Rehabilitation 3.2

[Demeter Carr]

Although Demeter liked the idea of her students - the ones in her rehabilitation class as opposed to her vet students (who were both in the class anyway) - working with the horses they had chosen independently, she also liked to call them together every couple of weeks so that she could observe how they were coming along and answer any questions that they might have that weren't urgent enough for them to seek her counsel privately. For this meeting, she had called the group together on a Saturday morning.

Each of the horses, were in their respective yards and chopping away on the lush spring grass that was growing. Demeter had the yards tended once a week now that the grass was growing so abundantly once again, to keep the grass down at a level where there was no chance of the animals in her care gorging themselves on the fresh grass and then floundering from too much sweet feed. Because of the spring grass, she'd also had their hard feed changed to make up for what they were now able to consume from the yards.

The woman walked up to the yard where Beauty stood and she offered the beautiful Thoroughbred a carrot, something that she normally had stored away for Tau, but now that the gelding had moved into Red Willow Barn, she used the treats to spoil the retired nanny horse. "I need to find me a new project horse." She told the mare. She was in discussion with a woman in Canada who was interested in purchasing Yoda and now that Tau was in perfect health, she was on the lookout for another horse that she could bring on.

Pushing herself away from the yard fence she had been leaning against, she rubbed the mare's nose and walked over to the group's meeting spot, and sat down on one of the upturned half barrels that they used as seats. She hoped that the three girls brought their journals as she wanted to have a look through them to see what the students had been up to since their last time together, now that they had been working with their charges for a couple of months.

Calling:
Cara-Jean Kitchi - Red
Miranda Florin - Olive/Green
Rose Hoff - Black

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

"Thank you, Coach Hoefflin." Cara said as she headed out of the gymnastics studio that morning, pushing her satchel further up her shoulder as she felt it begin to slip. Out of each of the gymnastics training she did, she enjoyed the Saturday morning sessions the most.

Leaving the gymnasium, she headed across the campus, and walked around to the Equine Clinic Yards. She smiled when she saw that all of the clinic inhabitants were already in their yards. She rubbed Beauty's nose as she walked passed the beautiful bay mare. "I'll take you out for a ride later." Even though the mare had been retired from work, herself and Miranda were allowed to take the mare out on the trails every now and then just to kept the mare's activity levels up - and so she didn't get bored stiff. She walked to the yard where Grace was nosing at the grass along the fence on the furtherest part of the yard. "Grace." She called softly, smiling as the mare's head rose from the tasty grass and she ambled her way over to the girl. "How are you, beautiful girl?" She knew that the mare wasn't going to answer her, not with words anyway, but she took the answer as the positive as the brown tobiano raised her head to the girl's face and blew down her nostrils over the girl. "I'll be back soon." She spent as much time as she could with the mare - while she wasn't in training, class, lessons or tending to the million other things she did - and she was happy with the pony's progress.

As the mare ambled off, Cara turned away from the yard and walked over to the meeting place and gave her mentor a ghost of a smile. "Good morning, Dr Carr." She said as she perched on the edge of one of the barrel seats. Opening her satchel, she pulled out Grace's red notebook and placed it on her lap as she waited for the other two students to arrive.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda left Kalle in he bathroom, hissing and mad, sitting in the bathtub, as far away from the sink as he possibly could be. Since the equine rehabilitation class was meeting that morning, she had chosen to groom and bathe her cat before she headed to the clinic, and then take some time to work with Cray, before taking Sye out to ride. She had come a long way with Cray, and hoped to get onto the mare soon, although she wanted at least a friend with he when she did, just in case.

As she approached the clinic, she looped around the back, stopping by the grey mustang's yard first, "Hey Fingal!" The gelding lifted his head and regarded her for a moment before ambling over, his ears pricked. Miranda held out the carrot piece that she had nabbed for him. Rubbing beneath the mustang's forelock, a sweet spot she had discovered quite by accident, Miranda let Fingal finish his carrot before she left the gelding alone for the time being.

Miranda stopped by the nursery yard, where Tanya and Fee were, watching the fillies nose at the sweet grass for a moment, before she walked over to the barrels, where Cara and Dr. Carr were already waiting. She smiled at the other two, "Good morning." She jumped up onto a barrel close by where Cara was, waiting for Rose and watching Dr. Carr, suppressing her excitement at her plans for the day.

[Rose Hoff]

Rose had been working with Fly a lot since their last rehabilitation class, and she was eager to continue that today. She planned on continue the work on personal space she'd been doing with the mare, this time near the fence without having her clipped on the lead. She hoped to also groom Fly in a similar situation to see what the mare would do when Rose split her attention from constantly watching the mare's every movement. She had plans to lunge her soon as well, as it was about time, but perhaps not that day.

Leaving the White Oak Barn where she'd been with Vintage, Rose made her way up to the Equine Clinic. She smiled as it came into view, walking over to where the rehabilitation classes were held. She'd brought her notebook and had it clutched against her, the undersides of her knuckles rapping lightly against it.

She found her way over to where Dr. Carr, Cara, and Miranda already sat, and sat down, greeting Dr. Carr and smiling at the other two girls. It occurred to her that she was now the only student in the program who was not a vet student, which put a bit of pressure on her, but she just tried to ignore that as best she could.

[Demeter Carr]

Demeter smiled as each of the girls arrived and took a seat. Once all three of the students had arrived she decided that it was time to get started. "I apologise for dragging you out of bed on a Saturday morning, but I figured that this was the best time for you to be able to work with your charge with me on hand and not get interrupted with needing to rush off to a class or after school activity." She knew for a fact that she wouldn't have dragged Cara out of bed, and she was sure the other two would have been up for a while by now.

She glanced out toward the rehab horses in their yards, except Dynamite of course, and then turned back to the girls. "Even though I haven't actually been right behind you all, I have watched the transformation of the horses you're working with and I'm very impressed." She smiled and held out her hand. "Can I please have your journals, I'll have a browse through them to see what you've been up to by yourselves. Before you head off, are there any questions that you would like answered?" She listened to the girls as they spoke up and answered anything they asked. "Right, I'll leave you to your own devices then. I'll be right here if you need anything."

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara's mind was whirling with plans on what she wanted to do that day. Opening the mare's notebook, she jotted down her plans for that day. The other two girls had arrived without her noticing and she jumped as Dr Carr began speaking. Closing the book she looked up, feeling her cheeks heat in embarrassment.

She raised her hand as the veterinarian asked if they had any questions. "If no one else wants to use the arena, may I set up some trotting poles to take Grace over?" She wanted to ask the woman something else, but that could wait until she was alone before she asked if the woman could phone Grace's old trainer and ask a few questions about what he used as a training method. She knew that she could phone the man herself, but she also knew that she would get fobbed off with anything but the truth.

When they were dismissed, she headed into the clinic tack room and collected Grace's turquoise grooming kit and lead rope - since the halter was on the ground by the gate to the mare's yard. She also picked up the lunge line that she had purchased to use with her vet projects and popped in a paperbag filled with the sweet feed nuggets that she made - during her own time, she used one of the ovens in the home economics room (with Ms Sims' permission and supervision of course). She then headed out to the mare's yard.

Leaving the treats inside the kit, which was sealed closed, she slung the lead rope over her shoulder, picked up the halter off the ground and headed into the middle of the yard. "Grace, here girl." She made a smooching noise and waited as the mare walked to her. "Good girl." She praised the mare as she rubbed her forehead and then slipped the halter over her nose, fastened the poll strap and clipped the lead onto the tie ring. Walking the mare closer to the fence, she opened the grooming kit and then went to work with the bonding process of their daily routine.

She ran a soft brush over the mare's coat - she learned early on that the pretty horse didn't like stiff bristles on her skin - and removed the dust and dirt she had gained during her night in the stall and her short time in the yard so far that morning. She then tenderly ran her hands over every inch of the mare's body, including under her tummy, udder and the under side of her dock.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda smiled at the thought of being dragged out of bed for the class, thinking about the few times when she had actually had been asleep when the veterinarian had called. This hadn't been one of those times, obviously, but it was nice of the woman to apologize, even if there was probably no need for it at all. At the mention of a transformation in the horses, Miranda nodded, knowing that Dynamite was the least-transformed, although even her bay had calmed down over the months. He was finally staying still with people walking past him, although he did seem to have a safety zone of about a yard around his stall.

Zoning back in, she heard Dr. Carr ask for their journals and held hers out, hoping that the woman wouldn't be too angry to her not writing as much. There was only so often that she could write 'still scared of everything, but getting slightly better' without it being repetitive. However, there was nothing she could do about it now, not that there was much she could do to force Dynamite to behave himself. At Cara's question, she shook her head. She wanted to work for a little bit with Dynamite, mostly walking past him, at the edge of his comfort zone for a few minutes, but after that, she was planning on starting to groom Fingal.

The grey needed to have his physical and the coggins test done, but she was hoping to put it off for another week, until she had the gelding trusting her all over even with objects other than her hands. After the good six months that they had waited, due to his demeanour, she doubted an extra seven days would matter, although she did plan on bringing the matter up to her mentor soon.

As they were dismissed, Miranda smiled at the group and left them, slipping into the barn and past the tack room. She knew she wouldn't need anything from there just yet, not until she had spent the time with Dynamite. As she passed the gelding's stall the first time, with about a yard's space between them, she held her breath, waiting to hear the bay explode again. However, the barn stayed mainly silent, and after exiting the barn's other door and turning around, she walked past, daring another few inches closer. She could hear Dynamite shifting away this time, but he stayed relatively still, so Miranda knew she was close to his threshold. The next pass, she took even slower, just meandering past, staying her course as she heard the gelding kick out, knowing that his head would be high as he watched her.

At least he was used to the light that allowed him to see, she mused as she exited the barn and looped around, towards the tack room now. She was glad that the time in the near-black hadn't affected his vision, or at least, hadn't seemed to have done too much harm. He could still see, at least. How much, she wasn't sure, but it wasn't on the list to test yet either. That would have time when the gelding was a bit safer to be around.

[Rose Hoff]

Rose gave a small smile when Dr. Carr apologized for dragging them out of bed. She didn't mind, and was always up and out by this time anyways. This was indeed the best time for them to meet, and was actually very convenient. She appreciated that Dr. Carr was impressed by the progress, and was rather relieved. She thought that her work with Fly had been going well, and she was getting closer to speeding up the progress a bit and seeing how Fly worked under saddle. Once she cleared up the pushing issue, she could move on to that uncharted territory.

When asked, she handed her journal to Dr. Carr with a smile and shook her head when she was asked if she had any questions. In response to Cara's question she shook her head and then made her way over to Fly's yard. She greeted the mare with a pat on the neck and then went to the tack room to collect the mare's grooming bucket. After returning, she grabbed the mare's halter, which was next to the gate, and entered.

She haltered Fly and then took a step away, staying near the fence where the mare had already been standing. She'd done the same time last time she'd seen Fly, but she'd had a lead on the mare. She didn't suspect that this would be much different, as Fly didn't make any moves to retreat from Rose. She did, however, seem to remember what she had learned last time and didn't go to immediately corner Rose against the fence like she had last time.

Fly did stay close to Rose, and still made attempts to pressure her into moving where she wished, but each time the mare entered her space, Rose patiently pushed her out of it, just as she had before. She made sure to come up to the mare and pet her every once in a while so that she wouldn't be completely wary of her and knew that it was fine to be near Rose when Rose approached her, but not okay to invade her space.

[Demeter Carr]

Dr Carr smiled warmly as she gathered up the proffered journals, pleased that none of the three girl's held back - which was always a clear indication that the journals hadn't been kept up to date.

She wasn't at all surprised when none of them had any questions to ask her and she remained silent as the girls sorted themselves out, it seemed that they all had plans for that morning's workout. "Remember, we have all the time in the world today." She said. "Meaning that you can spend as much or as little time as you wish to spend. I hear they are serving pizza for lunch today, so if you'd like me to, I could have a couple of pizzas brought over for lunch." She had planned to have some slices sent over to the clinic for her own lunch and asking for a couple of pizzas for them to share amongst themselves wouldn't be too hard.

She sat back on her barrel as the girls got up and went to work with their charges. She divided her time between looking through the notebooks and watching the two girls working with the mares in their yards. She was thoroughly impressed with the information each of the girls had kept so far while working with their chosen horse and she could see the different ways that they were working, but at the same time how they were heading toward the same outcome.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Once she had finished the bonding session with the mare, and Grace had willingly - not obediently - followed her around the yard, the girl knew that it was time to head to the arena. Just because it was the right thing to do, Cara clipped the lead onto the tie-ring of the mare's halter and, without even really holding it, led the way out of the yard and toward the arena.

Once in the arena, she unclipped the lead rope and they walked around the track, giving Grace the chance to look at the poles that had been set up. "It's alright, wee lassy." Cara whispered as she reached up and cupped the mare's chin as Grace bumped her shoulder gently, looking for reassurance. "Nothing is going to hurt you here." She knew that the actual words meant nothing to the mare, but her soothing sing-song voice would calm and reassure the mare.

After they had finished their circuit of the arena, Cara took the mare down the end that she had left empty and, with a simple movement of her hand, she sent the mare out and lunged the mare at liberty, getting her muscles warmed up before they went toward the poles. Stepping slightly in front of the mare, she nodded as Grace skidded to a halt, sat back on her haunches, spun around and headed off in the other direction.

When she was happy that the mare was warmed up and moving nicely, and just the way she moved made the Arabian bloodlines mixed throughout the mare's breedings stand out, the girl called the mare to her and clipped the leadrope back into the halter and led her toward the ground poles once more. This time however, she didn't led the mare passed them, she walked her toward them. Cara walked forward confidently, not even hinting to the mare that she was worried that Grace would pull back or balk - as that was normally the reason horses refused - and led her over the two straight poles and then over the one to their left before circling the mare around, crossing over the other diagonal pole and then back over the first two poles they had crossed. Back at the beginning she made huge fuss over the mare and used her body language as much as her physical rewards to praise the mare for a job well done. She then repeated the process at a trot, which the mare did without a hint of fuss or fear. To reward her even more, she led the mare away from the poles and took the rope off the halter, letting her loose in the arena. "What was that for?" She asked the mare as Grace took a couple of steps forward in a canter and let out a large buck.

Heading back to the poles, Cara replaced the two angled poles for cavaletti - set to their lowest height so the mare wouldn't have to to any more than just slightly pick her knees up a bit more.