by Kate Lattey
Susannah’s eyebrows drew closer together as she frowned at me, but I couldn’t care less what she thought of me anyway. I watched in relief as Dad finally threw up his hands in a gesture of defeat and walked away down the aisle, and Mum came back over to me.
Susannah looked down her nose at us as she nudged her pony into a walk, then said something to AJ as she rode past. I shot a glance over my shoulder at my friend, trying to give her a warning look, but she was smiling at Susannah. Hopeless.
I’d tried to explain to AJ why she should despise Susannah, and avoid her like the plague, but somehow the notion of her being a vile person who would purposely wound other people’s ponies wasn’t getting through AJ’s thick skull. Like my mother, she had this weird propensity to dole out forgiveness to people who didn’t deserve it. At least Mum was standing up to Dad though. Maybe she was going to turn out to have a spine after all.
I rubbed Molly’s crest proudly as she cantered back through the finish flags after her clear round, and she arched her neck, pleased with herself. Drawing her back to a steady trot, I turned her towards the gate where Tessa Maxwell was coming in on her sister’s grey pony Misty Magic. Misty was entering the ring in his usual fashion, bounding sideways in unseating leaps, and Tessa’s face was white and scared. Hayley leaned over the wooden railing, her thick mane of curly blond hair billowing down her back.
“Sit up and get your leg on!” she yelled at Tess, who appeared to simply be clinging on for dear life. I walked Molly back through the gate and pulled her up next to Mum, who was standing alongside Hayley. She handed me a water bottle, and I took it gratefully, swigging back a mouthful as I watched Tess aim Misty at the first jump.
“Get him straight!” Hayley cried as the pony approached the fence on an angle, baulked, then put in a huge effort, springing into the air and somehow clearing the jump. Tess was clinging onto his mane and looking utterly terrified as he landed. She lost a stirrup, and tried and failed to get it back. Hayley was shouting at her to kick on, but Tess pulled Misty out from the jump and circled him, trying to get her stirrup back rather than jump a fence without it.
Hayley swore loudly and slapped her palms down on the railing in disgust, making Molly jump. She turned to look at her, and then glanced up at me.
“Sorry. But Tess is doing my head in, honestly! What is wrong with her?”
She’s terrified of riding a very difficult pony, I wanted to point out, but I said nothing. There was no point in disagreeing with Hayley, because she’d just bulldoze her opinion over top of you if you tried.
“You had a good round. Molly’s jumping well,” she added idly as she kept an eye on her sister, who was riding Misty back to the second jump, both feet jammed securely into her stirrups. But Misty had Tess’ number now and he knew she didn’t really want to do it. He swung out to the side and ran past the fence, trying to look innocent. Hayley started yelling again and Molly’s sensitive ears swivelled back and forth, her skin shivering with tension. I picked up the pony’s reins, wanting to get her out of the firing line before Hayley’s histrionics upset her too much. She needed to be walked off anyway, to cool down her muscles, and I turned her away from the fence and came face-to-face with my father.
“I thought I told you to leave.” I nudged Molly forward, but he stepped up and blocked her in. If she’d been any other pony, I’d have just ridden over the top of him, but I knew that Molly would freak out if I tried.
“You rode beautifully out there,” he told me, pretending as though he was a supportive and caring parent who actually gave a rat’s ass about me, when I knew full well that he didn’t.
“What would you know about it?” I snapped back.
There was a groan and some more swearing from behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Tess jogging Misty back towards the gate as the bell rang for elimination. The pony’s neck was lathered in sweat and he pranced sideways, rolling his eyes at Hayley as if to say Is this really what I have to put up with now? Hayley echoed the sentiment, immediately laying into her sister, who charged directly past her and rode off, much to Hayley’s disgust.
“That girl, honestly. I could kill her! If I didn’t love Misty so much, I’d sell him, but I promised him I never would. If Tess would just harden up and ride like a person and not like a sock puppet, she might get somewhere. He’s not that hard to ride!”
I did my best to tune out her raving as I looked around for AJ, finally spotting her leading Lucas around on the other side of the warm-up area.
“I have to go,” I told my father. He looked like he was going to argue, but then Hayley stepped up on the other side of Molly and put a hand on her neck, making my pony tremble again. So sensitive. I rubbed the base of her mane reassuringly as Hayley spoke.
“I was meaning to ask you, how’s Sam? I mean, have you heard anything?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Mum talked to Steph a couple of days ago though. Kat’s gone over to the UK to be with Sam, and her dad’s heading over tomorrow. Steph’s staying home to look after the horses, at least in the interim. But she just said what they’ve been saying on the news, that Sam’s in critical condition and her injuries are serious.”
Mum said Steph had sounded upset, and she hadn’t liked to pry any further. She’d offered her condolences, and the other usual niceties – If there’s anything we can do…Don’t hesitate to ask…You’ve done so much for us, we’d love to repay the favour… But Steph had assured her that she was fine. Mum didn’t really believe her, but there was nothing left that she could do except hope that Steph would call her if she needed her help. It was a wish that Mum expressed on a regular basis. Out loud, to me, as though it was a sentiment that I didn’t share. I did, of course, but I couldn’t see what we possibly had to offer Steph that she couldn’t get from someone else much closer to her. Still, I nodded along agreeably whenever Mum brought it up.
“Let us know if you find out anything more,” Hayley said, and I told her that I would, which was a blatant lie because Hayley was the biggest gossip out. Not to mention the fact that she barely knew Sam, who had based herself in the UK three years ago and rarely returned to New Zealand. But I made the false promise and managed to manoeuvre Molly past her and around my father, and then I was finally able to ride over to where my other pony was waiting.
“Swap ya,” I told AJ, jumping down from Molly’s back and taking over Lucas’ reins. We made the exchange quickly, and soon I was on board Lucas and trotting away, trying to clear my mind of everything except the pony under me and the course ahead.
“Woah,” I murmured under my breath as Lucas powered down the line towards the planks. I checked him back once, twice, then let him settle into his pace. He jumped cleanly, flicking his flaxen tail into the air as he cleared the jump, and I steadied him and turned towards the big rustic oxer. Lucas approached it confidently, his stride smooth and even, until we were only two strides away from the jump. It happened too quickly for me to tell if it was a slip, or a stumble, or simply a misstep, but I felt his rhythm break, one of his forelegs buckled slightly, and his head lowered as he tried to regain his footing. I sat tight and pushed him on, knowing that we could still make it if he recovered in time. We still had time. We still had room. I tried not to think about what had happened to Sam, tried not to review the image of her horse catapulting through the air and landing on top of her. We can do this, I told myself, clicking my tongue encouragingly to Lucas, who made a valiant effort to correct himself on the last stride. He still felt a little uneven, but he had his head up and his eyes focused on the fence ahead. He was back on the job, and as I squeezed his sides with my lower leg, he took a bold leap over the fence.
“Good boy!” I told him as he jumped, and I saw an ear flicker back towards me in mid-air. We landed, and he cantered on. His stride was disunited, and I gave him a sharp kick with my inside leg as we rode the bending line, asking for a flying change. He attempted it, stumbled, then righted himself again.
What is u
p with you? I wondered. He was still cross-cantering, but the vertical fence was only three strides away now, so there was no time to worry about that. It was a long three strides, and I pushed him on for it but Lucas resisted, backing off. That was weird for him, and I clicked my tongue again. C’mon Lukey!
He made it to the fence in a short four, and had to jump right off his hocks from the base. I clung tight as he scraped over the top of the high vertical, and my heart sank as I heard his hooves rattle against wood, then the thud of the rail coming down behind us. Damn!
But my disappointment at the four faults quickly went out the window as Lucas continued cantering, because there was no mistaking it now. He was lame. I quickly drew him back to a trot, and he was limping heavily, his head bobbing uncomfortably with each stride. I jumped to the ground before he’d even made it back to a walk, and Lucas came to a shaky halt beside me, immediately taking the weight off his right foreleg. Oh no. No no no. Please be okay! I could see Mum from the corner of my eye dashing towards me as I pulled the tendon boot off and ran my hand down Lucas’ leg, and my blood turned cold as I felt the thick swelling running right along his tendon.
“The good news is, it’s only the ligament that he’s damaged.”
I looked at the vet in hopeful disbelief. “It’s not the tendon?”
He shook his head, and I breathed out a relieved sigh.
“That is good news,” Mum agreed. “Although it’s still a long road to recovery.”
James nodded, closing the ultrasound machine and standing up. “You know the story,” he said,” and we did. Molly had done the same thing last season, although she’d somehow managed to injure herself running around in the paddock. James went over the details for us again, just in case we’d somehow forgotten the long and arduous rehab required.
“Six weeks of confinement, minimum. We’ll rescan him then, and if it looks okay you can start walking him out for ten minutes a day. Straight lines only, and only walking.” He looked at me sternly, as though I was going to get overexcited and try to work my pony before he was fit. What kind of rider did he think I was? “Four weeks of walking, then if there’s no apparent lameness or swelling, he can start slow work in trot. No more than twenty metres at a time, building up over the following four weeks.”
His voice droned on, but I was ignoring him now as I frantically calculated what that meant. It was already October. Six weeks of confinement would take us to the start of December. Lucas wouldn’t be allowed to trot until January, and there was no chance of cantering or jumping until at least February. Goodbye season, I thought sadly, rubbing Lucas’ broad white forehead. How had this happened to us again? My season on Molly had been wiped out last year, and now it was apparently Lucas’ turn.
The chestnut gelding pushed his face against my chest, wanting to be comforted, and I obliged. It wasn’t his fault. If only I’d pulled him up sooner. If only I’d realised what had gone wrong, and hadn’t kept going. Mum had told me the whole way home that it wasn’t my fault, and how was I to know what was wrong, and even from where she’d been standing he’d looked unbalanced but not lame. I hadn’t believed her. I knew it was my fault, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to forgive myself.
I looked over at Molly, standing in the next-door stable lipping dreamily at her bucket of feed. It’s all on you now, I thought, and she lifted her head and looked at me. It has to be you.
My bedroom door creaked open, and Mum stuck her head through. “Phone for you.”
I groaned as I propped myself up onto my elbows. “I’m trying to sleep.”
“It’s Steph,” she said, and I was instantly awake. “She wants to talk to you.”
Mum tossed the cordless phone in my direction, and I grabbed it off the bedspread and lifted it to my ears as she hovered in the doorway, eavesdropping as usual.
“Hello?”
“Hi Katy. I heard about Lucas. He doing okay?”
“Yeah, I think so. He’s had some bute so he’s feeling better, and the vet thinks he’ll make a full recovery,” I told her, trying to sound positive. Why is she asking me about Lucas? She doesn’t even own him. Lucas belonged to her best friend, but I’d already spoken with Abby at length about the injury, and she’d been assured that we were doing everything humanly possible to give Lucas the best chance of recovery.
“That’s good. We need to talk about Molly.”
I felt a shiver of trepidation run through me at Steph’s words. I wondered if she was mad at me for leaving the show without riding Molly’s jump off. I’d been too upset about Lucas’ injury to go back out, and I wouldn’t have given Molly a good ride even if I had attempted it. The sensitive mare would’ve picked up immediately on my tension, and mostly likely wouldn’t even have made it over the first jump.
“She’s going to be my number one priority from now on,” I told Steph quickly. “We’re selling some of the other ones, and I’ll be focusing on her…”
She cut me off. “Don’t bother. We’re putting her on the market.”
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t speak. Couldn’t do anything except sit there as Steph kept talking about selling the pony that had changed my life, and knowing that there wasn’t a thing in the world I could do to stop her. I caught snippets of the conversation through the whirl of my thoughts. Need the money. Sam’s hospital bills. Ongoing costs. Interested buyer…
My brain snapped back into gear at those words, and I managed to choke out a question. “You’ve got someone interested?”
“Yes,” Steph told me dispassionately. “Susannah Andrews wants to buy her. They’re going to take her on trial next week.”
More books by Kate Lattey
available on Amazon Kindle Direct
DARE TO DREAM
Saying goodbye to the horses they love has become a way of life for Marley and her sisters, who train and sell show jumpers to make their living. Marley has grand ambitions to jump in Pony of the Year, but every good pony she’s ever had has been sold out from under her to pay the bills.
Then a half-wild pinto pony comes into her life, and Marley finds that this most unlikely of champions could be the superstar she has always dreamed of. As Marley and Cruise rise quickly to the top of their sport, it seems as though her dreams of winning the Pony of the Year might come true after all.
But her family is struggling to make ends meet, and as the countdown to Pony of the Year begins, Marley is forced to face the possibility of losing the pony she has come to love more than anything else in the world.
Can Marley save the farm she loves, without sacrificing the pony she can’t live without?
Reviews for Dare to Dream:
“There are always two parts to a good horse story–the people and the horses. Sometimes authors get the horses right and Kate Lattey definitely knows horses. All the details are spot on. But for me, it was the people that made this book shine. The relationship and dynamic between the three sisters is filled with warmth, humor, and truth. I recommend this book for all horse-lovers.
– Kim Ablon Whitney, author of “The Perfect Distance”
“I absolutely loved Dare to Dream. I finished it in tears. It’s moving, wrenching, funny. Goodness, it’s good.”
– Jane Badger, author of “Heroines on Horseback: The Pony Book in Children’s Fiction”
DREAM ON
The much-anticipated sequel to Dare to Dream.
"Nobody has ever tried to understand this pony. Nobody has ever been on her side. Until now. She needs you to fight for her, Marley. She needs you to love her."
Borderline Majestic was imported from the other side of the world to bring her new owners fame and glory, but she is almost impossible to handle and ride. When the pony lands her rider in intensive care, it is up to Marley to prove that the talented mare is not dangerous - just deeply misunderstood.
Can Marley dare to fall in love again to save Majestic's life?
Reviews for Dream On:
“Kate Lattey has produced another
tremendous, character-driven book, with every bit of authentic horsey detail you could wish for. I defy you not to cry at the end. If you haven’t already gone and loaded this on to your Kindle go and do it now. You won’t regret it.”
- Jane Badger, author of “Heroines on Horseback: The Pony Book in Children’s Fiction”
“Kate Lattey’s characters are convincing and engaging, and the storyline kept me hooked from the first page to the very satisfying epilogue. A deliciously enjoyable read.”
– Amanda Wills, author of the “The Lost Pony of Riverdale”
Clearwater Bay #1:
FLYING CHANGES
When Jay moves from her home in England to live with her estranged father in rural New Zealand, it is only his promise of a pony of her own that convinces her to leave her old life behind and start over in a new country.
Change doesn’t come easily at first, and Jay makes as many enemies as she does friends before she finds the perfect pony, who seems destined to make her dreams of show jumping success come true.
But she soon discovers that training her own pony is not as easy as she thought it would be, and her dream pony is becoming increasingly unmanageable and difficult to ride.
Can Jay pull it together, or has she made the biggest mistake of her life?
Reviews for Flying Changes:
“Excellent read in the traditional format: girl gets pony, works through traumas with the pony and in her own life. Brilliant New Zealand background, and excellent, accurate horse stuff.”
– Jane Badger, author of “Heroines on Horseback: The Pony Book in Children’s Fiction”