Phase 1 - First Impressions

Alene took a soft breath as she parked the truck where she’d been directed. She’d worked with a couple of different rescue cases since she opened her stables, but this was…

Well, it was a bit different. After all, while she’d grown up around Loshenka and learned how to handle them almost as long as she could remember, she’d never taken one in straight out of a wild roundup before.

She shook her head, casting a last glance at the report card she’d printed from her e-mail, then slid out of the car, offering a smile to the man approaching her.

“Miss Quinten?”

“That’s me,” she confirmed softly. “And you’re Howard Johnson, right?”

He laughed and nodded, gesturing for her to follow him towards one of the paddocks. “That’s me, just Howard is fine though.” He blew out a breath as they neared the pen, a harsh whinny ringing over the field. “That’ll be her, already.”

Alene couldn’t help but frown, worry twisting her chest as they stepped up to the fence and she peered to the far side.

The mare was beautiful, even with her coat flaked in old dirt and hooves coated in old mud that hadn’t been cleaned away. A black husky, Alene remembered from the files she’d received. Yet her distress was clear as she paced a section of the fence, ears pinned back and periodically letting out cries that were no doubt for whatever herdmates she’d been separated from.

A sad thing, really.

“She’s been like this since she arrived?”

Howard sighed. “Only stops to eat and drink, then straight back to it. We haven’t even been able to get a halter or lead on her.”

Alene nodded, taking another glance at the mare, heart twisting with sympathy for the Loshenka. How hard and strange, confusing and distressing, it must be to have been ripped away from the life she’d always known and then simply unloaded somewhere entirely different with creatures she’d never encountered before.

Patience, Alene thought, would be key here. Nodding briefly to her guide, she retreated back to her truck, ignoring the one-horse trailer hitched to it for now in favor of grabbing the halter and lead rope from the truck’s passenger seat. After a second to consider, she grabbed a small bag of assorted treats she’d packed before returning to the fence.

“Reckon I can head in?” she asked, glancing at the nearby gate.

“Of course. If you need help trying to load her, let me know. I’ll stay right here so we don’t crowd her.”

The woman nodded once more, before carefully stepping over the lowest rung of the fence and fitting her body between it and the plank above it so that she could step fully into the paddock.

The mare’s pacing had paused for a moment, blue eyes locked on the human as Alene risked crossing roughly half the distance before simply sitting down, resting the halter and rope in her lap as she opened her treat bag.

It was all a waiting game now, she supposed as she sent the horse a soft smile. “Hello there, sweet one.”