Foxmoore Equestrian Centre (Open and Accepting!)

[Perfect Polish]

Morgan Prescott/23/English/Jazz/Open

Morgan had been at the stables just before the sun had risen that morning to get some early workout sessions in with Jazz. The white stallion had been on a bit of a break since coming here and with show season approaching, Morgan was concerned he was a bit out of shape. The pair had been working on groundwork, getting the basics back down to make sure bad habits didn't appear. Jazz had been a superstar and Morgan was thrilled that there had been no issues. Checking her watch, the equestrian noted that the hands were drawing closer to the meeting time. After cooling down, Morgan led the stallion into the barn and cross tied him to untack. Doing a quick groom down, she led Jazz into his stall and let the stallion drink. "I better get a move on" she mumbled to herself before latching the door and heading quickly off towards the meeting.

Tala Johnson/21/Female/Goose/Open

Tala had arrived at the barn early for the meeting. The anxiety of possibly being late always drove her to be one of the first people at a meeting location. The brunette had quickly checked on Goose upon arrival. Goose was a mule, which got many a head turn when they practiced, especially since they both specialized in English Hunter. Tala enjoyed this however and always welcomed people asking her questions about him. In her personal opinion, the big gray mule could jump just as good as any horse or pony.

[Consulting_Angel]

After the riders had all arrived in the office and were ready for the meeting, the owners glanced at each other for a few moments before turning towards the group. Both of them appeared heartbroken, which was even clearer in the tone of their voices.
Sabrina started, "First, thank you all for being here for the meeting. This news, we think, deserves to be told to you directly, in person... I... we..." her voice faltered, and she choked up, so Roger took over talking.
"I'm sure some of you were already somewhat aware, but we were hit with several unexpected bills, especially after that storm a few weeks ago... and... well... we've tried every option, but we have no other choice but to shut down Foxmoore Equestrian Centre at the end of the month. We cannot thank you enough for the support and love that you've all given us, and we will miss you all so dearly. We've already got a few interested buyers in the land, but we're holding them off to allow you all to have time to find somewhere new for your horses. We're so, very, very sorry."

Rueben Brooker
23|Male|Bisexual
Starsky|English
Location: Office
Tagged: Group

Rueben froze as he listened to the news. He never really imagined that this would be a possibility... ever. Foxmoore, closing down? It just didn't seem right. But it was evident the truth was being told.
He wondered what he was going to do. He didn't really know anywhere that he liked or wanted to go and move Starsky to. The consideration that he sell Starsky was something that came to mind, as a serious solution... but as he dwelled on the thought, it made him realise that he didn't want to do that, it breaking his heart at the possibility of having to let Starsky go. But... he didn't ride her. He realised that might be unfair of him... he felt conflicted.

Glancing towards Sabrina and Roger, he spoke up, much to their surprise. "I am... sorry to hear about this."

Ashton Wyatt
21|Male|Bisexual
Sundance|Western
Location: Office.
Tagged: Group.

Ashton looked surprised, shocked, that he was even hearing this... to him, he'd always thought that Foxmoore would be around forever. The owners had always been so careful, and were so kind and helpful - they were the last people that deserved to be forced to make this kind of decision. As he listened to the others, he wondered what he could do. There had to be something that they could do to help. He knew that they'd refuse a handout of any kind, preferring to get by on their own merit, but the owners deserved a fighting chance. A way to let them keep Foxmoore open. But Ashton couldn't think of anything. Certainly nothing that could contribute to the conversation. He felt that there wasn't a whole lot that they could possibly do. He was surprised that Rueben had spoken up with emotion, though.
"I'm also sorry to hear that, also... is there truly nothing to change the tide?" Ashton asked, to which Sabrina shook her head in response.

Ezrah Holton
23|Male|Bisexual
Nova|Western
Location: Office
Tagged: Group

While Ezrah wasn't too surprised to hear about the news, it was far more moving and heartbreaking to hear how it was said, and how clearly upset Sabrina and Roger were to be breaking the news to everyone. He didn't have any concerns as to where he'd be sending Nova - after all, his father would certainly leave enough land for him and Nova. But... well, he wasn't too sure what everyone else would do. It would be such a shame to see everyone leave. Obviously, no one knew that his father was one of the interested buyers - not even the owners knew this - which gave him a little comfort. But still.

Ezrah glanced around at the others. "Well. We have to be able to do something." he said, frowning slightly.

[buckskin.]

Brylee E Webster. "Bry" & "Eddie" . 22 pan female . single . tags group (mentions; ). office

Her heart sunk into her stomach as she heard the news, falling silent as her mind raced loudly inside her own head. This was not the news anyone had been hoping for, in fact, she had been holding her hopes so close that she had almost allowed herself to believe it was going to be something good. She stifled for words, looking around at the group of riders she had spent so much of her time with. Silent until Ezrah had said something that sparked her with hope.
"He's right, there had to be something we can do." she strongly agreed, glancing over at the young man then back to Sabrina and Roger. It felt almost wrong giving up just like that, this had been home the moment she got here and she wasn't just about to give in.

Azran H Richards. "Az" & "Ren". 25 clos. bi male . single . tags group (mentions; -) . office

Azran slowly looked down at his feet, allowing the idea that he would have to move elsewhere or move home to wash over him. It was one of those things that made him unsure about what to say as telling them he was sorry felt cliche or like it'd make things worse. Like when someone asks you if you're okay and it just makes you more upset, something like that. It felt selfish to only thin of what he was going to do, where he was going to go. Other people may have come further or this may have been a refuge for other. What were they all going to do? How would he even get Stella back home? It had been a struggle and a half to even get her here. Silent, Azran looked to the others as the prospect of trying to help save the property began to surface. At this moment there was nothing to personally offer, so he stayed quiet.

[rex.]

Lowell Alexander
20|Male|Homoflexible
Ace|Western
Location: Office
Tagged: Group.

Lowell could feel his heart stop. How could this happen? He remained silent, thoughts and concerns flooding his mind. The Western Rider kept his gaze on the ground in silent frustration. His eyebrows stitched together in worry; worry of what would happen to everyone here, worry of where him and Ace would go. Sabrina and Roger were both very kind people so that fact that such a cruel turn of events would befall them made Lowell clench his fists. It wasn't fair that good people had to go through bad things. "Is there really no other option...? Is there really nothing we can do?" His voice was quiet, almost inaudible.

[Skyet]

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𝙺𝚊𝚓𝚜𝚊 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚛
female / 20 / show jumper / galaxy / location; office / tags; open
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Kajsa had arrived that morning and gone straight to the office. She would have almost forgot about the meeting, had Sabrina not reminded her in her reply to Kajsa’s text, asking if the barn owner would be able to feed Galaxy. Her early-morning lifeguarding shift had ran over, some kid at the swim club had swam into the wall and earned a pretty nasty cut. That hadn’t made Kajsa feel queasy. But this did.

“Roger...Sabrina...surely not? I could get dad...after all you’ve done for me, for us...” Kajsa gestured to her fellow riders. She knew that the couple would never accept her fathers help, same would go if any of the others parents offered to help. Kajsa had only been here a year, moving down to England meant she was closer to the bigger competitions and could travel to Europe easily for the tours such as the Sunshine Tour. Glancing at some of the others, she noted the worry in their faces. The redhead knew what they were probably thinking. Where would they go after Foxmoore? At least I can go home, Kajsa thought, guiltily. Her parents stud would always have a stable free for Galaxy. Yet the grey had settled so well here, even made a few friends. Kajsa leant back against the wall, trying to think of something, anything she could say to try and help.

[eventer]

ＬＹＤＩＡ ＭＡＲＴＩＮ
lydia ● twenty two ● female ● horses;; pandora ● tags;; minnie, group
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

lydia stood quietly as the meeting went on and frowned at the words, lydia herself having grown up with money had picked up on a few things that she knew didn't mean anything good for the property, but hadn't realised it was this bad yet. she looked at minnie who also looked concerned, and was pleased whens he saw everyone else in the room was also concerned or upset for the couple. she thought curiously, and looking at minnie she smiled, who gave her a 'what?' look. "i reckon there are quite a few things we can do guys, look, for one, some of you know i do body work, i do it on some of your horses, i reckon i can probably put the money i earn from that towards the ranch, minnie runs small clinics twice a week" she said, glancing to minnie who smiled and finished her sentence, "i am more than happy to put that money towards the ranch" it wasn't alot, between the 20 or so horses lydia worked on a week at $70 and minnie who often did clinics and had about 4 people per clinic charging $55 per person, it wouldn't take a lot with the help of everyone else. lydia looked around waiting for people to offer, and with a glance at the board she furrowed her brow and walked over grabbing a piece of paper "or we can all enter this?" she shrugged turning to look to the group of people in the room, holding up a poster for a 5 day competition.

ＭＩＫＡＹＬＡＪＥＮＮＩＮＧＳ
minnie● twenty four ● female ● horses;; shiloh ● tags;; lydia, group
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

minnie sighed calmly listening to everyone in the meeting once sabrina and roger let everyone know the bad news, she knew if worst came to worst, lydia and a few other people here had a lot of money and could bail the ranch out, she also knew that sabrina and roger while would be grateful, wouldn't accept unless it was last resort. when lydia started to speak she looked at her curiously and when she mentioned her clinics, she smiled and spoke calmly, "i am more than happy to put that money towards the ranch" she said softly looking towards the group before watching lydia wonder off towards the notice board.

[Consulting_Angel]

The couple glanced at each other as they listened to the responses from the riders - from condolences to offers of help. It made them feel awful for the decision. But... this was their mess. It shouldn't, they felt, be the responsibility of the riders to bail them out. Besides, they felt like they had to work for it, rather than getting any help handed to them.
"Thank you all. But this is our responsibility. Don't feel as though you have to bail us out. We'll try our hardest to help to find somewhere if you need it." Sabrina said, sounding regretful to be rejecting the help. Roger smiled weakly when the poster was held up.
"It's next week... are you sure you'll have enough time to even prepare?" he asked.

Rueben Brooker
23|Male|Bisexual
Starsky|English
Location: Office -> Outside
Tagged: Group/Open

Rueben doubted some of the offers of help. In his opinion, it just seemed like some people wanted to be the 'saviour' of Foxmoore, and so he rolled his eyes a little. Folding his arms across his chest, it wasn't until Lydia had held up the poster for the competition - which Roger had mentioned was only next week - that he finally spoke up again. "That's only if anyone's good enough to place high enough." he coldly commented, mostly out of jealousy that he wouldn't be able to compete unless he could find it within himself to get back in the saddle soon.

Rueben then left the office, with a glower to the group, and quickly walked across the yard. He reached Starsky's stable, and opened the door, sliding inside the stall. He put his arms around Starsky's neck, and she rested her head on his shoulder, with a snort.

Ashton Wyatt
21|Male|Bisexual
Sundance|Western
Location: Office.
Tagged: Group.

Ashton breathed out slowly. Was there really nothing else that they could do? It seemed not, even as the offers from others were rejected. And the competitions? He wasn't sure if there was enough time to prepare. Although, he knew that Sabrina and Roger were excellent riding instructors that could surely help them prepare over the week - putting in the work that would yield the results to help.
"We're here everyday anyway. We can work on training..." Ashton commented, quietly, rather in support of the idea of the competition.

He didn't want to end up having to move somewhere. Sundance took time to settle, and besides, in his opinion, Foxmoore had some of the best trails to ride along, and it would be an awful shame to see them get sold off for some kind of development that would destroy them.

Ezrah Holton
23|Male|Bisexual
Nova|Western
Location: Office
Tagged: Group

Ezrah hesitated for a few moments at the reactions from the others. He was certainly conflicted. While he would, of course, love to ensure everyone got to stay at Foxmoore, he also felt as though he'd feel like he was betraying his family, though. He couldn't let anyone else know this, though. The last thing he wanted was for everyone to hate him just because his father was an interested buyer.

After Rueben had left in a huff, Ezrah glanced around, before speaking up. "We would have a train hard..." he commented. "But... Roger, Sabrina, you're both excellent instructors. You could help us prepare." Ezrah said, looking towards the couple, figuring that the only way to ensure no one knew of his secret was to openly show his support to Sabrina, Roger and the other riders.

[buckskin.]

Brylee E Webster. "Bry" & "Eddie" . 22 pan female . single . tags group (mentions; ). office

Her attention turned to the poster Lydia held, it was almost perfect. It had to be perfect, they had to be perfect. As much as she hated to admit it, Rueben was right this time, it was only going to be enough if they, as a team, placed high in the rankings. It was one of those situations when it was all or nothing "We will be good enough, there is no questioning it." she spoke out strongly, pausing "We have to be good enough." she followed quieter as she suddenly felt small and unsure in her own powerful feelings towards the situation.
Personally, she had taken a break from competing in order to focus on working and earning money, mostly so she could compete more. Sure, she was a bit out of practice when it came to the showing scene, but Atticus was still in work and was jumping better than ever. All her spare time was spent with her beloved gelding, and now what better way was there than to use their skills and partnership to help keep her home, yes home, afloat.

Azran H Richards. "Az" & "Ren". 25 clos. bi male . single . tags group (mentions; -) . office

Azran remained quiet, watching what was going on around him and listening; just listening to the ideas and conversation, they could make it if they all pulled together. Feeling useless to the whole situation, Azran stumbled over the words in his head until he found something remotely helpful. "We're all going to have to work together, we have to be a team." he commented, looking around at each face before returning to look at Sabrina and Roger. Still, he didn't know what to directly say to them. This brainstorming was good in theory, but he stood by what he had said and they would all need to work together. He knew there was an obvious rivalry of sorts between the two groups, English riders and Western rider, but if they really wanted to do this, they would really need to pull their heads in and work as one unit.

[Skyet]

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𝙺𝚊𝚓𝚜𝚊 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚛
female / 20 / show jumper / galaxy / location; office / tags; group
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Looking at the poster Kajsa nodded. Of course! The five day competition! Everyone at Foxmoore was at least skilled enough in their disciplines to give them a decent shot at at least placing. Grinning she spoke, “Everyone here has a decent shot at winning, if not at least placing and earning something there. We need to try. There’s enough of us to really earn some money from it, we cover enough disciplines too to make up teams.”

This would be perfect for all the riders to come together, and not be divided by their style. Kajsa knew however, that this would be difficult. Even she wasn’t exempt from the feelings that divided them. However, she could just concentrate on her and Galaxy. The mare was careful and quick, and has consistently placed during the last season, even winning classes. But it wasn’t just Galaxy she’d have to rely on. Kajsa would have to be on form too.

[green.]

Gemma
the girl looked around "I-" she began before faltering she bit her lip trying to think of something to say, but could find nothing. She dropped her head with a sigh. Val could do the competition, that wasn't the problem, but Gemma was shy and insecure. She didnt want to cop out if it was going to help the barn though.