A Few Questions (Cara)

[Rose Hoff]

Rose approached Eleanor's stall, grinning when her mare stuck her head out over the dutch door, ears pricked towards Rose in greeting once Rose reached the stall. Rose was sure that Eleanor wouldn't have been so friendly towards anyone else, and though it warmed her to know that her horse loved her the most, it still made her a bit uneasy. The horse that she saw now was different from the mare she'd met months ago, but she feared that Eleanor still held many of the same qualities, but didn't show them as much when Rose was around.

It was clear that she was still very nervous, and Rose's presence didn't completely solve that. Rose haltered Eleanor in her light powder blue halter and led her out to the cross ties outside of the stall. She'd gotten Eleanor's light blue grooming kit from the tack room before, so she already had it sitting by the cross ties. She began to groom Eleanor after removing the mare's blanket, mostly just going over her with her soft brush since she was mostly clean already. She was reminded of Eleanor's problems when another horse was led by and she tensed, stepping towards the wall and away from the strangers.

Sighing, Rose reassured Eleanor with a scratch on the withers and resumed grooming her when she had relaxed a bit. It troubled her that Eleanor was always so on edge about everything. It certainly wasn't anything like the mare's dam, so perhaps her sire had been nervous like this. She didn't think that Eleanor could have gotten this way from her old home, which had been a reputable stable. It was a mystery, but Rose was determined to solve it and help Eleanor in any way that she could.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara was standing in the stall that housed the silver dun mare that she worked with alongside her own mounts. The mare was a handful at the best of times and even worse if she spent any more than a day without being worked - and that was even with being put out in the pasture - Ember was a mare who needed to keep her mind busy and if she couldn't, she went ballistic.

The small senior finished massaging the mare's back and stepped away from the mare who was now dozing happily in the middle of her stall, neck stretched out with her head down and her lower lip hanging loose as her ears twitched. Shaking her head in amusement, Cara left the mare's stall as quietly as she could, stepping back against the door as another horse was led passed - possibly a little too quickly and a little too close to the stall doors.

After hanging the mare halter and lead on the hook, the girl picked up the grooming kit and headed back down to the tack room so that she could return the things to Ember's locker and give the mare's tack a good clean. She'd hadn't worked the mare hard that day, but she knew that it had been a while - at least half a week - since the mare's gear had had more than just a wipe over.

As she walked, she saw that there was a horse in the aisle being groomed and she stopped for a moment as she watched the mare. She knew that the dark bay Swedish Warmblood went by the barn name of Elanor, and that her owner, Rose, was in a few classes with Cara; equestrian and academic and the girls had been in the equine rehabilitation class together more than once. Cara didn't like talking to people about their own horses, because she had, in the past, been accused of trying to tell people about their own horses, so she tried to stay out of the business between people and their own mounts. However, Cara had been watching this mare quite a bit lately and she was dying to know about the mare's past and how she had become such a nervous wreck.

[Rose Hoff]

Eleanor was still uneasy as Rose continued to groom her, but that was normal. For the first couple of months she'd mostly groomed her in her stall, since she seemed to relax a bit more in there, and Rose was thinking of going back to that. When Eleanor had first arrived at Blue Ridge, Rose had hoped that her nervousness was just due to her being in a new place and that she would settle down once she got used to her surroundings. True, Eleanor didn't become as worked up when going to the indoor and jumping arenas where they usually worked, but she was still very nervous. It was hard to tell if she was paranoid, anticipating things, or if she was just nervous of everything around her. Rose suspected that it was a little of both.

Looking up from grooming Eleanor, she saw a small figure approaching with a grooming kit in her hands. It could only be Cara, which became clearer as the girl grew closer. Cara was in quite a few of Rose's classes, and she'd grown to admire the girl, especially for her work with horses. In her past rehabilitation class, when Rose had been working with Dolly, Cara had suggested an herbal remedy to Rose. Rose hadn't forgotten, and recently she'd thought of asking Cara if there was anything she could try giving to Eleanor. She was open to trying almost anything at this point, and she really did hope that Cara might be able to point her towards something that could end up helping Eleanor with her nerves.

When Cara came within speaking distance, Rose spoke up, rather shyly at first, "Hello Cara!" She stopped brushing Eleanor but kept her hand on the mare's neck in case she grew more nervous when Cara approached. "I have a question for you, regarding Eleanor." She kept her fingers moving on Eleanor neck, hoping to keep her focused on Rose rather than anything else. "Do you have the time? If you're too busy we can talk another time, if you'd like." She certainly didn't want to interrupt whatever Cara was doing.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara was so busy watching the mare and had just reached the door to the tack room when jumped as she heard her name. Part of her was tempted to pretend that she hadn't heard and continue into the room, but that would have been rude so she stopped and looked toward the owner of the voice, giving herself a mental shake, as she'd known the mare's owner had been with her, she just hadn't expected the other student to have noticed her. "Hello Rose." She replied.

Her eyebrows lifted at the other girl's next words. "I'll be right with you." She added as she held up the kit she was holding and stepped into the tack room to put it away. Walking back out, she headed over to where Rose was standing with her tense mare. "What would you like to know?" She asked as she studied the mare while she was standing right in front of her. She held her hand out to the mare, offering her the back of her hand to scent. As she had been massaging Ember with lavender, she knew that the scent of that would still be all over her hands so she wouldn't be surprised if the mare either pulled back violently or start lipping her hand.

[Rose Hoff]

Rose crinkled her brow the tiniest bit apologetically when Cara jumped. She hated being startled herself and hated to do it to someone else. She nodded appreciatively as Cara asked her to please wait and watched as she headed towards the tack room, presumable to return the grooming kit. As she waited, Rose grabbed a wide toothed comb from her own kit and began to work it through Eleanor's mane, starting at the withers and working her way up her neck.

When Cara returned Rose stopped to turn almost all of her attention to her, but kept a hand on Eleanor's withers. She decided to just try to explain Eleanor's situation first, watching as Cara held out a hand to Eleanor. The mare looked at her suspiciously, obviously nervous as Rose expected, but not really repelled from Cara at all. After a few moments she sniffed at her hand, and to Rose's surprise, didn't really pull back as she usually did.

Turning back to Cara, she started. "Eleanor has always been really nervous about everything. She's gotten better since she first came here, but she is still very nervous nearly all of the time. She's only really comfortable with me, and when she's in her stall. I know that you know about herbal remedies, as you once suggested some to me, and I was wondering if you knew of any that may be able to help her. I don't know of any reason that she would be this way, and I really just want her to be more comfortable. She's always on edge." By now Eleanor was still looking warily at Cara, but she wasn't as tense as she usually was around strangers.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara remained motionless as the mare's muzzle hovered over her hand, a tiny smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. When Eleanor didn't pull back, it gave Cara her first answer for things that could be used to help ease the mare's stress.

She turned her head and looked at Rose as the younger girl spoke to her. She gave a small laugh that didn't quite sound humorous. "Just a warning, this is probably something you should be speaking to Ms Chevalier about." She said. Cara was slightly worried about the repercussions of her being sought out rather than the member of staff that had been employed to teach about these things. "She seems to like lavender." She said, pulling her hand gently away from the mare - lavender was an external only thing. "I can also give you a mixture of remedies; Rescue, Rock Rose, Walnut and Mimulus, that you can add to her water."

She studied the mare again. The bay still looked wary, but she hadn't backed away from her, which Cara took as a positive sign. The girl took in the mare's sweet face and it was obvious that she wasn't naturally a nervous mare so she wondered about the horse's past. "How much about her past do you know?" She asked. "How much do you know of her life before she came here?" Knowing a little of the mare's history, could also let her know how the mare's nervousness started.

[Rose Hoff]

Rose had considered asking Ms. Chevalier before Cara, but somehow Cara had seemed more approachable. Perhaps it was that Cara was closer to being her peer. She didn't really think there would be much of an issue with her asking Cara,and she hoped that such was the case. Eleanor was her horse after all, and she trusted Cara's judgement. Perhaps she'd end up asking Ms. Chevalier in the future, but for now she was content asking Cara. In response to Cara's comment, she smiled a bit nervously, "I'm sure you're right about that, and perhaps I will sometime soon. I'll certainly keep it in mind."

Listening to Cara's suggestion, she nodded. "I would really appreciate that, thank you. How often would I do that?" She mentally took note of the remedies that Cara had mentioned, thinking to look them up later so she'd know which each was specifically doing. She really didn't know much about herbal remedies, and was considering taking Ms. Chevalier's class on it next year.

When asked about Eleanor's history, she thought for a moment. The way she had gotten Eleanor wasn't really conventional, though she didn't regret it. "I found Eleanor when I was looking up information about her dam. Her mother was my mother's horse, and I when I found Eleanor, I became interested in her. She was living at a stable in the Netherlands. I never went there, so I don't really know what her life there was like. From what I've read, the stable has a very good reputation and I also was in correspondence with the stable manager and her owner. Both seemed nice from what I can tell. Unfortunately, I don't know what she was like when she was there, but I can tell you that her dam wasn't nervous like she is."

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara thought about adding the remedies to the mare's water. The horse's stalls were on an automatic watering system. "Add four drops to a bucket of water twice a day." She replied. The drops could be added to the water system in the stalls, but there was too much of a chance of the remedies sinking to the bottom not being touched as some horses just nosed their troughs and it was near to impossible to see how much of it was being consumed as they filled automatically, whereas a bucket of fresh water could be monitored on how much was being consumed.

She listened as the other student talked about how she came to finding the mare, nodding her head at the information, or lack there of. She frowned a little. "It's normally the barns with the best reputation that have the dirtiest secrets." She replied. And, truth be told, it was pretty much the same with people.

She nodded as the mare. "Your girl's not naturally like this either." She said. "Which is why I wanted to know about her history." She pressed her lips together, but then pressed right on. "There's always a chance that fear is at the root of her nervousness. She's young, there are a number of things that could have gone wrong. She could have been pushed through her training faster than she was ready for. She could have lost the ability to trust the people around her. There's also the chance that she didn't stand nice enough and got a smack for not doing so." She studied the mare again. "You could try adding some dried chamomile flowers to her feed."

[Rose Hoff]

Rose nodded when Cara explained how she should give the remedies to Eleanor. She'd start doing it at the same time each say so that she'd always be able to tell how much Eleanor had drank and how long it had been. It would also probably be a good idea to take notes on any changes in her behavior, so she could see how they were affecting the mare.

Rose was quite ashamed of how little information she had about Eleanor's past life. She didn't really have the choice to fly out to the Netherlands to see Eleanor before she'd purchased her, so she'd had to judge by the barn's website and the videos of Eleanor. Inside, she'd known that even if she had gone and seen the horse, it wouldn't have made any difference. She had her heart set on having her anyways, so even if she'd known about Eleanor's nervousness, she still would have ended up Rose's. She knew it was bad to let sentimentality come before sense, but she wouldn't have changed a thing.

At Cara's comment, she inhaled a bit sharply. It was more than likely that her mother was somehow associated with the barn, and she didn't like to think that she would have been a part of the messier part of the equestrian world. Trying not to think about it too much, she nodded slightly, knowing that Cara was right about it even if she didn't want to think that.

The girl's next comment also worried her a bit. She'd almost been hoping that Eleanor's sire was the cause of the nervousness, rather than her mare's past. She hated to think that Eleanor could have been treated badly, and that her behavior was a result of that. At least she was with Rose now, but Rose's father had also paid a high sum for the mare, and she didn't like to think that they were supporting it. Considering that idea that Eleanor may have lost her trust in people, she frowned a bit. It had taken a while, but Eleanor had learned to trust Rose. If this was the case, at least she knew that there was still hope. "What would the chamomile flowers do? I can certainly look into getting some."

She didn't like to take too much of Cara's time, but she had another request, this time more of a favor to ask of her. "Eleanor has been much more trusting of me lately, especially in comparison to when she first got here. I'm thrilled about this, though I worry that she is still very nervous around other people, which is obviously not good. If you had the time, do you think you could work with her for a little while sometime? I'd like to see how she reacts to working with someone else, whether it be riding, lunging, or basically doing anything with her." She was rather hesitant requesting this, but she figured there was no harm in at least asking.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara bit her lip as the other girl took in everything she had said about the mare. "Don't stress over it. You could have gone over to see her before purchasing her and I can guarantee that you would never have know." She shrugged. "People that sell horses are scrupulous. They know what they are doing and if they do anything under the table, they make sure no one sees it."

She chuckled at the question about the suggested herb. "Chamomile is a good carminative. It works on humans too." She replied simply. "It's also a really good non-inflammatory, but that's not why I suggested it. And the is a good supply in herb garden behind the barns so you can help yourself."

Her eyebrows rose in surprise at the other student's next words. "Of course." She replied. "I'll be happy to help out if you think it will help." She took a step back, out of the mare's personal space. "Whenever you need my help, just let me know. I had better go and work my two girls before I'm due in the studio." She turned to leave and then stopped. "Rose. Would you mind if I'm there when Papillon foals?" She chewed the inside of her lip as she waited for the answer.

[Rose Hoff]

Rose nodded as Cara reassured her, trying to do the same to herself. She wished she knew more about Eleanor's past, but she didn't and it seemed that perhaps she never would. She could do all the research in the world and never reveal what had made Eleanor the way she was. Cara was right. There was a darker part of the horse world, and Rose just had to hope that her mother wasn't tangled into that, wherever in Holland she was.

She felt a little silly as Cara answered her question about the chamomile, and she was just glad that the other girl had chuckled. She'd certainly be going to find it in the gardens soon, and see if it would help Eleanor. Her smile grew a bit wider when Cara agreed to help her sometime. She was eager to see how Eleanor worked with someone other than herself, both to see how nervous she would be, and just to watch her in general. She'd only seen her in the videos, and it would be nice to watch the mare from the ground. "Thank you, for everything. I would love if we could do that sometime, and I will certainly take your suggestions."

She said goodbye to Cara, and was a bit surprised when the girl stopped after turning to leave. She was a bit puzzled at the question at first, but saw no issue with it. "Of course not," she answered with a smile. It would put a bit more pressure on her, but she'd already be nervous in Sir Solomon's presence, so it wouldn't make too much of a difference.