|
|
Post by Eden Rosellier on Jul 4, 2009 19:16:26 GMT -5
Eden Rosellier made her way slowly down the barn aisle. She had a rather unsure look about her, like she didn't have a clue what was going on. Suffice it to say, she didn't exactly look like the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Of course, looks can always be deceiving, and this was one of those times. Eden was hardly a dull person. Different, maybe, but not stupid. No, not by any stretch of the imagination was she stupid...
She wandered down the barn aisle, peering into the numerous stalls at all the horses with a look of wonder. Most of these were no plucky old school ponies like the equines she was used to. No, most of these horses were the epitome of perfection. She was a little overwhelmed by it. How would her plucky little lightning fast mare fit in here? How would she fit in here? Not that she fit in anywhere, so that wasn't really an issue. Or it shouldn't be.
She heaved a sigh, folding her arms over her stomach and tipping her head down slightly, as if she were protecting herself from something. Who knew what, when it came to Eden. Not a soul, that was for sure. Not even Eden herself. Well, most of the time, anyway. Once in a while she did. That wasn't particularly often, though.
She heaved another little sigh, cursing her whirlwind thoughts. They hardly ever followed one another in a coherent sentence, and it was enough to drive her crazy. Well, crazier than they told her she already was, anyway. She nibbled her lip slightly. She had gotten a lot better in the five years that she had been in counseling, and, of course, riding horses. She didn't usually feel like she was going to have a break down and she didn't lose her temper anymore, but there were still those little tell tale signs. There were times she could swear she felt a mosquito or something on her skin, but she would look and nothing would be there. The rational part of her would swear that she was just imagining it, no matter how much she swore it was there. She hated it. She knew she was crazy and she hated it with every fiber of her being. She wanted nothing more than to get better, to be normal...Whatever normal was. She wanted it. Was it such a thing to ask?
Her head jerked up from where she had been watching her cowboy booted toe scuff at the concrete upon hearing a familiar whinny. Her arms slowly unfolded and she walked quickly toward the far end of the barn, breaking into a jog. It had been drilled into her head that you never ran in a barn. There were just so many things about it that had high potential to be dangerous. Still, she couldn't help it, just this once. She hadn't seen her beloved Nutmeg in almost two weeks, what with trying to pack and avoiding her dad as much as possible and making it to her final counseling sessions before she came...
She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the mare's mostly white nose peeking through the bars of the trailer. All the worry she had felt about being her, how things were going to go, ebbed away just upon seeing her mare. That was the effect horses had on her. Well, her horse, anyway. Her horse was something familiar. The other horses in the barn intimidated her, simply with their perfection. They were beautiful, no doubt about it, and Eden would have given anything to get her hands on them, to ride them. Still, they were just so...well, perfect. Her mare was pretty, beautiful, even, but she had a plucky look about her that all the sleek horses in the barn didn't possess.
The girl grabbed the handle to open the trailer as soon as it had come to a stop and pulled the door open. Nutmeg whinnied again when she saw her owner, a slightly offended look in her eyes, one brown, one blue. Clearly she was hurt that it had been so long since Eden had come to see her. The girl stepped into the trailer and approached the prancing mare slowly. "I'm sorry girl" she apologized, wrapping an arm around the mare's nose, cradling the horse's head against her, closing her eyes, pulling the mare's scent into her nose, just drinking it all in.
With a contented sigh and the ghost of a smile, Eden grabbed the lead rope and untied it, quietly leading the mare down the ramp. She quietly thanked the man who had delivered the mare for her, unable to look him in the eye. Still, clearly he didn't often get it from the people he delivered horses for, and he appreciated the gesture nonetheless. She seemed like a sweet enough girl, he thought to himself as he watched her walk way, the mare's head over her shoulder, just like they were old friends conversing, catching up on everything that had happened while they had been away from her.
Indeed, the girl was talking to the mare, and the horse flicked her ears around and looked at the girl for all the world like she could understand. Sometimes Eden swore she could, but then she scolded herself for hallucinating like that. Still, she did have a tendency to talk to the mare, just because it kept her from talking to herself. It probably seemed a lot more sane to talk to one's horse than to talk to oneself.
She drew a deep breath as she hesitantly put the mare into the cross ties and got her brushes. It was a wonder the two got along so well. Nutmeg was the sort of horse who needed a very decisive leader, the sort of person who knew what they wanted and was insanely confident in themselves, or else she took advantage of them. Eden was none of those things, and the extreme opposite in most of them, but the mare performed perfectly for her, hardly ever putting a toe out of line.
The girl felt herself steadily relaxing more and more as she went about the usual motions of brushing. A simple observer would have noticed that she was a pretty girl, beautiful, even, when she wasn't all tense and worried about something. When she just looked peaceful and quiet, she looked a lot more normal and a lot less crazy than when she had the wild, "oh no, what do I do now?" "deer caught in the headlights" look in her eye. One might have also been interested to listen to her talk to the plucky little sorrel mare with the bald face and one blue eye. One could find out a lot about Eden Rosellier, simply by listening to her whisper sweet nothings into her horse's ears....
Words; 1,141
Tag; Open
Notes; Yay!
Outfit; Click
i-Pod; High Maitenence Woman; Toby Keith |
|
|
|
Post by ashlyn macauley. on Jul 5, 2009 11:31:27 GMT -5
Turning the key in the ignition, everything seemed suddenly quiet as Ashlyn’s old Chevy turned off, the sounds of the engine and the music both cut off. The truck was definitely old, but that was one of the many things she absolutely loved about it. Of course, the fact it had no CD player had been quite annoying for quite some time until her dad put one in it and now the large truck was fantastic. Opening the door, she stepped out and ran a hand through her long, brown waves, taking a deep breath and inhaling the wonderful scent of horses. Sighing as her fingers caught a knot in her hair, she reminded herself it was better to have her windows down when her hair was tied back, otherwise she ended up spending forever trying to get the knots out but with autumn on the way, she knew it was only a matter of time until she‘d be running to the truck and blasting the heat in it. Turning back to the interior of the truck, she searched around for a moment before she actually found a hair band and tied her hair up in a high pony tail.
Finally content that her tangled hair wasn‘t going to get anymore tangled and make life much more difficult on her, she shut the door and headed into the barn where her thoroughbred mare was waiting. She only lived about an hour away so shipping Promise up hadn‘t been any stressful ordeal. The barn was empty as she slipped into her mare‘s stall, though at the other end she could see a truck and trailer pulling in and she wondered who‘s horse was being dropped off, if it was somebody she knew or somebody new. Stroking the buckskin mare‘s neck, she placed a kiss on the horse‘s nose before she stepped out of the stall, walking to the tack room and pulling out her multitude of brushes, setting them down by the crossties closest to Prom‘s stall and heading back to her mare, grabbing the leather halter from the hook next to the door and slipping into the stall again.
Leading the tall thoroughbred from her stall, she clipped her in the crossties where her brushes lied and stroked the mare‘s nose for a moment, looking over her elegant face. Hearing the sound of hooves along the barn floor, she looked over to see a girl about her age leading in another horse, Prom‘s ears pricking up as she looked at the smaller, stockier sorrel. Smiling to herself, she picked up a brush and started along her horse‘s neck, murmuring a few quiet words to her as she took the brush along the mare‘s light, tan body, a little cloud of dust coming off of the horse with every stroke she made. After she did the same thing on the other side, she put the hardest brush down and picked up the softer one, knowing she had just given the mare a full out brushing the day before and she still shone from it. Even in the dead of winter when she had a little bit of a fuzzy coat, her buckskin coloring still shone. This time, as she brushed her tall thoroughbred, she went down her legs, smiling at her knees where her coat faded into a black and then suddenly turned white. It was one of the things that really made Prom stand out in the show ring and well, anywhere really; a tall, buckskin mare with little dapples along her body and four white stockings.
Glancing up, she looked down the isle at the other pair, wondering if she should say something. She was a quiet girl until you got to know her, that was when she opened up. She knew she came across as stuck up sometimes when she wouldn‘t be the first to speak, her eyes tending to shift over the other character, but it was just the way she was. Starting a conversation wasn‘t the easiest thing in the world for her to do even though she was going into her senior year here at Brinley. Turning back to her horse, content her coat was now as clean as it was going to get without a bath, she picked up the comb and starting working on her mare‘s mane. Since she was an English show horse, that wouldn‘t really take long. She absolutely loved long manes, but it was hard to braid a mane that was long and make it look at neat and precise as a shorter mane. Once she was done with the mane, she ran her hand along the mare‘s neck, getting rid of the little bit of dust that had fallen from her mane and went around to her tail, using her fingers to work the tangles out of it.
It was quite a relief that didn‘t take as long as she thought it would; sometimes Prom‘s tail would be so tangled, she‘d have to take her Show Sheen to it to get all of the knots out. Luckily, on most days, it wasn‘t too bad, but today had just been an easy day. Walking back up to her horse‘s head, she stroked the mare‘s face, murmuring a few sweet words to her. Smiling, she sighed quietly, running her fingers through the mare‘s mane, looking over at the other girl again and biting her bottom lip, wondering what, if anything, she should say before she went to go tack up her mare and ride.
|
|
|
|
Post by Eden Rosellier on Jul 5, 2009 17:02:43 GMT -5
She glanced up as she heard hooves clatter on the aisle. She sucked in a slight breath as she watched the simply stunning buckskin mare walk from her stall next to a girl Eden decided was maybe a little older than her. Perhaps a junior or a senior, though she wasn't sure. But that horse. Eden couldn't get over her. She was incredible. She realized she was staring and quickly turned her attention back to her own plucky little mare, who had just nearly knocked her over with a sharp bump from her nose.
Clearly Nutmeg thought that since Eden hadn't been around in nearly two weeks, at least she could be appreciative and make up for it now by giving her her undivided attention. Eden smiled a little. That was one of the biggest things she loved about Nutmeg. You could practically just hear what the little mare was thinking just by watching her. You could tell that, had she been human (though she practically acted like one already) she would have been a very sarcastic sort of person, the kind of person who didn't take crap from anyone and was maybe a little bit protective.
Eden sighed as she went back to brushing the little mare out. She wasn't horrible tall, maybe 15.2 hands, and stocky, kind of barrel shaped, although not from lack of exercise. They ran, and ran hard, almost every day, but Eden just couldn't get her to lose the weight. They had finally just given up and decided that she was an easy keeper.
She sighed as she went about the mare, still murmuring softly. "What do you think girl? Can we make this work?" she asked softly. "Can we get along here?" she drew a deep breath as she straightened the mare's almost flaxen forelock before dropping her brushes into her tote and hauling them into the tack room. She came out lugging a Western saddle, built small and light, clearly for speed events. She nimbly tossed the saddle over the mare's back, the other rider forgotten as Nutmeg started to fidget. She had been cooped up for much too long and clearly she was going a little stir crazy.
"Nutters, dear, we're never going to get out of here if you keep acting like that" Eden told the mare quietly. The mare snorted, lifting her front legs off the ground and sending the still uncinched saddle onto the floor with a clatter. "Knock it off" Eden snapped, with about as much force as a kitten as she scooped the saddle and pad off the ground and tossed them up onto the mare's back again. "Now just stand there, babe" she breathed as she leaned over and quickly grabbed her cinch. She tightened it more quickly than she would have normally, so the mare couldn't dump it off again.
She walked around the mare checking everything out. She didn't ride with a back cinch. Nutmeg tended to be cinchy back there, and the whole back cinch thing tended to just make her buck, which, while it was never anything serious, and was simply annoying, more than scary. For Eden, anyway. It probably would have terrified some people, but to Eden, Nutmeg was just Nutters. She could be kind of a goof sometimes, but the two of them got along fine.
She gave the mare a pat and slipped into the tack room. She couldn't help eying the pretty buckskin mare as she passed. She was just such an eye-catcher, with that color and then the white socks to boot. Eden heaved a sigh. She loved her own mare dearly, and wouldn't have given her up for all the world, but it was no sin to admire someone else's horse, right? She stepped into the tack room to grab her bridle. She moved quickly back out and nearly ran straight into the other girl in the barn. "Oh, oh! I am so s-s-s-sorry" she gasped with a stutter.
Eden cursed her shyness as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, staring at the ground, afraid that she would see anger in the other girl's gaze. She was so used to it. She hated it, but it was the truth. She hated that she was so shy, too. It was horrible in cases like this. She knew people who could have just struck up a conversation, but she was not one of them. She was miserably shy, and horrible at meeting new people. "I'm sorry" she mumbled again, still without looking at the girl, staring at the floor instead, and started to walk past, hating the awkward silence. She had never liked silence, and especially ones in cases like these. They were horrible.
There were a lot of things that Eden hated, though, especially about herself. Truth be told, she wasn't entirely sure there was anything she did like about herself. She hated herself. She probably could have found something she didn't mind, but she would have had to look awfully hard. On the flip side, she could tick off about 10 things just off the top of her head. She drew a deep breath. "Don't even go there" she murmured to herself as she pulled the halter off Nutmeg and quickly slipped the bit into her mouth before she could try running off. Eden just had a bad feeling about today. The mare was just too worked up. It was bound to be an interesting ride, that was for sure.
Words; 912
Tag; Ashlyn <3
Notes; Yay!
Outfit; Click
i-Pod; Til I was a Daddy Too; Tracy Lawrence |
|
|
|
Post by ashlyn macauley. on Jul 5, 2009 23:00:40 GMT -5
Ashlyn looked over at the other duo as Promise’s head shot up, a surprised, slightly amused look on the mare’s face. She caught the tail end of the little quarter horse’s temper tantrum and the saddle tumbling to the ground. Resting a hand on the mare’s shoulder she smiled. “Just because someone‘s a little high strung doesn‘t give you an excuse to be,” she murmured quietly, not at all upset about the other horse’s behavior. It was just something that happened; Prom had done similar things when she had been riding and people always shot her dirty looks as they rode around on their dead broke little show ponies with no personality. Glancing over, she saw the other girl tightening the cinch around her horse and she patted her buckskin’s shoulder before heading into the tack room to get her own equipment. A moment later she came out with a matching saddle and bridle set and a lime green saddle pad and matching polo wraps. She used her polos for everything; Prom did not get along well with splint boots so she just had to wrap the mare extra well when they were jumping. Besides, she knew plenty of people who just liked polos better and always used them for jumping and she was one of them.
Setting her most of her tack down, she tossed the brightly colored saddle pad over her horse’s back, smoothing out all the wrinkles before picking up her little, brown, all-purpose saddle and placing it lightly on top of the blanket. Slipping the buckles through the strap on the pad, she dropped the girth down over the mare’s right side and tightening it slowly as to not irritate her mare. Picking up one of the wraps, she started on the mare’s left front leg, unfortunately covering up most of the mare’s white as she wrapped the polo around. Standing up, she leaned back and popped her back, stroking the mare’s shoulder before going to her back leg and wrapping it up. As she stood up, she was surprised to see the other girl right there, apologizing for nearly running into her. Smiling, she shrugged. “It‘s no big deal,” she said. It’s not like the other girl had knocked her over or anything. As the other girl’s gaze locked on the ground and she apologized again, Ashlyn realized they were both rather shy. Knowing the other girl wasn’t looking, she shrugged again anyways. “It‘s fine, don‘t worry about it.” Watching her shuffle by, she sighed, telling herself to say something else and get out of her comfort zone. She wasn’t going to make any new friends any other way.
Taking a deep breath and resting a hand against her mare for comfort, she exhaled slowly, looking at the other girl as she walked over to her horse. “Do you want to ride together?” she asked, realizing it was a rather stupid question. They were both tacking up their horses, obviously they were both going to ride. There were only two riding arenas and she wasn’t planning on going out on the cross country course, not today, anyways. Nodding in response to the girl’s answer, she turned back to wrapping the polos around her mare’s legs, taking a step back, smiling at the bright color on her mare.
How was this going to work, an english rider and a western rider both practicing together? The saddle the girl had been carrying was a contesting saddle, she could tell by the horn. There had been a couple people up where she boarded Promise when she was at home that were into speed events and that was the same kind of saddle they used. She had never ridden with them before, though. People there usually came up at their own time, so even though it was a big barn, it was never really busy. How could she practice jumping and the other girl work on her speed events? Oh well, she’d worry about it later. If worst came to worst, she could go out on the cross country course or the other arena. Or maybe they could go out on the trails. That seemed to solve the arena problem, well, if the other girl agreed.
Picking up her bridle from the hook where she had set it, she unclipped the crossties from her halter and let them fall back against the stalls, she clicked quietly and Prom lowered her head, bumping against her gently as Ashlyn slipped the reins over the pretty mare’s head and unclipped the halter, hanging it up where the bridle had been and slipped the simple bit into Promise’s mouth, sliding the leather over her head and adjusting the buckles to their right length. Pulling the reins over her head again, she clicked again and the mare stepped forward. Looking over at the other two, she wondered if they were going to come. Smiling hesitantly at her, she realized she didn’t even know the other girls name. Leading the mare out of the barn to the big arena, she opened the gate and spun her mare around, closing it behind her. Tossing the reins back over her head, she pulled down the stirrup on the left of the saddle and slid her foot into it. After bouncing twice, she bounced again and pulled herself up onto the mare’s full sixteen two. Reaching down her right side, she pulled that stirrup from it’s leather and let it fall to it’s proper length before sliding her foot into it and asking Prom to walk, her right hand holding the reins at the buckle as she asked the mare to stretch out a little bit, beginning their usual warm up.
|
|
|
|
Post by Eden Rosellier on Jul 14, 2009 15:01:59 GMT -5
She drew a deep breath as the girl told her it was no big deal, trying very hard not to zone out. It was definitely hard, though. Not just an easy feat. For Eden, anyway. She had spent the last five years working on her self control, and she had come a long ways, but she still wasn't exactly mentally sound. She still had her moments. Then again, don't all people? A lot of people come to the conclusion the "normalcy" is just kind of a myth, nonexistent. But Eden was not one of them. She was of the strict mindset that basically everyone else was normal, and she was about as abnormal as possible.
She glanced up from fiddling with the chinstrap on her bridle as the girl asked if she wanted to ride with her. "Um. Yeah. I guess?" she said. The way it came out made it sound like more of a question than an answer. She shook her head, inwardly cursing herself. She hated when she did that, said something so that it sounded more like a question than an answer. She hated that she wasn't confident enough to just give people an answer without second guessing herself.
Nutmeg tossed her head impatiently, pulling Eden from her self-hating thoughts. That was probably one of the reasons horses were so good for Eden, and Nutmeg in particular. She required too much concentration to really zone out and lose track of the world. Nutmeg didn't leave much opportunity for that sort of craziness. She tended to demand constant attention.
She drew a deep breath as she grabbed her single barrel racing rein, only one end hooked to her bridle at the moment, and led the mare forward, careful to stay out from under her hooves. The mare had the tendency to get chargey and try and run over people when she was this high strung. It bothered Eden to no end, but there was little she could do about it. When the mare decided she was going to be disrespectful, there was little a person could do to change her mind. It was just the way she was; too stubborn for her own good.
She led the mare, or rather let the mare lead her, over to the arena where the other girl had just slipped in. Hesitantly, not sure whether it was rude to go in or not (she had only used the arena when it was empty) she let the mare slip through. She quickly fixed her reins, clipping the other end onto her bit, and swung nimbly into the saddle. She was already well settled when the mare bolted forward. "Hey now" Eden murmured, putting her heels down and driving her seat into the saddle as she pulled the mare's nose around to her knee. "None of that" she breathed as she let the mare out into a jigging, dancing trot.
Eden rolled her eyes as the mare picked up into an impatient slow canter. "Contain yourself, Nut" she mumbled, a little embarrassed by the mare's antics, even though they had never bothered her before. It was something about being in a new place, wanting to make a good impression. "Stop Nut, please" the girl whispered, her lips barely moving. She glanced up as she finally brought the mare to a stop. They were just going to have to go on an all out run to get the mare some semblance of self control. "Care to hit the trails?" Eden asked softly, hesitantly, when the girl and her pretty horse came by again.
Words; 595
Tag; Ashlyn <3
Notes; I am SO sorry this is so incredibly suckish...
Outfit; Click
i-Pod; Angels on the Moon; Thriving Ivory |
|
|
|
Post by ashlyn macauley. on Jul 17, 2009 16:28:15 GMT -5
Squeezing with her lower legs and clicking twice, the tall buckskin mare beneath Ashlyn moved into a trot and she began to post, automatically on her correct diagonal. After spending a couple years in the saddle and the majority of those years in the show ring, picking up the right diagonal wasn’t something she needed to check, she just knew. It was like knowing which lead Prom would pick up; she could just feel if she was on the right or wrong diagonal as the pair trotted around. After two laps around the large outdoor, Ashlyn changed directions at the trot, changing her diagonal mid-turn. Two more times around and the two made a large figure-eight, Ashlyn catching sight of the other girl and her horse heading over towards the arena. Once again, she felt slightly nervous, wondering how exactly their riding together was going to work out.
The two made their eight-shaped track smaller to give the other two room. Collecting her reins a bit more, the girl asked her mare to collect herself, the tall chestnut working more from behind now. Slowing the mare’s trot down, she stretched her legs down into her stirrups, sitting deep in the saddle as she asked Promise to bend, the two momentarily distracted as the stockier mare bolted forward and the buckskin tossed her head, skittering away from the other horse. The girl alternated squeezing the reins gently with her hands, bringing the tall thoroughbred back from her spook. “None of that,” she scolded, asking her to collect and went right back into their smaller circles. Concentrating both on her own horse and the other mare who seemed quite high strung, Ashlyn finally asked her tall horse to canter, her body moving with the horse’s as they rounded the half of the arena they was using.
She looked over at the other girl as she suggested the trails, nodding her head in response. Sitting back and just slightly tugging back on her reins. “Easy,” she said, the thoroughbred immediately slowing to a walk. “Sure, that sounds good,” she replied to the girl, nodding her head again as she steered her horse over to the gate, using her legs to get the mare right next to it as she bent over and unhooked it, Prom side-stepping to open it enough for a horse to get through. “After you,” she said, smiling. She wouldn’t deny it, she was a little nervous about hitting the trails with the little quarter horse. The sorrel seemed to be quite high strung and she didn’t really want to chase her down with her rider on the ground. But the girl seemed like she was quite a good rider; she would have to be to put up with her horse’s temperament. Most of the people who came to Brinley weren’t beginners, though, so that was to be expected.
Shutting the gate as she and Prom made their way out, they rode next to the other two and the girl smiled, looking down at the other; the buckskin Ashlyn was on was about a hand taller than the sorrel. “Oh, I‘m Ashlyn and this is Promise,” she said with a smile, petting her horse’s neck gently. It would have been kind of awkward to spend the ride with the other rider not knowing her name, at least that’s what she thought. Introductions were something she found to be sort of necessary, especially when the other person could be a friend, a classmate or competition, though in this case, competition didn’t seem likely, since she had on a contesting saddle and Ashlyn had an all-purpose english saddle.
|
|
