New Beginnings {Damian}

[Brooklyn Fraser]

Brooklyn took a deep breath of fresh Kentucky air. She sighed contentedly, a smile settling on her face. It was a mild day, perfect for a ride. Brooke walked down the path to the barn quickly. She couldn't wait to meet Donna, the horse she was going to be leasing.

After reading the descriptions of the stable horses, Donna seemed like a great match for Brooke. She was trained in eventing, Brooke's favorite discipline. She also sounded like such a sweet mare. Brooke had heard that Donna was very responsive to commands. This was good, because Brooke was a very sensitive rider. That wasn't to say that she couldn't be more stern when it was needed, but after years of training in dressage, her aids were much more subtle.

Brooke was dressed in one of her typical riding outfits. She wore tan breeches, tall black boots, a black athletic shirt, and a black vest. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a low, tight ponytail, and her face was clear of any make up. Brooke preferred to appear polished, even if she was just schooling. Appearance was important, and it wasn't like it took a lot of effort to dress nicely.

Brooklyn soon reached the barn, she stepped inside of the building, and inhaled the sweet scent of the horses. "Time to find Donna" Brooke said aloud. The mare shouldn't be too hard to find. After wandering down the barn aisle, she reached a stall that was occupied by a tall dark bay mare. Brooke smiled lightly, and let herself into the stall.

"Hey there girl, you must be Donna" Brooke said in a calm, soothing voice. She walked slowly up to the mare, and carefully raised her hand, beginning to stroke the mare on the neck. "I'm Brooke. I think you and I are going to be good friends." She mare gazed at Brooklyn with dark, intelligent eyes, before going back to munching her hay.

The mare was beautiful, to say the least. Her dark coat was glossy, proof of the impeccable care she received. She was uniquely marked, with a striking blaze, and her two back socks. Her limbs were strong, and Brooke could see the muscles beneath her shinning coat. The girl could hardly wait to ride her. Brooke grabbed the mare's halter from the outside of the stall, and slid it over the mare's nose, and secured it by doing up the buckle behind the mare's ears.

Once the mare was tied up, Brooke went to the tack room, and found Donna's grooming kit. She brought it back to the stall. Brooke began to curry the mare. Donna soon relaxed, enjoying the message-like feeling of the brush. Brooklyn smiled, and continued to groom her new friend, whispering calming words to the mare as she worked.

[Damian Lancing]

Damian was currently running on little to no sleep as he stared blankly at the computer screen in his office. At five in the morning, only three hours since he had gotten home and two since he had been in bed, though he couldn’t tell you if he had been sleeping for sure, when he got a call from Madison at the stable. Apparently, one of their prized geldings was showing signs of colic and he had to get out there right away. It wasn’t more than twenty minutes before he limped into the barn and the horse was loaded into his trailer and they were on their way to the vet not even ten minutes after that. He spoke to Madison during the emergency surgery, while she paced and he gently massaged his bad leg and they chatted over heaven only knows what. They came to the conclusion that the horse coliced due to the quick addiction to Amplify to his food after the hard keeper thoroughbred had lost a good amount of weight that winter. Damian had warned the owner not to do this, to be more careful about the addiction to such a high fat food, but in the end he figured his side had been approved by the vet who came out to tell them, and now the owner that was standing there with the two managers, that the gelding should be fine but would have to stay for observation for several days.

By the time they got back to Ridgefield it was already half after seven and he realized that, by the time he got home and fell back asleep it would be time to get up and feed his own two geldings so he decided he was going to suffer the lack of sleep for a day and stick around. To stay awake he helped with the feedings and told them to go ahead and keep Donna in for the day because her leaser was coming and he would use her before in a practice so she wouldn’t be sitting in a stall for over two hours at a time. All of the horses at Ridgefield were kept outside a vast majority of the time. There were a couple that couldn’t be left out due to lameness issues and the stallions obviously had to rotate a little but beyond that they were outside morning and night. It was not only better for their bodies but for their minds. Horses were not made to be kept in stall, it was like keeping a human in a cell except the horse did nothing wrong. Yeah, he wasn’t going to do that to the horses he was paid to care for.

He went about some paper work he was backed up on, ordered some feed, went to pick up the new saddle he had bought as a schooling saddle and ordered some supplements while he was at it. After that he worked a little with Mack before it was time for the practice. Donna was being very well behaved, as she often was, even though Splash ran around the ring like a nut job despite the very advanced rider on her back. The young mare needed some work, but would figure it out in time as she did try her hardest to please, which was his favorite type of horse right off the bat. If he could still ride Splash here would be his new project. After the practice all the other horses were put outside and he reminded the girl who had been on Donna to keep her in and make sure to give her a good scrub with the curry comb to break up some of the sweat, even though she hadn’t gotten that wet during the ride.

It wasn’t long later when Damian was walking through the barn with Desire, their Hanovarian stallion, when he saw Donna with a girl he did not know tied to the outside of her stall, but not cross tied, of course, because he would throw a fit if he saw any of these horses cross tied. Slowing his limping gate he stopped to let the stallion into an unoccupied stall that had been bedded slightly for the use if just putting a horse there for the need of it. He removed the halter and then walked over to the young woman standing by the mare. “Hey there, you must be Donna’s new leaser,” he said, resting his back against the stall so he could take a good amount of his weight from his bad leg. “You’ll like her, she’s very good at her job,” he said, reaching out his hand and letting the mare sniff it and then turn her head when she realized he had nothing in his hand to offer.

“Well, I’m Damian, your coach at Rowanoak,” he explained. “I’m not sure what you’ve been told about how the team works at Rowanoak, but you’ll have three practices a week, working on equitation, with me and a few other students, so make sure you sign up for a time. You can choose to ride Donna here for one of those, the other two I’ll assign you a horse,” he explained, worrying he was talking to much but he had so far surprised him how few people actually knew how the whole thing worked. So many people seemed obsessed with the fact of riding and working with one horse the whole time and it made him sick, honestly. “I’m guessing you’re an eventer?” he asked, knowing Donna, of course. “You also have the chance to pay for lessons with Jodi Raventhaw, our eventing trainer. I went to school with her, she’s great at her job. You’ll pay for the lessons, the practices are covered in your tuition,” he explained once again, glancing back over his shoulder at Desire, who had stuck his head out of the stall to look back over at Damian. He knew he had been on his way outside and was unhappy with the idea of now being in a stall again, but he would survive.

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