Mud Bath [Open]

[will]

william conners

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-- The sun was just barely breaking through the clouds as Will made his way down to the main barn, spurs catching the light and causing small specks to dance on the ground beside him. It looked to be a nice day, so Will was planning on taking his horse Ollie for a good hack since the gelding was probably a bit fresh after not being ridden for a good few days while Will settled into his room and unpacked. Instead of heading straight into the barn, Will walked towards the paddocks until he found his beautiful chestnut gelding rolling around in the dirt. With a chuckle, he opened the gate and walked over to the gelding and grabbed hold of the head collar. There was no point getting a lead rope as the gelding was an angel, so he wouldn't do anything nasty. Will led the gelding back to his stall where he groomed and tacked up the horse ready to go. Will than mounted his gelding and began to walk down one of the many trails.

-- About half an hour later, Will was still out on the trails when the heavens decided to open and it began to pour down, soaking both himself and his gelding. With a groan, Will slowed Ollie to a walk and looked up towards the black sky with annoyance. The trail they were on was a dirt trail, quickly becoming a mud trail at the rate it was raining. Ollie snorted as he carefully picked his way through the mud, tail swishing as his body became wetter and wetter. Will sighed and patted his horse. "Sorry about this boy, I didn't know it was gonna rain like this." Earlier it hadn't seemed like it was going to rain at all, but Will should have been used to it, what with all the crap weather in Britain. He patted the gelding again and was about to let the reins go long when there was a loud bang followed by a crack. Ollie whinnied and reared up, ears pinned back and tail clamped between his legs, however the gelding had no grip on the slippery mud and so fell backwards.

-- Will just about managed to get his feet out of the stirrups and half get out of the way when the gelding landed on his back with a loud squelch from the mud however Will's right leg got caught under the horse and was half crushed. Will grunted in pain and waited for Ollie to move before he moved his leg and winced in pain. Both horse and rider were covered from head to toe in mud and both were starting to get a little cold. Ollie stood back up and so did will and after a bit of calming the gelding down, Will managed to get back on the horse and spurred him forwards. Once they'd reached the end of the trail, Will slid from the horse and began to lead the gelding back to the barn, limping slightly as he walked.[/font]

[eligritt]

Eli

[/color] had been on his way to get his last few horses in before the rain came down, but it had been too late. Then again, he had realized that the moment he had ducked back inside to gather his trusty old coat and trusty old hat. Regardless, half his herd needed to get inside. Though his foals weren't brand new to the world anymore, he preferred that his two fillies were in. The colt and his mother would stay outside, as would Khan - the formerly wild and still wild horse didn't mind the rain and could, in fact, handle it very well.

The rain didn't even particularly bother him as he secured the halter around Fintans coppery head. The stallion was eager to get inside, but behaved, as he always did. As he clipped the lead rope on, though, the stallion's ears shifted a little and his whole attention with it. Before Eli could react to it, a loud crash echoed over the mostly-empty pastures. If he could have looked, he would've seen Khan rearing up, Anna cowering over her startled foal, Carli sprinting to the other side of the pasture. He couldn't look, though, because Finn, normally such a bombproof horse, chose this point to nearly sit down with how far he sank through his legs ready to jump away. Eli could feel a shiver going through the whole 17.1 hands of horse, before he slowly stood up again and relaxed. Eli placed a hopefully comforting hand on Finns neck as he glanced around wondering what it was, before he led the horse out of the pasture.

For a moment he was distracted by Khan in the distance, the Akhal rearing again and neighing loudly before he seemed to settle down. His horses seemed to be okay, but still he made a quick round past the few that were still outside before he started to lead Finn to the barn. Except the stallion was distracted to the point of ignoring Eli.

A quick jiggle on the rope made the horse refocus on Eli again, but as soon as they were a few paces further, he again was distracted. Now curious too, Eli turned around, trying to spot what his horse saw. Turned out it wasn't that hard; through the gray veil of rain a muddy silhouette approached the barn. Eli frowned a little when he noticed the limp the man had, and decided it was better to be safe then sorry (although in a bit twisted way, perhaps), he walked that way, the big stallion ambling after him amiably.

By the time he reached the path to the barn, the other man-with-horse was pretty close. "Hello," Eli called out from a little distance as not to spook either of them, tipping his hat back a little so he could see more. Damn useful thing both with rain and sunshine, but not when talking with people. "Everything OK?" He figured his concern wasn't completely strange, given that both man and horse were covered with mud and looking downright miserable.

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[will]

william conners

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-- Ollie snorted as Will took the reins from over the gelding's head and began to lead him towards the warm, dry barn, the horse's ears pinned back and head down low. Will's dark hair was beginning to stick to his forehead and the back of his neck under the riding hat he was wearing. Although it had a small rim at the front to keep the sun out of his eyes, it did little to keep the rain from his face and the holes in the top of his hat weren't the best for keeping his hair dry. His bright red rugby shirt and black jodhpurs were now a dull brown and soaked through and his black boots were now covered in thick, gloopy mud, the silver medallion engraved with his father's name now brown and unreadable. Ollie was in the same state, with any item of tack on the gelding now coated in a few layers of mud and his fur now matted with mud and rain. So, as such, it was no wonder that both horse and rider were miserable.

-- They were just nearing the entrance to the main barn where something caught Ollie's attention. The gelding lifted his head, ears pricked forward and nostrils flaring towards the pastures. Will stopped, glanced at the direction the horse was looking and followed the gelding's line of sight to find a lone figure with a horse. Will sniffed, wiped the rain water from his eyes and squinted towards the figure, trying to discern who it was and whether he knew them or not. Ollie snorted and whickered towards the other horse, taking a few steps towards the direction of the figure and horse. Will pulled Ollie back and patted the gelding's neck. Ollie was actually a very friendly horse, getting on with nearly every mare and gelding he placed in the field with the horse, which made it much easier on Will, especially with moving to America.

-- "Easy Ollie, we don't know who they are," he whispered to the horse, caressing the horse's neck as his spoke. The figure then spoke out in what seemed to be a friendly tone of voice, so Will relaxed the reins and gave Ollie his head. "I'm fine. Just slipped," he called back, glancing back to the figure and his horse once more before walking into the barn. He walked Ollie straight to the wash racks and untacked the horse, grimacing at the state of the tack. Once free of tack, Will turned on the hose and began to wash the mud and sweat from Ollie.

[eligritt]

He

[/color] paused a moment to let the other horse and man see him, as he didn't want to spook them (again). Running after a spooked horse always was a bitch, never mind in the pouring rain. "Okay," he accepted the answer with a small nod. Sounded reasonable enough. Still, he took a moment to observe how the horse moved as he followed them back to the barn, only moving away when he needed to put Finn in his stall. In the interest of being nice and having nothing better to do anyway, he strolled back to the washracks.

"Need a hand?" he offered his help. Carli had been in the rain for a bit anyway already, and she wouldn't melt from it. He wasn't even sure why he was so cautious about it now - generally, his horses were outside 24/7, no matter the weather, as long as they weren't with foal. Then he was careful. And rightfully so, in his opinion. Some foals could handle the elements better than others, but thoroughbred-foals and other hotblooded foals he tended to be cautious with. Seldom hurt them in the end, after all.

He cast a longing glance through the barn doors, where the rain still came down steadily. He truly had no problem with the rain; in fact, Eli knew riding in the rain could be a pleasant surprise. If it weren't for the fact he officially had a class later this afternoon he would've taken one of his sturdier horses out for a long trail ride.

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[will]

william conners

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Will wished that he could make the water hotter than it was, but it was connected to a tap which only had cold water, so his horse would just have to cope with the temperature. Although it wasn't a cold day, both horse and rider were shivering slightly, mostly from the nerves and the fact they were covered in mud and water. Once most of the mud was off Ollie's coat, Will grabbed some shampoo from the floor beside the wash stall and began to lather the soap into the horse. He may as well fully wash the horse now while he had the time and chance to. Once the whole of the horse's coat was covered in white suds, he turned the hose back on and washed off the soap, making sure that Ollie was spotless.

-- Will was turning off the water hose when he heard footsteps coming towards him in the barn. He stood up and looked to find the man from outside standing there. Will sniffed again and rubbed his face, pulling a slight face when his hands came back covered in muddy water. "I should be all right," he said, picking up the scrapper from the floor and beginning to use it on Ollie while checking the gelding's body for an injuries he might have sustained when the fell over. Once Will was satisfied that Oliver was as dry as he could be while the scrapper was being used, Will placed the scrapper back on to the floor. He then limped to Ollie's stall, grabbed a few handfuls of straw and limped back to the wash rack. Will used the clumps of straw to dry off Ollie's body as much as he could before dumping the straw on the floor, untying Ollie and leading him back to his stall.

[eligritt]

Eli

[/color] arched up an eyebrow at the words. Granted, his social skills weren't exceptional, he had expected a few other possible replies. He was just trying to be kind, but he could tell when his efforts were for naught. He nodded again, one more throwing a glance into the barn, easily picking out the heads of his horses. Though there were plenty horses with unique colors around, between a bay sabino thoroughbred, an american cream draft and a perlino dole trotter, Eli tended to have no problems identifying his horses. Not to mention the colors of his foals. A proud expression slid over his face as he thought of them, before disappearing as he turned around.

"Good luck, then," he said his goodbye before walking out the wash racks. Wet or not, he still needed to get Carli inside for the rest of this rain and possibly the night. The girl was pregnant, after all, and he preferred his equines to be coddled a bit when they were. They earned it, after all.

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[will]

william conners

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-- "Yeah, thanks," Will said as he led Ollie back to his stall. Once in the stall, he took off the head collar and closed the stall door after him, allowing the gelding to enjoy his haynet in peace. Will hung the head collar and lead rope outside the stall and replaced the tack back in its place in the tack room. Once the wash stall was cleared, Will decided it was time to take a look at his leg and see how much damage the horse had done to it. Will walked back to Ollie's stable and sat on the floor outside it, noting that mostly everyone had gone to lessons and anything else they were doing that day since it was almost ten in the morning. Gingerly, he removed his black riding boot, pulling a face as his hand came away covered in brown mud, took off his knee high red sock and rolled up his jodhpur leg to expose his right leg.

-- At the sight of his leg, Will sucked in a deep breath as his eyes widened in shock and a little horror at the damage. The whole leg was covered in an ugly black/purple bruise, with it being dark in places where the saddle made contact with his leg during the horse's fall. There were a few lacerations up and down the leg, still emitting bright red blood and staining his jodhpurs and skin. "Jeez, I didn't think it was that bad," he whispered to himself, staring at the damage done to his leg. It hadn't actually hurt all that much, or maybe it was just the fact he was more concerned with Ollie than he was of himself, and so hadn't even thought of his injury. Now, sitting on the floor, staring at it, pain began to radiate from the area in large pulses. Will winced and using the door from Ollie's stall, began to heave himself back to his feet so maybe he could limp to the tack room where the first aid kit was.

[eligritt]

Eli

[/color] had just picked up Carli from her pasture and put her in her stall, cuddling a bit with the still somewhat unsettled mare, when he heard someone down the aisle mutter something he couldn't quite make out. Didn't sound too happy, though. He pondered a moment, but being a teacher he figured he had earned the right to be nosy about students if he felt the need. Position of responsibility and whatnot.

As he left Carli's stable, he saw how the young man he had just walked away from got himself upright with the help of the stable door. He was no expert, but he had had enough (bad) falls to know that this was not a good sign. So once again he approached the what he assumed to be a new student. "I know you said you were fine an' alright, but you do look like you could use a hand," he stated conversationally, although his tone clearly indicated it wasn't just idle chitchat or passing helpfulness anymore.

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[will]

william conners

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-- Will had just about managed to get himself back on to his feet, or well foot, and was about to start limping towards the tack room when the guy from before showed up once again. Will jumped slightly when he heard the man's voice, concentrating more on the fact that his leg was now just a pulsing mess of pain instead of a leg and not on the fact that the man was able to walk all the way up the barn without being detected. Although Will had obviously had much worse falls than this, one that almost broke his neck, this one was certainly one of the more painful injuries he'd sustained while riding. But it was his fault anyways, he shouldn't have gone out knowing that Ollie didn't have studs in his shoes and if Ollie had been injured in the fall, he wouldn't have been able to compete until the horse was fully healed and fit, which would have taken months. Well, as such, Will was lucky and Ollie wasn't injured at all, maybe just a little sore from falling on the saddle.

-- Will sighed and glanced down at his leg before looking back at the man. "I just need help getting to the tack room, but I could manage on my own." Will was never one to take help from anyone, not even if it was clear that he needed, which was the case now. His father had drilled it in him from an early age, "Stay strong, don't show any weaknesses. Weaknesses can be exploited, strength cannot." Of course his father had been in the army for some time before going into the mounted police and even then, kept his strict motto of strength over weakness. Will's father had been a good dad, he never abused his son and he was good and kind to his wife, but he was a strict husband and father, wanting everything to be perfect all the time. No excuses.

[eligritt]

"Okay,"

[/color] he agreed lightly, eyes sliding over him to assess the state of the young man. "Then you won't mind if I give you a hand to the tack room. Can't have you stuck in the aisle now, can we?" He could understand a dislike to ask for help; he wasn't too keen on it either. But there were times when a little bit of help could go a long way - or the accepting of the offer of said help. Not to mention that he, as a professor, was responsible for the students, even if they weren't in his classes. That, and he really didn't want the fall-out of an injured student.

Without getting further into it, he offered the younger man his hand, something to lean on that was just slightly better suited than stall doors. To diffuse the somewhat tense atmosphere, he opted for some distraction. "I'm Eli Gritt, a teacher here," he introduced himself. "Haven't seen you here before. New?" Okay, so perhaps chitchat wasn't really his forte. At least his half-blundering gave the younger man something else to focus on and possibly laugh at. Eli was confident enough that his ego could handle this. He had long since given up caring what others thought of him. He was okay with who he was, and nobody could make him feel bad about himself one way or another. Not easily, anyway.

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[will]

william conners

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-- Will glanced at his leg and then towards the elder man. "I'd probably have ended up crawling if the stall doors didn't work." He smirked slightly, the image reminding him of this time he'd gotten so pissed at a party that he'd ended up unable to stand and so he'd decided to crawl around the party, trying and failing not to spill his glass of vodka. Of course, most of the other people had either been knocked out cold from the booze or they too were crawling around with him, avoiding stairs at all costs. Stairs were the enemy of the drunk and kept most of them firmly on the ground floor or whatever floor they had started on. Will hadn't actually gone out with friends drinking in a long time...well he wouldn't be able to do that anyways since all his friends were at home back in the UK.

-- "Will Conners." He inclined his head respectfully towards the elder man and after a second of assessing the hand that was stretched out towards him, Will pushed himself using the stall door and grabbed the hand with his own, wincing slightly. "I've just come over from Britain," he said through clenched teeth. His leg was just causing all sorts of problems, the main being the fact it hurt too much to put weight on it and the second being the fact it was starting to swell up like a balloon. "So, what do you teach, sir?" he asked, trying to get his mind off the pain as he leaned heavily on Eli in order to step forward towards the tack room.

[eligritt]

Eli

[/color]chuckled lightly. So he finally had a student - that was nice. Granted, the boy wouldn't be riding in his classes any time soon. He would already have decided that upon seeing them return to the barn that muddy, but the effort it took to walk? No, better he'd let the leg mend first. If the young man was as competitive as he seemed, he wouldn't let it heal, so then it fell on his plate as a teacher's responsibility. Fine with him. "Accents aren't always what they seem to be," he dryly responded. It wasn't too hard to get rid of one, if one put his mind to it, and even if it was still there he still found that half the time it wasn't what it seemed to be.

He slowed down a little to make it easier for the guy, pausing a beat before replying. He actually had to compose a reply first, his answer not being as simple or straightforward as that of William. "I was born near Galway, but we've traveled a lot," he settled on. That was the truth - the majority of the time his stay at one place could be measured in months or even weeks rather than years and decades. "Spent a good few years in England, too," he added after a moment. "Worked in Newmarket for a bit." He hadn't really ridden any races, just a few with the amateurs to get a feeling about it, but it hadn't been for him. He had always preferred eventing and endurance, although the latter came with the lifestyle.

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[will]

william conners

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-- Will chuckled. "Oh, I've been through much worse. Besides, I bet most would put it down to the fact that I'm British." He didn't really care what other people thought of him, especially since he didn't know anyone here anyways. Why should he care if some Americans thought he was a nutter? He was probably going to leave the country once he'd finished College and set up his own yard back home, where he could make a name for himself and keep in contact with his family.

-- "Eventing huh? Well at least I've met my teacher now," Will said, trying and failing to hide the pain he was in as he moved his right leg forward to take another step towards the tack room. He sure hoped there were painkillers in that first aid kit, or he'd have to go out to the town and drown out the pain with a lot of alcohol. Yeah, he'd wake up in the morning with a hangover, but he could deal with hangovers, not painful legs. God, he sure hoped his leg wasn't broken or he'd have to try and jump without his stirrups like he did the last time he broke a leg. His mother had not been happy when he'd done a whole competition without stirrups. He'd almost fallen off in the cross country a few times, but he'd stayed on and even finished in the top ten. Of course, here they'd probably ground him until his leg was healed, maybe putting a 24 hour watch on him and his horse to make sure he didn't ride.

-- "From Somerset. I'm surprised you hadn't picked up on the farmerish accent." Granted, he'd gone to a private school, so his accented wasn't as noticeable as his parent's accents were, but most people tended to pick up on it. Will couldn't wait to go back home for the holidays and see his string of event horses and of course, his parents. He missed the green, rolling hills, the freak weather and the cool, crisp wind in his face, all characteristics of Britain. "What about you?"

[eligritt]

Eli

[/color]chuckled lightly. So he finally had a student - that was nice. Granted, the boy wouldn't be riding in his classes any time soon. He would already have decided that upon seeing them return to the barn that muddy, but the effort it took to walk? No, better he'd let the leg mend first. If the young man was as competitive as he seemed, he wouldn't let it heal, so then it fell on his plate as a teacher's responsibility. Fine with him. "Accents aren't always what they seem to be," he dryly responded. It wasn't too hard to get rid of one, if one put his mind to it, and even if it was still there he still found that half the time it wasn't what it seemed to be.

He slowed down a little to make it easier for the guy, pausing a beat before replying. He actually had to compose a reply first, his answer not being as simple or straightforward as that of William. "I was born near Galway, but we've traveled a lot," he settled on. That was the truth - the majority of the time his stay at one place could be measured in months or even weeks rather than years and decades. "Spent a good few years in England, too," he added after a moment. "Worked in Newmarket for a bit." He hadn't really ridden any races, just a few with the amateurs to get a feeling about it, but it hadn't been for him. He had always preferred eventing and endurance, although the latter came with the lifestyle.

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* In case you noticed, I messed up posting so previous post accidentally got modified. M'apologies
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[will]

william conners

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Will blinked at Eli's answer. His father had always had a different approach to accents, always trying his best to keep his accent as pure as possible as he always thought that if he lost his accent, then he'd lose something of himself. Of course, that was nonsense. However, some of that insanity had rubbed onto Will and so he'd also tried to keep his accent, but it wasn't as easy considering he'd spend most of his time out his home County. Will shrugged. "Huh, maybe. But sometimes an accent defines a person." He guessed his father wouldn't be so much of a father without his thick and broad Scottish accent. The Irish wouldn't be nearly as sexy without their accents either. His last girlfriend had actually left him for one of those sexy, Irish accented Irishmen.

-- Finally, after what seemed like agonizing hours, the tack room door was inches from Will's fingertips. Shifting his weight slightly, he leaned forwards and pushed the door open with his fingers, the wood rough but solid on his skin. He looked towards Eli and smirked. "Never been there. I think my parents have, though. They've been everywhere." His smirk turned into a small smile, almost a private smile before he shook his head, untangled himself from Eli and rested against the wall heavily, his leg still throbbing with pain. On the far side of the tack room hung the desired green first aid box with a white cross on the front. Will sucked in a deep breath and looked towards his teacher. "Do you mind getting that for me?" he asked, indicating to the first aid kit with a tilt of his head.[/font]

OOC: Sorry it's taken me so long, I've been sooooo busy!