The end of the line

[Cara]

Demeter had been at Park College for a few days now, and she had settled in well - as had her mare and foal thankfully. She shook her head as she thought of Nickle and Dime. The mare standing under the protection of the trees while the little colt sprinted around their field.

Today however, she was standing at the door of the vet and rehab stables, waiting for a truck with eight horses to arrive. She bounced on her toes, extremely pleased that she had found a company that would bring all eight of them.

It didn't take long before the truck rumbled up the drive and came to a noisy halt outside the stables. She stepped forward with a bright smile as the driver jumped out of the cab and walked around to where she was standing. "They were a little restless, but they all survived the journey."

She lifted an eyebrow at the man's unsympathetic words, almost as though he didn't care whether they had made the journey or not. "If you open her up, I'll start bringing them out."

The driver shrugged as he used the controls to lower the automatic door and he walked up the ram to being out the first horse; a skewbald Spotted Saddle Horse. The woman's heart went out to the mare as she stumbled down the ramp, nothing but skin and bone. "Come on precious." She said as she took the lead off the man and took the mare into one of the stalls she had readied herself. "I'll be right back." She unclipped the lead and headed back out in time to see the man once again walking down the ramp, this time holding two lead; that of a grey Mustang and a bay Trakehner. She quickly took the lead off him and took these two into their stalls before coming out again. Next came a Quarab and a Freisan, followed by am Appaloosa and a Quarter Horse.

"You'll have to get the last out, can't get near 'er." The driver said as she walked out once more.

Demeter smiled and headed into the truck. "Oh, sweetie!" Demeter said as she looked at the state that the grey mare was in. "It's okay." She said. It was a struggle, but she finally managed to get close enough to undo the lead and all but get dragged out of the truck by the mare who wanted nothing but to get away from this human.

Rather than putting the unsettled mare into a stall, Demeter instantly released her into one of the small outdoor pens that were to be used for these horses. The pens had a loose box, the ground was dirt, with enough grass so that the horses could graze, but not gorge themselves and get colic.

Heading back to the truck and driver, she paid him for his troubled and thanked him for bringing them out. She the headed into the stables, and started tending to each of the arrivals. Treating any open wounds, and making notes on what they needed.

[Lottii]

Harry was grooming Casey when he heard the roar of a a large horse truck driving past the yard. Placing the brush back into the kit carefully - you couldn't throw things near the chestnut mare - he rubbed her neck before grabbing the kit and slipping through the stable doorway.

Dumping the kit box just outside the stable, he jogged over to the gate to see the horse truck disappear round the corner towards Veterinary and Rehabilitation Center that was on the campus. From the size of the truck - it was rather large - he guessed these were the rescue horses that they would use as part of the Equine Therapy class he had signed up for. Harry shrugged slightly, he might as well go and offer some help. What he had gathered from the sign-up sheet was that there would be eight horses, and thats quite a lot for one woman to deal with. Sliding through the fence next to the gate, he followed the truck at a distance - it wasn't going particularly fast, he could keep up with a medium jog.

As the truck stopped, he stood back and watched the horses being unloaded by the man he assumed was the driver. The woman, Miss Carr he remembered now, had to get the last horse out, a Quarter Horse it seemed. The driver climbed back into the cab and the truck rumbled back to life and vanished around the bend. Pulling out the pen and paper from his pocket, he scribbled a quick note to show the teacher. I'm Harry. I signed up for the Equine Therapy class, are these the horses? I was wondering if you needed a hand with anything? With a slight smile at the corners of his lips in anticipation of meeting new horses, Harry reached the teacher and held out the note for her to read.

Tag: Cara
Words: 217
Notes: Meh, I don't really like it
Outfit: Coming
Credit: This template was created by DAN at CAUTION 2.0

[Cara]

Before she could walk into the stables as a truck left, Demeter came to a halt at the appearance of a boy. A smile lifted the corners of her lips as she read the proffered note. "It's good to put a face to your name, Harry." She said as her smile brightened. "I would love some help!" she laughed. "It was going to be a very long day otherwise."

She led the way into the stables, the horses that she had stalled were all down one side. Some were looking out over their doors, the rest stood at the back of their stalls, trying to forget that they existed. "What I want to do is just look over each of them." She told the student. "Run your eyes over them and if you can see anything bleeding let me know. Anything else about them that need tending to, note it down. I don't want to do too much before class starts." She handed him a clipboard. "I'm going to start with the skewbald. You can start where ever you like."

She flashed him another warm smile. she didn't care whether he spoke or not. She hoped that he would feel comfortable enough around her to do so one day, but right now the horses were her main concern and she was thrilled that he wanted to help, when he could have just turned around and walked away.

She glanced out the door down the far end where she could see the grey Highland mare standing at the back corner of her yard, facing the fence with her tail tucked in. The mare reminded Demeter of herself when she was in the orphanage and just wanted to vanish. Knowing she could do nothing for the little mare, she turned her attention to the skewbald mare as she entered the stall. "Hello beautiful." She whispered.

[Lottii]

Harry's slight smile widened slightly at the teacher's energy. The woman was clearly passionate about the rescue horses, and seemed like one of those people who just managed to be happy most of the time. He found he naturally gravitated towards these kinds of people, enjoying seeing someone else happy if he couldn't be himself.

He nodded at her words, accepting the clipboard before making his way down to the opposite end of the stables. Reaching the last occupied stable, he hovered by the door for a moment, gauging how he was likely to react when Harry entered. A little bigger than Casey, the gelding reminded him of how she had acted though. Upset from traveling, the palomino was pacing around his stable avoiding the doorway where Harry was stood. Leaning slightly on the door, he decided that from the way the horse was moving around he would be able to get a look over him, and observed him from there. An open wound just below a hock caught his attention first, and he scrawled that down on a piece of his own notepaper to give to the teacher. Other than that, the only other physical issue seemed to be lack of weight, and possible worms. This was noted down on the clipboard before he went and handed his note to Miss Carr. His eyes were filled, which he didn't want her to see, so once she had the note he turned away to check on the horse stabled next to the gelding he had already named Sunny somewhat hopefully as the name contradicted everything about the horse's current temperament.

A black horse who on first glance could be identified as a Friesian neighbored Sunny, who was stood rather defiantly in the middle of his stable. Opening the door quietly, he offered his palm in greeting to the horse, who simply snorted in response. Harry ran his eyes over the body and legs, albeit on the thin side there would no wounds that would need treatment so he simply noted down 'underweight' on the clipboard. Rubbing the horse's neck, he slipped out the stable to take a look at the next horse down, a large appaloosa. This guy seemed in a little worse condition than the horse before him, not just underweight but he had painful looking pussy patches across his neck and back which looked like rain rot. Normally they were scabbed over and a large number were, but Harry had known horses to have rubbed them off, making them worse. None of them were weeping, and neither was the spotted horse worrying too much about them, so he made the decision to note it on the clipboard rather than bother Miss Carr straight away. His hand caressed the shape of the horse's face, he seemed friendly despite his hard life so far. As he left the stable, he quickly spotted the teacher, and walked up to show her his notes so far.

[Cara]

Demeter had just exited the stall belonging to the Spotted Saddle Horse. The mare was way underweight but there was nothing else evidently wrong with her, and after a good feeding, worming and some TLC, she would shape up quite nicely.

She was about to enter the stall belonging to a bay Trakehner gelding. The gelding had come from the same home as the skewbald mare and the Appaloosa gelding. The difference between this gelding though and the other two horses was that this guy had lost the spark in his eye.

She looked over with a bright smile as Harry approached her and handed her a note, which the woman's eyes scanned quickly. "Thanks, Harry." She said. "I'll go and tend to him once we've finished the check overs." she folded the note and tucked it under the clip on her board, writing down the stall number on it.

She opened the door to the Trakehner's stall and entered quietly, not wanting to upset the gelding anymore than she had to with her presence. "Hush, little one." She whispered. "Easy." She soothed as the gelding's ears flattened and he suddenly charged at her. "Okay, I get the picture!" She swiftly exited the stall right before the gelding's hooves connected with it. "You don't want visitors." Se added with a laugh as she looked over the door to watch the horse sulk back to the back of the stall. She noted that he was walking nicely on all of his legs so he hadn't done any damage from hitting the door.

She looked over and saw that the teen was pretty content looking over the horses in the stalls. "I'm just going to have a look at the wee misfit outside." She said as she headed toward the back door, to the yard where she had left the Highland Pony.

Standing at the fence to the pony's yard, she watched the little mare who was still just standing in the corner watching the distance. "You aren't too happy are you?" She called, and frowned when the pony didn't even look around at the sound of her voice. Along with the Trakehner gelding, this mare was going to be hard work for the person who wanted to take her on. Tough, but just as rewarding as the others would be.

The woman lifted the pen off the board and jotted down a few notes about what she saw of the pony while she was in the back of the truck; desperate need of hoofcare, really bad rain-rot, worms. She was glad that she had done her vet training back in school otherwise the college vet would have their hands full with these horses let alone any other horse who may need help.