Welcome to Gaia! ::

The food she’d left forgotten while she’d been chasing the Hastar, she’d also forgotten to take with her. That night the Hastar investigated the pile, it was covered in her scent… and something tasty smelling! It’s ears pricked up as it ate the tastiness. Perhaps the small strange one would bring more of these? Small funny one was fun to tease, it liked to chase and play games!

Sueno, as she approached the fence saw the Hastars ears pricked up and his head pop up to look at her.He turned and faced her, the tail swishing. Is that a good sign or bad sign, she wondered. She put her bag of treats on the other side of the fence and climbed over. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed the Hastar had gotten closer.
“Oh ho.” She said. “Ye want what’s in here?” She waved the bag about with a grin. The Hastar’s head followed it. She saw her old bag, the one she hadn’t been able to find this morning, lying on the ground, empty and stepped on. I guess I should have let him try the treats to show him how tasty they were before I tried to tempt him with it! She thought with amusement and shook her head. Well, today would show results at least! Now she was the one running around being chased. She laughed as she ducked and dodged, hiding the bag of treats from the Hastar for a while. Finally, she noticed that he was looking al little peeved so she sat down and opened the bag. Pulling out a carrot she offered it in an open palm.
“Here ye go!” Since the Hastar had been better and had approached her (if only for treats) he deserved a treat! He stared for a second before approaching and quickly snatching the carrot before trotting off. We’ve made progress!

That week she sat and spent time with her Hastar as she watched the others train. She kept to doing simple things, walking with him, sometimes letting him out into the fields and run wild for a bit before bribing him back into the corral. She got him used to being around people as well as having a light blanket (one of hers, which Fillarin had recommended she do) on his back. This was to get him used to her scent being back there as well as having something on his back. A stable hand, Ràild Sailcirc, would help her bridle and walk him as well. Ràild and she got along well. He was her elder by five years and well-muscled from his farm work. He had a soft accent from the southern part of Serenia, where the largest grain and maize farms were located in the plains. He had come up here to learn to be a rancher like her. His family had no nearby ranches, so instead he figured to come up to the northern part of Serenia and get some tips.

Now he was helping teach as well as learn. After a week of getting the Hastar, Gazini is what Sueno named him, used to being around Magescians and having the blanket on his back. Ràild and Sueno put him through his paces. This meant slowly getting him to do tasks, giving him praise and encouragement when he did a job right.

“Positive reinforcement.” Ràild said. “You need to make sure they think of you as someone to obey but not to be feared. Get them to do things bit by bit. Don’t force them.”

“Mhh.” Sueno agreed as she stood in the middle the ring holding the rope that linked her to Gazini. “So that they get to like the job and don’t get annoyed and start playing pranks.”

“Right. After we get him used to this and you riding hi as well as you get used to riding. We’ll start giving him a job.”

“Job?”

“Yes. Hastars are like us. Practice gets boring and repetitions make them annoyed. Give them a purpose and a Hastar will do the task and be happy while doing it. He’s about 2 years looks like.”

“Is age important?” Sueno asked as they reeled Gazini in from where he’d been running circles at a slow speed (it’d taken them a few times to get it through his head that he needed to listen to them and not just run around) and they took him over to the feed box to get dried off, fed, and watered.

“Age is very important. At about now we need to start getting him trained. Any younger and we only do minimal amounts of work with them. They don’t have their body complete grown and riding may stunt them.” He smiled at her. “With that, lets let him loose and start to teach you how to ride!”