September 23, the autumn equinox.
The temperature had dropped a little at last, offering a glimpse of autumn as the seemingly endless summer drew to a close.
Once all of the day's training was finished, the staff chatted as they put away the tack.
At this time of day, the youngsters were usually allowed to roam freely after their hard work, but today, something was a little different.
Beneath the sun stood a beautiful horse, seemingly draped in a golden veil.
And, looking rather out of place and almost spoiling the atmosphere, there was a dark green winter horse blanket.
Although the weather was still warm, this was part of the training too.
The training blanket bearing the name "Mejiro" had originally been custom-made for Sakuya when she was two, but the sizing seemed to be somewhat off: neither Atalanta nor Poetic Banquet, nor even Little Light later on, had been a good fit for it.
Without Europa, who looked just as sturdily built, it would probably still have been gathering dust in the storeroom.
As for why the lettering was in English rather than hiragana or katakana, even the person responsible could no longer quite
remember the reason.
For now, they would put it down to looking cleaner and sharper. While the staff put away the training equipment, Europa waited obediently nearby, just as Pius did.
"Can I help put things away?"
"Are you nearly done? Can we go home?"
"What should I do?" In any case, Europa usually followed everyone around at a fixed distance.
Rather than wandering off on her own, she could wait beside people. To someone raising horses, that was already quite an impressive feat.
Still...
"You're still standing on the training rope, little Europa~"
Asayama bent down and gently patted the chestnut filly's hoof