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!.
“The secret of flight is this you have to do it immediately, before your body realizes it is defying the laws.” - Michael Cunningham
The sun was just caressing the tops of the trees as Cara led the Irish Draught stallion out of the barn and after tightening the girth, she used the arena fence as a mounting block and mounted the giant horse. "Easy, boy." She soothed quietly as the horse shifted uneasily under her, throwing his head into the air, blowing steam out his nostrils, as though he could sense that something different was going to happen today. After all, they weren't in the arena, or the pasture where they normally worked, they were out in the open. "You're okay. Let's go and have some fun." She took up the reins and squeezed the horse forward, using her seat and legs to guide him as they headed down the path to the cross country course.
Reaching the gate, she asked the grey horse to halt as she leaned down and unlatched the gate, pleased that all the work she had been doing with the stallion was working, and asked him to move forward as she opened the gate enough so that he could walk around it without catching his hips, and then turned him back to the gate as she pushed it closed and latched it again. "Let's go and fly." She turned him away from the gate as they headed toward the course, asking him for a trot as she let him have a look at the jumps of the novice course she planned to take him over. She was sure that the stallion would make a good eventer, she just had to convince the horse that he wanted to.
When she was happy that he was warmed up, she quickly checked her phone to make sure she still had enough time, and then rode Apeiros back to the start of the course, rode a circle and asked for a canter as they came out of the circle and she rode the stallion toward the small log that started the course. "Un, deux, trois," she counted softly as she rose into two-point, "et plus." She grinned as the stallion lifted into the air, clearing the log as though it was three times the size, and Cara was already looking in the direction of the next jump, rubbing the stallion's shoulder as he gave a playful, ready for the next jump, pulling at the reins as he fought for his head, wanting to gallop.
Kyoto grinned and nodded as she dropped the brush back into the bucket, as she believed that she was quite the expert on many things. She then beamed up at her mother, both dimples showing. "Mother, may I?" She asked.
Seeing that the four year old's attention had already moved onto the next thing, Cara pulled the mare's rope loose and moved the bucket so that it was out of the way. "Yes you may." She replied with a soft smile, as the child had never referred to her as mother before, unless she was singing that song from Tangled after Cara had asked her to stop doing something. "I'll just turn Swallow out with her friends." She took the pony to the pasture with the rest of her small herd, and released her before returning to where Kyoto was all but bouncing on the spot.
Kyoto gave the man confused look at his question. "The horses." She replied, with as much sarcasm as a four year old could apply. "Mama said I can start jumping soon, and I'll be off lead-rein at our next show!" She headed off, toward the pasture where Swallow had gone into. "This is where the ponies are." She said as she climbed up the rails and pointed out across the grass to where her Welsh Mountain Pony was grazing. "That's Twist, he's mine." She rode all of the ponies, but Twist was the one she didn't have to share... yet. She pursed her lips, trying to whistle to call the pony, like Cara did, but it turned into a pout when she couldn't get the sound she wanted. "It will happen, ma douce" She said softly. "You only want Twist?" She gave the girl's solemn nod a soft smile before looking back at the ponies and she released a sharp whistle. "Come on Twist!" Kyoto giggled as the bay cantered toward them.
Cara shrugged, her going to the Olympics had never been in her plans, and she knew why she had been invited, and had no plans on being a public puppet to make people want to feel sorry for her and she didn't want to become a story of some no-one who became an Olympic champion - and there was no doubt in her mind she would have been a champion - though her pregnancy had halted any Olympic plans, so she was thankful for that.
Kyoto frowned and looked at her mother, not sure how to take the man's words, but smiled when her mother gave a small nod, to tell her that the words had been positive. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Tegan. I am familiar with Piper and Sabrina." She said with a nod. "I can show you around!" Kyoto said quickly as she dropped the brush into the bucket and gave the man a bright smile. Cara chuckled and shook her head at the child's enthusiasm. "I though you were working with Swallow?" She asked with raised brows, though her tone was amused. "I can show you when I's finished with Swallow?" The girl grinned cheekily as she rummaged though the bucket until she found the mare's face brush and began to run the fine bristled brush over the mare's cheeks, smiling as the Cob's eyes closed, she lowered her head a little and sighed in contentment as the girl moved onto her forehead, using the hair tie that had been holding her braid in place to keep the mare's fluffy white forelock out of the way. "Mr Tegan might be busy, chérie." She said, offering the man an out if he needed it.
Cara pulled a face at the mention of genius before she could stop herself, as it was a word that had been thrown at her - as an insult - for her life. "You bake?" She hadn't meet many other young people who enjoyed baking, not that she went out of her way to meet other people, but that was beside the point. "Keeping journals made it easier to keep track of hat I was doing and when it was down on paper I could see what was or wasn't working, and I could plan out what we could do next." It also stopped people thinking about how she could remember so much.
Kyoto beamed at the compliment, though her attention was on her pony as the older people talked. Cara frowned slightly as she thought of how to explain liberty, as opposed to natural horsemanship. "They are similar, but where natural horsemanship is about talking to a horse in their own language - which yes I do - it's more about getting a horse to work with you as though you still have the halter and lead, without using either. Kyoto uses sticks to direct her pony when teaching him something new, but once Twist has the concept, we remove the sticks and she just uses her hands to direct him." She knew that a lot of people got the idea that people used whips, the sticks, to beat the horse into submission to do the liberty work, but it was further from the truth.
"Yay!" Kyoto clapped her hands, causing Twist to jump away from her. "Oops, désolé mama." She apologised as she clasped her hands and ducked her head and then held her hand out to her pony, waiting as the bay Welshie's ears flickered back and forth before he blew out through his nose and stepped forward to sniffle the girl's hair. "I'm sorry." She told the pony. "What to play?" She kissed his muzzle before taking a step back, and grinning as he took a step toward her. "He forgives me!" She cheered as she turned and began to walk away to a section of the pasture away from the others and stopped, before turning to face her mother and Molly, and the pony. "En dehors." She commanded as she pointed away from herself, her brows rising as the pony licked her face, no doubt seeing if she had missed any of her dessert when washing up after dinner, and then the pony turned and walked half a dozen feet away from her before waiting for his next cue. "Marcher!" She grinned, a true performer, as she had the pony worked through his gaits before calling him in again and both pony and child gave a bow before Kyoto ran back to her mother, silently demanding to be picked up. "Ta-dah!"
Cara nodded as she worried her lower lip with her teeth, knowing that she was overthinking everything again, but as much as she tried not to, she couldn't help it.
"Of course. I understand. If you want to write up everything you want me to know, and shoot it to me in an email, that's fine with me. Or if you want to handwrite a manual, I'm good with that also." Her cheeks heated up with a blush. "Each of the ponies have a notebook in their locker with everything that I've done with them journaled." She gave a self-conscious shrug, as she wondered how much doodling she'd done between the writing. Keeping a journal of the ponies she worked with had been something she had started in a foster home she had spent one summer in. The family had owned a riding school and had used her to fine-tune and warm the ponies up so they were ready for their riders, keeping their foster daughter hidden from sight so the owners got all the praise for the well-schooled ponies. Now, it was just habit.
"Mama?" Cara's attention was drawn to a voice by the fence, and her brows arched in question as she saw her daughter standing on the lower fence panel, wearing a unicorn onsie and her paddock boots. She smiled and nodded, shaking her head as the girl released a small squeal, ducked through the fence and hurried over. "I hope Baba and Jiji know your are out here." "Mmm-hmm." The girl answered with a bright smile before she looked up at Molly. "Hi! I'm Kyoto!" Cara released a breath as she shook her head in amusement, stepping away from Twist as the pony's attention was instantly on his itty-bitty human. "I really only use verbal cues when I'm on the ground." She explained to Molly. "I...I do a lot of liberty work." She found it helped establish a better level of trust between them if they knew what she wanted when they both had their feet on the ground, before she moved the lessons to her riding them. "You want to see?" Kyoto asked with a grin. "Only if Molly has time." Cara cautioned.
"A horse to call my own?" Cara's brows shot up, as that wasn't quite what she had said, but she didn't want to impersonate a fish, as she couldn't think of how to reword what she had said and sound like she was taking it back, and she could be taking the girl's words too literally so she decided not to say anything. After all, Mist needed a human to love her, and show her how much fun it was to be doted on.
"Oh, I will. I will not let you or any of your ponies down," Cara bowed her head, knowing that Molly would keep her word there. "On that thought, would I take lessons with only you? Or would you like me to utilize your ponies with some of the other teachers also?" She frowned in thought as she rubbed Twist's forehead. "As long as it's a private lesson, as I have only worked these ponies within their own herd." She gestured to the ponies in the pasture. "And haven't really worked with other horses or ponies, which I shall need to amend. You'll also need to tell your instructor that the pony you are riding at the time is still in training." She wondered if Emma would mind if she took one of the ponies along to the girl's next show, just so that the Exmoor would get a taste of the charged atmosphere of a showground.
As her fingers worked over the Welsh Mountain Pony's ears, she did a mental check of the training she'd done with the Exmoor Ponies so far and her brows rose again, her mouth forming an o, before she looked at Molly with a self-conscious smile. "How good is your French?" She asked, her shoulders making their way to her ears. "I started off by teaching them everything via voice commands on the ground, so that I didn't end up with ponies that respond to every instruction the instructor in the middle of the arena calls out, I've been training them in French." She found that equines understood better when they learned what was being asked of them when everyone had all their feet on the ground, and then reinforcing what they already knew from in the saddle.
Cara worked quickly, ladling the peppermint coffee and then the peppermint hot chocolate into the mugs, topping them with freshly whipped cream and marshmallows; placing a green candy cane in each of the coffee ones and red candy canes in the hot chocolates. She then filled the sippy-cups with hot chocolate, which she cooled down with a chilled version of the drink, and topped them with cream as well, before hooking a marshmallow candy cane over each straw and placed them all onto a tray, with a plate of iced sugar cookies, before she walked back to the lounge.
Kyoto squealed when the tree was mentioned, her hands clapping together excitedly. This was the moment she had been waiting for since she had come into the room. "Can I put the angel on the top, Jiji?" She asked, her eyes wide, brows raised, as she looked up at Nathan. "Please, please, please?" She added her biggest smile to try and get him to say yes.
Cara placed the tray of drinks onto a dresser that was well out of the reach of the youngsters, and moved the three plastic cups, and a small plate of cookies, onto the child-sized table. "Red candy canes, are hot chocolate, green are coffee." She said as she gestured toward the drinks, giving a soft smile as her daughter's attention was now split between her want to keep working on the tree and the sight of sugary goodies. "If you have everything handled in here? I need to go and check on the ponies." She knew that there would be benefits of having ponies that lived outside year-round, and she was going to use that to her advantage.
"Well, Winnie certainly is a saint of a mother." Cara quirked a smile. "Only because the filly knows her dam won't put up with tantrums." If the youngster had gone up and bitten her bother, Winne wouldn't have just stood and taken it.
"I...er, I won't let Casey distract me." She nodded, wondering if she was missing something here that would be oh-so-obvious to the rest of the world, but then ignored it. "I can work with whoever you think I'm best suited for. Whether that's with Casey and Ice, or with Autumn, Spring, Mist, or Winnie." Autumn and Spring need the most work, because they are going to be Sebastian and Viola's mounts. The young boy was already calling the gelding Tum-tum, while his sister was calling her pony Sing, though it wouldn't be long before she could get the combination of the letters and have the pronunciation for the pony's monosyllabic name. "I think you would get on well with Mist too, and she would enjoy having a rider to call her own." The little dun mare, with her pangaré markings were so bold that she was smokey-brown over her back, while she was a milky caramel under her belly up past her elbows and up to her dock. Her muzzle the same colour that connected with the pangaré lining her eyes, probably felt left out at times; she wasn't destined to be a family mount, and she wasn't nursing a foal, so hang in the background unless called forward.
"This will be so exciting. I've never worked with a horse that wasn't a school horse before." Cara nodded. "Ride them as though they are the best trained horse in the world, and they will meet your expectations."
Cara bowed her head and shook off his apology. "It's not a problem." She assured him.
Kyoto beamed when the attention was on her, along with the dimples, she seemed to have gained her father's charisma - which Cara knew was going to get her in lots of trouble when she was old enough to realise that boys weren't gross - and the three year old shook her head. "I going to be riding horses when old, not brushing them." She said with a grin. "I going to the Olympics, like mama." Cara pressed her lips together and shook her head. "Mama was invited to go, she didn't go." She corrected quickly. "And it was for gymnastics, not riding." She had the background story that would make people want to follow her, or so the scouts believed. However, a lot had happened that year, and her pregnancy, had meant that she'd had to turn down the invitation. "Don't use that brush on her face." She nodded as the child replaced the body brush for the super soft face brush.
After brushing the mare's forehead, Kyoto beamed toward the man again. "I'm Kyoto and my Mama's name is Cara. Who you?"
"Well, no matter what, I know you are well loved here." A muscle jumped in Cara's cheek, but she caught the eyebrow before it could raise as she internally questioned Molly's word. Love wasn't a word that Cara used very much, as it had held anything but a positive meaning throughout her life. Sure, she told her daughter that she loved her, but that was the only time she ever used that word, in English anyway.
She shrugged as she pushed away the curious muzzle of the filly as Ice began to mouth her sleeve, little teeth catching skin, and her brows rose as the filly released an indignant squeal. "And, what?" She asked the filly. She shook her head when Ice, in true toddler fashion, walked up to her dam and headbutted the mare as though annoyed that the mare didn't come to her defence. "If I wasn't the alpha mare in here, that could have been a lot different." She said with a shrug.
"Casey? As in Casey Lloyd?" Cara's brow lifted. "Yes?" She hated that her answer was also a question, but the girl's reaction to Casey's name had thrown her a little and she trying to process the why, especially with the heat in Molly's cheeks. "He commented on the fact that he's only ever ridden fully trained horses, so when we were bringing the Exmoors here, I offered to let him train Ice." She smiled as Molly said that she wanted to help, offering to exchange numbers when they finished. "Autumn and Spring are... will be Viola and Sebastian's ponies, while Mist and Winnie are here to continue their training and then hopefully find their jobs." Or a new home. There were a few in-hand shows she wanted to take the ponies to, but that was for another day.
Cara stood on the side of the aisle, keeping out of everyone's way as she supervised her daughter as the child groomed Swallow, speaking in a mixture of English and French, depending on how excited she was on the topic at hand, as she worked on the silver dapple Irish Cob. The young woman smiled softly as she wrote notes while supervising the girl, adding sketches of jumps and doodles of horses as she went. Working out what she was going to do next with the horses she keep in work for Naomi and Mik. She shook her head as she put lines through the last thing she had and started the plan again, knowing that both Rex and Fire would hate what she'd had there. "Use the soft brush, chérie" She said as Kyoto reached for the dandy brush, though went for the body brush at her mother's words.
She jumped as someone spoke, giving Kyoto a playful frown as the child giggled, while also lecturing herself for not paying attention to her surroundings. Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times as she tried to work out the correct thing to say. "I don't think anyone will have an issues with it." She said with a small shrug, as she sketched the horses all the time while they were playing in their fields.
Cara nodded, it was a very pretty place too, though she had only seen the commune as they drove through it on the way home from a gymnastics meet many years ago, what felt like a lifetime ago now, long before she had come to Hickstead.
"Errr....forget I asked," She smiled softly. No, sorry." She said with a shrug. "I've never really had a job title before. I've just done what's expected of me." Well, she supposed that she had been given titles before, just none that she wanted to share with the teenager.
Cara smiled as she watched the ponies, pleased that they were comfortable enough to come and willingly investigate a new person as it showed that they were coming along in leaps and bounds in their training and would be ready for the twins when Viola and Sebastian were ready to ride by themselves; though they were happy enough for Kyoto to ride them, though not off the lead rein just yet. "Did you have any treats you want to give them? Or is it too late in the evening for that?" She shook her head. "I don't carry treats around with me unless I'm training." She explained, as she knew that equines got pushy when they thought that treats were always available. "If you have any on you, I don't mind if you hand them out." Doppio, Swallow and Twist often frisked people for treats, because that's what he knew people carried. The Exmoors however, they didn't know that treats were a thing, outside training, so she didn't mind if Molly had anything she wanted to offer them. "Casey is helping me train Crystal. If you would like to help, I need a gentle rider, with soft hands, to help me with the others." Part of their training was to get used to other riders as well as being handled by others.
Cara's brow furrowed as she tried to work out how serious Molly was being with her statement, though she shook her head. "I don't think I'll be looking at trick riding any time soon." She replied with a shrug. She'd never been one to deviate from what she already new, so picking up new things wasn't her thing to do.
She smiled with a nod. "They're also known as the Avelignese, due to the Italian name of the town they got their name from." Okay, the teenager wasn't here to be lectured about horse breeds. She pursed her lips together at the question as she'd never really given her job a title. "I guess?" She cringed as she could even hear the question in her answer. When the uncle she didn't know had existed turned sent her a letter two and a half years ago and she left here to return to America to be with him, a small child-like dream to have blood relations, she hadn't been planning to return. However, as it turned out that Rick had wanted nothing more than her eighteenth birthday to happen so that she was able to sign over the family fortune and business to him, and he have her married off to a respectable family, sans Kyoto of course. With the help of her lawyer, she had returned to Hickstead, and Blue Acres. She was now an adult and hadn't wanted to be taken in like a lost puppy, so for room and board, she offered her services as a child minder and housekeeper.
Cara smiled as she rubbed Crystal's head, watching as Twist tried to find any hidden treats. "He thinks that he's starving." She said with a shrug. "Because there's no grass for him to eat in here." She was pleased that she didn't have any stroppy geldings who acted like stallions, and that they could all be in the same pasture with the mares. "They have a very interesting coat." She said with a nod, her smile deepening as the other Exmoors approached them, Autumn and Spring both bumping at Molly with their muzzles, neither wanting treats, but curious about the new scent. It's perfect for keeping them warm and dry in the winter." She caught herself before she went into textbook mode and started rattling off information about the coat layers.
"one of santa's elves was busy last night, weren't they." Cara's eyes closed against the throbbing in her head, pleased that her daughter was too excited about the arrival of her grandfather to pay attention to her mother. "good morning princess." Kyoto beamed at being called a princess. "did you sleep?" Cara gave an imperceptible shake of her head.
"someone's been busy." Cara shrugged, but being busy is why she had decorated. The room filled up quickly as the rest of the family arrived and she set her squirming daughter on the floor and the little girl bounced up and down on the spot. "Jiji, Jiji, Jiji! Can we make the tree all pretty! Please?" Cara swallowed as the room seemed to get smaller, and she needed to get out. She gave a bright, if slightly forced, smile. "Thank you for your kind words." Her smile shifted slightly. "If you will, excuse me. I have some things in the kitchen that need my attention." It was almost the truth, as there were the loaves, and she had drinks warming in the slow-cookers on the counter.
Leaving the room, she headed straight to the downstairs bathroom and threw up. She had been hoping that this wonderful affliction was something she would grow out of, but it seemed that wasn't the case. After washing her face and hands, and scrubbing her teeth clean, she headed to the kitchen, her nose curling at the smell of coffee. Pushing everything to the back of her mind, she set to work pulling out the mugs she needed, the children's lidded cups, as well as candy canes and marshmallows.
"Well hey, there's nothing wrong with that. Plus, they clearly compliment each other in your life." Cara shrugged, as she had gymnastic coaches in the past that had hated the fact that she spent so much of her time riding horses, when all of her time should have been spent in the gym, and there had been weekends when she had a riding competition and a gymnastics meet. It really wasn't hard to work out where her insomnia had started. "They would probably work better together is I was a vaulter or a trick rider?" She gave a shrug.
"Well, if you ever need help keeping busy at the barn, let me know. I am here often and usually up to a few horsey shenanigan's. I like to think that I am part of an unofficial pony squad...even though we have horses, not ponies," Cara's brows rose, and she wondered if it was normal for teenagers to talk so much, but mentally shrugged it off. "I'll keep that in mind, thank you." That sounded like the right thing to say, though shenanigans really wasn't in her vocabulary.
"Were you being ironic when you named him?" She pursed her lips. "His registered name is Double Espresso." She explained. "Doppio is an Italian drink, similar to a double espresso. Haflingers are an Italian breed, it worked." Plus the word was simple enough for a child to say, even if they did tend to call him Dopey - like the dwarf. "How come you don't have a main steed?" She shrugged as she looked over the ponies. "Because I spend the working day with children, my own, the Clarke-Thorne twins and the daughter of Ms Clarke's personal assistant. After the family are sitting with dinner, I head down here to work, after that I turn my attention to the horses I'm keeping in training." She shrugged. "I don't have the time a horse deserves, so I don't have one."
"Girl, do I ever." She grinned as Molly let herself into the paddock. "Who is best to give my undivided attention to? When we're obiviously not talking." She smiled and shrugged, though Twist seemed to answer the question as the bay Welsh Mountain Pony came trotting up to them and shoved his bald face into Cara's stomach, seeing of he could sniff out any treats and then turned his attention to Molly, his inquisitive muzzle inspecting every inch of her that he could reach. This is Peppermint Twist, Twist. He's my daughter's pony." She looked down as she felt a wet muzzle brushing against her hand and she smiled at the small Exmoor filly-foal. "And this is Ice Crystal." She said as she rubbed the filly behind the ears that were almost hidden in all her winter fluffiness.