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 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."
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.
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."
Being able to make people smile when they wanted to do anything but seemed to be a superpower of her, and Marie was pleased that it had once again worked. "Maybe it will give him the jump start that he needs." She pursed his lips and nodded. "A blood transfusion that works better than any defib machine."
"There was a riding accident. We were messing around on the cross country, you know how Jake loves a competition...He hit a jump wrong and they had a rotational. The horse seems okay, got up pretty quick, but he rolled over Jake and ...there was a lot of blood .." She winced as she listened, easily able to picture the entire scene - these were the moments that a parent would wish to not be as horsey as their children, at least then she would just be trying to imagine it, not actually know what he was talking about. "I always tell you two to be careful out there..." Now wasn't the time to place blame, at least they were both alive...
"He needs a transfusion and apparently I'm not a match. I don't understand... But I can't help him." Her brows began to lift, until she stopped them. "Not everyone is always going to be an exact match to a family member. Don't worry about it, Ben." She nodded. "The same as any kind of transplant, and their family members aren't a match. It happens." She swore inwardly, but forced herself to remain calm, there would be time to think of their life choices later. "Stay with your mother, Ben." She return her husband's nod, and watched him walk away, rubbing her finger tips against her palms and then wiped her hands on her pants. "Are you sure you're okay?" She asked Ben as she gave him her complete attention, once again doing a visual sweep to make sure he wasn't hiding any pains.
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?"
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."
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."
"Molasses, huh? No wonder the mares adore you," Her brows rose, as though there was any question of the mare adoring her! "Although I am a little suspicious on what you all can possibly find to gossip at el stables de Ryan." She grinned. "There's loads to gossip about! The powerful hindquarters of all the studs walking around this place." She hummed appreciatively.
She let the slightly sluggish mare find her feet as they followed the other pair down the path, Marie couldn't help but laugh as her husband tried to talk his way around all the cookies he snacked on, rolling her eyes every now and then. "I assume you at least still find me attractive despite my cookie addiction?" She purse her lips as she pretended to think about the question, and then made a so-so motion with her hand before blowing him a kiss. "I find your cookie addiction quite attractive." She said with a smile. "At least I know what to do when I feel I've done something I shouldn't have."
She leaned forward, cupping her hands over her mare's ears. "Don't you listen to his silly words, love." She told the mare, sticking her tongue out at her husband. "He has no idea what he's talking about. You're going to be famous on the internet when your babies start winning shows and everyone wants your babies." Well, they were her dreams for all her mares.
She sat deep as she felt Wander perk up. "You know, I don't think I've could have ever done this or accomplish anything here without you in my life, Marie." She rolled her eyes playfully, though she loved him all the more for his words. "Are you going to sit there, all sentimental, or are you going to let your mare get her heartrate up?" She gave him a wicked grin as she took up her mare's reins. "Race you to the gate!" She closed her legs around Wander's barrel and let the mare shoot forward, even if she knew that Winnie would easily pass them if the mare felt like it.
"Maire, my wife. You wound me," Marie gave him a sympathetic pout and then a you'll live shrug. "Although, I do have to agree, horse whispering is certainly more your talent than mine. At least with these moody mares." She huffed and gave him a talk to the hand gesture. "Puh-leeze! No whispering happens in my barn. We gossip over a cup of... molasses." Well, she was hardly going to give the mares coffee!
Her brows shot up at Winnie's antics and she pressed her lips together to hold back a laugh. "I think she's implying I'm the heavy one." The laugh escaped and she shook her head in amusement. "It's probably all those sweet snacks you seem to think you need in between meals." She offered with a shrug, though they all burned enough calories with the work they did that the extra snacks were burned off as quickly as they were eaten.
Marie squeezed her mare forward onto the trail they were going to be taking. "Geez, Winnie certainly is not feeling my award winning personality today, is she?" She laughed, letting her mare walk close enough to the other so that her knee bumped her husband's. "Don't take it to heart, she's like that all the time. Just adds to the gossip that will happen later." She could actually picture the mares in the pastures, standing around and grousing about the humans they'd had to deal with. "And don't worry about Wander, the worst she'll probably do is sneeze and trip over her own feet." Her mount tended to have issues with multi-tasking, and even walking and sneezing at the same time was often too much for her. The ones who were likely to spook at their own shadow, she had left in the barn.
"Marie, thank god you made it." Duh! Marie nodded, her mind was working at full speed, trying to take in everything.
She slipped her hand into her husband's as he spoke, needing the physical contact, without clinging to him, as she had a fragile hold on her emotions and that hold would snap if she allowed herself to give them any attention.
"Mum? Dad?" She turned, releasing John's hand, and opened her arms to her son, shivering slightly as John spoke about giving blood. Yes, she helped mare's give birth, but human blood was a totally different thing. "With all the coffee you drink, are you sure your blood isn't going to give him a caffeine high?" She gave a half smile, knowing that this wasn't really a joking matter, but she was barely hanging on here. And, at least knowing where the blood came from, told them that it was clean. "Are you alright?" She asked Ben, her eyes moved over him, making sure that nothing was out of place and using that mother intuition to make sure he wasn't trying to hide any hidden injuries from her. "How's your brother?" At least his answers would be in plain English, rather than something hidden behind technical medical talk.
"Admittingly, I was hoping for a kiss though. But I guess I can share you with Wander." Marie gave a wicked grin. "Kiss?" She replied, and laughed as Winnie's top lip curled up as she leaned toward John.
She pictured the path that he had mentioned and she nodded with a smile. "Sounds wonderful! I'm sure the girls will enjoy a bit of a blast if they were given the choice." After all, the mare's spent enough time chasing each other around the pastures, until they were too big to be wanting to to anything more than just stand around and waddle slowly when they had to.
"Nah. I got it, thank you for hte offer though," She arched a brow, her lips threatening to break into a grin. "Winnie, you won't betray me, will you?" She gave a peal of laughter when Winne had had enough of standing still, even if it had only been a couple of minutes, and started to walk off. "Well, we know that horse whispering isn't one of your secret talents." She teased.
Once she was pleased that he seemed to have his mare under control, she led wander to the mounting block, stepped up and mounted the mare, smirking when the bay remained parked until her rider had her feet in the stirrups and Marie asked her to walk forward. "She's lulling me into a false sense of security." She assured her husband as she moved her left leg forward and tightened the girth.
"Well, good thing that we Ryans are here to prove them otherwise. See? Even Ace here thinks Team Ryan is the best, not that he's biased or anything." Marie grinned and gave a mock roll of her eyes. "Comments from the peanut gallery don't count."
She gave a pout, mocking him slightly, at the sound of a sigh as she broke the kiss as quickly as she had started it. They weren't teenagers anymore, and it didn't do well for barn gossip if they were caught kissing in the middle of the aisle. "Oh! Well, you said tripped and I guess my mind went straight to worry instead of listening to logic and the rest of it," She shrugged, it wasn't her fault he was male and couldn't keep his mind on all the conversation. "But I promise I will make up the empty bed to you tomorrow. Snuggles until you kick me out yourself," Her brows rose in question with a coquettish grin. "And maybe some other fun stuff." She laughed. "Promises, promises, Romeo."
"Woman! They are your passion project. How am I suppose to know?" She laughed again as she gave him an air-kiss. "That's okay, sweety." She said as she patted him on the chest. "You look after all the boys up here, and I'll do all the real work."
Checking on the mares, Marie let herself into one of the stalls and slipped the halter over the mare's nose and led her out of the messy stall. "It's okay, love." She cooed as she rubbed the mare's nose, leading her toward a clean stall and had her phone out, calling the vet to see if someone could come out and inspect the mare, as her foal had slipped during the night, and she wanted to make sure that Kenzie was safe before she was turned out.
After leaving the mare with one of her helpers, she completed her checks and got the two mares she had chosen ready. "I have arrived! And for once, perfectly on time, so I think I deserve a reward." She gave her husband a bright smile. "You do!" She said with a giggle. "Because you made here on time, I'll let you ride Winnie." She offered him the reins of the tall grey mare. "And I'll ride Wander." She kissed the bay's black muzzle, laughing as the moody mare flattened her ears and swished her tail, raising her head out of reach, nostrils flared as she looked down on all of them. "I'll let you pick where we are going to ride too." She clipped her helmet below her chin and pulled the stirrups down, throwing one over the saddle so that she could tighten the girth again, leaving the stirrup where it was for now, as she would check the girth again when they got to the mounting block. "Do you want me to hold her while you mount?" She didn't think the mare would walk off while being mounted, but you never knew with hormonal mares, so the offer was there.
"I swear, it never ceases to amaze me how dramatic horses can be. And people say they have no personalities and are nothing but fancy lawn ornaments." Marie pursed her lips and nodded. "Or machines. They have no personalities or emotions, so they can be treated like any other piece of work machinery." They'd had to deal with way too many of that kind while on the circuit, and it was why she was pleased not to have gone to the Olympics, as she didn't want to have to see that kind of poor horsemanship on an international level.
"You're not hurt, are you?" She grinned as she leaned up to kiss him. "You are so cute when you're all worried about me." She teased. "My dream-self tripped and fell, I woke up with a jump. In an empty bed." She pouted, though it was very rare for them to get up at the same time, as they made sure not to wake the other if they were sleeping. "Nah, I don't mind at all. Walking pace is perfect, gives me more time to admire you," he joked now, "How about we split up, you see to your mares and I'll take care of the ruffians outside of the breeding barn and we meet up prompty in an hour? I'll ride whoever you need me to." She rolled her eyes and huffed. "They're pregnant, not missing a limb! They can trot and canter too, you just can't watch my backside as I outjump you." She gave him another kiss. "I'll see you, in an hour." She flashed him a grin as she put Ace's rope in his hand, she'd seen as much of the horse as she needed to, and knew she liked him. She put an extra wiggle in her hips as she headed off down to her barn so that she could make sure nothing out of the ordinary had happened over night and decide which of the moody mares she was going to unleash on her husband.
Marie sat in her office, the smiling faces of ladies she'd met while on the circuit in little boxes on her monitor as she was in the middle of her weekly gaggle session, talking about horses. A number of the ladies, like herself, were no longer on the circuit, but like her still worked with horses, and other were still competitive riders. She frowned as once again she felt that she was forgetting something, a feeling that had been nagging at her since she had sat down.
Unable to shake off the feeling, and also unable to properly join in the conversation, she reached down to pick up her phone, knowing that everything would be in her diary in there, and almost dropped it as the damn thing shook in her hand. She blew out a breath, realising she hadn't turned the sound back on after her ride earlier. She frowned as she looked at the screen, seeing she had missed a call from Ben. "Is everything alright, Marie?" She smiled at her camera. "It's nothing." She replied, turning the sound back on. "I missed a call from my son. I'll call him back when we've finished here."
No sooner had the zoom call finished, then Marie's cell rang. "Marie. It's John. I don't know if you've heard from Ben but Jake's at the hospital. He's been in a riding accident. I'm heading there now." Her breath came in gasps as she stared at the phone, then she shook her head as she grabbed her bag and raced out to her vehicle. She pushed her panic to the background as she put all her focus into getting to the hospital, even if she ignored the speed limit all the way there.
"John!" She cried as she ran in, carrying her stupid long boots, that so we're designed to run in. "What's going on? Where's Ben?" Yes, Jake had been in an accident, but the doctors were seeing to him. What about her other baby? He must have been there when it happened and now he was all alone.
"Excuse you, Ace!" Marie didn't even bother to try and hide her giggle as Ace pushed in for a kiss too, and she loved John all the more because he responded to the horse's request. "Now, please leave me to Marie." She raised her brows in amusement as she wiggled the rope and had the gelding step back and to the side so that she was now piggy-in-the-middle between her husband and the horse, laughing as the gelding placed his chin on her shoulder, sighing as he watched.
"Strange dreams huh? We're they strange because I wasn't in them?" She laughed and shrugged. "I think I was being chased, I woke up as dream me tripped and landed with a thud." She shrugged again. "I wasn't scared, just startled awake." Nightmares had never been a problem for her, even before big events, she managed to compartmentalise everything and sleep well. "And thank you for the coffee. How did you know I ran out?" She snorted with laughter, quickly putting a hand on the gelding's nose as his head shot up from the sound. "It's not so much that I knew you had run out." She said with a grin. "It's that I knew you wouldn't have brought a spare."
"Everyone's fed, and the water heaters outside are up and running again. Figured I'd take let them out to pasture before looking over bills. Do you mind helping me with all of the above?" She nodded with a soft smile, not at all surprised that he was already on top of everything. "I don't know what you have on your plate today, but I also was hoping for a good ole couples ride later today." She pursed her lips as she thought through everything she needed to do. "I have a couple of maiden mares that I need to check up on, as one has a dam who was notorious for slipping foals, and I'm hoping the mare doesn't follow suit." All the fun and games of running a breeding barn. "I have a couple of mares that are in need of a good ride, if you don't mind riding one of my girls." While people had differing ideas about riding pregnant mares, she liked to keep them in work for as long as they could comfortably wear tack, just without the strenuous workout of a competition horse.
