Post by Cruisey on Sept 18, 2014 12:20:13 GMT -5
The leaves were changing as winter drew near at the private estate Talia was always ecstatic to work at. As she drove up the long, winding driveway, the weanlings in the paddock beside the road were frolicking around, kicking up their heels and chasing each other around. One little colt was standing a bit away from the frisky foals, watching them play as he stood there napping. Talia knew by his colouring that it was Storm Warning or Walter as they liked to call him. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to socialize; he just enjoyed standing in the sun and dozing off as if he didn’t have a care in the world. The two gray yearlings were the most rambunctious, which was surprising for Sly since he was as dull as a doornail sometimes. Usually it would be Tia and Stela that would be galloping around. They were all growing at a rapid rate, and both Carter and Talia predicted that Tia would grow the largest of the four.
After passing the large amounts of paddocks, each containing no more than 3 horses, Talia parked her car in her designated spot. She climbed out and looked around. Firestone was a ghost town, not a single person was to be seen, not even the grooms that were supposed to be there. Her eyes landed on the stable and the single horse that was gazing out beyond the paddocks, a sad look in his kind eyes. Inferno, or Fern, was only 2 months into his road to recovery, having surgery on his knee in the last week of July. It was the third week of September when the vet said he could start to be hand-grazed and walked for 5 minutes to reduce any fluid build-up in his knee. She had been out to visit him every day, even when she wasn’t scheduled to work a horse. Talia always made time to go visit her favourite boy. Although she had developed a very close bond with all of her other horses, it was always Fern she would end up visiting.
Fern seemed to sense that someone was there and let out a long whinny after spotting Talia walking towards him. Bobbing his head, he began getting impatient, because he knew Talia always brought him something good to eat. Reaching his stall, Fern pushed his head against the petit woman, scratching his head on her clothes as if to say ‘Hey! Where were you, I missed you!’ Talia smiled and rubbed his head, bringing his face in for a hug.
“Guess what, boy. The vet said you can start going outside now, wouldn’t you like that?” Fern lifted his upper lip and bobbed his head, responding to her. She laughed and patted his neck.
“Ok ok, I’ll be back. Just hang on.”
Talia walked away from his outside door and made her way to the double dutch doors that was the entrance to inside the grand barn. Her mind didn’t even have to think about where she was going because her feet automatically knew where the gray gelding’s stall was. His lead chain and halter were hanging on his designated hook outside of the stall door, and he was already trying to escape. Talia didn’t want to have to use the chain on him, but he hadn’t been outside since the surgery and she wasn’t going to risk anything. Stepping into his stall, Fern pushed himself into his halter like he knew what was happening. She lay the lead rope over his neck as she kneeled down to remove the stall bandage from his injured leg so that it could breathe before she reapplied it later. Straightening herself, she threw the bandages on the tack box beside his stall and reminded herself to re-roll the bandages when he was back in his stall. Talia slid the stall door open and led the gelding out carefully as they started to make their way out into the fall weather.
As soon as his feet hit the gravel outside, Fern was alert and excited. He started trotting on the spot, eager to go run in the field with his pals. Talia was expecting this behaviour and was not affected by it, giving the lead chain a little shake to remind him that this was not the time to re-injure himself. Trusting Talia, Fern settled down a little bit and walked somewhat calmly beside her to the little patch of grass that she chose for them. Feeling the soft grass on his hooves, the gray gelding felt at home and settled down right away, dropping his head to munch on the tasty grass.
After 10 minutes of grazing, Talia nudged the horse so they could start their walk training. Finding a relatively flat surface, she let the horse back and forth over the course of five minutes. With each rotation, there was a noticeable difference in Inferno’s stride. When he first came out 15 minutes ago he was as stiff as a board, but the more he walked, the more fluid his strides got. His strides were not perfect, but it was the start to a long wait ahead.
