The Rhythm Inside

[Jessamine Smith]

Jessa enjoyed her weekends. Her routine didn't vary too much early in the morning - She turned out her horses, skipped out their stalls, and ate breakfast, but after that, she didn't have to hurry to class. Instead, she turned in the direction of the farriery to see what Talia was planning for that day. Sometimes the farrier didn't have anything for her to do, but occasionally, there was something interesting to watch, or Talia would have time to help Jessa with trimming Zo's hooves, or let her practice on Alien or Jaffa.

She grinned as Manat came bounding up to her, detouring within the radius of the dog's tie-out cable to give her a good scratch behind the ears, then picked up the stick that the rottie had brought along. She tossed it carefully along the line so that it would land within the dog's reach, then continued on, "Where's the boss today?"

[Talia Ezra]

Talia replaced the phone on the charging unit and rested her forehead on her good arm. She had just spent the past hour on the phone, making sure that she would have a farrier on hand should she have any horses turn up needing a new shoes or any emergency, as well as handle any of her shoeing appointments for the next three to six months.

Straightening up, she rose to her feet and headed to the door, wondering if Jessa had arrived yet, and wondering if her student was ready to step up to the part of being her assistant. The girl had come along in leaps and bounds since they had started working together, and she was confident that the girl was competent enough in her job to be able to handle trimming of feet.

She smiled as she heard the teenager's voice, not surprised that Manat had grabbed the girl's attention already. "I was making some calls." She said with a shrug as she held up her right arm, that was covered in a cast from hand to elbow, before slipping it back into the sling.

[Jessamine Smith]

Jessa's jaw dropped as she saw her mentor's arm in a cast. "What did you do?!" she exclaimed, "That looks serious." What would that mean? Another farrier, who maybe wouldn't let her follow along? Hopefully Talia would at least let her trim Zo's feet - he was about due anyway, and there was no way she'd let a new person handle him.

[Talia Ezra]

Tal laughed. "Shetlands are devils." She said. "Trimming the back feet of one in the weekend, he was stronger than I was and didn't like the thought of me touching his legs again, so kicked me, broke my radius in two places. Hazards of the job." It had been her own fault anyway, and the pony had been in pain.

She studied Jessa for a moment. "How confident are you in trimming hooves?" She was confident the girl could do it, but Jessa needed to have the same level of confidence.

[Jessamine Smith]

Jessa nodded at that with a wry grin. It did seem to be common, the ponies were the toughest clients. "Ouch!"

She paused at Talia's question. That wasn't what she'd been expecting, "Fairly confident, I guess. Although you're making me nervous about doing any ponies in the future." She considered her experience, "I've done Alien and Zo, and Jaffa."

[Talia Ezra]

Tal nodded, it had been a bit ouch at the time, now it was just annoying, heavy and itchy.

She nodded at the girl's answer and then quickly shook her head. "He was hurting, and my handling his feet wasn't helping... well, in his opinion it wasn't helping. If he was a bigger horse, probably would have done more damage." She paused as she rubbed Manat's head as the Rottie pressed her nose into the woman's leg. "If you think you are up to it, I'd like you to do the trimming that needs doing until I get this off. I'll get someone else to come in and do the shoeing side of things, but if you think you are ready, and I wouldn't be suggesting it if I didn't think you were, I'd like you to handle those that only need trimming."

[Jessamine Smith]

Jessa nodded at that, "It's hard when you can't tell them that you're trying to help." She'd had that problem plenty of times with Zo too - Not for trimming, but just in general. Hard to explain that the poky needle would prevent his brain from getting infected.

As she heard Talia's plan, it took a lot of effort to keep her jaw from dropping. The woman really thought she'd be ready for that? She stammered for a moment, then paused to regroup, "That sounds daunting, but I guess it's no different from Zo or Jaffa." She glanced at the woman, worried, "You'd still be there, right?"

[Talia Ezra]

Tal nodded; in some ways it would be easier if horses could talk and understand English, but then she really didn't want to know what some horses were thinking about their owners.

"I will be here with you, every step of the way." She assured the girl with a smile. "Just, our roles will now be reversed and I'll be the one at the horse's head, and you working on the hooves." And she really did have faith that the girl would be fine with her new responsibilities. Of course, it would also be up to the owner of the horse if they too were happy with it. She'd already spoken with the barn managers and they were happy with the situation; after all, they had both seen the girl's work on the horses she trimmed already.