Equine Ballerina [Sebastian Stan AU]

Chapter Three

I threw in another handful of grains in both feed buckets, looking up to check the feeding schedule for the horses. It had been 2 weeks since Terrence had shown up for a quick tour and introduction with our herd of horses.

Luke had worked with the crew on creating a schedule that would suit everyone,  it would give the actors enough time to come down and train with our team. Then give the film crew enough time to set up some of the scene work which would be happening on our property before moving to another location.

I grabbed two of the first buckets of feed, heading over to the stall area, I few of the horses started snorting and knickering to each other at the site of the feed buckets.

'Don't worry, you're all going to get fed' I said to them all, as if they could understand what I was saying.  I slipped into the two stalls, quickly, emptying both feed buckets in the troughs before repeating the process for the other 10 horses in the stables.

Amber and Alice were out rounding up the rest of the herd, who would be getting a simple hay feed for this morning.  I cleaned out the buckets quickly, stacking them back up against the feed room wall, and then headed up to the office to quickly check over the running list for today.

Part of the film crew would be arriving this afternoon to start working, and then both lead actors would be coming today too, Luke said they would just be receiving an introduction with everyone and then to meet the horses they would have to be working with.

'Hey Luke' I said stepping into the office, seeing him checking his emails on the laptop.

'Morning Joss'

'So do we know what time they are coming around?' I asked, It was just before 8am, but I wanted to know what the schedule was ahead of time, so that way I knew what horses needed to be worked,and when I could train some of the new horses that had just been transported over to our stables.
'Terrence said, he and the two lead actors will be here around lunchtime, and then the film crew should be arriving around 2pm' Luke said, glancing over at the paperwork on the desk. 'I don't think they are riding today anyway, but they all need to get use to the horses and I want them to meet Soldier and Patriot'

I nodded in response, 'Can I work them both this morning then' I asked, wanting to know what he exactly had planned.

'Yep, just some light work for both of them, I want them to be good to go tomorrow for the first riding session' Luke said, 'and I need you to work with those two mares Gerard sent over'

I sighed, rolling my eyes, 'Can't Jacob or Amber work them' I pleaded to Luke.

'Nope you're the best at liberty with the horses Joss, and you need to work them, Just ride them today if you want, nothing too strenuous'

'Argh but you know I don't like mares, they're just so bleh' I said, making Luke laugh at my reaction to working with the new horses.

'Not getting out of it, besides Mare's can be sweet' Luke chuckled, 'sometimes,' he added in making me laugh now too.

I started heading out, 'Ok fine  but just because you're paying me too then' I laughed turning to head back downstairs.

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I had both mares trotting around in the arena, letting them play around with each other,  I had opted out of riding them, I needed them to get use to being worked on the ground, with no lead ropes and just a simple lunging whip and my hand signals.

I let them do another lap of the arena before I asked them to come back down to a walk and to hopefully get them both to halt. Both mares had already seemed to form a bond with each other nickering and whinnying in a playful manner

I asked them to both halt, but both turned and started trotting again away from where I was standing. I sighed in frustration, there was a reason I loved working at Cavalia, and one of the reasons why was because they had a strict no mare rule for the show.

I asked again holding my hand up and using the lunging whip as an extension of my hand to hold it in front of the two horses as the approached where I was standing. They both abruptly came to a halt and the black mare pinned her ears back at me whilst the paint mare just looked at me and then bowed her head down sniffing at the ground.

I held my hand out to touch the black mare but she threw her head back, taking a few steps to the side. I sighed, this was going to be a long week of training these two, why did Luke have to get mare's  I thought to myself. At least our horses on our production were all geldings and a couple of stallions.

I decided to just ignore her behaviour and focused on the pain mare, I stepped over to her, and whilst her head was still bowed down I gave her a quick few pats along her neck, and she responded to the positive enforcement by bringing her head back up so we could see eye to eye.

'Good girl' I said to her, giving her a few more pats.  I clipped on the lead rope and let the mare have free will to move around,adjusting the length of the rope so she was able to still move around for herself. I asked her to trot on,  and I focused for a moment on getting her to perfect the trot, before  bringing her back down to walk, obviously we were going to have to start from the basics, before I let them both have free will whilst liberty training them.

I smiled to myself when she started having a more positive attitude, her ears pricked forward and her forward motion was already a great success. The black mare started following her around, causing me to smile, sometimes you just needed one of the horses to start working and then the others would want to follow, not wanting to be left out. They truly were a herd animal, wanting to stay with each other.

I got them to do a few more circles and then asked them to halt. I was about to let them have a free roam around the arena, when I was brought out of my own little world with Amber walking into the arena.

'Hey, Luke wanted me to come down and get you, it's almost midday, so they'll be here soon' she said walking over to me, with the other lead rope I had left near the gate.

I clipped it onto the black mare and held out the rope for Amber to take, 'you can take this one'

'Haha she that bad then' Amber laughed, looking up at the mare, who was now content on just walking back up to the stables.

'Sort of, she took ages to start working, and then she kept throwing her head and pinning her ears, I guess she will take a little longer to work and train' I sighed, opening the gate for us to leave the arena.

'If anyone can do it, you'll be able to Joss' Amber said, giving the mare a quick pat on the neck, 'but now we have to train these guys and train these newbies'

I laughed at her use of the word newbies, it was true both Sebastian and Candice would be learning how to ride, according to Terrence, both had no experience in proper riding so they would be attending a boot camp that would be run by myself, Luke and Jacob mainly for the next 2 weeks.

'Alice can't stop talking about how excited she is to finally meet him' Amber chuckled.

'Well I'm sure she will be front and centre once they both arrive, hopefully she doesn't embarrass herself then' I laughed, picturing Alice running up to Sebastian and giving him a giant hug, and then being lost for words.

'She kept trying to get me to watch his movies since she found out we would be working with him' Amber said, 'I mean let's be honest, he is pretty attractive, '

'Hmm I don't even really know who he is, I only know what Alice has told me about his movies ' I said as we neared the front of the stables. I turned around hearing a car pull up in the driveway.

'Well they are right on time then' I said looking at my watch, just on midday.

'Come on let go put these two back and then we can be there when Luke introduces us' Amber said, turning around  walk into the stall area.

I recognised Terence as he stepped out of the passenger seat, and I assumed the other two in the back seat were the actors. I caught a glimpse of Sebastian I was guessing as he stepped out of the car, noticing his swept back hair as he took off his raybans to glance around at the property.

I turned to face the stables before we could make eye contact, heading into the stables, to have a quick chat with Luke and the others before we went to greet them.