[ExVenor]

Welcome to the Euphorian Retired Racehorse Project
Euphorian Thoroughbreds are a rare string of the Thoroughbred breed. They come from a single farm simply called “Euphoria” that has horses with mutated genes. These allow them to be able to possess any realistic coat or markings. Everything else about the sub-type is the same. Long, strong legs, a powerful hind, and great speed. Their eyes are soft and the breed is incredibly smart, if not a bit goofy. They love kids and have the rare ability to excel in any discipline. They can grow from 15hh-18hh, though usually somewhere in the middle.
The horses readopted through the Euphorian Retired Racehorse Project are looking for a new loving home and a new job. They’ve tried racing and have either retired or decided the sport wasn’t for them. Either way, they are ready for the next chapter in their life. Some of these horses will come with a little training already, and will have their new discipline already determined. Although others you’ll get to pick how they move forwards!

Owner: certified
Show Name: Vedetă Stelară
Barn Name: Bellamy
Gender: Stallion
Age: 8 years
Height: 17.3hh
Eye Color: Chocolate Milk
Phenotype: Silver Sooty Seal Pearl Tobiano Sabino Varnish Appaloosa
Genotype: Ee Ata Zz prlprl Stysty Toto Sbsb Lplp
Mane Type: Normal
Discipline: Show Jumping
Halter: Dusk w/Silver
Breeding Info: Has two copies of pearl [prlprl] can produce pearl or pearl carrier offspring.
Edit List: Perked ears, tongue

Naming and writing comp!
Tell me the meaning of his name and write a story about his first-time under-saddle.
200-word minimum for the story!

Code: Select all

[b]Username;;[/b]
[b]Show Name:[/b]
[b]Barn Name:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Height:[/b]
[b]Halter:[/b]
[b]Discipline:[/b]
[b]Competition:[/b]

Ends in 2 days!

[Lush]

Username;; HowlToTheWind
Show Name: MLS Chasing A Dream
Barn Name: Chase
Gender: Stallion
Age: 5 years
Height: 16.4hh
Halter: Forest green
Discipline: Barrel racing
Competition: wip

[Exotica.]

Username;; Exotica.
Show Name: Under the Night Skies
Barn Name: Sky
Gender: Stallion
Age: 7 years
Height: 15.3 hh
Halter: Brown Leather
Discipline: Eventing
Competition:

Name - To me, all his markings look like stars within a galaxy. So, just looking at his markings, it is like looking up at the stars under a night sky.

Sky's first time under saddle was surprisingly easier than I anticipated. I'm guessing he has some experience with having something on his back, whether that be a work harness, or just a heavy winter blanket. But, after today, I definitely can say he has never had a human on his back.

He looked at me inquisitively as I slowly approached him with the saddle. I gently placed it on the floor next to him to allow him to take a look at it. He began to investigate the saddle, sniffing all over, attempting to nibble on it here and there - thankfully this is my old saddle that I use specifically for the purpose of breaking in horses! Finally, after about 5 minutes of investigating, he seemed content with his findings and went back to patiently standing in his cross-ties.

Slowly, I bent over and picked up the saddle. I brought it up to his back and began to carefully place it. He seemed a bit nervous with this new weight on his back, but quickly adjusted and was comfortable once again.

With the saddle on his back, I hooked up my lead rope to his halter and walked him up and down the barn aisle. Once again, he seemed pretty comfortable pretty quickly. By now, I was fairly confident he had some experience with some added weight on his back. With this in mind, I led him back to the cross-ties and decided what the best way would be to go about hopping on him.

I placed my hands on the saddle, and pushed down a bit, trying to hint to him that I would be adding weight. He remained steady.
I placed my foot in the stirrup and picked up my other foot, now putting all of my body weight on his back. My other leg instinctively fell into place on the other side of the saddle and made its way into the stirrup. He still seemed fairly relaxed, so I asked one of my riders to unhook his cross-ties and give me a rope to put around his neck.

We began to slowly make our way down the aisle. Sky was slightly hesitant, but seemed to overcome that fairly quickly. I took him into the arena and let him walk around and do whatever he wanted. About a half hour later, I felt he had done well enough for me to hop off. I brought him back to the cross-ties and slowly made my way out of the saddle. Sky seemed more nervous about me getting off than he did when I got on. But, a few minutes later, I was on the ground, saddle in hands walking back to the tack room. Of course, I returned with a couple of carrots in my pocket and made sure he got a happy snack time.

[♔Voltaire♔]

Username;;♔Voltaire♔
Show Name: Whistle While You Work
Barn Name: Whiskey
Gender: Stallion
Age: 5
Height: 17.3hh
Halter: Champagne (#F7E7CE) with silver buckles
Discipline: Trail
Competition:

The phrase "The weight of the world rests on your shoulders" has never felt so true until now. I only thought such things were true in the old superhero movies my old caretakers used to watch when staying the night in the barn with me when I was young - I have been greatly mistaken. Cocky old me really thought this guy wouldn't be too hard to carry- after all, this was going to be my first time "under the saddle" so to speak and seeing all the other horses in my herd do it made me truly believe it was a walk in the park. I was greatly mistaken again.

Earlier this morning, I was pumped to finally be able to carry one of these tiny little humans on my back. I was impatient, pacing my paddock and trying to get the attention of every handler in the book. After about an hour or so my caretaker finally strolled up and led me into the barn, and I couldn't help but prance a bit- until I saw who I would be carrying. He was large. VERY large, but my caretaker assured him I would be more than able to take his weight. The bridle felt funny in my mouth, and my blood began to pump as soon as the dusty old saddle was thrown over my back and fastened into place. It's really heavier than it looks, but nothing I couldn't handle.

Then he began to throw himself over me, and it took everything in my body to not bend under his weight, but I was able to walk out of that barn acting like it was nothing. Now, we're out on the trails, something I have wanted to do for ages, but the sweat forming under my blanket and the weight of this guy were the only things I could concentrate on.

If you want to know, I survived. Barely, but I did. 200 pounds of human, good gracious! When I told my buddies, all they did was laugh... Nothing is funny about carrying that much weight!

[SpartanAmethyst]

Username;; SpartanAmethyst
Show Name: NSR Vegas Lights
Barn Name: Voltaire
Gender: Stallion
Age:
Height: 17 hh
Halter: Based off name
Discipline: Streetracing
Competition: wip

[certified]

Username;;
certified
Show Name:
Vedetă Stelară (meaning star gazer in romanian)
Barn Name:
Bellamy
Gender:
Stallion
Age:
8
Height:
17.3 hh
Halter:
night themed
Discipline:
Show Jumping
Competition:
The White Orchard staff had a different way of breaking horses. One of the gals there, Jade, had gotten a lesson or two from her grandfather, whom had run his own ranch man years prior. They didn't saddle him up on the land. He was brought to a rather large pool. Not for humans, but for the horses at White Orchard. The staff had gotten him in, as he didn't mind water or react badly to it. They got the saddle on, and watched as he bucked and water splashed all about, soaking the staff who stood on standby. He'd wriggle and attempt trying to buck it off. Minutes were ticking by, leading into half an hour, his energy finally depleting, but still bucking nonetheless. He continued bucking on for a little bit, putting up a fight. But about fifteen minutes more and it was obvious he was getting beat. He bucked a few more times with an obvious struggle to lift his legs high enough. And he stopped after about an hour in the pool. The staff grabbed him by his lead, and led him out of the water and back out to the pasture, doing much better with the saddle on, too exhausted to even think about fighting it in that moment.

[FireWolf52]

Username;; FireWolf52
Show Name: SRS A Smol Bean
Barn Name: Smalls
Gender: Stallion
Age: 5
Height: 15.3 hh
Halter: Black leather
Discipline: Driving
Competition:
Wip!

[conversett]

Username;; conversett
Show Name: ripples of the moonglade
moonglade (n.) the track of the moonlight on the water.
Barn Name: fanta
fanta, abbreviated for fantasize (v.) to indulge in daydreaming about something desired.
Gender: stallion
Age: 6 years
Height: 15.3 hh
Halter: leafy green
Discipline: cross country
Competition:
Fanta’s coat was often described as a ‘fantasy’ by onlookers because his white markings always appeared to be glimmering under the moons gaze at night. People had soon shortened the word to ‘fanta’ whenever they referred to the stallion, and from there the name just stuck.

It also didn’t help the stallion’s cause to earn a different name when he was known to be easily distracted. His handler would always joke to him about having to stay focused in their lessons and to stop fantasizing. It was particularly evident when it came to his first time under saddle. And man, wasn’t that one a doozie!



Fanta stood in his stall, munching on his hay when he noticed his handler began lugging out the tack and placing it front of his stall. It didn’t really intrigue him anymore at this point since it wasn’t the first time for him being tacked up. And he was quickly learning that the stuff wasn’t exactly comforting in his opinion. The stallion just assumed it was going to be the same as the pass few days, lunging in the arena. So he swung his butt around to the handler and kept on munching.

A chuckle could be heard from behind Fanta, followed by an amused voice. “Oh come on Fanta, don’t be like that.”

The stallion didn’t acknowledge the human, forcing them to come to him instead to get the halter on his head. The halter went on with no difficulties and before long he was tied up in the crosstie.

The first piece to go on was the saddle pad, which he didn’t mind too much. He much preferred having it cushion his back from the saddle. The saddle wasn’t too bad either, it added some weight to his back when the handler placed it there but that was it. None of that was the discomforting part. The girth however, he hated. When the handler went to attach the girth, Fanta swung his head around to nip at him or the girth. Whichever he could get to first honestly. Unfortunately for him, the handler was ready for it and easily dodged the horses attacks. The girth was just uncomfortably snug and he was forced to suck in his breath like a human would for a corset. The final piece was the bridle, which was almost as bad as the girth. Once the halter came off, Fanta threw his head up, causing the handler to have to fight with him to get the bit in. It was cold and metallic and awkward. It was just awful. After a few minutes of scuffling around, the handler managed to get the bit in his mouth. After that, Fanta begrudgingly lowered his head and the handler quickly fastened on the rest of the bridle.

From there, the handler led him out to the outdoor arena which Fanta had no qualms about. He loved being able to go outdoors, there was just something about the fresh air and being able to see everything going on.

He got brought up towards a block of wood that he kept trying to side step away from. But the handler insisted on trying to get him close to it. If Fanta knew any better, he’d think the human wanted him on top of it! So the two played a little game of ring-around-the-rosie before the handler had enough. They had put fanta between the fence and the mounting block, so that the stallion could no longer side step away. From there they had just kept him from walking forwards or back while they gently got in the saddle.

Fanta startled at the sudden extra weight and began to give out a small series of bucks and kicks as he lurched forward. And the weight only seemed to get jostled around, making him feel completely unbalanced. So once it was out of his stem and he came to a stop, the weight seemed to readjust on his back. However much uncomfortable it may be, the stallion realized that he didn’t feel nearly as disoriented as he had beforehand.

With the handler situated once again, and fanta standing still. Their legs gently pushed him on, and to much of the handler’s success, Fanta began to walk. However the handler would quickly found out that he is very sensitive the pressure. When they had approached the corner of the arena and the handler asked him to bend a little bit, but Fanta began to move side ways and into the fence to get away from the leg pressure. So the handler tried a series of exercises to get Fanta to respond appropriately to his leg, but it was a bit a struggle. Fanta would grow frustrated and start to kick out again and the handler would have to calm him down again and start over.

“This turned out much better than I thought it would’ve, Fanta. You actually stayed focused for once.” The handler spoke with praise as he leant down to give the stallion a stroke on his neck as a reward for his hard work. However this has only seemed to jinx the handler.

The lesson was finished for the day, but Fanta still had to be cooled out before they could go back to the barn, and with fanta’s mind no longer actively occupied with the human on his back, he started to look for other things that piqued his interest. And it wasn’t long before a butterfly flutter into the arena and caught the stallion’s eye. He watched the butterfly sporadically fly in all different directions with no handler to control them. Inspiration overcame fanta’s mind and he too decided that he wanted to be like the butterfly. So he began to shift his weight back to his hind legs and slowly perched himself into a half rear before lurching himself up into the air. He did this a few times as he pretended to be gracefully hopping along and chasing after the butterfly. Unfortunately, the butterfly was terrified and only trying to escape the horse’s hooves. But it hadn’t matter where the butterfly went, Fanta followed.

The handler had gotten caught off guard with the stallion’s sudden movements and as a result, they were not prepared for the stallion to jump around like a maniac. They had fallen off after the third ‘hop’ without Fanta even noticing until the handler had regained themselves from the fall. They quickly approached Fanta, and gave a nasty jerk to the reins. It was effect in getting the stallion to stop, however always made him hate the bridle even more.

After fanta’s escapade, he was taken back into the stables, untacked, and returned to his stall. The handler made a note to use the indoor arena next time, while Fanta was happy to go back to munching on his hay. Though he longed to be able to go outside instead of being inside, he also figured that it was better like this than being tacked up and outside.




Epilogue: After many events much like the one first time Fanta was under saddle, it was determined that he was not cut out to be a race horse. He was too sensitive and easily distracted. It was then that he was placed up for auction at the annual expedition to go to the highest bidder. Fanta did not understand what was happening, there was so many loud noises and commotion that he couldn’t even focus on anything. Not even on his own fantasizes that he usually indulged in when left alone in his stall for long hours. Nothing was familiar and for once he could almost cry to have his mothers comfort again, for anything that he knew or understood.

It was Connor’s birthday and she had decided that she wanted to spend her day at the local horse expedition. It was fun to see all the horses and riders get dressed up and to perform, then there was all the yummy treats that you could only get at carnivals and celebrations. Hmm candy apples. Not to mention the fun rides that you’d find at fairs and the like. All in all, it was turning out to pretty awesome.

Or that was until Connor came across the auction tent where all the horses were stationed to be sold to whoever paid the most for them. Most of the horses looked terrified or broken from years of abuse. It was far from a pretty sight. She almost left the tent in tears for the way the poor horses were treated, and it also ignited something in her. She knew she had to kickstart a campaign to help horses like these, and to make auctions more friendly.

Except before Connor could leave the tent, a beautiful pintaloosa horse caught her attention. He was shrieking in the background of the noise from the expedition, and his eyes looked to be filled with tears. He was searching for something, or maybe someone. Connor knew the facts, and everyone says that horses can’t cry. But she highly doubted that no one has seen a horse like this one. On a whim, she purchased a number to use in the auction and she swore that she’d win him even if it took all of her savings to do so. And that is exactly what she had done. She paid her money at auction booth and received his registration papers before going to collect her new horse.

Connor approached Fanta slowly with a lead rope in one hand, and a piece from her candy apple from before in her other hand. The horse looked wary at the human until his eyes zoned in on the apple treat. She kept her distanced with her hand reached out with the treat as a peace offering, to which the stallion gleefully accepted.

Connor knew right then that it would be the first of many candy apples they’d most likely share together. [1663]

[LivingLethal]

Username;; LivingLethal
Show Name: Old Faithful – see competition for meaning!
Barn Name: Bennett
Gender: Stallion
Age: 8 years
Height: 18hh
Halter: Up to you!
Discipline: Trail riding (and a Lesson horse)
Competition:

Teens will be teens. Cruising down the back-roads of the just-barely civilized areas of the country, it was only a matter of time before the boy found himself his daily dose of trouble. Fence lines stretched as far as the eye could see; he’d never considered exactly what was contained within them, as they were always empty of anything that a fence would need to contain. Except—

The boy made a screeching stop right on the one-way road. Just within the enclosure, one tall, spindly stallion stood awkwardly within. The teen wouldn’t know, but it was likely that the horse was not much older than a yearling. All the boy knew was that he sure had never ridden a horse, and he sure wanted to. He had little more than the towel he laid down on his car seat to use as a saddle, but the idea was genius. A free horse to ride—why would he say no?

With the towel flipped over his shoulder, the boy jumped the fence and approached the young stallion. The horse seemed amused more than anything—his ears pricked upward and he gazed curiously at the advancing human. When the teen got within arm’s reach, the stallion made no move to reject his outstretched hand, nor did he so much as flinch to the blanket being laid over his back. When the teen boy jumped on his back, pulling his mane to gain his balance, the young stallion merely wobbled from the weight.

At last, the teen was mounted. His first task was to make the horse move, and he knew just how to do it. With a deep breath, he shouted, “Yeehaw !!”

Judging from his firmly-planted feet, the stallion was admittedly a little dumbfounded at the loud, sudden utterance. The boy’s plan B was a little more effective; he gave the stallion a kick in the stomach, which caused him to jump a bit and begin walking. He lazily ambled for a few feet, at the end of which he set down his head and began grazing. Not even another kick could get him moving. With a few more kicks and exasperated huffs, the teen dismounted, removed his tack, and gave the horse a disgruntled glare. The horse, on the other hand, ignored him and continued grazing.

“I’m coming back,” he declares. “And next time, I’m going to make you run, horse.”

[ExVenor]

This will end in 4 - 5 hours!
So any last minute forms and changes are still welcome.