From Babies to Champions

[Tobias Xayarath]

Tux paused by the doubled foaling stall that he'd filled with his classes' newest members... The foals, of course. Not really students in the academy's eye. Right in that stage between newborn and weanling, gangly legs and bodies that they needed to grow into. It was an awkward stage, but a fun age for his students.

With a final pat for the foals, he made his way towards the classroom, propping the door wide open after he'd entered. After a visit to the fridge, to retrieve his water bottle that he'd stowed there earlier, he made his way to the armchair at the front of the room, arguably 'the teacher's chair'. There, he waited, smiling and greeting the students as they entered, before he asked them to find a seat, any of the armchairs would do. His classes were small, but he didn't mind in the slightest.

When all of his students were present, Tux smiled and began, not bothering to rise. He didn't stand much on formality. They knew who he was, if only by the fact that he'd just told them to sit down, “Hello, all, welcome to foal handling. I'm Mr. Xayarath, Tux if you prefer. We're just going to go over basic rules briefly and then we'll go out and meet the foals and start the lesson.” That's when he got up, walking over to the whiteboard to write down the basics of the rules as he spoke.

“Use your common sense. There's no reason to be running, if you need to get my attention, walk, or use your cell phones. Yes, I can text, I assure you.” He wrote his cell phone number in the corner, “Secondly, while assigned to you, these horses are not yours. The barn staff can and will ask you to step back if we see an issue. That being said, we will give you as much space as we can, and with time, you will be making more decisions for your charges, including their feed rations and their turn-out schedules."

“Before we head out, are there any questions you may have about the foals, this class, or myself?”

Avery Durand
Hazel Sheridan
Maeve McKenna

[Maeve McKenna]

Having two classes... well, technically this was an extra curricular activity, but she was counting it as a class. Since she had two classes in Evening Primrose, she guessed that she, the girl who'd had pretty much zero hands-on experience with horses a little over a year ago, was going to become very familiar with this barn. She just had to make sure that her beloved horse didn't feel like he was an after-thought now.

Making her way up to the classroom, she smiled toward the barn manager as he greeted her, and she threw herself into one of the chairs. As she waited for things to kick off, she dug through her messy bag and pulled out a purple Hello Kitty mermaid notebook and a collection of pens.

She jotted down Tux's name and number in the inside cover of the book and then listened. Yes, she had questions, but decided to keep quiet for now and shook her head as she waited to see of the others would speak up, keen to go and meet the foals. She couldn't help but wonder if they would look any different to Mustang foals.

[Avery Durand]

Avery stopped by her room briefly to unvest Saskia and then left the dog laying on her bed, before grabbing a small bag with notebook and pen and heading off again. This class she didn't want to bring the dog to, even though the school officials had given her the option of discussing how to accomplish it. It wouldn't be all that helpful anyway.

So, dogless, she headed to the Evening Primrose barn and found the classroom. She nodded at the teacher, and then waited for class to begin. As he started writing the rules, the teacher turned away from her, and Avery made a note on her notebook to talk to him after class, to make sure she got everything he was now saying. She wrote down the phone number and the text he wrote anyway, but who knew what other info he was giving?

When he turned back to the class, she shook her head. Yes, she had questions. But they weren't the type of thing she could ask right now.

[Tobias Xayarath]

Tux was glad that there weren't any questions yet, and he stood and held open the door for the class, if you could even call them that, out ahead of him. As they were passing, he saw a device on one girl's ear and was reminded of a conversation that he'd had with the principal, one that he'd forgotten about - But he would need to bring the paperwork that he'd prepared ahead of time for that student.

It was only really a few steps to the stalls where the foals were, and he stopped in front of them, making sure that he faced the girl who had the hearing aid. "Today is just going to be about getting to know your new friends - There should be enough room in the stall for each of you, it is unfortunately too cold to do this outside. Next session we will begin with halter training, but a good foundational relationship will go a long way. And I will have paperwork on your foal for you at the end of class."

The foals all crowded close, which made it easy for Tux to lay a hand on each one as he named assignments, "Maeve, you will be working with Carbon, this dark bay lad. Avery, you will be working with Bernadine, this little lady. And Hazel, you will be with Robin, the flashy sweetheart." He stepped away to let the girls figure out how to get into the stall and sort out their foals, glad that he'd left the other two in another stall - No need for that much jealous jostling.

[Maeve McKenna]

Maeve reminded herself to rein it in when they rose to their feet, as clapping her hands in excitement probably wasn't the best thing to do right now, no matter how much she wanted to, and she followed their teacher to the foals.

She nodded as the man spoke about what they would be doing, smiling as he told her who her foal would be. She took the time to look over the door and study the dark bay, who almost stood defiantly in the stall with his friends. "Thank you." She said with a smile.

She stepped to open the door as the barn manger stepped away. "Hi." She greeted the foal closest to the door as she opened it enough so that she could enter the stall. Keeping her energy lowered, she made her way toward Carbon, allowing the colt the chance to get the measure of her as she got closer, but not getting so close as to be completely in his face and to give him the option to move away or closer as he saw fit, while also making sure she wasn't in the way of the other foals or humans.