Disclaimer: This is a wonderful work of fiction, I do not own SOA or anything related to it, I do however own Taru and her pretty, pretty ponies.

Lady Ramona: You're welcome lovely.

ashleya244: Thanks lovely, more will come along soon.

End Of The Summer - Theory of a Deadman

It's the end of the summer
It's the end of it all
Those days are gone its over now were moving on
It's the end of the summer
But we'll see it all again
So hold on to this moment till then
It's the end of the summer

First Place Prize

=Taru's P.O.V=

I yawned and stretched as I nudged the door of my pickup shut and rubbed at my eyes before rifling through my keys and opening up the office, I checked my messages and emails before starting for the stallion block with Kerrianne in tow.

A series of shrill whinnies greeted us as we stepped through the large double doors, I grabbed my grooming kits and dumped them outside Dev and Duke's stalls before placing my coffee down on top of Dev's grooming box. "Morning handsome," The black stallion snorted nudging his nose into my shoulder and rubbing it leaving a nice wet trail of horse boogers down my shirt. "Thank you for the early Christmas present"

I glanced towards Kerrianne. "Do you want to grab Duke out? Just tie him up outside his stall while I get his breakfast ready"

She nodded taking the halter from my hand, I watched her start towards Duke's stall and smiled softly, she was a quick learner, not very confident but very smart and also helped me remember why I had loved being a mother. I paused looking after her for a moment, that clucky feeling sweeping through my bones as I turned to Dev and buried my face into his neck inhaling his scent and exhaling deeply. "Maybe it's time again Dev," I whispered shifting and glancing at his eye that was watching me carefully. "I'm getting too old to start tossing about and debating this shit and I've done it for too long already" I scratched the base of his ears that were turned backwards and kissed his cheek as he snorted and flexed his jaw grinding his teeth together slightly before trying to nip my shoulder. "Don't" I flicked the tip of his nose, if a horse could look scandalized then he definitely was.

I headed towards the feed room next to Chance's stall and quickly mixed up their feeds before heading back towards the stalls, Dev was in a grumpy mood having to be shut in all night while the others got to run around the paddocks all night but only because he would have gone and gotten filthy after I bathed him and straightened him out the previous day, it had taken me a few hours but now he was trimmed up and clean, not looking like a mangy beast that came from the wilds, he actually almost looked show ring presentable, only another hour of work and he'd be shaped up and ready to strut his stuff in the ring.

I grinned softly putting Dev's feed bucket on the floor in front of him and put Duke's down as well before removing his blanket. "You can groom him up if you want," I motioned to the grooming kit. "Make sure you get all the bedding out of his mane and tail and brush the chalk out of his markings"

Kerrianne nodded and set into work as I moved back to Dev and started to remove his cover before setting into brushing out his coat until he was shining. I picked the bedding out of his mane and tail before brushing them out as well; I brushed the chalk out of his white markings and patted his shoulder before waiting for him to finish his breakfast.

We'd be doing inhand and under saddle classes only, as tempting as the call of the cross country and show jumping courses were I couldn't risk doing further injury to myself.

I moved the bucket to the side and nudged Dev's head up before grabbing the equipment I'd need to plait his mane; Dev was easy to plait, mane and tail simple with a bit of thread but Duke, Duke's mane was thick and long, whenever we'd ridden dressage he'd always had diamonds instead of the usual tiny plaits, easy enough by oh so damn time consuming.

I glanced towards Harry as he came in stretching and yawning. "Mornin' Taru"

"Morning"

"Got everything?"

"As far as I know," I tugged out the checklist I'd made and scanned over it. "Do me a favour and check the truck," I handed him the list. "Make sure everything on there is in it"

He nodded taking the list and scanned over it quickly before heading back out to check the truck.

"What's it like going in the ring? Do you ever get scared?"

I glanced over at Kerrianne as I ran the mane comb through Duke's mane. "All the time but I'm pretty good at hiding it," I grinned softly pulling a few strands apart with my fingers. "Plus I concentrate on my task at hand and whichever horse I'm riding"

"I don't think I'd ever be able to do it"

"Sure you would, it's scary at first but if you concentrate on your task and on your horse then it gets easier," I brushed the comb through his mane again and patted Duke's cheek before grinning softly. "Now to do Dev"

I hopped down from the truck mentally going over my checklist again as I opened up the awnings and set them up properly before unloading Dev and Duke fixing them to the end of the truck with buckets of water. "You know, if you wanted, you could take Duke in the ring, he's a real stud in the ring, knows exactly what to do" I stated as I wiped a rag over Dev's inhand bridle and hung it back up.

"I don't think I could, I'd be too scared"

"You don't need to worry Kerrianne, I'll be right outside the ring and Duke knows exactly what to do, he's done it a million time before, all you need to do is what the judge tells you, they'll give you a sign of what they want you to do," I gathered both show rugs for the boys and threw them over their backs fixing them in place before stretching. "I'll tell you what, I'll pick you up a number and sign you up for a class and if you don't want to go then you don't have too, alright?"

She thought about it for a moment before nodding. "Alright"

"Excellent, you should fit some of my old showing outfits"

"What do you usually wear?"

"To show Dev?" I queried, she nodded lightly. "Usually a pair of white or tan boot cut pants, belt and either a red button up shirt or the full hog with white shirt, red jacket and stock," I grimaced lightly. "I try to avoid the stock if I can because it's a pig of a thing to tie but it looks tidy" I rifled through the small wardrobe and pulled out several outfits and handed them to her. "White or tan pants are a must when it comes to showing a dark horse"

"Why?"

"It helps the judge distinguish your legs from your horse's," I explained. "As long as the jacket or shirt looks smart and tidy it shouldn't really matter what colour and usually if you throw your hair up in a bun or pony tail it should be alright without a hat"

I stepped out of the tack room and glanced around at the other trucks and trailers pulling in and the people bustling about touching up their horses for the day.

"So what events are you going to enter?"

"With Dev, there's an all stallion inhand class, an all stallion under saddle class, then there's a thoroughbred inhand class and a general ridden class for horses aged seven to ten and with Duke there's a native breeds inhand class and a general inhand class," I grinned patted Duke's neck. "We'll show them the old timers still have the moves, aye bud" I stroked his cheek softly.

Duke snorted softly giving a soft bob of his head and let out a soft whinny before Dev threw up his head drowning him out with a shrill bellow of a whinny drawing the attention of a few nearby people and horses, several of them answering him with their own shrill whinnies.

"Alright, alright, keep it down," I rubbed at my ear to stop the ringing and patted his neck giving him a marshmallow. "Plus there's going to be a supreme champion ribbon up for grabs with the Thoroughbred, stallion and native classes, I think there might be one for the general inhand class too," I started setting up the temporary fencing on one side of them with a warning hanging off it that there was a stallion about. "I'll be back in a minute with the numbers and everything else"

Kerrianne gave a nod settling down with Buster in the door to the living quarters.

I wiped away a bead of sweat and took a drink out of my bottle before settling back in my chair under the shade of the awning. Both horses busy dozing under the shade of their own awnings, so far Dev had gained a first for his ridden class and shown exemplar behaviour in his thoroughbred class winning reserve champion, much to the dismay of a man with a very stunning looking chestnut mare who was edged out of both champion and reserve champion by Dev and a very beautiful blood bay gelding, and Duke had won a first for his native inhand class.

I shifted crossing my ankles again on top of the small table before flipping over another page on my book, several of Dev's fans had turned out today as well, each one coming to seek him out and say hello and give him a pat before wishing him the best of luck for his classes, one little girl had even made him his own special ribbon. I glanced back at both horses as Dev let out a yawn and grinned softly watching him lower his head dozing off again, his tail swishing to flick away a fly or two.

"Decided whether you want to go in the class yet?"

Kerrianne looked up and shook her head lightly. "I don't think I could"

I shut my book over and gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm sure you could, Duke's a seasoned pro at these things, he'll walk you through all the steps, all you've got to do is remember what I taught you this morning"

She bit her lip worrying it between her teeth for a moment before looking to the two horses. "OK, I'll try"

I gave a nod and a smile. "You'll do great," I closed my book over and sat up properly. "Your class is an hour before mine so I'll be just outside the ring," I checked the watch around my wrist. "But in saying that we need to kit up and get ready," I nodded to the truck. "Go get changed while I get Duke all touched up" I stood putting my book away and grabbed my gear hurrying around to Duke who was dozing lazily beside Dev, Duke head serving as a headrest for Dev as they rested.

I grinned softly slipping between the two of them. "Alright boys, time to wake up"

Dev snorted softly letting out a loud yawn and shifted his weight from one foot to the other before dozing off again as I started to put the finishing touches on Duke.

I twisted looking over at Kerrianne as she rounded the side of the truck. "You look great"

She smiled sheepishly and patted Dev's neck. "Can you help me pull back my hair? I could never pull it back properly"

"Sure," I tightened the throatlash on Duke's bridle and kissed his cheek before slipping under Dev's neck and motioning for her hair tie. I gathered Kerrianne's hair and ran a brush through it quickly twisting it up into a bun and fixing it into place. "Alright, let's get down there"

She gave a nervous smile as I handed her Duke's lead and followed beside me as we headed towards the ring.

Ok, so I've been away for awhile and I'm incredibly sorry about that but I've had a lot to deal with recently; for starters I'm sick, like coughing out my lungs sick (I'm slowly getting over this), for another my depression has kicked up a gear and I'm not doing to great on that front and then in the early hours of the morning on the 20th of March my beloved 5 year old black Lab, Kaine, collapsed and died so I'm actually in a very dark and lonely place right now because Kaine was, quite literally, my best friend. The beginning of this year had gotten off to a perfect fucking start and I'm just finding it harder and harder to actually get the will to keep writing, I will keep writing I just need some time to get everything sorted because not only am I dealing with my own depression but also Spencer, our other dog, depression. He's very lonely and very depressed right now which is making it hard to do anything because he hate's being left alone. I will be posting some more soon, I want to post another chap by at least the 16th.