extrapenguin

Title: Fixing
Rating: G
Wordcount: 413
Synopsis: Piotr fixes horses because he can't fix Aral

Heron was a rather good horse: a number of minor conformational faults that established why he wasn't a stallion and brought down his price to something affordable, a decent enough training, and a good head. A nice find for a family with three horse-crazy kids. Too bad that the son had crashed Heron into a jump. The parents had (wisely) decided to splurge and send the poor horse off to Piotr Vorkosigan for re-training.

Piotr mounted the skewbald and did their typical warm-up before starting on the jumps. After a few weeks, Heron was now going over oxers and verticals up to three feet high, as well as the occasional triple bar. Now it was time to throw a wall into the mix.

A few practice jumps later, Piotr brought Heron to sniff at the wall, showing him both sides. Turn away, lift the canter, apply leg to get the hindquarters working. Look at the jump, turn, look over the jump. Lift a bit up from the saddle, think over the jump. Sense hesitation. Legs close, keep contact with the mouth. Never abandon the horse. Heels down, trust the horse. Three, two, one, jump. Too early, overjumping, give the horse rein. Feel him stretch. Feel a thousand pounds of muscle work beneath. Land. Collect the horse. “Good boy!” Do it again.

Later, after Heron had successfully gone over the wall in both directions and gone for a walk in the forest, Piotr gave him some hay while a groom cared for his saddle and bridle. Heron's brown face had an off-center white blaze on it that made him seem somewhat comic.

Piotr leaned on the door. “Fixing you is easy, y'know, Ronnie”, he said, and thought of Aral, trying to drink himself to death and failing.

Heron snorted. He'd almost finished the hay. Piotr walked into the stall and ran his hand over Heron's mostly brown neck. He scratched Heron's withers. “It's true. Why, it's taking me such a small amount of time that I haven't perfected my dismounting wriggle yet, and I'm still mauling my genitals on the pommel. Hmh. Well, better that than unfixability.”

Piotr hugged Heron. Horses were much better than people: they never lied, were never rude, never abandoned you, didn't die half a century before you'd expected (their lifespans were too short), and actually stood there and listened.

He felt his eyes wet. “I wish I could fix Aral.”

Heron wrapped his head around Piotr and stood still.

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Skewbald: a horse with brown and white splotches.
Oxer: a jump with double the length of a regular jump
Pommel: the front part of the saddle
Withers: the part of the horse where the back meets the neck; the highest part of the back