A step in the Right Direction

[Demeter Carr]

Demeter dropped a small flake of hay into each of the yards at the equine clinic. She smiled as some of the horses pushed forward to munch away on their food, while others held back and regarded the situation before cautiously stepped forward and nibbled away, always on full alert, and the four horses that were here for the rehabilitation clinic were the most cautious of all. This was a new place for them, even though they had all arrived a week earlier, and they were still learning to trust their surroundings.

The veterinarian walked over to the collection of upturned barrels that was as close to a classroom as she got when the sun was out. If the weather turned on them while they were discussing things, they would move to the hayloft in the barn, which was set up as a learning room for the students to use at their will. She opened the box that was beside her set and looked at the notebooks that were nestled inside. She knew that she could have had the students supply their own notebooks, but these ones had worked so well with the last group that she didn't see the point in not repeating it.

She smiled warmly as the students arrived one at a time, and once the four of them were sitting down she knew it was time to get started. "Welcome. For those who don't know me, I'm Dr Carr, the local large animal vet. Before we go over and meet your new friends, I'm going to be boring and make you all introduce yourselves and share a bit about why you choose to take part in this course." She smiled, knowing that she had put the students on the spot. She looked at the canine. "Of course, you don't have to share."

Once they had gone through the niceties she pulled the box closer to herself. "While you are here, there are a few rules to remember; Firstly, I've got papers to prove that I know what is best for these animals. If I think that you are doing something that isn't helping them, you are to listen to me, though I will listen to your reasoning. Please don't change their feed without talking to me first. You will keep a notebook on your time with your assigned horse, if you can't keep the notebook, you may as well leave now." She pushed the box into the centre of the students' semi-circle and let them select the book they wanted, which would leave one in the box. "Finally, don't ever enter these grounds if you are in a bad mood. Even if we are having an assigned get-together, if you are in a grump, send me a text, and you will be excused. If you arrive in a grump, I will be showing you the gate." She knew that the last bit would raise a few eyebrows, but the horses her didn't need negative energy around them. "Right, follow me."

She led the way over to the yards. "Anna, this beautiful Fjord is Forseti." The students already knew who they were working with, as she had sent each of them a copy of the horse's file. "Miranda, you already know Iskierka. Leo, this is Barque." She paused at the last yard and turned to face Luka before she spoke. "Luka, this is Jester. Give him a chance to get to know Bruno and I'm sure you'll be fine to have your pup in the yard with you." She had a good feeling the Jester would be fine with the canine. "I'll be down with Beauty, the bay Thoroughbred, if anyone needs me." At though she was still facing Luka, she raised her voice slightly to address each of the students.

There is only one of each notebook, so in your post can you please put down the colour book that your character had chosen. And the ink colour in the pen is black, even though the colour on the pen matches the notebook

[Othello Buskirk]

Othello pulled his blue cap down on his head and made his way out of the House and down toward the Equine Clinic. After a busy first week of school, he was excited about the rehabilitation course, as he hoped that it would help him get closer to his dream of becoming a vet. He was dressed in jean jodhpurs and sleeveless shirt with a checked shirt over the top. The weather was trying to change, trying to get a bit cooler, but he didn't want to chance over heating. He wasn't sure how much of his Saturday would be taken up with the course, so he made sure that his backpack had enough supplies in it to keep his sugar levels up and to keep his stomach at bay.

Walking around the building, he walked through the gate and headed over to the place where they met up for the vet clinic during vacation. He had enjoyed the clinic a lot, and had enjoyed working with Miranda. He smiled his greeting to the veterinarian and took a seat on one of the barrels. When Dr Carr began speaking, he almost wanted to groan when they were asked to introduce themselves. "I'm Leo. I chose to take this course because I like helping animals." He didn't want to get into the fact that he wanted to be a vet, not yet anyway.

He looked in the box and after looking through the notebooks, he picked up the blue one and held it against his chest, moving back so that the others to have a look through the box. He then rose with the others and they made their way over to the horses. He looked at the Fjord and Black Forest horses and then smiled as he saw the Clydesdale he had been given to work with. "Hi, Barque." He said softly as he offered the gelding his hand, not at all unfazed when the horse ignored him. "Can I come in?" The horse was stunning to look at, and from just looking, he would never guess that Barque had back problems.

He nodded his head as he heard Dr Carr's words. He remained a good distance away from the gelding as he walked a circled around the horse, looking at him from all angles. Barque stood nicely on all four feet, not at all looking like he was in any pain.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda washed her hands in the feed room, glad with how far she'd gotten that morning. She had mucked out almost all of the stalls already, save for Dynamite's, with whom she needed more time than she had before class started in any case. She was excited to officially start working with her newest case, Iskierka, although she had already shortened the name that the mare had come with to a more manageable 'Iski', as an unofficial nickname.

After drying her hands, she slipped a few alfalfa cubes into her pocket from the store that they kept and left the feed room, heading in the direction of the overturned barrels. She chose one on the edge and grinned at Dr. Carr, then turned to glance at Fingal before sweeping her gaze towards the black forest mare that would officially be hers to work with in a few minutes. As Othello joined them, Miranda grinned at him, then turned her attention to the other two students who arrived, glancing curiously at the dog before turning her attention away, not wanting to be caught staring.

She listened to Dr. Carr, then waited for Othello to finish his own introduction before she spoke up, "My name is Miranda, I'm taking this class because I enjoy working with horses, and it gives me an excuse to spend more time here." Not true, she would spend the same amount of time at the clinic, but Iski had grown on her in the past week, so she had managed to squeeze into the class. She listened to the other two students, noting their names as they introduced themselves.

She glanced at the notebooks, the same make as ones they had used before, and then took the orange, which was the closest to Iskierka's barn colour of the four remaining. She listened to the rest of the vet's rules, nothing new, before she rose to follow her mentor, resisting the urge to move straight to Iskierka's yard. When she was introduced to the mare, she entered carefully, leaving her notebook and pen outside. As she approached the mare, holding out a treat for her, she made sure to keep her body relaxed to allow the mare to approach. She needn't have worried, though, as Iskierka came straight for her, ears pricked, and started investigating her, first taking the treat and then going over the rest of Miranda, nudging rather forcefully at her pocket that held the other treats.

Keeping her position, Miranda drew herself up, knowing what the first thing she had to do with the mare was. She eyed the mare and stretched out her arms, giving the mare a gentle nudge wherever she fell within her 'bubble'. The mare looked perplexed at first, but stepped back, and Miranda relaxed her stance slightly, watching the mare without focusing on her.

[Deleted]

Luka had arrived with enough time to spare at his next class, Equine Rehabilitation, to suss out the situation. He had chosen a lot of hands on, practical classes, but none that were mounted. His hearing disability had him at a loss there, but he was planning on finding the Eventing coach and requesting private lessons. Back in Seattle, his instructor had managed to work out a system for lessons, based on the use of flags, and capturing Luka's attention.

Taking a seat, he saw a boy he shared some of his other classes with, giving him a friendly smile. Bruno lay down at his feet, and Luka faced the teacher. He read her lips with ease, cracking a small smile at her words. Bad moods and horses did not go together, unless it was Aleena, who sometimes put him in a foul mood just by being her mareish self. He usually forgave her for mostly everything, and the theory he was learning in Natural Horsemanship had Aleena learning her ground manners. It was a good learning experience for both of them.

Luka chose the olive green notebook, and then stood, Bruno automatically standing as well, which allowed Luka to bend to pick up his lead. Following Ms.Carr to the horses, he waited patiently for his horse, and he smiled when he saw the Suffolk Punch gelding. He waited until Ms. Carr had left, and he had ordered Bruno to lie down, he smiled, slipping into the pen. He placed his notebook outside, waiting for the gelding and just observing him.

The horse seemed nervous, possibly from his new surroundings and having someone unfamiliar in his pen, but Luka didn't move. Instead, he just sat down, and waited. It wasn't long before the hot breath on his neck, and he held out his palm, offering the gelding a sugar cube. Dainty lips, lipped it up, and Luka slowly stood to face the gelding.

Hey big man, he crooned softly, smiling, gently stroking the gelding's cheek. You're okay, he added just as softly as he saw Jester's ears flick back and forth, seeming uncertain. Luka had made sure to give the gelding enough space, and not for him to feel trapped or panicked in his surroundings.

[Deleted]

Anna checked the time on her phone as she hurried to the Equine Clinic for her first Equine Rehabilitation meeting. She had received the information about the mare she would be working with, but she really needed to meet the mare before she made any judgments about what she would do. Once arriving, she found her way around to where she had gone for the vet clinic during the summer, and found her classmates sitting on overturned barrels, with Dr. Carr nearby. Taking a seat once she reached them, she made it just in time to hear Dr. Carr's introduction.

Listening to the rest of the student's give their introductions, Anna realized that her reason for joining the class would be similar to that of the rest of the students, but then again, it only made sense. When it came her turn, she spoke quietly, but loud enough for everyone to hear. "My name is Anna Edwards. I am taking part in this class because horses have given me so much, and I'm hoping that this class will give me a chance to give back to them a little bit." All of Dr. Carr's rules seemed very reasonable, and Anna chose her notebook last, picking up the black one that was among those left. 

Standing to follow Dr. Carr when instructed, Anna held her notebook between her fingertips, and inhaled suddenly when she was introduced to Forseti. She'd known that the Fjord mare had been injured, but somehow she hadn't been ready for the deep cuts that ran over Forseti's legs and side. Those were the most obvious injuries, but more became apparent when Anna looked closer at the mare. By this time, Dr. Carr had moved on with the other students, and Anna set her notebook down.

The mare's ears were pricked towards Anna, and it was obvious that she was very wary. She didn't look ready to flee though, and looked as if she was assessing whether or not Anna was dangerous. Moving slowly, Anna opened the gate and closed it behind her, standing close to it as she and the mare assessed each other. "Hello sweetie." She murmured, reaching a hand out, but not facing Forseti fully, so that she wouldn't look as if she was posing a threat. The mare just continued to look, and Anna figured that she would have to approach the mare first. 

Beginning to walk slowly, Anna made her way around the yard, bordering close to the fence the whole time so that she was a good distance away from Forseti, who stood in the middle, watching Anna all the while. She assessed the mare from all angles, taking note in her mind of all of the mare's visible injuries.

[Demeter Carr]

Notebooks:
Anna: Black
Luka: Olive
Miranda: Orange
Othello: Blue

Demeter smiled as she walked towards the bay mare, reaching out her hand, she tickled Beauty's chin. The mare had been at the Academy long before she became veterinarian, but had arrived after she had finished being a student here, and had kind of become the clinic's mascot. Perfectly healthy when Dem first took the position, she couldn't understand why the mare was still at the clinic and hadn't been given to an equine retirement home. However, she couldn't part with the mare either, and it was a good thing too, since there had been three foals that needed the care of a been there, done that horse.

Letting herself into the mare's yard, she stood, watching the students while she rubbed the mare's body, using her fingers to really massage the mare's skin. "Hey!" She protested as Beauty really got into the massage and stated leaning into the woman's hands. "If you lean like that, I'll fall over and you'll crush me." She stopped massaging and gave the mare a shove, making her balance her stance again before she continued.

All the while her attention was on the students working with the four rehabilitation cases.

As soon as you work out a "stable colour" for your horse,
let me know and I'll update the patient list.

[Othello Buskirk]

Othello remained where he was standing by the fence, examining the horse that was examining him as well. In some ways he wished that there was a round pen here at the clinic, as he really wanted to see the horse moving - freely, not on a lunge. However, as this wasn't possible, he knew that the only way he could work anything out was actually walking up to the gelding and getting hands-on with Barque.

Leaving the gelding's yard, he went into the barn's feed room and helped himself to a handful of alfalfa cubes and then into the tack room where he grabbed the brush and hoofpick out of the gelding's named box and returned to the Clydesdale's yard. "Hey big boy." He said softly as he held out his hand, offering some alfalfa cubes to the gelding. "There's a good boy, you can walk the rest of the way." He stopped walking and gave the gelding the decision to come the rest of the way. "Good boy." He praised as Barque closed the gap between them and carefully took the reward from the teenager's hand.

Leo moved to the gelding's side and ran the brush over the bay's coat, watching the horse's reaction to every brush stroke. He knew that if there was anything wrong with the gelding's back, his gentle brushing wouldn't cause any problems, but if the gelding had been mishandled in any way he would be sensitive about where he was touched and could possibly kick out if his back was touched as he would remember it being sore, even if Leo wasn't hurting him. And, although the gelding's coat rippled as he was bring groomed, Barque didn't kick out. The boy also took a mental note of the scars that criss-crossed the gelding's back and flanks, which must have been from being over whipped when he wouldn't move.

Once he had finished with the brushing, Leo moved on to picking out the horse's hooves. Standing back to observe the gelding's dinner-plate feet while he was standing, the dark skinned boy stepped forward and running his hand down Barque's left shoulder, he clicked his tongue and squeezed ever so gently on the cannon bone. "Up." And just like that, Barque lifted his hoof. While he picked the muck out of the gelding's hoof, he took note of how clubby the hoof looked, as he was sure there was more heel there then there should have been. Soon enough, he had finished cleaning the hooves, noting the clubby-ness in each of the hooves.

Giving the gelding's forehead a run, Leo left the gelding to it as he removed the lead rope from the horse's halter, walked to the gate, left the brush, pick and rope on the ground, and exited the yard. Walking back over to his bag, he pulled out his drink and took a swallow before he pulled out his i-pad and brought up the internet and then started googling reasons of back pain in horses. He was sure he had remembered one of the temp-vets that had come to his grandparents' farm saying something about how to properly check for back pain and how to work out whether it was the back that was in pain or not. He knew that he could be doing this in the gelding's yard, but Barque had been so well behaved so far, he thought he'd leave the gelding in peace for a bit - well, that and to get out of the sun.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda knew from the papers that she had gotten about the mare that Iskierka was head-shy, but she wanted to see for herself what was going on, so that she would know exactly what to work with. Was it just hands approaching her head, where they were approaching, what was it that made Iski so worried about having her head touched? As she stretched out her hand to let the mare sniff it before she tried petting her, she planned her route, working up the neck towards the head.

As Iskierka sniffed at her hand, butting against it a few times, Miranda used her free hand to pull an alfalfa cube from her pocket, holding it ready to be used in case the mare got uneasy, which she should. Starting at about the mare's withers, which seemed to be okay with the mare, Miranda started half massaging, half rubbing the mare's coat, using small circles as she worked her way up the chocolate-coloured neck. Iskierka turned her head, trying to look at what Miranda was doing, but as she kept going, the mare straightened out her head again and started leaning into Miranda's fingers.

As Miranda reached her ears without a hint of a problem, she was wondering why they had sold the mare as being head-shy. She shifted positions to get a better view and started at the mare's nose, which was fine, working her way up the mare's face until she reached just about between the mare's eyes. All of a sudden, the mare collapsed, sending Miranda jumping back in surprise. Cursing her reaction, she looked at the mare, who looked for all purposes like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Considering this, she breathed out, steadying herself, "Okay."

Letting herself calmly out of the mare's yard, she walked over to Beauty's yard, "Dr. Carr? Iskierka collapsed." She wasn't sure what to do, but as she looked over to where the mare had been laying, she saw the horse standing, her side dirty, but with no other indication of what had just occurred, "She did! I don't know what happened, I was rubbing her head, trying to see why they marked her as 'head-shy', and all of a sudden, she collapsed."

[Deleted]

Luka was amazed at the size of the big gelding, but as he kept running his hands along the gelding's neck, he wondered what the gelding's history was. It seemed that the horse didn't really have any problems, at least not visible that he could think of. The more he stood with the gelding,the more he felt the horse relax under his hands, Luka could only smile. He was a sweet horse, but just needed a little time to start trusting the person interacting with him.

Jester leaned his head against Luka's chest, and Luka smiled. It was like most horses who really just wanted some love and cuddles. Curious about the gelding, he stepped away, and Jester eyed him before taking a step towards him. Okay, so they would have to work on boundaries. Once more Luka stepped away, but this time he straightened his posture and squared up slightly, appearing aggressive. This time the gelding stayed in place, ears flicking back and forth as he watched Luka.

Luka relaxed again, this time inviting the gelding into his space, and Jester didn't hesitate in taking those few steps towards him. Luka spent some more time fussing over the gelding before leaving the pen and taking his notebook, making some notes on Jester before he forgot about it.