Olivia soothed her horse—this one being Penelope, a beautiful frame overo paint horse—gently stroking her sides and helping her to calm down after the intense workout that the local agility competition preliminaries had put her through. The preliminary had mostly been an impulse decision made a few days ago when the sign-ups had been about to close, so she and Penelope had only had a few days to practice, but they still had gotten a lot of cheers from the crowd. That was always a win. Better than boos. She'd know for sure how she did when the results were all tallied up in a couple of days after reviews of the footage. Of course, there would be the immediate results released at the very end of the show, and generally speaking, those would be correct, but every once in a while, something showed up in the review footage, so Olivia didn't count any of those foals before they were born.
The sound of someone near her startled her a bit, and Penelope reared up just a couple inches off the ground with a sharp neigh. Immediately, Olivia forced herself to relax and clicked her tongue softly at Penelope, who calmed down immediately upon realizing Olivia wasn't reacting to any threats.
"Good girl," she told her horse, presenting Penelope with a sugar cube.
Then she turned to the stranger, eyebrows raised. "I'm guessing nobody's ever taught you how to act around horses," she said wryly. "I know it might seem like you're at a respectable distance, but two feet isn't much when you're surprising a big prey animal."
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