Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Day Fifty
Puddlemere was once more clustered around what was becoming their usual outdoor table, they were having a discussion of sites they’d looked at on Harry’s land. Harry and Oliver had asked Sirius to take them with his almost but not quite illegal rug to view the handful of sites they’d picked out from the large map that now hung on the wall of the Great Hall. The speed of the rug was offset a tad by how they had to sit bobsled style for hours, but it was worth it considering how it had shortened the trip. There had been four sites that had been deemed worth a closer look, the first being right on the initial edge of Harry’s land, in an area bordered on the right side by forest, at the top by the end of an bay flowing in from the ocean, and to the left by the start of about a two hundred and fifty mile stretch of grassland. The water wasn’t particularly salty that far in, as the length of the bay nearly cut the island in two, but it wasn’t fresh water. Not a concern with magic, so it they opted to take a look. The second was in the middle of the grasslands, with the thought that perhaps there was a smaller water source not visible at the scale of the map. They covered a straight line over the grasslands, seeing some streams and small ponds but nothing of a suitable size for sustained use so they didn’t bother to land. Third was an area about a hundred miles in from the western edge of the island, on a small river leading to the ocean, tucked into a niche surrounded on two sides by forest and one by the river. It looked nice enough and they had open space enough, although it did have limits. Fourth was about fifty miles to the west of where they’d originally landed. A river to the left, a freshwater lake to the north, forest to the south, and fifty miles of open ground to the east. On the other side of the river, the foothills of the western mountains began, but the site seemed to be at roughly the same elevation as Indicia, perhaps slightly higher as it was a few degrees cooler, but not in any way uncomfortable.
They’d made sure to check MPC #2 at each site to see if the charms held between MPC #2 and MPC #1. They’d had no issues at the first site, the chicken had been returned to MPC #2 with a note asking they send the chicken back one more time and leave the stable up for at least fifteen minutes. When they’d done so, they were surprised to see Ash Montague stroll through the doorway carrying the bird. Returning the chicken to Oliver, he’d stuck his hand back through to wave across a few more people so they could also take a look at the site. They duplicated the the process at each landing point, and at the end they’d temporarily left MPC #2 at site four and walked back to the village via MPC #1 in the interests of getting a final location chosen as quickly as possible.
The debate had quickly come down to sites three and four, with site four finally determined to be the best option. Primarily as it had access to the greatest amount of open space, a secondary reason was that it was much further inland and more protected from potential weather issues.
Rafe, Jasper, and Harry were quickly assigned to the secondary site full time, MPC #1 in the village officially the primary site. Rafe and Oliver had already worked out the initial stable placements, but Rafe as overall manager, Jasper as MPC #2 manger, and Harry for his stash of other buildings they needed to check through, would be the principle hands getting things arranged just so. They needed to get moving immediately on evaluation and training, with Oliver and other hands working there as permitted, the Belgians having the first claim on their time. Oliver would do his best to be the plowman in reserve, only stepping into actual plowing at need, he was far more valuable as the current teacher and general problem solver.
They’d been fortunate to buy from respectable locations so they had all the papers on the horses, both individual and pedigree, but Rafe was a cattle man and horses were different. The horses they’d acquired were all highly bred pureblood stock and they didn’t have stallions for all the breeds, crossbreeding would have to be carefully managed by deciding on a goal and applying the correct selection intensity to achieve it. The mares would be bred three to four times and then either retired or sold on, replaced by her best filly. The understanding of how to create a breeding program was nearly identical to cattle, so he had all the theoretical know how needed, but identifying the correct genetics and breed traits was something he, Jasper, and Harry were learning together through “The Big Book” which was what they’d taken to calling Harry’s massive tome, “Equus Maximus: An Erudite Discourse on the Storied and Magnificent History of Horses”, by Ihaahz Forfeetees.
Day Fifty-Two
MPC’s #2, #3, and #4 were all in place, with #2 and #3 in stasis and holding their remaining horses and ponies, #4 still in full stasis as well, holding the Abraxans. They were planning to move the Abraxan back to their original Malfoy barn as soon as they had it up. There was no rush on them, current thinking was to evaluate the situation every quarter and when they felt ready, they’d take up that part of the business. They’d worked on MPC #2 stable for the last two days, for now filling it with mares only. It was the home of four Dutch Warmblood mares, three Cleveland Bay mares, six Shetland pony mares, three Highland pony mares, and eleven Dales pony mares. People had been running back and forth like crazed rabbits trying to get project A done before their shift of plowing, then turning over their equine charges to others who’d spent the morning cleaning the stables for hotwalking. Everyone headed back to MPC #1 to ensure grooming was taken care of.
Today, Harry had started pulling buildings from the Malfoy estate, specifically the indoor training ring, the eight stables that were permanent structures, no stasis ability, and the four small barns or stables that were both portable and stasis equipped. Those might do for some of the ponies, or some other animal altogether, they hadn’t yet decided. The last of the buildings Rafe immediately placed was the big Abraxan barn that was stasis capable but not portable. The three tack sheds had been set aside on a table, waiting until the barns for riding horses and ponies were identified and assigned a barn manager. As best as Harry could recall, only one of them had riding tack inside, the others were empty. There were two granaries also set aside for placement as Harry didn’t remember their contents but thought they were stasis equipped. Rafe wanted to make sure those buildings were up to date on vermin repellant charms and weatherproofing before setting them out. At which time he’d check the interiors and grain they held to ensure it was safe and not moldy or insect ridden.
As almost an afterthought, Harry pulled out the small stone building that housed the horse statues, adding it to the “for later” table. He was fairly sure he’d heard talk of one or two of the barns being converted to offices and other administrative areas and told Rafe about the statues in there that would make phenomenal decorations for those spaces. “Oh, and I think there were a bunch of notebooks in that one, might be some of the records you were looking for.”
Ash, Oliver, Sienna and Reggie were all out getting a start on laying out their paddocks. They wanted to get some open space for the Belgians, so they weren’t constantly in the stable. It was hoped that they’d get at least one fenced and available for use by noon today, hopefully they could get six or so ready for use this week. Rafe, Jasper, and Harry were currently occupied with the indoor training arena, getting that placed and inspected, then covering the ring floor with a fresh layer of sawdust. Filling several water buckets around the edges of the arena, and checking their pockets for apples, they nodded to each other. Harry entered MPC #2, deactivating the stasis on the first three stalls, then attaching lead ropes to his improvised rope halters he led the mares out, taking them one by one over to the ring. Once inside, he turned them loose while Jasper and Rafe leaned on the fence rail to watch them. Harry eventually moved into the ring, approaching each in turn, watching to see how they responded as he neared them, then held a lead rope up to their faces.
Harry was getting a chance to put his tentative steps in his studies and practice into reality. They didn’t have near enough tack for the horses, considering all the different sizes and breeds they were working with, so Oliver had sat down with the team. Under Oliver’s guidance they had distilled their needs down to a few must have basics, those that would get them through a couple months of the early evaluation work. Until they were able to custom fit halters for each animal, a rope halter would serve as a make do, Harry practicing over and over again with one of the lead ropes. Oliver made sure they all knew these types of halters were an emergency measure, and not meant for repeated use. You had to exercise care not to over tighten them, you could easily choke the horse by doing so, and to keep any crossovers in the rope away from the sensitive nose bridge. He went on, saying that if the horse in any way fought the halter, unless it was critical to hang on to the animal for some reason, the lead should be dropped immediately. They could always work with that horse later to sort through any training issues.
Their current thoughts were to halter each animal, run them through one or two basic exercises, then move on to the next. Those identified with any sort of issue would be returned to stasis for Oliver to look over with his more experienced eyes. Those that passed this initial inspection and the Belgians would be the ones the Paddocks employees used to train themselves with, everything from day-to-day care to training to breeding. They’d all likely specialize in some way and in time they would naturally focus on those areas most important to those specialties. Harry wasn’t feeling particularly drawn to any one area, he rather thought he might like to be a jack of all trades in regard to the stables. He liked Ollie’s ability to turn his hand to any job, and he wanted to gain a measure of that confidence and competence for himself.
Rafe had pulled out the papers on the Dutch Warmbloods when he saw them being led in. They indicated the three mares were bred for the harness category, and as they weren’t in The Big Book, it seemed they were a relatively modern breed. They all seemed to have a lovely temperament, reaching out for pats and scratches, and amiably following directions in the ring. Two of them were black and white, in what their papers described as a tobiano pattern. The third was a bay with a white star on her brow. As they didn’t have any carriages or carriage harness at this point, they were undecided on what to do with them, after some debate marking them for return to stasis, which Harry privately thought was a bit of a shame; he’d enjoyed the little work he’d had with them. The carriage horses were low priority for now, so regretful as it was, it was in the Paddocks’ best interests to work on nothing but the priorities.
Rafe and Jasper had quickly recognized the flaw in how they’d started today off, and immediately reshuffled the order of evaluation for the horses and ponies, moving the ponies to the top of the list instead of simply going down the stable row. Next, they brought the three Highland pony mares into the ring and turned them loose, watching to see how they moved and behaved when left to their own devices. All three were stunning in color, a smokey grey, deepening to black at the extremities, to include black manes and tales. There was a bit of pushing and shoving as they circled the ring, but they didn’t see any nipping or bad temper. The coloration meant the three could be related, something Jasper was quick to remark on, Rafe referring to the papers for confirmation. Two were apparently twins, the third a younger sibling. They’d have to check the two stallions’ records as well, to see if what they had was a related family group. He jotted down a note not to breed them within their group until a more thorough study could be done. The ladies were well behaved, if looking to be a bit territorial of their personal space, he gave them a tentative okay to possible crossbreeding, but they weren’t particularly heavily muscled. They moved well and didn’t object when Harry haltered them and led them about. They’d likely be fine for light cart work or day to day riding; they’d do some more work with them in the future to see how it shook out.
Putting them back in the stable after allowing them to roll in the arena dirt for a while, they moved on to the six Shetland ponies. Turning them into the ring three at a time, they all immediately clustered by the rail nearest Rafe and Jasper, butting noses forward for attention, leaning into the rail to scratch an itch, or tossing a head as if to say “Look at me!”. One on the edges seemed to be a bit more reserved, getting snappy when she’d been bumped one too many times. Harry pointed it out to Rafe, who made note of it; she’d be more thoroughly checked for temperament later, the others receiving a nod from Rafe for a preliminary ok for breeding, should the bloodlines of the Shetland stallions match up well. These had all the earmarks of being nice, sturdy cart horses.
The last group they were going to have time to check out today would be the Dales Ponies. They went through first a group of five, then a group of six. All of them were eager to move, feathers on their legs all but dancing with their steps. They playfully chased each other around the ring, showing no signs of tiredness or heavy breathing despite the activity. They were all approachable and welcomed attention, but happily moved along when the attention was shifted to another pony. Rafe gave a thorough thumbs up to the Dales, he’d look at the stallions to ensure he didn’t cross any bloodlines, but these were good, strongly built ponies that looked to be built for endurance, they’d start their breeding program here.
After putting the last group of the Dales back into the stables, He, Jasper, and Harry discussed their thoughts on what they’d seen so far. Harry didn’t have an educated opinion on conformation, but he did watch for personalities and temperament, it had been he who had seen the irritated Shetland, and Jasper who commented that the Dales were like oversized dogs that wanted to play. Rafe was working on his eye for conformation and breed standards. He’d taken extensive notes from “The Big Book” on what each of the breeds had been designed for, then seeing if their current stock looked well matched to that intent. A cart horse needed strong legs and a deep chest, well-muscled. A riding horse could be a bit delicate, high stepping and flashy for city folk, or sturdy, long legged, and with easy gaits for more of a distance rider.
Still chatting about what they’d learned with Jasper, Rafe steered them over to the table where the remaining boxed buildings sat and laid out a quick sketch of their site so far, all of them making notes on where a few more of the buildings could be placed. Harry had just unPack!ed the stone building containing the statues and they’d placed it relatively close to MPC #2, figuring it would make a nice still room once they transferred out the contents.
They still needed to sort out Paddock living quarters. The final decision would be up to Rafe and Ollie, but Harry was leaning toward individual cottages. He figured some sort of communal space would be needed for meetings and the like. So perhaps they could include a small dorm or a couple of private rooms in such a space for those that didn’t want the upkeep of their own homes.
Harry took a moment as they sat, enjoying the satisfaction of a job just begun and going well. For this moment in time, he and those he loved were happy. He breathed deeply and tipped his head back, closing his eyes and letting the warmth of the sun linger on his face. He felt a spreading peace as he drew another breath, both savoring it and contemplating the excitement and near constant half smile Ollie had been wearing for the last few days as his long thought impossible dream took shape around them.
That peace was rudely interrupted by a frantic patronus from Sirius that swept towards him from MPC #2, clearly having taken the shortcut. “Pup, where the hell are you, get your ass back to Hogwarts, right now! Bring anyone you pass, seriously, everyone. Get to the Great Hall, we need every hand we have, movemovemove!”