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!.
Angél was excited about jumping lessons, and Ripple seemed to be in a good mood too as she got the gelding ready to be ridden, knowing that it would only be a few more years that she could get away with riding ponies, and she really needed to put as much time into having lessons with Sandman as she was Ripple, but she'd worry about that another day.
Once the pony was groomed and ready for jumping, she pulled a sleeveless jacket on over her long-sleeved polo and walked the pony out to the arena. She nodded at the woman's words as she pulled her stirrups down, rolling her eyes as she hid under the saddle flap - she was hardly going to mount up without tightening her girth - and pulled the girth up another couple of holes, knowing it would need to go up more before she started jumping.
Leading the pony over to the mounting block, she swung into the saddle and asked the gelding to walk forward, heading toward the outside track of the arena. Even at a walk, she made sure the pony was awake and striding forward nicely.
Angél nodded as she listened, wondering if he thought she was being childish for wanting to take on these jumps on her pony, and she was beginning to wonder the same thing, now that she was out here.
She shook her head, she didn't have any questions, none that she could put into words right now anyway, and nothing that wouldn't make her seem anymore... well childish.
She nodded as she followed his words, standing in the stirrups to see if she could see all the jumps he was talking about, and sat down again when she couldn't see past the tyres. She shook her head to banish any negative thoughts as she circled her pony away from the jump they were near and then asked for a trot and then a canter as she turned the circle into a figure of eight, doing her best to mentally shake off the negative thoughts that were filling her head as they finished their circle and headed toward the log, also doing her best to keep her eyes on the jump, and not letting her attention drift to the man matching them stride for stride on the horse. "We can do this." She whispered as she rose into two-point, giving the pony the reins as they flew over the log and she sat back a little as they landed on the other side, picking up speed as they headed for the tyres.
She brought the pony back to a canter as they approached the coffin, wishing she'd thought to get to know the course when she signed up for the lesson, and wanted to tackle the three parts of the jump at a controlled speed as she wasn't sure about striding. Ripple jumped the first rail easily, and Angél knew to keep her eyes up as they went over the ditch and then over the second rail.
She frowned as they headed toward the next jump, the log looked pretty big, not high, but it looked wide. She smiled as Ripple pulled at the reins and she let him move up a gear as they powered toward the log, the pony flying over it as though it wasn't there and then thundered onto the next, clearing that as well. She slowed the pony down to a canter again, sitting back in the saddle as she moved the reins into her left hand as she raised her right. "Mr Mik, Sir? I think we're done. Sorry." That wide log had spooked her, Ripple didn't have an issue with it, but she hadn't been expecting it and it had taken her back to when she'd first got the Cob and couldn't get him to jump anything, and she didn't want to got backwards.
Angél smiled as she watched a young woman approach them, placing her hand on Ripple's nose when the pony released an excited greeting to the pair. "Hi... Thanks." At least she now knew that her pony would have a stall waiting for him, at least that was a good thing.
She smiled as other girl introduced herself. "Sorry, I'm Angél and this is Ripple. I know who you are, I've been watching you compete since Papa and I moved to Hickstead." She laughed and shrugged, knowing that she sounded like a little kid. "I also have a Selle Français gelding, Sandman, but he's arriving later." She hadn't really wanted to bring Sandman but she knew that she would need more than one mount if she wanted to get into eventing properly, and he hadn't come with her today because he was being ridden by another person. She had loads of things she wanted to ask, but couldn't quite work out how to word her questions, in English. "What's the best thing about this place?" She grinned and shrugged as she looked around, knowing that she really needed to find her pony's stall and being in the things that were waiting outside.
Warming up her pony before the actual lesson was a novel concept, and Angél was enjoying it. She had chosen to use the area around the cross country course as their warm up area and when she knew that her pony was ready, she popped him over a couple of the beginner novice logs.
Checking the time on her watch, she knew that she needed to make her way to where Mik asked her to meet him. "Come on, baby." She whispered as she turned the pony and trotted off in the direction they needed to go. She smiled as the approached where the man was sitting on a pretty liver chestnut horse. "Hi Angél, is Ripple ready to go?" She smiled and nodded, suddenly feeling a little shy, as she brought her gelding down to a walk and then a halt beside the man.
Angél pulled a hairnet on, looking into the mirror as she pushed every last piece of her wayward hair under the net so that it was as under control as she could get it, and then slammed her helmet on her head, leaving it unbuckled as she headed into the stall where her pony was waiting.
She had come straight after school, and once changed into her riding clothes - making sure to hang her uniform in her locker - she gave her pony a thorough groom, treating the lesson as though she were going to a show, minus the braids, and was pleased with how he looked once he was tacked up and ready to go, though gave his mass of mane a critical look, wondering if she really should have spent a little extra time putting it into a running braid. However, she had run out of time, so clipping her helmet under her chin, she lead the pony out to the arena.
She smiled at the welcome, knowing that the move here was the right idea. "Bonjour Madame, I am well thank you." She placed a hand on her pony's cream coloured nose as it seemed that Ripple wanted in on the introductions too. "This is Ripple... Uh, Rip Van Winkle."
Angél placed her hand on Ripple's nose as the Welsh Cob released a loud whinny as he looked around the parking area of Blue Acres, and she grinned and waved her papa as the man drove off with the trailer he'd borrowed to bring his daughter and her pony here, the pony's belonging in a neat pile on the grass. "This is our fresh start, Rip." She told the pony with a nod. "We can only make a first impression once, so please behave."
She had never intended to follow her mother into showing, but since she had bought Ripple, and once they had got over the honeymoon period issues, Angél realised that she actually enjoyed the thrill of competitions, she could understand why Zoé seemed to chase ribbons. The main difference was that Angél had no intention of turning her back on her family for those ribbons. She also wanted space. With her papa and his girlfriend at Seven Oaks, she had felt that she never had a moment to herself, so she had made up her mind that she wanted to train at the barn that had a cross country course, one that was more designed for an eventer.
Blowing out any stress she was holding, she clicked her tongue and walked the diluted buckskin toward the barn doors, eager to find his new stall so she could check out the tack room and put all his things away. "Do you think your stall will already be named?" She asked the pony, one hand holding the cheekstrap of his halter, the other holding his rope. "Or should we ask someone?"
The thing Angél liked the most about this school was that the classes were mixed ages. There were times it made it a challenge, as some of the tasks required a little more brain power than others, but she was never one to turn down a challenge, and she also had two adults at home that were more than happy to help when she asked for it, even if that was a last ditch resort.
She returned the teacher's smile as she walked into the classroom, and sat in her normal seat near the middle of the room. Close enough to the front that she wouldn't be accused of trying to hide, yet far enough away that she wouldn't be seen as trying to be a teacher's pet. As she took her English folder and pencil case from her bag, she looked at the board.
She passed forward her homework from the night before and listened as Ms Bones went through what they were starting with. It all sounded easy enough and she selected two pens from her case before she looked at the board again, finding the first two words she could and started writing
Ten-Word Challenge Words found: Misty and Night ...She walkedThe gnarled woods were stood silent on that cold misty night.
She bit her lip as she placed her pens down, reading over what she had written, nodding as she was pleased with it, even if it hadn't been as easy as she had expected. And, it had nothing to do with horses, or fairies!
Angél grimaced as she looked down at the gloves she was wearing, knowing that they would be going in the bin when she left here, which was a pity as she had liked these ones. They may have been old, but they were comfy.
The young teenager quickly got bored of sorting through the stuff on the ground, though she watched as a woman came in and pulled a locker open, smiling when she saw that some of the things inside it had survived. "Silver linings." She whispered.
She finished filling her bucket with shiny things and stood up, brushing off her glittery black jodhpurs. "I'm going to take this outside and go toilet on my way back." She told the tent, so at least they couldn't say she had just walked out if her papa came to check on her.
Leaving the tent, she walked over to the table where things were being collected and she turned the bucket over a bin with other shiny objects and laughed as her collection clinked onto what was already there, moving her bucket around she could change the sound of the clinks - small things and all that.
Rather than heading to the toilets though, Angél went for a look around. She knew that by putting her into he tack room, her papa was trying to protect her from whatever horrible things might be here, but she was sure that there would be nothing that would give her nightmares, and she made sure to keep away from where everyone was, so that she didn't become in the way. "What's that?" She whispered as she could see something blue in the rubble. Walking closer, she frowned as she reached forward and pulled a familiar looking jumper from the rubble. She shook her head as she looked at it. "Papa!" She screamed.
Angél all but bristled with rage as she felt herself steered in the direction of what looked like it would have been the tack room before the fire - her temper could match that of Tinkerbell's. "I can lift things too!" She sulked, but held back from sticking her tongue out at her father, as that would be the one way for them to be heading home, her proving that she was a child who couldn't handle this level of maturity. "Yes, Papa." She said meekly. "I shall remain in here and sort through the ashes." She muttered something in French that would have had her mouth washed out if the man hadn't been so distracted.
Picking up a bucket, which she guessed were for collecting things found, she found herself an area and started going through what she could see on the ground. She pressed her lips together as she lifted up what remained of a bridle, the fancy blue, pink and silver browband a charred mess, and she angrily scrubbed at the tears she could feel on her cheeks as she removed the buckles from the bridle and placed them in the bucket and the ruined leather back on the ground as she carried on.
Angél's heart had broken when she had heard about the fire, it wasn't even her own barn, but she had seen enough news stories about forest fires, houses burning down, and things like that to know that horses could have lost their lives. When she had heard that they were asking for volunteers to help clean up, she had begged her papa to let her help, and he had to come too, and she kept on until he had finally caved, so here they were.
Her hands flew to her mouth as she jumped out of her father's Jeep and looked at the destruction the fire had caused. "Oh mon Dieu!" She whispered as she reached for her papa's hand. Obviously seeing it on the television, and seeing it... smelling it, in person were two different things. She wet her lips as she allowed the man to lead her forward. Maybe she should have let her talk him out of this, she didn't know if she could handle what she might find here. What if there were bones hidden in all that burned stuff? She pressed her lips together with a whimper, she didn't want to be here anymore. However, she had made such a fuss about being able to help, she could imagine how disappointed her papa would be if she couldn't go through with this.
HEY THERE! my name is cara and i'm this many years old. i'm a wiminz and i've been roleplaying for many years. i was referred here by moi but enough about me, here's my character. =]
[/font]:[/b] Angélique Jasmine Petit
nicknames: Angél, her papa called her poupée (poppet), or Fée (fairy)
age: 13, 6th January 2009
religion: aucun (none)
sexuality: unknown (she is only six, her love revolves around her papa)
marital status: very single (though she is papa’s little girl)
occupation: student
playby: Joey King
hometown: Toulouse, France
parents: Zoé and Nicolas petit
siblings: aucun
brief history: Angél was very much the result of a whirlwind romance, and she entered the world a month premature. She was very much daddy’s little girl right from the get-go, as her mother didn’t have the time to raise a child while she had commitments on the eventing circuit and after taking four months off after the birth, she was right back into her beloved competitions.
While some people would think that it would be difficult for an infant to survive without her mother, Angél thrived under the love and attention she got from her father. When she was six months old, Nicolas returned to work and she went along with him, and so her Montessori schooling began.
With her mother so absent, she learned everything she needed from her father, toileting, how to dress, how to feed herself. All the milestones that most parents treasure were only shared with her father, who documented everything in case his wayward wife did in fact remember she had a toddler at home.
It seemed that Zoé did remember that she had a daughter when she returned from an event one day with a pure grey Connemara. And as soon as the pony was sorted out, she signed the girl up for riding lessons and was gone from their lives again as she moved onto the next event, leaving her daughter in the care once again of her husband and the many riding instructors she had paid to teach her daughter to ride.
The yard quickly became Angél’s second home and she spent as much time with her pony as possible as well as learning all about horse and pony care, though it seemed that the other adults, that weren’t being paid to care, wanted the little girl around asking questions. This didn’t deter her though and she still wanted to know everything. Rather than asking though, she turned to the next best thing, books!
When it came time for school, Angél was well ahead of the rest of her class, and she was quickly moved up to the next level, along with a couple of the others from the same preschool, and she once again thrived on her pursuit for knowledge.
It was a little after Christmas that everything came crashing down, a knock on the door, a heated discussion between her father and whoever he was talking to and then everything was quiet. Her father explained that her mother had decided that her career was more important than them and wasn’t coming back. He didn’t say it, but Angél knew that the woman just didn’t love them anymore. They packed all their things, got into the truck and drove away from everything she knew and loved. [/font][/ul]
[/font]:[/b] her papa, everything equine related, learning (about everything), books, colouring in, drawing, Disney Fairies (all fairies in general really), lightning,
dislikes: talking about her mother, being treated like a child, adults talking about her as though she isn’t there, having to come inside when she’s riding, thunder
strengths: bilingual, intelligent (she’s not a genius, but she can think outside the box and knows not everything is black and white), her memory
weaknesses: Finds it hard to show how she’s really feeling Allergic to bee stings (carries an epi-pen)
secrets: hates her mother for leaving them, to the point that she denies having one.
fears: terrified of the dark – has a fairy nightlight
habits: Sucks thumb when unsure of surroundings and really tired
overall personality: Angél has a deep thirst for knowledge and will read every book that is given to her, though is still keen to know more. She has often been described as having and old soul. She is friendly to everyone, yet finds it hard to make friends, and those she does make she tends to stick with.
Since it became apparent that her mother isn’t coming back, she thought that it was better to hide how much this hurt her, and just to pretend to be happy all the time. While this fools a lot of people into thinking that she is a bubbly extrovert, the reality is quite different and she is slowly becoming more and more of an introvert, tending to want to talk with adults rather than children her own age.
She has a vivid imagination and loves fairies, which her bedroom and life reflect, and can spend hours sitting down and colouring in pictures in her colouring-in books or copying the pictures onto her own paper and adapting them to suit her own needs. Above all else though, she loves horses and riding and would spend all day in the stable if she were allowed, as it’s much more fun than going to school. At school, her learning is limited to what the teacher wants them to do, when she is used to the Montessori style of learning where she gets to choose her own curriculum. [/font][/ul]