Phase 1 - Apathy

Numb - Linking Park
continuation of [bonus prompt 1] - what have we got

She pulled down the bar that would allow her to open the door the the stall and gently  rolled it along the rails. Sad and depressed had been an understatement. They had given the stallion a stall in a corner, meaning he only shared one wall with another horse. The early morning sun shone in through the open window casting the fairytale like glow across the space Harper had always loved, but the Losheka stood in the far corner of the stall, as far away from the other horses and humans as he could. As Harper studies him she noticed he had started shifting his weight between his back feet. A nervous habit he had developed? With the halter and leadrope in hand she carefully stepped into the stall, noticing the pile of hay laying untouched in the corner. The stallion was pretty. You could tell he had been well cared for by the full, clean while tail and the shiny chestnut splash coat. He was truly white where his tail and splash markings were white and aside from his anatomy, warped by bad training practises, she could absolutely see the promising dressage horse they had willed him to be.  "Hey buddy" she softly said, witing for the stallion to aknowledge her presence in any clear way.  

[Horse POV]

Dawn had broken again, marking the seventh moon since his arrival here. He leaned his head against the exposed brick wall. His  body hurt, but he couldn't do anything to escape the pain. He had positioned himself in the corner of the stall. The open window allowed light to stream in; light he carefully avoided. He stood in the darkest spot he had, far away from the horse in the stall next to him and far away from the door where humans came through multiple times a day to clean or leave hay in the corner and walked by even more often. Unlike his old home they had not taken him to the arena. They had sometimes taken him outside where they had left him in a grass paddock for a while before they came to pick him up again. He didn't care at this point. It wasn't unpleasant to be relieved from riding but he knew that even if the humans didn't ride him today or tomorrow, they would ride him again eventually. It would hurt, just like always He would get confused, just like always. And then the humans would yell at him or whip him, just like always.
His blue eyes were unfocused as the stall door opened again for a second time today. This wasn't like the previous days in this new place. He knew it for certain; they had come to ride him again. Out of habit he started shifting his weight between his back legs. He didn't want to ride, but he also know he had no choice. If he resisted the humans would punish him for it, like always. The human spoke to him in words he didn't understand, like always. He kept still. Nothing could change what happened, after all. The human would put the halter on him and he would follow her. Resistance was useless anyways, like always. The human stood. And stood. 

And after a while, the human still just stood. This was not how it usually went. What did the human want? Wearily, he turned his gaze towards her. She stood there, looking at him. What was her face doing? She was making that same wide face at him as the other humand had done the past week. Speaking in that gibberish language the humand used to communicate. He didn't understand. The human slowly reached her hand towards his face, gently rubbing the bridge of his nose. He just felt numb. He would rather get it over with now instead of prolonging this interaction. He closed his eyes. Rubs did always feel good. He felt the warmth of her hand leaving his face and the cold, heavy halter slipping over his features. It instantly snapped him back to reality like a bucked of ice cold water.