Melanie Tara Cochran

[Melanie Cochran]

Full Name: Melanie Tara Cochran
Pronunciation: Mel-annie Tare-uh Cock-wren
Name Meaning/Origin: Melanie means Dark -- Tara means Hill -- Cochran means Clan
Nicknames: Mel, Lani

Age: 17
Religion: No set religion
Birthday: February 2nd, 1992
Gender: Femme

Orientation: Straight
Race: Caucasian
Occupation: None
Hometown: Onion Spring, Texas

Hair Description: Her hair is long-ish and is a reddish brown colour. Lani’s deep auburn locks are naturally pretty straight, though she sometimes curls or scrunches her hair. Her bangs are usually held out of her face with a barrette, but occasionally she forgets and has to live with the tresses falling down in her face.

Eye Color: Pale blue/grey
Face Shape: Soft, slightly round
Body Type: She has a slim, muscular, and slightly pale body that never really gets very tan and stands at a somewhat shorter-than-average 5”4.

Clothing Style: Mel likes comfort clothes, but she also likes to look good. She’s most often seen wearing hip-hugger jeans and tank tops in the summer and long sleeved shirts/sweaters in the winter. She also occasionally wears sundresses and flip-flops. When she’s going riding she either wears a comfortable shirt that’s not too loose and jeans with her cowboy boots and sometimes spurs and a cowboy hat or a pair of jods with a shirt that’s not too loose and her riding boots and sometimes spurs and a helmet, depending on what type of riding she’s going to be doing.

Makeup Style: Mel doesn’t wear makeup that often, but when she does it’s usually only mascara, eyeliner, and eyeshadow, nothing more. That’s all she really needs.
Good Qualities: She’s extremely friendly and very optimistic. She’s a good listener and is empathetic
Bad Qualities: She can be led astray fairly easily and she lets herself get distracted a lot. She’s sometimes too optimistic.

Hobbies: Horseback-riding, artwork, sculpting, baseball, track, and reading
Music Taste: Country
Fav Color: Blue and white

Likes: Horses, animals, having fun, rain, and shopping
Dislikes: Being cooped up, stifling heat, watching a lot of television, and Boston Terriers
Hopes: She wants to, in the far future, buy back her parents ranch and continue their work of breeding quality Quarterhorses
Fears: Alligators, not being able to make any friends in Guineaville, losing Daytona, and having/being in another car wreck

Pets: None
Horses: CR Gold Rush a.k.a Daytona/Tona

Riding History: Melanie’s been riding since she was born. She got her first horse at age five and started showing a few years later. When her mare died when Mel was thirteen, she was given responsibility over a young stallion named Daytona. She got him trained in many disciplines and showed him extensively while offering him out to stud.
Horses have been a key part in Mel’s life since she was born. She can’t imagine a life without the beautiful animals and doesn’t want a life without horses.

Childhood History: Melanie Cochran was born to Kathy and Charlie Cochran of Onion Spring, Texas. She grew up around horses, Quarterhorses, to be specific, as her parents owned and operated a large breeding business. Mel learned to ride by herself at four years old and was given her first horse, a chestnut Quarterhorse mare named “Sunrise ‘n’ Sunset”, a year later. When she was seven, however, her father bred Sunrise, who, in addition to being his daughters mount, was also one of his best broodmares, to an outside stallion named 'Gold Digger'. The resulting foal was a large golden palomino that they named ‘CR Gold Rush’, or Daytona. Lani’s mare died of complications during another pregnancy when the girl was 13 and Mel was given sole responsibility over Daytona. With her parents help and money, Tona was sent off to be trained in other disciplines, both English and Western, besides just Halter and Cutting. Melanie showed horses her whole life, first showing Sunrise and then moving on to Daytona when Sunny died.
She lost both of her parents just a few months ago in a car wreck. Mel was in the hospital for about a month. Both of her parents’ and their horses were killed and Daytona was injured when an 18-wheel truck slid into their SUV and horse-trailer. Her dads’ horse was killed on impact and her mums horse had to be put down later. Her parents were killed on impact. Daytona survived, though, like Melanie, he was injured and spent a while at the Equine Vet Facility. The Cochran Ranch was sold, along with its horses, to help pay for hospital and vet bills and the burial costs for Mel’s parents. Melanie and Daytona (whom she point-blank refused to sell) were sent to live with Mel’s Aunt Annette and Uncle Jim in Guineaville after the insurance claims had been settled. Since her aunt and uncle live in a small house with a small yard only, they agreed to board Daytona for her.

Family Relationships: Parents died in a car wreck a few months ago. Mel now lives with her aunt Annette and uncle Jim, whom she gets along with very well.

About Me: Though it says Melanie Tara Cochran on my birth certificate, I prefer to go by Mel or Lani. I adore horses and a few other things, but horses are my number one. My palomino Quarterhorse stallion, CR Gold Rush a.k.a Daytona is my favorite man and only man in my life right now. A few months ago my life came crashing down... I lost my parents and two of our horses in a car crash and both me and Daytona were pretty banged up. We had to sell the breeding facility that my mum and dad owned and operated to help pay for the vet, hospital, and burial bills. I moved in with my aunt Annette and uncle Jimmy Ragland here in Guineaville. It’s a huge difference from Texas, but so far I’ve adapted pretty well, I think. Aunt Annette and Uncle Jimmy bought me a white Ford Super Duty F-350 truck as a welcoming gift and they’ve agreed to board Daytona at the local stables for me and have set up everything to get him transported here in a few days.