Lava Has A Name {OPEN}

[Alexander Fox]

It was about time Alexander Fox had managed to make his way over to the barn in order to meet the horse he had picked out earlier that day, Millennium Rose (or Molten as she was called). The Chestnut Oldenburg, he had heard, was a jack of all trades, she could do most anything in Equitation if asked correctly, yet was sometimes too stubborn to do as she was told. It didn't seem like she'd be much of a challenge, but Alexander wasn't going to complain. He'd rather be able to enjoy his time riding instead of having to deal with a green horse who didn't want to respond to any of the commands he'd given it. Okay, so he'd gotten a bit of practice for doing that while at IHSA, but he was still use to dealing with Destiny and her willingness to do just about anything he told her to do. Even still, horses were just like humans. Each one had it's own unique personality, their own quirks, and it was the riders job to either fix the flaws, or learn to adapt to them and use them to their advantage. It was a difficult job, but it was one of his favorite parts about horses. He loved getting to know them, everything. To be honest, it was much more fun then getting to know humans, besides...at least horses never tried to pick a fight with him.

Alex took a deep breath of air as he stepped into the stable area as the sweed smell of hay, horses, and manure drifted into his lungs. Though...well manure wasn't on his top lists of favorites, but it came with the smell of horses and he guessed he was okay with it. "Alright, she should be somewhere around...here." He spoke to himself amidst the quiet chatter of the stable. It was far enough past morning and close enough to the afternoon that most people were either already out riding or at lunch at the moment. It wasn't like he minded, though, he liked the quiet, and it would give him a chance to get to know Molten. "Molten." Alex stepped over to the stall door and glanced inside at the tall chestnut mare. He was told they normally kept the horses inside, but had choosen to keep several of the newly leased horses on the inside for people to find them. Her ears perked as she brought her skull up from its rested position and glanced over at Alex allowing the young adult to get his first real good look at the Oldenburg.

She was beautiful, for lack of any better words. The sorrel Oldenburg had a well-crafted dial a tiny white star buried into the chestnut fur on her forehead. She seemed to be just the right weight, too, they really knew how to take care of their horses at Rowanoak. Her spring coat was littered with shavings, including her short mane, but a good grooming would be quick to get rid of those. "Aren't you a pretty girl." Alexander commented as he pulled the halter from its spot on the wooden wall and unlatched the stall door, stepping inside. As soon as he stepped in Molten raised her head higher and stepped towards him, sticking her muzzle out to identify the new arrival. "Hey Molten, I'm Alex." He knew introductions weren't necessary for a horse, but he always felt like treating them a bit more like a friend then just a creature to ride. The mare took a look at him with her big beady eyes before nuzzling his pants pocket, she could smell the treats that he'd brought along with him. "Those are for later," He explained, always wondering if she actually understood what he was telling her. He brushed his fingers through her mane as he pulled the halter over her head and stepped outside with her, not forgetting to close the door behind him.

He had originally planned to tack up inside the stable, but a group of riders coming in from a workout had already taken the few spots available and he instead headed to the outside spots available. Molten followed closely by his side until he hooked her up at one of the outside hitching areas and left to grab his own grooming supplies before quickly returning and began his favorite process of brushing away all the dirt and shavings from her pelt.

{OPEN GAIZ plzbeactive}

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[Damian Lancing]

Damian really couldn’t complain too much about his morning. He had woken up, made coffee and gotten out the door in a timely manner when he finally got up late morning and there had been nothing horribly wrong when he had arrived to the stable that day. He had a simple conversation with Madison before the two went their separate ways, Madison off to the tack store to pick up an order for new wither pads Damian had put in earlier that week and he sat around to deal with the e-mails that had been specially sent to him, after he had fed Squire and Mack, of course. He answered the e-mails, maybe concerning lessons and the school right now as Madison was completely capable of handling anything to do with boarding, before going about and checking some inventory stuff. He mostly kept tract of the vaccines he had to give later that week to the show horses to hopefully avoid them getting a flu or rhino, even though the vaccines were next to pointless he tried anyway. When they were only effective for two months and only most effective during a small amount of time he honestly wondered why he would worry about the vaccines but he did it all anyway.

He only just got to finish that when students came to find him to ask what horses should be ridden that day. He pulled some names out of nowhere and when the students went off to get the horses he finished what he was doing and made his way to office once again. He rechecked e-mails and sent out a couple before checking the clock and realizing he needed to get out to the arena to avoid making his students wait on him so left Madison a note to inform her what still needed to be answered and left the office, limping and having Bourbon follow him closely, as the dog always did. This was a Rowanoak practice as opposed to a Ridgefield lesson and many horses were currently being ridden. Molten was on the top of his list today, along with Whiskey, Splash, Millie, Squire and Mack with one student on their personal horse for the practice this time (their first time ever riding their own horse with him teaching). When the practice was finished he had the students keep Molten and Millie inside for their leasers later in the day.

Once again, Damian went about his business. He checked on Desire, who was happily grazing in the pasture with Sunday, his little pet mare, well, jump mare. After watching the interaction for a second he went and grabbed the stallion and worked with him on long lines for a short time. The school didn’t have a dressage student who could handle the stallion right now so it fell on him to exercise the stallion during his breaks. He soon had another practice and that was directly followed by a private lesson a student had scheduled. It was after that that he decided to go check on Molten and Millie. If the mares were still inside he would put them back out and, well, their leasers could go find them if they could not get to the barn in a timely manner. He was not about to torture, and he did hate stalls enough to call it that, the horses because some students were smart enough to get there when he said they would be waiting for them.

As he walked to the barn he stopped by the lounge to get his Subway, which he had stopped at before coming to the barn that morning and started to eat one half of it, leaving the other in the fridge, as he made his way over to the barn where the mares had been kept. Before he could get inside he smiled to see Molten, correctly safety knotted, to the hitching post outside of the barn with a young man standing next to her and grooming her well, even though she was already mostly clean thanks to the practice she was in earlier. “Hey there,” Damian said, loud enough to make sure he was heard by both the guy and the horse. No need to scare either, though Molten would have seen him and his dog coming for quite some time now. Bourbon was ignoring anything besides the sandwich in Damian’s hand so didn’t care about the new person, who she had to have greeted before, standing by the horse, who she knew better to approach anyway.

“You must be Molten’s new leaser,” he said, with a smile as he leaned against the hitching post, getting his weight off his bad leg. “Sorry… I won’t have your name down for a couple years,” he admitted, hoping he found it a little funny, if nothing else, and obviously asking for his name. “I’m Damian, your Rowanoak coach, and also the Ridgefield manager and jumper instructor,” he said before being able to stop himself. Damn, did his list of titles get long. Then again, he figured it was something he should say. So many people didn’t realize that he was contracted through Rowanoak to coach the NCAA team as well as through Ridgefield to teach students but he was the only one around, currently, with the title of coach and, for some reason, it bothered him when people didn’t get that right away.

“You made a good choice with this girl, she’s very well behaved, but on the lazy side, I usually have people ride her with a short crop,” he informed, patting the mare’s neck affectionately. “She doesn’t need it, you shouldn’t ever use it, but she does perform better when it is being held,” he decided to explain a little more. If he remembered correctly, the young man leasing Molten was also his only beginner rider at the school and the last thing he wanted was for the beginner rider to start overusing a crop on a horse that really didn’t need it. “I also used her in a practice earlier today. She should be fine, she seemed find in the practice and after, at least, but just so you know this is her second ride today.” He finally decided to shut up and see what this boy would have to say.

[Alexander Fox]

The teenage boy put muscle into it as he started circular motions of the curry comb on her short pelt. He could tell by the very faint sweat covering her back that she had been given a ride earlier in the day, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't give her the full grooming he always gave the horses he rode. With each circular motion, chestnut fur fell from Molten coat and blew off in the gentle breeze, either that or it gathered in clumps on the stiff bristles of Alex's worn curry comb. He'd been wanting to buy a new one to replace the old thing at the beginning of the school year, but he had had to put so much of his own money to come to Rowanoak and lease a horse here that he just didn't have the extra to buy something as simple as that. At least, not until his family sent him his daily allowance, which he believed would be sent to him within the next week or so. Sometimes, it really did help for him to have parents with excellent jobs such as his own did. Ever since he'd moved on to college his mother had taken up a new job and they were living with so much more. Normally he did have money on him, and he'd be able to buy some new grooming supplies, but after all the book purchases he had to make along with feeding himself Alex had used most of the money he had been given for these first couple weeks. "As soon as mom sends me some of that extra cash I'll get completely new grooming supplies just for you, Molten." A new face brush, curry comb, hard brush, hoof pick. He wasn't much of the shopper when it came to clothing or even food, but put Alex in a tack store and you won't be able to get him out for hours even after he finds everything he needs.

Once he finished currying Molten's chestnut pelt, the blond-haired boy pulled out a hair brush from his basket of grooming supplies and began brushing the mares short mane. By doing this before brushing her coat he could get out any dust in her mane, as well as knots, and then brush it away with his soft brush. Combing out the knots in Molten's short mane was easy, but when he got to her tail it got a bit more difficult. It didn't look like her last rider had focused too much on the brushing of her long tail, so he focused greatly on it in their place. Alex stood to the side, away from her hooves that, if she decided to, could leave him bruised and broken as he started off at the tip of her tail and slowly made his way through the knots and tangles. 

It was always the longest part of grooming any horse he rode because of the constant swishing of their tail most horses had numerous knots and tangles, and Alexander was just obsessed with getting his horses as clean as possible. So almost five minutes later he'd manage to clean up Molten's tail as much as possible before finally pulling out a soft brush and flicking away the dust bit by bit. Alex started at the base of her head and slowly made his way down her body before a voice pulled him away from his grooming. 

The young adult hadn't even noticed the older man approaching until he spoke with a simple greeting. Molten's head was already turned to greet the familiar face as he approached her. "Hello." Alex greeted the male, not much of a talker when it came to any conversation. The first thing Alex noticed about the dog and man that approached him was the fact that the dog lacked one of her legs. It definitely wasn't something that was too common around well...anywhere. His next observation was the rather obvious limp the man had, and he couldn't help but wonder what happened, but he wasn't one to ask questions of it. Alex didn't like people asking about his tattoos or past life, so he went on to treat people how he wanted to be treated and not ask questions about how things happened in their lives.

Alexander kept his eyes on the man as he continued to speak, "That's right, today's my first day of riding her." He answered, the comment that followed afterwards was obviously a request for the blonde-haired boy's name. "I'm Alexander." He answered, surnames seeming to be of no importance during the current conversation, "I just transferred her from IHSA." He didn't really expect what the man, Damian as he identified himself as, was actually the manager and coach for Rowanoak. If he was the jumper coach then that would mean he'd be under a teaching hand from him sooner or later. When Alexander had received his notice of acceptance for the transfer they had stated he would be placed on a more beginner slate due to a bit of his inexperience. Not that Alexander really minded, but it meant he'd have to wait a little to go on to the more advanced things that he was really interested in trying out. "Nice to meet you, Damian." Alexander smiled lightly, repeating the name in an attempt to stamp it into his memory, he assumed he'd be seeing quite a bit of Damian for the rest of the school year.

Damian continued on telling him a little about Molten, all of which he took to note so he could treat her in the best way possible. "A crop…" Alex trailed off as he repeated the word, it was fortunate enough the horse he rode at IHSA had constantly required one or he wouldn't have one of those right now. Destiny had always responded so well to his commands and he really disliked using them, so when Damian mentioned how she simply moved better with just it's presence he gave an inward sigh of relief. "Oh, that's great. I really don't like using crops when I ride horses, but if she just moves better with it being there…well that's good. I just feel it's a little unnecessary." He pulled a hand up to rub Molten's chestnut neck, rubbing downward in the direction of her fur pelt. His suspicions of a previous ride were proven correct when Damian mentioned Molten had been ridden earlier that day. "That's what I thought since her coats a little sweaty," He mentioned, "So I won't ride her for too long. I'm just hoping to get to know her a little considering I'll be riding her for the rest of the school year." It was one of the few things he was excited about here, not including the lessons and furthering his riding skills. The math and science classes he'd be required to take (despite the fact that he did do well during them) just didn't interest him like that.

Not wanting to be too rude, but needing to continue his grooming so he could get around to tacking up Molten he tried to keep up some kind of conversation as he finished brushing her on her right side and moved away to the left to finish that side. "So…" Sometimes he hated the bit of social awkwardness he had left over from the past few years, but perhaps he should learn a bit more about Molten, "What kind of jumper is Molten? Like…" He tried to think of a way to explain the question he was asking, "She doesn't rush the jumps or anything like that does she?"

[Damian Lancing]

Owning a pinto and a gray, Damian was use d to his horses not being as clean as they could be. As he thought about it, both Squire and Mack could use a good bath right about now, and it helped that the weather had finally taken a turn for the better so he could. Granted, he may rope students into doing that for him. Squire now had a leaser and Mack was so well behaved most people wouldn’t mind giving him a once over in the wash rack either. Though he didn’t mind grooming, he hated bathing and always had. It was probably because his buckskin quarter horse, before he came to college, was very intelligent and easily bored and would never stand for baths. This was also before he knew all that much about horse training so didn’t know how to stop the bad habit so he just dealt with it before every show they had to go to. Granted, it was also helpful that they were jumpers instead of hunters or equitation riders because then cleanliness would be a huge thing and he’d actually have to find a way to keep the white socks on the gelding’s back legs clean.

Damian had never been a fan of working with newer riders. It was one of the reasons he wanted to be an NCAA coach as opposed to an IHSA coach because he hated teaching position, horse sense, grooming or tacking. He had a student that needed horse sense re-taught to her after an accident and now he would have to watch Alexander before deciding how much of a beginner he really was. He was, always, going to be kind and respectful to any student but just the way that Alexander here had been so obsessed with the mare’s tail of all things made him realize that Alexander was going to have to learn that the horse stable was a fast paced environment where the early bird was always one to get the worm. Of course brushing out the tail was a good thing to do every once in a while but the second he was done riding Molten was going back out into the pasture where it would tangle once again. He only ever worried about the tail of a horse if he had free time, which he didn’t anymore. Maybe when the students were home for a short while he could get every horse here show sheened and pretty. Yeah… hopeful thought there Damian.

His thoughts were once again supported at the look Alexander gave him when a crop was mentioned. Experienced riders knew crops and spurs were a part of riding and, when used correctly, were nothing but an extra aid to encourage the horse to do as it is asked. It was always the new riders that disliked the idea of carrying or using one of the above. Sure, he would rather a horse have a little more go than Molten did, but he was also a show jumper where the horses generally had more metal in their mouth than was on his car and stopping them after a course was an Olympic event all in itself but he rode equitation all through college, just like every student here, and was no stranger to how to use either a crop of spurs. Some horses just worked better with them and it was just how life was.

“Get over that thought,” he said, with a smirk on his face. “My uh…” he paused before he could say “ex-fiancee”. That wasn’t something he talked about. “A friend of mine has a bit of the same ideals, but the truth is some horses simply perform better with it. One smack of a crop is better than constant fights with you leg. That just teaches a horse they don’t have to listen to you, which I refuse to let these horses get through their heads,” he said, giving Molten a pat on the neck. He may not change Alexander’s mind with that but after two years riding NCAA he’d get it through his head. Sure, he could understand preferring not to use them or preferring horses that didn’t need them but, honestly, he was going to ride NCAA. He had no choice on the horses he was going to ride so may as well get used to the idea of riding them all.

“She’s fine. She’s a show mare, bred and trained, she could have another work out no problem,” he said running his hand over her back, pinching with his fingers. The mare wasn’t back sore whatsoever, he wasn’t so worried. When the next question was asked Damian couldn’t help but chuckle. “She’s an equitation horse, of course not,” he said honestly. “She’s not slow to them though. She’ll take care of you, knows her spots better than you do. Tends to pull a little left in lines, though,” he continues, thinking of the last lesson he taught on the mare. “Just extra right leg and she’ll straighten out pretty well,” he took a couple of steps back and leaned his weight against the hitching post the mare had been tied to.

“So, what discipline are you looking to go into? If you have any idea yet,” he added onto the end realizing a new rider may or may not really know what disciplines he had the option of pursuing. Molten here was a equitation horse, and a good one at that, but no one could go pro in equitation since you had to stop showing at twenty-one years. Most people rode her as a hunter mount at school. “And do you go by Alexander or something else?” it was always something he thought he should ask because he had met many people out there who actually got pissy when they were called by their given name. He never understood, but he also supposed that was because his name was Damian. What the hell could he go by otherwise? Though, he did have to admit it bothered him when new students called him Mr. Lancing.