First Capture

[Tex]

Jesse was jogging proudly, swinging her legs in a show-step dance, in perfect harmony with her canter. She was a show horse after all, and when she was happy, those dance moves just sailed straight out!
Alison was hanging determinedly onto the rope, which was still tied to the saddle, but she wanted the foal to get a feel for her way of holding the rope. It was a cruel way to get a foal, but sadly, for the wild horses, it was the only way.
They both glanced down at the gorgeous little thing, and just as quickly looked away. Neither wanted to get second thoughts, especially this late in the game.
The hut came into view, and Jesse slowed down, for the foal's sake. Alison swung down from the saddle, and lead Jesse into one of the holding pens. Jesse walked straight in, dragging the foal behind her, and her rider closed the gate's latch before anyone went wild.
Alison set about climbing in, untacking her horse, and untying the rope. She decided not to let the foal off the rope, and tied miniature hobbles onto her tiny legs before tying the rope onto a post in the middle of the yard. Now it could move around, slowly but definitely.
Jesse stayed in the pen, to keep the foal company and because Alison didn't trust the foal to stay in when she opened the gate for the mare. Jesse would have to act nurse for a while.

[tingara]

Birubi pulled desperately at the rope as she was dragged into the pen. She’d been doing so the whole way to the hut, red welts showed where the rope had rubbed into her skin. She whinnied indigently and hopelessly as she watched the pen fences begin to loom over her.
“Let me go!” she yelled at the human as if she could understand her. Birubi watched terrified as the human put strange looking things around her legs. She watched the human head towards the open gate. Hang on a sec! The gate was open. Birubi lunged for it but the combination of the hobbles and the rope put her back into the dust. Damn the rope and the strange leather things strapped around her legs. She stumbled clumsily to the fence and watched the wrangler on the other side. Birubi barely acknowledged there was another horse in the yard.

[Tex]

Alison grimaced at the poor thing hurting itself, and wished she could untie it. But no, it had been hard enough to capture it, but to recapture it would take a lot of skill, which she wasn't sure either Jesse or her had.
Jesse whinnied at the foal's antics, and trotted to stand by her side. She wanted to be friendly, because it wasn't exactly her fault that Alison had made her run after the filly.
"Hi, I'm Jesse," she snorted to the pretty filly. "What's your name?" The mare was fascinated by the way that wild horses were given names by their mothers, domesticated horses were always given names that were given to humans sometimes.
Alison was glad that Jesse was trying to calm the little one down, and strode to the feed store. She collected a bucket of milk that the boys had left lying around, and walked back to the pen, the bucket bumping on her waist.
"Hey there, little foal! I'm sorry about hurting your neck, here's some food to make up for it," Alison said brightly and put the bucket down on the filly's side of the fence. To make sure it wouldn't try to starve itself, she tied a rope around the bucket and tied it securely to the fence.

[tingara]

Birubi eyed the wrangler suspiciously then turned to Jesse as she spoke to her.
“My name’s Birubi,” she answered rudely before brushing her off with a snort. She was only a foal and didn’t know any better, Birubi knew her mother would be angry with her for being rude but who cared what Dilali thought. Birubi had decided in her head that her mother obviously didn’t love her; if she did she wouldn’t have left.
The little grey and brown foal watched Alison return and reared just as she’d seen her uncle do. Birubi whinnied furiously, trying to make herself look as menacing as possible. Unfortunately the display didn’t have the effect she had hoped it would. The wrangler seemed to take no notice of her as she tied a bucket of milk to the fence. Birubi watched the woman suspiciously as she edged her way to the bucket to investigate. It was milk and Birubi hadn’t noticed how hungry she was. No, she tossed her nose up and walked away from it, but it was so tempting. Birubi licked her lips at the thought of the milk sliding down her throat but no, this was a trick. Humans were full of tricks.

[Tex]

Jesse snorted again at the foal's rudeness, and bared her teeth to give the foal a nip. No broken skin, just a reminder of manners. "Birubi, I will not let you act like this while you live here. In this pen, Alison is your owner, and I may as well be your mother. I will take care of you, but i expect respect in return."
After finishing her lecture, which really went on longer than that, Jesse moved to the milk bucket and sucked a mouthful down her throat. Alison tapped her muzzle, and the mare jogged to the water trough instead. Apparently she wasn't allowed to drink the foal's milk.

[tingara]

Birubi snorted and rolled her different coloured eyes at her, but soon decided to change her tone, she could be here for awhile.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, “you can have the milk if you want.” Even though Birubi was extremely hungry she didn’t trust the human.
“What do you mean the human’s my owner?” Birubi didn’t like the sound of the word owner, “what does owner mean?”

[Tex]

Alison frowned, her face showing a lot of tension but not showing all of it. The foal was refusing the milk! What to do now? She didn't have her mother here, that mare who had attacked her to try and defend her young. Perhaps she would capture it? Seeing the determination that mare had shown, Alison was sure it would try to rescue its foal. The best thing to do was to get the foal dependent on something in this area.
Ah, perfect! The young woman jogged to the same place she had found the milk, and lugged a salt-lick from a storage rack beside it. She placed the salt lick into the pen, on the opposite side of the milk, and also tied it to the fence. Jesse slowly strode towards it, and began to methodically lick the salt. Alison tapped her muzzle to remind the mare of her task, and strode back into the house. She was exhausted from the hunt, and immediately began to start up the fire to make dinner.

[tingara]

Birubi glared at the human as she once again placed something on the fence, but this time after doing so she retreated into her weird looking cave. The filly stopped chewing at the hobbles, sniffed curiously at the peculiar block and hopped over. She had observed Jesse licking it so she decided she’d have a go, forgetting all mistrust in the favour of food.
“Bleurgh,” Birubi pulled back in disgust, “salty.” Now she was thirsty and there was milk right there. Birubi stuck her head into the bucket and began to drink deeply. It wasn’t mare’s milk but it still tasted so good, it made the salt lick taste good too. She still didn’t trust the human but she decided to trust what she gave her, for her own survival and eventual daring escape that was coming of course.

[Tex]

Jesse whinnied deep in her throat, pleased that her new charge was drinking and trying the salt lick, and moved to a sandier place in the pen. She dropped down to one knee, and let her weight make her body fall to the side. Now on her back, Jesse shook her body from side to side, giving it a good scratch. Apparently wild horses did this, too, and enjoyed it. Jesse had always enjoyed this particular past-time.
After a few minutes of this scratching, the bay mare moved to a pile of yellow grass, and began to methodically munch on it. It tasted sweet and filling, her favourite food! Oats were too salty, and bran just tasted powdery. Hay was good, especially how it felt like grass in her mouth.
Jesse suddenly remembered the foal had asked her a question, and spoke between mouthfuls.
"Well, owner means... it means she will take care of you, and make sure you have food and water. She will take care of you if you're sick. In return, you will be expected to do as she asks, if the askance is reasonable, of course."

[tingara]

“Sounds fair... but what if I don’t want to be owned? Huh? What if I want to roam the mountains? Be free like my uncle, who is the king of all the Cascade Brumbies by the way,” Birubi thought out loud. She shuddered at the thought if having a human on her back and vowed to herself that that would never happen. There was a snort nearby and Birubi looked around to see a great white giant in another pen.
“Who is that monster?” she asked, eyes wide.