Alexa and Kayson

He nodded slightly, studying the mare and stallion and smiled with agreement.
"I think your right...if you watch her closely, you can see she knows...her nose keeps looking at her stomach or gently moving closer to Prince, a protection thing...or she has a crush," he chuckled, resting his chin on her head and reached a hand to gently brush both of their noses.
"I think Starlight would be good for her..." he said quietly "she knows how to ride, or at least used to be rather good..."
"It might help her heal...." he said softly, knowing that his daughter was hurting inside "or maybe we could give her one of the foals...help her train it..."
That's what he did as a young boy, having trained Idi himself when his father died. It had been his final gift from his father.
"I wonder if she still rides..." he mused quietly and chuckled "Lani could have a go on Justin...no doubt Sara will share and show her how to get the stubborn pony to move."
They both knew that Justin, stubborn as he was, we perfect with children. His age had calmed down, and for the younger ones who sat on his back he was a perfect ride. But once the rider knew what they were doing...he challenged them to be better.

"Tomorrow," he breathed "we can sit all the hands down, write the new list and rooster of who's doing what and such and explain what's meant to be done and not done."
"We'll also have to sit down and order a whole bunch of stuff...and organize the tack room."
He sighed, knowing tomorrow would be a long day as well.

"I might go see how she's going then, see if she needs any help at all." She chuckled. She seemed able to get along with Rayne this time. "Though her decidion with Lani." She was sure the other girl would want that like she had with Lily. "You want to go check that Katherine put Danny Boy back in the field with Pippy? Near the roses. I just can't see him, thats all."

She smiled though, heading back to the house. It didn't take long for her to find where Rayne was. "Feel like taking a short ride? I have a horse down there that you'd like, Rayne." She smiled. "I'm sorry for yellion at you last time we met. That was wrong of me."

"Will do...thank you again..." he whispered giving her hand a gentle squeeze. She knew just how important family was to him, and when Rayne had first turned up how upset he had been at himself for not being their for her, and pushing her away when she was in need.
He moved away, past the roses and paused at the fence, watching the stallion and young mare graze the grass, sighing softly to himself. He had to tell Alexa and soon.

Rayne looked up as someone entered the room, smiling shyly as she saw Alexa.
"Sure...I used to love riding," she said in a small voice and blinked in shock as she said sorry for yelling at their last meeting. Running a hand though her locks, she tightened the ponytail and sighed softly.
"It wasn't your fault Alexa...I wasn't in the right mind...if anyone should be sorry, it should be me for acting the way I did..." she told her.

“How about we both just agree that were both wrong to each other that time?” she chuckled. “I think we all needed something like this happening, we had a rather upsetting thing happen not long before you got here earlier. Someone who was very close to me, like a mother to me though not my real mother was killed last night. We'd just told the other girls not five minutes before you got here.”

She chuckled. “You turned up at a good time.” She smiled at Rayne. “The horse I picked out for you is a beautiful brown Appaloosa gelding, who I inherited from Sally. I thought you might like to help get Starlight ready, instead of one of the others getting him tacked up for you. Seemed like a good place to start for me, seeing as Kayson told me that you have ridden before, but not for a long time.”

Rayne smiled slightly, nodding in her agreement. Move on from the past, they already seemed to be getting along well. Resting a gentle palm on her shoulder, she squeezed it in comfort.
"I understand..." she said quietly, having lost her mother at a young age and grown up with many different couples before having run away for a final time and lived on the streets for years.

"It has been years...not since I was....at least 8?" she questioned herself, counting back the years "so..around 9-10 years."
She smiled wryly, feeling very much old when she said that.
"So how long have you guys been married now?" she asked as they headed down to the barn.

"I've been riding since I was four, though that makes me very old. You're not as old as me, though you enver will be. "It's been nearly 7 years since we last met." She smiled at her. There were some things that time changed when given a chance.

She smiled. "A lot has changed since then, we've been busy though, renovating this place and things." She smiled though as she moved through the barn. "We'll grab Starlight's halter and go get him from the field. I let him out there earlier, but he'll be eager to get some work done. How much riding did you actually do when you were riding?"

She laughed easily along with Alexa, her feet following the even strides.
"I think I could ride before I could walk..." she admitted "I grew up with Idi..she was dad's pride and joy...does he still have her?"
She raised an eyebrow in question, continuing their walking path down to the fields.
"Then when mum died...well I was passed from home to home without any chance or funding to ride..." she said sadly "but I loved it as a kid..."

"I'm pretty sure I can get you back to how you once were in the saddle. One of the girl's I've been teaching for the last six years made it onto this years Olympic Equestrian team, its my third year competing on that team. Though I won't say i won't yell if you're doing something wrong."

She smiled.

Then paused outside a door, ducked in and retrieved a halter. "Idi's in the field with Starlight. Though she's also pregnant to one of my stallions, a brown Arabian called Danny Boy. She was teasing him and well, it happened."

Rayne laughed lightly, having no doubt she would be re-taught the right way or not at all.
"At least we think it's Danny boy," Kayson said, sidling up beside his wife and wrapping an arm around her waist, kissing the top of her head and smiled at Rayne.
"What do you mean by that?"
"She's a flirt with all the boys...wouldn't surprise me if it was Prince...she's always had a soft spot for that boy," he chuckled fondly as if speaking of a child "so are we going to get you onto dear old Starlight?"
She nodded shyly "yeah..see what I can remember."
"Good girl," he said giving her hand a gentle squeeze "I was thinking of getting Lani onto Justin...a little stubborn gelding of Sara's, but he wont hurt a fly...what do you think?"
Rayne paused, unsure what to say or how she felt about ehr daughter riding at such a young age. But at the look of Kayson's excited face, she couldn't help but nod.
"Sure...so long as someone leads until she's older."

"I'm sure someone will. And I think it was Danny Boy, seeing as she was out with him, the day before, and two days ago she wasn't behaving out of the normal, Kayson." Alexa laughed for a moment. "Prince would not be that annoyed by her."

Alexa smiled. "Come on, let's go get him." She knew that Starlight would do well with the work out. "I might bring Prince in as well, he needs a bit of work done on a few things."

Kayson laughed slightly, head shaking and kissed Alexa's cheek.
"I guess we'll see when the foal's born Lexie..." he said, walking past the girls and letting them chat together while he continued with what he was doing.

Rayne smiled slightly, watching the love pass between the two of them and hoped that one day she would have the same thing.
"Well...lets see if I can still tack up a horse," she said, rubbing her hands together and held the lead rope as they approached the paddock.
"Is he a runner?" she questioned, grinning slightly

"None of our school horses are horses like that. The ones though that are breeding stock though would do so with someone inexperienced on their backs, we only use them in the expert lessons. Even so I've had to chase more than one before. Can't stop a horse from shying at things that frighten them, can we?"

She smiled. "Prince would be more likely to be a runner if you were riding him, than old Starlight would. Justin is like Starlight there too, he's a good little guy."

They left the barn, she led the way out to one of the paddocks. "Starlight!" she called. A brown head shot up, looking over at her. Then the brown and white Appaloosa gelding moved over towards where she stood at the gate, stretching out his neck to sniff at Alexa's pockets before sniffing at Rayne. "I've got nothing, you cheeky boy."

She smiled though. "You'll be fine, I'll be in the stall next to you with Prince. Wait here." She smiled and then moved around behind a rosebush that was nearby.

Soon she reemerged, leading Prince behind her. The huge slightly lighter than liver chestnut stallion with the flaxen mane and tail, moved proudly beside his owner. "his is Prince," she added.

OOC:
]http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/076/6/8/Leopard_Appaloosa_by_FineEquine.jpg

Well I knew that a day which I had not been looking forwards to was loathfully here. Sally was being buried today, and that was something that I found hard to even think about. We still didn't know who had done this to her, robbing her of her life and her retirement. The police seemed to be running around in circles and that was a thing that was a pain for me.

I sat up in bed, knowing that I would not be the happy strong person I normally was, but I had good reason not to be. It was still something that I had not been able to accept, maybe I would be able to after today was over. It was not something that was all that likely though, and i knew it. All the people who had known her, mainly just people who worked at the stables and a few former Olympians would be there.

Aiemie would be there as well, she was staying in a hotel at the moment, not far from us.

He was already awake, laying in silence beside her, watching her beautiful features as she slumbered. She had a hard day ahead, he knew that putting Sally to rest was like saying goodbye to her mother all over again.
His hand went out to her, smoothing her cheek gently as she awoke.
"Morning Lexie love," he said with a whisper of a smile "how are you feeling?"
He kissed her before shifting out of the bed, knowing there was things they still needed to do for the day ahead. Horses weren't going to be waiting for the rest of the world, they wanted their food and didn't care about much else.
He was also worried about Grace, Sally's old mare. She was missing Sally, that much was clear. She paced, she had hunted everywhere for her passed owner when she had first been here. And now, well it seemed she had given up. He hadn't spoken to Alexa about it, not wanting to upset her more, but he knew if she didn't start looking up that he would have to tell her.
"I'll meet you out at the barn love, lots to do before we head off."

"Okay... I'll wake the girls." She sighed. This would be the hardest thign she had ever done. She'd never gotten to say good bye to her mother, no, her father had not allowed her to, when Talila and James were able to. He'd refused her that chance, but she knew where her mother was buried, Talila had given her the adress. It was the same cemetery that Sally would be in.

She slipped out of bed, changing into her normal working clothes before heading down the hallway to where the girls would be sleeping. "Sara, time to get up," she called softly as she knocked on the door before doing the same to Rayne and Lily. This would be a very long and hard day, but somehow she would find her way through it. All of them would somehow.

Leons Riding Academy was closed today, but everyone understood why that was, even though it was a Saturday. There were some things that people understood but some of them knew that she would not be able to teach anyone today.

She sighed as she headed outside towards the stables, starting as always with Prince's breakfast. That was something that was always first on her mind out fo all the horses.

Rayne woke at the soft words of her step mother, knowing that this was a hard day for them all despite having not ever met Sally, she had heard many of stories about the wonderful woman.
"Come on Lani," she whispered to her daughter, shaking her gently "up you get."

Kayson frowned, the crease obvious on her weather tanned forehead. Grace was at it again, pacing backwards and forwards. Pausing, whining every few strides before continuing the pattern.
"Grace," he murmured, offering her a large hand to sniff. The fae studied it from afar before ignoring it and continuing her worrisome behavior.
He needed to speak to Alexa about it, she understood the mare better then most. Maybe she knew how to help her. The green orbs dropped to the untouched food and knew that the sooner he spoke to her the better.

Turning on his heel, he jogged passed the horses in their stalls and found her mixing Prince's food.
"Somethings wrong with Grace," he said quietly "there has been for a while...but she's not responding to anything I have tried."

“I'm going to get her normal vet to come and take a look at her. She should have a few ideas as to how to help Grace. I've been getting worried about her as well.”

She sighed, looking at the beautiful mare. Seattles Grace seemed to notice her and whinnied at her. Sighing, Alexa slipped into the stall, moving over and hugging the mare. It was all she could do at the moment, but it seemed to calm the mare a bit. How long for though, she did not know.

Exiting the stall she sighed as the mare tugged at the back of her shirt's neckline. “I know you don't want me to leave you girl, but I have to look after the other horses as well.”

She would come back though and give her another hug later. That was the least she could do at the moment. “It'd be hard to see Prince or Idi or Justin like this, we'll find something though. All we can do is give her as much attention as we can.”

She looked at Kayson. “Kira's going to give us a hand with the others, after all, she's got Tycoon here as well. We don't look after him, unless she can't make it. She's going to come with us over to the funeral, her mother said she would drive her over, but Kira refused.”

She smiled at the thought. That was not something she had really not been expecting to happen.