[SkySmoke]

Owner: SkySmoke
#857490

Name: Reason
Age: 6 years
Breed: Mustang
Color: Seal Brown Sabino (Ee/Ata/SabSab)
Gender: Gelding (1 Breeding)
Markings: Blaze, stockings, sabino markings
Height: 15.0 hands
Vice/Fear/Special: This peace-loving gelding does not wish to be disturbed during his quiet times, however, he is also slow to spook or lash out.

[SkySmoke]

Jayce Channing pulled her black hair back into a ponytail and sighed. She leaned forward and rested her head on the steering wheel of the truck to collect her thoughts before getting out. She could still here her father’s voice in her head;

“Find a Reason to go on Jayce.”

He had whispered it to her a few days before he had slipped unconscious then eventually died from the skin cancer he had been fighting for two years. She had lost her mom at the age of 10 to a car accident, and losing her dad at the age of 20 to cancer just didn’t seem fair. She knew what he had been talking about; her parents had been very successful business people and she had been left enough money to live on quite comfortably for the rest of her life. She had put her entire life on hold after high school to take care of her dad and he was telling her to find a reason to keep going. They had spoken about it at length and he wanted her to find something she was passionate about and do it; not just live off of the money she’d been left and lose herself in depression.

The one thing she had always been passionate about was horses. She had been riding since she was 5 and there was a training and boarding facility run on their – her – property. She had been helping train horses with the head trainer since she was 14. When she’d seen the ad for the mustang makeover it was as if her dad had been reading over her shoulder. Maybe this would be her reason.

She wiped a few tears off of her face and stepped out of the truck to go claim her horse, number 857490. After speaking to a few workers she was directed to a round pen where her horse had already been separated from the others in anticipation of being picked up.

She walked slowly up to the fence and folded her arms on the top rail. He was a seal brown sabino, about six years old according to the paperwork. He was a little shorter than a horse she would have chosen for herself, but aside from that he was nice. Decent confirmation, she was happy to see it looked like he could do dressage or jumping. Pretty color; he was a reddish brown with four high white stocks, a wide blaze and sabino spash type markings on his underbelly running up his side by his flanks. It looked like there could be some white in his tail as well, but it was hard to tell through the dirt. She knew his coat and looks would improve with care, but overall he was better than she was expecting.

“Are we gonna be friends?”

She quietly called to him. He had been eating when she walked up and he calmly lifted his head and looked at her for a minute before returning to his hay.

“Well…I’m not sure if that’s a yes or a no, but at least you didn’t panic at the sound of a human. I’ll go get my trailer, we’ll see how this goes.”

He didn’t look at her as she walked away. Ground workers directed her to back her trailer up to the arena. They unhooked a few panels and created a shoot into the back of her trailer, then told her she was on her own to load him. Apparently the mustang makeover started as soon as she arrived to claim him and they weren’t allowed to help.

She entered the pen at the farthest point away from him possible armed only with a lead rope. She didn’t believe in starting off with whips.

“Alright you. The end goal is for you to get in the trailer without hurting yourself or me, got it?”

The gelding flicked and ear in her direction then jerked his head up in the air as she moved closer and he realized she was in the arena with him. She could see his whole body tense and his nostrils flared as he pinned his ears.

“No being angry. You’re okay. I won’t touch you, or even try.”

“He doesn’t like being interrupted during dinner.” A worker called from outside the arena fence “Or any time really. He seems to like being alone sometimes and gets kinda cranky if you bug him.”

“Thanks for the info, he’s going to have to get over it though, at least for now.”

The guy laughed and left her alone to load the gelding.

“There is more food for you in the trailer, all you have to do is get in.”

She spoke softly, all while slowly moving closer to the gelding, using her body language to encourage him to move towards the trailer. She approached him moving towards his shoulder, hoping he would turn towards the shoot. He did eventually turn away from her towards the chute, but saw the trailer and took off at an animated trot across the round pen.

“Well, aren’t you a pretty mover.”

Skyler let him trot around and once he settled down she moved towards him again, still putting herself in a position to encourage him towards the trailer. They continued their slow dance for about twenty minutes, during which she was happy to see that the gelding never worked himself into a blind panic. He was wary of her, and the trailer, but he seemed to be honestly thinking and not just blindly running away around the arena.

She uncoiled the lead rope and began slowly snaking it towards him. He snorted and kicked out slightly but ended up turning into the chute. He slid to a stop facing the trailer and Sky moved up slowly behind him with her arms open, encouraging him forward. He spun around to face her and she stopped.

“Well, now your options are in the trailer or past me, probably way closer than you want to get.”

He pricked his ears towards the sound of her voice and snorted nervously.

“I have all day to wait for you, but there is food in there, and it’s really not that bad.”

She slowly swung the lead rope towards him and he spun away from her, taking a few steps closer to the trailer.

“There ya go. Just a little farther and you’re in.”

She moved up slowly off to one side, not directy behind him, and kept the lead rope swinging. The gelding slid to a stop with the front of his front legs touching the step up into the trailer. He snorted loudly and weaved back and forth but didn’t try to spin away. Sky stopped and let him look into the trailer and smell that there was food inside. He stretched his neck as far forward into the trailer as he could and looked back and forth inside.

“Nothing in there to hurt you. Just food. I promise.”

He flicked his ears back and forth between her voice and the trailer. She stood still, occasionally speaking softly to him, and waited for about ten minutes while he inspected the trailer. He would occasionally take a few steps backwards, and she would raise her arms and cluck at him until he was back with his front legs touching the trailer. He finally let out a big sigh and dropped his head to smell the trailer floor. Sky could see his body relax some. She gave him a few more minutes and then snaked the lead rope towards him while moving closer.

“Alright, last step is the hardest. Time to get in.”

She coiled the lead rope towards his back feet and he kicked out. She did it a few more times, then coiled it and swung it out so it gently touched his rump. It had the desired effect and he leapt forward, his front feet landing in the trailer. He quickly backed out but every time his front feet hit the ground she swung the lead rope until it touched his rump. It took five or six times, but he eventually launched himself completely into the trailer and Skyler quickly shut and latched the gate.
The gelding panicked slightly and turned around inside the trailer, weaving back and forth to look out the sides and calling to the other horses on the property. It took him about five minutes to calm down and find the hay in the front of the trailer. He grabbed a nervous mouth full and walked back to the back of the trailer, eyeing Sky through the slats.

“Well, step one done. Now for the ride home. You’ll like it, I promise. It may take a little while, but you’ll probably like me too. If you let me get close enough I’ll get that horrible number tag off your neck.”

The gelding snorted and moved back to the front of the trailer to get another bite of hay. Skyler smiled as she found herself already planning his training. It felt good to have something to think of other than her grief. Her dad was right, she needed to find a reason.

“Hey…I think that’s your name. Reason. It’s a lot to live up to, but I think you can do it.”

Reason lifted his head from the hay and looked at her for a moment before continuing to eat. Sky took it as a sign that he liked the name and she smiled as she got into the truck for the drive home.