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Description

More from the MidAir Stables storyline

TWD Team on Ice: Part 1 out of 14
Next
Start of TWD Endurance Race

TWD training image - Narrow Mountain, Canada

Rider: Sky

TWD rifle training
Horses from left to right: Kite | Zorro | Diamond
Characters and art belongs to: Volt-Draws
Reference: My own stock

Having trouble polishing up EQB rider training course but you can render a new finished drawing? What's the deal brain? Are you that bent on ruining my HARPG timeline? Well the joke is on you! I have the power of description box! >:{D

So Sky starts working at MidAir long towards the future. During the time of this image she still worked at Narrow Mountain Farms as her contract there hadn't ended yet.

Backstory (you can skip this):
Sky had always been curious, but too shy to ask about a strange activity she would see equestrians in her area do quite often. She jumped at the opportunity to interrogate her first set of victims when she caught her friends doing the same thing. She learned that they were prepping their horses to go on a packing trip. They said that was somewhat similar to camping with horses, but there was an art and strategy to setting up a practical packing system and route. Needless to say, her interest was piqued. She enjoyed long trail rides and taking in the beautiful Canadian landscapes she had the benefit of calling her homeland. Endurance type riding and spending large amounts of time outdoors was right up her alley, she would be happy to look into the activity. Sky was thrilled when they invited her to ride along with them, though they had certain conditions. They would walk her through the whole way, but she'd have to prepare her own horse and pack horse for the trip. Sky accepted the invitation and grabbed her horse, plus an extra pack horse they lended her. When Sky's friends began to tell her about tack and placement, she was blown away by how technical it all became. Lots of intricate things went into planning before even getting to set off on the journey. How to load packs, what to bring, which knots to tie, where to tighten straps, how much weight a horse can handle, why a pack horse is so different than a riding horse, when to modify your original planned route, and much more. After the trip, she did a lot of thinking on horse packing. She was a little overwhelmed with all the details at first, but it didn't scare her off.

Spending days out in the wild, using survival skills and strategic thinking to conquer each day, taking in the beautiful scenery on horseback, building special bonds living with horses, instead of riding them for a bit. All of those wonderful traits were great additions to her absolute favorite thing about horse packing. Minimal human interaction! She would gladly sit down and learn whatever was needed to take advantage of this new discovery. And so, for a few months, her friends taught her everything that they knew about packing, breaking down the different elements to her, and letting her borrow their experienced pack horses to test her knowledge. Eventually Sky graduated from her friends' makeshift academy, and was deemed ready for her first short solo run. Sky was out on her own for one night. She made a few rookie mistakes that she was glad her friends weren't there to see, but everything still worked out somehow. She began to get the hang of how packing worked and started building on top of what her friends taught her. Making self invented layouts and systems that were quite efficient...Though not all of them worked out as well as others. Eventually, Sky rescued, and trained her own small team of pack horses. She went on more and more packing adventures with them, gradually going a bit further to test herself, the packing system she picked, and her team along the way. Whenever she'd have time between her cross country and endurance events, she would enter herself and her team in packing competitions.

There was a point in time when Sky started to really concentrate on improving her cross country and endurance ranks. Only having time enough for packing trips so light, it could be called a mere camping trip. Feeling guilty for letting her team waste away on leisure packing, Sky was overtaken with joy when she was approached by an experienced equestrian looking for some new additions to her team of packing horses. Knowing her team would be going to a good new home and were prepared for any challenge that awaited them, both eased her mind and helped her to see that there was a bit of a demand for good pack horses to fill certain roles. Sky kept rescuing unwanted horses, training them, and giving them a chance at a new life. This time, also adding pack training for anyone looking for a solid addition to their team....though the transfers never seemed to get less awkward. Being shy really stunk.

Story (goes to the drawing above):
Sky's cross country and endurance rankings were improving with her more focused schooling, but she missed having spare time to go on competitive packing trips. Seeing that there was a considerable space between events, she decided to utilize that time to go back to her roots when she saw an upcoming packing event on the calendar. She had been working on three prospects that happened to show a lot of promise for this particular occasion. She had: Zorro a 9 year old Russian Don, mare. She was given to Sky when some annoyed parents were unsuccessful at ironing out her anticipation kink, which resulted in their child's ruined show run. It was an undesirable behavior, but hinted at Zorro's ability to recognize certain patterns and her attempts to aid her rider when needed. When refined and utilized properly, that kind of attentiveness would be a useful trait out on the trail. Kite , a 15 year old Fell Pony. One of his previous owners was into packing and that meant Kite was already experienced with the packing ropes, terrains, and wrecks. It would also mean he would be the less likely to cause an issue and would be a good influence to his team...After considerable work was done to make him stop trying to split off from it. And Diamond , the 7 year old Nordlandshest. The sweet girl wants so badly to succeed but can't seem to stand still long enough to do so. She would need a lot of exposure to different objects and situations to keep her from spooking so easily. With her confidence built and spooking controlled, her willingness to learn, and ability to adapt quickly to new things would make take to packing quite nicely.

Sky knew that her friends were skeptical about her taking her team of "bargain bin finds" on such an event, but she felt confident enough with their progress to be able to hold their own. Sky made sure to get in a lot of training and practice leading up to the special day to iron out any kinks and refine the best type of layout for the weather and terrain. She and her team were on their way back home after a long journey, when Sky noticed a few flurries. The morning news reported a sudden drop in temperature, but Sky wasn't worried. Right before they left Sky found a new outfitter brand online who were selling "reliable" low cost gear for packing, and a line of clothes that was said to withstand some pretty low temperatures. Sky was confident that she wouldn't even notice the temperature drop wearing her haul...but she did? Her fingers were cold, and the cold air was seeping right through her face covering making it hard to breath in the painfully cold air, defeating the point of wearing it. It felt like she wasn't wearing a coat at all, and she couldn't feel her toes as they were frozen numb. Perhaps she got a faulty batch? Or maybe she misread the temperature it was best suited for? She didn't really know what was going on with her new winter set but, there was no way she could make it home under these conditions without becoming a solid ice cube along the way. Thankfully she made sure to bring a bit of money with her in case of emergency. She and her team took a detour from their original route to stop by the nearest town so she could shop for something warmer to wear. Sky never particularly liked coming to this store, their selection was always limited, and they always seemed to change the layout to something more and more confusing each time she visited. Unsurprisingly, she had trouble locating the women's winter department. Since they had a long ways to go till they reached home, she was in a rush to get back on the trail. It was clear that she had to get over her shyness for a moment, to summon the clerks...wherever they were hiding. Through much searching and faint calling, a clerk finally emerged from the depths of a rack of clothes. She managed to get out enough botched words to form a sentence that signaled she was looking for the store's winter department. "Here you are!" the store clerk said after leading her through what felt like a maze to get to the coats. It became apparent to Sky that that the store clerk mistook her age, when she found herself in the children's department of all places. Hoping to fix the misunderstanding, she turned to look towards the clerk. Only to learn that the clerk had already vanished and returned to one of the many clerk hiding places scattered throughout the store.

"What's the use of looking for the women's department anyway? This store always has a limited size selection, and hardly anything they have ever fits me. If I'm going to be out on the trail, I don't need baggy ill fitting clothes catching and snagging on branches and bushes." Sky thought to herself as she picked a fitting winter set with a pink puffer coat from the children's winter rack. It seemed to come with a face covering that would help to make breathing in the cold dry air a bit easier for her. Plus it also had something to keep her head and ears nice and toasty. They were great traits but the theme was not. "Did the design have to be so busy? I pity the poor kid that has to wear this in public." She mumbled to herself as she walked to the counter. It was nothing new for Sky, having to wear children's clothing in order to get a decent fit due to her being so short. It was embarrassing, but it eased her mind to know that, nobody would judge her out on the trail, as her travel partners were horses. And thankfully for her, horses were nonjudgmental creatures. Cases like this made her appreciate the solitude that came with packing. Sky got changed, and ridded herself of the fake low temperature set she had on before. Now that she was all warm, and unfortunately demoted to "adorable kitten" for the remainder of the distance, she was ready to rejoin her team and continue home.

As they made their way down the trail, Sky couldn't help but look at her little team with delight. They had all really come a long ways since they first got together. By now Kite would have spazzed, or shut down and refused to go down a trailhead at least 4 times, Diamond would have spooked, set off the breakaways, and bucked all over, and Zorro would have been trying to anticipate her every move the whole trip, making the ride disruptive and miserable. Sky saw that they were just about to pass another trail head, and Kite was still looking as he had been the whole trip, unfazed. His lead had a nice amount of slack in it instead of the tension he had when she first got him. They passed a scary looking rock not too long ago, and Diamond handled it like a champ, not even batting an eye at it. Sky lifted the reins a bit, Zorro's ear turned to her direction meaning she was attentive but she didn't try to anticipate a turn or a halt. Still walking forward like she was told from the start, because she wasn't asked to do otherwise. They were without a doubt much better than they were at the beginning, she had a good feeling about how they would perform at the upcoming event.

*Click* "What was that?" Sky thought to herself. She looked to see that a button strap on Diamond's pack had worked itself loose yet again. This was probably the 5th time it happened on this trip. Oddly enough she seemed to have some unusual parts of equipment fail with Zorro's tack along the way also. Mainly the two green packs hanging near her withers. "This is odd. This is brand new tack and gear, why are they acting as if they are old and worn out already? It's like they're not holding up...just like my winter coat...from the same brand..." After putting two and two together she figured out what was going on. "I thought those prices were too good to be true. That's what I get for wanting to try gear, from a brand I've never heard of. I know, Zorro, I know! I should have known something was off about that brand when I saw how often the word reliable was thrown around their site." Sky complained. The loose strap on Diamond wasn't making anything slip out of place as she had it double secured, but it was still annoying to see it flapping around as she walked. Sky took off a glove so she could have more dexterity for button fastening, the sudden rush of cold air reminded her why she had it on in the first place. She stopped the team, and guided Zorro over to Diamond. For the majority of the trip Diamond was spacing out and enjoying the view. Knowing if anything happened, the horse in front would take the blunt of whatever laid wait ahead, and the horse in back would get picked off first from any thing stalking them from behind. All she had to do was flee to safety while her teammates courteously bought her time.

Diamond grew a little nervous when Zorro was no longer in the lead and was instead beside her. With nobody watching the front Diamond started to hyper focus on her environment, darting her ears in every which way to listen out for danger. Sky leaned over to fasten the button, and soon after she heard something fall to the ground. When Sky went to lean over, she accidentally placed her hand on one of the green packs and slid it loose. Seeing as how the green packs were also from the unreliable brand, it was no surprise how weak the straps were. Diamond spooked at the noise, rearing up in response. Sky quickly tried to lean out of the way but her hand didn't get clear in time. Knocking the pink glove out of her hand and sending it hurtling towards the lake. The sudden shift in weight and a slight tug on the reins caught Zorro off guard. Believing she had missed a cue to back up, Zorro quickly tried to redeem her shortcoming. Shifting backwards till her rear ended up bumping a tree. The wobbling tree made, already frightened Diamond, even more terrified and she went bucking down the trail, tripping Kite's breakaway in the process. He decided to take advantage of the chaos, and use his freedom to forage for food for a little bit.

Sky and Zorro trotted onward to try and catch up to Diamond, thankfully they were eventually able to secure her. She assessed the damage and was annoyed to find out that the latch used to secure Kite's lead did more than just break away, what she attached it to was completely broken. She was painfully reminded that it was from the same tacky brand that provided the fake low temperature coat, caused the loose button, and Zorro's green pack tack issues, among other things. She had some other gear on hand that she could replace it with, but with them being from that unreliable brand, she really didn't want to see how that story would play out. Kite slowly approached the group after an unfruitful forage hunt. Sky had an idea and lead the team further down the path and watched him closely. He lagged behind a bit, but was still at a healthy distance. Seeing as how Kite happily followed his girls even though he was not tied to Diamond meant the hard work put into training him was paying off, and that she could have some peace of mind as they limped back home with gear falling apart by the second. She would be sure to never test out random tack on a long trip, and when testing out random tack, bring extra gear, but from a different brand.

This was definitely one of their more eventful journeys. She got hoodwinked with shoddy gear, looked like a kid, her other glove was at the bottom of a lake, Diamond was jumpy, Zorro's packs were uneven, not to mention, Kite was stringless! And after all that trouble, that infamous button strap was still loose. With the trip she and her team had, Sky had no cares left to give. The only thing on her mind was getting home, hopping on her tablet, and writing an interesting review on the product she had hands on experience with.

Word count: 2,866

Description

More from the MidAir Stables storyline

TWD Team on Ice: Part 1 out of 14
Next
Start of TWD Endurance Race

TWD training image - Narrow Mountain, Canada

Rider: Sky

TWD rifle training
Horses from left to right: Kite | Zorro | Diamond
Characters and art belongs to: Volt-Draws
Reference: My own stock

Having trouble polishing up EQB rider training course but you can render a new finished drawing? What's the deal brain? Are you that bent on ruining my HARPG timeline? Well the joke is on you! I have the power of description box! >:{D

So Sky starts working at MidAir long towards the future. During the time of this image she still worked at Narrow Mountain Farms as her contract there hadn't ended yet.

Backstory (you can skip this):
Sky had always been curious, but too shy to ask about a strange activity she would see equestrians in her area do quite often. She jumped at the opportunity to interrogate her first set of victims when she caught her friends doing the same thing. She learned that they were prepping their horses to go on a packing trip. They said that was somewhat similar to camping with horses, but there was an art and strategy to setting up a practical packing system and route. Needless to say, her interest was piqued. She enjoyed long trail rides and taking in the beautiful Canadian landscapes she had the benefit of calling her homeland. Endurance type riding and spending large amounts of time outdoors was right up her alley, she would be happy to look into the activity. Sky was thrilled when they invited her to ride along with them, though they had certain conditions. They would walk her through the whole way, but she'd have to prepare her own horse and pack horse for the trip. Sky accepted the invitation and grabbed her horse, plus an extra pack horse they lended her. When Sky's friends began to tell her about tack and placement, she was blown away by how technical it all became. Lots of intricate things went into planning before even getting to set off on the journey. How to load packs, what to bring, which knots to tie, where to tighten straps, how much weight a horse can handle, why a pack horse is so different than a riding horse, when to modify your original planned route, and much more. After the trip, she did a lot of thinking on horse packing. She was a little overwhelmed with all the details at first, but it didn't scare her off.

Spending days out in the wild, using survival skills and strategic thinking to conquer each day, taking in the beautiful scenery on horseback, building special bonds living with horses, instead of riding them for a bit. All of those wonderful traits were great additions to her absolute favorite thing about horse packing. Minimal human interaction! She would gladly sit down and learn whatever was needed to take advantage of this new discovery. And so, for a few months, her friends taught her everything that they knew about packing, breaking down the different elements to her, and letting her borrow their experienced pack horses to test her knowledge. Eventually Sky graduated from her friends' makeshift academy, and was deemed ready for her first short solo run. Sky was out on her own for one night. She made a few rookie mistakes that she was glad her friends weren't there to see, but everything still worked out somehow. She began to get the hang of how packing worked and started building on top of what her friends taught her. Making self invented layouts and systems that were quite efficient...Though not all of them worked out as well as others. Eventually, Sky rescued, and trained her own small team of pack horses. She went on more and more packing adventures with them, gradually going a bit further to test herself, the packing system she picked, and her team along the way. Whenever she'd have time between her cross country and endurance events, she would enter herself and her team in packing competitions.

There was a point in time when Sky started to really concentrate on improving her cross country and endurance ranks. Only having time enough for packing trips so light, it could be called a mere camping trip. Feeling guilty for letting her team waste away on leisure packing, Sky was overtaken with joy when she was approached by an experienced equestrian looking for some new additions to her team of packing horses. Knowing her team would be going to a good new home and were prepared for any challenge that awaited them, both eased her mind and helped her to see that there was a bit of a demand for good pack horses to fill certain roles. Sky kept rescuing unwanted horses, training them, and giving them a chance at a new life. This time, also adding pack training for anyone looking for a solid addition to their team....though the transfers never seemed to get less awkward. Being shy really stunk.

Story (goes to the drawing above):
Sky's cross country and endurance rankings were improving with her more focused schooling, but she missed having spare time to go on competitive packing trips. Seeing that there was a considerable space between events, she decided to utilize that time to go back to her roots when she saw an upcoming packing event on the calendar. She had been working on three prospects that happened to show a lot of promise for this particular occasion. She had: Zorro a 9 year old Russian Don, mare. She was given to Sky when some annoyed parents were unsuccessful at ironing out her anticipation kink, which resulted in their child's ruined show run. It was an undesirable behavior, but hinted at Zorro's ability to recognize certain patterns and her attempts to aid her rider when needed. When refined and utilized properly, that kind of attentiveness would be a useful trait out on the trail. Kite , a 15 year old Fell Pony. One of his previous owners was into packing and that meant Kite was already experienced with the packing ropes, terrains, and wrecks. It would also mean he would be the less likely to cause an issue and would be a good influence to his team...After considerable work was done to make him stop trying to split off from it. And Diamond , the 7 year old Nordlandshest. The sweet girl wants so badly to succeed but can't seem to stand still long enough to do so. She would need a lot of exposure to different objects and situations to keep her from spooking so easily. With her confidence built and spooking controlled, her willingness to learn, and ability to adapt quickly to new things would make take to packing quite nicely.

Sky knew that her friends were skeptical about her taking her team of "bargain bin finds" on such an event, but she felt confident enough with their progress to be able to hold their own. Sky made sure to get in a lot of training and practice leading up to the special day to iron out any kinks and refine the best type of layout for the weather and terrain. She and her team were on their way back home after a long journey, when Sky noticed a few flurries. The morning news reported a sudden drop in temperature, but Sky wasn't worried. Right before they left Sky found a new outfitter brand online who were selling "reliable" low cost gear for packing, and a line of clothes that was said to withstand some pretty low temperatures. Sky was confident that she wouldn't even notice the temperature drop wearing her haul...but she did? Her fingers were cold, and the cold air was seeping right through her face covering making it hard to breath in the painfully cold air, defeating the point of wearing it. It felt like she wasn't wearing a coat at all, and she couldn't feel her toes as they were frozen numb. Perhaps she got a faulty batch? Or maybe she misread the temperature it was best suited for? She didn't really know what was going on with her new winter set but, there was no way she could make it home under these conditions without becoming a solid ice cube along the way. Thankfully she made sure to bring a bit of money with her in case of emergency. She and her team took a detour from their original route to stop by the nearest town so she could shop for something warmer to wear. Sky never particularly liked coming to this store, their selection was always limited, and they always seemed to change the layout to something more and more confusing each time she visited. Unsurprisingly, she had trouble locating the women's winter department. Since they had a long ways to go till they reached home, she was in a rush to get back on the trail. It was clear that she had to get over her shyness for a moment, to summon the clerks...wherever they were hiding. Through much searching and faint calling, a clerk finally emerged from the depths of a rack of clothes. She managed to get out enough botched words to form a sentence that signaled she was looking for the store's winter department. "Here you are!" the store clerk said after leading her through what felt like a maze to get to the coats. It became apparent to Sky that that the store clerk mistook her age, when she found herself in the children's department of all places. Hoping to fix the misunderstanding, she turned to look towards the clerk. Only to learn that the clerk had already vanished and returned to one of the many clerk hiding places scattered throughout the store.

"What's the use of looking for the women's department anyway? This store always has a limited size selection, and hardly anything they have ever fits me. If I'm going to be out on the trail, I don't need baggy ill fitting clothes catching and snagging on branches and bushes." Sky thought to herself as she picked a fitting winter set with a pink puffer coat from the children's winter rack. It seemed to come with a face covering that would help to make breathing in the cold dry air a bit easier for her. Plus it also had something to keep her head and ears nice and toasty. They were great traits but the theme was not. "Did the design have to be so busy? I pity the poor kid that has to wear this in public." She mumbled to herself as she walked to the counter. It was nothing new for Sky, having to wear children's clothing in order to get a decent fit due to her being so short. It was embarrassing, but it eased her mind to know that, nobody would judge her out on the trail, as her travel partners were horses. And thankfully for her, horses were nonjudgmental creatures. Cases like this made her appreciate the solitude that came with packing. Sky got changed, and ridded herself of the fake low temperature set she had on before. Now that she was all warm, and unfortunately demoted to "adorable kitten" for the remainder of the distance, she was ready to rejoin her team and continue home.

As they made their way down the trail, Sky couldn't help but look at her little team with delight. They had all really come a long ways since they first got together. By now Kite would have spazzed, or shut down and refused to go down a trailhead at least 4 times, Diamond would have spooked, set off the breakaways, and bucked all over, and Zorro would have been trying to anticipate her every move the whole trip, making the ride disruptive and miserable. Sky saw that they were just about to pass another trail head, and Kite was still looking as he had been the whole trip, unfazed. His lead had a nice amount of slack in it instead of the tension he had when she first got him. They passed a scary looking rock not too long ago, and Diamond handled it like a champ, not even batting an eye at it. Sky lifted the reins a bit, Zorro's ear turned to her direction meaning she was attentive but she didn't try to anticipate a turn or a halt. Still walking forward like she was told from the start, because she wasn't asked to do otherwise. They were without a doubt much better than they were at the beginning, she had a good feeling about how they would perform at the upcoming event.

*Click* "What was that?" Sky thought to herself. She looked to see that a button strap on Diamond's pack had worked itself loose yet again. This was probably the 5th time it happened on this trip. Oddly enough she seemed to have some unusual parts of equipment fail with Zorro's tack along the way also. Mainly the two green packs hanging near her withers. "This is odd. This is brand new tack and gear, why are they acting as if they are old and worn out already? It's like they're not holding up...just like my winter coat...from the same brand..." After putting two and two together she figured out what was going on. "I thought those prices were too good to be true. That's what I get for wanting to try gear, from a brand I've never heard of. I know, Zorro, I know! I should have known something was off about that brand when I saw how often the word reliable was thrown around their site." Sky complained. The loose strap on Diamond wasn't making anything slip out of place as she had it double secured, but it was still annoying to see it flapping around as she walked. Sky took off a glove so she could have more dexterity for button fastening, the sudden rush of cold air reminded her why she had it on in the first place. She stopped the team, and guided Zorro over to Diamond. For the majority of the trip Diamond was spacing out and enjoying the view. Knowing if anything happened, the horse in front would take the blunt of whatever laid wait ahead, and the horse in back would get picked off first from any thing stalking them from behind. All she had to do was flee to safety while her teammates courteously bought her time.

Diamond grew a little nervous when Zorro was no longer in the lead and was instead beside her. With nobody watching the front Diamond started to hyper focus on her environment, darting her ears in every which way to listen out for danger. Sky leaned over to fasten the button, and soon after she heard something fall to the ground. When Sky went to lean over, she accidentally placed her hand on one of the green packs and slid it loose. Seeing as how the green packs were also from the unreliable brand, it was no surprise how weak the straps were. Diamond spooked at the noise, rearing up in response. Sky quickly tried to lean out of the way but her hand didn't get clear in time. Knocking the pink glove out of her hand and sending it hurtling towards the lake. The sudden shift in weight and a slight tug on the reins caught Zorro off guard. Believing she had missed a cue to back up, Zorro quickly tried to redeem her shortcoming. Shifting backwards till her rear ended up bumping a tree. The wobbling tree made, already frightened Diamond, even more terrified and she went bucking down the trail, tripping Kite's breakaway in the process. He decided to take advantage of the chaos, and use his freedom to forage for food for a little bit.

Sky and Zorro trotted onward to try and catch up to Diamond, thankfully they were eventually able to secure her. She assessed the damage and was annoyed to find out that the latch used to secure Kite's lead did more than just break away, what she attached it to was completely broken. She was painfully reminded that it was from the same tacky brand that provided the fake low temperature coat, caused the loose button, and Zorro's green pack tack issues, among other things. She had some other gear on hand that she could replace it with, but with them being from that unreliable brand, she really didn't want to see how that story would play out. Kite slowly approached the group after an unfruitful forage hunt. Sky had an idea and lead the team further down the path and watched him closely. He lagged behind a bit, but was still at a healthy distance. Seeing as how Kite happily followed his girls even though he was not tied to Diamond meant the hard work put into training him was paying off, and that she could have some peace of mind as they limped back home with gear falling apart by the second. She would be sure to never test out random tack on a long trip, and when testing out random tack, bring extra gear, but from a different brand.

This was definitely one of their more eventful journeys. She got hoodwinked with shoddy gear, looked like a kid, her other glove was at the bottom of a lake, Diamond was jumpy, Zorro's packs were uneven, not to mention, Kite was stringless! And after all that trouble, that infamous button strap was still loose. With the trip she and her team had, Sky had no cares left to give. The only thing on her mind was getting home, hopping on her tablet, and writing an interesting review on the product she had hands on experience with.

Word count: 2,866