[sleepyDandy]

Range Trotters are the result of crossbreeding Orlov Trotters, Finnhorses, Welsh Cobs (section C & D) and Hanoverians. Later crosses of Quarter Horses, Paint and Appaloosas to gain color and to give a boost to their hardiness.With a height average of 13-15 hands, they're a hardy breed with characteristics for various disciplines.

Created for use as work, carriage and leisure riding horses originally, they now serve as long-distance range horses, such as work with Park Rangers and mounted officers.

Willing and eager personalities, most are quickly trained to be bombproof and therefore trusted mounts in all lines of work; some are being seen in local show jumping competitions, others are notably used in therapeutic sessions for their calm temperaments. Harness races and endurance trials are common for the breed, as they are able to sustain an extended trot without tire. Cross-Country competitions see some of the taller Trotters, but due to their cob lineage this is still uncommon.

Despite the variety of competitions and work these horses are being seen in, they are still famously skilled as endurance racers. Many competitors have chosen Range Trotters due to their tireless work ethic, as well as the ease in which they can be trained. Many have become champions in endurance trials, and they have quickly become a sought after breed for their natural ability.

Despite this Trotter's dark complexion their flames burn a bright, toxic green. Spots of green show through the topside of their coat, and their eyes reflect a similar hue, yet it's far duller.
Where does this spectre come from, and why are their flames such a bright green?

End Date: October 30th

Username: Embergleam
Show Name: RRS Ghost Town
Barn Name: Bodie

Gender: Stallion
Height: 15hh
Eye Color: tearing through the thin veil of subconsciousness
Phenotype: Sooty Dappled Blood Bay The Moss
Genotype: EE AAt Stysty MssMss

Code: Select all

[b]Username:[/b]
[b]Show Name:[/b]
[b]Barn Name:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Height:[/b]
[b]Halter Color:[/b]
[b]Prompt:[/b]

[Autosarcophagy]

Username: Autosarcophagy
Show Name: Augment of Anathema
Barn Name: Blight
Gender: Stallion
Height: 14.2 hh
Halter Color: Artist's Choice
Prompt:

This trotter appeared one night in the depths of the forest, seeming to emerge from between shadows and moving with an uncanny speed. He's never come close enough for any human to touch him, though he does allow them to catch a glimpse of him every once in a while.

At least, that's what I've heard from others who've seen him.

Here's what I've found so far, from my own encounter.

His flames snap and crackle, embers flying into the air and landing with a faint sizzle against the forest floor. Upon contact they appear to erode the ground beneath them ever so slightly, like a corrosive liquid eating through anything in it's path.

I believe this may be due to the color of his flame which may have some relation to both his temperament and the properties of his fire. I've found that adding borax or boric acid to an alcohol solution and igniting it produces a bright green flame, similar to that of the stallion. Upon further research I found that boric acid is relatively corrosive at a high temperature [95 C] leading me to wonder if this chemical compound is present in the stallion's flame? If only I had the chance to collect a sample..

Moving on:

This beast smells of darkness, carrying the scent of rotting wood, gasoline and the first frost of winter. Cold, was how I would come to describe him. It was easy to tell when the stallion was nearby as the surrounding temperature will suddenly drop and you would feel as though you had been plunged into a sudden inky void, waiting for your eyes to adjust.

I encountered him once on a dreary evening, when most of the leaves had already turned, crunching beneath my feet. A chilly mist hung in the air as the occasional raindrop made it through the branched canopy above.

He materialized in front of me, hardly two meters away, standing tall, eyes blazing with green fire. I met his gaze, tentatively at first, staring deep into the green flames dancing in the very center of his pinpoint pupils.

For a moment it felt as though I was melting from the inside out, the stallion's flames licking at my flesh, eating me alive.

Suddenly, he turned, tossing his head as he galloped back into the distance, hazy form flickering between shadows until he disappeared completely, the only remaining evidence of his presence being a few half dissolved leaves on the forest floor where he had stood.

I go back to that place often, waiting on a tree stump to see if he will show himself again. As of yet, he has chosen to remain hidden, though I have felt his presence on occasion and in these moments I dare not turn around.

The faint scent of gasoline and mahogany wood envelops me and once or twice I swear I could feel his breath on the back of my neck...

[Embergleam]

Username: Embergleam
Show Name: RRS Ghost Town
Barn Name: Bodie
Gender: Stallion
Height: 15hh
Halter Color: Artist's choice
Prompt:

(Apologies for how long this is, this prompt completely got away from me!)

Exerpts from a field researcher's journal:

June 3
...finally got ourselves out to the research site, and it's looking pretty grim. This whole valley was strip-mined back in the day. Back then no one knew how much damage that kind of mining did to the environment. Guess they figured they could just leave mine tailings in situ and Mother Nature would sort it all out. That mess has been sitting out here exposed to the elements for the better part of a century now. Goodness only knows what's in it and how much of it's made it into the groundwater. Guess that's what we're here to find out. We're gonna get our camp set up and start a first sweep tomorrow, see what it is we're dealing with. I'm hoping and praying it's just your run of the mill gold or silver mine tailings. At least those are easy to clean up.

June 5
It's not gold or silver tailings. It's phosphorous tailings. Which means it's all phosphogypsum, meaning it's all radioactive. Bucky's Geiger counter started ticking the moment he got it out of its case. Our camp is safe, radiation's barely above background levels there, but the fact the blasted thing went off at all is pretty concerning. Phosphogypsum contains uranium and thorium, and they're both water-soluble. If there's enough of those elements present to set off a Geiger counter... well. This might turn into a cleanup expedition real darn fast.

June 9
...About the only good news is that the wildlife seems to have decided we're alright. Flynn's been keeping tabs on an elk herd down by the river, and I've seen more birds of prey than I can count. Sawyer keeps going off about seeing wild horses around sunset, too. Not quite sure I believe him on that one. Doesn't the Bureau of Land Management keep the feral herds pretty small nowadays? Can't say I'd mind seeing 'em, though. They're as much a part of the Wild West as the mess we're trying to figure out.

June 17
...Bucky keeps saying this is the weirdest hot spot he's ever seen. Since all this phosphogypsum has been exposed so long, it's started getting concentrated in surface pockets. We're still trying to map them all out. Bucky's been pulling overtime trying to get them all sniffed out and marked. The brass has us all taking iodine pills as a precaution. In theory we should be fine, but in theory this was supposed to be a perfectly safe job. You'll forgive me if I don't put much stock in theoreticals right now.

June 22
Well I'll be. Sawyer was telling the truth. There really are wild horses out here. There's a good dozen or so of 'em, real rugged-looking critters. Don't think they've ever seen humans before us, but they're starting to warm up to us. ...well. They're not running away the moment they see us, at least. That's an improvement. I haven't been able to get all that close yet, but I'm gonna try again tomorrow. Sawyer's taken his nonsense a step further and started insisting one of them glows or something. That's the sorta thing you just gotta see in person.

July 4
...think I saw the horse that Sawyer was talking about last night. Big ole stallion, easily a hand taller than all the rest, and I swear on everything holy he was glowing. You know that eerie green glow folks always associate with radioactivity? He was glowing that color. Not all of him, just a band around his neck, his hooves, and his eyes, but it was enough to leave an impression. Can't for the life of me figure out what would make a horse glow, but it's hardly the weirdest thing we've seen out here. I'll keep an eye out, see if I spot him again. Think I'm gonna need to see him at least a dozen more times before I really believe what I'm seeing.

July 7
The whole team's seen that glowing horse now. Sawyer's started calling him 'Bodie'. Apparently it's the name of some ghost town in California. Pretty fitting, as far as names go. Whatever we end up naming him, he's getting pretty comfy hanging out around us. Doesn't bat an ear at our equipment anymore, even when Bucky had to fire up his jackhammer to gather up a sample. Never seen a horse mellow out so quickly, but then again, I'm not too keen on horses in general.

July 10
Bodie's become a daily visitor now. He's become something of a team mascot by now. All of us keep an eye out for him while we're going about our tasks for the day. He brings a little bit of magic to an otherwise pretty grim task. Bucky's gotten a map of the valley drafted up now, but it doesn't quite match what we're seeing in terms of sampling. Everything seems to point to some concentrated source of contamination somewhere nearby, but we haven't found hide nor hair of it. Nothing for it right now. Best we can do is keep searching.

July 12
...I feel bonkers even writing this, but I think I figured out Bodie's deal. I think he's trying to tell us something. Every time he shows up he kind of... lingers until one of us gets up and walks towards him. He runs a few strides, stops, turns around, waits for us, rinse and repeat. No one's ever followed him all that far, but tomorrow I might have to try. If he's trying this hard to get our attention, to get us to go somewhere, it's gotta be important. Besides, we're camping out on top of radioactive waste in the middle of the boonies. Following a glowy horse is hardly the weirdest thing I've done in this line of work.

July 13
Took my life in my hands and followed our glowy horsey friend today. He took off upriver without missing a beat. Made it about half a mile before I lost him in the trees. Dunno what he was hoping to show me, but it definitely felt like he was taking me somewhere. Makes me wonder just what goes on in the mind of a radioactive horse. ...and what I might find further upstream.

July 14
Woke up to Bodie outside of camp this morning. He nickered and snorted and huffed the entire time I was getting dressed and shoveling breakfast down my gob. Never realized how impatient a horse could be, or how... bizarrely human. The moment I had my boots on he was off and trotting upriver again. Gonna try this whole thing again and see what I can see.

July 16
When life gives you radioactive horses, follow them. I can still scarcely believe it, but Bodie led me right to paydirt. Turns out there was an artesian well about six miles upstream, well outside of our assigned survey range. Something about the geography of that specific area concentrated a whole bunch of mine tailings in one specific area. Bucky's Geiger counter pitched a right fit the moment we got close. Worse yet, there was a stream running out from under that pile of tailings. It was the source of the whacky readings we were getting. There was a concentrated contamination source further upriver. It was just someplace we never would have thought to search if not for our irradiated equid friend.

July 22
Cleanup efforts have started on what everyone's calling 'Bodie's Well'. It's gonna be a long and tedious process, but it's good to see it started. Once the cleaning crew is done here they're gonna head further downstream and hit the smaller hot spots Bucky marked off. In a few years the valley should be stable enough to start the rehabilitation process in earnest. Maybe I'll get to come back and help out with that...

July 29
We all figured that Bodie's visits would stop now that we've found that contaminated spring, but nope, he dropped by today. Walked right up to us bold as you please and demanded skritches. He's... warmer than any other horse I've ever touched. Feels a bit like patting a furry machine under heavy load. Given what we know of the area we found him in, maybe that's not too surprising. He's even glowier up close and personal. All that green is even more intense in person. Kind of eerie. Kind of beautiful. Definitely awesome. Makes me feel like I just made friends with a legend.

August 2
Bucky just pointed out that our contract's up tomorrow. In all the chaos of discovering Bodie's Well I guess we all forgot about the time limit on our stay. I won't be sorry to bid this scrapheap farewell, but I am gonna miss Bodie. He's something special.

August 3
So, uh... change of plans. We're on our way back to civilization, and Bodie's in a trailer behind us. Apparently Sawyer has spent the past few weeks scheming. He knows someone who knows someone who's willing to take Bodie in. The big guy seems to know it, too. We expected a fight when we tried to get him onto the trailer- he's a wild horse, after all!- but nope! He hopped on neat as you please. Makes me think he knows he's getting a cherry deal. I don't know much about this 'Raven Ridge' place, but it's gotta be better than a radiation-contaminated wilderness.

Gotta say... I'm pleased as punch he's coming with us. I couldn't bear the thought of leaving him out there after all he did for us.

[sleepyDandy]

Username: Embergleam
Show Name: RRS Ghost Town
Barn Name: Bodie
Gender: Stallion
Height: 15hh
Halter Color: Artist's choice
Prompt:
-snip!-

congrats you both, i really enjoyed your pieces!! it was so very hard to pick a winner so i let a random number generator pick!!
i'm awarding Autosarcophagy with 2 HMs for their effort <3

[Embergleam]

Thank you so much, sleepyDandy! ;.; I had a ton of fun writing the story for this guy and I'm glad you enjoyed it as well!

[Embergleam]

This trotter is a Champion dressage horse!
They will receive the following benefits:
• +1 Breeding Slot
• +3% to Twin Rate

They are also eligible for a makeover, and can now compete in harness racing to aim for another championship!