1.3: Arrival

Previous: 1.2: Test Ride
Next: 1.4: I won't leave you lonely

Story: (944) 

Usually it took Trischa only a few seconds to decide on entering a show. She always threw the flyer or email away, no need to compete with a broodmare. She sighed and walked to the window, her little mare and the foal she had produced were eating grass right outside her window.

‘Dad?’ The call got no response. She walked to the hallway and called up the stairs ‘Dad?’

Somewhere upstairs she hears some form of life. Waiting to see if he would come over, she leaned against the wall. She didn’t get the response she wanted, so she slowly ascends the stairs.

‘Dad.’

‘Yes? What’s up, honey?’ He looked up from folding the laundry for a second. His face shows no emotion as he looks her up and down.

‘We have a flyer for a show.’ Her eyes drift towards the window, snow slowly starting to fall.

‘You know you can’t compete with Trina right now.’

‘It’s not about Trina, that’s the point.’

Her father’s face changes ever so slightly, his eyebrows just a little bit more frowned, his lips a little more pursed. She doubted whether she should give up.

‘So what about it?’

‘It’s a dance, between either mare and son or stallion and daughter.. I was thinking.. As we have Rain and Blue.. maybe we could enter?’ She daren’t look her father in the eyes as she suggested this. Blue was only a little foal and Rain had never really shown any fatherly behaviours. 

‘If that makes you happy, dear.’ He turned his back on her while putting the laundry away. Relieved, she started planning the event out loud. ‘Will you help me with Rain, daddy?’

‘Of course.’

She sprints down the stairs, in the sheer hope that her feet will carry her that fast. She signs up for the event and walks out the door. If they were going to do this event, in only a few days, they were going to need some training. She collects the halters for both Rain and Blue, so she wouldn’t have to walk all the way back. Slightly terrified of the stallion, she decides to train Blue first. The little foal loves being walked and being pet, so she wouldn’t be the most difficult to handle. However, Blue isn’t the smartest little horse either and would need quite a lot of handling before she’d get it.

After a couple of hours of being busy with the horses, she got back inside. ‘You are frozen, honey. Why are you doing this to yourself?’ Marcel never got his daughter’s work ethic, but he tried to keep her healthy and sane where he could. He walks up to her with a cup of hot cocoa and she gratefully plopped down on the couch. ‘I need them to be ready for the event, daddy.’ Marcel sighed and carefully sat down next to her. Ranger almost immediately curled up to his owner and she in turn pets his black coat. ‘That’s good, honey, but I think they will do alright in this event.’

Days later she gets up early to put the horses in the trailer. Her dad makes them both a strong cup of coffee and they get on their way to the event. A long drive in with a trailer, isn’t either of their favourite things to do, but they love the thrill of events so they put up with it. During the ride both stay silent, listening to the music on the radio.

Finally arriving at the stables, they split ways to do their tasks. For Marcel, this means figure out the stable layout, where they have to go and when. Trischa focusses on the horses and getting them ready to shine. The braiding takes ages with horses that don’t want to be touched much. She decides to start Rain when she gets the chance, as Blue would patiently stand whenever she got enough attention. First she walks them both out of the trailer and around the trailer for a bit.

After making sure all horse feet were stretched and the horses got their feed, Trischa started the braiding process. ‘Stand still. RAIN.’ The stallion side steps all her moves and him standing at 1.70m she couldn’t reach the top part of his mane. ‘You are such an ass.’

‘What have I done to you?’ Her dad’s voice rises behind her. She lets out a giggle, ‘Well this is your horse, now isn’t it?’ The horse, feeling she was losing her focus, steps aside again. ‘Damn it.’

‘Let me do it, then?’ She looks at him puzzling. He never, ever, braids the horses. ‘I know, I know. But he is my horse and I’m tall enough to reach it even if he stretches.’ He has a point and so she steps aside and lets him braid Rain. ‘I’ll start on Blue then, don’t forget to add his roses!’

She almost forgot the one and only thing the event was about. They had bought a lot of tiny roses and pink thread just for this event. Especially Blue had to wear roses, but they had decided that it would be nice to have them match. The only difference being that Rain only gets one rose in his mane and three in his none braided tail.

‘They look amazingly cute, even Rain.’ She smirks at her dad, Rain was his precious but he wasn’t the cutest horse in the stables. ‘He even has his ears pricked, so say what you will.’ He looks proud of his own braids and his horse. The bays similar in colours but yet very different hues.

‘Let’s hope for the best.’ 

Points this image
Foal: BB's Narrow Blue Lagoon
Stallion: BB's Hello Morning Rain

Standard
* Flatcoloured full body 6
 
Add-ons 
* (Semi) Detailed shading 3
* (Semi) Background 2
* 800+ word story 4 
* Show 1

Total: 16

References
Denim and Red ::Stock 31:: by spiked-stock
Grey Skies Pack by EveLivesey
Fency Winter Background by Burtn
Horse Trailer loading handling preparation stock29 by LuDa-Stock
Horse stock 008 Dutch wb. by MiszD
Bay Dutch Warmblood gelding by HorseStockPhotos
 
Copyright
The pose and colour go to the respective owners of the reference pictures. 
The image and characters are full copyright to CheeseDraws (ME) 

Other info
Time taken: around 4 hours 
Program: Photoshop CS6 master edition
Tablet: Wacom Intuos medium

Lovely to do some matte painting/photomanipulation for the background. It's just so much faster (not that much prettier I must add). It's fun to do, but I'm not good at it, however I'm short in time to draw everything my own so I'm just going to leave that here. It's going to be less detailed than the show entry (for the time reason) but i'm going to do shading and finish everything in time.