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!.
It had appeared that in all of her excitement of arriving in the United Kingdom and being reunited with Twilight after he had gotten shipped off and quarantined, that she had forgotten to aggressively clean her tack when it had come out of storage. And by gods, Brooklyn Hazelton couldn't believe that she had subjected herself, her breeches, and most importantly, Twilight, to that stench and particles of who knows what. The fifteen year old had kept this lapse in judgement to herself when she left their house for the day and bicycled out to Seven Oaks Stables, knowing that if she said anything to any one of her family members, it would end up in a stern talking to about responsibility - well, from her parents that is. Carrie would just rat her out. And if there was one thing Brooklyn didn't need, it was another lecture about responsibility.
The move to the United Kingdom couldn't have come soon enough, and thank god it happened during summer, since Brooklyn hoped that it meant that her parents would forget about her struggling grades from her freshmen year of high school in Texas. They happened to coincide with her first meeting of Twilight and going down the rabbit hole of becoming a 'horse girl' as the other kids had liked to make fun of her for. She didn't care though, not loving horses was their loss. Her old stables and the riders there had made up for it. They didn't, however, make up for her average to below average grades which had become a mild contention point. Brooklyn didn't see why school mattered, at least not stuff like English, and math, and History, when they had nothing to do with horses. Another loosing argument though in her parents eyes - they just didn't seem to get her.
Ditching her bike in the stable parking lot, she ran to the Barn, first to say hello to Twilight who was cooling off in the fans of his stall, before making her way to the tack and feed room. Her stuff already had a nice locker to stay in, which she still needed to decorate the inside of and put a name plate up on. But naturally, decorating was not her goal for the day. At least, it wasn't the first. She pulled out her saddle and bridle, making a face at it's state, "How did I let this happen," she muttered to herself. When she pulled her kit box though, Brooklyn was startled to make a discovery: there was no cleaner. "Crap," the teenager muttered to herself. There had to be some around here, and surely, nobody would mind if she just borrowed some cleaner.
Brown eyes did a quick glance around the tack room, before spotting a familiar jug - or at least, the British equivalent to it. Naturally, it was up high though, on the very top of the lockers poking out of a box or something, "Okay...You got this Brookie," she muttered to herself. What was a little height difference to her? Grabbing a small step stool, Brooklyn placed it by the lockers and got up on it. Still a little too short, so she raised herself onto her tip toes, "Almost...there," she muttered, gritting through her teeth as her hands managed to pull on the box, "I got-" but before she could bask in the joy of her triumph, she lost her balance and not only did the box of cleaning supplies come with her, it swiped down a number of other boxes as well in an avalanche of cardboard, bottles, buckets, and brushes. Brooklyn had wiped out onto the ground, thankfully avoiding knocking her head. Sitting up, brown eyes surveyed the chaos that she had caused, "I am so dead."
Laugh it off and let it go and when you wake up it will seem so yesterday
thanks aofie!
Fifteen . High School Student . LGBTQ+ . Single Seven Oaks Saddle Club
Othello sighed as he rested his forehead against his horse's. Things had just seemed to have gone from bad to worse since he'd arrived in Hickstead, and to at a thunderhead to the storm cloud already hovering over his dismal existance, his doctor has now said that he was to refrain from physical activity - anything that would get his heartrate up - which included handwalking Harry. "I'm not even supposed to groom you!" He muttered.
He stepped back as the Suffolk Punch's head flew up at the loud noise. "Easy, boy." He soothed. "I'm going to go check that out." He could have ignored it, but he also couldn't have it on his conscience if someone had broken their neck.
Walking to the door of the feed and tack room, his brows shot up at what he encountered. "You alright down there?" He asked, trying his best to hold back a smile. "Did you find what you were looking for?" A laugh escaped, and he pressed his lips together to hold back the guffaw that wanted to escape He did his best to look sympathetic, albeit slightly amused.
For a moment, Brooklyn almost thought she was in the clear and somehow, nobody heard the chaos that she had caused. However, the universe soon felt the need to correct that as she heard fast approaching footsteps. The fifteen year old didn't even have time to get up before she heard a voice behind her coming from the door frame: "You alright down there?" Great. Brooklyn glanced over her shoulder now, brown eyes gazing over to see a boy, a teenage boy, and the dread of her mess mildly disappeared.
However, she could see even from this angle that the other teenager was trying hard to not just break down and laugh at her. It was a little annoying, seeing him fight it, but Brooklyn knew that if she had been in his shoes, she would be doing the same thing, "Oh yeah, just admiring the interior design from a different perspective," she replied with a weak smile. The boy seemed to crack now with a laugh, and Brooklyn did her best to not roll her eyes.
She was a little taken aback by his question before remembering exactly why she was in this situation in the first place. The leather cleaner! Brown eyes surveyed her mess once more before spotting the bottle, "Well, looks like it made its way to the floor with me," she commented, sitting up a bit better and snatching the bottle from where it was, "Although...I guess cleaning tack should wait until I take care of the rest of this mess," Brooklyn mused before glancing back to the stranger, "I'm Brooklyn, by the way. I moved here a few weeks ago rom America." As if the accent didn't give it away.
Laugh it off and let it go and when you wake up it will seem so yesterday
thanks aofie!
Fifteen . High School Student . LGBTQ+ . Single Seven Oaks Saddle Club
Othello continued to chuckle as he regained his composure, afterall, he had to keep his heart rate down, and cracking up laughing would only lead to him throwing up, and he didn't feel the need to add to the chaos already in front of him.
He grinned and applauded when it seemed that she had found what she was looking for, even if it did look like a Mack Truck had been through the tack room in the process! "Would you like some assistance?" He asked with a smile as he straightened up. His smile deepened as she introduced herself. "I'm Othello. Moved here about a year ago, from Exeter." He dreamed of travelling, but he had a feeling that the only travelling he'd ever do was when he visited other realms and countries when he was lost in a book. "Is you horse settling in well?" Sure, he could have asked if she was settling in well, not that he even knew if she had her own horse, but horses was an easy topic, and seemed less intrusive.
Brooklyn couldn't help but to laugh when the boy applauded her on finding the leather cleaner - after the chaos that had ensued just seconds earlier, it felt like an accomplishment to find it the mess. She was surprised on his lack of laughter, maybe it was an English thing even though he didn't seem the least bit stuffy to her. At his offer for assistance, Brooklyn's brown eyes looked around for a moment, weighing her situation before glancing back at him and smiled, "You know, I don't think I'll say no to help." While the teenager was often one who thought she could handle everything on her own, a mess of this size was a different matter, "Does the manager have a rhym or reason to how things are stuffed back into their boxes?"
She pushed herself up now and peered over the mess and winced a little bit, "Unless...all of this is partially boarders stuff." Oh goodness, what a living nightmare if she had somehow messed with the belongings to all the boarders of Seven Oaks. Someone was definingly going to kill her. At least introductions were pasted them now, "Well, it is a pleasure to meet you Othello! And thanks for bailing me out. Where's Exeter? Is it a cute, quaint country town like Hickstead?" From what Brooklyn could tell of the UK, it had big sprawling metropolitan cities and then a few stops later on the train, you could be in a nice little countryside hub.
Her face lit up when prompted about her horse, "I believe he's doing great! He'll be finishing up quarantine real soon and heading here - less than a week. So I am looking forward to his arrival. I think the cold might shock him though - we'll see. I've been riding the lesson horses with Twilight absent." Then something dawned on Brooklyn, "What about you? Do you own a horse here? I must admit I don't think I've seen you around before." And it felt a little bit embarrassing to admit that, seeing as she was here all the time. With that thought, Brooklyn got to work on cleaning up.
Laugh it off and let it go and when you wake up it will seem so yesterday
thanks aofie!
Fifteen . High School Student . LGBTQ+ . Single Seven Oaks Saddle Club
Othello bowed and grinned, tidying up was an easy enough job, and it was a gentle job. His brows rose at the question, as he wasn't too sure about the answer. "Uh..? I'm sure that if we put like with like, tidy should be tidy enough?" He offered with a shrug. He did his best to keep his stuff in his locker or the trunk outside his horse's stall. "Or, we could pretend that a really big quake just happened and this stuff fell down on top of us?" He chuckled at his idea.
He pulled a face when thinking of the town he had grown up in. Compared to Hickstead, Exeter would be closer in description to London, just with a little less smog and not so many ravens. My grandparents have a really nice farm on the outskirts of the town though. Their village-thing, is a lot like here." He liked it better here, he was creating a new life for himself, and it didn't seem like everyone here knew everything about him.
He winced in empathy about being separated from her horse. "Hopefully the time passes quickly." He had no idea about how different the winter temperatures would be compared to where she had come from. "Even if it's really cold outside, it's always warm in here, and if he still feels the cold, put a stable sheet over him and he'll acclimatise quickly enough." Olympic horses often went to the event a few months before the Games started so that they would be used to the summer temperatures, altitude and whatever before they needed to compete, so he was sure that a horse getting used to the cold would be the same. "I own a dark liver chestnut, Suffolk Punch, Arabian gelding." He said, his face warming with a soft smile as he thought of his horse. He walked over and started helping to gather things together and then sorting them out into where he was sure they would belong, making sure to keep anything that had too much of a scent at arm's length. The tack room could be so much fun to be in at times. "We could ride out together sometime when your horse gets out of quarantine of you would like? Harry's a schoolmaster, so even if your horse is wigging out, he'll remain rock steady."
Othello certainly seemed easy going enough about helping her out, and Brooklyn would forever be thankful for that. She still wasn't sure about all of this mess though, and it would seem, neither did the other teenager. Her question about boarders stuff certainly prompted a look from him before suggesting an explanation about an earthquake. Laughter bubbled from Brooklyn now as she pushed herself up and grabbed the first box and began gently chucking things into it, "Earthquake huh? I think that will be our default answer for this," the young girl said with a grin, "And we'll just sort things into boxes by theme. Cleaning supplies. Care supplies. Etc." Hopefully, all of this belonged to Seven Oaks as a whole verses individual people.
She listened to Othello's explanation about where he had come from - like London but less smog and ravens. It was certainly a curious description. He must have lived on the edge of town though, based off what he said about his grandparents. Grandparents. It suddenly occurred to Brooklyn that he did not mention his actual parents, and while curious, she certainly wasn't bold or rude enough to ask about such private manners. If it involved horses, that was different manner, but the teenager knew enough to not be a nosey jerk about personal matter involving people, "Ah! Well, must have been easy to adapt to moving here then. This is very different for me, but I'm already liking what I saw in town, and obiviously, the stables, so I'm not too worried about my happiness." School would be a different matter, but the teenager was very good about ignoring that part of her life.
Brooklyn offered a warm smile as she saw the other teenager winced. He clearly understood what she was going through, "Thanks, I hope so too." And it was good to know about the temperatures. She was fairly certain that Twilight's tattoo traced him to nevada, which was cold enough, but she wasn't sure if living in Texas had made him soft, "Glad to hear it. Just stop me if I try to put more than one blanket on him," Brooklyn commented with a laugh. They worked together now with the sorting, everything getting put into its perspective box. She had to admit, this was going a lot more faster with Othello's help. The friendly conversation helped as well, "Oh! An Arabian? He must be beautiful. Do you find him hyper? I hear they're very smart." The only arabians she had ever seen were online or in the movies, so Brooklyn would be excited to meet his. Brown eyes met Othello's own now as she grinned, "Yeah! I'd love to ride with you - both with Twilight and without. Maybe I can ask the White's about leasing a horse for a short bit until Twilight comes so I'm just not being a weird girl and milling around the barn without a horse."
Laugh it off and let it go and when you wake up it will seem so yesterday
thanks aofie!
Fifteen . High School Student . LGBTQ+ . Single Seven Oaks Saddle Club
Othello grinned as it seemed that his earthquake suggestion was the one they were going to go with, even if there hadn't been one, and he nodded to her sorting idea and began to help place things into the appropriate box. Part of him wished he paid more attention to who owned what around here, or made a decent attempt to make friends around the barn, and then he might have some idea of if the items they were sorting out were barn owned or personally owned. "We could also say nothing and hope that everyone else will think that this is another one of Leo's pranks." He quite liked the man, and had been here enough to know all the barn gossip.
He nodded, it was easy enough to adapt to new places, and the hospital here was really no different from any other, they all had that same antiseptic clean smell, but he wasn't about to speak that comparison out loud. "The town here is small enough that everyone seems to know everyone else, but I don't feel afraid that the lady in the grocer is going to tell my aunt that I was hanging out with the bad-kids by the basketball court." He grinned and shrugged. "Also, being a new kid, also means that teachers have to take me as I am, rather than someone who has taught another family member and thinks they already know who I am." Being an only child, he was lucky that he'd never had to worry about that, but he'd had classmates who were being taught by someone who had taught their parent, and the child was treated as though they were their parent.
He chuckled. "I shall be that angel on your shoulder, reminding you that your horse only needs a light rug." He lifted his hands to straighten his imaginary halo with a grin. He laughed as he thought about his Horse. "Harry is more Suffolk Punch than he is Arabian, so other than his slightly dished nose, he's like any other cold blooded horse." He felt that the liver chestnut was very intelligent, as he tended to pick things up pretty quickly, but he also knew that he was biased. "The only time I see his hyper side, is when he's out in the pasture." He returned her grin as she accepted his offer for a trail ride and nodded. "That's actually probably a good idea. Learning the trails before you go out there on your horse." He never had to worry when he was riding Harry, but he knew that some horses didn't like new places and it would make a horse more comfortable if their rider already knew where they were going, and if his horse wasn't so laid-back, about everything, he'd have wanted to ride a horse who knew the trails the first time he headed out.
It looked as if they were finally done, shoving things back into regular boxes and tack boxes, back on display above the lockers now and in respective cubbies. Or at least, the teenagers could only hope it was their respective cubbies. Brooklyn took a step back, admiring their handy work. She wasn't quite sure how she'd spin the whole earthquake thing, but you know, small ones did happen on occasion and knock over a lawn chair. It was possible! And then, Othello piped up besides her: "We could also say nothing and hope that everyone else will think that this is another one of Leo's pranks." Well now, that was an idea. Brown eyes glanced over at him, "I haven't been here long enough to know all the quirks about the Whites'. Is that his thing?" If it was, it sounded far more plausible than a small earthquake.
The teenager wasn't surprised by her new friend's description of the town of Hickstead. She supposed it made sense, small town, small people. Everybody had to know everything. Every place was like a small school full of gossip. Barns. Towns. Army Bases. Brooklyn supposed she didn't care though, people like that weren't going to stop her from living her life. Still, she arched an eyebrow, a grin dancing across the place, "Hanging out with the bad kids at the basketball courts, huh? Guess you're a rebel." She listened to Othello lament about being the new kid, but it seemed that he was a good sport about it. Brooklyn smiled, "That's a good way to look at it. Plus, you're not a wiley American like me. Those Hickstead Secondary teachers won't know what hit them when I show up in the fall."
Laughter bubbled up, "I appreciate it. Can't have the other horses making fun of him with all of his blankets..er, rugs." After all, Twilight might end up looking ab it silly with three blankets on him if Brooklyn thought it was that cold. Her mustang probably wouldn't appreciate such things. She listened to Othello explain his horse now, "He sounds quite cute! I can't wait to meet him. Why'd you name him Harry?" Party of her wondered if it was because of Harry Potter, but perhaps that was too silly to ask. At the mention of the trail rides, Brooklyn nodded, looking to the map on the wall, "Yeah. I should do that. At the same time, I'm also tempted to just run off without the map. Make it a whole adventure, yeah?"
Laugh it off and let it go and when you wake up it will seem so yesterday
thanks aofie!
Fifteen . High School Student . LGBTQ+ . Single Seven Oaks Saddle Club
There was something about mindless work that was almost freeing, not that Othello would actually admit that to anyone, but he motion of just putting things away was relaxing. He shrugged as she asked about Leo's MO. "From the talk around the barn, and even when he showed me around the place, I had a feeling that that's his thing." He offered with another shrug.
He laughed and spread his hands. "Sorry, that was a terrible example, but it was the first thing that come to mind." Stupid theme song to Fresh Prince! He grinned. "I think the worst you'll get is 'I love your accent!' He rolled his eyes, and wished he didn't as the room continued to move even after his eyes had stopped. "I go to the Secondary too, if that helps." If nothing else, he could offer her a friendly face.
He laughed too, picturing one of those cartoons of the horse wearing a million rugs and the other horses laughing at the overrugged horse, with the blub 'my mum was cold'. "Well, if you do put too many rugs on him, you'll be able to see how quickly he can get out of them." His grandmother had a couple of horses who always managed to ditch their covers as soon as they went outside. He grinned as he was asked about his horse's name, and he dug his phone out of his pocket, quickly flipping through the photos to find the headshot he wanted and handed the phone over so that Brooklyn could see the "lightning bolt" marking on the liver chestnut's forehead. He kind of picked his own barn name. His registered name is Gift of Poseidon." Though, until he started competing, the registered name was never used. He grinned when she seemed keen on the idea of trail riding. "I'm here every afternoon, and all weekend if I can get away with it, and going off the grid sounds like an adventure I'd be happy to take part in." His aunt would kill him and be on the phone to his parents if she found out, but what she didn't know, wouldn't hurt her.
