The Perfect Way To Release Some Stress

[Alia Landon]

Finally she had arrived at pinewood after a few minor set backs. The black Mercedes pulled into the stables, the car stopped and out stepped a girl in a polo and riding pants, her hand ran through her dark hair before dusting her pants off and fixing her shirt. She was excited to finally see Whisper and Manhattan. She quietly sighed and walked into the stable. Alia never liked being the new girl people always judged and never made an attempt to come up and get to know you. quietly she walked down the aisle, noting that there were a fair amount of horses here that made her worry a bit. Alia took a deep breath in and then let it go just like she did right before a big three day event.

She should be use to all the people and nice looking horses after all she was coming from one of the best eventing stables. A soft wicker caught her attention and she knew right away who it was, hey sweet boy. She smiled and turned to face the dark bay stallion who had now swung his head over the stall, the smile never left her face she had been so stressed out the last couple of weeks with modeling and trying to get settled here all at the same time. Its wonderful to see you two have settled in nicely. She quietly stroked Whispers face, deciding who she wanted to ride. Alia decided to ride whisper, grabbing his purple halter she slipped it over his face and buckled it. Clipping the lead rope on she opened the stall door and led him out.

Next time girl, she spoke softly before handing the mare a treat and then turning back to Whisper and getting him clipped into the cross ties. Alia walked to the tack room grabbing his dressage saddle, bridle, pad and grooming box. It was true that she was not going to work him that hard today seeing she just needed to relax before she got called back to work. With another sigh she walked out and set everything down next to Whisper, You ready to work boy? She ran her hand down his neck and set to work grooming. After a good 45 minuets of grooming and untangling whispers tail he was ready to be saddled.

Alia put the white pad across his back and then swung the saddle over his back making sure to adjust it so it sat just right. Reaching under him she grabbed the girth and tightened it, the bridle was next and Whisper took it like a champ. Turning him she led him to the arena and not once did he get excited. Lowering the stirrups Alia checked to make sure everything was tight before mounting Whisper and walking him around the ring. Nice and easy today boy. She patted his neck and picked up a trot and extend it half way through.

Once good and warmed up she picked up a canter, she was not to worried about Whisper doing anything stupid because he knew what was expected of him. Slowing him back down she allowed him his head and to go were ever he pleased, today was a fun and relaxing day, she just wanted to forget work and moving and just have some fun. Alia watched as Whisper bent his head and looked at her, like he was trying to figure out why they were not working? Silly boy I think we need a nice trail ride. She smiled and patted his neck she would stay in the arena for now but in fifteen minuets or less they would head out on a trail ride, Alia picked up the reins and moved him onto the rail and asked for a trot, begin to do some basic dressage moves with a sigh she put him on a diagonal and set to work.

[austin]

Vodka... how the hell did you manage... never mind, don't answer that question, I actually don't want to know. Yes, in case you were wondering, Austin Gaines was talking to his horse as if it were capable of understanding what he was saying... and yes, he was rather far from being sane... or so they said in an attempt to explain his strange behavior. Truth was, Austin was perfectly sane... he just didn't allow himself to be bound by the "unspoken" societal laws that people always said were there just not written. In fact, Austin didn't even allow himself to be bound by the written laws either... but considering his job... it was sort of legal for him to engage in illegal activity. Anyway, as I was saying... Austin didn't give a damn what people thought of him, he was Austin Gaines, not some other person... and if that other person was going to judge him for the fact that he wasn't like that other person... then screw them.

Alright so, he was a little bit crude... but like I said, he didn't care what people thought, and it was rather obvious. He wasn't the sort of person who liked to blend in with a crowd... and he most certainly didn't blend in at all. His house was huge, had an out door pool, a home theater, a hot tub, a pool house, a dock house, and a computer person's dream of a lab. His car was literally lime green and stood out like a sore thumb, especially with all the features it had like an underglow and stuff like that. His horses were named after alcoholic drinks... Vodka on the Rocks, and Absinthe. He was 6'1" and every bit a California boy, not to mention nearly a millionaire and only 20 years old. His dog was a hyper active terrier that surfed, and his cat was a temperamental tabby that probably weighed about 20 pounds. Nothing about Austin or his life was "normal" by the standards society had set.

He was no doubt unique. At first people seemed a bit unreceptive of how different he was from everyone else, but it never seemed to take them long to warm up to him. He was the singularly most happy go lucky person on the face of the earth, and there was just about nothing you could do to upset him to the point that that ridiculous jovial grin would disappear from his face... in fact, at this point in his life, there were only about three times in his life that the smile had gone... those times all involving the only two serious relationships he'd ever had in his life, and those times hadn't lasted more than a few minutes before the smile returned. He enjoyed life to the fullest, and in his opinion that was the way it should be. You were supposed to have fun in your life, why would you want to sit around and be all boring and gloomy?

Well, he had certainly accomplished not being boring or gloomy. He worked as a computer hacker for the government... which basically meant they were paying him way too much money to keep him from hacking them and selling the information to hostile countries. He bought his girlfriend an island for absolutely no reason except that he had too much money and not enough things to spend it on. He could ride at an Olympic level, but he didn't like the English riding "get up" on men, and so wouldn't compete. He did random things that were completely out of the ordinary for no reason whatsoever all the time, and he had no explanation for why. The way he saw it, he was only getting on chance at life, so he wasn't going to waste time coming up with reasons for the ridiculous things he did when he could be out doing more ridiculous things during that time that he would be wasting. A simple concept really... it just sounds complicated.

Anyway, when Austin had pulled up at the stable, Vodka was out of his stall just standing in the shade of the barn grazing on the grass there. The horse was an escape artist, and it seemed that there was no lock that men could create that would keep the horse in his stall when he wanted to be out of it. One of these times someone's going to see you and I'm going to get in trouble for that... do you have any idea how hard it is to keep my record clean without you trying to mark it up? Vodka seemed to be ignoring Austin, and just continued grazing contently. He shook his head, and sighed Alright alright... lets get going Vodka. He said, at which the horse's head shot up, and he trotted on his own will into the barn, and positioned himself perfectly in the cross-ties, knowing that "lets get going Vodka" meant they were going for a ride, and that was without contest, his favorite thing to do in the whole wide world.

Austin followed the horse into the barn, and made quick work of the grooming and tacking. Before taking the horse out though, he went down to the stall of the white mare Absinthe, and lead her out as well, then brought both of the horses out of the barn. It wasn't hard for him to mount the bay thoroughbred, considering the horse was only about 16 hands, and Austin was 6'1". He looped Abbi's lead rope over her neck, and turned Vodka towards the trails. The path there was took the trio over past the English ring, where they stopped for a moment, watching the horse and rider there. Vodka was an amazing jumper, but he simply could not handle dressage. He was more into the excitement of jumping than the grace of dressage, and Austin felt the same way. He didn't know what Abbi could do as the mare was still recovering from a lifetime of abuse which had nearly paralyzed her for life, and he had yet to be able to ride her and find out what she liked.

Of the two horses, Abbi was definitely more friendly, and let out a friendly whinny towards the horse in the ring, but kept her place beside Austin and Vodka. Oh come on Abbi... Austin said, shaking his head, what have I told you about talking to the guys while they're working... it's not nice to distract them and get them in trouble. The mare looked over at Austin when he said her name, making it appear as if she understood what he was saying. They were a unique trio, but one that people tended to love hanging out with. They sort of made for the comic relief in a world that took everything much too seriously.

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[Alia Landon]

She rolled her eyes as Whisper missed yet another step and tossed his head. Whisper seriously can you not focus for five minuets. She sighed and brought him to the rail and asked him to cross to the right but once again missed the step but instead of tossing his head he kicked out. Alia rolled her eyes again and held back from yelling at him, Manhattan is teaching you bad habits. Alia stopped him and backed him before allowing him to go forward and repeated what she had done before but with the same results. What is your problem, you know what never mind. She huffed and cantered him around the rail. Manhattan and Whisper were great horses, graceful yet power houses makeing them good at jumping and cross country.

Alia’s life was hectic there never seemed to be a dull moment. With modeling taking up almost half her time and riding and competing the other half of the time and when she could finally relax well it really was not relaxing seeing there was so much to do around the house like laundry and cleaning then Rio needed to be walked and by that time she was so exhausted she normally just went right to bed. She sighed just thinking about all of it made her tired, Rio was in his own category the extremely energetic, hyper crazy six month old yellow lab who literally took you out at as soon as you entered the door. If you were not prepared for it you were going down hard.

She was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of another horse, she started hoping that he was to going to act up, Whisper came to a sudden halt ears pricked toward the new horse and he began trotting over to the new horse, oh no you don’t, Alia pulled on the reins and he stopped lowering his head and waiting. She sighed we are going to get Manhattan and then maybe you can go see the new horse she gave the guy a smile and turned Whisper toward the stable. Once near the door she dismounted and grabbed Whispers reins and led him to the mares stall. Her bay head hung over the stall and Alia stroked her face clipping the pink lead to her halter. Alright you two lets please behave today. That was mostly directed to both horses but the one who ever caused the most trouble was Manhattan.

Leading them out she mounted Whisper again and draped Manhattans led over Whispers neck, making sure to take part of it in her hand. Whisper decided to take things in his own hand and called out to the mare, Whisper let her be. The stallion wanted nothing to do with Alia or Manhattan and started to walk toward the other horse, she stopped him when they were close enough, sorry about Whisper he’s weird sometimes oh im Alia and this is Whisper and Manhattan, we are new here. She smiled and stroked Manhattans face, the mares eyes closed and Alia fixed her forelock, braiding it before going back to stroking her face, silly girl she spoke softly toward the mare. Alia was forgetting about home for now but home also held a different meaning for Alia one of starting over and fresh, forgetting the past was a big part of this move.

Some may wonder way she may ever want to start fresh that’s simple really. It has only been a year sense she and her serious boyfriend broke up and it was an ugly brake up. They had been living together for three months and they fought a lot. He was a huge jerk and never treated her right and to think she almost had his child but it would have been an accident. Alia shuttered thinking about it made her feel sick, like she wanted to throw up. The whole time she had not realized she was looking down, she looked up at him and gave him a apologetic smile.

[austin]

Because Austin didn't care what people thought of him, he wasn't afraid to do anything. He was well known for bending rules to the point that he broke them... but he managed to never get in trouble for it somehow. No one was quite sure how he pulled it off... but most people stopped trying to figure it out after a little while. While Austin certainly didn't appear to be the smartest guy on the planet, he was probably one of the most intelligent and conniving people out there. If there was a problem facing him that he couldn't fix... he'd find a way to weasel around it and avoid the problem all together.

As far as intelligence went, Austin had it. Not only did he have photographic memory, he also had othographic memory. When he saw something, it was permanently in his head, when he heard something, it was permanently in his head. He could read a book, then write the whole thing out word for word a week later. He could listen to a speech and three weeks later recite the entire thing by memory. Once he'd heard something or seen something, it would always be there, and because of that, in only 20 years, Austin had conjured up incredibly vast amounts of information that he would probably retain for years.

Of course, there was a good chance he was going to go insane someday because of everything he knew, and it was bound to just overload eventually, and when it did, no one doubted he would go insane. There was also a good chance that he would end up with Alzheimers and would forget everything he knew now... but that was only if he managed to live to be that old. With everything he did, odds were he'd be one of those guys who died young because he was a rather heavy drinker and smoker, and with all the ridiculous things that he did odds were if the smoking and drinking didn't kill him, he would do it himself.

Austin was crazy, yes, but oh so lovable. He was the sort of guy who you just wanted to hug. He may have been 6'1" and built the way a jock would be... he was one of those guys who would cheer you up whenever you needed it, and since he wasn't shy at all, he had no problem with just sitting down with someone and putting his arm around their shoulder and let them cry on him. Of course, since he was currently seeing someone and she was pregnant with his baby, it would never become more than just friends, but still, he could be the best friend anyone could possibly have.

He was slightly confused when the girl just walked on by without a word and disappeared into the barn, but he shrugged it off. Just as he was about to turn to leave, she came back with a second horse... which didn't help his confusion any, but it didn't really matter to him too much. Abbi was as friendly as ever, bobbing her finely shaped head towards the other two horses. Vodka was being his typical stuck up self and was completely ignoring the other two horses. He was definitely a brat... but from everything Austin did for both of his horses, it was a wonder that they weren't both brats.

Austin he said with a smile and a nod, and these two are Vodka and Absinthe. Most people found it quite amusing that a 20 year old had horses named after alcoholic drinks. Generally they assumed Austin had a fake ID or something to get his alcohol... but really, no one really cared if Austin was 21 or not. They just let him in. Usually it was because Austin fixed some sort of electronic something or other of theirs and they "owed" him for it... and if it wasn't that, it was just because he was a good friend, and no one was too concerned about Austin getting drunk and doing something that would hurt other people. He was pretty responsible for a 20 year old. Welcome to Pinewood. Austin added when she said she was new here.

Vodka was still ignoring the other horses, while Abbi continued bobbing her head towards the other horses, but kept her feet on the ground where she was standing. She was a well trained horse, and always willing to please, and would do whatever Austin asked her to. He had trained her to operate on voice commands when he looped the lead over her neck and had no control over it, and one thing she had learned quite well was to not go anywhere unless he told her she could. She was still rather thin, each of her ribs showed slightly still, and her hips poked out a bit, as well as the scars from previous abuse, but overall she was about 100 times better off than when he had bought her. How in the world the biggest computer nerd there was managed to get into horses was beyond most people, but he loved them just as much as he did working with computers. This was his life, and he was enjoying the best of both worlds.