Foal Handling/Training Class

[Deleted]

'Attention students of the foal handling class, please report with your foal or the foal of your choice to the starting arena for class.' Was the note that Kevin had gotten passed around to the students of his class at some point that day.

He figured he'd give them some warning and would just wait for them to start coming to the arena with their foals. As he wasn't good at teaching with books or anything, he was going to do hands on teaching. His mind going over how to teach the class, although from what he heard from Sir Peter, a few of the students seemed to be doing just fine. But he would want to watch over the students and how they worked even if they worked with the foal out of class, it was more for the foal's sake than anything else as he didn't want the foal to get hurt or get any mistraining that would cause problems later in it's life.

He walked up to the pasture where a bunch of the foals seemed to be let out for the warmish day despite it being cloudy and leaned on the fence to watch the foals. At least until it was time for his class to start and he could see how any of

the students who came to pick out a foal decided on the foal. Or see how the ones who had already been working with foals how good they are at catching their foal if the foal was let out. His black hat covered his hair as he watched the foals and thinking about how to do his job, he never really had to teach kids how to train foals it was always adults who had little knowledge in training horses.

@running1
Cara-Jean Kitchi
Cortney Smit
Miranda Florin
Rose Hoff
@samanthal
@savannah

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda gave Fingal a final pat and picked up the soft, brightly colored rope that she had gotten for work with the gelding from where it lay across his back. She was slowly starting to desensitize him to ropes touching him, which was pretty hard, but they were getting there, and the gelding had started tolerating it when she let the rope touch his back or sides, although he was still wary of it anywhere else around his body. Giving him the last carrot that she had grabbed for this session, she exited his yard, heading to the tack room to drop off his rope and grab Tanya's halter, lead, and a few extra pieces of twine. Since Lee hadn't foaled yet, she had decided to use the filly until her assigned mare did, rather than starting with another horse that she was assigned to. Moving slowly, Miranda buckled the halter around the smoky-black filly's head, then clipped the lead rope to the piece of twine that hung from the halter.

Walking slowly, to keep pace with her charge, Miranda made her way towards the starting arena, for the Foal Handling class. She frowned as she saw that it was empty and shrugged to herself, walking over to the gate and standing in the shade close to it before she loosened her grip on Tanya's lead. As the filly butted her gently, Miranda scratched the foal's ears, finding Tanya's sweet spot with practiced ease. Frowning, she pulled out the note again that she had received and read over it. It had said the starting arena, although it appeared that she was the first one here today.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara rubbed her temples as she stood in the bathroom of the White Oak barn. She'd just finished a schooling session with Mouse and, although the session had been good - the mare hadn't refused a jump and a skittering weed across the floor of Roscoe's arena hadn't made her jump out of her skin - but the girl had a pounding headache that just wouldn't quit.

Shaking her head, she finished getting changed into a clean pair of jodhpurs and a clean shirt - she liked the fact that the barns had showers in them for the students - and with practised fingers, swiftly pulled her hair back into a french braid which was then twisted onto the back of her head into a neat bun. Once ready, she left her dirty clothes in a bag in Mouse's locker and headed out of the barn she was in and over to the Evening Primrose barn.

When she had received the note about the foal handling class, she had been tempted to bring Fée to the first class, but she knew that Shiloh's four-day old filly would be fine. Walking into the tack room, she collected the tiny foal's tiny two-toned purple halter with catch strap - which she removed and took the soft purple cotton lead and headed out to the yard that Shiloh was in with her baby.

"Hey beautiful girl." She greeted the Haflinger mare as she offered the small horse a carrot. "Can I borrow your baby for a while?" She knew that the mare wouldn't have any issues as in the past couple of days she'd done a bit of handling with the foal, which included showing the mare that she could be trusted by taking the foal away and bringing her back. She watched as the tiny blonde filly stuck her head out from behind her dam, ears pricked forward as she looked at the girl. "Hi little one." Cara said, her normally soft voice even softer. "Good girl." She praised as the foal stepped toward her.

Not wanting to rush the filly, she allowed the little horse to come up to her before she showed held the halter to Spree. "You remember this?" Which she knew she would since she had worn it a few times already. The foal readily stepped forward and the girl gently put the halter on to her and the rope gently around her neck. "Come on, we need to go to class." After giving Shiloh the last of the carrot in her pocket, she walked forward with the foal happily walking behind her.

The walk to the arena took a bit of time, as the foal wanted to look at everything they walked passed, but Cara didn't rush her in anyway. Arriving that the arena she saw that Miranda was already in there with Tanya - which made Cara feel guilty about not having Fée there as well - and opening the gate, Cara spent a bit of time explaining to the filly she was holding that the gate wasn't going to eat her, by opening and closing it a few times to allow the filly to watch the shadows shift with the moving gate and finally led the tiny baby into the arena and over to where Miranda was standing with the Mustang foal - but not too close in case either foals decided they didn't like each other for any reason. "I see you have an under-study."

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney returned into the barn from tipping out the last barrow load from the stall she had been working on. She wiped the back of her arm across her forehead and released a breath. Mucking stalls was hard work, but she was enjoying it way more than she thought she would. She hadn't been part of the equine reproduction class, but she'd been given the honour of working with one of the foals. She was also spending a bit of time with Suede after the mare had lost her foal.

"What!" She cried - not too loudly - when she looked at the time on her watch. She looked at her muck stained clothes and knew that she had no choice but to change even if it made her late for class after she had convinced the cheeky filly that she wanted to come to class with the girl.

After she had changed out of her sweats and t-shirt and into a pair of skinny black jeans and a blue tunic top. She then headed into the tack room and grabbed the mare's halter and lead and headed out to the field where the mares and their foals were.

"Please don't do this too me." She begged as Tess took one look at her and dodged to the side and took off across the field. Remembering everything she had read online, Cort refused to take pursuit after the filly. "What's up Charmander?" She asked the dappled grey Thoroughbred mare as the filly's dam ambled up to greet the girl. "Your daughter is going to be a handful when she gets older." She laughed as she felt the filly bunt her in the back. "Jealous much?" She asked the filly as she turned around, offered the blue roan her halter to sniff and then put it on the filly's head and doing it up. She then slipped the lead through the ring on the bottom and clicking her tongue, led the filly away from her dam and exited the field.

She led the headstrong filly to the starting arena and laughed as the young horse decided that the gate was a foal-eating monster and reared up at it. "Quit it you." Cort laughed, not a hint of annoyance in her voice, as she just clicked her tongue and led the foal through. She raised her eyebrows when she saw that there were only two girls here so far. "Well, at least we're not late." She told the foal. She headed over to the other two girls, one of who she didn't know very well other than when she had seen her in the barn. "Hey Miranda." She greeted. "Cute foal."

[Rose Hoff]

Rose kissed Eleanor once on the nose before leaving her stall. She'd just finished working with the mare, and was sort of pleased with their progress. Eleanor was so much better, and best of all, trusting. She just hoped that it wasn't just with her, and she wanted to have someone else work with her soon so that she could see how the mare reacted to other people. She didn't think it would go very well, but she at least wanted to see if her working with the mare had only made progress with her. Sanitizing her hands, she made her way over to the Evening Primrose barn.

Papillon hadn't foaled yet, so she'd gotten Sir Solomon's permission to use Cherry in her Foal Handling class until she could use Papillon's foal. She got the filly's baby blue halter and lead from the tack room and found her. Closing the gate behind her when she entered, she approached Cherry slowly, knowing the she was eying rose already. When Rose got within a couple steps, she took a couple steps away, head already raised high. Rose stopped herself and waited until Cherry wasn't tensed anymore before approaching her even more slowly and putting the halter on.

She clipped the lead on as well and led Cherry over to the Starting Arena where she had been instructed to meet for the class. Cherry was certainly energetic, and pulled while Rose led her. She found that she was the fourth girl there, and smiled at the other girls in greeting.

[Deleted]

Excited the senior made her way over to the Evening Primrose Barn to gather the gelding that she had been assigned to work with. Since Pearl, the mare she was assigned for Reproduction Class, hadn’t dropped her foal yet Thanos was her substitute for now. Belle had a close bond with the little guy from her time being a vet student. The Thoroughbred was her second to last charge before she had to leave her duties. As she walked across the parking lot she checked in the gelding’s stall and he wasn’t there. Lately when Belle had come to see him he was in the nursery field, but he would always run away. Honestly he was like a dog when they needed to be caught, run away and wiggle his tail, then look back at his soon to be captor.

With that the eighteen year old grabbed his light green halter and lead rope and headed out to the field. The Thoroughbred weanling was romping around with two other foals. ”Thanos, c’mon buddy it’s time for class.” Entering the field, Belle latched it behind her knowing that the other two could have been curious and found their way out. The trio of foals raced towards her, the Thoroughbred she was after stayed towards the back. Even though humans and horses didn’t speak the same language, somehow Thanos knew what his handler was saying. ”C’mere, you wanna go see your friends?” Technically she wasn’t lying; the social like foal would see some of his stablemates at the Foal Handling class.

With an older and bigger horse Belle would have draped the lead rope over their neck, but in case the little devil did decide to bolt away, she didn’t want to risk injuring the gelding. Thankfully he didn’t and the eighteen year old made sure the other two weren’t going to follow and led her foal out; latching the gate behind them. Finally on their way over to the Starting Arena where the group was instructed to meet, Belle knew they wouldn’t be late. Seeing that she was the fifth student to arrive, Cara, Miranda, and Courtney were the three that she did know the names of and the last girl was still unknown to her. Figuring that the instructor would have them introduce themselves and possibly their foals. Standing towards the rest of the group, but far enough away just because she knew that Thanos was friendly and some of the other foals might not have been. Miranda’s foal, Tanya, was the only one Belle was sure of that he would be fine with as the filly, her sister, and the gelding shared a pasture and stall for a short amount of time. Even then it would be a good idea to keep distance between foals.

[Deleted]

Silently, Kevin had watched the ones catch the foals that had to and watched how the foals where led towards the starting arena. After a bit of not seeing anymore heading the way of his class he decided it was time for him to get to the class. Stretching his arms slightly, the black t-shirt he wore stretched a bit against the muscles as he did, he let his feet lead him towards the arena, pausing at the gate to see how the others interacted before he entered the arena.

Pushing his black hat up a little so his eyes weren't hidden, he said "Hello ladies and welcome to the foal handling class. In this class you will learn more about your foals and how to train them without messing them up for life. A solid base training is needed for any good horse and best to start out young." He had talked as he walked to a spot a bit away from the females and he looked at them to see how they would respond to him first. Not that he expected much, since he didn't look young enough to be a student and figured they'd probably count him as staff of the school.

But he didn't wait long as he went right on to say "I'm Kevin Markey and your new instructor, if you have any questions ask them after you introduce yourself." He wouldn't have made them introduce themselves if he had remembered to bring the clipboard from his apartment with him that had the list of his students and the foals. But it was too late now to worry about that right now and he would just have to try to keep their names straight. Although he did a head count and noticed a few where missing and that just made him think they weren't really wanting to learn if they didn't take time to show up with a warning letter of the class starting.

"If the foal you are working with today isn't your normal one then also let me know that." He added as more of an after thought for him. But it would also give him a clue on how many would be switching foals later, which would mean having to start over on the training until the foal was caught up with the others. He did plan to keep them all close to the same level of training so that it wouldn't be too much trouble for him to teach them.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda looked up as she heard someone speaking at the gate, smiling as she saw Cara with her pretty little filly. She stood quietly as she watched the older girl teaching Spree about gates, noting down what the girl did again as a reminder for when Lee dropped her foal. She had already thought of a few names for the foal, although she couldn't wait to see its coloring to choose a final name. As Cara and Spree approached, Miranda grinned, "I don't know, she insisted on coming with me when I told her we might be seeing her brother." She knew that Annabelle was in the class with them, and that she would most likely be working with the Thoroughbred foal that had grown up with their mustang twins. She nodded at the little foal, "Spree's looking good, she'll be a beauty soon." As Tanya turned again to look at the gate, Miranda followed the smoky-black's gaze and smiled at the freshman that came in, surprised, but happy just the same. After Cortney had managed to work Char's foal through the gate, Miranda grinned, "Hey Cortney, thanks! Tess is looking really good!" She smiled at the dappled-grey filly, and wondered about what color Lee's foal would be.

As Rose and Annabelle entered, both with older foals as well, Miranda smiled, looking over both of the foals that they were working with. Thanos looked healthy, and seemed no worse for the wear after his gelding. However, she didn't speak, as just then, a young-looking adult entered the arena, a man that she had never seen before. She smiled carefully at him as he walked towards them, although he left the group some space. As he told them to introduce themselves, Miranda glanced at Tanya, who was snuffling around the dust of the arena. After Mr. Markey had added the bit about letting him know if the foal would be their 'regular' or not, she paused for a moment, waiting to see if he had more instructions, then shrugged and spoke up, "I'm Miranda Florin, and this is my charge, Tanya. When my assigned mare, Lee, foals, though, I'll probably switch to working with her foal." She scratched Tanya's sweet spot, just down from the mare's withers, knowing that Mr. Markey had probably not seen the filly before, but then, she didn't live up at the barn. The eight-month-old turned to look at Miranda, and the girl grinned and shifted her hand a little bit.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara smiled at the other girl's humour. The more time she spent around Miranda, the more the girl's sense of humour was becoming understandable -she just wished that it would also rub off on her, but then she was worried that people wouldn't understand her humour. "I wonder if we should ask if the twins could move to this barn?" She commented as she looked at Tanya. "Give them a chance to play with others their own age."

She bowed her head in gratitude to the complement on the foal she had at her side as she tussled the filly's short forelock. "I'm hoping she is what her owners are hoping for." She replied softly. She knew, that with the filly showing her sire spots, they hoped that she would also carry the gene.

She watched as another girl entered the arena with Char's foal. "She's going to be a handful." She commented as she watched the other girl and filly. "And that won't matter how well she's handled now." And she knew that the other girl was doing a wonderful job with the filly. She didn't say anything as Rose and Belle bother entered with their foals though she did keep a close eye on Thanos, another foal who could prove to be a handful.

She turned as she caught the movement of the gate from the corner of her eye and swallowed when she saw an unknown male entering the arena. Fear rippled through her, but she forced herself to push it down and not let it transfer through to her delicate charge. She knew that with the class starting it would probably mean a new teacher, she had just hoped that the barn manager would be here as well, someone that she knew and respected.

She listened to Miranda introduce herself and her filly and then the girl knew she had no choice but to speak up. "I am Cara-Jean Kitchi and this is Spree." She was proud of the fact that there was almost no tremor in her voice, but she wasn't sure how far it carried, as she was so soft spoken and even more so when she was unsure of her surroundings.

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney walked closer to the two older girls when Miranda replied. "Your girl doesn't live in this barn." It was a statement, not a question. She smiled as she looked at Tess. "I'm hoping that this class will give her something to think about other than how to get herself in trouble." She laughed. "Uh!" She said to the filly as the inquisitive foal began to nibble on the girl's coat sleeve. "None of that." She said as she gently but firmly pushed the foal's head away.

She followed the other girls' eyes and nodded appreciatively when a young man entered the arena. "Is it just me, or did it get hot in here?" She whispered with a grin as she scratched Tess under her chin.

She listened as the two girls beside her introduced themselves and their foals. She smiled when it was her turn. "I'm Cortney Smit, but please feel free to call me Cort. And this here is Tess." She smiled at the foal and shook her head as the filly seemed interested in everything else other than the humans and other horses in the arena. - a foal with ADHD? She wiggled the lead and rubbed the filly's nose when she turned to look at the girl. "You'll be back with your Mam soon enough little one." She whispered tenderly. "Right now we need to pay attention to Mr Markey." She tickled the filly's muzzle as she waited for the last girl to introduce herself, as she already knew the gelding that was at her side, after all working in this barn came in handy for something.

[Rose Hoff]

Rose stood silently as the other girls near her conversed about their foals, observing Cherry more than anything else. She looked older than any of the other foals in the class, which made sense of course, since she was a yearling now. Rose had been told that Cherry was going to be sold soon. She was allowed to use her in this class until Papillon foaled. This would help to ensure that Cherry's manners were suitable for her new owner, and Cherry would be watched to see what would still need work for later.

She shifted her weight from looking at Cherry up to the gate, straightening her lean body up as she saw a man approach. He was, of course, probably their instructor, though it was a bit odd how he was so quiet and had his hat tipped downwards. She was relieved when he tipped his hat upwards so she could see his eyes and began to speak.

When he walked in, it became clear to Rose that he was watching their reaction to him carefully, which was normal, she supposed, but also made her a bit uneasy. She was sure to keep her posture straight and turned her lips up at the side so that she'd look a little friendly. She heard Cortney's comment just enough to make it out and pressed her lips together, keeping her mind to herself. He did, finally, introduce himself, and she gave a teeny nod, mostly to herself, filing the name away in her mind.

When it came her turn to introduced herself, she spoke, loud enough for all of her classmates and instructor to hear, but voice still characteristically quiet. "My name is Rose Hoff and this is Cherry. I will only be working with Cherry until Papillon, my assigned mare for Equine Reproduction, foals. Then I plan on working with her foal." She realized that she would have to make up what she had missed with Papillon's foal, but she didn't really mind the thought of it.

[Deleted]

The young gelding let out a high pitched whinny to the rest of the foals, which were oddly enough all fillies. Even though she couldn’t see it, her face defiantly felt like a fire and her cheeks probably matched the hue of a burning coal. Thanos stood there with that innocent look on his face as he observed everything around the arena. ”Shh… you silly little boy.” Belle reached down and scratched the gelding’s forelock. Holding her hand out as she would have done if she had a treat, Thanos tried to bit her fingers like they were baby carrots. Not surprised by it, she simply pulled her hand away. ”No, you can do that. Hopefully you will learn to not bite the hand that feeds you.”

Once the foal was of age, he would probably be sold or maybe kept by the academy; in any case it would be helpful to have some ground manners. An older man walked in, the eighteen year old’s eyes followed the man as he walked in. He looked sort of suspicion of the five girls and their foals, but once he got to the head of the group he introduced himself as the one to be running this class.
Markey, I know that last name. Oh yea! Epona Markey.” The woman had taken over Mr. Mattock’s job as the instructor of Beginner Western Class, which she had just so happen to help out with.

Hearing that other four had gone it was now her turn. ”I’m Annabelle Archer, most call me Belle, and this is Thanos. I will only be working with him until Pearl, my assigned mare, foals, I’ll probably start working with her foal then.” The end of her sentence indicated the real beginning of class, at least she hoped so. Thanos shook and took a few steps around his handler, testing his boundaries.

[Deleted]

As he watched them and how their foals acted, one could tell a lot with how the foals acted around their trainers. Although it did surprised him a bit on how many would be changing foals but understood that one couldn't control when a foal was born and the class had to go on. "The ones who are gonna be changing foals, set up a time after you have your new foals with me to get them caught up. After it's all settled then we'll get into the real training." He said as he glanced between the girls and their horses.

Without thinking he took a few steps towards the middle of the arena as he started to talk again. "Alright to start with, I want to see how you've been working with your foals up until now. Let me see how they respond to your hands being over them and lifting up their feet." Really he wasn't quite sure how to teach the class just yet and he hoped it didn't show, normally whenever he taught someone it was hands on with him showing them how to do so.

Which he would if he was asked to, which reminded him to bring a foal or his own horse with him next time so he could show what he meant. He had thought to bring his own horse but he had changed his mind at the last minute as he didn't know what he would walk into with the students. But it was better to not have his own horse as he wasn't sure how the foals would react to a grown horse, he'd have to see about using a foal himself for the class.

But his eyes watched them carefully, even the ones waiting as he knew that was the best way to see the problem foals that needed more training. "If you need help with your foal to do what I asked then just ask and I will help." He added more as an after thought than an instruction.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda frowned at Cara's question, a number a thoughts running through her head at the mention of Tanya and Fee moving. However, she smiled, "That sounds like it'd be a good idea." She rubbed the filly's nose gently, thinking about moving her and her twin. That would cause her to have to reallocate her time, and she would miss having a sane horse around the clinic, although there was always Beauty. However, she knew that it would be in the filly's best interests, and wanted to criticize herself for even thinking about what would be easier for herself. As Cortney commented, Miranda nodded, "Not currently."

She listened to the class introducing themselves, none of the names coming as a surprise to her, as she had a reason to know every person in the class, and the foals themselves. As Mr. Markey told them to set up a time with him after their foals had been born, she nodded, making a note to herself. She knew that she had another week or two to wait before she should even start looking for warning signs, but she hoped that she wouldn't have to rush the mare's son or daughter too much to catch up again.

As the teacher asked them to go over their foal's entire body, Miranda smiled. She looped the lead rope over Tanya's withers, knowing that the filly would stand still despite the lack of actual fastening. Starting at the filly's head, Miranda carefully smoothed her hands along her forehead, then moving them around the filly's eyes, careful not to touch the orbs themselves. As she reached the filly's throat latch, Tanya tossed her head, and Miranda quietly talked to the filly, "It's alright, don't worry." Carefully, she circled the spot, getting closer until Tanya didn't react to her fingers anymore. Pausing her hands explorations, she rubbed the filly's ears, holding out an alfalfa cube, "Good girl."

Finally, she got to the filly's feet. Starting at the front left, she bent down, "Up." Tanya complied, and Miranda ran her fingers along the foal's hoof before releasing it and moving on, circling around the filly to finish up at her right shoulder. Having completed the assignment, Miranda switched to rubbing Tanya's shoulder, waiting for the next job.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara shrugged uncomfortably at Miranda's reply to her suggestion of moving the twins. "They are happy where they are though and at six months neither of them seem to be lacking." She fell silent as the young brunette started talking, it seemed as though the young girl knew Miranda well and it would be rude of her to take up all of the other girl's attention.

She listened as the others in the class all introduced themselves, the young brunette, Cortney, was the only girl she didn't know in the gathered group. She then turned her attention to Mr Markey who then gave them their first instructions. She then turned her attention to Spree, who's attention was on everything other than her - which wasn't surprising as her own attention hadn't exactly been completely on the filly-foal either.

She made a kissing noise and the filly looked up at the girl with her ears pricked forward and her bright clear eyes turned toward her handler. "Good girl." She whispered as she ran her hand gently down the filly's nose. She then took her time to ran her hands over every inch of the filly's body, running her hands down Spree's legs and with a smooch smiled as the small foal lifted each hoof up in turn so that the girl could trace a quick circle around each hoof with her index finger before lowering each respective hoof gently to the ground again, so that the hoof wasn't of the ground for more than thirty seconds.