter between her riding companion and his horse, so glad that horses didn't speak English and couldn't respond. That thought caused her to laugh out loud. "Might need to get the farrier out anyway. Have their shoes removed." At least that way, their feet would be nice and tidy before they got to their biggest and she wouldn't need to worry about shoes being lost when they got to the point where they were too heavy to be able to comfortable stand on three legs for longer than it took to pick out the hooves.
She laughed again. "Would you prefer comparing them to a hippo?" She asked sweetly, though she rubbed her mount's neck to take any sting from the words. "I think a lazy loop sounds wonderful. It will give the girls a chance to loosen their muscles from their run, as well as give them a good workout." Plus, she wasn't as young as she had been, and a nice long walk on horseback would be good for her too, before she had to turn her attention to the horses that needed conditioning workouts and such. "Do you have any big plans for the rest of the day?"
The man could not help but to gawk at her, "Not my first cup?" And boy, did those gears start to turn as he thought about the coffee offer given to him this morning by the very woman riding next to him. It probably took John a solid thirty seconds to figure out that his wife had been bluffing though, the coffee tasted just like her usual batch, and therefore, she had been joking, "Wife, you nearly gave me a heart attack. If I had died just then and there, what would you do without me?" Well, she'd be fine since Marie Ryan was a very strong, capable, and fully independent woman, John was just looking for another excuse to make her roll her eyes and unleash that laugh of hers.
Cerulean eyes watched her continue to inspect her mare's feet, not that John minded, given it gave him the perfect view of certain assets. Thankfully, John was still able to keep his wits about him, and while Marie appreciated his joke, the man did not appreciate the follow up, at least, pretended to not. A dramatic sigh escaped him, "I swear, all of these horses just eat our money. Might as well switch out their oats and alfalfa for all our pounds and notes." He added a head shake for good measure, "Joking aside, I'll call the Ferrier when I get back and look at the books for who needs them removed." There was no doubt in his mind that it was more than just Wander who required them removed.
"Hey, at least hippos are not ones to be messed with," he countered now, "And quite frankly, I think Wander has the attitude of a hippo over a whale. Although I'm not sure about Winnie." He watched Marie safely mount back up now, and he gave his own mare a solid pat for being a good mare and waiting patiently, a feature that not all horses seemed to have, before gently asking her to move forward now to begin their lazy loop. Deciding he was safe, he kicked his feat out of the stirrups, allowing them to stretch, "Thankfully, no lessons on the docket today. I have to ride Jett and a few others, and you know, look at bills." A sigh escaped him at that one, "I might need some good cuddles from you after that one." He thought it over, "I think you and I have a gala invitation that we need to yay or nay also. Your thoughts? It's the winter one for the UK branch of FEI. Otherwise, what's on your plate today? Besides cuddling me, of course."
Marie gave him an angelic look, pressing her lips to hide her smile. She could almost see smoke coming out of her husband's ears as the wheels in his head were turning that fast as he tried to work out how much truth there was in her words. The smile appeared as he deduced that she wasn't being completely serious.
She grinned at the mention of the horses eating their money. "Maybe we should just save on having to store hay and just feed them the money?" She said with another peel of laughter, as it was pretty close to the truth, with how much horses cost any person who owned them. She smiled and nodded to the mention of the farrier. "I'll check the list of who I have that can do with their shoes coming off." It was so much easier in the winter, as the ground wasn't as hard on the hooves of the mares who were used to being shod, but with the ground drying out, the mare's hooves were more prone to cracking if the shoes were taken off too soon, and that just led to more issues, and more money eating.
She grinned. "More people are killed by hippos than lions." She said with a nod. She rubbed her mare's neck once she was settled in the saddle again, she loved quiet rides like this, as could just enjoy being on a horse, rather than have to concentrate on what the horse was doing, making sure that a youngster didn't pick up any bad habits from her allowing them to cut corners or ride on the forehand, picking up the wrong diagonal when moving into a canter - it was amazing how easy it was to teach a horse to counter canter. She pursed her lips when she was asked for her plans. "I have a maiden mare, a show jumper, who isn't enjoying being pregnant, and she keeps jumping out of the pasture." She rolled her eyes as she thought of the mare's silly antics, which would be less amusing when she was heavily pregnant. "I'm going to give her a good workout, and school a handful of the green horses. I might be able to squeeze some cuddling time in for you."
A snort of laughter escaped John at the suggestion, "You might be onto something, Marie. Maybe feeding them our money will give them the extra boost in their diet to go the extra mile. That or their manure would make some great fertilizer afterwards." Granted, it certainly felt like they were already feeding the horses their paper money. The man could hardly complain though, they were doing good business and financially wise - they could afford to make these jokes and laugh about it in the end. John never wanted to take that for granted, "Great. Let me know. I'm pretty certain a few of the lesson horses need it as well. I'll just make it rain that day for Chase Anderson."
Blue eyes gave his wife a curious look, "Hippos kill more than...you know what, suddenly, I'm not comfortable with you riding her." John commented, with a mock-serious voice, "I can't have Wander doing a 180 on you because her spirit animal is a hippo." Granted, it would take a lot more than that to unseat Marie Ryan. Still, since Jake's accident, it had been a humble reminder that no equestrian was invincible - not even a Ryan. They started their walk again now that she was seated back in their saddle, and the man couldn't help but to feel a little sadden the time to this ride was coming to an end. Like Marie, he enjoyed just turning off his brain sometimes to go for a quiet ride with his wife - no antics, no schooling, no nothing. He could turn his brain 90% off and just relax.
"Jumping out of the pasture?" John asked now, "Shit, where have I been?" he mused, mainly to himself now. Was he really that oblivious to what went on in Marie's breeding barn? "After she's weaned off, if you want me to take her for a spin out on any of the circuits, you let me know." Blue eyes snapped back to her, arching an eyebrow, "You might have time for me?" John asked now, hardly able to keep a straight face, "Well, guess I might just have to convince you later to make time for me." And he defilingly didn't hold back the suggestive tone.
Marie laughed, her imagination running wild. "We could sell bags of horse manure, saying that they are gold nuggets. Ooh, or we could use it on our fields and see if a money tree grows from it!" She laughed again as she could vision her parents when she was a child and asking for a horse and both of them telling her that money didn't grow on trees, so she had worked her butt off to pay for her own lessons - just to prove she could!
She laughed again, and rolled her eyes as she leaned forward and hugged her mare. "She's not going to kill me. She needs me to open the treat cupboard. But yes, more people are killed by hippos, when you have a tonne of animal on top of you in the water, there's not a lot you can do." Animal documentaries were interesting. "If she keeps tripping over her feet, I'll bring her into a dressage frame and remind her to walk like a lady, rather than scuffing her feet like a boy."
She grinned and nodded. "You're more than welcome to her once her baby is weaned, and she can remain in proper work until her sixth or seventh month of pregnancy if she does well on the circuit." She laughed when Wander gave a snort, as though insulted. "This is not proper work, silly." She told the mare affectionately. "Proper work would be in the arena with fences."
She grinned and shrugged. "Eh, I might." Her brows rose in innocence. "I'm a very busy women, and there are lots of horses that need my attention." Her brows rose again in question to his tone and she grinned. "Sounds like I need to see if I can fit some time into for you in my diary, even if it's a rendezvous in the hay loft." No matter how busy she was, she would always find time for family.
"I'm pretty positive we could find some sucker who would think our manure piles could grow some money trees," John said with a laugh, "Or we can just terrify the kids and the stablehands to think we've gone mad when we ask them to spread it out back in the gardens for that very reason." The look on their faces would be rather priceless. Or, they'd think they've lost their minds and send them to the funny farm. On second thought, John thought to himself, maybe this would be a terrible joke.
Blue eyes watched as Marie leaned forward to hug Wander, uplifting herself just slightly from the saddle. He could not help but to allow his gaze to wander just a little bit across the frame of her body, "Well, if you trust her, I guess I'll trust her to listen to you too. There have been enough bad horse accidents in this family to last me a life time." He was also fairly certain that Hickstead Hospital never wanted to see him again after he blitzed through there when Jake ended up in the hospital due to a bad fall. John knew falling and risking your life came with the territory of riding, but he always thought it would never happen to him or his family. The man supposed though everyone thought that until it happened.
Onto happier things though, like training a mare or two. John laughed, "Well, you just let me know when I can start her and she's ready to go ahead and tired of all that mom stuff." He knew that technically Marie's horses were his horses and vice versa, but sometimes when it came to the broodmares, he preferred to ask permission than not. Unlike his own horses, and the lesson horses, John didn't know the in's and out's of his wife's program - he just handed her the money to have fun and produce champions. After all, she didn't need his help in that unless someone was really being squirrelly.
As they pulled up to the barn now, John still fiend some shock, "You'd pick the horses' needs over my own?" He could barely keep a straight face though as he laughed, bringing Winnie to a stop now, and sliding his feet out of the stirrups, allowing them to hang there. If there was one thing he didn't appreciate during the winter time, it was getting off a horse, "Well, whenever I manage to convince myself to dismount and put your mare away, you'll find me enjoying a nice cup of warm coffee in the office."
Marie shook her head and rolled her eyes as John seemed to get carried away with her comment about growing money. "You can do whatever you like." She told him. "Just don't involve me in it. We can't afford for both of us to be taken away in a straightjacket." She pursed her lips, deep in thought. "I wonder if you get to keep the jacket when they release you? One of them could come in handy..."
She gave a good-natured laugh. "Uh...in case you've forgotten, we work around horses. I think accidents aren't exactly planned, as they wouldn't be called accidents if they were. I might need to think about getting a nursing degree though, I can do the triaging and work out if we need to get the hospital involved." Like she had the time to go and spend years at university!
Marie studied her husband for a moment. "I suppose that her babies would be more sought-after if their dam had a few champions under her girth." Thinking about the mare made her smile, knowing that she would be a star in a showring, and the horse was such a show-off that she would use that to her advantage. "You'll have to wait about eight months before you can start working her though." She shrugged. "Could be less, but let's not tempt fate." It wasn't uncommon for a maiden mare to see her foal for the first time, freak out and reject it.
She shrugged and spread her hands, as though to say 'you have to ask?' and grinned as she used her seat and legs to ask halt her mare and slipped her feet from the stirrups, which she then ran up and tucked the leather through them. "You aren't that old." She laughed. "A fool, yes, but not old." With another laugh, she swung her left leg over her mare's neck and jumped to the ground - something she'd never do if being watched by their children or a student, as it was not a good example of how to dismount - and turned to the mare to undo the girth and walked around to lift the girth over the seat of the saddle and tucked it into the left stirrup. "If you keep sitting there, she'll take herself to her stall." She grinned and shrugged as she walked forward with her mare. "She knows that there's a haynet waiting in her stall."
