a whisper && a wish ;; [OPEN]

[Shalane [BARCELONA]]

The girl rode into the outdoor arena. The steel gray mare beneath her looked wild. Brown eyes rolled slightly in frustration or fear and already she was lathered in a fine layer of sweat. The girl who rode her looked professional, her legs sheathed in a pair of beige breeches, slip-on knee high English boots over her feet. She wore a loose fitting long sleeved purple shirt, and her black hair was pulled back in a ponytail low on the nape of her neck, a black helmet on her head. On Bailey or Kadri she wouldn't have bothered, but she simply didn't trust Spider.

The mare was an off the track Thoroughbred. Her pedigree was apparent in her stature, clearly Thoroughbred, and also in her heigh. The steel gray mare stood at least 16 hands. She looked stressed and the girl heaved a slight sigh as she brought the mare up to the gate. Spider snorted and shook her head impatiently. The girl shifted her weight and the mare side-passed over to the gate. Shalane shifted her hold on the reins to a one handed grip and leaned over to unlatch the gate. The pair did manage to sidle through and get through and get the gate closed. With a satisfied sort of nod, the raven-haired girl collected her reins, sitting straight and tall on the horse's back, and sent her into a trot with a firm leg and a loud cluck. The mare settled into a long, lengthy trot. With a slight shake of the reins, the mare collected, tucking her nose into the vertical and arching her neck slightly.

Smiling, Shalane clucked and nudged again. The horse's ears flattened, and her eyes flashed. She wrung her tail with a firm snap kicked her heels, but then did settle into a lengthy canter, covering a good amount of ground, and looking a little out of control. With a shake of her head, Shalane choked up on a rein and swung the mare into a tight circle. With a snort and another flattening of her ears, the mare cantered in a tight little circle. Slowed down now, Shalane let the mare out into a more collected canter. "There's a good" she breathed. The mare tossed her head, fighting the bit. It was soon apparent why the mare was already sweating. Her rider was the quiet sort, not the kind of rider who hit her horse around or anything. She sat calmly and quietly throughout all of the mare's antics, keeping herself and her seat and her hands quiet, trying to settle the mare a little bit. Obviously the mare refused to be settled.

Eventually the girl brought the mare down to a stop and asked her to back. With a snort, the mare did so, her neck arched looking thoroughly ticked off, but she did back. The girl swung off and looped the reins over her arm. With a snort, the mare followed as the girl went about setting up a jumping course. She didn't set any of them up over three feet. The mare was high strung anyway and she hadn't been worked in quite a long time, what with moving and all, and today she was just wild. Shalane could feel her, her muscles just coiled like she was ready to explode, and she was. The girl shook her head thoughtfully as she set up her course. She'd tried numerous different ways to get the mare to quiet down and settle a little bit, but, obviously, none of them had worked. She heaved a sigh and shook her head as she remounted and then swung on with an easy grace. The mare snorted, half rearing when Shalane's leg was half way over. She snorted and jumped forward. With a gasp, Shalane grabbed onto the short black mane and jammed her butt into the saddle. She grabbed at her reins and hauled back. She sat deep in the saddle with only one foot in the stirrup and the mare was spinning in a tight circle as Shalane brought her head around. Still, the girl didn't look unbalanced at all, nor at all uncomfortable. The mare, finally, stopped, snorting and lathered, and the girl rubbed her hand over the wet neck before slipping her toe into her stirrup. She brought the mare into a canter and circled her jumps, calm and cool, and then angled the mare at the first jump. Without a hitch, the mare snorted and popped over the jump without incident.

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word count; 754
tags; none
notes; none

[[! caleb holm ]]

A Honda Civic, baby blue in color, slowly stopped in the stable's parking area. The driver swiftly turned of the engine, its soft purr turning into silence. Nashi moved to gather her things, which consisted of two bags. One was an ordinary backpack, small and green in color. Its contents included a water bottle, energy bars, her cell phone, and two baggies full of her horses' favorite treats: apples and carrots. The other bag was black and boxy in shape - it was holding something much more fragile and valuble. Nashi unzipped the back and pulled out a camera. Besides her horses, it was one of Nashi's most valued possesions. It was professional looking, therefore expensive. It had taken many days of pleading to get her parent's to buy it - of course, she had to pay the majority of the heafty price, along with the various zoom atachments she wanted. But that large chunk of her money had gone to good use - Nashi took her camera with her to about everywhere and was even planning on being a photographer on the school's newspaper.

Nashi exited her car, both her bags placed carefully over her shoulder, and she used a lightly tanned hands to smooth the fabric of her navy blue long sleeved shirt, which was tucked into pale beige riding pants and she wore her tall riding boots. She looked very slender and slight, as she always does, and the soft skin of her cheeks seemed to have a perment rosy undertone that darkened to brilliant shades of almost crimson when she got embaressed, which was frequently. But now, her soft chocolate brown eyes were wide with the same awe she had wore the first time she had come to Autumn Hills. The surrounding land was beautiful, especially with such brightly and vividly colored trees in the background, and fields full of horses. Nashi itched to get her camera back out and to start snapping away, capturing the view forever. But she would wait until later - she noticed a rider in one of the arenas and expected it would look quite odd to see a random Asian girl taking pictures.

So, she continued on to the stable, feeling very anxious to see her two horses. They had been just dropped off two days ago, transported gratefully by her dressage coach at her previous stable. The fact that he too made this stable change was both encouraging and comforting. As Nashi stepped inside the large stable, she marveled at the beauty of the horses inside. A few nickered, some looked pitifully over their stall doors - trying to look hungry. But her gaze was only for a pair of creamy heads peering out at her, side by side. Nashi couldn't really say why she was drawn to Haflingers, but it was very clear she loved the breed as her gelding and filly were both Haflingers. Her gelding, Tainted Love (Tay), was more sturdy and solid looking then her doe-like filly, Sunny Days. Tay was also darker in color, his deep palomino coat contrasting his white mane and tail in a way that has often been described as "fire and ice". Sunni was a light creamy color, her mane still silky like a foals.

Nashi ran her hand over Tay's soft, velvet-like muzzle and gave him a soft kiss on the nose. She laughed as he snorted and she backed away to put her bags in the tack room and to grab one of her saddles, the english saddle, a pad and a snaffle bit. She didn't tack up Tay, however, since she despertly needed to ride Sunni, who was still inexperienced. Usually Nashi liked to take her time tacking up, but she hurried as much as she could without being hasty, eager to ride her dear filly again. Thankfully Sunny didn't fidget much, like she used too when she was first broken in a little less then a year ago. When the filly was ready, Nashi quickly slipped a halter and lead rope on Tay so that she could take him out to the fields while she rode. It was long before she was releasing the gelding into a paddock, watching the sun glint beautifully on his deep palomino coat before she led Sunni over to the arena. Since there was a rider, a girl about her age on a beautiful gray mare, Nashi hesitated at the gate. She knew she had to call out to the other girl since it would be very rude to just waltz inside. Taking a breath, Nashi waited until the rider had finished jumping before speaking. "um, excuse me? Do you mind if I ... um, ride in, er, here as well?" Her cheeks flashed pink in horror at the stumbling in her speech - Nashi just wasn't good at talking with people.

[Shalane [BARCELONA]]

Shalane let the mare circle around the next jump. She sat deep in the saddle, collecting the mare from the lengthy stride she would have needed to get over thew ide jump. She offered an encouraging smile as the girl, c learly shy, stumbled over the sentence. Shalane had never had problems with being shy. She'd always been the outgoing, life of the party sort, and she still was. She could talk with anyone, anywhere, under pretty much any circumstances. So of course, she didn't really understand being shy, but she could feel bad for those who were. She couldn't imagine being shy around people. She just loved them to much.

Spider threw in a buck, simply because she knew Shalane wasn't paying attention, and the girl rolled blue eyes, working the bit gently in the mare's mouth to get her back under control. She brought the mare to a trot, then a walk, loosening her reins slightly, trying again to get the mare to relax. "I don't have a problem with it if you don't. Enter at your own risk, though" she rolled her eyes. "Miss Loco here can get a bit crazy, obviously." She shook her head at the mare's antics as the big gray tossed her head, jittering to the side until she was almost two-tracking across the arena. "Spider, dear, that would be really amazing if I had asked you to do it. But since you're just being a butt about it, it's really not acceptable." She shook her head, pushing the mare onto the rail again.

"Oh, I'm Shalane, by the way" she called over her shoulder to the smaller girl with the little Haflinger pony. "Loco here is Aracnophobia. But we call her Spider or Spidey" She smiled, nodding slightly.

The mare was a handful, but she was a good jumper. That thought brough S halane back to the jumps she had set up, and she angled the big gray mare at the jump again. "Here we go, girl" she murmured quietly, and the mare flicked back an ear to catch the girl's words. She popped over the jump without incident, and lengthened out to go over the second jump. Shalane smiled, patting the horse's neck firmly. "That's a girl. See, that wasn't so bad, was it? We do fun stuff when we saddle up, occasionally. Maybe you don't think so..." She shook her head. People in the past had called Shalane crazy for talking to her horses, but, with Bailey and Kadri anyway, it really did get them to settle down. Spider tended to be a totally different story, but right now the mare did seem to have quieted a little, her ears even flicking back for a moment to catch the sound of Shalane's voice. It was a small thing for most people, a granted that hteir horse paid attention to them like that, but for Spider, it was practically a break through.

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word count; 491
tags; Nashi
notes; Sorry. It's not very long. I'm a little dead on muse, currently. :/