Hokkaido Horse Racing Story.

Chapter 289 The Strongest with Long Ears

"Mr. Yoshida?"

Mr. Toyo Yoshida, who obtained a trainer's license last year, retired as a rider and became a technical trainer at Yahagi Stables.

In my memory, he is still more memorable as a rider.

"That's right, how's Yoshidahara's stables?"

The group of people gathered around the personal computers looked over.

"Mr. Yoshida—"

The last time, and also the first time, we met was when Dober had just returned to the ranch.

At that time, Yoshida, who had been a leading rider, even brought a lot of apples to visit Dober.

Although it was only the first time I had contacted the other party as a horse owner and producer, I was left with a good impression that he was "not very talkative, but very reliable in his work".

Although, as for Sister Duobo, she still didn't seem to appreciate it very much.

As a memento of their long-awaited reunion, Dober left a perfectly intact bite mark on Mr. Yoshida's hand.

I even apologized to the other party for this at that time.

"Let's give it a try anyway."

Whether at the local or central level, there are almost no trainers who have no opinions or demands on the horse owners.

Especially the experienced horse trainers, most of them have a strong, unyielding aura that says "Leave it to me" without any room for argument.

In such situations, communication between horse owners and trainers is often quite difficult and strenuous.

Rather than trainers who blindly pursue high win rates and fame, they prefer to send horses to stables where the horses are a better fit.

In other words, it's a stable where compromises are more likely.

For a horse owner, this is truly an incredibly arrogant idea.

However, if the premise is that "the intelligence we have is absolutely accurate," then the situation is different.

Because of this consideration, a novice horse trainer might actually be a better choice.

Just as I was thinking this, my phone suddenly rang.

The horse-drawn wagons will be arriving soon.

Upon hearing this news, I couldn't help but grip my phone tighter.

After hanging up the phone, I took a deep breath.

Let's make some preparations.

With this as a signal, everyone at the low table stood up.

As soon as you step out of the lounge, the cold wind makes you want to huddle up.

My fingers are almost frozen.

"I'm really looking forward to it, Anna!"

After saying that, Rachel Ho quickened her pace.

Zep, who was only halfway through putting on his shoes, quickly jogged after him.

"Don't slip and fall."

After waiting in place for a while and putting on my gloves, I slowly followed behind.

Although it's "immediately," we still have to endure the increasingly cold weather in Hokkaido for those few minutes while we wait.

Even wrapped in a thick coat, it was no use; the winter wind that seeped in through the collar made my body shiver incessantly.

Compared to the joy of the ranch welcoming new members, the short-term desire to return to the warm indoors gradually took over.

However, the moment the horse-drawn carriage stopped and the tailgate opened, a certain emotion quickly spread through my chest.

Zepp and Rachel Ho kept repeating cheesy phrases like "so cute," and their phones had already been recording video for a long time.

First, some curious heads peeked out from the horse-drawn carriage.

Seemingly startled by the drastically different temperature outside the vehicle, the black deer instinctively pulled its head back inside.

However, with the patient guidance of Asayama and Kikuchi, Anna, the new ranch worker, slowly walked out of the horse-drawn wagon.

The moment its hooves touched the snow-covered ground, its eyes, which had been squinting from exhaustion, suddenly widened. "Don't be afraid."

Kikuchi stroked the neck of the black deer horse repeatedly, speaking in the gentlest tone possible.

After a period of calming, the black deer-haired horse, which had been frozen in place, slowly lowered its head.

It gently touched the snow with the tip of its nose, then abruptly pulled its neck back.

After repeating this several times, the initial nervous probing quickly turned into playful actions.

After rolling half a circle over a thin layer of snow, the horse unsurprisingly became filthy when it stood up again.

Lavid's exaggerated wail quickly drew a burst of laughter.

On the other side, Anna, the one involved, blinked her rather innocent-looking, watery eyes.

As Anna swished her tail all the way to the stable door, her powerfully rippling abdomen noticeably quickened its pace.

Twitching its ears, the black deer-haired horse let out a loud snort.

After quite some time, a fluffy head slowly peeked out from the stable.

The imagined tense scene of "enemies meeting" did not happen. Anna simply looked up and glanced at them a few times with a curious look.

Sakuya, on the other hand, wore a nonchalant expression, as if to say, "Oh, we have a new neighbor," before quickly pulling her head back inside.

"I was worried that the two of them would start arguing."

"No way, Sakuya doesn't care about anything except food."

"They might start arguing over food."

"Haha, that's certainly possible."

They walked towards the stables with smiles on their faces, and everyone breathed a slight sigh of relief.

While Kikuchi was busy untying the traction rope, Kitano squatted down and began palpation after the transport.

The first step is to check if the leg has been damaged during transport, and then to test the temperature for possible transport heat.

"The hoof temperature is normal. However, the dark circles under the eyes are quite noticeable."

Black Deer Horse blinked its watery eyes and yawned as if to say, "I'm about to die."

However, during the stretching process after transport, Anna still cooperated by lifting her hooves.

"You've worked hard, take a good rest now."

After eating a few bites of the food that had been prepared in advance, Anna yawned and lay down on the bedding like a puppy.

He tiptoed out of the stable, letting out a sigh-like exhale.

The feeling of peace of mind was stronger than the joy.

"Anna's ears are even longer than they appear in the photos."

"Maybe future children will be like this too."

"Wouldn't that turn you into a donkey?"

"Long ears are cute too."

You can hear that sound.

Some people were seriously analyzing the possibilities of pairing, while others started listing the names of stallions with long ears.

The reactions varied, but every member wore a natural smile.

A German man was editing the video he had just filmed while chuckling eerily.

The scheduled departure time for Europe is one week from now.

In other words, Anna's choice of a stamina partner was announced around the same time.

I couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

"So, what does the president think?"

The group of people arguing about the appearance of the long-eared stallion looked over.

"Uh, I don't know. Hahaha."

(End of this chapter)