Turning Circles

Heaven is over a year old now (This was actually painted back in February, and touched up a little in April, but it still fits, since I planned for it to take place after her birthday )

I've missed HARPG, so have a story again: A bit of yard life and a bit of training

(Chronologically this takes place a month or so ago ^^)

As usual: These are methods and practices that Lakewood has chosen to use only. I'm not telling you its the only way. Unless you're doing something incredibly stupid, there's no real wrong or right way to raise or back a horse - different people, and different horses need different approaches. If you like/dislike/want to know more about anything said here, I can explain a bit, but I would recommend looking it up from valid, educated resources so you're not getting a chinese-whispers version of the information. Thank you

...

The unusually bright sun of the early spring day does little to ward off the chill that held determinedly onto the world. The sky is blue, but vast and open; not a cloud in sight, and whatever warmth the sun gives out fast rises up into the atmosphere away from the Farm.

By ten in the morning, half of the horses are out in the fields, bundled into medium weight rugs to keep them warm. The other half have begun a slow rotation of the indoor arena to get their usual exercise. Inside of an hour, everything is going like clockwork. Everyone passes in the yard, darting around one another with an ease that speaks of practice; horses led in and out, armfuls of tack going to and fro. It's at this time of morning that the dogs usually lay themselves in the Den or the tack room, or even out on the yard in the summer months, and just watch everyone bustle about.

Lunch is an on-the-move affair; Alec darts down to Creaky Tree and buys a collection of heated up pasties from the coffee shop and they all munch as they untack, rug up, make feeds and put away all the yard tools.

"Hey."

Joanna looks up from picking out Casta's feet in the new barn to see Becca leaning over his door.

"So, we're hoping that it will be a bit warmer now its the afternoon," she begins. "And either way, the ground is good, so Twitch and I were going to go out for a hack. Once you've ridden him you've only got V and Heaven left - want to come along?"

Joanna stands straight, sliding the hoof pick into the side of her boot and throwing a look over the partition wall to Vacancy, snatching hay from his manger without a care in the world. Her eyes then slide across to Heaven, opposite, the yearling seemingly snoozing on her feet at the back of her box. They've moved the owl box to the beams above, since that's where it seems to want to hang out, but given its the middle of the day, there's no sign of the prey bird. Joanna shakes herself back to the point on hand.

"Sure, sounds good," she says, giving Casta a pat and lifting his reins over his head. The black chestnut Faime stallion snorts, ears pricking forwards and he starts happily chomping on the copper snaffle in his mouth in anticipation. "Who are you guys taking? And where are we going?"

"Opera," Becca says, smiling fondly and nodding to the smoky black sabino who's in a box just a few down and apparently listening in if his pricked ears and alert expression are to be believed. "Daryl's arriving at two thirty to start the vaccinations so I figured it should look like we're treating him right."

Joanna shakes her head in amusement. Gateau Au Opera was a heavy set Faime horse who's progress both Becca and Chess had followed for years online. They'd missed him being sold once, and then, out of the blue, Daryl had showed up with the stallion. The Farm was full enough as it was, but Daryl owned him still and paid to keep him boarded there. He as well as anyone knew that the horses here had a great life, but this kind of comment seemed fitting with his and Becca's relationship.

"Daryl isn't vaccinating Ops, is he?" Joanna thought to ask suddenly. "Not if he owns him?"

"No," Becca says. "He's bringing up one of his practice nurses - Mitch. He's going to do Opera, and some of the others, probably, so its all done quicker. Oh, and Twitch is riding Nuriel, but she's going to pony Mossy for Chess. Aphie's having one of her more sensitive days, so she's a little behind and Mossy is really good to lead from the saddle."

"When do we leave?" Joanna asks, checking her phone quickly before shoving it back in her jacket pocket.

"45 minutes? That be enough time for him to stretch his legs and you to throw him out?"

"Should be."

"Since Chess is one down, I'll see if she can tack up Vacancy for you," Becca throws over her shoulder, already making her way out towards the stable block. "Have a good ride."

.

Its 42 minutes later when Joanna rides Casta back into the Barn, going the long way around the stables and through the arch, simply because the big doors are closed on the cold weather. Chess is standing there with Vacancy all ready to go, including a pair of bell boots on his front feet.

"He's been forging a little bit," Chess says as Joanna jumps down. "So this is just until we can get Carl up with some new shoes and a trim. Give me Cas - see you later!"

There's a quick change of reins - it suddenly feels more like Joanna's old racing yard than ever - and then she's leading a bouncing Yakimi warmblood back out into the bright, cold day.

.

Its two o'clock by the time Joanna lets herself into Heaven's stable.

Vacancy and Opera are both out in one of the top fields, close at hand for when Daryl shows up. Nuriel and Mossy - both of whom hacked out beautifully, even enjoying a good canter despite Mossy being led at close quarters - have been released with the other mares in Long Meadow.

Heaven, Bird, Camberwell and Frosty all enjoyed some time in the fields that morning, so while they're all in and ready for vaccines, it does mean Heaven needs a groom.

In no particular rush, now that the other horses are mostly done, Joanna snatches up the Nordanner's brushes from her box by the door and sets about trying to curry comb the dried on mud from her legs and neck. Heaven leans into the firm strokes between finishing off her last pieces of hay and the murmur of the others' voices drift in and out as they continue with the other chores. Haynets for the afternoon are distributed, rugs laid out, Austin returns from the indoor arena with Karma, who looks rather the same as she did before leaving her stable, and Chess disappears with all the dogs for a walk.

Finally, the barn quieting down, and Heaven mud-free, Joanna slides on her halter, clips up the long lead line, and takes her down to the Temple.

The huge old barn, still with the upper hay loft, but long since converted to a viewing gallery, is a bit of a sun trap. Even more so since Austin and Becca found the finances to get some windows put into the long sides. The plexiglass is robust but clear, and sealed around the edges and its a far more welcoming place, feels bigger, with the natural light. But there's still a touch of the chill in there and Joanna is thankful for her jacket.

She unclips Heaven's lead rope and clicks her tongue to steer her away.

The yearling tosses her head in a deep circle, muzzle right to her chest, and then trots gleefully away, hocks springing neatly and ears pricked. Her summer coat isn't quite through yet - still lots of winter hairs shedding each day, but as she passes beneath the windows, the sun does bring up a dull sheen that is more pronounced than it was two weeks before.

With each passing day, she grows bolder in her skin and in her environment. She's steadily losing her foalish clumsiness - though it does spring up at random moments, still. Once or twice she's found a gracefulness to her strides that speak of what she'll some day grow into, but so far have been few and far between and hard pressed to replicate. Joanna watches her trot around the far end, temp picking up, body leaning into the turn and nostrils flaring wide. She gets daily interaction and handling - they knew the stories about her mother before Helheim ever arrived, and she didn't have her name for nothing, despite how accustomed she was to foaling and having manners. Not only did Becca feel Heaven would be best off if introduced to various things early, but the consistency would keep the lessons ingrained.

Despite that, she still spends much of her time allowed to be a baby. She spends hours turned out with an ever increasing rotation of mares, but often including Camberwell who is still somewhat young. And to help keep her brain ticking over, as well as introduce her to the arenas, they recently began introducing her to loose schooling.

In the loosest application of the phrase - it was more a case of allowing her to frolick as she pleased, only stepping in if it looked like she was about to eat the sand or put a hole in the wall.

As before, Heaven contents herself with exploring. She noses at the walls, the windows, the double doors and the little gate at the other end, tests them, tastes them and then snorts and skips on. And as has happened the last couple of times, when she grows bored with the unchanging environment, she turns to the person who brought her.

Joanna collects a parelli carrot stick from the bucket just outside the little gate, Heaven following a few paces behind with a loose, swinging walk and expression of hopeful curiosity. She reclips the lead line and guides her to the middle of the school to begin the first basic touches.

Heaven has seen a carrot stick before.

Joanna, Becca and Alec have all done the basic exercises - rubbing it over her, swinging the savvy string around, over her back, her head, around her feet. Heaven watches it passively, head following its path around her feet rather like a cat might follow a piece of string. Then they work on some backing up and bringing in. The manners instilled in her from her earliest weeks on earth follow through to these exercises, too. It took some persistence the first couple of times, but now the filly understands the visual cues for retreat and approach, not that she doesn't test it or screw up now and then.

With the groundwork done for the session, Joanna shifts herself, changes her shape and raises her head; projects herself outward and opens her arm. Heaven knows what a click of the tongue should mean most of the time, so she does that, too, and with a slightly uncertain look, she steps tentatively to the side, and then heads off.

Four steps away from Joanna's space, she plants, and looks back, the loose rope trailing onto the floor between them.

Joanna clicks again, lifts herself, and just brings around the carrot stick, the end of it low to the ground, into the space behind Heaven.

An ear flicks at it, her weight shifting forwards instinctively at the cue, but she hovers uncertainly until Joanna clicks again, offering out her arm even higher.

And she snorts, ducks her head, and trots away.

The rope lifts into a gentle arc between them. Joanna lets the stick fall back, to see if she will continue the behaviour without the cue present, and then brings her chin down, shoulders in to guide her around onto a circuit.

Heaven's ear swivels to her, eye flicking and the straight path she was on to the wall diverts, her ribs flexing as she finds a slightly wobbly circle at the edge of the rope's distance.

Almost straight away, her shoulder falls through and the rope drops again, the Nordanner's expression keen as she closes back in. Her want to be around people has always been a good thing, would make her easier to back and train and handle life, Becca had always said, but right now its making it difficult to keep her on a circle.

Joanna has to straighten her shoulders again. Its her fault, she realises. She doesn't naturally hold herself tall and assertive, and this game uses body language most of all - body language that Heaven is fast learning from the other horses. In trying to bring her onto the circle, she over compensated and invited her in.

"Sorry, Pea," Joanna tells her, smiling guiltily to herself. "My fault, out you go."

The vocal cue, as well as her corrected posture clicks into place, and Heaven's trot picks up again, steering away in a bendy loop to find the circle once more.

They'll work on this more gradually - teach her cues to change the rein without coming in, teach her about changing gait and maintaining it on her own without needing to be guided. The circle game isn't the same as lunging, and with Chess a huge advocate of natural methods, its likely Heaven will grow to learn both. For now, this is all she needs; an introduction to process and absorb before anything new.

When she has had a go the other way around - being asked in first and given a moment's break - Joanna lets her loose again for a moment while she puts away the stick. Heaven follows anyway.

Her coat is warm to the touch, the sheen slightly more pronounced, but she's not worked nearly enough for a real sweat. Her mane is scattered over her neck, forelock parted across her forehead and tail flashing under the light from the windows. It strikes Joanna quite suddenly that they've grown long without her realising - the last time she really thought about it, they were still getting rid of their last foal-fuzz curls.

Giving her a generous rub and watching sun shimmer off of the pale pink spray of speckling on the arch of her neck, Joanna reclips the line and heads for the doors. Daryl will be along before too long and she, like the others, is due for a vaccine.

...

Fun trivia - This has the same title as a years-old piece I did of Twitch and Mossy, also doing this same exercise. Only that one I look back on and cringe at

This photo used as a reference for pose and basic lighting: Everyday Horse Training - Lunging indoors
It took hours (over a few days, I think) and a bit of editing a couple of months later.
Art, characters and story copyright to Tattered-Dreams
Do not take, copy, edit, redistribute or manipulate.