Closed [modded thread] Horses Like Tubers!

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5th Winter 513

The Guided Horse was busy today, not with Drykas but with striders. The Guided Horse cared for and even did a little bit of treating horses and striders, and it showed. For horses were milling around in their comfortable enclosure. The enclosure itself was nothing more then line marking off a large section of grasses, more to keep others out of the Striders way rather then keeping the striders in.

Nikola Settingsun of the Amethyst clan was working with her own strider today, though she was available should another come in. Her blonde hair was braided intricately around her shoulders, holding many dazzling amethyst colored beads. Her clothing was like-wise brightly colored in shades of purple that clearly depicted her clan being Amethyst. Her strider was a great bay colored stallion, the caramel coloring of his coat almost perfectly matching her own blond coloring. He was called Driskol and she was in the process of brushing his coat with the stiff bristled brush.

In her other hand were a few tubers that were held loosely, a giggle given whenever Driskol tried to turn his head to try and swipe one. She would push his head away with the back of her hand and wrist, "Patience Driskol, patience. You will get one, I promise but first you will be brushed for you were rolling around in the thistles again weren't you?" Her pavi was somewhat stilted only because her hands were full and she couldn't quite get the gestures out.

After a few more strokes to ensure that all the leftover burrs were out of his coat, Nikola tossed the brush aside and moved around front to take one of the tubers in her hand and feed it to Driskol. Her now free hand raised to lovingly pat his jowls and under neck. Horses were sensitive to human touch, striders were as well but more so because of the bond they shared with their chosen rider. Nikola smiled and placed a kiss on his nose, feeling warm and happy in the winter sun.

[Darius Twoseas]

Darius walked tentatively into the enclosure, his eyes finding the short, light brown colt he had bonded with on his journey back to the tent city. He walked a little more confidently towards his strider, who trotted in towards him, then, at the last second jumped playfully away. Darius smiled, a both amused and exasperated. While he couldn't help loving Alaxel, he really had no idea how to treat or train him. If he had been on the Sea of Grass, he might have picked up some horsemanship, but he had spent his entire adolescence on a ship in the Suvan Sea. When Alaxel did earnestly approach him, Darius patted his side. "Sorry, I didn't bring anything for you today." Darius saw another Drykas in the enclosure, and watched her talk to her Strider. He had come to the Guided Horse pretty much every day since he had arrived, had seen her multiple times. He had come to the conclusion that she must work there or something . He looked back at Alaxel, who was , himself, watching the other Strider, as if jealous about the tubers the other Drykas was feeding her horse. Or perhaps he was just jealous that the other Strider had a far more competent partner. Darius sighed. "You know what," he said to Alaxel, "I'm going to have to learn this sometime." Alaxel made a small snort in response. He walked over to the Drykas woman, Alaxel following close behind. "Excuse me," he said to the woman tending to her own Strider, "I haven't really had much experience with horses, and I was hoping to learn more about how to take care of my Strider...could you help me?"

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Nikola turned when she heard the voice behind her, at first she was expecting to see a stranger. Perhaps one of the captives, she had spent much of last season teaching the captives who wanted to be taught how to take care of their horses. She froze for a moment when she saw his windmarked arms, her own windmarks hiding beneath her clothing, and his strider. Her blonde brow roses but she grinned and spoke in Pavi, her hands and lips moving at lightening speed.

"I have no problems showing you how to work a little with your Strider. Is he Yvas broke yet? He looks awful young, is he at least two years old? If he isn't at least two years old we can definitely begin training him to take a yvas and a blanket but you can't ride him no no no." Finally, perhaps she ran out of breath, the rapid flow of words stopped flowing and she smiled brightly up at him.

She moved toward the colt, giving the pavi sign to 'stay' to her own strider Driskol. "Hi there little bit." She says, again in rapid Pavi to the strider, holding out a tuber to the young colt. Waiting for it to snatch it up out of her palm, her hand coming out to stroke his mane. "You do know how to feed, water, and brush him right?" Surely a Drykas bonded knew that much, you can't ride horses without knowing that, but you never knew and Nikola wasn't one to leave things to chance when it came to the horses.

[Darius Twoseas]

Darius was startled by the sudden flurry of Pavi. The speed with which she spoke kept Darius from catching everything, but he was pretty sure he got the meaning pretty well. He smiled a bit ruefully, saying in a slightly hesitant Pavi, "Could you please slow down? I've been away from the Sea of Grass for about half my life. Forgive me if I'm a little rusty." His hand gestures weren't perfect, but managed to convey an apologetic tone. He watched the woman make a hand sign to her Strider as she walked over to Alaxel. Her horse stayed in place and the Drykas gave Alaxel a tuber. The horse snatched it out of her hand and tossed his head, whinnying. The woman followed with another question. Darius decided to answer the first ones first. "Yes, he's a little small, but he's about three years old. He's pretty well Yvas-broken, but I can't say I'm a good judge of that kind of thing." He paused at the last question. He was pretty embarrassed that he knew so little. "Well, I've managed to feed him thus far, but...well there's a reason I'm asking for help."

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Nicola tilted her head to the side, her eyes open and honest as he spoke. Her brow quirking upward but she said nothing until he finished speaking in entirety. There was no judgement on her face, but there was a look of almost pity for someone having been taken out of the grasses so young. It had to been when he was quite young if he didn't know the basic care of horses for children begin riding before they could walk and when they could walk they learned horses. However he could not have had any control over that so she just determined that she would teach him as she was teaching her youngest sisters.

She spoke again, this time so slow that it was obvious she was exaggerating it, but it did make her speech at a more normal rate of speed rather then the blazing fast she had before. "Okay then! We will start you out in learning how to brush down your strider's coat. This is important because things get stuck in its fur and it can hurt or irritate the horse."

She jogged over to the side of the enclosure, her blond braid bouncing, to retrieve a second brush that had short firm but not stiff bristles. Then she jogged back over, offering him the second brush. Once he had taken it she moved to the same side of the horse he was standing on. "Do not ever walk behind anyone elses Strider. Your strider, bonded as you are, will be able to tell you intend to walk behind him, but others will startle and could kick you." She starts her instructions as if he had never been around a horse before. She didn't want to neglect anything by simply assuming he knew it already.

"Then you start from the neck, right under the mane, and always brush with the grain. Be gentle but don't be too gentle that it doesn't capture the dirt and debris that can get up there." She demonstrated with her brush, slow motions, always downward never upward, her free hand following the brush as she murmured encouragements to the horse. "You try."

[Darius Twoseas]

Darius was a little embarrassed by the exaggerated tone with which she spoke to him, and internally felt a little bit offended. However, he recognized that he really did need her to speak that slow to understand, and he did, in fact, need the lessons, so his offense was a little irrational. He tried to ignore it, focusing instead on actually learning something. What she said sounded familiar to him--he had, in fact, taken these lessons as a child, but had mostly forgotten everything while he was adjusting to his life on a ship. Years without being near a horse made it easy to forget what he had learned as a kid. He nodded in response to her warning about walking behind horses. It made sense. He filed it away to remember never to do it. When she gave him the brush, he took it and watched what she did. She stepped a bit aside, and he took her place, running the brush down Alaxel's neck from the mane. At first he was hesitant and his movements were a little stiff as he imitated her exactly. He moved slowly and the brush barely touched his strider's hide, but after a few strokes he grew more confident, brushing down from the neck.

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Nicola watches him carefully, her body language set to an easy comfortable stance but she did murmur occasionally correcting his hesitant brushing. The coat already started to look better, laying gently now rather then being bristled and coarse looking. "See? Look how soft that spot feels. When I brush Driskol I can tell he is enjoying it by watching how relaxed he gets. Even without the bond telling me he is content he tells me with the way he stands and moves."

Nicola moved again to begin brushing the coat of the colt along his back, pointing for Davus to begin to work on his withers and belly. Her brush stroked over the tan colored fur, her lips murmuring non-sense in Pavi to the horse. "When you do this, talk to him. Make him feel special. Horses like that as much as they like tubers." Nicola commented waiting for him to finish brushing his area, after she had already stroked over and left hers feeling silky soft. "Now turn your brush over and look at all the dirt and debris that is on it. That is what you just relieved your horse from. Would you like to be constantly running around with all that mess on you?" She grinned and cleaned out her brush, showing him how to do so. She turned the brush upward, and with her fingers hooked into claw shaped fashion, she stroked her digits firmly through the bristles. She did this several times before she tossed the brush over to another Drykas to put up.

She then ran over to Driskol and got into the pack near him, pulling out two more tubers. One she fed to Driskol, to give him a treat for being so patient. The second she handed to Davus, "Feed him the tuber and let him know he did well, standing so nicely for us to brush him...you will need to tell him. He is a strider, he likes to hear his rider's voice."

[Darius Twoseas]

The woman patiently corrected Darius's mistakes while he brushed Alaxel's neck. When he was done, she directed him to feel the area he had just brushed. She was right, the Strider's coat was much softer than it was when he had started. He smiled that he had managed to help care for his horse. "See?" he smuttered quietly to Alaxel. "I'm not entirely useless." The horse stared back at him, mildly disbelieving. The woman directed him towards the joint where his neck met his body and his stomach. She also explained that he should keep talking to Alaxel to soothe him and let him hear his voice. He started brushing down where she had indicated. His strokes were far more confident, but at the same time, he was hesitant as he tried to talk to Alaxel. "Hey," be started, feeling a little self conscious, "I'm finally...learning something...I didn't even remember I...needed to do this...sorry for leaving you...unbrushed for so long..." While part of his stumbling was his self-consciousness, he also was having trouble finding the words he needed when one of his hands was busy. Unintentionally, he switched to Common. "Maybe someday I'll actually be good at this stuff." Alaxel turned his head and looked right him. Darius barely noticed he had returned to Common, and continued talking as he brushed. He was almost surprised to find himself finished. The woman had finished faster than he had and was waiting for him to finish. She instructed him to turn over the brush and he was surprised to see all the dirt caught in it. He felt suddenly guilty about not learning how to do this stuff earlier. He watched how she cleaned her brush and copied her, running his fingers between the bristles of the brush to dislodge the dirt. The other Drykas ran over to her own bag and pulled out more tubers, one for her own horse and then one she gave to Darius, instructing him on why he was giving it to Alaxel. Alaxel was already following the tuber closely with his eyes, and when Darius offered it, he snapped it up happily. "Thank's for being so patient with me."

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While Nicola and Darius worked with his strider, a few more Drykas rode up, dismounting and leading their striders to the enclosure. Having an idea Nicola waved her hand at a big Drykas man with hair the color of coal. "Hykas! Come here! Bring Gingham!" Hykas turned toward the sound of the voice, and smiled raising his hand as well and complying. Nicola runs over and speaks to him in that super fast super hyper fashion that is Nicola. After just a brief hesitation, Hykas nodded and Nicola claps and signed for Gingham, a large female Strider, over toward Darius. The only thing Hykas had did was removed the Yvas.

Gingham had been out running, her body was coated with sweat and foam, she chuffled a little at Nicola when the horsewoman nuzzled her muzzle. "Darius, bring your brush. This is Gingham, Hykas' strider. Hykas just returned from hunting rabbits out in the seas, and Gingham is tired. Your going to give her a good brush down so that she can cool off." Nicola smiled brightly at Darius, forgetting to slow down her Pavi for him. "Like most striders Hykas is trained to know Pavi signs. This is stay, this is walk." Each sign was repeated. "If you want him to stay you tell him, he will do it. Don't forget..don't walk behind her!"

[Darius Twoseas]

Darius was really surprised and a little embarrassed to see another Drykas ride in and talk with the woman. He watched nervously, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he waited for her to return. She was talking very fast to the man, and from this distance, Darius caught none of the Pavi. He was very surprised, then, when the rider came over to him. The woman went back to her super fast speaking and Darius could barely understand her. He took a look at the horse in question, covered in dust and grime and foam. He looked back to the woman. She was showing him handsigns, and he mimicked them roger them down. Nervously, he took his brush and brought it up to the edge of Gingham's mane, before suddenly turning to his instructor. He didn't think he felt quite comfortable brushing down someone else's Strider. It was fine for his incompetence to affect his own horse, but he didn't want anyone else's horse to be suffering because of him. And he wasn't really sure he understood what she had asked of him. "Um, could you repeat that please. I'm sorry, I'm just not sure a I understood. You want me to brush down Gingham by myself"