The wind in my hair... The sun on my skin

[breeze]

Lexie rode along the soft sandy beach, it was spring and seemed like a warm enough day for an outing like this. She wore a skin tight baby blue spagetti top that exposed the skin of her stomach, her belly button peircing glinted in the sun, and the white diamonds stood out against her tanned body. Her legs were covered by a pair of old faded jeans, cut just above her knees. She laughed and tilted her head back, her dark curls flying behind her like a flag, she loved the feeling of connection between her and Blossom, her mare. With no saddle to come between them, they worked even better together if that was even possible. Blossom's colt Fire ran beside them, like a puppy he stayed by their side, never wondering to far without coming running back to them.

[Anthony Lovasz]

The strong spring wind blew in across the water, battering the shores with it's gentle fury. The sun shone brightly over the sand and stone, creating a brilliant glare of light that left the beholder somewhat mesmerized by it's radiant light. The beach was relatively quite today, which was a rare occurrence, though it would undoubtedly get busier as the days became warmer and more people thought it a good idea to take a trip down to the beach.

This time of year was perfect for Anthony Lovasz though. The way he saw it, the fewer people out there the better it was. He stood, leaning slightly against a large rock, just looking out over the sand and water, letting his mind wander off to nowhere in particular. He had a lot of free time lately, more than he knew what to do with. He was a jockey, and usually rode in at least one race a week, but not now. Oh no, now he was confined to the ground, a torture to endure for him.

Just two weeks ago he'd been in a race, and after beating the favorite by a nose, had been knocked into the rail, and his mount had come down on top of him. I don't know about you, but I son't know a soul who could get up after being crushed by a 12,00 pound animal without some sort of damage done. And do Anthony hadn't. He'd walked away alright, with the help of the horse's trainer, but was sporting two broken ribs, a broken arm, and a nasty cut to his leg. He had refused the help of a doctor, and had simply put a light brace on his arm to help with the mending. Nothing more.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by the sound of a horse's hooves pounding down the shore towards him. He looked back from the horizon and towards the oncoming equine. It wasn't strange to see someone riding on the beach, though it had been so quiet before he hadn't expected it now. He smiled slightly as girl mare and colt raced down the beach together in perfect tandem. Oh how he would have like to be riding at that moment instead of standing around doing nothing. Ah well, there wasn't anything he could do about it. Riding would only make the injuries worse than they already were, and he wasn't about to risk causing permanent damage and never being able to ride again.

[breeze]

Lexie noticed something out of the corner of her eye that caught her attention, she looked over her shoulder to see a boy leaning against a nearby rock. She stopped her mare Blossom and turned her around, Fire galloped a bit ahead then slid to a stop and ran back towards them. The girl pushed a dark lock out of her face, with a smile, she slid off of Blossom's back and landed almost silently. She walked towards the boy and stood before him, the equines trailing behind her like ducklings, "Hello," she said still smiling. She folded herself into a cross legged position and looked at him intently, her horses walking off to graze nearby.

[Anthony Lovasz]

Anthony watched silently as the girl turned her horse and came back towards him. He made no attempt to move from his current position as she neared. One of the ribs he'd broken had punctured his lung a bit, and breathing hurt like crazy, moving only made it worse. Call him stubborn, but he wasn't about to go get that seen to by a doctor. He'd be just fine on his own, and didn't need some doctor prodding around making things worse and then prescribing some drug that would screw up his system even more.

"Afternoon." He said in response to her greeting, his voice lilted with a Spanish accent. He'd lived most of his life in Mexico, and spoke fluent English and Spanish. He couldn't help but unconsciously combine the two, it just came naturally. Most people would have lost their accent after being this many years in the States, but he hung out with other jockeys, most of whom spoke Spanish in some form, and so the accent stuck.

[breeze]

Lexie heard a series of winnies and looked startled towards the pair of equines, only to see Fire trying to suckle and Blossom refusing. She rolled her eyes and looked back at the boy, whom she still didn't know the name of, "Lexie," she said with a smile, brushing back another dark stray curl. The boy seemed pain, but obviously he was injured, so there wasn't really anything she could do about it except.... She pulled an asprin bottle out of her purse, "Here," she said holding it out to him. She wondered how he injured himself, but didn't ask if he wanted to tell her, he would.

[Anthony Lovasz]

Despite the obvious discomfort caused by the broken bones and other such injuries, a smile still donned Anthony's face. He wasn't going to let an accident mess up his life. Besides, he'd basically brought it on himself being a jockey. Accidents were to be expected as were broken bones. He looked away from the two horses and back to the girl as he heard her speak her name. "Nice to meet you Lexie," he said in reply, "I'm Anthony Lovasz."

He could tell she was wondering about how on earth he had managed to get himself so beat up, but he wasn't one to go off about himself unless someone asked. Not that he didn't want people to know what had happened, he just preferred not to always talk about himself.As she produced aspirin from her purse and offered it to him, he raised his left hand slightly, "Thanks," He said, "but I'm trying to stay away from the stuff."

He wasn't trying to be rude. He was perfectly fine with people taking whatever drugs were good for them, just so long as he didn't. They say that addiction to drugs was genetic, and he was living proof. Even something so little as aspirin was a dangerous thing for him to take, and so he did his best to avoid having to take it. Another reason he had refused to go to the hospital for his injuries.

[breeze]

Lexie nodded, "I understand," she said and stored them again back in her purse, which sat limply hanging from the crook of her elbow. Her hair, being the stubborn thing it was, refused to stay out of her face, forcing her to push it out of her face again. She lay back a little, so that she was still facing him, but propped up on her elbows. The sun felt warm against her exposed skin, and she sighed happily, spring always made her feel like this, just happy and carefree. "How long have you been here?" she asked breaking the silence that hung in the air.

The equines nearby were coming slowly towards the pair, they were chasing eachother closer than farther, and not paying much attention to their owner. Fire the foal had discovered the ocean and was now splashing playfully in the salty waves.

[Anthony Lovasz]

Anthony wasn't exactly sure if she meant the how long he'd been at the beach or how long he'd been at Berlington. But he decided to answer just the same. "I've been at Berlington for a few months," He said after a slight silence, "I've been here for about an hour or two." He had a pretty good sense of humor, and found it quite easy to laugh at himself. Therefore, he wasn't too worried about embarrassing himself with his answer.

He never understood people who got offended when others laughed at them. In his opinion, if you did something stupid you deserved to be laughed at, especially laughed at by yourself. "How 'bout yourself?" He inquired, asking the same question she had just put out there. The conversation was a nice change to the silence he'd been in for so long, and he intended to keep it going for as long as it would last.

[breeze]

Lexie laughed a little, "I've been at Berlington about 6 months or so, and as for on the beach, I don't know I lost track of time," she responded happily. She didn't know many people, well she had met people but most of them had brushed her off and never talked to her again unless forced to. So she was very happy that the conversation with Anthony had lasted for so long, most of them would have ended by now and she would be left with an uncomfortable silence. She smiled again, by now she had gotten used to the fact that Anthony seemed severly injured, because truthfully he didn't seem to care, so who should she? He seemed okay with laughing at himself, and she liked that because hey! who doesn't make mistakes? It's not like it's not funny when you see someone else do something, so why get upset when you do? It made absoulutly no sense at all to her.

[Anthony Lovasz]

"Your horses certainly seem to enjoy it." He commented, watching the little colt race about in the waves. What he would have done to be able to be out there on his own horse...there were at least 100 things he could think of off the top of his head. Nevertheless, actually going in to see a doctor was not one of them. He'd grown up in Mexico, and down there the doctors had been known to do more harm than good. Even though he was now in the states he couldn't get his mind past that and actually trust the doctors.

The simple joys that horses indulged in had always fascinated him. It was unfortunate that people couldn't be more like horses. The whole world would be better of if everyone just got along and enjoyed life as it came. He then turned his attention back to Lexie, waiting for her reply. His ribs were currently the only thing that were really bothering him, but he could deal with it. The pain was significantly less than it had been two weeks ago which was a good sign.

[breeze]

Lexie looked over to where her horses seemed to be intently chasing after some kind of crab. She laughed and nodded,

"Apparently,"

she remarked her eyes glued to the way her equines seemed so intrested in such a smilpe creature that seemed to be despretly trying to get away from them. Finally she tore her eyes away from them and looked back towards Anthony where they layed intently upon him as he to watched the horses. Every once and a while she would look at the horses, but having not scared somebody away yet made her happy it caused a grin to burst out across her face.

[Anthony Lovasz]

Anthony was silent for a moment, just watching the horses. Yeah, he had problems with letting his mind wander, but it didn't bother him any. As far as he was concerned, being focused on one thing all the time wasn't good for anyone. Besides, horses had always enthralled him, ever since he got his first horse, ugly and stubborn though it had been, and it would probably always be that way.

He adjusted his position against the rock slightly, wincing at the pain it caused. Every movement he made felt like his broken ribs were going to tear a hole right through him. "What do you do with her?" He asked, returning his attention to Lexie. Having always been involved with the racing world and really nothing more, he wasn't exactly a good judge of what horses did, unless of course, they were racers. Thoroughbreds were, obviously, his favorite type of horse, and he liked them even better if they were racers. Any horse, though, could easily attract his attention, and they did quite often.

[breeze]

Lexie shrugged,

"It's not her so much as her foals, I got Blossom when I was little as a brood mare, she had leg injuries when she stumbled over a jump ending her career."

she explained and winced when he winced because truth be told she hated it when people were in pain, physically of coarse, emotional pain just freaked her out kinda especially after her mother died. She thought for a second,

"With Fire I'm thinking either cross-counrty or racing, because he has endurance and speed,"

she shrugged again turning so she could watch as Fire as if knowing they were talking about running burst out into a sprint, much faster than any other foals his age were normally running. He was only a 2 months old, yet in the pastures he could easily keep up with the yearlings.

[Anthony Lovasz]

Anthony watched as the colt took off down the beach, his young legs carrying him at a tremendous speed over the sand. He was quite impressed that so small a horse had such speed, and hadn't ever seen one quite like that. He was fairly certain that when the colt grew up he'd be excellent at anything that involved running, he certainly seemed to have the heart for it.

"He looks like he'd be great at either." Anthony replied, once again returning his attention to Lexie. "I don't know much about cross-country," he added honestly, "but he looks like he's certainly got the speed to race." It was just too bad the little foal wasn't a thoroughbred...if he were, there would be great potential for him to make it a long ways in the world of racing.

[breeze]

Lexie tilted her head slightly as she listened to him speak, her curls falling across her face. She blew softly to clear her vision and nodded when he finished.

"It's basically a big obstacle coarse, your timed and you get bad points if you knock stuff over."

She explained about Cross country after looking thoughtful for a short moment. Her gaze followed her horses again as the roamed the beach happy for their freedom, she knew she was lucky and they would always come back. She smiled as he talked about the colt,

"I'm not sure, because he's a Quarab and not thourghbred so...."

She trailed off leaving the sentence unfinished, but you could guess I don't think he'd make it. Sure it sounded unconfident, but to her it was the gods honest truth.