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fidgetspringer-art · 5 days ago

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Equestrian AU part 2 Tansy makes her (Loud) appearance.

At the tail end of the following week. Martin gets his first taste of one Noah Powell.

Him and Casey are sitting on the front steps, waiting for their new guests to arrive, when a gleaming black pickup truck comes crawling up the gravel driveway, leaving a plume of dust behind it. It’s hauling a huge trailer that looks more like one of those mobile homes than it does a horse trailer.

The truck comes to a halt in front of them, and out climbs who Martin first mistakes as the owner, until the actual man of the hour comes around the side of the truck, and some vague memory is triggered somewhere in Martin’s head. He’s seen that face before, somewhere, but he couldn’t say where exactly.

The taller of the two comes up to shake Martin’s hand. “Gabriel Warren, pleasure to meet you, Mr. Hart.”

“You as well.”

He doesn’t get to say anything else before Gabriel is stepping to the side. “This is Noah, he’s the owner.”

Noah steps up, curtly offering Martin his hand. “Noah Powell. Let’s just get this over with, yeah?”

Gabriel’s eye twitches. He manages to look apologetic when he smiles at them. “Noah isn’t super keen on this idea. He’s never handed his horses off to someone else before.”

“Never needed to.” He cuts in. He’s looking around the farm with disinterest. Like he would rather be anywhere else.

Martin wonders how much of that is a reluctance to leave his horse behind, and how much is genuinely thinking he’s got better places to be right now. Martin hates this guy already. He’s got the sort of attitude that grates on his nerves. It hasn’t been five minutes and he’s starting to regret taking him on.

“Not to worry, Noah.” Casey pipes up. Cheery despite the fact that she’s gone completely ignored so far. “We’ve got an open gate policy here at Hilltop. You’re free to come visit whenever you’d like.”

Martin tips his head in Casey’s direction. “This here is Casey. I suppose you’ve already spoken over the phone. She runs this place, pretty much.”

Gabriel is polite enough to offer her his hand. “Good to finally meet you.” He looks between them, “So the farm is a bit of a marital business then, I take it?”

Casey is quicker on the draw than Martin is. “Oh no! Not quite. People do often joke that we’re practically a married couple, but we’re just old friends is all.”

It’s not the first time this assumption has been made. Casey has been at his side since they were teenagers. She’s his oldest friend, and maybe in a different world they might have ended up married. But in this one, they don’t exactly line up with each other’s preferences.

“Ah, sorry for assuming I-” Gabriel is cut off by a loud bang echoing out between the buildings. Followed by another. Then the trailer starts to rattle with the sound of stomping hooves.

“Better get her off the trailer before she throws a fit.” He’s already moving to get the door open. Martin follows. Curious to get his first look at this horse. From the racket she’s making now he can already tell he’s got his work cut out for him.

He watches Gabriel lower the door carefully to the ground, revealing a pitch black mare with tall, white socks. She’s glistening with sweat and her eyes are wild and searching, taking in her surroundings eagerly. As soon as she realizes she’s in a new place, the whinnying starts up.

And she is loud.

Martin watches the way she’s not standing still even for a second. She doesn’t wait to listen for the other horses to call back to her. She just starts tossing her head, rattling the beam in front of her and kicking out against the dividing wall against her side. She’s a flurry of stress and motion and Martin has seen the exact same thing a hundred times before.

Gabriel clips two lead ropes onto her halter, one on each side, before he hands one over to Noah, who’s come over to presumably help him. “You got her?”

Noah waves him off. “Just get on with it before she breaks a fucking leg.”

Gabriel unlatches the dividing wall, and the moment it swings outward, the mare is making a break for it.

She doesn’t get far, not with one man on either side of her, laying on the lead ropes. But she manages to drag them both a few feet out and away from the trailer before she stops, head held so high she’s almost on her tip-toes, blowing out a snort that sounds more like a dragon than a horse.

Gabriel is patting her neck, murmuring to her in an attempt to get her to settle down. But she responds by calling out with the full capacity of her athlete’s lungs. Martin is almost tempted to cover his ears.

Noah yanks on the lead rope, hard. “Hey! Cut it out.” The mare doesn’t so much as flinch. He looks to Martin next. “Where do you want her?”

He points down to the gate that leads into the main pasture. “Just take her down there, if you can.”

Noah wrinkles his nose. “You won’t be able to catch her. Don’t you have a corral or something?”

“She’s getting a few days in the pasture to settle in. I’ll catch her when I need her. Don’t worry.” He tries to sound reassuring, without letting his disdain show through.

It’s not often that Martin is this put off by his clients. He’s dealt with plenty of people at the end of their rope. People who are angry, and tired and who take that out on their horses. But the disrespect this man radiates has red flags all over it.

Noah scoffs. “I’d rather she be in a smaller paddock.”

That takes him by surprise. “Why? She hurt?” he hasn’t heard anything about her being injured, he wouldn’t usually take on a horse that’s recently failed a vet check.

“No. It’s just what she’s used to. I’d rather she not get hurt.” He says it like Martin is stupid for not understanding.

He suddenly knows exactly what type of owner he’s dealing with here. “You read the contract, correct?”

Noah’s frown deepens. It doesn’t help that the mare is tossing her head, jostling him sharply every few seconds. “I did.”

“Then you’ve agreed to my terms. I can’t guarantee she won’t hurt herself while in my care. But I won’t lock her up just to ease your mind. You leave her here, she’s living the same way the rest of my horses are.”

Noah looks like he’s just bitten into a lemon. Martin can tell this is it. They’re at a fork in the road, and either Noah will load his mare back on the trailer and go home, or he’ll agree to Martin’s terms. He’s almost a hundred percent sure it’ll be the former, based on how Noah is now staring back at the trailer, cheeks red with how angry he is. The mare tosses her head again, front feet lifting off the ground for a handful of seconds.

“Fine.”

Martin blinks. Oh. He gathers himself quickly. “The pasture, then. I’ll get the gate for you.”

Noah is the one to reach up and unbuckle the halter at the gate.

It slips down her white-streaked nose and the moment she feels it drop, she’s off, not so much as a thought spared in her owner’s direction. She’s running full tilt down the pasture, a spray of dirt and grass whipped up behind her.

She looks around frantically as she runs, until she spots the herd already grazing further down. She comes to a screeching halt, tail still up like a flag and calls out to them.

All the horses in here are Martin’s own, except for the two that belong to Casey. He wouldn’t dare mix client horses together, not without knowing what to expect from them. So he always starts them off with his own herd to see how they do. There are seven of them in total. All of them calm and uncomplicated in their dynamics. Harmonious. This mare seems to be everything but.

Noah has only just now spotted the rest of the herd. He looks like he’s going to be sick. “You didn’t tell me she’d be turned out with a bunch of others.”

Martin shrugs. “Didn’t think to state the obvious.”

Noah scoffs, but he doesn’t shoot let slip whatever snarky remark Martin can tell he’s holding back on. And thank god for that. Martin is already getting close to fed up with this guy. The sooner he’s turning his trailer around and leaving, the better.

He can’t help but notice however, the way that some of that tense anger drains out of Noah as he watches his horse be greeted by the rest of the herd. Achilles is the first to reach her. They touch noses. The big lad is calm and gentle about it, ears up and curious to have a look at the newcomer. The mare is a little more dramatic. She’s jerking her head back every time Achilles touches her, all while making an unnecessary amount of noise and kicking up dirt. Achilles weathers the storm with the patience of a saint, and soon his calm seems to help settle the mare a little was well.

Martin can’t help sneaking glances over at her owner while everything is going down. He’s leaning on the top beam of the fence, arms tucked up under his chin. There’s a softness to him now that wasn’t there before. He’s watching the horses interact with a spark of wonder in his eye that makes Martin want to lean in closer, just to get a better look.

“What’s her name?” He says instead, when he realizes he doesn’t know.

Noah’s eyes shift over to him briefly, that tense line between his brows returns the moment Martin speaks. “Tansy.” He says it like he’s challenging Martin to make a comment.

“Like the flower?”

Noah snorts. “More like a weed.”

“Depends who you ask, I suppose.”

That makes Noah look over at him again, something unreadable on his face. “I suppose.”

Martin realizes then that there is something odd about his eyes. Aside from how he seems to wield them like a knife. One pupil is much wider than the other. His left is barely a pinprick against the blue, the other so blown it’s almost all black. It’s a striking look, and in a strange way it suits him. There isn’t really anything else remarkable about him. He’s decent to look at, but aside from the constant scowl on his face the only thing that really stands out about him, now that Martin has noticed, are is eyes. Yet for some reason, Martin has never wanted to keep looking at someone more.

He makes himself stop staring, before he gets caught. He has a feeling Noah wouldn’t take too kindly to it, and he likely wouldn’t be shy about calling him out on it either. He looks back out towards the horses instead, where Tansy is being approached by the rest of her new pasture mates.

She greets the rest of the herd more politely, but not entirely without drama, and after goading them all into running a few laps up and down the pasture, they all decide that the theatrics are over for now and get on with grazing.

Martin knows they’ll have another few rounds of screaming and bickering before they all figure each other out, but for now, the initial introduction is over and done with. “She did good.”

Noah doesn’t look convinced, but he nods. “At least no one ended up broken.”

“She’ll be alright. Spending some time with the others’ll be good for her.”

They wordlessly turn away from the fence to make their way back towards the house. Gabriel vanishes into the trailer to fetch Tansy’s tack and feed, while Noah stands back with Martin and Casey, seemingly not in a rush to help him.

“So. How long do you think this is going to take?”

Martin has been asked the same thing countless times before, but it never stops being his least favorite question. “Hard to estimate. I’ll give her a good few days to settle in, then I’ll have the vet out to look her over, before I start working with her.”

“She’s already been vet checked.” Noah protests. “Extensively. Nothing wrong with her.”

“Not by my vet, she hasn’t. It’s not up for negotiation.”

Noah looks like he’s about to argue, but then Gabriel steps out of the trailer, arms loaded up with tack. “Where’s your tack room, Martin?”

Martin jumps at the chance to take Gabriel down to the barn to show him. He can feel the displeasure in Noah’s glare on the back of his head as he walks away.

It’s going to be a long few months.

[Part 1 here]

#my art #artists on tumblr #sketch #equestrian au #drawing #writing tag #Martin's eternal torment begins #Cunty Noah owns my heart #but he's going to be the death of that old man #enjoy #but also to those among you who might know even a little bit about training an animal #i want to add a small disclaimer here about training philosophies #which is that while i'm a strong proponent for positive reinforcement training with minimal use of aversives and pressure #i can't imagine Martin training horses in any way other than the 'natural horsemanship' type of way #which has a lot of flaws when seen through the lens of modern methods #but to someone like Martin it's efficient. not too aversive and it gets good results #i'm even writing Martin a little more on the hands-off side than i probably should #but habits die hard #additionally if you know anything about training horses i want you to try to put that aside and know #that i don't write this for the accuracy but the vibes #and i'm not super keen on people nitpicking any of the training that happens in this #if something is off. it was a choice i made for one reason or another.#Thank you!

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