This is a tad self-indulgent it involves an AU in the little known American Saddlebred horse world…my world.
My pen name will at least make sense to you once you have read it though. I don't even really care if nobody
reads it...it would be nice though!

Our World Championship Show is held each year in August in Louisville, KY so when I refer to Louisville this
is what I'm talking about.

The CH status I mention is an award that we give to horse that win many classes over a period of time. They
earn points at shows depending on how they place and once they have earned 18 points they have their CH status.

Saddlebreds are somewhat unique in the horse world because they walk, trot, and canter like most horses, but
also can be taught to do two more gaits called the slow gait and the rack.

We say a horse has lots of chrome when they have a white socks on their legs and/or white on their face.

A "Hand" is 4 inches. Most Saddlebreds are close to sixteen hands, some over 17.

We use a saddle called a cutback that is flat and sits close to the horse. It looks like this:

http:/www freedmanharness

Here are some additional links to help you understand if you want to:

Just put the periods into the spaces to get there

Some highlight videos from last years WC

http:/www usefnetwork com/ASHALive/WCHS2010/

An overview of the different divisions we show in

http:/www asha net/Breed-Show-Ring

The American Saddlebred is mostly known these days as "The Peacock of the Show Ring",
and most people that know of them think they are only shown in the one discipline, but there are also
Saddlebred
Jumpers, Eventers, Carriage, Mounted Cowboy Shooting and Dressage horses. They make
great trail horses too! And no they don't all cost $2 million...I am probably exaggerating a tad there,
but in the upper echelons of any equestrian sport the price tags are ridiculous.

Saddlebreds were used by many in colonial days because they were comfortable to ride. Robert E. Lee's
horse Traveller
was a Saddlebred. TV's Mr. Ed was half Saddlebred and the horse used in Gone With the
Wind for Ashley Wilkes to ride
off to the Civil War on was a 3-gaited American Saddlebred show horse by
the name of Anacacho Rebel.

One last note. If you have watched jumping/dressage on TV the crowd is very quiet. We Saddlebred people
(and our horses) love noise when we show...the more the better. "Yeah boy", wolf whistles, screaming,
yelling, urging your favorite on is all encouraged.

OK enough of that but I wanted you to be able to understand if you wanted to, but you can probably read
it without any of that if you don't mind wondering about the terminology.

No slash, just eventual friendship. Rated T for a little bit of cussing.


Prologue

Dean noticed him as soon as his new horse arrived at the barn. A new groom so unlike all the others in the barn.
He kept to himself, doing as he was asked with a quiet grace and gentleness with the horses that mesmerized Dean.
He wasn't bad looking either. Not overly muscular, but slim and wiry with muscles toned from years of hard work…not
gyms…dark tousled hair...and otherworldly blue eyes that sparkled with an inner joy as he worked with that one particular horse.
Dean's horse.

This new horse his parents had bought for him, Castiel's Dream, was the talk of the horse show circuit last season
when she showed up at Louisville and won the Junior 5-Gaited World's Championship in her only show ever. No one
knew anything about the horse before then. Even her true owner was a mystery since she was registered to a
Corporation that seemed to solely to exist for the purpose of owning the horse.

Dean's parents were wealthy…really wealthy…more money than God wealthy. They had poured millions over the
years into horses, training and riding lessons for Dean and still didn't have a World Championship to show for it.
Dean just wanted to win his first World's Championship. All of his close friends had, even friends whose parents
weren't rich like his. Everyone said he could ride the hair of a horse, but he never seemed to get it right when it
really counted. There was always a misstep, a missed canter lead, a miniscule mistake that meant he was second
and not first.

They bought the best horses for him…horses that previously had won World's Championships…horses that already
had their CH status, but none of them delivered for Dean. Or maybe Dean wasn't delivering from them. He wasn't
sure. He also had no idea why they bought this particular horse for him.

She was a total unknown, unruly and hard to ride. No one had even seen her work outside of the show grounds at
Louisville. His Mother saw her show and decided they had to have her and that was that. Negotiations through the
relatively unknown trainer that had shown her her were difficult. The owner didn't want to sell. They kept coming back
with higher and higher offers until the price reached $2 million. At that point the owner agreed and the deal was done…
still with no idea who the mystery owner was.

Dean didn't even know if he could ride her. Today would be the test. She had arrived several weeks earlier and the
trainer had been working with her to get her ready for Dean. Although they had tried to keep it a secret from him, he
had heard through the grapevine that his trainer had been thrown three times since she arrived. Dean had never
seen his trainer get thrown and it scared him a little. He had always said he'd ride anything once, but this was something
he wasn't sure he was prepared for. He wasn't going to let it show though.

The new groom was leading her out of the stall now, and Dean got his first real look at her. She was big…really big…
over 17 hands at least…and muscular. Imposing. It was unusual for a horse so young to be so filled out. Most black
horses weren't truly black, but she was. The stark black was set off by plenty of chrome…a large white blaze and four
nearly identical white socks. The look in her eyes was wild, but Dean noticed that when he touched her gently she turned
her head and nuzzled him gently.

As she approached Dean he held his hand out and let her sniff it. She drew back with that wild look again, but Dean
squared his shoulders and proceeded to gather his reins and show her who was boss. The new groom looked down
disapprovingly, but said nothing. Dean didn't care...what did some damn groom know anyway. It was a course of action he
would regret later.