Post by S u N f r O s t ~ on Dec 20, 2011 18:50:18 GMT -5
DASHING IN THE FIRELIGHT AND HENNA TURATH
FIRE'S WORKOUT FOR THE BREEDERS CUP MARATHON
It was a beautiful day outside; the sun lit the sky in various shades of red, yellow and all colors in between. But the day's beauty was almost completely beaten out by the now commonly worried thoughts of Henna Turath. The woman had started having these worried thoughts whenever one horse would come up - Dashing In The Firelight. The daughter of Dancing In The Moonlight and Dash For Cash had had a slow start to her racing career. She had had a mediocre two year old season. Her three year old season had been going downhill until she was finally injured midway through by Amber's hellion stallion Jessie James. But Henna had stayed by Fire's side. She had nursed the beautiful light bay mare back to health. When she had stepped onto the track as a four year old, it had been as a different horse. The presence around Fire had increased tenfold. It had become more of a cloak than an aura, so tangible you could almost grab at it. Not only that, but something new was in Fire's eyes. Some edge of competitiveness and desire that had not been there before. She was done with losing. She was ready to win. And prove that will she did. Through the course of this year, she had gone from two wins and grade five status to ten wins and grade two status. In fact, she was only three wins away from grade one. She had won and raced in many noteworthy races.
Though all of this had alleviated Henna's initial worries about Fire's racing career, she still worried about her mare at all hours of the day. Was she going to do well in her next race? Was her old injury going to act up? Was she going to get boxed in when she started running from the middle of the pack? And now, headed to the Breeders Cup, Henna was more worried than ever. They were racing in the Breeders Cup Marathon over a distance of twelve furlongs on the dirt and against one other horse, Vindictive Fury. She happened to be the same age as Fire, but had two more wins than her. However, Fire had raced about twenty times less and still had managed to rack up a comparable amount of wins. This meant that Fire had been more consistent, at least this year, in getting into the top three. Either way, Fire would face tough competition with Vinny.
The way Henna had imagined the race, they would be chasing Vinny the whole time. The mare, like her infamous Hall of Fame dam Rising Fury, was a no-gates-barred front runner. There was a great likelihood that she would just take the lead and run with it. However, the race was long. Would Vinny lose her head and burn out? It had happened before, so why not again? If she didn't, then Fire's chance of winning would depend on the length of Vinny's lead. If it was long, they'd be hard pressed to keep up. If it was short, they would stand a fighting chance. Fire never, ever gave up. If challenged, she would give it her all. Therefore, Henna knew that they stood an excellent chance of winning - but she was still nervous, for she wanted Fire to continue to prove herself. Winning the Marathon before entering her five year old season and then hopefully going for the Classic next year would be excellent, for Henna knew her mare had talent. She had always known it. Not she had to prove it.
For their Breeders Cup workout, Henna had wanted to work by herself. For some reason, she had been paranoid about some other horse injuring Fire. Amber had not insisted on getting Henna to work with a partner, either. It was as if she had understood her concerns and was letting her go, for which Henna was extremely grateful. She needed some time to think and mentally ready herself. The Breeders Cup was no small deal. Though she had ridden in it before, the nerves still got to her. The nerves seemed a bit farther away as well as a bit closer when she was aboard her mare. Fire was full of spirits today; she tossed her head, sending silky black strands of mane tumbling all around her neck. Her light bay coat was a reflection of the sun's rays and made her look like a glowing goddess.
With no apparent though to her actions, Henna began to canter Fire, and then gallop her. The fluid motion of Fire's stride calmed Henna down. She started to see rationally. Her worries disappeared like mist in the rising sun. Everything was the mare that galloped beneath her. Everything appeared to be in the right place. Nothing bad was happening. The wind blew sweet melodies past Henna's ears and made her think happy thoughts. Aboard Fire, the world seemed to slow down. Rarely did Henna have a bond this deep with a horse. She just let Fire go and drank in the emotion. Upon pulling up sometime later, she sighed, coming out of a trance-like state of happiness. That had been a good workout, and soon Fire would be crowned as the Marathon winner. She had it in her to succeed in this!
