Post by symphony on Sept 25, 2012 22:34:11 GMT -5
Tally Cremer and Darren Montejano
It was almost two in the afternoon when they finally pulled up outside the breeding and training farm, the float they were towing rattling in behind them. 'Blue River Thoroughbreds', a sign above the main barn read; a place renouned for the quality of the racehorses they raised.
As Darren stopped the car, Tally looked around, already impressed at the facilities. Three barns stood next to each other in front of them, each one large and airy, and painted in bright red and white. A house stood a little way off, though still close enough to provide instant access to the barns if anything unexpected should happen during the night. Everywhere else was white-washed post-and-rail fences around large, roomy pastures where mares and foals grazed peacefully. This was the place where Sola had come from, she recalled. Hopefully the next one to come from here would be just a much a champion as she was.
Darren led her over to the middle and biggest barn, where several other people were already wandering through inspecting the horses in each stall. Blue River did their sales a little differently to most places; a select few of the yearling crop were sent off to auctions around the country where they were snapped up quickly, then at the end of the year there was a sale on this very property where most other yearlings were sold to owners and trainers. The sale today was for the late bloomers, the remains of last years crop of yearlings and usually the two year olds who were born late in the season and needed a while longer to develop and train sufficiently. They were a little cheaper than the yearlings sold the year before were, because they had missed most of their first season of racing, and there was nothing at all that would hold them back from dominating the track if they had the speed and willpower to win. All in all, a right bargain.
The horses in the first few stalls were nice, but none really caught Tally's eye. She passed them by, not knowing what she was looking for, but knowing that she would know it when she saw it. Darren slowed to examine one or two of the first few horses, but she barely spared a glance back; he would come and get her if he found something she had missed.
Near the middle of the barn, a horse swung its head over the door of its stall, catching her attention right at the last minute. Stopping, Tally considered for a moment, then walked up and rubbed the filly's nose, noticing a bright white star half hidden under her forelock. She was a mixture of stark red-brown and white - a red roan - with white spread through her mane and tail almost like she was a paint. Tally could just see three white feet buried in the straw bedding of the stall.
"Darren," she called down the row, where the stablehand was looking over a long, lanky black colt who was being led up and down the aisle to show off his long and confident stride. Abandoning the colt, Darren moved down to join her at the stall door, letting himself in with the filly to get a better look at her. The roan's fine head followed him, swinging around to sniff at his hair curiously as he ran a hand over her shoulder and down one leg.
"Not bad Tally," he said, grinning as he rose slowly as to avoid knocking his head into the filly's chin. "She's nothing special pedigree-wise, and a little on the short side, but her conformation's clean and she looks like she's got a bit of power in the hindquarters."
At that moment, a boy in his teens wandered over with a lead rope in hand and asked if they would like to see her in action. "Tally, why don't you go and see what else is around?" Darren suggested as the boy led the roan out of her stall, motioning towards the end of the barn. "You have a pretty good eye for talent." Nodding, Tally turned away from the filly and Darren, who was already fixated on the horse, and continued further into the barn. Nothing much caught her eye, until she paused at the stall of a bay colt who, when she glanced at the catalog in her hands, turned out to be a half-brother of Sola, sharing the same dam. Giving him a pat, she couldn't help but wonder if he would be as much of a success as his sister.
Before she had the chance to call to Darren to have a look at the colt, a disturbance just a few stalls down caught her attention. Leaving the colt, she moved down the aisle cautiously, stopping when she spotted a very pale coated horse refusing to leave his stall, despite the best efforts of his handler. The man, obviously well and truly fed up with the two year old's refusing to move tugged on the lead more firmly than was needed, encouraging the horse to bounce slightly off its front feet, threatening to rear. The potential buyers had by now wandered off, not interested in a horse that won't leave it's stall.
"Excuse me," she said, stepping forward confidently to grab the handler's attention. "Would you mind if I tried?"
He barely hesitated in handing the horse over, with only a mumbled comment about the colt being useless and untrainable. Taking the lead, Tally stood still for a moment, stroking the trembling colt's neck soothingly, before clicking her tongue and giving the lead a gentle tug. Lowering his head, the horse walked out of his stall easily, though still ready to throw a fit if anyone tried to over-rule him again.
Halting him in the centre of the aisle, Tally was reluctant to hand the lead back over to his handler. When she stepped back though, she was glad of the chance to look him over properly. She had at first assumed that he was a light chestnut or a grey; now that she could see him properly she could see he was closer to a palomino than anything else. Four stockings reached to his knees a little like splash markings, and a large blaze ran the length of his face. She knew instantly; this was the two year old she wanted in her stable. Now it was just a matter of convincing Darren that she could gentle the colt enough to make him race-able.