Trophy Horse

by Amanda Wills

  ‘What new stuff?’ said Kristy.

  ‘It’s a conditioning and performance supplement. Hadn’t you noticed how shiny her coat is at the moment?’

  Kristy looked Jazz up and down. Her palomino coat was certainly silky smooth with a beautiful sheen. The bits that weren’t dark with sweat, anyway.

  ‘Jazz is fizzy enough as it is, Sof. I really don’t think she needs a performance supplement. We need her calm and sensible for the quadrille, not so over-excited and full of energy she won’t listen to you. Can you perhaps leave off the supplement until after the quadrille?’

  ‘I suppose,’ said Sofia, looking longingly at her pony’s glossy quarters.

  ‘Give some to Silver instead,’ smirked William. ‘Either that or a rocket up his -’

  ‘William!’ scolded Kristy in her best schoolteacher’s voice. ‘That’s enough!’

  ‘I hate you!’ shrieked Norah to her brother, swinging Silver around and trotting out of the school in high umbrage.

  Kristy stared at the ceiling and counted to ten. Deep down she had known she’d need the patience of a saint to corral these four into some semblance of order. But honestly, they were driving her mad!

  ‘Don’t forget, patience is a virtue, Kristy Moore,’ she intoned to herself as she followed the others out of the school. ‘Patience is a virtue.’

  18

  Goodbye Cassius

  Kristy flipped the laptop closed and picked up her notebook, studying it with narrowed eyes. She had spent the last hour flipping between Google Maps and Street View trying to pinpoint all the large country estates and farms within a ten mile radius of Mill Farm Stables. There were forty three. And that didn’t include smallholdings. Cycling to each of them to see if they belonged to the mysterious Teddy would take a month of Sundays.

  She sighed. Detectives on the TV were dangled handy clues at regular intervals so they at least stood a chance of finding their man. But real life was proving much less accommodating. How was she supposed to find Cassius when the only clues she had were a first name, a cherry-red sports car and an anonymous country estate?

  Think outside the box, she told herself. Could the sports car lead her to Teddy? But she couldn’t even remember what make it was, let alone the registration plate. And even if she did, she could hardly go to the police and ask them to look it up on their computer. Teddy may have broken her heart by buying Cassius back for Arabella, but he hadn’t committed a crime.

  No, it was useless. She might as well resign herself to the fact she was never going to see Cassius again. Ever. She tossed the notebook on her bed and reached for the photo on her bedside table. She traced a finger along Cassius’s familiar face, lingering over his narrow blaze shaped like a bolt of lightning. Memories of the first time she’d ever seen him came flooding back. She’d been leading Silver down to the bottom paddock on her very first day at Mill Farm when she’d spied him watching her from the far corner of the field. Kristy couldn’t speak for Cassius, but for her it had been love at first sight. Something about his proud yet gentle nature had melted her heart and she’d fallen for him hook, line and sinker.

  When Emma had asked Kristy to ride Cassius she had been over the moon, but at the back of her mind she’d always known they were on borrowed time. Emma had never tried to hide the fact she needed to sell the Percheron. But then Sofia and the twins had bought him for her and Kristy had been given her fairytale ending.

  Only she hadn’t, had she? The fairytale ending had been a mirage. Her Happy Ever After nothing more than an illusion. It turned out her dreams had been built on shifting sand. The moment Arabella had decided she wanted her trophy horse back, fate had stepped in and dealt its cruel blow.

  And Kristy’s fairytale ending had shattered as easily as glass.

  That night Kristy’s dreams were once again filled with Cassius. In the first he was standing at the top of a mountain, calling for her. In a panic, Kristy climbed up to meet him. But the further she scrambled up the rocky scree the further away he seemed. She pushed herself harder and harder until her lungs felt as if they were going to explode, but when she looked up he was as small as a pinprick, a tiny black dot on the horizon.

  ‘CASSIUS!’ she yelled, but her voice was carried away by the wind, as insubstantial as a dandelion seed.

  Suddenly she was in the tack room at Mill Farm watching Sofia and the twins lounging on the moth-eaten old sofa. Sitting on one of the armchairs with her back to Kristy was a girl with a stair-rod straight back and long blonde hair. She was holding court while the other three listened with rapt expressions.

  ‘Annie is no longer riding in the quadrille. I will be taking her place,’ the blonde girl announced.

  ‘Cool,’ said Norah ingratiatingly. ‘Are you riding Jigsaw, Bella?’

  The girl gave a tinkly laugh as cold as crystal. ‘Of course I won’t, idiot child. I will be riding my beautiful Cassius.’

  He’s not yours, Kristy tried to say. But the walls of the tack room dissolved and all at once she was standing under the oak tree in the bottom paddock, Cassius asleep in front of her.

  ‘Cass,’ she called softly. He must have heard as his eyes snapped open and he said in a deep voice as rich as melted chocolate, ‘I’ve been waiting for you, Kristy. I knew you’d come in the end.’

  ‘Oh Cassius, I’ve missed you so much,’ she cried, flinging her arms around his neck and snuggling close. ‘I’m so sorry I never had the chance to say goodbye.’

  ‘There’s nothing to be sorry for. You found me, didn’t you?’

  ‘But only in my dreams,’ Kristy sobbed.

  Cassius curled his neck around her and she felt the warmth of his breath on her skin.

  ‘Don’t be sad, Kristy,’ he said. ‘You’ll always be able to find me in your dreams.’

  When Kristy woke the next morning her duvet was a tangled mess and her arms were wrapped around her pillow. To her surprise she felt clear-headed and strangely content. Cassius knew she loved him, and nothing could ever take that away. And one day she would find him.

  Until then she had a quadrille team to lick into shape.

  ‘Those ten metre circles have been bothering me,’ said Kristy as Sofia, the twins and Annie lined up in front of her at their next practice session.

  ‘Why? You said mine were “perfect”,’ said Norah, wiggling her index fingers in the air.

  ‘And they are. You are an example to us all. But Copper has a tendency to fall in halfway around, Jazz needs to bend her body, not just her neck, and Jigsaw has always finished his before the rest of you are three quarters of the way around yours, which ruins the symmetry. Another danger is when you hit the edge of the school. The ponies start following the track out of habit and suddenly you’re riding in a straight line.’

  ‘And there are no straight lines in circles,’ said Annie.

  ‘There definitely aren’t,’ Kristy agreed.

  ‘I always find it hard to judge how big ten metres is,’ said Sofia.

  ‘Me too,’ admitted Kristy. ‘It helps me to remember the school is twenty metres wide, so - and I know it sounds obvious - ten metre circles are half the width of the school. So if you’re circling at B or E you need to be hitting X every time.’

  ‘OK clever clogs, how do I stop Copper falling in?’ said William.

  ‘I’ve been reading up on that,’ said Kristy. ‘When you feel as though he’s becoming unbalanced and doing his motorbike lean you need to open your outside rein and use your inside leg. Why don’t you try it with a ten metre circle at B?’

  They watched as William and Copper picked up a trot.

  ‘Look up and where you’re going. Ask for flexion just before B and remember, outside rein, inside leg,’ Kristy called.

  Copper’s ears were pricked as he left the track at B. William clicked his tongue and the chestnut gelding swished his tail. Kristy could see he was beginning to fall in but William opened his outside rein and used his inside leg on the girth to push him back into a ci
rcle. Once they were back on the track they went large and William eased Copper into a walk.

  ‘Good job!’ said Kristy. She turned to Sofia. ‘I think your inside leg is the key to getting Jazz to bend, too.’

  ‘I’ll give it a go,’ said Sofia. Jazz had been marginally calmer since Sofia had stopped giving her the conditioning supplement, but she still arched her neck and crabbed onto the track when Sofia asked her for a trot.

  ‘Give her a good canter to use up some of her energy. We need her to listen to you,’ said Kristy. Once Jazz had cantered around the school a couple of times on each rein Sofia brought her back to a working trot. Following William’s lead, she used her inside leg and outside rein as she rode her ten metre circle, her face a picture of concentration as she asked her mare not just for flexion but for her to bend her whole body.

  ‘Much better,’ said Kristy. ‘And now for you, Annie. I know you and Jigsaw can do a beautiful collected trot - I’ve seen you do it. But you need to be watching the others to make sure Jigsaw doesn’t out-pace them. Why don’t you and Norah ride up the centre line and trot a ten metre circle at X, seeing if you can keep together?’

  ‘This is harder than it looks,’ puffed Annie, as she struggled to collect the big skewbald gelding. Jigsaw finished his circle a length and a half ahead of Silver.

  ‘You don’t want to lose momentum, you just want him to keep a compact outline and take shorter, higher steps. And remember to watch Norah so you can judge your pace,’ said Kristy.

  After half a dozen more circles Jigsaw and Silver were almost matching each other stride for stride. Kristy decided to quit while they were ahead and gathered her team for a final pep talk.

  ‘That was brilliant. The twenty metre circles will be a cinch now. We’ll put that into practice again tomorrow, this time with the music, and we’ll have one run-through of the whole routine before our dress rehearsal next Thursday.’

  ‘Don’t you think we should squeeze in a couple more practice sessions? I want it to be perfect, not just good enough,’ Norah fretted.

  ‘Absolutely not. I don’t want the ponies getting stale,’ said Kristy firmly.

  ‘Are you sure you haven’t been sneaking lessons at the Norah Bergman School of Bossiness?’ quipped William as they filed out of the school.

  ‘You have become very assertive recently,’ agreed Sofia. ‘Not that I’m complaining,’ she added hastily. ‘I know we all need keeping in line.’

  Kristy giggled. Her heart felt lighter than it had for ages.

  ‘You think that’s bossy? Haha, you ain’t seen nothing yet!’

  19

  Dress Rehearsal

  The days slipped by in a whirlwind of preparations. There were manes to pull and tails to trim. Tack to clean and plaits to practice. The thrum of anticipation at Mill Farm reminded Kristy of the busy days before the New Year’s Eve show, as they’d put their finishing touches to a performance that, despite the odds, had clinched them first place.

  She realised she wasn’t the only one reminiscing when they sat in the tack room with their usual hot chocolates after their last practice session before the dress rehearsal. It had gone well, apart from an awkward moment when an over-enthusiastic Jigsaw had almost collided with Copper as they’d threaded the needle.

  ‘At least none of the horses have gone lame this time,’ said William, blowing on his hot chocolate.

  ‘Don’t tempt fate!’ Norah screeched. ‘Quick, touch wood everyone.’

  They all touched the wooden crate that doubled up as a coffee table.

  ‘And I haven’t left my costume on the bus. Not yet, anyway,’ giggled Sofia.

  ‘Kristy had to teach me to vault last time, do you remember?’ said Norah.

  Kristy nodded. ‘And then I went and vaulted straight over Cassius and landed on the wrong side. I felt like a proper charlie.’

  ‘It didn’t matter though, did it?’ said Sofia.

  ‘They loved us,’ Norah agreed.

  They gazed at their silver cup, which had pride of place on the shelf above the sink.

  ‘And then you all did the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me,’ Kristy said quietly. ‘I’ll never forget that, you know.’

  Sofia patted Kristy’s arm. ‘Cassius was our lucky charm.’

  Kristy gave a sad smile. ‘My luck ran out in the end though, didn’t it?’

  At school, signs of the centenary celebration started appearing. Extra chairs were stacked high in the hall, ready to be carried onto the playing field by the strongest sixth-formers. The school band could be heard practising in the music room every lunchtime. Teachers, preoccupied with the preparations, were too busy to set homework, to the delight of their classes. The gym was out of bounds as the gymnastics club practised their routine over and over, their music playing on a loop.

  ‘I hope they don’t get stale,’ joked William as he and Kristy walked past on their way to the library one lunchtime.

  Finally the day of the dress rehearsal arrived. Kristy and Emma settled down to watch.

  ‘I’ve got butterflies,’ Kristy admitted. ‘I’m as nervous as if I was riding myself!’

  Emma patted her arm. ‘It’s only natural. You’ve invested as much as they have in this routine. Of course you want them to do well. How do the costumes look?’

  ‘I don’t know. They haven’t let me see them yet. They wanted it to be a surprise.’

  ‘You’ve enjoyed helping them, haven’t you? It seems to have taken your mind off Cassius.’

  Kristy nodded. She knew the yearning she felt for the big Percheron would never go away, but over the last few days it had lessened from a stabbing agony to a dull ache.

  ‘Close your eyes, Kristy!’ shouted Norah.

  Kristy did as she was told. She heard muffled hoof prints and the clink of bits as her friends rode in.

  ‘OK, you can open them now.’

  Kristy opened her eyes and gasped. The ponies and Jigsaw were immaculately turned out, their coats gleaming. The girls, in their checked pinafores and straw boaters atop their riding hats, looked as if they had stepped out of the pages of a history book. William had the impish grin and raggedy clothes of a street urchin. Norah and Sofia had made the horses matching blankets and bandages out of hessian sacks. With one dappled grey, a palomino, a chestnut and a skewbald, Silver, Jazz, Copper and Jigsaw were never going to match, but the hessian rugs and bandages pulled the look together, and made them look like a team.

  ‘You look amazing!’ breathed Kristy.

  ‘Very impressive,’ agreed Emma.

  ‘Pretend you’re Miss Raven,’ said Norah. She glanced at the others. ‘Ready?’ They nodded. ‘Cue music!’ she called and Kristy flicked the CD player on.

  On the count of three they trotted up the centre line and saluted as one.

  ‘They’ve been practising their salute,’ Kristy muttered. ‘Perhaps they have been listening to me after all.’

  ‘I’d say so,’ said Emma approvingly. ‘They’re doing great.’

  She was right. As they circled and criss-crossed the school, the three ponies and Jigsaw were calm, collected and completely in tune. Kristy noticed how Sofia, Annie and the twins continuously flicked looks at each other to gauge their tempo so they could match their pace. They turned at the same time and were exactly opposite each other in the mirrored elements like the ten metre circles and the canter circles. The threading the needle was slick and their windscreen wiper faultless. Kristy was mesmerised.

  As they halted for the final salute Kristy and Emma jumped to their feet to give them a standing ovation.

  ‘Awesome job!’ Kristy cried, patting the ponies one by one. She felt an inexplicable urge to cry. Happy tears, she told herself.

  And they were. She couldn’t have been prouder if she’d ridden the quadrille herself. They’d done a great job between them.

  Norah slithered to the ground, handed her reins to Kristy and stepped onto one of the upturned buckets.

  ‘As team l
eader I’d like to say a few words. Kristy, obviously we would all rather you were riding Cassius in the quadrille. No offence, Annie.’

  Annie smiled. ‘None taken.’

  ‘But as that wasn’t possible, we are just really, really pleased you agreed to help. I know you weren’t sure about it to begin with, but we want you to know we couldn’t have done this without you. So thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.’

  Kristy swallowed the lump in her throat. ‘My pleasure,’ she croaked.

  ‘So are we ready?’ shouted William.

  Kristy beamed at them all. They were her friends. Her team. They needed her as much as she needed them. And she was so proud of them. She high-fived Norah.

  ‘Are you ready? You bet you are!’

  20

  Jigsaw’s Flight

  An orange sun as plump as a satsuma was peeping over the horizon as Kristy peered out of her bedroom window on the morning of the centenary. She’d set her alarm extra early, determined to show Norah she could be as organised as she was. But if Kristy thought she would be the first to arrive, she was wrong. As she pushed her bike into the yard Annie was already there, giving Jigsaw a bath. The older girl saw Kristy and grimaced.

  ‘His white bits are yellow, no matter how many times I wash them. And his tail is a disaster!’

  Kristy gave her a reassuring smile. ‘Norah’s got some special blue shampoo for greys. I’m sure she won’t mind you having a bit. I’ll see if I can find it.’ She disappeared into the tack room. The shampoo was poking out of Norah’s grooming box.

  ‘There you go. Norah swears by it.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Annie, fanning herself. ‘Hot isn’t it?’

  ‘Not especially.’ Although it promised to be a beautiful day the air was still crisp and Kristy was glad of her fleece. She looked at Annie properly for the first time. ‘Are you OK? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’