Phase 1: Welcome home

Dom genuinely wondered if he was in over his head. Perhaps he should have been a bit more thoughtful of his selection, even though he had really taken his time to consider which would be the right choice for him to take between the two options he had been given. He’d thought he’d be ready to take on the challenge, but the Loshenka before him wasn’t anything like Cinnabun when he’d rescued her a few years ago.

The the black tabby stallion was pacing the fence, huffing and stomping at the horses in a different pasture across the way. He had yet to notice Dom standing at the fence behind him, to preoccupied with the strangers he could see and exploring his new, strange home. He looked unkept, no one having been able to get close enough to tend to him properly. The splash markings he had were muddied and his tail was tangled and matted in places and far too long. He would be absolutely stunning if he were properly groomed.

Hypno was the name that the rescue had been calling him. The dark swirls on his coat had earned him that. They were quite mesmerizing to look at, their shapes leading you in circles or dead ends. Dom hadn’t seen a horse with those sorts of markings before. He’d seen a lot of different colors he hadn’t expected at the Loshenka Rescue. He hadn’t known they came in such variety and he never expected to end up with one so flashy. He wasn’t complaining though, as long as he could manage to actually help this horse, that was.

Pacing the fence with flared nostrils and nickering didn’t seem to be getting Hypno anywhere in intimidating the two grazing horses in the far pasture. They both were taking turns just looking at him. One called back at one point, causing Hypno snort and stomp the ground, ears pinning even farther back.

Dom sighed, watching and worrying. There wasn’t much he could do from stopping Hypno from seeing other horses. The facility just wasn’t set up in a way that would allow that. He could keep them farther away and he had a stall without anyone directly around him, but that was about as good as he could do. It was certainly far from perfect and Dom knew horses were social creatures too, so he didn’t want to completely isolate him either. Surely keeping him farther away from others would do nothing to help on top of that.

The more he thought the more he wondered if he was in over his head with this one. He really didn’t want to fail Hypno. He could see a lot of potential in him. Something had drawn him to this stallion in particular. It was the reason he picked him over the other choice he’d had. Dom didn’t believe in fate, but he wasn’t going to ignore the pull he’d felt just because he didn’t.

Lost in thought, Dom failed to realize that Hypno was charging towards his direction with ears pinned and neck outstretched. He managed to dodge out of the way just in time as the horse attempted to snap at him. He fell to the ground, wincing as he looked up at the angry stallion and the fear hidden behind those blue-grey eyes. It wasn’t just aggression, but fear.

“Hey now, that was pretty rude.” Dom grumbled as he got up, pretending like he hadn’t fallen to the ground with a shocked yelp. He was glad no one was around to see that. It was rather embarrassing. “Don’t be doing that.”

Hypno just snorted and stomped more, now focused on him and trying to scare him off instead of the two horses that had been minding their business.

“I’m not just going to leave.” Dom told him, crossing his arms after dusting himself off. He was standing a safe distance back now. “We gotta work on this together. I know today was probably a lot. Getting shipped off to a new place and all. Surrounded by people and horses when you don’t like them.” Dom sighed softly, running a hand through his slicked back hair. “We’re not all that bad. I promise. Just gotta give us a chance. Like we’re giving you a chance.”

Hypno just stomped and flicked his tail, not seeming to care anything about Dom’s words. He turned and trotted off, bucking as he did so.

This was going to be tough.