As the Roo Bounces

Posts : 4737 Join date : 2013-09-09 Age : 27

First topic message reminder :

Luna is discovering her passion for horses and riding, and is in need of a teacher willing to give her the basic idea. Julian, as always, is busy with his stud farm and training horses, but might have time to squeeze a student in.

Posts : 2923 Join date : 2016-03-13 Age : 28

John nodded as he finished checking the mare over. "Alright. Lets get this happening." he said turning to the stallion. He pulled out the reversal and injected the pony with it smoothly so he would start waking up. By this time Luna had finished cutting the dreads from the pony and was gathering the rubbish up, after sliding the shears carefully back into Julians back pocket.

Posts : 4737 Join date : 2013-09-09 Age : 27

Giving the girl a weird look, Julian ignored her, slipping a soft rope in a makeshift halter around the pony's head. Before he could wake up too much and fight the gentle pressure, the horseman guided the shaggy thing over to the gate, ushering him through and releasing the soft rope. "Right, you're out of the way, now for the mare." Unsteady on his feet, Angus dropped his muzzle to the ground, disliking the feeling, but unsure what to do now.

Main account Posts : 13341 Join date : 2013-08-11 Age : 28

Fencing walking she'd kept a close eye on what they'd been doing to her herdmates, brown eyes were intently focused on the male 'vet'. Wishing she wasn't stuck in this stupid yard area and in the same paddock as Renee and Angus so she could defend them, Rose snorted rudely and stamped a foot. Ears perked forward seeing Angus slowly get up and be lead over, trotting over smoothly she came to a halt and sniffed him, disliking the stink of the humans on him. Rose made a quiet affectionate nicker, remembering how she'd felt after she'd come around from being knocked out. Angus... the simple word revealed just how much she cared for the black shaggy thing despite how irritating and infuriating the little shit could be

Posts : 2923 Join date : 2016-03-13 Age : 28

Luna dumped her load in the bin as the men guided the pony into the pen and she made sure to keep the lead rope out and put it away before heading back to watch the grey mare. John injected her and made his way out of the paddock as Luna opened the gate for him while keeping an eye of the mare as she started to wake.

Main account Posts : 13341 Join date : 2013-08-11 Age : 28

Slow to wake she lifted her head and shook it almost human like, feeling woozy she didn't try getting up. Instead the grey mare lay there for a while before finally getting back up, staggering she looked around and started to panic realizing the black pony was gone. She'd been told he wouldn't be taken away from her, they'd lied to her, humans always lied, an affectionate whinny from rose drew her attention to the other two. Stumbling over to the fence she stuck her head through the slats and greeted rose sniffing her. The two mares appearing to communicate with each other, returning her head to her side of the fence, the gentle mare looked over at the humans warily unsure of what they'd do next

Posts : 4737 Join date : 2013-09-09 Age : 27

Julian leaned on the fence, watching the horses. It was going to be easier with the black pony in with the chestnut now. The girls wouldn't be subject to his short attacks while they tried to work with the grey mare. Thanking the vet for coming out, he headed over to the hay shed, pulling a few biscuits out to share between the three horses like he always did. Ignoring the food for a moment, Angus rubbed his muzzle on Rose's leg, flicking his strangely light tail around. Rosie. Perking his ears at Renee's movements, he stumbled over to sniff at her, snorting to comfort her before attacking the food hungrily.

Posts : 2923 Join date : 2016-03-13 Age : 28

Luna watched as Julian gave the trio some hay as John left after leaving him some more stuff to help with the pony with his worms. She unbound her hair and re-braided it as she watched the horses interact with each other. "How to gain your trust?" she whispered looking at the mare with a soft hum.

Main account Posts : 13341 Join date : 2013-08-11 Age : 28

Grumbling as per usual at the nickname, rose wandered over to the hay and began eating, already having been wormed when the vet had come for her. Having grown used to her nearly non existent tail she frequently stamped her legs to rid herself of the flies, doing so had already started to degrade her recently done hooves. Renee feeling a little more secure now she knew her friends were still there moved over to the hay that had been tossed into her paddock and began nibbling it delicately compared to Rose and ANgus's gorging themselves. Exceptionally sweet and gentle especially after everything she'd been through, Renee warily kept watching the humans move around ready to abandon her food and flee rather than stand her ground and fight like rose would

Posts : 4737 Join date : 2013-09-09 Age : 27

Glancing at the girl, Julian kept his eye on the horses, making sure that they were going to be okay. "It will take a while," he answered absently, not caring if the question hadn't been directed at him. "She's headshy and scared of men, and I don't want to know how they took her foals from her. She'll flee rather than fight like the chestnut, so it'll take even longer to work up to touching her. Claire will help, she's been studying horses for a while now. If you're willing to learn, she's an excellent teacher."

Posts : 2923 Join date : 2016-03-13 Age : 28

Luna glanced at Julian when he spoke and she nodded. "I am she deserves to be show not everyone is a monster." she told him softly, "Whos Claire?" Her gaze mostly remained of Renee as she ate her hay even though her body language screamed that she was ready to bolt, though it would flicker to the man standing beside her at times.

Posts : 4737 Join date : 2013-09-09 Age : 27

"She's an old friend of mine," he explained, affection creeping unknowingly into his voice. He couldn't help it when he thought of Claire. "She stays here quite often, on and off through the year. Often does the brumby challenges, so she uses my stockyards for that. That's what she'll be here for next week. Have a few brumbies to try and tame, but she'll be able to help with the mare as well."

Posts : 2923 Join date : 2016-03-13 Age : 28

Luna nodded as he told her about Claire. "She sounds determined." she said when he told her about Claire doing brumby challenges. She had read up on brumby challenges and had seen people attempting to tame some of the wilder brumbies. It was defiantly no easy task by any means.

Posts : 4737 Join date : 2013-09-09 Age : 27

He flashed her a quick grin. "Determined, maybe. Definitely stubborn. But she's good with the horses, they seem to know that she's trustworthy faster than usual. Handy when I have horses like these three around." he indicated the trio in front of them, who were still eating. "I'll be working with the chestnut and the stallion, you two will be working with the mare. Hopefully between the three of us, the three of them will settle down nicely, and I can start teaching them how to work for their food."

Posts : 2923 Join date : 2016-03-13 Age : 28

Luna chuckled at his stubborn comment and she turned her gaze to the pair he would be working on. "Hopefully. I can see those pair taking it in stride but the grey seems to delicate in a way." she mentioned off hand as she looked up at him, "Does that make sense at all?"

Posts : 4737 Join date : 2013-09-09 Age : 27

He tilted his head slightly. "She's an arab. They're more fine boned and delicate than most other horses. But also her experiences will have helped with that. Horses have what's called a flight or fight response." He settled down, using his hands to explain the difference to her. "On one hand, the flight response, okay. So that makes them want to flee any danger. They're prey animals, they're fleet footed. They'll be more likely to choose this response, especially a mare with a foal at foot, or if she's heavily in foal. On the other hand," he shook his other hand slightly. "You got the fight response. Lead mares, and stallions use this more. They'll fight whatever the danger is, to let the others in the herd run. If you look at these three," he pointed to them as he labelled them. "The chestnut is the lead mare. She's a fighter, you'll have noticed that she'd rather go for me than run from me. The pony is a stallion, he goes with the mare. He's been going for you because he sees you as a threat to the grey. She's likely younger, she's more fleet footed, and she's had many foals. She's always going to run. She's got the other two to protect her, there's no need for her to fight as well."

Posts : 2923 Join date : 2016-03-13 Age : 28

Luna absorbed the information as Julian gave it to her and she could see what he meant as he explained. "I can see what you mean, that's why they are more easily agitated by her fear. They are protecting her the best they can." she replied with understanding in her eyes as it became more clear to her.

Posts : 4737 Join date : 2013-09-09 Age : 27

He nodded. "Exactly. So what Claire will do is work with her one on one for a while, see how she reacts to her without the other two around. Once she's got some trust going on, then you'll be able to help. We don't want to overwhelm the poor thing too much." He was going to have to warn Claire about all three of them, and see if she'd be able to communicate better with the grey mare. She didn't seem to listen to him at all because of her fear.

Posts : 2923 Join date : 2016-03-13 Age : 28

Luna nodded at his words and looked back at the mare. "I hope it works for her." she said softly brushing her hands off on her jeans. "You don't mind if I come around and read to her do you? It might help calm her and get her used to me." she asked suddenly with a blush, "Just a thought."

Posts : 4737 Join date : 2013-09-09 Age : 27

He gave a careless shrug. "It won't hurt. Best not do it today however. They've been through enough already. We'll let them settle and calm down for now. Just make sure you stay outside the paddock. Don't want you getting hurt." Rediscovering the shears and hoof rasp in his pockets, he headed to the shed to put them away, whistling as he considered what was left to do around the farm. A few of his client's horses needed some work done with them, he had one that was frightened of being in a float.

Posts : 2923 Join date : 2016-03-13 Age : 28

Luna nodded when he said not today and to remain outside the paddock so she didn't get hurt. "Ill stay out." she promised as he pulled the shears and hoof rasp from his pocket. "I will see you at some point in the next day or so then." She pushed away from the fence and headed for her car. "Bye Julian." she told him with a smile and wave before she drove off.

Main account Posts : 13341 Join date : 2013-08-11 Age : 28

Showing up at about the same time luna did for a lesson a few days after the vet had been out to see the horses. Getting out of the car with a similar hat to the one Julian wore, the beautiful young woman grinned seeing her old friend "Jules!" calling out to him she closed the vehicle door behind her and not even noticing the blonde girl was there strode over to the man and hugged him tightly. "Its been too long, how've you been keeping?" indeed it'd been a couple of years since she'd seen him, she'd missed him quite a bit and was eager to do the brumby challenge at his place again. Not to mention the horses he'd mentioned on the phone, they'd come from Ice, at least that meant she had a good idea of their mentalities. Pulling back to observe his face, affection was clear on her features, this place and him were home, where she was truly safe and secure, having been away studying becoming a highly qualified equine vet, mainly for the knowledge rather than the money the first thing she'd wanted to do since graduating was come back and see him. "Hows Ned and that grey nag of yours doing?" laughter shone in her green eyes at the slight tease about his favoured grey stallion "And spotty?" she quite liked spotlight having been lucky enough to be allowed to work with him and had learnt so much from him.

Posts : 4737 Join date : 2013-09-09 Age : 27

He'd been feeding the dogs when the cars had arrived, and he glanced up to grin at Claire. "So you finally remembered to come back huh?" His hug was just as tight as hers was, and he tapped the brim of her hat, sending it falling over her eyes. "Been going good, waiting for you to turn up and be useful," he teased, amusement clear in his gaze. "The horses are all fine, Ned's giving lessons as usual, Ghost is as cheeky as ever. And I'm sure you'll find some time to work with Spots. It'd be good for him, he's been lazing about the past few months." Tugging on her plait, he got back to his dogs. "Let me finish with these, and I'll be over. Have a lesson to do in a few minutes though."

Posts : 2923 Join date : 2016-03-13 Age : 28

Luna watched as a woman got out of her car and made her way over to Julian. She forced her gaze away and walked over to greet the grey mare who she had taken to reading to every day or around an hour. "Hey darling girl." she called out softly to the mare with a gentle smile, "Ill come read to you a bit later alright." She watched the mare for a short time longer before heading to the shed to grab the stuff she needed for Ned. Soon she had the gelding hitched and was giving him a good grooming.

Main account Posts : 13341 Join date : 2013-08-11 Age : 28

The grey mare hadn't made much progress in the few days she'd been in the paddock, as soon as people turned up at the gate or near her paddock she'd move to where she could be close to her herdmates or away to the far end of the paddock. Nodding Claire lightly pushed the brim of her hat up and tugged his own hat down in retaliation, moving away from him so he could keep going, the woman made her way over to Ned. Greeting the gelding with a sense of familiarity, "Hello old boy, looking good for your age huh" gently rubbing the bays head and letting him have the bit of carrot in her pocket she finally noticed the blonde. Going a little cold out of habit, Claire inclined her head in silent greeting then moved away to stand at the fence watching the gray mare for a couple of moments. Reading her body language carefully, once she'd sized up the mare, Claire suddenly appeared to completely loose interest in her, and began fiddling with a couple of pieces of carrot, tossing some idly into the paddock near her and not making eye contact.

The mare who'd been grazing and checking out the people was a little confused by the strange tactic, normally someone sat there and made noise or they stood at the fence and stared at her. Wondering what was so interesting, the admittedly nosy grey mare although still very wary made her way down to where the trough was taking a careful mouthful fo water, soft snorts that revealed her worry and fear leaving her

Posts : 4737 Join date : 2013-09-09 Age : 27

He just grinned, finishing up with the dogs before moving on over to Ned. He ignored what Claire was doing with the mare, preferring to leave her to it and concentrate on Luna instead. "That's Claire," he said, bringing out the heavy saddle and placing it on the railing. "When you're finished with your lesson, I'll introduce you properly." Chewing on a piece of straw, he considered her for a few moments. "Today will be in the yard, if you're still around this arvo, I'll get you out into a paddock to let Claire bring her brumbies in without anyone else to scare them."