Cross Thoroughbred Racing Facility

[Story]

Adam stared down at Charlie, expression unreadable. Most little girls her age would probably scream at the mention of a spider or hide behind their dad's legs, but Charlie was asking for one. "That'd be up to your mother. You can ask her later." He assured before tipping his head. He finally decided it was time to bring PV out to the pasture. "Do you want to help me bring PV outside?" He would, of course, be holding the lead rope, but Charlie could also hold the rope, so long as she was on the side away from PV, lest he step on her. He was a big horse and not always aware of where he placed his feet. He'd stepped on a cat that had situated himself in the barn, and the cat had avoided the colt for weeks after.

[Horse]

(Nice, haha)

Charlie's eyes got bright and she giggled. "Mom's afraid of spiders though." The toddler said matter-of-factly. "Peeeweeee." Charlie crooned in answer. The bay splash colt was obviously one of her favorite horses. "He's so pretty." She mused, eyes wide in wonder as they moved closet to his stall.

[hm... When should I start my plans? >:]

[Story]

[Well, if it involves Sadie getting hurt, I guess now is as good a time as ever...?]

"Tell that to Aunt Fay." Adam said quietly, patting PV's neck before moving to fetch his halter. "Her horse was his mama. Her name was Tempered Grace." He said, as he returned with the halter. "They looked a lot alike." He added as an afterthought. Gracie had been a pretty mare, but she hadn't been really nice. She'd been more favorable of Fay than anyone else. She didn't like people, but she'd grudgingly accepted Fay.

[Horse]

[k. Let me write up a post]

Charlie wriggled a little. "Okay." She said quietly and smiled widely as she held out a hand to PV when they reached his stall. She babbled a little to the colt, though, she was starting to grow out of the baby talk.

[Horse]

The sky was overcast; a heavy gray blanket that hung low in the air. It was humid, and sweat clung to the back of Sadie's neck and upper lip. Her hands were a little shaky as she gripped the dark leather of LuLu's reins. The pair had left earlier that morning for a large track about two hours from Cross. Sadie had dropped her daughter off at the daycare, as both her and Adam were racing today. This was the race that was going to determine whether Sadie was going to retire Sunkissed Lullaby or continue to race her for another season or so. 

The dirt of the track spread out before the owner and horse as they were warming up. The normally high-strung horse was uncharacteristically calm, she was pulling for her head, and she didn't try to bite the outrider's horse either. They neared the gates, and that is when Sadie became a little nervous. She didn't know why, but her stomach began to churn uneasily. She dismissed it as uneasiness for LuLu's outcome. She still didn't know what her decision would be at the end of the day on whether to retire her or continue on. 

LuLu loaded easily, and since they were one of the first pairs to be loaded, they had some quiet time while the rest were being loaded. Sadie dropped her stirrups for a moment, rubbing the cherry bay's neck. She murmured soothingly as the filly sidestepped, her ears flicking back to catch her owner's words. She replaced her feet into the irons and pulled down her irons, eyes closing as she focused on the goal at hand. 

A few seconds after her eyes flicked open, the bell rang chillingly, making her heart beat spike to her throat. Time seemed to move in slow motion as the gate bounced open, and LuLu shot off. Sadie clung onto her mane, eyes flicking under her elbow as they settled next the off-white rail. A pack of about five racers formed behind her, and three were competing for the lead in front of her. She was confident in her place. LuLu was great at coming up from the middle of the pack and stealing the lead. 

The pace and pounding of hooves against earth rang in Sadie's ears, the familiar spike of adrenaline sent her heart hammering as they thundered around the last corner. Sadie had LuLu hug the rail around the turn, and as soon as the back stretch came into view, Sadie gave LuLu her head. It seemed that the filly had an extra reserve of speed as she shot forward once more, passing the third and second horses. Sadie and LuLu came up behind the lead bay, a determined sheen in both of their eyes. They were neck and neck, nose to nose, and the wire was approaching, a dozen yards, a handful of feet. 

When something snapped, there was the faintest crack, and Sadie's heart sank. Yet again, everything slowed down, to the point she knew exactly what was going on. LuLu's head was too low, it didn't look natural. The ground was too close, and the sky too far away. One second, Sadie was securely on LuLu's back, the next, she was sailing through the air, an endless spin cycle of gray, brown, gray, brown. 

She hit the ground hard, and rolled, the earth shaking with the other seven horse's hooves as they cascaded past. She was numb, and couldn't make sense of what had happened. In her peripheral, she saw a brown mass overhead, coming down hard, with flailing hooves, as it came crashing down. The sky started to darken, before everything faded to an engulfing black. 

[Spotify]

Hope hadn't been doing too well. Her riding had gone south and she hadn't done much of anything besides trying to drink herself to death.

The girl giggled softly as she stumbled across the small clearing that lead up to the house. A half drank bottle of Jim Beam in her hand.

I have no muse whatsoever.

[Spotify]

The eagles in The Lord of the rings!! ?

[Story]

[If you're implying that Adam has races today, recall, that he was supposed to go to Santa Anita for some stakes races. Um...I probably have like Fay or something. Or Aiden could get called away from the office...?]

[Horse]

[Yeah, I know he was supposed to leave....

Erm... We could skip like a week or something?idk]

[Story]

[Mm, I guess. Are you wanting Adam to have a race there, too, or is it fine if it's Fay? Just know I'll be slow. I'm about to break out my tablet and draw w/ it for the first time in forever.]

[Horse]

[er... Either or I guess. I don't care who it is.. You start?]

[Story]

Naturally, word about an accident reached those in the jockey room rather swiftly. Even without the TV livestreaming the races, he found out rather quickly. None of the jockeys were going to let him forget that he'd been married to her once. "Shit! Apparel, ain't Sunkissed Lullaby your ex wife's horse?"

Adam held his breath for a moment before forcing it out, turning to look at the jockey that had spoken. "Yeah." He spoke shortly. "Why?" He was rather irritated that he was being bothered. He'd been focused on wrapping some tape around his beat up old whip, getting a rhythm going, when he'd been distracted.

"Well, eh, the filly just broke down before the wire. She went down with the horse. Medics are there right now."

Adam didn't respond for a long moment. He just stared at his whip, struggling to push everything down. Sadie was fine. She knew how to roll to avoid injury. She knew to curl up into the fetal position and to try to roll under the railing. They'd all been taught that. He finally swore under his breath, threw his whip down, and moved over to the TV to take a look. Moments later, he was striding out of the jockey room in just an undershirt, boots, and his jodhpurs. He needed to figure out all that was going on. He'd have to, no doubt, contact Charlie's sitter and give her an update that she might need to watch for a little while longer.

He ducked under the railing, ignoring the official that tried to stop him. "I need to figure out what's going on. I know her. She's my...was my wife. We've got a kid together. I gotta make sure she's okay." He shoved past the gray-haired man, scrambling over to see what the medics were doing, while also trying to see where LuLu was.

[Horse]

By the time Adam got out to the track, the scene was wrapping up a bit. LuLu was on her feet, but refused to put any weight on her front foreleg. The filly was trembling, the whites of her eyes visible as she shook her head from side to side at the gate worker that was trying to grab her reins. To all appearances, she was fine with what looked like a serious leg injury. The vet was just arriving, and preparing to take the injured racer in to see what needed to be done.

Sadie, on the other hand, was a different story. Two medics were working on her, one flicking her eyelids open and checking her pupils while the other was performing CPR. "No response in her pupils, I can't feel a pulse either." One said to the other, his teeth gritting and his eyes wide.

Sadie looked... well, crumpled. Her left arm was at a weird angle, her knee disconnected. Blonde hair fell out from her helmet, and was stained and matted with drying blood. To say the least, she was pretty beat up. "C'mon..." The medic doing CPR growled, eyes wild. "She's gotta have internal bleeding... That filly landed right on her torso." The other one commented, a finger pressed again to Sadie's neck.

The other one didn't respond, eyes focused on the ground. "Wait, wait. I feel a beat." He paused, looking over his shoulder to the waiting ambulance. "I need a stretcher."

The steward put a hand on Adam's shoulder, eyes empathetic at the activity going around them. "C'mon. You don't need to see this."

[Story]

Adam shoved the man's hand away, glancing back toward Lulu. He moved over to hold her head, since he knew her. He'd wait until she calmed down a bit, so the vet could take a look at her. He kept looking over his shoulder at the paramedics as they went about their job. There was an obvious need to be extremely careful, given that Sadie could have spinal injuries. Any sort of movement could leave her paralyzed. It'd be another minute or two before he had to worry about trying to hitch a ride to the hospital with her. If he was denied, fine, he'd ensure that LuLu was taken care of, not put down, but properly attended to, and when she was stable enough, be shipped to Cross. He'd pay for that himself if necessary. He wanted that filly to be alright.

Additionally, he would need to see if he could get out of his race, or if he was absolutely required. It wasn't going to be an enjoyable evening either way. He knew that Sadie would be rushed to surgery. Her injuries pretty much guaranteed that and an extended hospital stay. He needed to get everything organized and God, all he could hear was what the paramedics had said. I can't find a pulse....she's gotta have internal bleeding...landed right on her torso.

That was similar to what had happened back with Gallant Marines' breakdown. Really, it had been compared to how Go For Wand had broken down. There'd been that extra step on the injured leg, down onto the knee, and then flipping. The only difference was that Randy Romero had been thrown ahead of his horse and not been rolled over. Adam had.

But now here, it was happening again.

[Horse]

LuLu calmed down to all appearances, and she snuffled nervously at Adam's hair, eyes still wide and her breath quivered in her throat. She made a low-moaning noise as she shifted a step away from the proving vet. The vet gruffly said thank you, because know she could attend to the filly better.

The medics were prepping her for the ambulance. They were extremely careful and as they moved the immobile jockey onto the stretcher. Her head lolled to one side until a neck brace was placed, and her helmet removed extremely tactfully. One was examining the injury to the back of her head, nose wrinkled as he gently pushed aside the mane of the blonde hair.

"C'mon, let's get her loaded. Time is of the essence." Somebody said from the ambulance, and another piped up. "You coming Apparel?" It was one of the well known paramedics on the track. He was well liked and respected, and worked hard at his job. Though, right now, his face was grim. Sadie was being loaded up as he spoke.