~ WTS 11 ~ One Big, One Small

December 14th, 2016

Winter hadn’t quite arrived in the valley yet, nonetheless the days and nights had grown bitingly cold. Nature’s colours had become dull and boring - only greys and browns everywhere, the hues muted and toneless.

The ice-cold nights had frozen the ground, and so the school ponies had gotten a well-deserved rest as long as the riding arena was yet too hard to tread. Weekends at the stud were boring and quiet nowadays - no riding lesson meant no kids, and so Anne, Daniel and Andrew had to keep themselves busy on days that had again been filled with work and laughter for the last months. Funny, how quick one got used to a little more life and joy at home. But they didn’t grow idle either - the stud had to be prepared for winter, so everyone had their hands full with stacking hay or making the stables winterproof.

Nana, for one, loved the cold season. Everything was so much more peaceful, the people, the horses - even her mare Nocturne had settled significantly since she’d arrived. She didn’t know if the season was responsible for the change in spirits, but she couldn't care less - as long as her horse was slowly turning into the same good friend that she’d once been. Which Nana dearly hoped, anyway. Right now it almost felt like they would never be able to overcome that wall of coldness and professionalism that remained since they’d been separated, the lack of whatever special had knit them together so tightly all these years ago… but Nana wouldn’t yet stop hoping.
She rode her almost daily. Right now it wasn’t possible to use the grass paddock as a riding arena, so she’d started doing long hacks with the others - mostly Andrew with his little Obertaurer Dova. Actually, the creamy tobiano wasn’t so little anymore, as he had grown into a fine stallion of seven years, a trusty and extremely sure-footed animal. Nocturne got along well with him.   

However, her behaviour under the saddle was only barely improving since the “incident”, when she’d bolted and thrown Nana into the dirt. The girl still didn’t know the horse’s problem, or how to fix it - but at least the Selle Francais seemed to enjoy being outside, and so Nana decided to defer the problem to whenever the riding arena was usable again in the spring.

With dangling reins, horse and rider arrived at the stud.
The place was peaceful - quiet, but friendly, a steadfast, solid body that sat below the grey sky. On the stableyard she met Anne, the boy Pirou and Miele, the stable owner’s precious Swedish Warmblood. They were preparing the mare for a ride, as it seemed - the boy was busy grooming the liver chestnut, with Anne keeping an eye on him, obviously bored as she had nothing to criticise. The boy’s size was a funny contrast to the tall horse he was brushing. Miele, though, was a patient horse, who barely took notice of the groom - she loved a good scratch, and stood contently.
Would Pirou get to ride Miele? Nana was surprised. Normally, there were only a handful of people that were allowed on the mare - and the riding students didn’t even dare to dream to be part of this select, hand-picked circle of riders. Anne must’ve taken a shine to the little guy… Nana smiled to herself.

She couldn’t say she wasn’t content with the situation at the stud; yet it still felt a little strange to have a foreign family live here.

They hadn’t been here for very long, a few days at most, but they were already trying to integrate themselves into the ongoings of the stud. With the riding lessons up and running just alright, there were some funds for another paid job, and so Massoud had offered his working power. Having a diligent and orderly man like him take care of the stable, Andrew predicted he’d have more time to train and ride young horses, and was eager to take over the business that Anne had left behind and never really continued.

Pirou, above all, looked like no better place could have happened to him. He loved horses, so much was sure - they presumed he had some experience with the animals, judging from the way he interacted with them and showed no sign of fear when he did so. But even though he did his best at learning German, the process was slow and they had little opportunity to speak with him and find out where and how he’d gained this experience.

Nana, however, had a natural way of interacting with the kid - language was no problem whatsoever between them. It was obvious that Pirou looked up to the blonde dressage rider - figuratively, but also literally in this moment, as Nana steered her mare to the free spot next to Miele. “Hello,” she smiled at him. Pirou grinned up to her and returned the greeting.

“You -” she pointed from him to Miele, “Ride? Her?”

Pirou had understood. He nodded, his eyes shining in excitement. He seemed both proud and
extremely agitated about his upcoming ride - with an encouraging nod, Nana dismounted her mare and Pirou gladly returned to Miele and hurried to finish her for the ride.

“Would you lead him around? Down the road maybe, but I’d rather you’d stay within sight,” Anne asked her. The girl knew - Anne looked exhausted and tired, maybe she hadn’t slept well. She nodded. “Sure. You take Luna back?” Anne, relieved, agreed and turned to the black horse that she loved so much herself.

Nana ended up saddling and bridling Miele, and because he was insisting to be needing no assistance when he mounted, Pirou was allowed to lead her to the mounting block on his own. Nanas amazement didn’t stop here - the tiny boy was holding the mare’s reins so naturally and casually, as if he’d done nothing but leading giant animals his entire life. Miele followed him like a lamb and stood like a statue when he climbed into the saddle with some difficulty. And there he sat - enthroned like a king, the broadest, most satisfied grin on his face.

“Let’s go.” Nana took the reins and signalised the mare to start walking. Pirou was rapt, and giggled joyfully as they made their way along the treeline. After a while, he pointed to the reins and begged they’d be given to him. “Alone! Can I alone?”

Nana, glancing to Miele, decided there’d be no harm in letting go of the reins if she continued to walk next to him and the warmblood. The look on Pirou’s face couldn’t possibly have be any prouder as he picked up the reins and sorted them in his little hands. Nana nodded. Miele walked nicely, and observing his riding, Nana found he didn’t really need her presence after all, and drifted away from him.

The boy sat still - didn’t shift his weight as children tended to do, didn’t hinder the horse’s movement in any way. He sat upright, and even though he was way too small for the warmblood, he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. Nana liked what she saw - as his legs were too short to give proper aids, he used his body weight instead to make sure the horse knew exactly where he wanted to go. Nana saw how attentively he seemed to listen to and sense the horse below him - the lack of heels didn’t seem to bother him at all.
Suddenly, she wondered when she’d really felt a connection like this to Luna for the last time. Maybe this was her exact problem: she acted too much, and didn’t listen to the horse. She didn’t feel it - which was probably why the link to her horse seemed so unsteady.
It was funny… Pirou obviously looked up to her, nearly imitated her every step - but now it looked like they both had much to learn of each other. The thought made Nana chuckle.

“You rode horses before,” she then said, more of a statement than a question. Pirou nodded. “I ride always,” he said in his broken, adorable German. “I love horse.” Nana smiled. Gesturing, she asked him if he’d ridden big or small horses before, and he said “Everything.”
Nana wanted to know where he’d ridden before, how he’d gotten round to it and if he’d ever competed - but here, the language barrier thoroughly spoiled her plans, as he didn’t quite understand that much German yet.

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The next chapter! I hope you aren't yet sick with me uploading sketches and no "proper" art.
I'm too tired to proof-read this, so here it is. Stay tuned for the next chapter, when a certain young man you all know well makes his debut in the new WTS stories!

I spent the last week at the ITFS - the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film - and the FMX Conference on Animation, Effects, VR, Games and Transmedia, which was definitely both one of the best and busiest weeks I ever had! I posted some pictures from the festival on Instagram, which is linked below, so if you're interested, check it out! ♥
I'm thinking about collecting some photos and sketches and all kinds of stuff that I produced the last 7 months and put it into a weird collection that I'll title "Student Life"... the time at the Filmakademie is such a ride, and I really want to give you some insight into the reason behind my decreasing activity on here

Art, written art, characters (c) by me, no ref used
DIN A5 pencil sketch, coloured with PS

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