𝐼'𝓋𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 [ Adopted by Elizabeth Olsen ]

Chapter 27: "Rugs"

⚠️TW⚠️: none I think (correct me if I'm wrong tho)

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Nova's pov:

I walked into the barn with Lizzie beside me. The whiteboard was the first place I'd always go in the mornings, so I went and had a look there. There wasn't a lot of new information there today though.

Just what all the horses I was in charge of were supposed to be fed this morning, and what rugs they were supposed to have on. Today was supposed to be kind of cold, so most of the horses had to be rugged up.

I was planning on riding Luna after I was done, that way I didn't have to come here later to ride her.

But Lizzie was with me. I wasn't sure she wanted to watch me ride, and it was also Luna's hacking day today. Which meant I had to go for a trail ride or a hack with her today. I had planned on going for a short walk through the fields and onto a bridle path in the forest.

I figured I'd think about that later and just get on with the work since I had a lot to do today. "Okay, I'll just get started with feeding everyone, you can stay here if you want or you can come and watch. Either way, I won't talk a lot, I'm kinda used to doing this in silence", I explained.

"No worries, once again, I'm generally just interested in seeing how you do things, I think I'll just trail behind you." Lizzie smiled.

"Great, I'll just get started then."

I walked the round around the barn, collecting all the feed buckets and saying Good Morning to everyone, both people and horses. I stopped by the hay barn, giving the barn cat, Oliver, some attention.

With feed buckets in hand, and Lizzie trailing behind me, I walked to the feed room to prepare all the feed. Which if you're new to it, is a struggle, let me tell you. Everyone has different feeds, balancer, chaff, competition mix, supplements, and the list goes on.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say, making feeds can be confusing. So I just got started. I made Luna's feed first like usual, hers was the easiest since I knew it by heart.

After that, I quickly made everyone else's feed, before adding water to those who were supposed to have water in them. I let those stand for a while, and I went and gave everyone hay. Once the feeds had stood and soaked for long enough, I went and gave everyone their feed as well.

Once everyone was happy and fed, and silence spread around the barn from the lack of hungry and grumpy horses making a racket, it was time for me to go find rugs (blankets) for everyone. Some of the horses had their rugs hanging on their stable doors, so I made a mental note about who needed rugs and who didn't.

Once I knew that, I concluded that I only had to find rugs for three horses, so I walked; once again with Lizzie trailing behind me, to the rug room. Yes, we have a rug room for drying and storing rugs.

I found the rugs I needed and asked Lizzie to carry one of them. "Umm... do you mind carrying this?" I asked her softly. "Of course not! I'm happy to help", she smiled, taking the rug from me, struggling a bit due to its size.

I laughed a bit at her struggle before picking up the other two rugs with ease and leading the way back to the stables. "How did you do that so easily?" Lizzie grumbled jokingly.

"Practice I guess", I shrugged, doing a little 360-degree turn and giving her a little smirk.

"You can just put that down there", I said to Lizzie once we got back. "Oh thank god, I have no clue how you manage to carry two of those", she sighed, exasperated.

"You'll get the hang of it eventually. Do you want me to teach you how to put it on?" I asked. "You want me to put that on a horse?" Lizzie asked me, pointing to the rug currently in a pile on the floor.

"Yeah, once you manage to throw it on the horse's back, it's actually not too hard. I'm not asking you to do it, you can just watch for now, is that okay?" I asked. After thinking for a moment, Lizzie agreed.

"How about we start over there with Luna and then we just go round," I suggested and Lizzie nodded. I walked over to Luna's stable, grabbed her rug, and opened the door. Luna raised her head from where she was previously eating, wondering about who had just entered her stable.

"Hi Lulu (nickname for Luna)", I cooed, patting her head before sorting out the rug, making sure I was holding it correctly. "Okay, so this is kind of hard to explain but I'll try. So you hold it by the front, and then you just kinda have to-", I said swinging it on Luna's back in a swift motion. "-throw it on like that", I smiled, turning around to Lizzie.

"So, this is the front, where the buckles are. Some rugs are different but they usually have some sort of buckle in the front", I explained. "Then, you just adjust it, I like to pull it kind of far forward to begin with, and then we can pull it back later once it's secured in the front."

"When you're putting on a rug, you always start in the front. If you're taking it off, always start in the back." I explained. "That's so that if the horse freaks out, it's pretty secured. If it's only done up in the back, it will slide off but still be secured to the horse, freaking them out even more", I told Lizzie, explaining the safety.

"Okay, so when putting it on, do the front first, when taking it off, do the front last", Lizzie repeated. "Yeah, so basically make sure that the front is secured for as long as possible."

"All right, so I'll just quickly do the front up..... and then when we come to the middle here, you'll see that there are these straps you have to secure under their belly. They go in a cross, so the front one will be secured further back and the other way around", I explained.

"And then when we get to the back, they can be a bit different. Luna just has this which you pull the tail through, but other rugs can have straps that go through their legs. Those are a bit more complicated."

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Hi! How are you doing?

I'm all right, I get my summer break now on Friday, so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post during that time. I'll obviously try, but I'm trying to actually go out and do some stuff instead of just writing.

Remember to take care of yourself, even during the summer. Stay hydrated and make sure you get outside <3

Love, Frida xx