THE HISTORY/PLOT.

[--ADMIN]

Though a rather boring history (up until recently), Crossfire Farms has its origins way in the mountains of South Dakota. Previously known as Black Hills Equestrian Center, the farm was an icon of the town. The seemingly ancient property had been there for over 25 years, and to many it seemed like it still had a lot of life left in it. Originally, it had been run by a man named Nicholas Peters, he in a sense, re-defined the ideas of the horse world (of course, with every new fad, not everyone followed). Nicholas was known as a kind soul and very welcoming to everyone that wanted to ride horses, whether they had money or not, he merely enjoyed seeing people have fun and reach to be successful. To Nicholas, where his students got were not important to him, it was how they got there that mattered.

Before Nicholas had moved in, Black Hills was simply known for Mt. Rushmore, but as his accomplishments began to take storm in the equine world, Black Hills was transformed from a sleepy, tourist town to a town teeming with life and budding equestrian talent. The biggest shock of the town came when Nicholas Peters was brutally murdered in his own home, found by his daughter. Due to the fact that he had written his entire estate and fortune to Carlee in his will, she was automatically put up as the prime suspect of the case and the town quickly found itself under the fish-bowl eye of the media. It seemed for a while that the posterity that Nicholas Peters had created was demolished by a little bloodshed.

Eventually the killer of Nicholas Peters came forward to confess to the crime and Carlee was cleared of all evidence. However, the scars of the ordeal remained. It was hard for anyone to look her in the eye for a year, some of the old men would gossip like little school girls saying she had paid her way out of jail. It was a rough few months and Carlee felt like a stranger in her home town. Fortunately, redemption arrived in the form of an Olympic silver medal. From then on, Carlee was hailed as valuable as her father, all sins washed clean from her hands.

For a couple years life was grand. The farm was growing every day and it seemed like the enthusiasm over horses was beginning to grow in the town again. Then, tragedy struck another blow to the farm. On a particularly dry Fall evening, dark clouds swirled over Black Hills, threatening to rain but never letting loose the torrents from their darkened bellies. Yet, the fury of Mother Nature was felt when lightning struck two barns and the house. Without a proper rain fall in weeks, the dry structures burned to a crisp.

Standing in the glow of the fire, Carlee was forced to watch as firefighters hopelessly battled against nature (and lost). The sounds of burning horses, distressed people, and screaming sirens were all drowned out by her thoughts as she imagined the priceless family valuables turning into ash in the house she had loved so much. With her daughter clinging to her leg, Carlee struggled with a depression that threatened to end what she had so carefully rebuilt after her father’s death.

It took almost a whole year for Carlee to kick herself off the ground and decide to pick back up where she started. With a couple million in her pocket and a hat full of hope she began property shopping far, far away from the town that now had one too many bad memories for her to bear. Home quickly presented itself in the form of 100+ acres of a farm previously owned by a budding race trainer who decided his hand was best tried in Law School. Snatching up the property in a heartbeat Carlee (and a few of her most loyal students) packed their bags and relocated to Addison, Texas.

Thus, Crossfire Farms was born. Now more than a year after the tragedy, Carlee’s still struggling to pick up what was unjustly burned to ash back in South Dakota, desperately searching for students, begging for her farm to come back to life. It seems now that clients and boarders are trickling in more and more every day. Perhaps there’s hope yet. But as everyone at Crossfire Farms know all too well, time has a funny way of changing things for better or worse.

And that is exactly what time did. The prestigious farm ran successfully for two years under Carlee's wing until she received an offer to join the British riding team. Taking the one in a life time opportunity, she left the farm in to the hands of the very capable Grace Moselle. With another change in the air, many of the people around Addison were curious to see how the next couple years will unfold.

A few years passed, and the barn grew, and Grace decided to take a step back to focus on her family, and Crossfire changed hands again, and is now under the ownership of Elisabeth Harper, and doesn't seem in danger of slowing down any time soon.