Homeward Bound

Dannika Hazel walked out of her house, and started towards Sonja’s pasture. Reaching it, she whistled. Sonja, the beautiful ISH Mare that was easily a part of her raised her head, looking at her from a field of daisies. Dannika snapped a picture, preserving the moment forever. Sonja shook her head and trotted over to her.


Dannika haltered the mare, and led her into the stables. There she saddled her with a jumping saddle, and the standard English bridle. Walking her out to the large arena, she patted the mares shoulder, and mounted. Sonja began walking before Dannika got her foot in the stirrup iron, and tossed her head. Dannika shifted her position, and relaxed her grip on the reins. Sonja responded to her subtle cue by breaking into a collected canter.


Dannika guided the mare in a large circle, before changing direction, and cantering to the right. Dannika tensed her right leg, and the mare began to canter in figure eights. After a few minutes, Dannika turned Sonja, and they cantered towards the course of 29 small jumps, clearing the first one beautifully.


The jumps were small, but Sonja’s jumps were large! She jumped a foot and a half higher than necessary, a good feat for a mare with her kind of past. She had a habit of pacing herself, rather than Dannika pace her. Dannika’s only purpose was to occupy the saddle! They jumped, going a little bit higher each time, before they were jumping twice as high as when they started! She bolted only once, a new record for Sonja, and she seemed to know it too!


Dannika brought the mare back down to a walk. She had done a magnificent job, jumping 3 ½ feet with ease. The mares jump was quite rough, as it just consisted of her speeding up, to pop over the tiny jumps, and continue on. Dannika dismounted, and started to loosen the girth. The mare flicked her ears back, and began to canter away. Dannika stood there in shock for a minute, before running after her. At the other end of the huge arena, stood the 4 foot jumps from the competition the other owner had held.


Dannika had been so busy working with the mare, that she hadn’t had time to get them put away. The saddle suddenly slipped to the side, and dropped off the mare. Sonja was surprised, and gave a spirited buck of freedom. Dannika ran after the mare, sure she would injure herself on the huge fences. Sonja was rapidly approaching the huge fences, and Dannika was chasing after her, exasperated.


As the huge fence loomed in front of the mare, she pushed off, and soared over the jump, clearing it by nearly 6 inches. Dannika Stopped in her tracks, mouth agape. The mare circled back around, and cleared the jump again, stopping in front of Dannika.


Dannika’s mouth formed into a smile and with Sonja following her, removed one bar from all the 4 ft jumps, and placed it in front of the jump. Sonja quickly lost interest in that, and tested herself over the jumps, clearing them by a little bit more each time. When Dannika was done, she walked over to the fallen saddle, dusted it off, and set it on the Arena fence.


Sonja stood watching her in the center of the arena, slightly confused. Dannika walked out towards the mare, and swung up onto her bare back. Now Sonja was really confused. She began to walk forward as Dannika squeezed with her legs, and moved up to a canter as Dannika squeezed once more. Sonja was comfortable to ride bareback, and Dannika laughed out loud. Sonja took that as a command for more speed, and began a slow gallop. Dannika pointed her at the first of the 3 ½ ft jumps, and let her pick the pace, hand knotted into Sonja’s mane.


Sonja picked a fast canter for her speed, and rose up over the jump. Were flying! Dannika thought, quite shocked. Dannika spent the next few hours jumping Sonja over jumps that varied in height. For one of the jumps, she arranged them all in a straight line, but random sizes. They would go tiny jump, even smaller jump, then a 4 foot jump and so on.


Dannika tested Sonja’s trust in her as well. For one course, Dannika removed Sonja’s bridle, and pushed her towards the jumps. For another, she draped a tarp around herself, all the jumps, and on Sonja (She had put the saddle and bridle back on for this) and when the wind picked up, Sonja shied at all the noise, but after a few tries, Dannika had her jumping smoothly, even when the wind blew one of the tarps off the approaching jump, and into Sonja’s face.


Dannika played with Sonja even after it got dark, switching the huge arena lights on, and removing the mare’s tack.


Dannika ran next to the jumps, while Sonja lept over them, clearly enjoying herself, even after 3 hours of work and play. 9 times Dannika tried to call it a night, but each time, Sonja refused, cantering away to jump another course. After a while, Dannika felt that Sonja would tell her when she was tired.


Dannika and Sonja played soccer with the huge exercise ball, and Sonja even learned to pick it up. It was nearly 10 pm, and Sonja finally walked over to the gate and neighed. Dannika walked out to the fence and picked up the saddle and bridle. Opening the gate, she walked out, a happy, but tired Sonja at her heels. While Dannika dusted off the tack, Sonja walked into her stall, and gave a huge yawn.

When she was done, Dannika fixed Sonja’s meal, and grabbed a grooming kit. While Sonja ate, Dannika groomed her to perfection, and sleepily braided her mane and tail. Dannika just knew that the Mare would ensure that the ranch got off on the right foot- and stayed there.
Dannika had never been so proud.
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Meet Homeward Bound! The mare that started it all!
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Name: Homeward Bound
Barn Name: Sonja, Sona
Age: 4, nearly 5 years old
Gender: Mare
Height: 15.2hh
Breed: Irish Sport Horse
Disciplines: Showjumping and Dressage, might be trained for Cross Country as well.
Status: Currently jumping up to 5 feet and responds to the subtlest cues.
Personality/Temperament: There is really only one word to sum up this mare- Amazing.
Before- When Dannika went to look at her, she saw a vicious, bad tempered, stubborn, rotten excuse-of-a -horse mare named Nipper, with bad biting habits, that was barely saddle broke. For some strange reason, Dannika was stupid enough to take the horse (She was free, guess why. -.-) home with her. The mare was new to love, and had only been hit on the nose when she bit. Dannika showed her otherwise, and Nipper got the one thing she had been lacking- Love.
During- It started slowly, about a month later, Dannika realized that her bites were softer, and no longer drew blood. After a while, the mare began to accept the saddle and bride, but Dannika never dreamed of riding her. A few weeks later, she stopped all violent tenancies, and began to allow herself to be caught. One day, Dannika walked into the barn, and was greeted by a whinny.
After- (See above story) She trusts Dannika with her life, and probably owes it to her as well. After she was greeted by a whinny, and Nipper being the only horse in the barn, Dannika realized that all her hard work had paid off. She renamed the mare Homeward Bound, and began calling her Sonja. Dannika rode her for the first time 3 days later, and the mare was a dream. She tended to bolt though, and Dannika found a short- term solution in lunging her for 30 minutes before riding, but that got a bit tedious, especially when they were on a deadline. Dannika found a long term solution in jumping. Sonja absolutely loved it, and it worked perfectly. She sometimes bolts, but jumping helps a lot.
Sonja is very sweet, and loves people. She would gallop to the ends of the universe for Dannika, and they have a bond that’s unheard of. Dannika loves to ride her bareback on the trails, or just go for a walk in the woods, just a girl and her horse. Dannika hopes to breed her to a magnificent stallion, and get an amazing foal. She never has an off day, and is always ready to work when you are! She is a bit anti-social, which is good, because she is currently the only horse here! She is very curious, and strives to learn new things every day! Once, when Dannika’s alarm clock failed to wake her, Sonja jumped out of her pasture, and stood neighing at her window until Dannika woke up.
Favorite Things: Her favorite thing in the whole world is jumping, as you should know from the above story!
Body: Sonja has clean legs, powerful hindquarters, an intelligent head, and is very sure footed. She is yet to stumble, or refuse a jump. She is actually very well-muscled; it just doesn’t usually show on her. She has a very strong neck, and knows it- taking the bit whenever Dannika is trying to call it quits. She is a very sound horse, with near perfect conformation. We are thinking of showing her in Halter Class because of this, but we are very unsure. Her Foals will do very well in the Eventing Spotlight, as she has all the good traits of an Eventer, and we are thinking of training her for Cross Country. She tends to bolt randomly, but that might actually help in cross country.
Traits: Sonja has incredible stamina, and never seems to tire. She is the exact opposite of a procrastinator, because she wastes no time. Especially when it comes to jumping… She also has a very good physical build, which will most likely transfer over to her foals.
Passable Traits: Color, Temperament, Ability, Talents, and possibly spirit.
Genotype: EE/aa/DD/ZZ/nT
Notes: Homozygous Black, Homozygous Dun, Homozygous Silver, Heterozygous Tobiano
Shows:
Awards:
Bloodlines: Foundation
Sire/Dam: Foundation
Offspring
Available: Yes, to certain stallions.
Restrictions: Pure, realistic, within the breed’s standards Irish Sport Horse stallions, and other select Warmblood breeds.
Slots:
February: 5 remaining
Slots Explained: The slots are how many times she can be bred in a month. When she is just training like this, she will have 5 slots. When she is showing, 3, when she is a broodmare/ semi-retired at around 15 or 16, unlimited slots. When she is fully retired, 10 slots a month. (That will be around 17-20 )
Other: This mare means the world to me. Homeward Bound is my favorite song, and it makes me cry every time I hear it. My best friends name is Sonja, and she sang this for her competition Solo. This mare is going to be the basis for my entire HARPG stables. From her, I hope to breed a stable full of amazing horses, all with their own special talents, and able to jump the moon. I’m desperately hoping that her first breeding will be with Legerdemain Demoole, *handstands-for-you’s amazing stallion. I have several other stallions in mind, but Ledger is my top priority. Hopefully, her foals will all inherit her jump craze, as well as her skill. It’s pretty hard to believe that I’ve been working on this story for 17 hours! Don’t sue if your eyes die at the shading! This is my first HARPG horse, and I’m very proud of her!

Tools of Trade
Pose reference: My own photography
Background: =Sky-of-Silver
HARPG: *moonfeather
Homeward Bound’s Character, design and info: Me