A Friendly Race? RP

   it's a warm spring morning. Sunlight shines down on a small apartment building, over looking a horse stable. Many of the apartments inhabitants are preparing for the town's annual horse race, only one month away.

Nicholas
 Nick trudged down the small hill, shielding his eyes from the sun as its bright morning rays came into view. He finally reached the barn and stepped inside, going over to his horse's stall, which was the last one on the left, one of the two that were the farthest from the apartment building. He glanced up, wrongfully expecting to see a large bay face peering at him. Instead, he was greeted by emptiness and an open stall gate, horse slobber still evident on the latch. He sighed, wondering why he'd expected anything other than the usual, and grabbed Histor's leather halter from its hook. He reached into his pocket, producing two horse nuggets, exiting the barn on the end opposite the one that he'd entered. He stepped out and immediately paused, scanning his surroundings. Hoofprints littered the worn trail that led from the barn to the several large paddocks, though it was impossible to tell which were Histor's and which were from the previous day. He resumed walking, pausing once he reached the entrance to a paddock. Its gate, much the stall's had been, was open and freshly slobbered. An upward glance proved what Nick already knew: There the gelding was, in all of his six-legged glory, grazing the lush grass that was most plentiful in that specific paddock. He looked up when he noticed his owner approaching, and, after a few moments, turned and jogged away. The next ten to fifteen minutes played out much like that, with a healthy amount of swearing and snorting, until Nick was finally able to coax the now-tired Hist into allowing him to put on the halter - not without having to use the treats, of course. He grimaced as Histor wrapped his far-too-long tongue around his hand, cleaning off any remaining crumbs with one big lick. "Worthless thing," Nick muttered crossly as he began leading his horse back to the barn, though he couldn't help but smile a bit when Histor head-butted him in the back good-naturedly.
 Once inside, he tied Histor up to a post and groomed him (which resulted in him getting licked and head-butted an uncomfortably large amount of times). The man entered the nearby tack room and grabbed his english saddle, saddlecloth, and o-ring snaffle, putting the saddle on the gelding before moving towards his head, bridle in hand. Histor huffed indignantly, as he often did, but let Nick slide the bit into his mouth without much of a fight. Nick buckled the throatlatch and led the horse back out of the barn, not bothering to grab a crop, or spurs, or even a helmet. All three of which were things that one would most likely want while riding Histor, but all three of which were things that he almost always went without. He mounted once in the dirt, which was dotted with sparse clumps of grass, his jeans and cowboy boots a stark contrast to his english tack. He nudged his mount into motion with his heels, and the horse began moving at a leisurely walk towards the arena that Nick was steering him to, not at all in a hurry, pausing occasionally to look at something in the distance that Nick sweared was entirely in the horse's imagination. Nicholas sighed. This is gonna be another long day.

Last edited on 2018-09-05 at 14:02:27 by Raptor

Jane
Janie spluttered indignantly, scrambling backwards through the mud in a pointless effort to escape the water she was already half drenched in - clearly Monroe thought less than highly of their failed attemp to soak her, and instead just grabbed her ankle as gently as something with razor teeth cold, yanking her into the stream entirely. She spluttered to the surface, shaking her hair not unlike a dog. "Dear god that is cold." She wheezed, greedily sucking in the breath the icy water had sapped her of, and when she noticed a smug looking kelpie nearby, she whacked their neck as hard as possible - not that they would feel it through all their layers of skin, anyways - and in response got slapped on the back by a long, muscular tail with enough force that she was left struggling for breath again. "You're terrible, and I hate you." She retorted, venom halfpied as she hoisted herself back up onto the grass, shivering like a leaf in the wind. Aforementioned terrible horse snorted in response, dragging themselves out of the water, licking their lips of the wet blood from their previous catch of fish and instead offering Jane a ride, kneeling for a second and letting her almost finish settling on before taking off at a brisk trot, snickering as their rider had to snatch for their mane to keep herself from sliding right off of the slimy coat, grumbled swearing coming from the girl as she finally found her balance, swinging her barefeet as they made their way back down one of the trails, ending up with the barn back in sight. Jane could already feel Monroe tensing back up - they despised being kept in a paddock, and a stall even more so. "We can just ride today, Marsh. I'll turn you out tonight into that big field with the lake, alright?" She murmured, barely reassuring her mount, but they continued on regardless, them trusting Jane enough to know that she would keep her word.

Last edited on 2018-10-02 at 11:39:32 by The Gaiaphage

Rosie
Rosie entered the stable and walked up to Burger's stall. The overweight horse was munching on hay. His wings fluttered at the sight beloved rider. "Hey there, Burger. I got some carrots for you," Rosie said, offering them out. She always seemed to find the money to buy endless treats for her horse. Burger happily waddled over to eat. "That's a good boy! Are you excited for training today?" Rosie asked, opening the stall door and leading Burger out. She hooked his halter up to the ropes on either side of the stable and went to get his tack.

Outlaw
She trudged through the dark forest in a game of hide an seek with Phantom. It wasn't very hard to track the mare if you knew what to look for. She snuck up on the big black with a mutter of "got ya" then ducked as the mare sent a lightning bolt her way. "How rude" she chided. The mare snorted, pleased with herself.