Yet again, the managers at Cindy’s restaurant had finally managed to get Cindy to take her first vacation of the year. If it wasn’t for them, she would probably be working each and every day without any thoughts of having a day off, let alone a vacation. She certainly deserved it for how hard she worked to ensure the success of her restaurant, but there was only so much a person could do before a break was necessary. It felt weird. She was now attempting to enjoy the second day of her week-long vacation and she wasn’t sure what to do with herself. Her mind kept thinking she needed to go into work and she had to remind herself every few minutes that that wasn’t the case. Cindy had become somewhat of a workaholic, mostly because her job was the only thing she had going in her life at the moment. She had a few friends, but you would hardly ever catch her taking part in a social occasion. Nearly everyone she knew was aware that if they ever needed to find her, the first place they should look is Cinzetti’s, which was the restaurant Cindy was the sole-proprietor of.

One of the things she always made sure to do when she had the time was visit her horses. She always felt bad for not visiting them more often than she did, but at the same time she knew they were in good care. The owner of the stable was a good friend of hers and so she never had anything to worry about as far as their care went, but she still missed them a great deal. Her last experience at the stable hadn’t been the most pleasant one. It had started to pour and her high-strung Akhal Teke, Samurai, had spooked after seeing a rabbit cross the road and that had lead to Cindy falling to the ground before watching her horse gallop away from her. Everything had worked out okay in the end, but it certainly wasn’t something she liked to think about. It caused her to be hesitant about riding the stallion again, but she knew she needed to work with him a lot more so that things like that wouldn’t happen again.

The weather seemed to be holding up alright. It was a bit breezy, but nothing that could be considered unpleasant. She drove her pickup up the gravel road that lead to the stable in which her horses were being kept. She always made sure to bring her own tack as well as a few treats for the horses. Cindy decided to go straight to Samurai. Her two other horses, both Hanoverians, were well-behaved horses, but as tempting as it was to ride the more cooperative of them, she knew she needed to dedicate more of her time to Samurai. Her friend, Dean, had worked with him a bit since she had been away, but she wasn’t sure what kind of progress he had made. The stallion wasn’t terribly behaved; it was just that he was rather unpredictable at times. With a saddle and blanket in one arm and a bridle in the other, she walked past a few stalls before stopping at Samurai’s. It took her a few minutes to get the horse comfortable enough with her so that she could put his saddle on. After a few more minutes, she had the horse tacked up and ready to go for a ride. She figured she would take it easy for the day in order to avoid any more disasters.

Cindy lead the horse out of his stall and out to one of the large outdoor arenas that the stables possessed. She mounted the horses and started him in a trot. Despite some jerks of his head, Samurai seemed to have improved a bit since the last time Cindy had worked with him. Feeling a bit brave, she decided to bring him into a gallop around the large arena. Unfortunately, she didn’t have as much control over the horse as she would have liked. Samurai took off and although Cindy tried to pull back on the reins, the horse didn’t seem to have much desire in stopping. She was fortunate she was in a fenced area, but that didn’t prevent her from panicking a little. After a few minutes, the horse finally slowed and then stopped suddenly, which nearly threw her, but she somehow managed to hold on. She immediately dismounted and took a moment to get her heartbeat somewhere near normal. Who was she kidding? She needed to hire someone to help her with the horse, otherwise she was going to have to sell it to someone who had a better idea of how to handle him. Cindy had only recently acquired the horse and it seemed to be a promising competitor, but she could tell it was going to take a lot of effort to get the horse under control.

She walked the horse around the arena for a little while before deciding she needed to sit down. She had enough stress on her shoulders from work to be worrying about the danger her horse was capable of putting her in. She wasn’t sure what to do. She exited the arena, obviously still a little flustered. She had Samurai’s reins and was leading him back to his stall, which was where she would keep him until she felt she could give riding him another try. Jumping one of her Hanos just sounded like a fantastic idea right then and was sure to help relieve some stress.

It was no secret that Cindy didn’t ride as frequently as most of the other boarders there. She was lucky if she could come out to the stables once a week. She had never had many problems with riding until she made the decision to purchase Samurai. It wasn’t something she had planned out entirely and now she was regretting taking on the task of caring for such a high-strung horse when he was probably better off in the hands of someone who knew more about how to work with horses. Cindy’s knowledge was limited to what she had learned on her uncle’s ranch as a young girl and that mostly involved caring for the horses rather than riding them. She wasn’t awful at it, but she clearly wasn’t prepared for the task of controlling the Akhal Teke that she seemed so fond of when she had first decided to acquire the stallion. As of right now, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to mount the horse again without some sort of guidance. She knew there were people around there that would be willing to help, but she hadn’t thought to ask.

She took deep breaths as she led the horse back to its stall. Cindy wasn’t quite sure what she had gotten herself into. She clearly didn’t know enough about training a horse to be able to improve Samurai’s behavior. It wasn’t always clear to her whether or not she was doing the right thing or not, which was a big problem in this case. She lead the horse into its stall and while doing so, she was a bit startled when she heard a man’s voice. At first she suspected it was someone tending to their horses not far away, but it didn’t take her long to spot the man and realize that he was talking to her. She looked at him as he continued to speak, admittedly surprised by what the man was saying to her. He had obviously caught a glimpse of her riding and she couldn’t deny she was a little embarrassed. A sigh escaped her lips as she tried to figure out what to say to him, her gaze wandering back to her horse.

A smile formed on her lips as she looked at him again, now recognizing that this man was actually quite attractive. That certainly didn’t help retain a bit of bashfulness on her part. “I’m just fine,” she finally said, though her hands were still shaking slightly. She felt she had made a complete fool of herself out in the arena and now she was being corrected by a man she had never met before. Another minute of silence fell between them before she could decide on what else to say. “I know…you’re completely right. I just…my first instinct was to get off the horse, mostly due to fear, I guess…” she said softly. Her excuse didn’t help her at all. If anything, it just made her sound more clueless and a bit weak. This wasn’t what she needed on her vacation, but perhaps she could learn from this. This man clearly knew more about how to work with a horse than she did. Instead of giving up, she had a responsibility to commit to the horse and make sure it was trained properly.

When he apologized to her, she immediately shook her head. She didn’t fault him at all for correcting what she knew was no small error. She began removing the horse’s bridle as he continued to speak to her and in the next moment she removed herself from the stall and slid the door shut. She hung the bridle on a hook near the stall door and brushed her hands on her jeans before turning back to him, her arms crossed over her chest and a small grin on her face. “It’s fine, really. I actually appreciate the tip. I could use all the help I can get,” she said honestly, emitting a bit of nervous laughter, still feeling rather embarrassed over the whole thing. “It may help keep me from making a fool of myself in the future,” she added. Nothing about her outing had been especially smart. She really could use some pointers on her riding as well as how to properly train her horse without killing herself in the process.

“I’m Cindy, by the way,” she said, deciding it couldn’t hurt to introduce herself. “You said you’re an instructor?” she asked, making sure she heard him right. If it was true, she was sure she would be seeing him around there every once and awhile. She was assuming that she was looking like a bit of a mess at this point. She had her hair in a loose bun and was wearing an old navy blue blouse that was at least a size too big for her and was worn over a white camisole. On top of that, she was still in dire need to relieve some stress and now she was still a little shaken from the incident that had occurred on her horse mere minutes earlier.

It was only a matter of time before someone would come along and point out one of Cindy’s many mishaps with her stallion. Okay, so there really hadn’t been too many incidents, but enough for her to reconsider her ownership of the horse altogether. Of course, she had never been one to give up on something that easily and so she planned on getting some help with Samurai so that she could avoid such incidents. It didn’t help the situation at all for her to be afraid of her own horse’s actions, which was clearly a recipe for disaster when she was dealing with a horse that was so high-strung. She knew now that she would never again purchase a horse impulsively and most certainly not a stallion in which she couldn’t seem to handle correctly. Cindy had been doing just fine with her Hanoverians and had even shown them once or twice, but even with that experience she hadn’t quite prepared herself for Samurai.

There always seemed to be something that happened over the course of one of Cindy’s days off that would make her wish she had gone into work that day and this was definitely one of them. Then again, she knew she needed to start living a more eventful life outside of the restaurant rather than having her life revolve around it. For a while her job had served as therapy for her to get her mind off of some painful pieces of her past, but now it was only holding her back from a lot of good things in life. She felt a little relieved when he next spoke. She wasn’t exactly in the mood to be criticized for being afraid, even though she knew she shouldn’t have been on the horse in the first place if she thought she couldn’t quite handle it. It was going to take a little while longer before she could calm down completely and until then she wasn’t comfortable talking about overcoming that fear or whatever else. She knew she had work to do; she wasn’t about to ignore what had taken place that day. She smiled towards him and nodded slightly. “No, it sure isn’t,” she agreed, shaking her head slightly.

Her gaze focused aimlessly at the dirt below her, but her head jerked up a little when he said something about her handling it well. That hadn’t been something she would have expected anyone to say to her after all that. When he elaborated a bit, she managed to let out a small laugh and shook her head once again. “I honestly have no clue how I managed that,” she admitted. All she knew was she was hanging on for dear life by that point and although she came quite close to being thrown from the horse, she somehow managed to hang on and prevent any serious injury. It wouldn’t have been the first time the horse had knocked her to the ground, but she was happy to have avoided it this time. She made sure to listen as he spoke up once again. “That does make a lot of sense. Looks like I have a lot to learn,” she said, another sigh escaping past her lips.

“And it’s a pleasure meeting you, Tony,” she said sincerely, offering him a cute smile. “Well it looks like your affliction could really come in handy,” she replied with a grin. Cindy had never been a very stubborn or prideful person and so she was happy to get help from anyone who was willing to offer it. Her horses deserved only the best care and part of that was knowing how to handle them on a ride so that they could correct any bad habits and behaviors. “I’m thinking I’ll have my friend Dean work with Samurai. I’m sure you’ve met him.” She looked at Tony, assuming he would have met the owner of the place if he happened to be working there. “Of course, Dean isn’t too fond of giving riding lessons, so I guess I’ll have to find somebody else to help me in that area,” she said, grinning towards him suggestively. She didn’t want to be a bother, but she really could use a few riding tips here and there. She wanted to be able to have complete control while riding and she felt she wasn’t quite there yet. “Do you keep any horses here?” she decided to ask. There were a countless amount of boarders there and so it wouldn’t be surprising if he happened to have a few horses staying there as well.

Cindy wasn’t entirely sure how she managed to not cross paths with a lot of people whenever she visited the stables. She had seen people around there, of course, but she had never taken the liberty of talking to very many of the boarders that came there. It was a little disappointing, she’d admit, because the truth was Cindy did like being social despite her current situation in which she was always too busy to exercise any sort of social life. Most of the people who came to visit there seemed to be kept to themselves for the most part so she supposed the opportunity to get to know any of them rarely arose and even then it didn’t go beyond a bit of small talk. It wasn’t difficult for Cindy to make friends, but it was hard to have a lot of them when her top priority was work. She was sure there would be a point in which she’d start to get tired of it and find more free time for herself, but for now it seemed to at least keep her on her feet and the money was always a plus.

She made sure to listen as Tony spoke up again. It was apparent by now that the man was a talker, but she didn’t mind that at all. It had been a while since she had any sort of real conversation with anyone outside of work and so this was quite enjoyable for her. “Well, thanks. Nice to know I have some talent, even if it’s quite unusual,” she said with a shrug, looking over her shoulder for a moment after hearing the footsteps of another boarder as he approached the stall of his own horse. She then looked back towards Tony as he began to speak again. “You may be right. I really don’t have any prior experience with such a young stallion so I’m certainly not used to riding him yet. I’ve only had him for a month or so, so I know there’s a lot of work to be done on my part,” she responded, giving a slight nod of her head as if to confirm her statement. She hadn’t been quite aware of what she was getting herself into when she purchased the high-strung beast, but she refused to quit on him too soon even though she was sure she could find a good buyer for him. For now she was going to seek out some help and hopefully she’d eventually have enough control over Samurai to enter him in some competitions. She knew the horse had a lot of potential if she could learn how to properly harness his energy.

Cindy couldn’t help but smile when Tony revealed a bit of a bashful side again. She thought it was quite cute, but she saw no reason to make any mention of it. He seemed a little shy, which made her wonder what had compelled him to come talk to her, but she supposed it was the instructor in him that felt the need to say something about her little incident. There were many times in which she would have liked someone like Tony to show up to give her tips on handling her horses, but any problems she had before were very small compared to the troubles she was having with her Akhal-Teke. Cindy clearly didn’t know a great deal about the breed before buying, otherwise she most likely would have withheld her decision. It was difficult enough dealing with a young stallion, but adding on top of that a hot-blooded bloodline? That was a recipe for disaster, but hopefully Cindy would be able to find a solution to all of her problems with Samurai within the next few months. Samurai really wasn’t all that bad; he had gone through some extensive training, after all, but he wasn’t quite where a rider like Cindy would like him to be.

It was good news for Cindy to hear him agree to helping her out with her riding. “That’d be great! I’m usually quite busy, but I can’t see why I can’t find time for a few lessons. I really would like to get Samurai under control, after all,” she said, jerking her head towards the stall that her horse was currently residing in. It would probably come as a surprise to her managers if she took a few days off more often than normal, but she knew they’d be nothing if not supportive of it. They were always pushing her to take vacations, but being that her work was her life for the time being, it was always hard to pull herself away from it. Now that she had an excuse, however, perhaps she would allow herself to spend a few more days away from the restaurant than she normally would. It probably wasn’t healthy to work as much as she did in the first place and she really needed to have fun and the only way for her to do that was to not constantly be concerned about what was happening at her restaurant. She was beginning to really trust the managers she had hired there so it was getting easier to spend some time away from there, but she wasn’t quite ready to feel completely care-free about it at any given moment.

It was a little surprising to hear that he didn’t have a horse there. Most of the workers she had met there had at least one horse boarded there, but then again, it was hardly a small investment of time and money to own one. “Aww, well that’s too bad. I don’t know what I’d do without mine. They’re my only escape from my busy life,” she said with a small sigh. There she went thinking about work again. It really was quite terrible that she couldn’t go more than a few minutes without having it cross her mind. Along with that came the small temptation to whip out her phone and give the restaurant a call to make sure everything was going alright. It had become a habit and she was trying hard to break it by the request of nearly everyone who had been unfortunate enough to answer the phone when she called. “Yes, I do, actually,” she said in response to his question. “Charity and Freedom. They’re Hanos. I’m planning on giving them some attention today as well.” Her gaze was then directed several stalls down on the other side where her other horses were staying.

“What would you say to joining me for a short ride? The trails out here are fantastic,” she suddenly asked, unsure of whether or not her suggestion was appropriate. “I just…I clearly can’t ride two horses at once and I’m not entirely sure I’ll have time to exercise them both before sunset,” she explained. She had gotten there far later than she would have liked and so it certainly would make it easier if she didn’t have to rush in order to make sure both horses got a small workout that day. Cindy wouldn’t normally invite someone she had just met to ride one of her horses, but knowing what she did about Tony, she didn’t see why she wouldn’t be able to trust him. Dean would never hire anyone that was the slightest bit untrustworthy and that alone was enough for her to feel at ease about Tony.

Cindy was a little unsure about asking Tony to go on a ride with her, but in the end she decided that it could do no real harm and she was only being friendly. Well, she also wanted to take the opportunity to make it easier for her to work her horses that day, but she wouldn’t invite just anyone to join her on a ride, let alone ride one of her horses. It was always nice to have some company on the trails. She did enjoy the peaceful rides she often went on, but it was only a matter of time before she got tired of going alone. She once again listened to Tony’s suggestions and nodded as he spoke. “I’ll definitely keep that in mind,” she said appreciatively. If she had taken more time to think about it, Cindy was sure she would be able to come up with a few ideas as well to help her better control her horse. One thing is for sure: she wouldn’t be riding Samurai again until she felt she was fully prepared to do so.

She suspected he would be taken off-guard with her invite, but she hoped that wouldn’t have much effect on his answer. She was delighted once he gave his response. Not only had he taken her up on her offer, but he seemed rather enthusiastic about it, which had to be a good thing. “Okay, great!” she said with a smile. She hadn’t been planning for anything like this to happen during her visit that day. Whenever she came to the stable it would just be her and her horses trying to make the most of the daylight. A change in her routine was really nice to have every once and a while. It made her think that perhaps she should take more initiative and start talking to other visitors of the stables. She would talk with Dean occasionally, but he wasn’t always there when she was. It was becoming quite clear that Cindy would have to make more trips out to the stables than she had been, at least until she could get Samurai the proper training he would need. That would mean more time off from work, which she was always reluctant to take, but this time it looked like the necessary thing to do.

“I have some other tack in the tack room near Dean’s office, so you can use that and I’ll just use what I had on Samurai,” she explained. “I’ll go grab it real quick if you don’t mind waiting here,” she said. She waited for his reply before hurrying in the direction of the tack room, which wasn’t far at all from the stable. It was probably a little more than five minutes before she came back with a bridle and saddle along with two saddle blankets. “Okay. I think I’ll be riding Charity so that leaves you with Freedom. You can go ahead and start tacking up Freedom. I need to get the saddle off of Samurai,” she told him as she handed him the tack. Freedom was an 11-year-old gelding and Charity was her 12-year-old mare. They were both gorgeous horses, which she couldn’t deny was part of the reason she had acquired them in the first place. Nonetheless, they turned out to be terrific horses and she couldn’t imagine ever parting with either one of them.

It didn’t take them long to tack the horses, which was great because Cindy knew they didn’t have as much daylight left as she would like. She didn’t doubt they’d be back before sunset, but she had had times in which she’d lose track of time and end up coming back later than she meant to. “Ready?” she asked Tony as she began leading Charity out of her stall. She didn’t mount the horse until they were clear of the stable. She waited for Tony to catch up with her and she looked over at him with a smile. “Okay, I’ll lead you out to the trail and we’ll go from there.” With that being said, she moved her horse into a trot and headed in the direction of the trail she decided they would take. Once they reached the beginning of the trail, she slowed Charity into a walk and allowed Tony to come up beside her so that they could maybe converse as they enjoyed their outing. “Looks like it got a bit cloudy. I really hope it doesn’t rain,” she said to him, looking up at the sky. She hadn’t noticed much cloud cover earlier, but now it had become evident. They always saw a lot of rain during this time of the year and she was starting to get a little tired of it. Cindy did like thunderstorms, but it wasn’t as enjoyable when you were stuck in the middle of it without being prepared.

“So how long have you lived out here, Tony?” she asked him, deciding it couldn’t hurt to try to get to know him better. Cindy was always in need of friends and Tony seemed like a really nice guy. He had already agreed to help her out with her riding, after all. The trail she had chosen was a bit hilly, which she had chosen purposely in order to give her horses a decent workout without taking them into the arena that day. It was apparent that things would be a little awkward for at least the first part of the ride, but Cindy usually didn’t have to big of a problem with that. She’d find ways to make them both feel at ease because it didn’t make much sense to just sit in silence the whole way, now did it?



((ooc: blah. I know I skipped around a lot...hope that's okay))

Cindy was so glad that Tony had decided to join her on the ride. She normally wasn’t the type to trust easily, but something about Tony gave her some reassurance in that regard and so she was sure she wouldn’t regret giving him an invitation to ride along with her. She would feel a little embarrassed if he had turned her down, mostly because she would think he might have thought she was a little strange for inviting him, but all had turned out well thus far and he seemed rather excited about it so what could be bad about it? Well, there was the fact that it looked like it was going to rain on them before they made it back to the barn, but she tried not to focus too much on that for the time being. For now the weather was fairly nice and the sun was still peeking through the clouds every few minutes. Cindy loved days that were fairly moderate in temperature, but she also enjoyed the sunshine when she could. There was a community pool near her home where she often enjoyed the sun, but as we know by now, she was a very busy woman and days for relaxing were very limited for her.

As they hit the trail, Cindy made sure to observe how Tony handled her horse for the first part of their ride. She made sure not to stare closely or anything; it was only a mere glance here and there which was mostly a subconscious action. He didn’t do anything wrong from what she could see and that allowed her to relax a bit more knowing her horse was in good hands. “Yeah, hopefully, but I never seem to be that fortunate,” she replied with a small laugh as well as a shake of her head. Cindy seemed to run into bad luck all over the place, but she supposed it was just part of life. There were incidents that took place at the restaurant all the time and she supposed to couldn’t attribute them all to bad luck. There were many things that were out of her control and she just had to live with that, one of those things being the weather. If it chose to rain on them, no big deal, right? Sure, it would be a lot easier if it didn’t, but at the same time she imagined they would make it back before the rain could become any sort of a serious problem for them.

She listened to his response to her question and she nodded slightly. “Really? Only a few months? So you’re brand new around here. No wonder I haven’t seen you around,” she said, smiling towards him. “How are you liking it so far? I love it here, personally. It’s great,” she told him honestly. The only negative thing she might say about it was the heavy rain they got a lot of during the winter and spring months. She did like to hear the sound of rain pattering on her rooftop and against the windows, but it wasn’t much fun when you had to walk or drive in it. She thought about his question for a moment before making sure to give an accurate answer. “Well, I’ve lived in different parts of California for a while, but I’ve been in Pasadena for over a year. Before that I was in Wyoming so it was a pretty big change I guess, but it was a good change,” she explained, looking ahead of her to take notes of the scenery around them.

As they moved forward, Cindy couldn’t help but think about what had happened the last time Cindy had taken this same trail. She had been on the back of Samurai and it had started to rain. She was thrown off the horse when he was spooked by some sort of rodent on the ground and the stallion had run off. The worst part of the whole experience was running into a man who was nothing but rude to her and certainly didn’t make her day any easier. She always seemed to run into a bit of bad luck whenever a storm came, but she always managed to find a way through it. She couldn’t just avoid riding just because of the weather, of course. It did happen to rain a lot in Pasadena during this time of year so she had little choice but to put up with it every once and a while. Sure, there was an indoor arena, but it was often occupied by group lessons and training sessions when it rained so boarders such as herself were forced to use other areas of the property.

Looking up at the sky again, she noticed that the clouds didn’t look very friendly. Every once and a while they would get a bad thunder storm and there were times in which the lightning could be quite dangerous. Cindy remembered the day in which her car had been crushed by a very large tree branch after being struck by lightning. It had been a very scary storm, but thankfully she had a friend that was there to help her out that night. She hoped that the storm would hold off until later that night, but again, she certainly couldn’t control the weather. She looked over towards Tony as she bit her lip slightly. It wasn’t hard to tell that she was starting to get a little worried about the storm, mostly due to letting her mind wander and remembering all the bad experiences she had had with such weather.