[open] This little world

[Phoenix Zima]

There was never anything as majestic as a friesian stallion running freely across a pasture. His thick neck arched, his long legs stretching out in a perfectly smooth stride as his feathered black hooves struck the ground in a rhythmic gait. Prince Caspian, known more fondly as Casper, was just that horse this morning. He was big, and he was beautiful, proud and imposing, kingly and strong. He was the picture perfect horse for his breed. When he galloped, the ground seemed to shake with the tremendous force applied to it when each hoof struck the earth. His stride was naturally collected, and his headset was naturally held where most dressage horses were trained to hold it. There was a certain majestic elegance about the horse. He looked like the sort of animal that you would see only featured in "Dream Horse" calendars, the ones that you look at and think "that is so edited." But I promise you, the only editor of this horse was God... and Phoenix Zima was the maintainer of the natural beauty of the stallion.

The big horse kicked up his heels as his high spirits showed through. Casper was indeed a beautiful horse, no one would deny that. Suddenly, his hooves stopped in their beat and all four hit the ground at the same time, digging into the earth and bringing him to a sliding stop, his head snapped towards the direction of the barns. For a moment he stood perfectly still except for an excited quivering in his muscles. Then, all of a sudden he started forwards again, only this time picking up his long graceful trot. He moved up to the top of the hill, and stopped there, looking down on the barns, his ears pricked, his brown eyes large and inquisitive as he peered down at the seemingly tiny human standing down at the pasture gate calling him. For a moment he just stood there, as if debating whether or not he was going to come or make her come chase him for an hour before letting her catch him.

Finally, after his indecision was over, he started towards the gate at a high strung walk which quickly became a slow trot before breaking into a full gallop again, his long unruly hair tangling in the wind created by him rushing by. It was beautiful now, but when Phoenix was struggling for hours to get the long hair untangled it certainly wouldn't be so beautiful. She let their manes grow long because it looked better. She was a firm believer in the outside looking like the inside, and in her opinion, her horse was the most beautiful creature inwardly, and his outward appearance should reflect that.. and of course, Casper's most certainly did. As he neared the girl, he slowed to a walk, snorting wildly and tossing his head as he did so. As he stopped in front of Phoenix, a smile creeped slowly onto her face... the sort of smile that no one with the exception of Ice and Casper had ever seen.

Hey there beautiful boy. Phoenix murmured to the horse as she stepped up to him. Even though she was 5'11" the 17 hand horse towered over her, making her look much smaller than she was. As she stepped up to the giant animal, she kept her left hand just slightly out of the horse's view, and reached up with her right, stoking his neck softly, causing him to relax and lower his head to a height where she could reach it. Once he had done that, she quickly and deftly slipped a halter on him, and got it buckled just in time for him to lift his head back up quickly and take two steps back... but it was too late for him. He'd been caught. Casper was still quiet young, and his favorite game was "you can't catch me unless I want you to" so Phoenix had to come up with different ways to catch him every time she put him in the pasture. He learned fast, and she could never use the same method twice in one week.

Casper never fought her once he was caught though. He'd been trained much too well for that. Even though he was plenty big enough to push her around and act up, he wouldn't do it. Besides, Phoenix hadn't really been herself since the accident. At first it had been simply because she thought she had lost Ice... but since Parker had saved the horse instead of signing the papers to have him put down like Phoenix had asked him to, that wasn't her reason anymore. She still couldn't ride Ice, even though he was back. He needed a bit more healing time and rehab before he would be ready for that. Even on Casper though, they hadn't jumped higher than 3' and normally they would jump 4' at least. They had also stayed away from anything vaguely resembling cross-country, and even just on the pole oxers, Phoenix would get quite nervous on the approach. Casper didn't understand any of what was going on, but like any horse, he could tell she wasn't quite right, and so wasn't quite as bad as he normally would be.

You're clever Casper, but not that clever. She said, reaching up and straightening his forelock before giving a light tug on the lead and starting up towards the barn. People generally stayed away from Phoenix, considering her tendency to be unkind towards everyone, so the silence in the barn didn't bother her in the least as they arrived there. She never expected people to come around when she was there, she'd brought it upon herself, and she didn't care. She was deliberately unkind, and intentionally pushed people away. She didn't want anyone to know her, she didn't want to let anyone in. So she pushed everyone away. It was just something that had been a habit of hers since before she could remember. The last thing she wanted was to let someone in just to have them abandon her again. She only had one friend in this world, and that was because he was exactly like her and would never do that to her. He'd been there most of her life, and was like an older brother to her. If anyone asked about her family, she would only tell them that Ice, Casper, and Parker were her family. That was it. Her horses and her only friend... they were the only family she had, and probably the only one she ever would have.

Once she reached the barn, she clipped Casper in the cross ties, and set about with the grooming. First things first... the never ending chore of getting every last snarl out of his mane. It was going to take her forever, but there was nothing she would rather do. These horses were her life, and she would rather spend hours preening them to perfection than sitting in a stuffy class room with a bunch of people who think they're smart. With her horse in front of her, a mane comb in her hand, and her ipod playing somewhat loudly in her ears, Phoenix completely drifted off into her own little world where perfection could, in fact, exist, and she was completely oblivious to the real world. She had all her focus on her horse and the task at hand with perhaps a tiny bit of it on the music in her head... there was no way she was going to notice anyone coming in or going out, not unless they somehow managed to break her concentration... which was nearly impossible. This was Phoenix's life, and she wouldn't change it for the world.

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[<Ryan Wesley>]

Ryan had just finished up riding his blue roan stud colt. The horse was a great horse and had a great future doing something like roping, maybe even more then that. Ryan might even start riding him in reining, cutting, and working cow horse shows. He wasn't much for showing but this horse had the talen to make Ryan some money. The horse didn't have the breeding of a reining horse, but more of a rope ranch horse. But that didn't matter, not to Ryan.

He put the horse in the wash bay after untacking him. He hosed him down and then shampooed the colts mane and tail and scrubbed his body with Equine Solution stuff. Then he rinsed him out and put conditioner in his mane and tail, and washed it out. He combed the mane and tail and grinned. "You look like a girl, with very big muscles." He joked and patted the horses neck. He walked the colt outside to walk around on the hot walker to cool down and dry off, but also to get out of the barn and have fresh air.

He came walking back in and heard a horse's hooves on the cement floor. He grinned and walked around then spotted a horses head, legs, body. And then a girl with her ipod on and combing through the horses mane. He laughed knowing her music was loud so he walked over and just smiled. No way was he gonna get her attention by standing there doing nothing. So he looked at the horse and held out his hand so the horse could smell him. "Aren't you a pretty boy." He said with some of his australian accent.

Now, Ryan was a rodeo cowboy for the most part. He wasn't much for showing but he had a thing for roping and riding bulls. But he loved to watch people ride english. He never will and never would ride english but he was fascinated by the people that did. Especially dressage and jumping. He could watch it all day if he had to and not get bored. Just the thought that the rider and horse had to be like best friends in order to do something and be good was amazing.

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[Phoenix Zima]

People often say that horses are quite alike the human that handles them, and in the case of Phoenix and Casper, it was completely true. Phoenix was an extremely proud girl, and from the way she carried herself and had that high and mighty "I'm so much better than you" attitude, it was quite obvious. Casper was the same way. He was a big and bold horse, he was good at what he did, and he knew it. Because of that he always held himself in a way that you would expect a dominant stallion of Casper's caliber to hold himself. Phoenix was unkind and bitter towards everyone, even Parker. Casper, though not unkind, certainly wasn't the sort of horse to beg for attention and to be petted. Phoenix hated riding below her potential and would never do so deliberately. Casper downright refused to go over any jump lower than 2'6" and no matter what anyone did they couldn't get him over the low ones. Ice on the other hand, was the extreme opposite of Phoenix and Casper. Though still bold as any friesian would be, he was more gentle and sweet than Casper, and would do anything from lead pole classes to jumping the highest level cross country without a complaint.

Phoenix was an English rider through and through. You couldn't get her willingly into a western saddle if her life depended on it. She rode for the first time when she was 10 years old, and it had been English. Since then she'd ridden only English, and had very nearly perfected the art. Western was much too dirty for her taste, and nowhere near elegant enough. In her opinion, if a horse was going to gallop it should be with grace and elegant form, not just flying down the arena at top speed, then slowing drastically to take a turn or whatever else people cared to do in western sports. Some people might contend that an English horse didn't know how to gallop, but from all Phoenix's cross-country experience, she knew that an English horse knew a gallop just as well as any western horse. They just did it with more style. It was like a hillbilly farmer shooting beer cans off a fence with his shotgun compared to a sharpshooter in the Marines.... they both might do the same thing, but one of them did it so much more beautifully.

Phoenix was so concentrated on the thick lock of hair she had in her hands that she never would have noticed the other person just standing there. When she was doing something with her horse you would have to deliberately distract her from the task at hand to get her attention off of whatever it was that she was doing. Casper eyed the stranger mindfully, but didn't exactly acknowledge him. However, when Ryan reached out his hand towards the horse, the large animal lowered his head ever so slightly, inhaling the other human's scent deeply. Normally Phoenix wouldn't have noticed something like that, but as she moved on to the next handful of mane, out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of Ryan. Now, most people would expect her to say hello or something... but no... that wasn't how Phoenix Zima rolled at all. She was completely different than that.

She turned towards him, pulling one ear bud out with one of those unmistakably bitter Phoenix expressions on her face. Can I help you? she asked, not trying to hide the disdain she felt towards the world that always came out in her voice. Odds were she was going to end up being a bitter old hag who everyone hated, but she really could care less. She had learned a long time ago that all she needed to survive was a job and her two horses, and she would be fine... she didn't need anyone else, and as of yet, no one had ever given her a reason to want anyone else. Of course there was Parker... and in some ways he was essential to her survival... but that was just the survival of her sanity... other than that she could get by just fine on her own two feet.

[<Ryan Wesley>]

Can I help you? was all she could say to him... and it wasn't at all freindly so he just looked away a moment and stepped away from the horse. He looked back at her. "No, just admiring your horse. He's well built." He said about ready to leave now. She ruined his mood with her tone. Ya, he was sensitive to peoples moods. His mood changed easily with others moods.

"I will be going now. You have a nice day." He said in his australian accent and gave her a bright smile and walked away. He went to grab his palomino paint filly. He took her and brushed her really good before saddling her up. He smiled and talked to the filly and then bridled her up and took her to an empty arena and got on her and walked her around, thinking. Man, he really wanted to know why that girl was like that. He wanted to help her, but she didn't seem to want it at all.

Could it be that she didn't trust people whatsoever? Maybe a man had done her wrong and made her that way... or alot of men. Was it because she just wasn't freindly and hated everyone? He wasn't sure and it was gonna bug him for a while. He trotted the filly around and collected her and made her do some manuvers good for roping. The filly was fast and athletic, a great rope horse. He moved the filly into a lope and did a couple circles and did a flying lead change when he changed directions. He patted the mare rewarding her.

[Phoenix Zima]

Phoenix hadn't ever been a very nice girl, and that had probably contributed greatly to why she was abandoned so many times. Even when she was a little girl she had just been mean, and a brat. She seemed to have made it her life goal to make everyone around her miserable... and she was good at it. As long as she got what she wanted though, there was nothing to worry about. She would leave you alone if you gave her what she wanted. Problem was, there were only two people who could have given what she really truly wanted, and one of those people was dead, and the other was far away in England and had been one of the ones who had abandoned her.

That one thing that she really wanted was her parents' love. No one knew that was the reason for her acting out... not even Parker. Like every child she just wanted them to be proud of her, she just wanted them to care about her... but like so many children, her dreams were crushed daily. To be perfectly honest, she was envious of the children she saw with their parents. Even if they didn't have the best parents in the world, at least they paid some attention to their children. Phoenix had just been ignored. Sure, they took care of the basics, but they never cared about her grades... they never put the pictures she drew up on the refrigerator...they never had Christmas... and they never saw the tears she cried at night because she wasn't good enough for them. Sure, plenty of other kids had it much worse than she did... she knew that... but out of everything out there... all she wanted was to be more than just a mistake.

About seven years old was when she gave up on trying to impress them and started acting out. Instead of trying to be the good daughter to get their attention when she wanted something, she would demand it, and if they refused, she would just get angry and do things to ruin their dinner parties with important guests. Really though, she didn't want the things she demanded, she just wanted them to notice her. And if being a good kid wasn't going to get their attention, then she was just going to be a brat and make their lives miserable the way they had made her life miserable. Ever since then she had just been snide and unkind to everyone... with the exception of her horses, her cat, and Parker... and she wasn't all that nice to Parker either.

She rolled her eyes slightly when he said he was just admiring her horse and that he was well built. Of course the horse was well built... Casper had perfect conformation in her opinion, and as far as she was concerned, once she got his little quirks ironed out he would be the all around perfect horse. Ice was pretty close to perfect, but he was getting older, and even though he was still an absolutely amazing horse, his youth had come and gone and she had a feeling he would be heading down hill soon. But Casper still had a lot of good years to come, and she didn't doubt that once she got him over his few issues, he would be the best horse out there... possibly even better than Parker's mare Foxy... but then again she was extremely biased.

You too. she muttered as he walked away, sarcasm and mockery just dripping from each sound. It took a lot to impress her or make her like someone. A man had brought her a fresh long stem rose every day for a month, and she'd still been a complete bitch towards him. Whether someone was kind and sweet or uncaring and cruel made no difference. No one had found the key to this girl's heart yet, and it was going to be some time before anyone did. She was complicated in a completely non-complex way. It's difficult to explain and to understand. But good luck to any gentleman who tries to tame this wild girl's heart.

She put her ear bud back in and turned back to Casper's mane, resuming the long and tedious process of freeing the long hair of snarl. The big black horse stood quietly and patiently as Phoenix went about her work. He was used to this, it was almost a daily thing... and on the day of a show she spent even longer making him look perfect. She loved her horses, and she would take any excuse she possibly could to spend more time with them... even if that meant combing and recombing his mane and tail every day. It would never get old for her. Casper and Ice were really the only things she truly truly cared about, and as such she put everything she had into them, and until they passed away, she always would.