Pony Jumpers 9- Nine Lives

by Kate Lattey

  She led Tori into the arena, but as soon as she stepped up onto the mounting block, Tori swivelled her head around with her ears laid back, threatening to bite Katy’s leg. I stepped in, stroking Tori’s nose to distract her as Katy swung into the saddle. As soon as she felt Katy’s weight on her back, the mare started forward. Katy scowled and put pressure on the reins, but Tori just barged through the contact, forcing Katy to scramble for her stirrups.

  “Brakes have failed,” she muttered. “See why I need the draw reins?”

  I didn’t comment as I took a seat on the mounting block and watched her ride. Tori’s stride was long and her muscles rippled under her gleaming black coat, but her eye was anxious, and she tugged at the bit, testing the limits of the draw reins. Abruptly, she threw her head up and then thrashed it from side to side, like a fish on the end of a line. Katy frowned and shortened the reins. Tori tossed her head again, then snorted when she hit the contact. I watched Katy reach forward and run a hand down the mare’s neck reassuringly, but Tori leapt sideways as soon as Katy touched her, as if she’d been given an electric shock. Only Katy’s years of experience and super quick reaction times kept her in the saddle.

  “I was trying to be nice,” Katy muttered as she rode on down the long side.

  Tori had a spring in her step now, although the draw reins were keeping her from holding her head too high, and she wouldn’t stop swishing her tail. Katy rode her at a walk around the perimeter of the arena, and grimaced at me as she came past.

  “How does she feel?” I asked.

  “Like she might kill me at any moment,” she replied honestly.

  “Well she looks gorgeous from here,” I said honestly, and Katy pulled a face.

  “Okay, I’m going to trot. Get ready to call an ambulance.”

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and held it up. “I’m on it. Be brave.”

  “I think I used up my bravery quota just getting on her in the first place,” Katy admitted, but she clicked her tongue and nudged Tori’s sides, asking her to trot on.

  Tori threw her head and swung her hindquarters to the inside, but she did start to trot. The sun slipped out from behind a cloud, and her jet black coat shimmered in the bright light. Tori trotted as though she was on springs, every step fluid and effortless. Katy trotted one circle, then another, and then changed the rein across the diagonal and trotted the other way.

  I could just see her starting to relax in the saddle before Tori spooked at something in the corner, shot sideways and started bucking. Katy leaned back and pulled the horse’s head up, and Tori bounced on the spot twice, springing up off all four hooves at once before landing with a shuddering jolt. The first time she did that, Katy lost both of her stirrups, and the second time she pitched forward on landing. Sensing her advantage, Tori bucked, but Katy had a strong seat, and somehow managed to stay on. The mare started cantering, snorting loudly and as Katy regained her stirrups and shortened her reins, Tori just tucked her nose into her chest and kept going, her stride getting shorter and shorter until she was almost cantering on the spot.

  “Woah,” Katy muttered, looking more worried than I’d ever seen her before. “Tori, come on. Woah.”

  “Let the reins out a bit,” I suggested. Katy shot me a look as if to ask if I was an idiot, but loosened her reins a little nonetheless. Tori pulled her head down toward her knees and bucked, and Katy swiftly shortened them again. “That worked great. Any other suggestions?”

  I shook my head, flummoxed. “I have no idea.”

  “Maybe she’ll get tired,” Katy said, making an effort to sound calm as Tori cantered around the arena, her head still tucked into her chest, her eyes rolling as she passed me. “Or maybe I’ll be stuck up here for the rest of my life. Please stop, Tori.”

  As if she’d heard her, Tori broke into a trot. Katy started rising, and Tori swung her hindquarters in, then bucked again.

  “Why are you so awful?” Katy cried, turning Tori onto a small circle until the mare finally dropped back to a walk. “Seriously, horse, what is wrong with you?”

  She pulled Tori to a halt, and immediately kicked her feet out of the stirrups and leapt to the ground. Standing next to her horse, Katy looked at me with tears of frustration in her eyes.

  “I don’t know what to do,” she told me in a quivering voice. “What do I do, AJ?”

  I felt helpless. I had no answers for her. “I don’t know,” I said. “I mean, if you don’t know, I don’t know.”

  “I just really don’t need this right now, you know?” Katy’s voice was still shaking, even as she started to get angry. “I’m already crapping myself about going to Ireland, and this isn’t exactly boosting my confidence.”

  “You’ll be fine,” I said, sliding off the mounting block and walking over to her side. I put an arm across her shoulders, then pulled her in for a hug. She was shaking, the adrenalin that had served her in the saddle quick to desert her now that her feet were on solid ground. “They’re not going to have psycho unrideable horses for the team competition.”

  “Bet they do,” she muttered into my shoulder. “Bet it’s the one I draw. Or maybe it’s me. Maybe I just can’t ride.”

  I patted her back as I let her go. “If it would make you feel better, I’ll get on Tori and you watch me get bucked off,” I offered.

  Katy chuckled, then wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Thanks, but you’re my best friend and I like you alive. Besides, I’ll need you here to look after my ponies while I’m away.”

  “Well, that’s true.”

  Tori shook her head, yanking at the reins. Katy scowled at her and yanked back, then looked embarrassed at her loss of composure.

  “Can you take her? I’m literally about to tear her head off.”

  “Sure.” I took hold of Tori’s reins and stroked her neck. She ignored my touch. “She’ll get there,” I told Katy. “I’m sure of it.”

  “You’re the only one,” she replied. “Mum wants me to sell her now, but Dad wants us to at least wait until I get back from Ireland. He’s been watching videos of Bertram Allen and he seems to think I’m going to turn into some incredible rider while I’m over there. Like there’s something in the water.”

  “There might be,” I said, shrugging. “The Irish do churn out some pretty decent riders.”

  “I wish,” Katy muttered. “But I doubt it. And I don’t see how I can improve enough in three weeks to suddenly be able to ride this psycho.” She looked down at the arena sand, scuffing the toe of her boot through it, and I knew she was about to say something I didn’t want to hear. “Mum and I started writing an ad for her last night.”

  My heart thumped in my chest. “Really?”

  “Yeah. We didn’t get far though. Once you’ve listed her height, age and breeding, you’re left with psychotic and borderline unrideable, which kind of knocks back the asking price. At this rate, we’ll be lucky to give her away.”

  Her words echoed Charlie’s, but I was still convinced that both of them were wrong. “Your dad’s right,” I said, grasping at the only straw I could see. “You should at least wait until you’re back from Ireland. Maybe you will learn something over there that’ll help.”

  Katy shrugged. “I guess it’s possible,” she said, sounding unconvinced. “God, I’m so nervous about that trip, I can hardly even see straight right now. Maybe I should just let her buck me off, and get injured. Then I’ll have to pull out, and Susannah can go to Ireland instead. She’d do a whole lot better than I will.”

  “Okay, stop.” I’d had enough of the self-pity. “You’ve been working towards this for years. Don’t let one bad ride get in your way, okay?”

  Katy nodded. “Okay.”

  “Good. Now go get on one of the ponies and go for a ride while I untack the beast for you.”

  My friend turned and looked at her horse ruefully. “I just wish things had worked out differently, you know?”

  “Well, you never know,” I told her. “They still m
ight.”

  Despite what I’d said to Katy, I was feeling pretty bleak about Tori’s future by the time Aidan arrived to pick me up. I threw my gear into the back, slammed the door firmly and slumped despondently into the front seat.

  My brother looked across at me. “I’d ask you what’s wrong, but I don’t want my ear talked off about horses.”

  “Your loss,” I told him as he turned the car around and headed back down Katy’s driveway.

  “I’m sure.” Aidan rolled to a stop when we reached the letterbox and put the car into park. “Wanna drive?”

  I shrugged. “I’m not really in the mood.”

  Aidan reached across and put his hand on my forehead, testing for a fever. “You feeling okay, Poss?”

  I slapped his arm away irritably, but he just unclipped his seatbelt and opened the car door. “Come on, swap seats. You know you want to.”

  I genuinely wasn’t in the mood, but I also knew that I couldn’t afford to turn down driving lessons, since Dad was still claiming to be too busy to give me any, and Mum pretended not to listen if I even mentioned it, so I capitulated.

  “Are you still going to give me lessons after you move out?” I asked my brother as I buckled myself into the driver’s seat.

  “If I ever find a place to live. Who knew it’d be so hard to find a flat in Havelock North?”

  “Um, everyone who lives in Havelock North,” I replied. “It’s not exactly the Big Smoke. Surely there’s places in Hastings though,” I added as I adjusted the seat forward about a mile so that I could reach the pedals.

  “Tinny houses,” Aidan muttered. He caught the look I was giving him, and shrugged. “At least, I’m pretty sure the last place I went into was. Certainly smelled enough like pot for me to shower twice before I went anywhere near Mum.”

  “Don’t see why you bothered,” I told him. “You know Mum and her liberal approach to drug laws.”

  Aidan’s mouth twitched at my sarcasm. Mum had been involved in more than one narcotics bust, and always spent ages lecturing us about them afterwards. If she had the least suspicion that any of us were using drugs, she’d probably have thrown us in prison herself.

  “Right. You remember how to do this thing?” Aidan asked me.

  I nodded, pressing down on the brake pedal and shifting the gear lever into drive before flipping the indicator on and checking the road for oncoming traffic. The rural road was empty as usual, so I pulled out carefully and headed towards the main road. Aidan stayed quiet as I drove, apart from the occasional reminder to stay left, or slow down slightly, or brake before the corner, not halfway around it.

  “You know,” he said after a period of silence. “You’re not actually too bad at this.”

  “Thanks, bro.” I eyed the approaching intersection, but Aidan waved me on. “Keep going straight. There’s something I want to show you.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “I’m intrigued.” I kept driving past our turnoff, my curiosity whirling. “Is it a pony?”

  “Man, you’ve got a one-track mind,” Aidan grinned. “It is not a pony. It’s even better.”

  “Doubtful. What could be better than a pony?”

  “You’ll see in a minute. Turn left here.”

  We hit a long, straight road, and as I started to relax, my mind slipped back to Tori. I sighed heavily, and Aidan turned towards me.

  “So what’s eating you, anyway?”

  I glanced at my brother, then back at the road. “Katy’s going to sell Tori.”

  “The psycho black horse?”

  “She’s not a psycho,” I said quickly. “I think she’s starting to come around.”

  “Clearly Katy thinks differently.”

  “Yeah.” I sighed again. “I know that sounds crazy, because she’s so difficult, but I like her. She’s a bit like Jekyll and Hyde – some days she’s horrible, but other times, it’s like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.”

  “But they’re selling her because…”

  “Because Katy can’t ride her. She tried today and Tori almost bucked her off. It scared her.”

  Aidan frowned. “Isn’t that just part of riding though?”

  I glanced at him, then back at the road. “Being bucked off?” He nodded, and I shook my head. “Not usually, no.”

  “Really? Then sounds to me like you’ve been doing it wrong, because I still remember you doing a happy dance around the house one day because Squib hadn’t bucked you off for the first time ever.”

  I grinned, thinking back to those days. They seemed so long ago. “I’ll have you know that Squib hasn’t bucked me off in ages.”

  “You must be missing it,” Aidan teased. “Why don’t you ride the crazy bucking horse then?”

  “Me? Ride Tori?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  “Because she’s Katy’s.”

  “You just said that Katy doesn’t want her.”

  True. “She probably wouldn’t let me,” I said, but even as I spoke, I was wondering.

  Could I ride Tori? I’d leave the draw reins behind, for starters. Loosen the noseband and ride her on a loose rein out over the hills. Maybe she just had to be given a chance to relax and enjoy life, I pondered as I slowed down to approach a roundabout. I wasn’t scared to ride her, I realised. I just didn’t know if Katy would let me try.

  “Watch out!”

  I jerked my attention back to the road, hitting the brakes hard to avoid the car that was passing through the roundabout in front of me. We screeched to a stop as the driver shot me a filthy look and leaned on his horn in protest. I sat there for a moment, my heart thundering in my chest.

  “You okay?”

  I nodded, but I could feel my hands shaking on the wheel. “Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”

  “I noticed,” Aidan said, then patted me on the shoulder. “It’s okay, AJ. You’re supposed to be making mistakes. It’s part of learning.”

  I nodded slowly. “That was scary.”

  “Just go steady,” my brother advised. “Straight through here, and then right at the next one.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to swap back?” I asked him.

  “Nope. You’re doing great. Keep going.”

  I triple-checked for oncoming traffic before crawling around the roundabout, drove steadily down the road, then slowed well before the next turn. A silver ute caught up to me, and after sitting behind me for a hundred metres or so, pulled out into the opposite lane and zoomed past with a roar.

  “Ignore them,” Aidan told me as we approached the beach, and my brother pointed to a wide grass verge on the side of the road. “Pull over there.”

  No sooner had I stopped than Aidan jumped out of the car and jogged across the road. I watched as he approached a man who was locking up one of those portable offices, and finally realised that we were back at that new subdivision in Te Awanga. I wound my window down and let the cool breeze dry the nervous sweat on my skin as my brother shook the man’s hand, and chatted to him.

  Several minutes passed before Aidan came back to the car and got back into the passenger seat.

  “What was that all about?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Bull.”

  Aidan tapped the side of his nose conspiratorially. I had my hand on the keys in the ignition, ready to start the engine again, but I paused, waiting.

  “We’re not going anywhere until you tell me.”

  “Look at you, drunk on power already,” Aidan teased. He ran a hand through his dark blonde hair, rumpling it up. “Okay, so don’t tell Dad, but I put in a tender for that gardening job.”

  “You what!?” I stared at my brother. “But Dad said he didn’t want the job.”

  “What Dad wants to do and what Dad needs to do are two different things,” Aidan said. “I’m trying to keep the business afloat. Do you have any idea what kind of state his finances are in?”

  “No.” I eyed my brother suspiciously. “Do you?”

  “I sleep in the room where
he does the accounts,” Aidan reminded me. “I peeked.” He met my gaze without flinching. Apparently he didn’t regret going behind Dad’s back. “Someone had to do something, AJ, or the whole enterprise would go tits up.”

  “And then you’d be out of a job.”

  “Exactly.”

  “So?” I asked. “Did you get the contract?”

  Aidan shrugged. “Dunno. Won’t find out for a week or two yet.”

  “And if you do?”

  He grinned. “Guess then I’ll have to tell Dad about it.” His smile faded as he looked warily across at me. “You won’t say anything to him, right?”

  “Hey, you know me. My lips are sealed.” I mimed drawing a zip across them, and Aidan’s smile returned.

  “Good. Now let’s get this show back on the road.”

  11

  DON’T GIVE UP, DON’T GIVE IN

  The next day, I found Katy rummaging through a box full of tendon boots in the tack room.

  “Morning.”

  “Hey. Have you seen Lucas’s lime green sports medicine boots?”

  I pulled a face. “Thankfully, no.”

  “Funny.” Katy dug a bit further, then lost patience, picked the whole box up and up-ended it. Tendon boots bounced around us and bandages unrolled themselves across the dirty concrete floor as she tossed the box aside and glared down at the mess she’d made. “They’re not there.”

  “Good. Lucas is relieved.” Katy shot me a filthy look, and I changed the subject. “Hey, are you going to ride Tori today?”

  Katy pulled a face. “No. Mum won’t let me in case I get hurt.”

  “Okay.” I took a breath, then threw caution to the wind and blurted it out. “Can I?”

  Katy was tossing boots back into the box, and didn’t look up. “Can you what?”

  “Ride Tori.”

  Her head snapped up and she stared at me in surprise. “Why on earth would you want to?”

  “Because.” I couldn’t quite explain it, even to myself. Tori was big and strong and unpredictable, and it wasn’t like I thought I could ride better than Katy, but I wanted to see what she’d be like if she was hacked on a relaxed rein. “I just want to try.”