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!.
Lani pressed her lips together as she watched his reaction to her words, wondering if she'd said more than she should have. "Well that's very kind, I hope your compass isn't broken," She laughed and rolled her eyes. "Wouldn't be the first time." She shrugged with a grin, as she had broken an actual compass, or two, in the past. "Even if it's canon fodder," Her brows dropped in concern as she caught his soft words, and, for once, the girl who spoke without a filter, was speechless.
She grinned when he smiled again. "exactly, you get it! Even that chocolate sauce stuff that goes hard when you add it to the ice cream.. never understood how that worked though." It was also a great way to learn what didn't go with vanilla ice cream. "I could tell you, if you really want to know." She offered, as while pondering about it one day, she had actually Googled that very question and the answer was sadly disappointing, it wasn't anywhere near as magical as she thought it would be.
"I think that's a good thing. It's a bleak old world if you stop dreaming," She shrugged, her smile slipping a little. "Dad used to say my head was in the clouds more than it was on earth, but I'm always looking for the silver lining, and magic, in everything." She gave an impish grin. "Don't worry, I have no intention of going out to get photos of fairies and unicorns. Think I'd have to go to Scotland to find unicorns anyway." National animal and all. "Ah so I see, I'm the pack donkey, huh? I get it." She laughed and nodded her head. "Uh, yeah! Your dashing good looks aren't the only reason I keep you around." She pursed her lips together in thought. "Or it could be the fact that you make me laugh."
Lani smiled, as nice wasn't often a word used when people met her, but she wasn't going to talk about semantics. She took a set as she silently studied her new boss, trying to get a read of the woman, but she had never been one to be able to tell a lot about someone without seeing them work.
Her brow rose at the question, as she hadn't been here as long as others, and it wasn't like she was squatting, she worked just as hard as everyone else and picked up extra jobs if the herders needed an extra pair of hands, as getting her hands dirty was one thing she had never been afraid of. "I was thankful for the job offered, rather than being arrested for trespassing." She was thankful that she could think on her feet, and saying she was there to see if there was a job, when the old owner caught her taking photos of the horses, and it really could have gone either way. She shrugged at the second question. "I ebb and flow with the tide." She replied. "I've always been a go with the flow person." Part of her wondered if she was about to be dismissed, the old 'you work well, but you're just not what we need', speech. Things could get interesting if that were the case, as this job came with accomodation, and while the town didn't have a lack of barns to work in, she would also need somewhere to live, which would mean needing a second, if not a third, job.
"Mmmm that much is evident, falling in with me - terrible sense of direction." Lani's brows rose in question, and she shook her head. "I think that when I met you, my compass started working again." She shrugged, feeling the blush hit her cheeks, knowing the the words were corny when she heard them; but this man was her true north, even if it took him going away for her to work this out. "Finally, something I'm good for." She gave an impish grin. "We all have to be good at something."
The sound of his laughter warmed her, and Lani was pleased to hear him laugh, even if it was at her expense because her mind refused to grow up. "So what if Vanilla is my favourite, am I boring?" She tapped finger against her lips as she pretended to give the question serious thought. "There is nothing wrong with vanilla ice cream." She replied with a cheeky grin. "It means you can add any flavor and toppings you want, and not have to worry about the flavours not going together."
She watched his face as she spoke, as the small nuances spoke louder than any word could, and after the car accident with her parents, she had learned to pay attention to them, as they were often her only cue to flee when her father was having a bad day. "That's a nice way to think about things," She smiled and shrugged with an impish grin. "There's that tiny part of me that still believes that there is treasure to be found at the end of a rainbow." Even when the adult part of her knew that rainbows were nothing more than light and water. "Let me know when you do it, if you don't mind company for it." She grinned and nodded, stopping before she took on the look of a bobble-headed toy. "I'd love the company!" She said. "And a second opinion on venues would be good too. Plus, having someone to help carry my bags would be a big help too." For what she wanted to accomplish, she'd need to take a few lenses, cards, battery packs and snacks, so it would mean needing to carry more than just her basic backpack
Lani had always had a problem of asking forgiveness rather than permission. Flying by the seat of her pants was her MO, it's how she had ended up here, rather than at her grandparents', but this was home now, and she no longer had any intention of flying off again. "I could provide some company - it would be questionable at best, but I have a compass and an excellent sense of humour." She grinned. "The compass would come in handy, I haven't been known for having the best sense of direction." She could guesstimate the time from where the sun was in the sky, so her sense of direction couldn't be too bad. "And an excellent sense of humour always comes in handy when you've thrown caution to the wind." Or, in layman's terms, got lost.
She could feel her cheeks heat up when he winked and she sucked her head, as it felt like a very girlish thing to do, and she should be more mature than that. "I'm seeing you in a whole new light now." Her brows shot up as she sat up a little straighter and looked down at herself, as though she could see what he was talking about. "oh no, that's like a fake compliment... like when you call someone 'bubbly'." Her bottom lip jutted out in a pout, thinking of all the times that guys at school had called her bubbly, though shrugged off the thought. "It was an adjective, not a compliment." She quipped as she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Vanilla? I thought you shot scenery and stuff, you're starting to make it sound a little... sexual," She burst out laughing, and clapped a hand over her mouth, yeah, she was really mature. "I'd still like to see them though, even if they are a little... missionary," She huffed out a breath, doing her best to stop her giggles. "Vanilla, as in boring, plain, no fillers, like vanilla ice cream." She shook her head as she laughed again. Okay, sure, she photographed scenery all the time, some quite boring, but nothing from the course so far had asked her to do anything more than normal. "What's the assignment about?" She shrugged, wondering if her sunrise idea was a little more out there than the assignment called for. "The assignment is about new beginnings." She shrugged again. "I like to think that every time the sun comes up, we get a chance to try again. It's a new day, so it offers us a chance to start again. So, I was thinking of heading to the beach with all my gear and watching the sun come up." And she'd be home in time to start barn chores.
Lani grinned as she squeezed Bear forward and they rode toward where Daisy was munching on the heather. Not getting too close to the cow, Lani halted her horse by the heather, grabbed her knife from the saddle bag and flipped it open. Using her legs, she asked the gelding to move sideways, closer to the heather, and she sliced through a branches, which she tied to the front of the saddle and then whistled to let the cow know they were there for her, and she nudged her gelding forward again, circling around the bovine and guiding her back to where Sam was working with Shay. "I brought her some snacks too." She laughed at the question. "Working here is as close to cows as I've ever been. I've done stuff like this with horses though, and large four-legged animals are all pretty similar when it comes to times like this."
She sat quietly on her horse as she watched Sam work, keeping her eyes on both of the cows as she dropped the branches she had brought in front of Shay and knew if nothing else, it would keep Daisy with them. "Bear will help however he can." She offered with a smile. "He'll back up on command, do you want me down with you or up here?" She was his pawn, and was happy to move to any part of the board where he wanted her.
Lani gave a huff in mock outrage and then grinned. "Not sure whether to be insulted or take that as a compliment." She told him with a laugh. She'd always been known to shoot first and ask questions second (or in her case talk first and think second), but there were times that it had helped, and right now it was easier to just shoot her mouth rather than think about the worst outcome.
Lani looked from the trapped cow to the one that was happily eating and back again. She nodded with a grin as Sam worked out that she had been joking about the manicure comment. "That one tends to be a riot." She crouched down beside the young man and looked at the cow's leg and frowned as she glanced back over toward the other cow. "If you start digging, I'm gonna bring her pal closer so that she'll have company when she can move again, and will be more likely to remain where she is until we want her to move." She'd never had to dig a cow out of a hole before, but at the stable where she had worked in the States, one of the horses had tangled her leg in some wire that had been thrown over the fence, the owner had cleared the field and when they had the horse free, the mare had freaked out that she was all alone and had taken off to find her friends, with blood spraying out of the wound on her fetlock. So, her thoughts were if she brought Daisy over, then Shay would have a friend to keep her company on their walk back, she could even bring some heather back for Shay to munch on while they worked.
"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 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.
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.
