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This is Where I Leave You - Story Added

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:iconlakewoodfarmplz:


:iconequibreak:
Foal Mandatory Training:
1.1. Weaning from the Mother - You are Here
1.2. First time eating hay in an separate stall
2. Wearing a Halter
3. To be lead
4. Accepting the feel of a blanket
5. Foal Inspection


Well, the time has finally come. Heaven is all weaned and Helheim is going home. I'm going to miss her.

1. This is on the Lakewood stable yard. That wall runs alongside the old/original barn and the 'camera angle' is from someone standing in front of the outside stable block. I've drawn it before, but it wasn't made of stone, so you can assume they built it up a bit when the new barn was added on.
2. I love designing stuff. Most of both girls' clothing I made up as I went along, though they likely resemble existing items. Joanna's coat is actually inspired from one I own (and love) while her boots are based on side-lacing riding boots.
3. Heaven has a brown quilted fleece with sherpa lining (sheep's wool) and her usual rope halter (slowly growing into it). Helheim is being brought a quilted thermatex rug. She has a standard nylon headcollar (which I've drawn her in before as she 'arrived' with it - though technically I made that up, too.
4. In the UK we use 'rug' to mean anything from a stable sheet to a turnout, so long as it's shaped to the horse and has some form of fastening. I understand that its different elsewhere, and they're often referred to as 'blankets'. For me, a blanket is literally just that - a square/rectangle, shapeless layer that you secure on a horse with the aid of a surcingle, or just by fastening a rug over the top. And there's a 'correct' way to put on a blanket, too. Most of you may not care, but if the terminology has confused you before - that's why.

...

Story now up :)

FYI - this is a moment on the stable yard where Heaven and Helheim get to say their goodbyes. Heaven no longer needs her mother, and she's adjusted to her not being around already, so this is more of a human construct than anything meaningful for the horses.

...

The date had been in the diary since before Christmas.

There, circled in purple ink (the red had run out) on the 14th of January in the start of the new yard book, was Becca's neat, if rushed scrawl:

Helheim's going home.

And right beside it in black ink one of Chess' unhappy face doodles.

Heaven had been weaned since before the holiday. Thanks to a handful of factors, she'd even taken the changing of her new field friends with grace and a decided lack of bother. So far they'd only put her in paddocks with mares like Mossy, Camber, Aphie and Frosty - some of them large next to her leggy frame, but all of them very laid back when it came to sharing. Eventually she'd have to use her new herd skills and learn her place in a field with the likes of Kiwi, Contessa and even tiny Celta, but right now she was enjoying herself. Her weaning mates had all left before the cold weather really set in, and though Helheim had stuck around given the worsening conditions, she and Heaven had been living mostly separate for the past month or so.

Winter wasn't over by a long margin - not this far north - but it was time for the mare to return to her life.

So Becca made the arrangements over the phone, circled the date in the diary and told everyone. They then all promptly put it out of their minds for a little longer.

-

The morning of the 14th was cold, but bright. The long bouts of relentless rain had been sharing time with biting winds and the occasional low-lying mist that swept over the moor and seeped through the woodland from the canals behind the farm. But that morning saw a reprieve from all of it. The muted sun was still strong enough to cast shadows even if there was a crunch to the ground and a blueish haze to the air.

"When's it coming?" Twitch asked, coming around the partition wall from the tack room and sinking onto the arm of the couch. She kicked away the wellington boots she'd been wearing, lifted her legs and tucked her socked feet under Alec's leg. He stopped rubbing his hands together and instead curled the one closest around her ankle, rubbing almost subconsciously.

Chess, curled into a ball under one of Aphie's stable rugs raised her head, voice mournful as she said, "Just after eleven. Bex is going to give her a light ride after morning feeds, just to take the edge off because she won't be getting home until tomorrow. Once morning yards are done we just need to do a sweep and make sure all her things are packed up."

Becca was nodding along, turning slow revolutions in the desk chair, the diary open on her lap as she tapped the end of the pen against her lips.

It was this scene that Joanna and Eric walked in on.

The both of them were packed into yard jackets and boots, colour in their cheeks from the cold outside air, and the siblings bore an even more striking resemblance than usual. Joanna had switched a day with the Country Club Polo yard so she could be on the Farm to see Helheim leave, but Becca shot Eric a look halfway between amused and puzzled.

"So do you have the flu, a chest infection or tonsilitis?" Chess asked, apparently voicing Becca's thoughts. Alec smirked but said nothing.

"Malaria," Eric answered, deadpan and decisive.

"Mum didn't call in sick," Joanna corrected, cuffing her brother around the head, to which he just snickered, ducking away. "His class has P.E and free study this morning, and since he's caught up with his work, and will be helping to muck out, Dad talked the headteacher into letting him substitute football for horses."

"Seriously?" Alec asked. "Unbelievable - I'd have been in detention for asking that."

"You were in detention for asking that," Twitch pointed out with a fond smile. "More than once."

"And it was boarding school," Becca added. "Its a bit different."

Alec just raised an eyebrow at her, which sort of said it all. He might have been at a boarding school for years, and there may have been rules about skipping classes to ride horses, but he wouldn't want you to mistake anything; he was happier living away at school than he would have been at the old estate he used to call home. And just because there were rules...well...that didn't mean they listened to all of them.

"Nevermind," Becca dropped the topic and turned to Eric. "Since you're here, the minis are all yours. As for the rest of you - Austin's just collecting up the feeds, and morning turnouts are done. Grab a barrow - not the haunted one - and spread out. All the open stables need mucking out - there's plenty of us this morning and a few of them are living out so only three per person. Chess dumped morning haynets outside of the ones staying in, so just hang them when you're done. If you see anything of Helheim's while you're up and down, put it in her tack trunk. All clear?"

"Aye, aye, Captain," Chess saluted her cheerfully and then got regrettably up from the couch, folded Aphie's rug over the arm and led the procession back through the tack room and into the brisk morning air.

-

By eleven in the morning Joanna was standing on the stable yard with Heaven tethered from the ring in the wall.

The Nordanner weanling was muted in the cool sunlight, the plumes in her mane and tail the brightest things on the yard. Even without a haynet to occupy her, she was content to stand still, head lowered and ears relaxed as she leant her weight into the press of the soft body brush as Joanna groomed her. When they'd begun teaching her to stand tied, it was through a give-release system, and usually doubled with attention or food, but she'd caught on quickly and now - particularly when she was doted on - tugging at her lead line didn't even occur to her.

Joanna unbuckled her chocolate quilted fleece, folding it back so she could continue brushing down her side and was only distracted by the appearance of one of the pygmy goats trotting happily up the yard and slinking quietly into the feed room.

"Uh..." Joanna called out, lifting the brush and scraping at the hairs in it with the curry comb in her other hand. "Anyone lost a goat?"

"Me!" Austin shouted. She wheeled around in time to see him storm through the narrow gate from the Farmyard, a lasso between his hands and a flatly unimpressed look on his face. "Bounce! I'm going to murder her in the night."

But at that moment, there was a yell of 'Oi!', a loud latter and the thick, distinctive sound of a feed scoop hitting the ground.

The little brown goat shot out of the feed room, her tiny jaw working on whatever she'd managed to pilfer and with Chess hot on her heels.

"Out!" the blonde shooed her off, somehow managing a balance of furious and affectionate. "Menace."

Bounce spotted Austin aiming for her, planted her heels and spun, cantering off for the new block at the back with a gleeful kick of her heels.

Becca stood hurriedly to the side, watching and laughing as Austin went in hot pursuit, and then clicked her tongue, leading Helheim out onto the yard with all the lack of reaction that gave away just how often an occurence this was. "How's it going, folks?" she asked instead, reaching the tie ring beside Heaven's and quickly securing the black Nordanner to it with a quick-release through the baling twine.

"Feeds were done," Chess said pointedly, retreating back into the room. "As soon as I replace Uisce's chaff they'll be done again."

"Eric still riding?" Joanna asked, though not concerned, as she resumed her task.

Twitch was the one to reply, coming through the open sliding door from the tack room. "Alec's with him. They were both in the outdoor when I finished with Nuriel ten minutes ago. On that note; she's all rugged up and ready to throw out as soon as Uisce and Kairi are ready."

"Kairi just needs her rug on," Becca said, passing by her. "Uisce's ready to go. As soon as Chess is finished, she can probably take one for you. Bring the halters in - I don't trust the weather to hold."

Becca disappeared into the side of the barn, Twitch into the Rug room and Joanna turned back to Heaven.

Stuffing both brushes into her pockets where they just barely fitted, she pulled the hoofpick from its near permanent place in the edge of her boot and leant down. "This one," she said, clicking her tongue and just touching Heaven's closest fetlock with her fingers.

Heaven's weight shifted and she lifted her leg, setting the weight of her hoof easily into Joanna's gloved hands, receiving a warm rub in praise.

She hadn't been in the field that morning, though, so there wasn't much to clear out of her soles. When Joanna stood straight again, returning to the brushes, Becca was just returning to Helheim, arms full of padded shipping boots. Joanna checked her phone for the time.

Nearly ten past eleven. Any time from now and the peafowl mare was on a lorry and back to her life.

Joanna brushed more slowly, half focused and half watching the older brunette work around the horse, slipping the boots on and doing up the velcro so that they covered her joints and rested right on the floor, where the bulbs of her heels were protected. The raspberry-burgundy colour neatly matched her headcollar, which in turn was not far off the mid colour of her peafowl plumage.

Helheim seemed to understand what the boots meant.

As Becca headed off once more, this time towards the Rug room, the mare stepped around with her hindquarters and stretched out her neck towards her daughter, letting out a huff of air to catch her attention.

Heaven looked over in an instant, ears tuning forwards as she stepped across, just close enough to touch her muzzle to her mother's. Both pairs of ears were fixed on each other, eyes bright and soft, and somehow with an understanding that should have been beyond them. And for an instant, they both wore the exact same, gentle expression. Memories of months and a bond that may not truly ever break - only time would tell - but both knowing that they had outgrown the other. It was time.

Becca was already on her way back, a purple thermatex rug bundled into her arms.

Heaven breathed softly back at her mother, Helheim holding still even as the rug was buckled into place and finally a bandage wrapped around the base of her tail to stop it rubbing in transit.

Joanna replaced heaven's rug and stepped away, leaving them to their final moment together, instead checking through the tack trunk to be sure all Helheim's things were in there.

She hadn't come with too much; more rugs than anything else - one set of tack, bandages, her shipping boots, feed supplements, set of grooming supplies, stable and field rugs of a few different weights and all her paperwork and passport. It was all packed tightly in, but neatly arranged in the trunk that they'd dragged onto the yard. As part of having the mare on the farm so long, they'd also started bringing her back into work. They had gone from small walks to gentle lunging and loose schooling and finally, once Heaven was weaned, ridden work, including the odd hack and jumping poles. She wasn't back to full fitness, but she no longer had a swollen belly and all of her spirit was certainly back - including a more fiery personality beneath the incredible maternal instinct.

Their final checks of the rug room and the loose box she'd been inhabiting were interrupted by the beeping sound of a large vehicle reversing.

-

It was a big transporter.

There was a live in section to the front and the back could take four horses comfortably, even if two were seventeen hand Shires. It was from a reputable company, paid to ship horses long distances, even on a ferry or cargo plane, and thankfully, there was another horse already on board, so Helheim wouldn't be totally alone.

They got the tack trunk on, signed over the paperwork and slipped her a final few treats before shutting her in.

And then the lorry was gone.

Joanna shoved her hands into her pockets, holding in a sigh against the sudden, deafening quiet of the yard.

Becca patted her on the shoulder, smile sad and sympathetic. "It sucks, I know, but just remember that this can't be a big deal for Heaven. Lets get her out with the other girls and then we'll go for a hack."

Joanna nooded at her. She understood that - hence holding back the long breath curling in her throat. Heaven was perceptive, and the last thing they wanted her thinking was that there was something bad or upsetting happening by her mother going. That did no one any good. The more they treated this like simply a normal day, the better off she'd be in the long run.

So Joanna quickly returned to switch her quilt for a canvas turnout so she and Becca could put her out with Mossy, Camberwell and Bird.

"Save us some lunch," Becca said to Austin, who happened to be in the Den when they returned to the yard. "We're going out."

Austin glanced up, caught their expressions and just nodded. "Sure. Take a phone and hi-vis. Who have you got?"

"Vacancy," Becca replied, setting his saddle into Joanna's arms. "And Matches."

"Helheim went okay?" Austin checked. "All her things?"

"Yeah," she said. "She loaded really nicely, no fuss. I think we found everything, and four of us checked, but if anything was missed, we'll box it up and ship it out after her."

"And Heaven?"

Becca turned to Joanna, who smiled with a slight shrug that had the bonus of hoisting Vacancy's bridle more securely onto her shoulder.

"She's fine. Enjoying the frost in the field. She got to say her goodbyes."

"Well," Austin said, hands in his pockets and leaning against the edge of the desk with a smile in the corner of his mouth. "Helheim taught her what she could. The rest is up to us."

...

She'll be missed; its been great having her and my thanks once again to xxElanite for selling me one of her mare's slots and making this possible. As mentioned previously, Helheim was actually sold while my storyline with her was continuing, so she's actually going to her new owner, deadliestt and that makes it one of the most interesting situations I think Lakewood's ever had.


In other news: the title is in no way intended to be a call out to the movie of the same name. Its a weird-ass film and if Jane Fonda wasn't in it, I wouldn't have finished watching.

As for the art...boy this took longer than planned. (what does it say that one of my favourite parts is that body brush? I'm really happy with that XD) I've done linework in white before, and I really enjoy it, but I can't help thinking its that slowing me down - crazy as it sounds. I spent ages on this yesterday and only finished it after a few hours tonight. Mad. But its one more thing off my sprawling to-do list. Onto the next :D

The background was pretty speedy and almost entirely freehand. I used a basic texture brush for just touches of the ground, and the shadows were copied and blurred from the characters themselves. All somewhat loosely lined, flat coloured then shaded in greyscale. One of Becca's boots is longer than the other, and that may eventually annoy me enough to fix, but for now, I need to go to sleep. Work tomorrow. Enjoy.

Photos used as visual references for the basic poses, though intentional edits were made (set of neck, slight angles and so on):
Standing - Stock by PuncieGraphics-Stock
Dark Grey Warmblood Standing by LuDa-Stock
Art, story and characters copyright to Tattered-Dreams
Helheim belongs to deadliestt
Nordanners belong to Cloudrunner64
Do not take, copy, edit, redistribute or manipulate.
Image size
3000x1683px 4.3 MB
© 2017 - 2024 Tattered-Dreams
Comments10
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ReQuay's avatar
So much emotion... in the picture and story.  Really Sad
You did a beautiful job conveying a soft, gentle moment (as the staff made a "not" big deal of it) between Heaven and Helheim's goodbyes... even if it does jerk at the human heartstrings a tad (all while looking forward to the next chapter in Heaven's story) while the horses are just fine.
I love the art.  You have an amazing ability to capture everyday moments and make a "snapshot" seem photobook worthy.  I love how you do it.  The horses are gorgeous and seeing Lakewood staff is always so much fun.
Great job!