(OPEN) Heaven is an icebox

[Daniel Christian Jenner]

It was cold, some would say too cold, but to Daniel Jenner this cold crisp air was heaven. Five years in blazing hot deserts carrying around first aid bandages, ammo, food, hand grenades, MREs, notebook, pens, maps, radio batteries, a mortar round, a belt of 100rds of 7.62mm for the M240B machine guns, more ammo, 2 x 1qt canteens, VS-17 marking panel, small squad handheld radio, flex cuffs, a book to read, more ammo in mags, weapons cleaning kit, phase book of the local language, compass, GPS, and a dozen more things but you get the picture... dressed in long sleeves and pants with a bullet proof vest underneath... well... to him the cold air was as close to heaven as he was ever going to get. Carrying around 90+ pounds of equipment in the desert for five years tended to do that to people.

On this particular cold day he was having a much easier time enjoying life than he did a lot of days. After coming home from the war, making the adjustment back into society was hard. There were so many things that were so vastly different he felt like he was just dropped on a different planet. He encountered a lot of problems along the way too, like being drawn back into those haunting memories of the war which were so vivid that he often believed he was re-living them again. Anything could set it off, fireworks on the fourth of July, a car backfiring, a horse kicking the wall of it's stall, even someone slamming a book closed. Any sound resembling gunfire, no matter how faint, could start the flashbacks. It sometimes got bad enough that any people around him were afraid he'd somehow harm them.

Lately, he'd been more careful about staying away from crowds, just in case, and coming out to the barn when things were less busy and the horses were less ornery. He wanted to have a normal life, unfortunately, this soon after going through what he had it just wasn't quite possible. There weren't a whole heck of a lot of people there at that point, so he figured it was as good a time as any to work with Tuff. The two foals were as much a miracle as he still being alive was. Twins in horses were rare enough, but twins without some major complication in at least one of them was even more rare... then add in their spotted paint coloring that was so close to being identical, well, lets just say that despite the price he might be able to fetch for the pair, he wasn't planning on selling either of them. The mare had struggled a little after their birth, but after a month or two she was right as rain.

Most of his parents horses had been sold, but the twins, their most colorful stallion, and Danny's two favorite mares remained. The five of them were the ones who he just couldn't part with. He'd had offers on the stud, but turned them all down, Noble wasn't for sale. He was greeted by each of the horses in turn as he walked past their stalls. When he came to the last stall which contained the colt, he stopped and took the halter and lead rope off the hook beside the door. As much as he tried not to pick favorites, Tuff's personality made it difficult. The little gelding was such a pushy little bugger when he was with other horses, but when he was around people he was a perfect gentleman. He was a lot like Danny in that way, which was probably why he liked him so much.

It didn't take him long to get the blanket off the horse and take him down to the smallest of the outdoor arenas where they would work on lunging. All of his horses were handled daily from the time they were born, but he would never ride a horse until they were at least three. He'd put a saddle on them as soon around the time they turned two, but he was strongly opinionated on letting horses grow up a little and develop completely before adding that weight to their backs. He figured if you got them into it good and slow and waited until they were ready for it, he would have an easier time of it... and with the recurring pain he had from the shrapnel he'd been hit with, it was always good to take things as easy as possible and get bucked off as little as possible.

He hooked the lunge line to Tuff's halter, and already being well versed in the ways of lunging, the young horse moved out and away and picked up a slightly lazy trot. Despite the lack of effort put into the movement, he was still a wonderful mover. Danny was starting to think he'd make a good hunter, but only time would tell. Tuff's sister, was more cut out for being a jumper as she was slightly more high strung and didn't quite have the freedom in her legs like Tuff did, but that could all easily change as she got older. For now, it was just this sort of work with the little ones, he figured it would give them a better foundation than a lot of horses got. His dad had taught him all these methods years ago, and he was sticking to it. All that "natural horsemanship" "join up" "clinton Anderson" and the like sort of stuff that people were into these days just wasn't for him. Maybe he was old fashioned, but the "old fashioned" way had been working for centuries, so he was just going with what he knew worked.

[hossluver]

Lucy had always preferred cool weather. Bored out of her mind, she decided to take Windsor out for a light ride. As she walked through the chilly air, she smiled. It was so quiet, and peaceful this morning. Windsor walking quietly by her side. As they made their way out to the large, covered outdoor arena, Lucy noticed somebody lunging a lovely looking young appaloosa. A smile played on her lips. She loved appaloosas. Opening the creaky gate, Lucy closed herself in and stopped. She would be riding bareback, and doing some jumping. Bareback was always a good way to get a great workout. Lucy paused, and then, grabbing a handful of her black mane, she swung herself up onto Windsor's back.

Once she had situated herself, she nudged Windsor's sides with her heels and the pair of them walked on. After a few moments of this, she asked her mare for a trot, and Windsor obliged. Posting bareback is probably the most painful thing one can do on a horse. However, because she was a jockey, Lucy had no problem with this. After a few rounds of trotting, Lucy cantered, did some lead changes, a hand gallop, and then a walk again. She was quite pleased with her mare, and allowed her to walk and catch her breath. With nothing better to do, she watched the pair outside in the round-pen. The younger horse was very pretty, and the man lunging seemed to be a good horseman. She watched as he moved the young horse through it's paces.

Windsor snorted and Lucy decided to hop off. She walked around and began setting up some jumps, the tallest, being three foot nine inches. When Lucy was younger, she had often jumped her pony bareback, but her parents had often disapproved...Lucy shook herself mentally. She wasn't going to think about them right now. Windsor followed her, ears pricked, watching Lucy hopefully. When Lucy turned to get back on, she ran right into her horse's nose, and they both jumped. Lucy chuckled, stroked her nose, and hopped back on again.

muse; pretty good
notes; blerrgg......just gotta get it started

[Daniel Christian Jenner]

One way Danny had found that worked best with avoiding flashbacks was to concentrate so hard on what he was doing that he wouldn't even notice a bomb going off behind him. Alright so not really that dramatic, but if he could just focus so much on his horse that he didn't hear all the things that triggered the flashbacks, none of it would be a problem. It had happened once when he was working Noble, and the horse had seemed to sense, in a way that only horses can, that something was very wrong with his rider, and had the good sense to stop and reach back to tug on Danny's pant leg, bringing him out of it. the best way to stop them once they started was physical touch that was by no means agressive, just something that wouldn't take place in a war zone to snap him out of it and bring him back to reality.

They took a lot out of him, these flashbacks, as none of them were pleasant and were so insanely stressful that he often felt like he'd been running through the desert for days without rest and that his head was going to explode. It took a while to "recover" from them, but he was usually right as rain by the next day. Most nights he couldn't sleep, and when he did it was only for a short while before hellish nightmares forced him awake again. When this happened, his solution was to just go run. No matter what hour of the morning, he'd get the old family dog he'd brought with him and run wherever his feet took him. Physical exhaustion, it seemed, was the best solution to shaking the horrors of the memories. If anyone ever doubted the resilience of the American soldier, all they had to do was look at him, and they'd see just exactly what it meant to keep pressing on despite numerous set backs.

After he had worked Tuff for a good 20 minutes, he just let the lunge line drop from his hands to the ground, and the colorful horse stopped, turned towards him, and walked to the center. A lot of people would probably criticize Danny for dropping the rope and letting his horse walk over it where it could easily get tangled around his legs, bit it was an old training thing his dad had done with all his ranch horses. He used to say "no horse a' mine's ever gonna be afraid of some dang rope gettin' wrapped around his legs. What good's a horse if he can't handle somethin so simple as that?"

A lot of the things his dad said had just stuck with him, and though the training methods may have been outdated and mostly intended for working ranch horses, in Daniel's mind a good horse was a bomb proof horse, and he was pretty good at making them that way. Most of the horses he trained turned out to be the kind you could do absolutely anything to and they wouldn't even so much as bat an eye. Maybe they were brave, maybe they were dumb, or maybe they had just been exposed to enough stuff that they just plain old didn't care. Either way, they would all be good horses.

When Tuff stopped in front of him, he picked up the rope and coiled it up, pleased with how calmly Tuff stood while the rope slid through the dirt between his hooves. His sister would've taken off bucking and squealing across the arena if he tried that with her. She definitely got all the spirit, while Tuff got all the personality. He replaced the lunge line with the lead rope and started the horse out of the arena. As he did so, though, he stopped to watch someone in the jumping arena with her horse. it looked to him as if she was planning on jumping her horse bareback, and he was interested in seeing how she would do. He, personally, wouldn't want to jump a horse bareback that big, there were just too many things that could go wrong, but to each their own. He'd seen people jump higher than that bareback and be just fine. To him, though, it just wasn't worth the risk. He'd put his life in danger over seas enough times to last him the rest of his life, and he would much rather just play it safe from here on out.

[hossluver]

post coming soon!

[legallybrunet2tx]

Leighton absolutely hated the cold. She would rather burn in the pit of hell than suffer one day through the unbearable frigidness that presented itself today. The harsh winds were enough to make her cry and retreat to her cozy home with a warming and peaceful fire. The only thing that every got the blonde out of her house during the winter was the fact that her horse's needed excercise. She only succumbed to this because she had such a need for excercise as well. Her daily three mile runs were the only reason she wasn't 300 pounds and counting. Her graceful athletic figure was maintained by workouts, not eating healthy. She had modeled some in the past, but her lack of self control ruined those chances. She wasn't anorexic looking anymore and those are the standards for modeling. Leighton would rather die that do that miserable work again. Now she was doing what she loved and that is all that mattered to her.

The 18 year old bundled up in layers of excessive clothing before getting out of her F-250. The truck's magnificent heater caused her to take off all her layers, but now the bonechilling temperatures deemed them necessary. Her icy blue eyes found the delicate heads of her horses before she even came near them. She smiled to herself and laughed as the three year old Hanoverian did his little jig when he saw her. A whinny pierced the air and she sighed. It was going to be a long ride. She gave her other horse, Necessary Ned, a pat on the nose and promised him a ride later in the day. Hurrah was pulled from his stall and groomed thoroughly before his boots were applied. Leighton looked over at Ned and felt bad for the Quarter Horse. He hadn't been out since yesterday morning. The poor animal was having withdrawals. She shook her head and took out the faithful horse and put on his hot pink halter. Most people made fun of the fact that her four year old gelding wore hot pink, but she loved the way it looked against his black coat.

Leighton hopped up on Hurrah's back. The 17.2 hh horse was a little difficult to get on nowadays, but Leighton managed with mild difficulties. She grabbed Ned's lead rope and the threesome ponied their way out to the arena. Once they arrived, she tied Ned to the railing outside, noticing several other people working their horses. Maybe she could make some friends. Hmm..work now, friends later. The other girl that was riding had also chosen to go bareback. It seemed like the much better option when you couldn't feel your fingers. Leighton shivered involuntarily and gathered up her Hanoverian's body. She moved him easily to the rail and began a slow jog around the arena. She could feel Hurrah's body tensing as he eyed the jumps in anticipation. She forced the big boy to make a few warm up laps before heading him towards the highest of the jumps set up. They were kinda low for the pair, but it would do for now. She eyed the other rider warily and called out, "Mind if I have a go?" She waited for no reply as she lined up. Hurrah was prancing beneath her, anticipating what was to come. The duo glided towards the jump at a collected canter and Leighton picked up the giant beast. Hurrah cleared the jump effortlessly, his gray body landed perfectly on the other side. Leighton laughed and patted the horse's neck softly. "Good boy." She murmured quietly to the animal, proud of his effort.

Leighton could hear Ned's frantic whinnying as a result of their jump. The black gelding tended to get a little jealous when she rode Hurrah and he was watching. She cantered towards the rail and spoke softly to the Quarter Horse, "Calm down, ya big baby." She slid of Hurrah's back and felt his legs for heat. She then tied the giant to the rail and climbed up on the railing to observe the other two people and their horses. She would rather wait till they leave to finish her workout.

character; Leighton Brynne Dodge
horses; Necessary Ned, The Final Hurrah
notes; hope you don't mind if i join xD