DHRPHK Extra

   He’d spent the few days between arriving and dressage trying his best to diffuse whatever explosives had lodged themselves in his horse’s brain, untangling wires by hand walking DeeDee around the property for hours on end, low stress rides around the property while others schooled floating extended trots and restrained collected canters in the arena. It was working, but not as quickly as Dog would have hoped considering dressage was tomorrow. One benefit though was that he’d managed to coax the organisers into giving the horse’s arranged turnout periods to blow off some steam, and he’d been utilising it as much as he could. He’d never been hugely precious with his horses - to him, if jumping them over hedges and solid objects was safe, so was letting them mess about in the paddock with their friends. 

   Speaking of friends, Dee had managed to knab himself a boyfriend on the tour in the form of the opposition, a little black pony with a wide blaze and a peach nose, ridden by Alicia from the other team. They’d spoken a few times, and Dog was frankly a little unnerved by her energy, but she was a good laugh all the same. Dog knew he shouldn’t be fraternising with the enemy, but at the same time he couldn’t prevent DeeDee from finding his gay horse boyfriend. If anything Dog knew DeeDee would wingman for him if he could find his own boyfriend on the tour, but he didn’t quite see that happening.

   “Hey, Vuoto.” Dog murmured, feeling a nose at his shoulder as he stood against the railings with Dee, giving the tall stallion some TLC before bringing him back to the stable block. The smaller horse was eagerly sniffing at Dog’s pockets, definitely sensing the Lifesavers he had stashed away, and Dog offered a hand to the stallion to sniff instead. Just then, his phone vibrated in his pocket, sending DeeDee’s ears flicking back and forth with a quiet alarm.

   “Oh, fuck - hey guys, it’s BeReal time!” He chimed, aiming the phone first at him and Dee and then getting a truly flattering angle of Vuoto’s nose.