so you wanna write a heartbreak high fic, but you're american (part 2)
Back in November, I wrote this after reading a bunch of Heartbreak High fics. I always planned to write a part 2 featuring some more aspects of Australian schooling, but my own writing, work and personal things (aka mental illness) got in the way.
As with part 1, this is NSW/Sydney specific, as that's where I'm from and where Heartbreak High is filmed and set. People from other states might have different experiences (I know a little bit about Queensland for example, because my parents are from there and most of my relatives went to school there).
If there's anything not covered here that you're curious about, please check part 1 as I may have covered it there, or send a reply.
Extracurricular activities: these are not timetabled during lesson times (some schools have things like Friday afternoon rewards but those don't really count). They're generally just for fun and a way for kids to socialise. What extracurricular activities are available depends on what the teachers at the school are able to run but aside from competitive and social sport, these are things like debating, mock trial (fake court cases, highly recommend, very fun), music ensembles like choir/jazz band/orchestra, then there are some academic things like Tournament of Minds, coding, streamwatch. The more academic activities are generally more selective, especially if there's a competition aspect like ToM. Extracurricular activities have absolutely no bearing on whether or not a kid will get into uni, although depending on what they are, they can be good to put on a CV for jobs. There are also no limits on how many extracurricular activities a student can do (there's no "oh he chose basketball instead of orchestra as his extracurricular" ... he can do both, they're also usually not running at the same time). Sydney schools tend to run more activities than regional/rural schools because the public transport system means that it's easy to get to and from places outside of school hours. Non-metropolitan schools tend to run things during recess/lunchtime so there's a limit on how many things kids can do.
Sport: most Australian kids participate in some form of sport. The most common ones are: soccer, cricket, netball, rugby league, AFL, touch football, athletics, swimming, basketball and tennis. Private schools often offer things like golf, rugby union and sometimes even skiing, rowing and equestrian. Hartley High has a group of cheerleaders and, like with the uniform thing, this is extremely rare. Cheerleading is a thing in Australia, but it mostly happens through clubs, kind of like gymnastics. It's more common for girls here to just be involved in a more conventional sport instead (usually netball, which, in my opinion, is the most boring sport in the history of the universe, but is pretty popular in Australian schools; league tag is also extremely popular in more regional areas). Depending on how big the school is, Aussie kids who play sport either get involved with school teams or local club teams, and they tend to range from more social/fun to more competitive, particularly as kids transition from the juniors into the older age groups. Some schools might not necessarily have school teams but will scrounge up a representative team for inter-school competitions (so this would be like if the inter-school basketball competition team wasn't necessarily the school basketball team but was just made up of the best 10-12 basketball players that tried out or signed up). Other schools have more competitive teams that compete against other schools. Schools in NSW have to do a mandatory amount of hours of physical activity, so some schools will let kids choose a sport for a certain amount of time to do during that time (this might be when the competitive teams compete). Club sports generally happen on Saturdays and Sundays (for me, AFL was Saturday, soccer was Sunday, rowing was Saturday morning if we didn't have a regatta that week). Kids who excel at a particular sport might get to participate in NSW combined high schools (CHS). Some of the more "prestigious" schools are part of athletic associations like GPS and CAS. In terms of post-school, I know very little about how it works, but all I know is that it's nothing like any of the American systems. We don't have a system like the NCAA here; I know a little about the AFL draft but it's too complicated to explain so here's a Wikipedia article about it (I know nothing about how NRL players go pro so don't ask me that). An Australian kid might attract a scholarship to an American university to play sport overseas, but our universities don't work like that.
Student leadership: Generally, all schools have one or two School Captains and one or two Vice Captains (some schools let the whole school vote for captains, but usually they limit it to teachers and the older grades). Then there are House Captains (kind of like the prefects from the transphobic lady's book), and they're usually elected by all the students in that house. They're involved in inter-house competitions which I'll touch on later. Some schools have captains for things like different extracurricular activities. Schools generally have a student representative council with one or more elected representatives from each grade, depending on how big the school is. My school was a Catholic school, so I got to be a Liturgy Representative (and I absolutely put that on my CV when I applied for my first shitty bakery job).
Carnivals: pretty much every Aussie school has a swimming carnival and an athletics carnival. This is where there's a bunch of races (and field events for athletics) and you participate in as many as possible to get house points. Sometimes swimming is only open to more competitive students but generally more people participate in athletics. Most Australian kids have swimming lessons as part of mandatory PE in primary school and in years 7-10 (I got my bronze medallion as part of mine and I'm now a member of my local surf lifesavers group). The house captains rile up their houses and get them to sing war cries to cheer everyone on (my personal favourite was 'how funky is your chicken'). The winning house gets ultimate bragging rights and is pretty much always the red house (they tend to put all the sporty kids in red and the dweeby nerdy kids in yellow for some reason). You get house points for going in events, but you also get them for cheering the loudest or having the cleanest area. Really, it's just a fun way of getting out of classes.
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Two Lives Long Harnessed Together, Until One Could Not Go On
Rush may have been the longest-lived thoroughbred in American history when he died at 39. For three decades, his owner said, “He would fight for me, and I would fight for him.”
A New York Times Article, written by Mike Wilson, published on Nov 22, 2022.
WINDSOR, Conn. — Bridget Eukers paused in the barn, her thoughts seemingly far away, and touched her horse’s halter like an amulet. On the floor just outside his empty stall lay a scattering of yellow chrysanthemums left by a sympathetic friend.
Eukers explained she hadn’t often used the halter on the horse. She and Rush had an understanding.
“I would only really put it on to exercise him because we could go in and out of the barn without it,” she said, her fingers lingering on a strap. “I would just put my hand on his mane and we’d walk in and out.”
It had been just over a week since Rush had died on the concrete floor a few feet from where she stood. Eukers was still grieving, but also celebrating Rush’s extraordinary legacy. He was 39 years and 188 days old when he died, making him perhaps the longest-lived thoroughbred ever in the United States.
The record is hard to pin down. The Jockey Club, the industry’s breed registry, does not keep longevity statistics, so people in horse racing go by word of mouth. The horse thought to be the previous American record-holder was 38 years and 203 days old when he died in 2016, according to the racing publication BloodHorse, which first reported Rush’s death. An Australian thoroughbred lived to be 42, according to Guinness World Records. A typical thoroughbred lives into its late 20s.
Whatever Rush’s rank among senior horses, his death marked the end of a 30-year partnership — Eukers’s word — with horse and owner showing a level of dedication to each other that would be extraordinary for any two beings, equine or human.
“He would fight for me, and I would fight for him,” Eukers said. “Whether it’s your relationship with your horse, with your friends, or with your life partner, that’s what it comes down to. You’ll fight for me, and I’ll fight for you.”
They forged their relationship competing in equestrian events. Six days a week for six years, separated only by a saddle, they honed their skills, moving fluidly together and soaring over obstacles, three feet high at first and then three and a half. For Eukers, being with her horse became a way of life.
She attended college close to home so she could stay near Rush, turned down jobs that would have cut into her time with him, didn’t socialize much and never went on vacation. The longest she ever spent away from Rush was one week, for a school trip.
In return, he gave her joy by carrying her on his back — around show rings and across Windsor’s quilt of farmlands, often at a thundering pace fit for a racetrack. “It really is a special thrill to feel a racing thoroughbred at full speed underneath you. It’s just magic,” she said.
Beyond that, he gave her a purpose, and a measure of peace. The simple routines of feeding Rush, cleaning his stall and giving him medicine made her feel useful and freed her mind. He was a job she loved doing. “It’s one of those Zen things,” Eukers said. “You have that rhythm, and it somehow centers your life.”
Through all of life’s challenges — angst about the prom, hard days at work, dates that didn’t happen, her father’s death — Rush was there for her. Eukers said she occasionally wept into his neck. He actually didn’t love that.
“He would sit and listen,” she said, “but he would get to a certain point that was like, ‘OK Mom, you cried. We’re good. I’m going to go have my hay now.’”
The horse who became known as Rush was foaled in Kentucky on May 4, 1983. He was sold as a yearling for $60,000 ($170,000 today) and registered as Dead Solid Perfect. He ran 16 times and won once, in 1986 at the Meadowlands, according to the horse racing statistics site Equibase, with the Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone up. After his racing career, he was sold to a new owner and trained in dressage.
Eukers’s parents bought the horse for her when she was in her early teens. Already named Rush, he was a beautiful athlete, Eukers said, with massive shoulders that swayed like a lion’s when he walked. He was also a scaredy cat, unnerved at different times by flowers, squirrels and a mosquito lamp.
“His mission in life at that point was to worry about things and he was really good at it,” Eukers said.
They grew to understand each other. She fed and groomed him and protected him from everyday objects. And when she asked him to clear a fence, he did, even though he was afraid.
“If I asked him to try, he would always try, and he would try and try,” she said. She still keeps the ribbons they won in riding competitions.
Eukers believes Rush’s diet contributed to his longevity. At 30, he indicated that he wanted a change from commercial horse feed. (“He started to tell me: ‘You know what? This just doesn’t work.’”) She began giving him organic meals of alfalfa pellets and whole grains. When the grains were too hard for Rush to chew, she turned them to mush in a slow cooker.
Last week, she still had two bags of bright green hay in the back of her car. It was made for guinea pigs, but Rush liked it.
Eukers stopped riding Rush when he was 35. He was still able to carry her, she said, but she now had a different priority: Her father had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Caring for Rush had to be balanced with researching treatments for her dad and just being with him. When her father died in 2019, she said, Rush was no longer fit to be ridden.
The once-brown horse was now mostly gray. He spent his days at Windsor Hunt Stables under an apple tree, communing with dogs named Wilson and Lola, red-winged blackbirds, wrens, a yellow barn cat and a quarter horse called Cowboy, who stole his hay.
Day after day, Eukers walked Rush up and down the little hill next to the barn, steering him away from the gravel path because the stones hurt his feet. She massaged him with essential oils while he napped. She tied a rope to him and had him trot in a circle around her. She experimented with all kinds of dietary supplements, and Dr. Michael Stewart, Rush’s veterinarian for more than 20 years, gave him steroids to keep him strong.
People would ask Eukers how old Rush was, and when she told them, they would follow up with what she considered an indelicate question: “How long do horses live?”
Last summer, Rush somehow hit his head when he was alone. Eukers could tell by the swelling and his behavior. It took him a long time to recover. He also suffered from an abscess on his left front hoof and persistent breathing difficulties. Amid it all, Cowboy, his companion of 14 years, died at 26, leaving Rush bereft.
About that time, Eukers, who worked in administration for an aerospace company, began receiving frequent texts at work alerting her that Rush was lying down, and she’d have to hurry to help him.
It is fine for horses to lie down, Dr. Stewart said in an interview, but because of the way their digestive systems work, they must get up to survive. Eukers always managed to get Rush back on his feet, often with help, but as time passed she felt less and less comfortable leaving him alone. She began to spend nights in the barn, placing a chair outside Rush’s stall and wrapping herself in horse blankets as she listened to his breathing.
“You and I would be lucky to have somebody care for us like she cared for him,” Dr. Stewart said.
On the night of Nov. 7, Eukers stayed with Rush until late, then went home to get a couple of hours’ sleep in her bed. When she returned at 5:30 a.m., Rush was down, spilling out of his stall onto the cold barn floor. Eukers called her mother, then Dr. Stewart. For hours they worked to get him up, but the cramped space and the slope of the floor worked against them.
In recent years, Eukers said, people often told her that animals can sense when they are dying. He’ll tell you when it’s time, they would say to her. But Rush didn’t do that, she said. Even after she rubbed his forehead and told him, “You’ve done enough, you don’t have to try anymore,” he kept struggling to lift his head and scrabbling to get his feet under him.
Finally, Eukers asked Dr. Stewart if he thought this was the end, and when he said yes, she made her decision. She had fought for Rush as long as she could. She knew that even if they got him up, they would be back here again soon, and Rush would be suffering, and he would try for her again.
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RvB characters as equestrians!!
Church: Dressage snob 100%. Every single show him and his horse are getting massages. His horse gets chiro every few months or so. Man is decked out in Halter Ego with every color of the rainbow in Equestrian Stockholm saddle pads and jackets. Loves matchy matchy outfits but will deny it when anyone asks. Owns a flashy warmblood and will complain if a thoroughbred scores higher than him.
Tex: Eventers scare me a little so that’s what Tex is. She rides a batshit chestnut mare that will only listen to her. Absolutely loves the thrill of jumping. Probably refers to the mare as her dragon.
Tucker: Western. Probably owns a nice little bay quarter horse gelding. Loves loves loves dressing up all nice and flashy for western. Thinks that the chaps and cowboy hat makes him look hot. They do.
Caboose: He is the hardest one to decide. Maybe he’s got an Australian saddle and just does whatever? Whatever the discipline is him and his horse would be connected on a very deep level. Works really well with mares because he understands that with them you must ask, and not tell.
Wash: I might just be biased but I feel he would have been a big dressage rider when younger. At the very least has his bronze. As he got older he moved out of competition and focused more on trail riding and relaxing. I feel like he’s the type of guy to be like those horse girls you see on Instagram reels that buy sick horses from auctions/slaughter houses and rehabilitates them.
Kai: Speed Queen!! My girl is whipping around those barrels so fast you can barely see her. Definitely rides a paint mare. She’s always the flashiest rider there.
Sarge: Rodeo, specifically roping. Big quarter horse fan. Him and Church probably bitch at each other all the time about horse breeds.
Grif: My first instinct was western, but I imagine he’s probably strictly a trail rider. Doesn’t care for competition, just likes to amble around the forest with a bomb proof horse.
Simmons: Most horses take advantage of his lack of confidence so he’s pretty much an unofficial red team groom. Maybe leases an older gelding so he can trail ride with Grif.
Donut: Started out with western because he liked the attire but it was too slow for him. Kai got him into speed. Loves palominos.
Lopez: Western! Maybe a bronc rider?
Carolina: Absolutely hunter jumper. Owns a big Warmblood or Oldenburg or something along those lines. You almost never see her knock down a jump. Makes everything look effortless.
Doc: Jack of all trades. Has probably done a bunch of different disciplines and leased a bunch of different horses. Tells everyone he’s looking for his heart horse.
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Seeds + Riding Horses
Joseph
Rides both English and Western, but prefers English
Morgans, Arabians, and Tennessee Walkers
Dressage is his favorite
Black saddle/bridle, yellow wraps and saddle pad
Rope halters
John
Rides English strictly
Irish Sport, Dutch Warmbloods, and Friesian
Hunter/Jumper all the way
Black tack + dark blue pad combo
Leather halters with silver accents
Jacob
Western style, Australian hybrid saddle
Quarter Horse, Appaloosa, and Thoroughbred
Trails. That's it. Maybe Endurance or Cutting/ranch sorting
Brown tack, wine red pad
Nylon halters
Faith
Rides Western style, tends to go bareback and bitless
Andalusian, Icelandic Horse, and Foxtrotter
Amazing at reining
Bareback pad, mint green. Matching neoprene bridle
Neoprene halter
(as an equestrian, I couldn't help it! I imagined them on horses and this happened. Might be niche af but that's fine.)
(this may become an AU I'll write... Idk)
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