The Crescendo

[vera a. eriksson]

Vera groaned as she sat herself upright in bed. A few minutes passed before she climbed out, but slowly she sunk to the floor. Her legs weren't to ready to stand up yet. Scattered around her bed were sketches of many nature themed things, but the most prominent pictures that were drawn and scattered around her where the pictures of a young horse, her horse.

Once one of the sketches was out of her reach she got up on her knees crawled to it. When she got it she placed it in the pile and neatly placed the pictures on her bed. Then she pulled herself up using the bed as leverage. When up and steady she walked herself into the small bathroom. Singing herself Swedish songs the whole time she was cleaning up. Vera then came out of the bathroom brushing her wet short hair. When she was ready to walk out she threw the brush on her bed and put her hair into a small ponytail. Stretching she spoke to herself as a yawn escaped her mouth "Vera girl we got to go check on Cres. Make sure she hasn't broken anything."

The first place she stopped by were the stalls. There she picked up a lead line. After that she continued her short trip to the field where Crescendo stayed. Coming up on the field the first thing she noticed was the broken halter. She sighed as the horse trotted up to the gate. The young lady shook her head and opened the gate only so that she could slip in. She wrapped the lead line around the horse's neck and carefully picked up the broken halter. She left the gate open and talked to the horse "I don't really trust you to not bite other horses, so that is mostly why you have a field alone. Though you can still see other horses, so your not really alone." With a few difficulties Vera lead Cres back to her stall. Once there she gathered up grooming supplies.

The mare nipped at Vera as she carefully walked into the stall. The girl looked at the horse and said "Stop it! You're kind of lucky I might have an extra halter lying around in some box I haven't opened yet." Than she began grooming the horse.

[zackary t. shaw]

The coloured gelding in the stall opposite called softly as the mare was led in and he reached over to sniff if he could. The name in the slider at the stall door read “Khan” and a simple black and brass leather halter hung from the tack tidy on the wall, along with the red and black woven lead reign that was coiled up with it. The horse’s attention was then distracted as the barn door opened yet again, and another early morning riser walked in, a feed bucket in one hand, a grooming box in the other. He was dressed in washed out blue jeans and a black and grey checked shirt, the sleeves rolled back to the elbow and well-worn brown leather hiking boots. His hair was still wet from the shower and was swept back away from his dark eyes and sharp clean shaven features. Zack walked with a cheerful step before starting to whistle as he approached the pintos stall and placed the grooming kit down before opening the door.

“Good morning you great grumpy git, I can hear you calling from the feed room!” he said cheerfully in his soft English tone as he patted the horses neck before dropping the feed kanga down and letting Khan eat while he picked up the kit and set about the morning groom. He started by leaning down and taking a hoof in one hand, hoof pick in the other and saying “Pick it up then … I know you’re eating but I know you can stand on 3 legs with your nose in the bowl“. This routine happened 3 more times before he finally stood up again and caught sight of the woman in the other stall. He overheard her talking softly to the mare about needing a spare halter and he chuckled. He knew another horse like that, and he waved a greeting to her, hoof pick still in hand. “Morning, nice to see I’m not the only early morning type. … I have a spare red nylon halter if you need it?” He swapped the pick for a dandy brush and started running it ion long sweeps over the bi coloured body to remove loose hairs before changing out to the softer body brush to remove dust. Finally he set about combing through the black and white mane and tail before packing the kit back up and placing it on the stall wall so he could step out.

He finally grabbed the kit off the wall again and headed for the tack room where he dropped it off and picked up his spare head collar for the pretty appaloosa mare and swung pas the hayloft to fill a hay net for Khan. He couldn’t help be amazed by how differently horses were kept here. The large open topped stalls, with mangers hung in the corners. It was a far cry from the little wooden shed style stables they used in England, covered over so that they were shielded from one another. Khan had refused to eat his hay from the mangers the last few days and so Zack had needed to fill hay nets again, like he had at home. It hadn’t helped with his feeling homesick.

He returned to tha barn and strung up the hay for Khan, how started on it with gusto before walking across and admiring the appaloosa mare as he leaned on the stall door, red halter in hand for the girl should she want it.