The sun shone brightly through Sierra's window, pouring over her sleepy form curled up in a ball.

The sun isn't out. I'm dreaming it is, really. See - I'm asleep and it's morning, it must be a dream.

"Sierra! Get your butt out of bed if you want warm breakfast!"

Okay, not sleeping now

"Coming." She mumbled into her pillow, for some reason not realizing the dampening effect feathers have on a croaky morning voice

She looked up, taking in her new room through blurry eyes. It was a good sized room, white cream walls with her horse pictures and awards on the floor waiting to be hung up. She smiled at the happy memories, but it was tinged with a melancholy droop at the fact that she had not been that happy in a very long time. She missed riding; there was no way around it. She could mope around and be depressed and lethargic or do something about it.

This is a new life and a new place and I'm going to take advantage of it, she pledged. I just hope breakfast hasn't gone cold.

And she slipped her black cheetah print slippers on and ran down the stairs toward the kitchen where lovely cinnamon smells were wafting from.

"Ooh, french toast, my favorite." Sierra said, leaning over the pan and sniffing appreciatively.

"Well, we got all the stuff to make it at the grocery store so I thought I would try out this whole cooking thing myself." Jasmine said while flipping an egg battered piece of bread half in the pan and half out.

"Real smooth sis, you could have just cut it in half if you wanted half a piece instead of making a mess." Letta piped up from the doorway, plodding over to a chair and plopping down with a groan. Needless to say, she was not a morning person.

Sierra could go either way, she never liked getting out of a warm, cozy, comfy, lovely, soft, wonderful, ..ahem…bed, but once she got herself away from the clutches of the bed she was awake and alert. Jasmine was a morning person, 'rise and shine to a new day' was her style, much to the annoyance of two younger sisters who much preferred getting to know the every stitch and line of their comforters and pillows every morning.

"I would like to see you try and flip this thing in your morning state" Jasmine said, looking over her shoulder to shoot a half annoyed, half amused glare at Letta, who at the moment was laying her head on the table mumbling incoherent things about Strawberry flavored gum. Letta is obsessed with gum, no particular reason, but she would most definitely win if there were every such a thing as Bubble Gum Jeopardy. Random, I know.

"Well I think it was very sweet of you," Sierra said while snagging two pieces onto a plate and giving her sister a rare, one armed hug.

"Thank you Sierra, at least someone cares about all the trouble I go through for you guys" Jasmine said sitting down at the small dining table in the adjacent room. It was a bright room at the front of the house with the sun coming from the side. Jasmine put down a plate for herself and Letta, and they ate in companionable silence until Sierra spoke up.

"Do we have phone book somewhere?"

Jasmine's face scrunched as she tried to think, Letta oblivious any human tongue was uttered.

"I think there was one in the little closet under the stairs, the old owners of the house left it here since it wouldn't help them any, moving to a different place and all. I'll go grab it" Jasmine said, walking out of the room and returning with a fairly slim book of thin slippery pages.

"Here you go" She said dropping it in front of Sierra. "What do you need it for anyway?"

"I just wanted to see if there were any places to ride around here, I mean, there are pastures full of horses everywhere, but I want to train, not trail ride. I'm not going to get any better walking around with the bugs and the grass." Sierra replied, flipping through the pages.

"There's nothing under horse! No! They have to have something, this is terrible." Sierra started frantically flipping and turning the pages, eyes roving over them, mumbling "Horsey horsey horsey" under her breath.

"Yo, psycho horse girl, calm down. Take a breath and let me see." Jasmine leaned over to reach for the book; Sierra looked up with untrusting eyes, clutching it close to her. "Jesus girl, I only want to help, now hand it over."

The frantic look melted away and Sierra handed it over. Jasmine turned one page and pointed to a yellow square with 'Fox Run Farm – Boarding & Training' written in it and a phone number underneath.

"What about this one?" She said, looking over at a slightly abashed Sierra. "That was really hard huh." Jasmine laughed, looking at her shamefaced expression. "Nothing to get all worked up about now was it?"

"I suppose so" she mumbled.

Twenty minutes laterSierra was in her room getting dressed, ready to drive over to Fox Run Farm and meet Maureen, the barn manager and owner. Hopefully she would be able to figure out a deal that would work out for both of them, anything that involved any kind of riding was fine with her, she just needed to get back in a saddle.

She picked up a pair of regular medium high flare jeans. All she owned were jeans and maybe a couple pairs of off white pants and one black pair. All of them were tight and stretchy and comfortable. Half of them were low rise, but some she kept with a higher waist so she could ride in them without showing the world a section of her body just a tad lower than her back. Something that had embarrassed her greatly at one time and was not an experience she wanted to go through again any time soon.

Flipping through one of her drawers she didn't find any shirts and went to look through the last couple un-packed boxes of her things and found a short sleeved stretchy tee with "Live to Ride, Ride to Live!" printed on it in flowing cursive. It was one of her favorite riding shirts since it was so true for her.

Slipping her clothes on along with black riding boots she thumped down the stairs grabbing the keys on her way down.

"I'm going now, give me a call on the cell if you need anything, I'll be back in a couple hours!" Sierra called through the house. A couple 'Okay, see ya later's were heard before she opened the door and out to the car.

Taking a look at the directions that Maureen had given her over the phone she made her way past the beautiful farm houses and green pastures. Even if it was a huge jump from her old city life, she preferred this natural beauty. She opened the window and inhaled the fresh, earthy smells.

Only about 8 minutes later she was pulling up the drive of a large and very well kept venue. It had large expanses of greenery and bight flowers lined the large professional looking stables. She hopped out of the car following the main path to what she hoped was the main office, breathing in the wonderful scent of horses. She looked around her at the large arenas to the side of the barns, it was covered with high grand-stand seating lining the far side. Walking under the shade of the cover her eyes adjusted and she saw so many familiar and wonderful things she was nearly bursting with anticipation. All the oxers and water jumps looked so inviting, she was itching to get on a horse and try them again.

Just before she was ready to turn and run the rest of the way to the office yelling for someone to get her a horse now before I have a break-down, a flash of dapple gray in the corner of the ring caught her eye. The horse was magnificent, attitude, boldness, and intellgence showed through like a bright light. He was doing everything asked of him, and then Sierra noticed the rider.

She cocked her head to the side and just watched the two jump the same fences she had done a few months ago. The rider was a guy, and a very good rider at that. She couldn't really point out any flaw, there were some little things she could tell he needed to work on, but that would be very picky of her. The horse was what she loved, she would die to have one ride on him, he looked like the kind of horse that would take you anywhere you wanted to go.

Flashing a friendly smile asthe pair canteredby she walked off to see Maureen.

Maureen was a sweet looking elderly lady who looked like she had seen a lot of sun in her days. She had dark tanned skin with wrinkles starting to show, but a warm grandmother like smile that instantly made you want to trust her with all of your secrets.

"Hello darling, please, take a seat." She said in a slightly high pitched, cracklingvoice, motioning to the cushy brown chair in front of the desk.

Sierra sat down and shook her hand, "Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm Sierra."

"Yes, the young lady on the phone. I was thinking about your situation and what you had said and I think I have a good idea if you agree."

Sierra nodded her head up and down quickly, eager for anything Maureen had planned for her.

"Well, if you could come down here six days out of seven, leaving Monday as the barn's day off, you could work around the barn, doing regular chores that need doing and such and in return you could ride one horse each of the days you work. So, if you don't have time on one day you can do chores for two days and not ride, and then ride two horses another day. Make sense?"

Sierra listened carefully to what she just heard and nearly jumped out of the chair singing halleluiah. It was much better than she had thought it would be. So she wouldn't be getting personal training, she could always ask other people around the barn to watch her ride and give her pointers. "Maureen, I would absolutely love it if I could do that. It sounds very fair, and thank you so much for the offer."

"No thanks needed" she said smiling "I just got a new free worker and an exercise rider. I should be thanking you for all the help."

Sierra decided to be bold (when is she not?) and asked, "Do you think I could get one lesson a week, or just have someone watch me ride to make sure I'm still doing everything right.?"

"I think that is doable, I can think of someone who wouldn't mind helping to train a young lady like yourself. You say you are fairly advanced in Show Jumping, correct?" Maureen asked, trying to remember what Sierra had told her over the phone.

"Yes, I was training and competing with my own horse just a few months ago in the A-Circuit." Sierra tried to say modestly. She had been very good, and had boxes full of ribbons, not all 1st places, but a few Championships thrown in the mix. She knew she needed to practice some more before she would be at that level again, but she wasn't that out of shape, and riding horses was like riding a bike, you may not be perfect when you get back on, but you never forget it.

"Oh yes, that's right. It will be good to have another top rider at the barn under our name. At the moment we have a few riders at your level, and possibly above that I am sure you would love toexchange notes with." Maureen looked down at her desk-top calendar then back to Sierra, "Now when did you want to get started?"

"As soon as possible would be perfect." She said, and the two women spent the next hour figuring out what time and all the details then got caught up just talking about horses.

It was nice to just talk to a fellow rider; Sierra didn't realize how much she had missed simply the atmosphere of a riding stable.

"It was lovely talking to you Maureen, but my sisters are waiting at home to use the car most likely." Sierra said smiling at the elderly woman. "I will see you tomorrow, ten o'clock. Thanks again."

Maureen raised a hand in farewell, "Your very welcome Sierra, come into my office first thing and I will acquaint you with my other assistant and he can show you where everything is and such. I'm looking forward to having you join us."

Whack! ….oowwww. Pain, lots of pain.

Man, the dirt is a lot harder then it looks. Rhiley thought as he carefully got up and checked for injuries. Apparently Charlie got bored with the exercises Rhiley was having him do and decided to make things more interesting by dumping his dear rider into the dirt while he careened away neighing to the whole barn and probably bragging about what he had done.

Rhiley brushed the dirt bits off and shook his head at Charlie's antics, you really had to keep on your toes with him. He was a fabulous horse, but with all the good came a heck of a lot of mischief with it. He lifted his blue eyes at the sound of light laughter coming from across the ring. He caught site of the girl he had seen before and realized she must have seen him get thrown off.

Great, now the little dim wit will think I'm a crappy rider when I bet she can't even stay on at the walk.

He couldn't really explain why he thought she was some new beginner. She did seem too old to be one, she looked the same age as him in fact, but some people started really late. You never know, maybe she thought it was easy to ride, and she could make her parents spend loads of money of her for a little of her amusement. He frowned at the thought, people like that really annoyed him, and she hadjust stood there staring at him like he was some kind of prized meat to be inspected before. He knew he wasn't the ugliest person, but did she have to stare like that? She just watched him as he went around the ring, or at least he thought she was staring at him. It was kind of unnerving.

Then she had flashed him a bright smile and it made her look…well…pretty. He still thought she was probably a spoiled brat child, and looking over at her giggling just now didn't help any. He decided to ignore her and went over to grab Charlie, who at the moment was happily chewing experimentally on a wooden standard.

"Hey! Knucklehead, get over here you silly monster." He grinned affectionately at him as the horse pricked his ears and posed his most innocent face.

"You know, you're getting pretty good at that face, the next time I see it I'm not only going to think you did something bad, I'll know it. You never try so hard if you actually didn't do anything you know." Rhiley chatted to his stallion, rubbing his ears even though he was bad. It wasn't really Charlie's fault he was young and bored. He didn't really mean any harm, so Rhiley just got back on and finished his ride, the giggling girl long forgotten.