Ready To Run

[creativecause]

Ready To Run 

All That Jazz and Alex Shade 

Tell Me A Fable and Jessie Coppermen 

I feel the wind blow through my hair
I'm gonna be ready this time
I'll buy a ticket to anywhere
I'm gonna be ready this time
You see it feels like I'm starting to care
And I'm going to be ready this time

Oh yeah
Ready, ready, ready, ready...ready to run
All I'm ready to do is have some fun
What's all this talk about love
I'm ready to run...I'm ready to run
~Dixie Chicks - Ready To Run

Alex patted Jazzy’s back before dodging a playful, but vicious bite. Alex had used the past few weeks to get to know the filly better, and while he felt most horses seemed to warm up to him pretty quickly, Jazzy took her time. She seemed to like to keep him at something of a tails length but her relationship with him was something odd. Jazzy seemed to like to ‘play’ with him in her own way, which was basically her rubbing against his shoulder and sudden outbursts of trying to bite him. He had to say he’d never beheld a horse as regal as her though, her confirmation was near perfection and she looked a lot more like a colt than a filly. He loved watching her run though, she looked flawless and beautiful and her eyes looked as if she owned the whole track. She would arch her neck when she worked, and it was like watching poetry in motion seeing her stretch her stride out and collect it back together. The filly was very determined and Alex admired that about her, he was confident that the daughter of the famed Miler Jazzman was ready to make her debut and make it a smashing one. Alex grabbed the filly’s saddle and began tacking her up for her final work before her first start.

A stall over Jessie was tacking up a little chestnut colt by the name of Tell Me A Fable. Unlike Jazzy, he wasn’t a blue-blood, he was out of rather unproven blood, but that could all change with him. The sweet colt was by Truth Be Told and out of Noalla, he was rather small and stood at 14.3 hands, but that was due to complications at birth, but the chestnut colt wasn’t expected to get over 15.2 hands. However, Abe’s size didn’t affect his running at all, the colt could keep up with any 17 hand horse any day. He’d had a few works during the week under Jessie and both had resulted in bullets. The little colt was fast and he had a lethal turn of foot.

Abe craned his scrawny neck back to look at Jessie as he finished wrapping the colts legs. His eyes were full of wonder and curiosity. Abe always seemed to be thinking about something, weather it be over a new brush, someone picking his hooves or even his water bucket. The chestnut son of Truth Be Told truly was a sweet animal to be around.

Jessie checked Abe’s cinch one last time after hearing Alex call out for him to hurry up and he caught a glimpse of Jazzy’s tail when he looked out of the stall door. He walked his mount out of his stall and hopped on him using a bale of hay next to his stall.

Alex nodded to Jessie and pressed his legs gently to Jazzy’s sides, and the black filly was more than willing to go, she instantly broke into a trot. She’d already had her head tucked nearly to her chest and she was over extending her front legs, looking more like a dressage horse than a racehorse. The little star on her head bobbed up and down as she bobbed her head up and down.

Abe flared his nostrils and cocked his head slightly to the side, both of the two year olds had rather high energy. His chestnut coat looked like fire against the early morning January sun. Wisps of air flowed from their nostrils as they let out their breath.

It wasn't a warm morning by any means, but Alex could remember worse times. He posted Jazzy’s rough trot out on to the track. She squealed and pranced sideways.

The pair looked rather odd, Jazzy was built like a tank, muscle layered over muscle and they were already bulging. Her bay-black coat looked like it was five sizes too small for her, if there was a two year old in Grayson Meadows’ barn that already had the muscle mass of a seventeen hand router, it was Jazzy, who stood at 15.3 hands already.

Abe on the other hand still looked like a yearling, standing at 14.3 hands and his muscle mass didn’t look like much at all. He didn’t have muscles in his eyebrows or anything, but he certainly ran like he did. He was built like a twig; scrawny and dinky, his legs looked too long for him, even if he was as small as he was. He did look rather dashing though. He had an irregular blaze that was rather prominent against his rich chestnut coloring.

Either way both horses looked smashing in their warm ups and they were both headed towards the gate, both jockeys were eager to match these two up against each other and see how they fared. Neither of them seemed to have an issue with the gate surprisingly and both broke cleanly, which was a miracle as last week Abe had stumbled out of the gate and nearly thrown Jessie out of the saddle.

Abe sprinted to the lead and Jazzy was hot on his tail, she may have shown signs of being more of a closer-type horse but she could press anyone to go faster if she wished. Abe wasn’t letting her get as close as Jazzy would have liked though. His ears flopped and every once in awhile he would flick one back to see if Jazzy was still there to pester him and perked them back to Jessie waiting for a cue to go faster.

Jazzy on the other hand didn’t seem too worried in her current position, she was letting Alex control her every move. It was odd that she was somewhat weary about him on the ground but fully trusted him when he was on her back.

The pair flew from the first turn onto the backstretch and Alex let out some rein for Jazzy to push Abe slightly faster, and she did just exactly that. Their workout was quickly becoming a game of cat and mouse, Jazzy occasionally bombarding Abe for every once in awhile.

Soon the final turn was over and Jessie kissed and shook the reins for Abe to launch his bid, and launch his bid he did. He set his hoof into the dirt and flew off of it, launching himself a length ahead of Jazzy with a single stride and he kept pulling away after that. However, Jazzy’s momentum carried her quickly in pursuit and when Alex gave her the okay to go she flew after the small chestnut colt. There was no way she was letting him get away with beating her, not today. Her long hearty legs tore up the dirt as she launched herself into a duel with the colt ending with her the victor by a nose. There was little question, these two were ready for their debut, but the question was, was their competition up to the plate?