Pets: A black Anglo-Arabian mare named Foxfire, a black blanket Appaloosa gelding named Sarge, a golden dun Akhal-Teke gelding named Emir, and a bay Thoroughbred mare named Dilara.
Spoken languages: Turkish, English
Aysel Roxelana Durmaz was born to Leyla Bulut and Ceyhun Durmaz on one chilly November night in Erzincan, Turkey. Her family business was breeding and training racehorses.
Aysel fell in love with jumping at the age of seven and dressage at the age of nine despite her family's specialty in racing. While she loved to help exercise the racehorses, there was something incredibly freeing about making a difficult jump. Her family may be in the horse world, but her love for the animals developed entirely.
She excelled in jumping and dressage. Ribbons flowed in, along with offers for schools. With her family's connections, she could secure a top trainer that could take her all the way to the Turkish equestrian team bound for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Aysel proved she was skilled on the team, winning a couple of gold medals and a few silver medals.
Sabotage by a competitor changed Aysel's life completely when she took a jump on the eventing course and crashed her horse into the water.
Her leg, knee, and hip were severely injured and doctors told her she would never walk normally again.
Leyla and Ceyhun did their best to find a rehab best suited for Aysel's needs and after months of hard work and every ounce of stubbornness she possessed, she walked out of the program.
Aysel moved to Half Moon Bay with money left over from her winnings in London. Her parents agreed to foot the rest of the bill as long as she agreed to extend their business to the United States. Their other stipulation was if she married the son of a family friend.
santiago had made himself comfortable in the woman's house. "thanks for meeting with me." the man began. "as you know em is carrying our first child and asides me freaking out and worrying that something is going to happen or that we arent going to be prepared.. i wanted to get with you to see if you think that you could maybe throw her a baby shower." he suggested, "i don't know when people are supposed to get them.. but i just wanted to make sure that she gets one." he knew he was probably overthinking she had family and friends who would make sure all that was taken care of when the time came but he couldnt help but wanting to make sure.
Santiago wasn't even a cousin-in-law by now. He was a brother-in-law. Aysel saw her cousin as a sister and the baby she carried was a niece or nephew. "I'd love to. Do you want to keep it a surprise or do you want me to talk to her about it?" she offered. Already, her mind raced with possible people to include. Sanem, of course, went without saying, and she was fairly confident in at least her mother attending.
"we got ivy but thats the closest we're getting. i can give her a bell and see what she thinks, but other than that i'm all out of ideas. i'll be honest, i thought you'd take one look an' know exactly what the fuck was going on," but clay realised that aysel wasn't a magician and did, in fact, need to do a little more in ways of diagnosis. he hadn't ever been to a hospital himself, being born in a barn on hay bales and blankets and fixing his own wounds with sewing needles ever since. who could blame him for misunderstanding?
clay, being a cowboy since birth, having donned his first pair of ropers the second he could stumble, disappeared for a moment to retrieve the rope. it was coiled around his elbow by the time he sauntered back, handed off to aysel. his arms then crossed over his chest and he leaned against the barn slats. "none of those sound mighty pretty."
"It's a common misconception, but a vet would really be a good confirmation for a diagnosis," she replied. Aysel accepted the rope and gently knelt down beside the mare before clipping it to her halter. Her breathing felt shaky in front of her hand and Aysel's hand smoothed along her side.
She had seen fatigue syndrome several times growing up and it appeared to be so.
"It looks like exhaustion syndrome, but the good news is, it's fixable and I don't think we're too late to keep her from developing colic," she informed him once she moved a stethoscope from the mare's heart and towards her stomach. "It's definitely not pregnancy, but she does have a bit of a hay belly. The bad news is, she's completely out of commission until she's feeling better. No one can ride her or work her until then. Make sure she has access to clean water and her own source, so dumping out that trough and scrubbing it out to get rid of any algae or dead bugs is a must."
She gently tugged at the lead rope and clicked her tongue until the mare sluggishly pulled herself to her feet. "Good girl," she murmured and her fingers gently ran over the mare's face. Electrolytes, starch, laying off hay. It was a benefit from being raised around them. "It looks like we caught it early when she's just lethargic. Maybe lay off the hay a bit and replace it with barley and soaked beet pulp for now until it helps her metabolism get back up. The extra fiber will encourage her to drink water. Have someone keep an eye on her manure and make sure she's not nudging her belly. She can exercise lightly, such as walking, but I wouldn't ride her for a while. Definitely have a vet come out here to confirm."
quicker than you could say shania twain, clay's rust-orange pickup bumbled over the dirt road and up to the de luca's property. it was littered with barns and hay bales, and the blonde parked roughly as though he had no regard for the land beneath his wheels (he didn't). if his boss questioned why he had parked like such a maniac, he'd simply insist he was concerned about the livestock.
"over here," clay instructed as they strode through the sun-bleached grass, the thick fog of may humidity. unlocking the bar doors and allowing them to swing open, he gestured towards the sickly little thing curled up in the corner. "now, if you need me to grab anything t' make this easier, jus' give me a shout."
The bag fortunately wasn't heavy as Aysel trekked through the grass behind the cowboy before her. She spotted the mare ahead, sickly and uncharacteristically curled up. Her hand stretched out to let her get used to her presence before kneeling down.
"Do you happen to have a vet on call? I think we could talk to someone and get a professional's opinion and some bloodwork done. It could be any number of things, water contamination, colic, worms," she listed off and pulled a stethoscope out of her bag. She placed one end on the horse's belly to listen for hitches in breathing. Her dark eyes shot up to the person beside her. "Would you be so kind as to get me a lead rope, please? I would like to see how she moves," she requested.
serenity did her best to keep her gaze focused on her things in front of her and not tracking every movement of the woman across from her. was this how it felt for anyone who ever met their celebrity figures? her voice felt nearly trapped in her throat as her heartbeat echoed so loudly in her ears she thought it would be audible to the persons at the tables around them. still, she tried her best to remain calm, to exude an air of ease. at her words, the oh girl quickly waved off her concerns. ❛❛ intrusive? oh not at all. the tables more than plenty big. ❜❜ she offered her a cordial smile, hoping that she wouldn't recognize just how flustered she was.
It was entirely likely Aysel was simply bothering the person across from her. A blog post wasn't going to write itself and it was time to map out her schedule for writing up until the next two weeks. At some point, she'd need to dedicate herself to a break.
And the problem was, her break couldn't happen until midsummer, when everything slowed down.
"I'm actually about to go get myself something to eat, can I get you anything while I'm up?" she offered her tablemate. At the very, very least, a sandwich from the bakery was better than nothing. "It's the least I could do."
"Right? Like who wants to drag someone's ass to the finish line in a lifetime marathon." It sounded so abhorrent that if that was her only option left when it came to the species of men, Devon would be rather content in her singleness for the rest of eternity. That stress and baggage was not necessary at all.
"Good! I'm glad to hear it." Maximum was a quirky horse. Sweet and definitely aloof. It made sense considering he was named by a three-year old in town. However, he was one of Devon's favorite horses at the ranch. "Oh how exciting! I definitely need to be here for those feeds for sure," she beamed as she ran her hand across one of the horses. "How have things been with you?"
"I think the term is riding on someone's coattails?" she commented with a tilt of her head and a small smile. Aysel refused to be led full-time or lead full-time; if a relationship wasn't equal, she wasn't interested. Opposites did in fact attract, but it more relayed to someone being neat and someone else being messy, not impeding someone else's progress.
There was something about attention and affection that seemed to help the injured horse heal. After all, it was animalistic nature to thrive with others. Humans acted the same way.
"Things have been busy. I have a clinic coming up within the next week or so, I have investors hopefully coming to help," she added. Even if it wasn't the technical question, Aysel could hopefully dodge it. She knelt down to check the tendon of another horse's leg. "My parents are coming to pick up a few yearlings for full-time training in time for next year's qualifying races. How about you? I'll live vicariously through you for a social life."
Rhea couldn't help the bright smile that was on her face at Aysel's agreement because while she hadn't thought the other would refuse her, she was still so pleased with that response. After all, this would allow her to keep that part of herself still alive and Rhea appreciated that. "I'm more than okay with that...as a child I used to honestly love just walking around with horses and leading them to their water troughs...oh and combing them, it just felt comforting as weird as that sounds."
Never before had Rhea shared these types of things with anyone but it felt easy to tell Aysel maybe because she knew the other shared the same fondness for horses and everything associated with them. "I'd love to start as soon as you have some free time Aysel, so please...let me know and I will free up my schedule for this."
"Studies have shown that being around animals is actually very good for you. It's not necessarily a healing property, but it's been known to lower blood pressure, even help lessen anxiety and depression," Aysel submitted. Though she could argue that her horses, at least, helped her heal. She lost count of how many times she slid from one of her horses' backs in her bid to stay upright.
She held up a finger and flipped through her schedule. "Provided I don't have a cancelation, I do have some time the day after tomorrow," she suggested. Rhea would likely be her last new client for the time being; her packed schedule prevented more. It was then a matter of sacrificing precious rest time. "I have wonderful lesson horses."
he was clueless, fumbling in his desperation and concern for the creature. maybe if he read a book every now and again, he wouldn’t be relying on others for simple information. he worked at the ranch, for waylon’s sake! who had ever heard of a ranch hand that knew nothing about horses?
but he was a bull man. he was enamoured with the animals that could crush him beneath their bodyweight. clay never had been one to shy away from a fight. tearing open the door of his truck, he pondered before replying: “i don’t reckon it’s the water, but i don’t remember about her stomach neither. how do you learn all this stuff?”
"I've owned, raised, and trained horses all my life," she explained. Aysel lost count of how many nights she helped prevent a horse from rolling or stayed up to help a mare foal. Helping with poisoning or colic was nearly second nature. In turn, horses help heal her. "You came to the right place."
It was in her nature to help. She hooked her fingers into the bag in her trunk and moved it up towards the passenger side to keep it in her sight. Time, after all, was of the essence.