(( One Step At A Time)) -OPEN

[lyndsay]

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Lyndsay led Cash out of the barn. The young colt was skittish, flicking his ears in every which direction. He nickered to the other horses, trotting slightly, against Lyndsay's will. He nudged her roughly with his head. Cash, knock it off. She swatted him slightly on the nose, making him throw his head up, his eyes wild. Calm down boy its okay. Cash was hyped up like a hot air baloon today, but Lyndsay wanted to ride him for a bit on barrels. He was still in training, and needed to saddle time. The young colt was considered dangerous. She had only had two rides on him, the most recent, where he didn't rage into a sudden bucking fit. He always stood well when she mounted, and he didn't start flipping out until she asked him to go.

She got Cash to the cross ties and tied him up to be ready to be saddled. She grabbed her brushes and ran over him with the brush, not taking too much time, but enough to get the dirt off his grey/red coat. He moved around, his eyes still wild. Lyndsay didn't even ponder the danger she could be in with the colt acting so wild. He nickered loudly, right in Lyndsay's ear. "Cash! Shut up!" He didn't, of course. He continued to prance around.

Lyndsay growled to herself and went and grabbed her saddle and saddle blanket and threw it on the horses back. He scuttled to the side, not calming down a bit. Lyndsay was getting frustrated. She did up her cinch, put on the back strap and breast collar. Cash was still dancing around, looking at everything and neighing at every chance he got. He was dancing like a dressage horse and Lyndsay was getting extremely upset. She figured she would just lunge him with all his tack on before she rode him. She grabbed his bridal and put it over the saddle horn, and she also grabbed the lunge line and lunge whip. She untied Cash and began to lead him towards the outdoor arena. He was eyeing the whip that she held in her opposite hand. Lyndsay was not in a good mood today. It was about ten o clock in the morning, and her day was not starting off great.

There was nobody in the arena, so Lyndsay and Cash walked right in. She put the bridal on the fence, clipped the lead line to Cash's halter, and began walking towards the center of the arena. The colt was throwing his head up and trying to trot. " Cash, No. " Not that saying 'no' to a large animal really did much use, but she wasn't really thinking about that. She lowered her whip and gave a little bit of slack, and Cash Immediatly took off at a dead run. Lyndsay dug her heels into the sand, forcing the colt in a circle around her. His heels where flailing wildly as he bucked in a circle around her. After a few circles of chaos, he slowed to a trot, then stopped and stared and Lyndsay. She flicked the whip just slightly and clucked to him, and Cash started off at a fast trot. Well this is better than nothing. She thought.

After about ten minutes of no-bucking lunging, Lyndsay led the now somewhat behaving colt to the fence. The barrels where already set up in the arena, most likely from somebody previously running them she figured. She slipped the halter over his neck, and held the bridal over his head, and the bit by his mouth. She stuck her thumb in the cornor of his mouth, rubbing his gums so he opened his mouth and took the bit. He began to roll the snaffle in his mouth as Lyndsay adjusted the straps on his bridal. " Thats my good boy. "

[/b] She rubbed the colt behind the ears and he tilted his head into her slightly. " Now today is going to be a good day for a ride, right?" She could see her breath in the chill air. Cash snorted and shook his head.

Lyndsay grabbed his reigns and pulled his head in to her knee, like she always did while mounting. Her heart rate sped up as the nerves set in, but she tried not to show it at all, because Cash was always a nervous wreck and didn't want to make that worse. Lyndsay was not wearing a helmet or anything, which was not smart when riding a green horse. Lyndsay swung into the saddle, got both feet in the stirrups, and released the colts head. This was only his fourth time ever being ridden, and he still had his 'male pride', which made his attitude only that much worse. The 'stallion to be' was not an easy going horse. He started to toss his head and dance towards the fence, and Lyndsay spun his head around. He continued to dance, and gave a little buck, showing his disontent. [b" One step at a time boy. "[/b] She cooed to him, nudging him forward with her calf just slightly. He kept tossing his head, doing little tiny insignificant bucks. She nudged him again to tell him to lengthen his walk, and the colt took off at a head run bucking.

Lyndsay tried to one reign stop him, but instead went over his head and landed in the dirt. She coughed a few times, the pain surging up her spine. She had broken bones before, and it did not feel broken, she just felt like she needed to lay there for a while, but Cash was running around bucking like a bronc-- and his reigns where dragging in front of him. Despite the pain, she jumped up. She started walking towards her frightened colt, just as what she feared happened- the reigns slipped under one of his legs. Lyndsay didn't want to frighten him, so she walked slowly, cooing to him. Cash was freaking out on his own, and pulled so hard on his reigns that the bridal snapped and just the throatlatch left it dangling over his neck. In the same attempt, he reared up over backwards, luckily landing on his side.

Lyndsay was worried for her horse, who wouldn't stop running and leaving more of a risk of injusry, but also, her pride was injured.

" this is me speaking "[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]
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1063 NUMBER TAGGED ANYBODYTHE STEED DUN IT IN CASH
TEMPLATE PANIC! ITS LAUZ @ CAUTION NOTES This was kinda fun to write.
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[martin]

Like most summer days, it was hot and humid, heat waves could be seen rising from the earth, and most horses and people alike stood around listlessly, praying for a cloud to hide the sun. On days like these, the stable was always quite busy. From bushing horses to going on a trail ride to working in the arena, there were people everywhere you looked. Everyone wanted to take advantage of the nice weather, despite the heat they had all gotten used to. One of those people was Shane Martin... though the ever silent boy was there very nearly every day despite what the weather might be. He knew his horse was hardy enough to endure any weather, and he loved his horse enough to want to be there every day.

Today had been a rather rough day for him. He was often the victim of "bullies" because of his lack of athleticism and shyness. Today was one of those days when he was. There was a group of about ten new guys that were on a constant power trip and enjoyed taking advantage of anyone they could. Shane had managed to avoid them all week, and since today was Friday, he was certain he would be able to get away without getting picked on... unfortunately, he was wrong. He'd stayed away from the parts of town where they were known to hang out for the most part... but apparently they had decided to branch out on this lovely day, they caught up to him. He ignored any and all taunts they called out at his back as he walked down the sidewalk... he was used to taunts... and he couldn't say anything back anyway.

Of course, not knowing that he was incapable of verbal response, the guys were rather annoyed with his silence. They took pleasure out of other people's pain and a verbal response was the best way to tell when they were hitting a nerve... but Shane just said nothing. Finally one of the guys grabbed his shoulder, spun him around, and planted a fist in Shane's ribs, sending the seventeen year old reeling back. Of course, there was still no verbal response or even a sound... sure the pain registered in his expression, but they wanted more than that. Just before they could descend on him though, an older man stepped out of a nearby store, and noticing the rather suspicious group of football player sized guys surrounding Shane proceeded over to ask if everything was alright.

Not wanting trouble, Shane just nodded his response, and after hesitating a moment the man moved on down the sidewalk. Before he was gone from view though, Shane scratched out "the pen is mightier than the sword" on a Post-It Note and stuck it to the leader's chest and slipped past them and down to where he was headed. He knew he'd just pissed them off more, but even though he couldn't talk, he was still a guy, and he took pride in coming out of that with nothing more than an ugly bruise on his ribs... not to mention probably pissing them off even more with what he'd written. So he might have made an enemy... what was one more to add to the list of people who would come after him just because he was different from everyone else? He was used to it, and it had very little effect on him anymore.

He was headed for the stable, like he usually was, where no one would bother him. As soon as the big bay Hanoverian saw Shane a low and boisterous nicker rumbled in the horse's throat in greeting to his silent companion. That adorable smile turned up the corners of Shane's mouth as he stepped up to the horse and placed his hands on either side of the animal's face, conveying through touch what most people would have spoken. Life was a lot harder when you couldn't speak, but he didn't have to worry about that when he was with the horse. Dublin was really the only friend Shane had. He'd been here for several months, but because he was so shy and because he couldn't speak, he hadn't met anyone... of course, he did tend to avoid people occasionally because he never really knew how best to break it to them when they tried to have a conversation with him.

After a moment or two, Shane grabbed the halter and lead rope and slipped the halter on the horse's head, and lead him out of his stall down to the cross ties, where he clipped the horse in and hurried off to go get his brushes. He returned shortly after, and set about brushing the horse's sleek and nearly spotless coat. Dublin was definitely good for Shane, he gave him something to do with his free time that didn't involve having to be social, and he gave him someone to talk to without having to write everything down. Horses tended to understood silence a lot more than they understood words.

Once he was finally satisfied with his horse's appearance, he returned to the tack room again and this time came back with his tack, which, like his horse, was essentially spotless. The two of them almost always looked like they were showing instead of just schooling just because Shane had enough time on his hands to spend it making everything spotless. Dublin stood quietly and patiently as Shane put the saddle on him and tightened the girth. No one would be able to tell that the horse was only four by his temperament. He wasn't quite his full height yet and hadn't totally filled out, but he just didn't act his age one little bit.

Knowing how busy things were this time of day, he was fairly certain that he would have to do some waiting, so instead of putting the bridle on him there, he just slung it over his shoulder and left Dublin's halter and lead rope on and lead him out to the outdoor arena. Because of the horse's young age, he didn't really jump him all that often. He'd taken him to one show where they'd placed something like 6th in the 2'3" hunters, and maybe one or two days a week he'd do some small jumps, but he wanted to take it slow and let the horse mature before jumping into the fray. Today was groundwork, like most days. for the first few years he was just going to show him as a jumper, but once Dublin got older he was hoping to get into eventing and knew that the groundwork would pay off well for dressage... and everything else too... though Dublin was already so good it hardly seemed like he needed it.

Just as the pair arrived at the arena, the horse currently within took off throwing some pretty impressive bucks in every stride or two, successfully unseating his rider. The girl landed fairly hard, but was up fairly quickly. That had to have hurt, but her horse was practically panicking. As much as he would have liked to help, he knew all too well that getting involved could only make things worse. Despite the drama within the arena, Dublin still stood quietly, seemingly uninterested in participating in the chaos. He watched the other equine with mild interest, as if confused as to what the other horse was doing. Shane had fallen off plenty of times, but whenever he did, Dublin just stopped and looked back at him as if wondering what in the world he had jumped off for, and his simple animal mind just couldn't comprehend why this other horse would be acting so strangely.

The young horse's wide eyes followed the other horse for a few moments in silence before letting out a questioning nicker of sorts. Other than that and a slight bob of his head, he remained still, standing quietly beside Shane, always a gentleman. There was no doubt Dublin would be a fantastic horse, even if he didn't ever really amount to anything great in the show ring. He was just so honest and patient... he was the perfect horse for Shane, and he would probably never part with the animal, no matter how old and incapable of anything he became. They were one of those once in a lifetime pairs.

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