Exercising my babies... {Anthony}

[ghost1]

Mia stood in front of the gate that lead into the racing area of Cross Fire Farms. Mia standing there at her 5'2'' height looking like a shrimp next to all of the other normal sized people. Though she wouldn't have it any other way. You see she is a jockey so there for she needs to be small and petite to be able to ride the thoroughbreds in a race. With out being a jockey... well she might as not exist. With a small sigh she walked through the gate and along the gravel path to the large barn for the racers. Walking into the barn was like walking into a very busy mall. Mia walked all the way to the back left quadrant of the 4 section barn. Walking into the aisle and narrowly escaping being run over by a trainer who hadn't noticed her. Coming to her section of horses all with brass name plates that said each of her mounts / trainee's names. Dodging another horse coming down the aisle she slipped into one of her favorite horses stalls. A.P. Hosanna. That horse always gave her the ride of her life. Stroking the 16.3hh mare's grey coat she grabbed the halter and lead and swung her out into the traffic of the aisle. Amazing how people start to look around them and make room for you so you do not get trampled when you have a large grey mare walking by your side. She cross tied her and brushed her down real quick. Tacking up Anna as Mia affectionately called her, she dove head first into the confusion of owners screaming and trainers barking orders and grooms hurrying about to do what the trainers were yelling at them to do. Some how even though the stables where alive and bustling with activity the tack only had 4 other horses on it. Mia didn't have a lot of friends because she was new here and the fact that he uncle was Todd Pletcher who was among the world best trainers, owners, breeders and was going to be inducted into the horse hall of fame. So when she saw another Jockey leading his horse in the same direction she pounced on the opportunity to make a friend. Keeping Anna a distance away cause she didn't know if the other horse was friendly or not she addressed the man. Hello. I'm Mia Pletcher by the way. She stuck out her hand to the man who was still 2 inches taller that her and was quiet attractive.

[Anthony James Lovasz]

People often wondered about the sanity of a certain jockey by the name of Anthony Lovasz. He had a fetish for uncontrollable horses that were more likely to kill you than to win the race. He'd been injured by said insane horses so many times that any rational human would have long since given up the dangerous career and slunk away to nurse their wounds... but who ever said he was rational? If you really considered the definition of the word, it was clear that Anthony was anything but rational, and in fact did border on the edge of insane. Strangely enough, however, he didn't strike anyone as the sort of person to be insane at all. In all honesty, he seemed perfectly normal. He was possibly one of the most happy-go-lucky people on the face of the earth and if there was anything that could possibly bring him down off his high road of apparent ignorance of the evils of the world... it had yet to be discovered. No matter how many times he was thrown off his horse in front of a field of charging horses, he just got right back up again... some suggested that he was unstoppable.

Of course, he wasn't superman, and he did have a limit to the number of injuries he could physically sustain without having to take a break from his career, and after going through the rail and being rolled over top of twice... well, lets just say he thought the wiser of riding with three broken ribs, a fractured arm, dislocated shoulder, punctured lung, broken leg, and only 3/4 of the blood he needed to survive due to a massive gash in his other leg. That wasn't to say he was quitting for good... oh no, the day Anthony Lovasz left the world of racing would be the day... well, that day wasn't ever coming. He would die on the track before he stopped racing.

So after a year off, he was back... though not so much with the vengeance he had hoped for. Trainers and owners started questioning his ability and his decision making. After all, how many riders would go through the same accident twice on two different horses one year right after the other and it not be their fault? Well... it clearly wasn't anything that had to do with him... but you know how it goes. People speculate and speculations turn to rumors and rumors spread like wildfire, and before long, nobody can really tell the truth from the rumor and it all just goes downhill from there.

Undaunted, he just kept right on working to get whatever rides he could. None of them were steady, and none of them paid all that well, but hell, he didn't care about the pay. He'd ride for free if he didn't have bills to pay. Not too long ago, just after finishing a work on a horse, Anthony was approached by a certain Mrs. Payne, secretary and representative of James Michael Colburn. At the time, Anthony didn't have a clue who the guy was and honestly wasn't too interested in who he was until Mrs Payne said Mr. Colburn had recently gone off on another of his spending binges and bought himself a racehorse which had since received no training and was a terror... they couldn't find anyone to ride it anymore, and someone had recommended that they come to him... the moment the word "terror" was uttered, Anthony was in.

The horse was located in Texas, Addison Texas to be exact, so that was where Anthony went. Yes, he left the few rides he had where he was currently located and was likely to make less money... but he had long since grown bored with the sane horses he'd been riding. Even the so called "challenge horses" that jockeys tended to curse regularly didn't give him that thrill of restraining the insane exploding power of a horse that had somehow gotten itself screwed up on the track. There was a certain power to the feeling which he just couldn't get anywhere else... so screw the pay, he was taking his life back.

So here he was, several months later, walking down the aisle of the barn, jockeys, handlers, grooms, trainers, owners, horses... everyone giving him and his horse wide berth. The bay, Cowboy Casanova, better known as Nova by Anthony and "that horse" by most everyone else. No one wanted to come close to the horse. He had no respect for anyone, not even Anthony, and was well known for causing a huge scene, kicking, biting, and otherwise going out of his way to hurt people and horses for no good reason at all. It was a daily struggle between horse and man, and it was a miracle that the jockey was still all in one piece after this long.

They were nearly out of the barn when a sudden "hello" caught Anthony's attention from right near to him. He had a horrible habit of focusing so much on his horse that he failed to notice anything else... though that was probably the only reason he was still alive while working with Nova. He looked over at the girl and her rather pretty horse, and before responding, tightened his grip on the lead in his hand, and subsequently putting more strain on the stud chain which was the only thing restraining the horse from going ballistic and killing someone.

He would have stopped, but that would have been disastrous, a horse like Nova had to be kept moving or god only knows what he might do. so instead of stopping, he switched the lead over to his other hand momentarily and reached out his other hand to take hers in greeting, ignoring the pain it caused in his shoulder just as he always did. "Anthony Lovasz." he said in his surprisingly thick Spanish accent. Try as he might, and even after seven years in the States, he simply couldn't get rid of the accent. He didn't look spanish at all, so it threw most people off when they heard him speak for the first time. "Nice to meet you."

After releasing her hand, he quickly switched the lead back over just in case the horse on the other end should decide to freak out... which he probably would sometime soon. Because of a surgery gone wrong when he was only 13 and had his first bad fall in a race in Mexico, his shoulder had very little resistance to dislocation, despite the brace he wore on it, and he knew that if Nova happened to pull hard enough in just the right place, it would come right out of joint, and for that reason he always made sure to lead using his other arm... granted that arm wasn't much better, and was also braced, but lower fron his wrist to about 3/4 of the way up to his elbow from the fracture which had never healed properly. The brace did help with the pain, but it still hurt if the horse pulled hard enough, which he usually did... but at least there would be no dislocation on that side. He was a mess of broken bones and just about every other injury there was.. but to him, that was just the cost of living, and it was perfectly normal to be that beat up all the time... it had been his life for 10 years, he didn't know any different. Mostly insane? Most likely.

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[ghost1]

She shook his hand though something was a little off kilter. Though she had away like most jockey's, had an ability to sense these things about their mounts and then they start to sense things around them. Mia had to exersize all of her horses today for a said uncle who decided that she needed to get them all into shape in like a week, cause 2 of the horses where getting ready for the breeders cup and Todd said that he was sending 2 horses for her to train though he warned her that they were terrible horses though he didn't want to waste there stellar blood lines. So they had arrived yesterday their names: Two Timer and Always Wanting more. Al was just mean though todd was right he has great physique. Pulling herself out of her thoughts and back to reality, she noticed that he was indeed looking a little uncomfortable. Let go down to the tack. She needed some help exercising the 7 two year olds she had but it was her job to do it so she was gonna do them all. Turning away from high strung looking stallion, would was looking scared and insane and quiet wild for a moment she realized who the stallion was. Oh My that's nova isn't it? she said turning back to face the other jockey, I bet it is so exciting to ride him!. She said really quickly. Now Anna was getting really impatient and started throwing her head so Mia had no choice but to walk the mare around and down to the track. Anthony would come if he was going to ride and she want'd to see him ride.

[Anthony James Lovasz]

Anthony nodded when the girl suggested going to the track... that had been his plan initially, and he would have assumed that most anyone in the racing barn heading for the exit with their horse all tacked up would be headed to the track... but then again, he hadn't been in Addison that long, so maybe things were different around here. Considering the type of horses Anthony rode, it was a rare occasion when he would be astride a horse that you could do anything but ride on the track, they were typically too high strung for anything else. Every once in a blue moon he would get a horse that could go on a trail ride after a hard workout so they were too tired to do anything against trail etiquette... but that was very rare. As mentioned before, he tended to be attracted to the insane.

He waited for her to go on ahead, making sure to keep a good distance between himself and the other horse so the two equines wouldn't get into anything together, and was about to start forward again when she suddenly stopped and looked back asking if the horse was Nova. Again, he nodded, "The one and only. he said with a smile. Exciting wasn't really the term most people would use to describe what it was like to ride Nova... it was more like life threatening, hazardous to your health, a very very bad idea... take your pick. To Anthony, yes, it was exciting, but he'd been racing horses like Nova since he was 13 and exercising more calm, but still high strung horses since he was 10, long before most people ever set foot in the iron of a racing saddle... so to him the horses that weren't crazy were too much like the ones he rode as a beginner, and quickly got boring, though on occasion he would get a calm but so immensely talented horse that it would still be exciting.... but that too was rare.

He followed after her keeping a good distance between them down to the track. Once at the track, he checked the girth, with some difficulty considering how difficult it was to keep the horse still long enough to check it, then pulled himself up onto the horse's back quickly, getting the reins gathered and his feet in the stirrups before the horse had a chance to react. As soon as his full weight was on Nova's back the fireworks started. The horse jumped sideways and forward, doing his best to rip the reins out of his rider's hands and take off, but as per usual, Anthony had expected such antics and held the reins so tightly that the wild antics were futile. So Nova settled for crow hopping sideways down the track along the outside rail in an irritated manner, his chin pulled nearly to his chest as he fought the hold his rider had on him.

This went on quite a ways down the track and within a short time a sweat and foam had already building up on his coat. He always got himself so worked up right away there was no telling what kind of speed he would have if he conserved his energy for the run. Finally, about a quarter of the way down the track, he yielded to the pull on the rein and straightened out and settled into a relatively controlled trot. Any other horse, Anthony would have brought back to a walk after a tantrum like that, but this was a step in the right direction for Nova and he didn't want to cause another explosion, so he would settle for this... for now.

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[ghost1]

Mounting quickly up on to the grey mare and held on tight what was to be the longest minute of her life. Hosanna bucked like mad and kicked and lashed out. She was always this crazy before practicing. Though never before a race. Lathered with sweat the mare was still trying to get her off her own back when


(wip)