Lady came carefully down the ramp of the horse box and then stood, tense, taking in her new surroundings. Joanna gave her plenty of time to have a good look around before she led the young chestnut thoroughbred through an archway into the central courtyard of the, once grand, coach house and stables of Hadstock Manor.
The stabling was arranged in a quadrangle. The left hand side of the quad, the North Wing, was taken up by three wide arches, each closed off by great double doors, which had once housed the carriages and traps owned by the people living in the manor house. These days, two were used as hay and feed stores and the third as a tack room The original stalls in most of the buildings on the other thee sides had been replaced with loose boxes after a fire in the 1920's and now housed the horses and ponies used in the riding stables the family had started up two years ago.
They walked slowly around the courtyard until they faced the archway they had recently come through. Joanna pointed to the building on the right of the archway. “That's the office,” she said and then pointing to the other side of the entrance, “and this is the Archway Stable, where you are going to live. Come and meet Tiffany and Sam.”
Once inside, it took a little while for Lady's eyes to adjust to the change from the bright sunlight outside to the shade of the stable and she stumbled a little as she walked along the aisle to the box that had been prepared for her at the end of the row. It wasn't too long, however, before she was able to get a good look at her new home and her new companions. There were just four loose boxes in this building and only the two middle ones were occupied. While Joanna chattered on as she took off Lady's traveling rug and boots, the horses exchanged greetings and began the process of getting to know one another.
Sam was in the loose box furthest from Lady's. He was champagne dun cob, powerfully muscled and standing 15.2 hh. He belonged to Paul, who often rode him round the farm to check on their cattle and sheep and on Dartmoor when he was working as a Range Clearer, moving grazing stock from the Army's firing range on the days that they were training on the Moor.
Tiffany, in the box next to Lady, belonged to Fiona. She was an elegant, 16.2 hh, middleweight hunter with a rich dark brown coat, mane and tail. Careful to stand at a polite distance from Lady's box, Tiffany regarded her with large, kind eyes and gave a gentle snort. Lady stepped closer to their partition and whickered, but she couldn't settle and turned away to the door of her box. Although she knew she had travelled a long way from home she gazed out of the stable window and called for her mother and her friends, then stood, her whole body taut, her ears straining to hear their reply.
Joanna put a reassuring hand on her neck and stroked her quietly. “You'll be alright here, just you wait and see.” Lady backed away and walked swiftly around the walls of the box before retuning to the door and calling out again. Joanna sighed and slipped out of the door as Lady began another circuit.
Fiona came in carrying Tiffany's grooming kit “I was going to ask how she is settling in, but I can see that she's a bit uptight!” she said.
“I brought a big container of water from Brimblecombe Stud. Rachel said that sometimes a taste and smell from home can help them settle in. I was just going to fill a bucket for her”
“Good idea. While your doing that I'll hang her hay net outside her door and then let Sam out to see her.”
As soon as Fiona opened the door to his box, Sam made straight for the newcomer's box and stuck his head over the door. Lady stopped box walking and looked at him in surprise. She came over and for a minute they stood muzzle to muzzle breathing in each others scent , but then she turned away and took herself to the other side of the box where she stood with her back to him. Fiona realised that she had been holding her breath and smiled grimly to herself. ‘At least she didn't go for him' she thought. Not that Sam would have cared that much even if she had. Nothing fazed him. He was so good natured and cheeky to all the horses when they were turned out together that even the mares had given up trying to put him in his place and seemed to indulge his mischievous behaviour. Fiona had noticed that it was Sam who was always the first to chum up with any new comer when they were put in neighbouring paddocks and she had taken to choosing him to be the first one to put in with them.
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