Horse Ridin' (Motionless In White)

Chapter 30: Goodbye For Now

Written: 10/24/16

Notes: hopefully you don't totally hate me for throwing them out the window for a chapter or two... oops lol

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"Of course you rolled you twat!" Sirenia groaned, looking into Arthur's stall and staring at him accusingly. "Couldn't you have waited a little bit?"

Arthur blinked, slowly walking over and rubbing his head against Sirenia's side innocently. He had shavings all over him and in his mane and tail, leaving her with the realization she'd be spending even more time grooming him before she rode then they'd planned.

The girls were planning an entire day of riding today as all their horses needed exercise. All 4 of Rosaline's and... 7 (?) of Sirenia's. Jared was away for the day visiting his parents, leaving the girls and Sam (who they'd called in for the day) to man the barn.

Sam would handle the afternoon barn work so the girls could exercise all their horses without having to stop for too long in between. It was going to be a lot, but they were excited. They hadn't set aside a day to ride all of them in quite a while so this was going to be a good change of sorts.

First was going to be Arthur and Trooper. Rosaline could still do plenty of Dressage and a bit of jumping with Trooper, meaning he was the perfect horse to ride while Sirenia rode Arthur. She'd be doing some hardcore Dressage while Rosaline, for once, planned to do a little bit of jumping.

Despite eventing fairly often, Rosaline did not enjoy jumping very much. She liked some aspects of it, sure, but she far preferred Dressage. She evented to represent Covenant and show alongside her sister mostly- otherwise she'd probably stop jumping altogether. Due to previous injuries she had a lot of back problems that were only aggravated by jumping, which made her want to stop doing it altogether.

But as Trooper and Frankie both enjoyed it she continued to do so, choosing instead to try and do what made her horses happiest. Who needs a spine anyways? Totally not Rosaline.

"Now it's going to take forever to get you clean!" Sirenia groaned, clipping a lead rope to Arthur's halter and leading him out of his stall. He was an especially muscular and shorter OTTB, leaving him in many ways looking a lot more like a QH cross then a purebred TB. Sirenia didn't care, though. He was a star Dressage horse and her first horse, leaving her feeling as if she was always a bit closer to him then all of her others.

It wasn't favorites- really. It was just she'd had him the longest. She swore. She didn't pick favorites.

Rosaline was already grooming Trooper when Sirenia clipped Arthur to a crosstie. She groaned when she saw how clean Trooper was in comparison to Arthur. "Really, Trooper? The one day you don't roll in the field Arthur decides to roll in his stall and the field!"

The younger girl laughed. "It's because I gave him a bath last night when Abby came for her lesson. We both know he stays clean about 24 hours after the bath then trashes himself completely."

"That is true," Sirenia agreed, starting to brush off Arthur slowly. He kept glancing between Sirenia and Rosaline as they groomed, probably wondering why the girls were riding them first today. "Do you want to do hill work today?"

She shrugged. "Sure. Trooper will love that, won't you bud?" She asked, turning to look at Trooper. He stared back innocently, earning a giggle from both sisters.

Trooper was notorious for being a bit of a beast in the field. He didn't take off maliciously or anything, he just got excited and liked to pull around a bit. Rosaline sort of let him get away with it, though, as he was on the older side and really enjoyed riding in the field. Little did he know it helped keep him in shape too- all that hill work really paid off when people commented on how in shape he was for a 19-year-old horse. And he was in very good shape, after all- thanks to all the hill work, trails and Dressage they did. The old guy looked more like a 6-year-old then a 19-year-old.