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!.
Maeve finished getting her mare ready for the dressage arena, making sure that her braids were neat - and the cheeky horse hadn't rubbed them off while standing at the truck - and when she was happy, she mounted up and headed to the warm up ring, keeping out of the way of everyone else as she worked the mare in quietly, not asking for much, but making sure that Sugar was feeling loose and relaxed.
Entering the arena, she knew that there was no time to run through the test again, and she just had to trust herself that she knew it, and hadn't overworked the mare with it so that Sugar wasn't going to anticipate any of the movements and not wait for the cue."Half halt and breathe." She whispered when she had turned away from the judge, keeping her hands light on the reins, squeezing a little to bring the mare into a better frame.
She rode through the test, knowing that she could have been better, but as they finished and halted for the salute, she could feel that the mare was standing square and she knew that for a young horse, Sugar had done her best. Her rider... there could be a lot to say there. She squeezed the flaxen chestnut forward as they turned and left the arena on a long rein, waiting until they had exited before she gave the horse a good pat for a job well done.
Maeve worked Nuc in, getting the grey settled and listening to her aids, not worrying too much about the jumps in the warm up area, as right now, she wanted the horse's attention on her, that nothing else around them was anything for him to worry about.
She took him over a practice jump a couple of times before their number was called and she drew in a deep breath, trying to pretend she was as cool as a cucumber as they entered the arena. She rode a large circle to let the gelding have a good look at the fences she would be asking him to jump and she asked for a canter as they rode through the flags.
While she didn't want to rush the horse through the course, as that was not a good way to introduce him to competitions, and would probably end with him crashing through jumps, she also didn't want to err to the side of caution too much and incur time faults. "Let's just have fun." SHe told the horse with a smile as she asked him to pick up the canter a little, keeping her legs on him as they approached the first fence, and waited for it to come to them, staying with the horse as he rose into the air and easily cleared the jump.
Making sure to keep with the horse the whole way around the course, she kept his speed in check when she felt him fighting for his head, but she didn't interfere with his mouth as she kept her hands light, asking for turns while they were going over jumps and cutting corners when they could - the benefits of already having ridden the course once - and a smile broke across her face as they rode through the final flags, and she threw her arms around the horse's neck, giving him as hug as they left the arena, sitting up with a laugh as he shook his head in protest to the PDA.
Maeve shrugged off the compliment as she removed her last stitch and redid it before she kept going. She gave a small laugh. "I'm doing this to get away from writing, but as I start my day riding horses, and I'll be turning to the barn when classes are over, I guess doing a cross-stitch of a horse isn't exactly moving away from what's already in my head." Not that the image she was filling was of any of the horses she rode. There again though, while she was working she was concentrating on where the needle was going and what colour she was using at any time, and every now and then going back to her sketch to change things up if they needed tweaking.
She listened as Roisin spoke, stretching her legs out as she began to feel the familiar tingle in her ankle, knowing that at times it was just better to sit and listen, and she got to learn more about people this way, as they often said more about themselves when they were unloading, than they would if the other person was always adding things in as well. She smiled and shook her head at the apology. "There are times when we need to move away from the life that others have decided for us." She offered. "If fashion is where you see yourself, you should pursue that, and your family will hopefully support that." Not that she was an expert on having a supportive family, but she knew that Aurora and Andrew had always supported her riding, when they were her foster parents. "Can I ask what kind of fashion you're interested in?" She'd hate to make an assumption that it was adult clothes when the other girl wanted to create canine fashion.
Maeve chuckled at Sage's comment and then pressed her lips together as Cara answered and she shook her head as she pulled Dusk and Nuc's leads free. Riding with Sage was going to be interesting, but she thought it would also be fun to ride with someone who she could talk with - no offence to Cara, but the older girl was a little too focused at times. "So, Sage. Are you an eventer or a single discipline person?"
She had a bounce in her step as she followed Cara out of the arena, through the barn and down to the field. She smiled as Cara introduced her assigned horses. "Looks like Fae's head didn't realise that she was pony-sized." She said with a laugh. When the gateway was clear, she led her two horses through and waited for Sarge to bring his in before she removed the halters and stepped away so that the two horses could walk away at start grazing.
She followed Cara back into the barn, and then through to the indoor arena to collect Sugar and brought her out to one of the other grooming stalls and attached the cross-ties before she walked into the tackroom and found the mare's gear and returned to the mare to give her a good groom - aka, bonding time. "What do Sugar's parents do?" She asked Cara as she began to pick out the mare's hooves. Yes, she could wait till after their ride and have a look through the mare's notes, but didn't see the point in waiting when the other female knew the info she wanted.
Large grey eyes watched the massive horse in front of them, the hyper-aware part of her brain was running a full-tilt, but she did her best to push it to the background, she was over living in a hyper-aware status, she just wanted to be normal - and had worked hard on being normal. If she was still that terrified girl she had been a couple of years ago, she would never have spoken up earlier, and she'd had slipped out as soon as Molly's attention was diverted, and she wouldn't be here right now.
She blinked, returning to the here and now as she heard a voice, frowning when she saw Cara standing there, wondering where the woman had come from. She echoed Molly's laugh, and it felt good to laugh, which turned her laugh into a giggle and she pressed her lips together to stop it from getting worse as the woman turned her attention to the grey horse, who was now had his against Cara's chest, acting as though he wasn't standing at almost eighteen hands and repentant for scaring them all. She blew out a breath with another laugh. "The barn was quiet, almost spooky, with the talk of ghosts. And then suddenly he was just here." She shook her head and blew out a breath as she grinned toward Molly. "Is this normal for sleepovers?" She asked with an arched eyebrow.
Maeve should be used to this by now, she'd campaigned Inca when the mare had started showing, so campaigning a new horse shouldn't have her as nervous as she was, but it didn't stop the butterflies that had taken camp in her stomach as she got the flaxen chestnut Sporthorse ready for the jumping arena. "You can do this." She wasn't sure if she was talking to the horse or herself.
In the warm-up arena, she worked the pretty youngster through her paces and rode her over the practice fences when they were clear for her to use, making sure not to push the mare too much before they were called, and letting her get used to the crowds and other horses.
When their number was called, she trotted the mare into the arena and then asked for a canter as she circled the mare and knowing that she had the course order in her mind, she'd walked it a couple of times earlier, she rode the mare through the flags and toward the first jump. She kept the mare at a steady pace as they moved from jump to jump, pleased with how the mare moved and how she didn't hesitate when asked the bigger questions. "Good girl." She whispered as they flew over the second half of the double.
She leaned forward and hugged the mare as they rode through the finishing flags and slowed to a trot as they exited the arena, thrilled that the mare had gone clear in her first competition. "You were awesome!" She told the mare.
Maeve smiled and shook her head at the apology. "It's not a problem." She said with a laugh. "It's what I get get for immersing myself in my work." She shrugged, knowing it was the truth, she should know not to get lost when she was in a public place. At least here though, she wasn't at rise of getting a soccer ball kicked in her direction and making her uniform dirty - it had happened a few times when she was at secondary school and she had been in so much trouble for getting her only uniform dirty.
She nodded with a laugh. "The pen really is mightier than the sword!" While Maeve wasn't the greatest with verbal words, but that course had taught her to be better with the written, ot typed, word. When she wrote about things, she learned to write about them; the colours, the sounds, the weather, the time, the emotions. Rather than just writing: The girl went for a walk in the park. She changed it into: Even though the sun shone brightly and the birds sang merrily, a cool wind blew, matching the sullen mood of the young girl as she walked through the park.
She smiled as the other girl noticed her cross-stitch. "This one is a fun project." She replied with a shrug. "I've done some in the past for other people, but this one is for taking my mind off everything else."Plus, alongside equine studies and creative writing, she didn't think she had time to take any more courses, when she was also training and showing horses for Naomi. "From your earlier comment, I'm guessing you sew?"
Maeve turned when she heard someone else enter the arena, slightly disappointed that it wasn't Naomi. She smiled as the young man spoke. "Naomi's not here, so you can't be late." She gave a bright smile after Cara had spoken. "And I'm Maeve." Anything else she wanted to say was stopped as their mentor entered the arena and got straight to work.
Her mouth formed into an o as she was given her horses, and once Naomi left, she hurried forward and went to meet her horses. Sugar was a typical flaxen chestnut; beautiful chestnut coat with honey blonde mane and tail, though her tail got darker closer to the bottom. Nuc was a dark grey, almost a smokey black, but she had a feeling as the gelding got older, he would grey out. And the bay mare was a dark bay with a triangular blaze and a snip on the side of her nose. "Hi." She greeted them all. Her mind boggled as she tried to decide which one she was going to ride and she shook her head to quieten her inner voice and then frowned. Where were Cara's horses? None of her business! She looked at her horses again, finally settling on Sugar, as she had been the first horse she had noticed. "I'm guessing your horses are out in the pasture?" She asked Cara before looking at Sage. "I've worked out who's staying in. Shall we head outside with the rejects?"
Maeve laughed, feeling her cheeks burn with embarrassment, wishing she hadn't said anything about anything in her closet. "Maybe we'll save that conversation for another day?" She shrugged, this really wasn't the time or place to go into what she had hidden away for years. She laughed again, and it felt good to laugh, as it removed some of the tension that was making her feel wired, when Molly mentioned her blog. "Note to self, head cam for next time we think we're going to track down the ghost horse."
Maeve watched, wide eyed, as Molly began to talk into her phone and then record what was approaching them, when all Maeve wanted to do was run in the opposite direction, if only her feet didn't feel like they were glued to the floor, her body not wanting to obey the brain that was screaming for her to run. She heard Molly and then a scream, until she realised that the scream came from her as the horse appeared from the darkness and reared up. She clamped a hand over her mouth to stop the noise and whimpered as she could hear the sound of running feet. She had the sudden thought that she was having an out of body experience and that she was actually running away, that it was her feet she could hear. Maybe that's why she couldn't move?
Maeve knew it was coming, she knew that sooner or later Naomi would replace her. She'd had lots of fun bringing Inka along, and the mare was doing really well in competitions - which had nothing to do with her and all about how talented the mare was. What she hadn't expected however, was for her to get a call the night before, telling her she was being assigned two new horses to bring along.
It was early morning when she got out of her car in the parking area of Blue Acres and after a quick stop of at the tack room to collect her helmet and back protector, she headed out to the arena, where she was told her new horses would be waiting for her.
A million thoughts ran through her head as she approached the arena, where she could see a string of horses patiently, and not so patiently, waiting. She tipped her head to the side as she looked at the Sporthorses, in a range of colours, at her best guess, ranged in heights from fifteen to seventeen hands, none of them really jumped out at her. She smiled toward Cara, who was sitting on the top rail of the arena, quietly talking to the chestnut closest to her. "Good morning." She greeted. "I was expecting to find Naomi. Nice looking horses." They all looked young, about the age Inka was when she first started campaigning the mare. Her brows dipped as she looked at the horses, guessing that the new rider was going to be turning up as well. Knowing that it was inevitable they would be training together, she shrugged into her back protector, placed the helmet on her head and brushed down her navy blue riding tights.
Maeve had been doing her craft for long enough that she worked more on autopilot than she paid attention to what she did, and because of this, she wasn't as lost in her work as she she would have been when she had taken up cross stitch to escape the world around her.
Her thoughts jumbled as she tried to sort through everything, compartmentalizing things into their own folders, sorting through things and sending the thoughts of the past way into the back folder, something that could be covered in dust and cobwebs in her mind, folders that would hopefully never see the light of day again... though memories of her parents might be in folders like that too, if an infant could remember the people who left them on a doorstep as though their child was an unwanted kitten or puppy.
At the sound of a voice, she looked up from her work, wincing as the hand with the needle kept working and she jabbed herself on the back of her other hand - pleased that it was an embroidery needle, and blunt. "That would be me." She replied with a smile. She nodded as she recognised the other girl from the intro class. "That was an enjoyable course." She gestured to the ground around her. "Please do. There's plenty of room."
It probably wasn't the time to mention it, but the barn at night was Maeve's favourite place to be. The fact that she wasn't the only night owl around, meant that she knew how to get in without causing a fuss.
She quirked a brow as it seemed that she had thought of something her friend hadn't and she grinned and response with a shrug. "I don't know what to use against ghosts! I have a closet full of skeletons, not ghosts!" This whole thing was something that she would read about in books, or write about, not something she expected in reality. She'd been paying so much attention to what was in front of them that she hadn't expected a sound to the side of them and she too jumped, laughed to cover it up as Molly told off her mare. "You know how I said about what happens in the barn stays in the barn? This would make a really cool story! With names changed of course!"
Everything suddenly seemed to happen at once, again reminding her of what would happen in a book and she stood shock still for a moment as she tried to analyse everything that was happening, though it was like a sensory overload. "Is it time to call the Ghostbusters?" She asked with a weak laugh. "M...Molly?" She gasped as she heard the sound of shod hooves approaching them in the darkened barn.
Maeve grinned and bowed at being called a genius. "I do my best to please." She offered. "Even if I do mention it later than I probably should have." She shrugged as she clipped the flashlight to the belt loop on her pants.
She guessed there was logic in being prepared, even if Maeve thought that this was nothing more than a wild goose chase - not that she'd ever say that to Molly - and when she was on the ground level her eyes surveyed the barn aisle, making sure that all the stall doors were closed. She flinched when the horse sneezed, though her brows shot up in amusement at her friend's reaction and she mimed zipping her lips. "What happens in the barn, stays in the barn?" She asked with a giggle, clamping her hand over her mouth to stifle the noise, as she fell into step behind her friend, heading down the barn, being watched by each horse or pony as they crept past. "Did you ever think of putting together a ghost hunting kit?" She asked quietly. "You could have all kinds of handy things in it, salt bombs, holy water, a crucifix or two." Okay, she was not talking rubbish, but being in the empty barn was slightly creeping her out.
Maeve pressed her lips together and nodded. She had arrived in Hickstead as a timid fourteen year old who thought she was nothing, that she only rode horses because her social worker had talked Naomi into talking her useless-self on. It was only recently that she had actually believed she was actually as good as everyone was saying she was, and that had been because one of her idols had approached her at a show to commend her riding, that she began to believe. "Thanks." Hurting Inca was at the top of the list of things that freaked her out the most with the job she had been given, and as strong as her bond with the mare was, she knew that things could go wrong at the drop of a hat.
She grinned and clapped her hands, a gentle hack on Venus sounded like a wonderful time. "Yay!" You could learn so much about a person and what they were like with horses when you were outside the arena. Some people were great, while others fell apart without the constant correction from an instructor, and Maeve felt that they were the kind of people who played at being a rider, but would never be a true equestrian.
Maeve looked over at the kitchenette. "There's probably some salt in the cupboards over there?" She suggested. "However, we may not need it." She followed Molly to the exit, not wanting to bring in the logic that there might actually be people still working downstairs, as she followed the other girl down ground floor. "Possibly down where the stallions are, so the tackroom will be between us and them... him... it?" She shrugged, as the place was eerily quiet now and she looked around.
Maeve grinned and shook her head, getting a feeling that her friend had never been between Mik and baked goods before. Tonight was going to be fun, if he came up here before he left.
She sat up as the thought of competing all summer began to close on her with the chilled fingers of fear. "It's terrifying." She said quietly, thinking of the few shows she had done with the mare when she campaigned her the previous summer. "What if I do something wrong? What if I make a mistake and hurt her horse?" Naomi wanted Inca to make a name for herself, so that any foals the young mare had would sell well and go on to being champions themselves, and that created a heavy weight to sit on the young equestrian's shoulders, even if she wouldn't admit these worries to Naomi. She shook the dark thoughts away and grinned. "Ignore me! Tonight is about having the best sleepover ever!" Admittedly, her first sleepover ever, but she wasn't going to bring that up.
She pulled a face at the horses mentioned. "As much as I like riding Major, Venus is my girl when it come to the school horses." She said with a shrug. The sudden noise caused her to leap into the air, and she looked around with wide eyes. "Oh man...Ghost Horse might be onto us." Her brows flew up as she looked at Molly. "Maeve. He's here! Ghost Horse is here. Come on! We should investigate!" Her mouth dropped open as she tried to find words, a small laugh escaping her as she watched the younger girl looking for her boots. It was one thing to be talking about Ghost Horse, but to go and see if he was actually downstairs? She quickly jumped to her feet, pushing her feet into her own boots. "Did you bring a bag of salt?" She was only half joking, as she picked up a flashlight to defend herself with, should she need it.
