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Description
"Where are you going?" Sean turned around in the room, looking at his daughter, who was opening the door.
"Going for a walk. Will look around the place. Maybe I could find something great." Aileen replied quickly, showing a smile at her father before stepping out from the apartment. The Expo was surely an amazing event, she enjoyed every bit of it last year, so it was no question that she would come this year too. Of course, there were quite a few challenges she needed to fight before she could come to this event. School stuff mostly, but let's not talk about that. At least for now.

She walked through most of the booths, talking a bit with people she knew or want dto talk with - yes, one good place to find friends, and practice how to be a social being. She kind of felt bad for not finding her childhood friend, Mila, who was certainly around. She could never mix her up with anyone else and she knew how her horse looked like. Spider, yes, that cute horse was absolutely a unique coated one. The young lady will surely find her friend and have some words with her. It's been a long time since they had talk for at least some words. And living on different continents doesn't help much.

As she was walking out to the pastures - mostly to see which horses were out and to have some quiet time - she noticed a familiar figure following her, from the other side of the fence. The unique liver chestnut color made her turn immediately, to face her little partner, Marty, happily following the young human. Such a nice boy he was, he really liked his human. Yes, his human, who he genuinely shared with Sky, that loud lass from home. But hey, at least he was on good term with the mare and somehow he liked being around them, posing as a big boy himself too. At this time he stopped, walked directly to the fence, to greet Aileen with a blep and a small neigh.
"Hey boy. Nice to see you." Leen added, walking close to him. Even if they weren't competing, Marty wanted some fun so he was brought over as well. As Aileen was wandering around the expo booths before, she had a bag in her hand, which she placed down on a place where it wouldn't cause any problem and got a thing out of it. It was a nice looking black halter she bought a few minutes before. As she thought, it would fit Marty really well. She looked at the thing, then back at the foal, who was curiously sniffing around. He knew what halter mean, but this had a new scent so he needed to know where this came from.
"Do you like it, boy? I bought it for you." Aileen explained, chucking as the foal blepped at this, as if he was thanking and saying: *What are you waiting for? Let me try it!!*
For a moment the girl was thinking. Yes, only Marty was around at that time - even if she saw some other horses at the other side of this paddock - but should she climb in and try to get the halter on the young Zlesdin and walk him around a bit? She found the climbing in part the most challenging... She still had that invisible power in her heart and mind that pulled her back. She was still afraid. She was standing like a wall of brick for a few seconds, mostly thinking or having her brain shut off, when she heard the foal neighing at her, as if he was telling her: *Come on, it will be fine.* she started to think again, but shook her head immediately.
*Dammit, I will never get through this stupidity* she thought to herself, as she was already climbing through the fence to get to her horse.
The chestnut colt happily bucked around, as he saw him owner being closer to him, pranced around her a few, before he sniffed around.
Aileen meanwhile took some steps in, trying to get to the colt, who for a while had no intentions to stop. But finally he did, letting him getting some hugs and such, before he could try on his new halter.
"As if it was designed to be yours." Aileen admitted as she looked at the young colt with a smile. Marty snorted in agreement, looking behind the girl. Blinking a few, Aileen was in doubt to turn. She was still IN the paddock and who knows which horse would come close at that moment. Darn, maybe it was still not the best idea to come in?

She still remembered that day, when she was forced by some power to stop riding. She was still in Europe, riding at different stables. At that time she had no problems trying out new courses and lessons and God knows why, she found a cross country lesson quite interesting at that day. Her horse was a rather calm gelding at that time, whom she had several classes together with, and even had some free time to bond. But hell, she was still a young teenager and never really thought that the horse could slip, fell, making her loosing balance, getting thrown off by gravity and then almost getting trampled by the confused horse, who managed to stand up sooner than she could. She could not move - even if she only got her arm broken - and she saw all the seconds of the horse trying to find out what has happened and why he lost his balance. It was only a miracle that she didn't get her head or any vulnerable part of her body under the trampling. She spent some good few minutes in the dirt, staring out of her head before the instructor found her. She couldn't even get to the horse at that time.

As these stuff flashed through her mind, she slowly, very slowly turned around, finding - to her surprise and biggest luck - Stroud in front of her, who just like Marty could sense that this human did not feel well. The sooty buckskin stallion even tilted his ears in confusion, but decided to stay calm and only blink a few at the girl. And he even stood as a defensive line, when other curious equines decided to come over to see what this girl was doing there. Stroud knew she was quite different from Sean or John, so he tried the best not to make a scene there. Not like the other joining faces had any bad intentions. Most likely they just wanted to find a new friend. They stayed quiet and stopped a bit further away, until they thought it would be okay to sniff around.

Aileen returned to the Stanley not long after her fall. But she never get close to any of the horses. She couldn't even enter to the barn, let alone touching a horse. She did not understand it. She just... Couldn't. She wanted to, but her body, her mind just couldn't make another step. Everybody told her that it was normal after that fall, but she was just too stubborn, too much she wanted to go back, continue her life as if nothing has ever happened. But she couldn't. She froze every time, she couldn't do what she liked the most, what gave a purpose for her life.
She even had some sleepless nights, trying to figure out what is wrong with her, and what she should tell her mother. Damn, Dianne was the head of a new horse center, her father's family had riders and trainers and there was she... The runt who fell off a horse and never could touch one again. Quite an irony. Dianne however... Understood her daughter very well. Aileen explained how she was afraid and wanted to some to cool off and try new stuff. That is how she spent some time learning languages and shifting schools many times, so she could find a new purpose. But that never came. She went to New York, back to her mother and that was the moment when things started to get better. She met Sky, had quite a lot hard moments, but she could get close to a horse again. And years passed, she could go back to complete, to train... And get around other horses as well. Only a few, but that number was getting higher, even if she still had that freezing feeling...

And here's she now... She was standing, looking carefully around, to see some horses gathering around her. She even let a small "ummm" coming from her mouth, as she was rather confused about this all. She had no reason to run - and couldn't do that either as she was never that running away type - but she truly felt like she could scream or just dig herself under the grass to disappear. But none of them attacked, they were just curiously watching the girl. And there was Marty... The young colt was quite sure that his hooman was feeling not that comfortable around his new friends, so he just gently nudged her side, as if he was saying: It's alright, they are the best. He knew that and he was gladly glanced at the others. Aileen was still quite unsure, but she decided to sit down. She wasn't sure why, though. She felt that it was right to do and she felt somehow tired from just being the frozen dumb around. This point of view of course, wasn't the best, but Stroud was still standing close, like a protecting knight, while Marty was happily sniffing and blepping around, just to try to make his fave hooman to be more comfortable around the group. And as Aileen was sitting there, she noticed that she felt happy. It was still not easy, being around so many horses at the same time, but at that time, it felt better than before. And she felt that this was another step away from that young girl, who couldn't even enter to the barn, those years ago. Still a long way ahead, but she saw that her friends - like Sky, Marty or Stroud - will help her to get over that one strange and scary afternoon...

———————————————
Feel free to slap the Lib, who again had such a rare motivation wave in her life… And now she even wrote something!

I “stole” some wonderful ponies for this image, hope their owners won’t be mad at me for including their precious children on this image (and funny, all of them are Zlesdins hahaha! i noticed this when I was already waay into the piece xD)
From the right:
CBS Karn Evil’s Fest Evil who belongs to KimEnLie
Marty, Aileen and Stroud belong to me
CH Invictus belongs to Trivia-Rose
ZS Crime Noir belongs to Zoubstance
Vegas belongs to OwlieOwl
SBF Coolie Masterclass belongs to Blue-Beryl

And story wise… Aileen fears most of the horses, yet she rides and tries to get over it. She doesn’t really goes close to stranger horses, but she is trying her best and getting her “original” self back ^^
She gets help from lot of places and from a lot of people/horses, so she gets closer to her goals and she tries to befriend new horses, without fear <3
This is an extra for my upcoming Expo pieces (I will upload them soon I think^^)

Reference: Little 'Donkey' Warmblood Foal Stock 6 for Marty
Beautiful Dappled Grey Mare on Paddock 2 for Stroud
For the others, I tried my best, but there are a lot to improve, hehe

Description
"Where are you going?" Sean turned around in the room, looking at his daughter, who was opening the door.
"Going for a walk. Will look around the place. Maybe I could find something great." Aileen replied quickly, showing a smile at her father before stepping out from the apartment. The Expo was surely an amazing event, she enjoyed every bit of it last year, so it was no question that she would come this year too. Of course, there were quite a few challenges she needed to fight before she could come to this event. School stuff mostly, but let's not talk about that. At least for now.

She walked through most of the booths, talking a bit with people she knew or want dto talk with - yes, one good place to find friends, and practice how to be a social being. She kind of felt bad for not finding her childhood friend, Mila, who was certainly around. She could never mix her up with anyone else and she knew how her horse looked like. Spider, yes, that cute horse was absolutely a unique coated one. The young lady will surely find her friend and have some words with her. It's been a long time since they had talk for at least some words. And living on different continents doesn't help much.

As she was walking out to the pastures - mostly to see which horses were out and to have some quiet time - she noticed a familiar figure following her, from the other side of the fence. The unique liver chestnut color made her turn immediately, to face her little partner, Marty, happily following the young human. Such a nice boy he was, he really liked his human. Yes, his human, who he genuinely shared with Sky, that loud lass from home. But hey, at least he was on good term with the mare and somehow he liked being around them, posing as a big boy himself too. At this time he stopped, walked directly to the fence, to greet Aileen with a blep and a small neigh.
"Hey boy. Nice to see you." Leen added, walking close to him. Even if they weren't competing, Marty wanted some fun so he was brought over as well. As Aileen was wandering around the expo booths before, she had a bag in her hand, which she placed down on a place where it wouldn't cause any problem and got a thing out of it. It was a nice looking black halter she bought a few minutes before. As she thought, it would fit Marty really well. She looked at the thing, then back at the foal, who was curiously sniffing around. He knew what halter mean, but this had a new scent so he needed to know where this came from.
"Do you like it, boy? I bought it for you." Aileen explained, chucking as the foal blepped at this, as if he was thanking and saying: *What are you waiting for? Let me try it!!*
For a moment the girl was thinking. Yes, only Marty was around at that time - even if she saw some other horses at the other side of this paddock - but should she climb in and try to get the halter on the young Zlesdin and walk him around a bit? She found the climbing in part the most challenging... She still had that invisible power in her heart and mind that pulled her back. She was still afraid. She was standing like a wall of brick for a few seconds, mostly thinking or having her brain shut off, when she heard the foal neighing at her, as if he was telling her: *Come on, it will be fine.* she started to think again, but shook her head immediately.
*Dammit, I will never get through this stupidity* she thought to herself, as she was already climbing through the fence to get to her horse.
The chestnut colt happily bucked around, as he saw him owner being closer to him, pranced around her a few, before he sniffed around.
Aileen meanwhile took some steps in, trying to get to the colt, who for a while had no intentions to stop. But finally he did, letting him getting some hugs and such, before he could try on his new halter.
"As if it was designed to be yours." Aileen admitted as she looked at the young colt with a smile. Marty snorted in agreement, looking behind the girl. Blinking a few, Aileen was in doubt to turn. She was still IN the paddock and who knows which horse would come close at that moment. Darn, maybe it was still not the best idea to come in?

She still remembered that day, when she was forced by some power to stop riding. She was still in Europe, riding at different stables. At that time she had no problems trying out new courses and lessons and God knows why, she found a cross country lesson quite interesting at that day. Her horse was a rather calm gelding at that time, whom she had several classes together with, and even had some free time to bond. But hell, she was still a young teenager and never really thought that the horse could slip, fell, making her loosing balance, getting thrown off by gravity and then almost getting trampled by the confused horse, who managed to stand up sooner than she could. She could not move - even if she only got her arm broken - and she saw all the seconds of the horse trying to find out what has happened and why he lost his balance. It was only a miracle that she didn't get her head or any vulnerable part of her body under the trampling. She spent some good few minutes in the dirt, staring out of her head before the instructor found her. She couldn't even get to the horse at that time.

As these stuff flashed through her mind, she slowly, very slowly turned around, finding - to her surprise and biggest luck - Stroud in front of her, who just like Marty could sense that this human did not feel well. The sooty buckskin stallion even tilted his ears in confusion, but decided to stay calm and only blink a few at the girl. And he even stood as a defensive line, when other curious equines decided to come over to see what this girl was doing there. Stroud knew she was quite different from Sean or John, so he tried the best not to make a scene there. Not like the other joining faces had any bad intentions. Most likely they just wanted to find a new friend. They stayed quiet and stopped a bit further away, until they thought it would be okay to sniff around.

Aileen returned to the Stanley not long after her fall. But she never get close to any of the horses. She couldn't even enter to the barn, let alone touching a horse. She did not understand it. She just... Couldn't. She wanted to, but her body, her mind just couldn't make another step. Everybody told her that it was normal after that fall, but she was just too stubborn, too much she wanted to go back, continue her life as if nothing has ever happened. But she couldn't. She froze every time, she couldn't do what she liked the most, what gave a purpose for her life.
She even had some sleepless nights, trying to figure out what is wrong with her, and what she should tell her mother. Damn, Dianne was the head of a new horse center, her father's family had riders and trainers and there was she... The runt who fell off a horse and never could touch one again. Quite an irony. Dianne however... Understood her daughter very well. Aileen explained how she was afraid and wanted to some to cool off and try new stuff. That is how she spent some time learning languages and shifting schools many times, so she could find a new purpose. But that never came. She went to New York, back to her mother and that was the moment when things started to get better. She met Sky, had quite a lot hard moments, but she could get close to a horse again. And years passed, she could go back to complete, to train... And get around other horses as well. Only a few, but that number was getting higher, even if she still had that freezing feeling...

And here's she now... She was standing, looking carefully around, to see some horses gathering around her. She even let a small "ummm" coming from her mouth, as she was rather confused about this all. She had no reason to run - and couldn't do that either as she was never that running away type - but she truly felt like she could scream or just dig herself under the grass to disappear. But none of them attacked, they were just curiously watching the girl. And there was Marty... The young colt was quite sure that his hooman was feeling not that comfortable around his new friends, so he just gently nudged her side, as if he was saying: It's alright, they are the best. He knew that and he was gladly glanced at the others. Aileen was still quite unsure, but she decided to sit down. She wasn't sure why, though. She felt that it was right to do and she felt somehow tired from just being the frozen dumb around. This point of view of course, wasn't the best, but Stroud was still standing close, like a protecting knight, while Marty was happily sniffing and blepping around, just to try to make his fave hooman to be more comfortable around the group. And as Aileen was sitting there, she noticed that she felt happy. It was still not easy, being around so many horses at the same time, but at that time, it felt better than before. And she felt that this was another step away from that young girl, who couldn't even enter to the barn, those years ago. Still a long way ahead, but she saw that her friends - like Sky, Marty or Stroud - will help her to get over that one strange and scary afternoon...

———————————————
Feel free to slap the Lib, who again had such a rare motivation wave in her life… And now she even wrote something!

I “stole” some wonderful ponies for this image, hope their owners won’t be mad at me for including their precious children on this image (and funny, all of them are Zlesdins hahaha! i noticed this when I was already waay into the piece xD)
From the right:
CBS Karn Evil’s Fest Evil who belongs to KimEnLie
Marty, Aileen and Stroud belong to me
CH Invictus belongs to Trivia-Rose
ZS Crime Noir belongs to Zoubstance
Vegas belongs to OwlieOwl
SBF Coolie Masterclass belongs to Blue-Beryl

And story wise… Aileen fears most of the horses, yet she rides and tries to get over it. She doesn’t really goes close to stranger horses, but she is trying her best and getting her “original” self back ^^
She gets help from lot of places and from a lot of people/horses, so she gets closer to her goals and she tries to befriend new horses, without fear <3
This is an extra for my upcoming Expo pieces (I will upload them soon I think^^)

Reference: Little 'Donkey' Warmblood Foal Stock 6 for Marty
Beautiful Dappled Grey Mare on Paddock 2 for Stroud
For the others, I tried my best, but there are a lot to improve, hehe