dear agony, just let go of me [open]

[Audrey Hunter]

Audrey walked confidently towards the western arena, Sanderson towed behind her, his hooves clomping on the gravel path towards the gate. She pressed his nose away from the back pockets of her jeans, tapping his hanging lower lip to make him stop nudging her. The horse snorted, pressing his muzzle into her open hand. Audrey sighed and stroked his cheek, tapping his neck absently while she stood, thinking of what she was going to do with the animal.

"What're we doing today, Sand...What are we doing..." Audrey thought aloud, unlocking the arena gate and pulling Sanderson inside, making him halt and stay before shutting the gate again. Audrey walked over to her horse, checking the girth of his new barrel saddle, knowing that he blew out whenever she tacked him up. Case of One-X stood still quietly, flicking his tail back and forth to ward off flies. As soon as Audrey was finished, she pushed the mounting block to the far corner of the arena and walked back over to Sanderson's left, mounting him without help. Checking her stirrups, the eighteen year old giggled upon her horse, pulling her cowboy hat on and checking the straps that hung, tapping the top to make sure the helmet part of it was still intact.

"Alright, Sanderson...walk on." She mumbled quietly to the barrel horse, nudging him gently with her heels. He obeyed immediately, moving smoothly underneath her. Audrey grinned, loving the feel of being upon her horse. Looking towards the center of the ring, from being on the rail, Audrey noted that there was many cones set up in a line.

"Guess we can try pole bending today, Sanderson. How about that?" Audrey asked, literally to no one but her horse. Sanderson snorted in a reply and Audrey chortled to herself. After a few minutes of warming him up, Audrey nudged him again and got him into a small jog, the more bouncy gate moving slowly and barely kicking up the dust in the arena. She reined him to the left and weaved through the cones in a serpentine pattern, pushing him on to get a more forward motion from the seventeen year old male.

Time for something more fun... Audrey thought quietly, pushing Sanderson back to the rail and moving counter clockwise around the arena. The western instructor lifted up her inside rein, to move the horse's shoulder, then kicked with her outside leg. Sanderson snorted but moved into a smooth canter, not wanting to be moving fast so early in the morning but since Audrey was making him do so, he had to obey. Audrey smiled and loped around the ring, watching the outside incase an audience of some sorts gathered at the arena's fence. She knew, from experience in her younger years, that a lot of people liked watching her ride.

Word Count;; 479 !?
Tagged;; This is open!
Notes;; Gasp. I typed a lot.
Muse is quite high!
Inspiration;; Dear Agony - Breaking Benjamin

[Shane Martin]

Like most Spring days, it was rather cool outside, and the grass was still wet with last night's rain. Unlike most spring days in Montana though, the sky was as clear as could be, the brilliant blue sky and the rocky mountains were clearly visible in the bright sunlight. On days like these, the stable was always quite busy. From bushing long blanketed 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 wet grass. 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 at school. Even though he was a senior, 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 had gotten kicked out of their last school and sent here, and they were already starting a reign of terror. Shane had managed to avoid them all week, and since today was Friday, he was certain he would be able to go all five days without getting picked on... unfortunately, he was wrong. He'd stayed away from them all day, but as he was heading to math class... the last class of the day, they caught up to him. He ignored any and all taunts they called out at his back as he walked down the hall... he was used to them... 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 eighteen 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, a teacher came down the hall, 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 teacher moved on down the hall. 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 his math class. 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.

As soon as school was out, he made a beeline for the parking lot to avoid another confrontation, and headed for the stable, where no one would bother him. As soon as the light bay mustang 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. He had named the animal Rubik's Cube, because for the period of a year and six months when he didn't have a horse, he had spent the majority of his free time figuring out the Rubik's Cube because he had nothing better to do. The horse had gotten rid of the need to do such horribly boring things as teach yourself how to solve a Rubik's cube.

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. It was only Rubik's second week of actually jumping, and although he seemed to enjoy it, he was still unsure and not as fluid in his movements as he could be. Sure, he could ride the horse around bareback easily, but trying to teach a mustang to jump elegantly was a whole different story. He returned shortly after, and set about brushing the horse's sleek coat which was currently caked with dirt. Rubik was definitely good for Shane, he gave him someone to talk to without having to write everything down. Horses understood silence a lot more than they usually understood words.

When he had finally gotten all the mud off the horse, which took quite a bit of time, he removed the cross-ties, and simply lead the horse out of the barn down towards the practice arenas, just to see what was going on. Rubik needed to get used to lots of activity around him. He was accustomed to the goings on of the stable, but not so much activity in the ring. There wasn't much going on today, but there was a rider in the western ring, weaving in and out between the cones that were set up.

He lead the horse over to the arena, and stopped, leaning against the outside fence. The girl was one of the western trainers, he knew that... but he didn't really know her name. Most of the staff knew about his... condition... but not all of them. He always hated trying to explain that to people. It just made life so difficult for him, but maybe she already knew, he could only hope.

[/size]