Riding Star

by Stacy Gregg

  “His name is Marco,” Georgie said.

  “He will always be Spinner to me!” Daisy shot back. “And I’m not getting on him. Not after yesterday.”

  Yesterday’s training had ended in total carnage after Marco had done one of his famous 180-degree turns in mid-gallop with Daisy on his back. The turn had been so sudden and forceful that Daisy hadn’t stood a chance of staying onboard. She had been violently catapulted out of the saddle. Which wasn’t so bad, she told the others afterwards. It was the fact that Marco had then gone after her once she was on the ground.

  Georgie wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t seen it herself. The horse had attacked Daisy, hooves flying as he tried to land a strike on her. It was only the swift intervention of the other girls driving him off that had stopped Marco from causing serious harm.

  “I’m not getting on him.” Daisy put her foot down. “I’m not a coward, but I’m not an idiot either – that horse is crazy.”

  “All right,” Georgie had given in. “You take Jet for the last chukka. I’ll ride Marco.”

  As they tacked up the ponies for the final chukka, Georgie kept an eye on Marco’s legs and head. The gelding had been known to try and bite and kick simultaneously while he was being tacked up. Today, he made a desultory attempt to sink his teeth into Georgie’s arm as she tightened the girth, but she was able to brush him aside easily with a quick tap on the muzzle.

  “Don’t be naughty.”

  Marco seemed to take the telling-off to heart and stood still for the rest of the tacking up. But he clearly had revenge on his mind. It was two minutes into the chukka and Georgie had just won the ball off Alice and was racing for the goal when Marco did his legendary spinning trick. This time, he did the 180-degree turn, but when Georgie by some miracle managed to stay onboard, he didn’t stop there.

  She had been flung forward out of the saddle by the sudden stop-and-turn and, as she tried to get her stirrups back, she suddenly felt the horse give way underneath her. Marco’s knees appeared to be collapsing!

  “Georgie!” She heard Alice yelling at her. “Jump!” Without thinking, Georgie obeyed on instinct. She threw herself off the horse and fell clear, just as Marco slumped completely beneath her, dropped down on his side and began to roll.

  The girls watched helplessly as the gelding thrashed back and forth. Georgie heard a loud crack as the tree that ran down the inside of the polo saddle was literally snapped in two. If she’d stayed onboard it could just as easily have been her spine snapping as Marco had crushed her beneath him.

  With a look of triumph, having got rid of his rider and destroyed his saddle, the chestnut gelding stood up and shook himself with a satisfied grunt.

  “What did I say?” Daisy helped Georgie to her feet. “That horse is a lunatic.”

  Georgie, still shaking from her forced dismount, couldn’t disagree with her.

  Marco was proving to be the worst purchase she had ever made. He would have to go. And she knew the only person who would possibly take him on.

  “I’d better call Riley.”

  *

  Georgie had been glad of an excuse to call Riley. She hadn’t spoken to him since they’d had that stupid fight. She was prepared for him to hang up on her, but he listened to what Georgie had to say, and seemed strangely unsurprised when Georgie told him about Marco’s misdemeanours.

  “It sounds like you’ve bought yourself some trouble,” Riley said. “I’ll take him off your hands if you want. I’ll do you a straight trade. I’ve got a little grey mare here, one of my breakers, that might make you a good polo pony. She’s built for it – good hindquarters and hocks, and she’s a sweetheart to ride.”

  “She sounds great.” Georgie was so relieved. She was even more stunned when Riley said. “I’ll come by after school tomorrow and bring the mare and take Marco. Meet me at the stables at five.”

  “Thanks, Riley.” Georgie couldn’t believe he was bringing the mare to the school. She knew how much Riley hated having anything to do with Blainford. “I really appreciate it. I thought after the other day that you might not even speak to me…”

  She stopped talking when she realised that there was no one at the other end of the phone. Riley had already hung up.

  *

  The next day after school Riley arrived in the horse truck and the girls all gathered round to see the new pony. Georgie had told them that the mare was one of Riley’s ‘breakers’ – a young, just-broken-in horse. Georgie hadn’t been expecting much – a breaker was usually not long in from the wild, with a coarse coat, tangled mane and not much condition. But the grey mare that Riley brought out of the truck was the total opposite. She was a glossy dapple-grey, well-fed and rounded with a beautifully hogged mane and trimmed fetlocks. She had a handsome face with a very slight Roman nose and deep brown eyes that looked wise beyond her years.

  “She’s gorgeous!” Georgie couldn’t believe it.

  “She’s a nice mare,” Riley agreed.

  “How old is she?” Georgie asked.

  “Nearly five,” Riley said. “Dad won her in a claiming race when she was just a yearling.”

  “What’s that?” Georgie asked.

  “It’s a race where the winner can claim your horse,” Riley explained. “Dad did a deal with one of the jockeys and somehow I ended up with her. She was too young to do anything so I turned her out to grow until she was three and then last year I started to break her in. I was planning to race her this season, but she’ll make a good polo pony.”

  Georgie ran a hand over the mare’s glossy dappled coat. She felt every bit as smooth and muscular as she looked. Her conformation was amazing, short-coupled just like a polo pony should be with a length of neck and good hard hooves.

  “What’s her name?” Georgie asked.

  “Princess.”

  “No, really. What’s her name?”

  Riley shrugged. “I thought it suited her.”

  Georgie put her arm round the mare’s neck. “What do you say, Princess? You want to stay here with us girls and learn to play polo?”

  “She already knows a few polo moves,” Riley confessed. “I’ve been training her up for the past week or so in the round pen at home. She’s a quick learner.”

  Georgie couldn’t believe it. Riley had even been schooling the mare for her? It was far too good to be true.

  “Are you sure you want to trade her for Marco?” Georgie asked.

  “Hey!” Alice interjected. “Don’t discourage him!” Riley grinned. “I’m sure,” he said. “You have the mare. I’ll take Marco.”

  “Come on,” Alice said, “let’s get him on the truck before Riley changes his mind.”

  Loading Marco was potentially a three-man job so Emily and Daisy both went out with Alice, leaving Riley and Georgie to put Princess in the loose box.

  They put the mare into Marco’s old stall, sliding the bolt across on the bottom Dutch door so that she could still look out into the corridor and see her new stable mates.

  “So,” Riley looked around uncomfortably, “I guess I better get going before the lord of the manor turns up and freaks out at me for talking to you like last time.”

  “He’s not like that,” Georgie said looking down at James’s polo ring round her finger.

  “Oh no, he’s real friendly,” Riley said sarcastically. Riley shuffled about and hesitated for a moment and then he said, “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure, what?”

  “You know what you were saying the other day, about how I didn’t call you? Well, what if I had? If I’d called you after the Formal, do you think you’d still be going out with him… instead of me?”

  “What?” Georgie felt confused. “Riley, I can’t answer that. I don’t know.”

  “Because the thing is,” Riley continued, “if you want to know the truth, I’ve been wanting to call you every day since that dance.”

  “So why didn’t you?”

  Riley pulled a face. “Geez, Georgie,
I don’t know. It’s this whole Blainford thing. I got home that night after the dance in my rented suit and I realised I was kidding myself. I don’t belong here.”

  “But that doesn’t matter,” Georgie said. “I’m the one who goes to school here – not you.”

  “That’s my point,” Riley said. “You’re supposed to be here. You and I, we’re different.”

  “No,” Georgie shook her head. “We’re the same. You’re a talented rider, Riley – you could be at this school on a scholarship if you weren’t such a… snob.”

  “I’m a snob?”

  “Yeah.” Georgie was really winding into her argument now. “You’re a reverse snob. You won’t go out with me because I go to a good school. What’s that about?”

  “Well, that’s about me being an idiot – obviously!” Riley shot back. “Because I thought after that dance that you were my girlfriend and then suddenly I find out you’re going out with his majesty with the polo mallet.”

  “How can I go out with you if you never call me?” Georgie was astonished. “I thought you’d dumped me! And his name is James and he’s really nice; you don’t know him.”

  “But I know you,” Riley said. “And I know that you shouldn’t be with him. You should be with me!”

  Alice suddenly appeared at the door. “Hey, Riley, we’ve got Marco on at last—” she stopped in mid-sentence when she saw the look on Georgie and Riley’s faces.

  “I can’t talk about this any more,” Riley said. He cast a sorrowful glance at Georgie and the grey mare. “So long, Princess,” he said. “Take care.”

  *

  “Well, I’m glad to see the back of him!” Daisy said, dusting off her hands dramatically as she walked back into the stable block.

  Georgie looked miserable.

  “Daisy!” Alice said. “Try and have some tact!”

  “What?” Daisy said. “I meant Spinner! Not Riley.”

  Daisy stuck her head over the loose-box door and took a good, hard look at Princess.

  “That’s quite a horse!” she said. “And Riley just swapped her for Spinner? What was he thinking?“

  Alice looked sideways at Georgie, but didn’t say anything.

  “Shall we include Princess in the workout roster?” Emily asked. “The Round Robin knockout tournament is in two weeks. That doesn’t give us much time to start training her.”

  “Let’s give her today to settle in first,” Georgie said. “I’ll hog her mane and start her off on some stick-and-ball tomorrow.”

  While the others went off to get their training session underway, Georgie mixed Princess a feed.

  Marco had always been vicious at feeding time and you had to keep a careful eye on him in case he attacked you. But Georgie could see that Princess wasn’t like that. The mare had a gentleness about the eyes that made Georgie trust her. She slipped the feed bin into the rack on the wall and then stood beside the mare as she ate.

  As she stood there in the loose box she looked down at the polo ring on her finger. She’d got it covered in sugarbeet when she was mixing the horse feed. She slipped it off and wiped it on her shirt.

  The ring hadn’t even been on her finger long enough to leave a mark. It was as if she had never worn it. She stared at the ring for a moment longer and then, as if coming to a decision, she put it in her pocket and went to tack up Belle.

  Chapter Eleven

  At boarding school, trying to avoid someone was almost impossible. So why was it that when Georgie actually wanted to run into James Kirkwood he was nowhere to be seen? On Sunday night she’d lingered at the dining hall, taking ages to eat her dessert, just in case he turned up late. Then she’d dawdled on the driveway as the girls walked past Burghley House, walking as slowly as humanly possible, but still he didn’t appear.

  Georgie knew she wouldn’t run into him on Monday morning since James was a year ahead of her and not in any of her classes. It wasn’t until the afternoon when she was at the Burghley House stables getting Princess ready for her polo lesson that she finally saw him.

  With the Round Robin less than two weeks away she needed to launch into Princess’s training straight away. She needed to try the mare out on the field to get a sense of her ability.

  Georgie had done up her tendon boots and was just finishing off an Argie knot on Princess’s tail when she had that strange feeling you get when you’re being watched. She looked up and started in surprise when she saw James leaning over the Dutch door, smiling at her.

  “Ohmygod, you scared me!” Georgie said.

  “Did I?” James asked.

  Georgie returned to her tail plaiting. “So where have you been?” she asked. “I didn’t see you at dinner last night.”

  “I got a last-minute pass out,” James said. “Dad flew in from New York – he took Kennedy and me out for a family dinner.”

  “Nice.”

  “Anything is better than the dining hall,” James said airily.

  He cast an eye over the grey mare in the stall.

  “Got a new horse?”

  Georgie nodded. “Her name’s Princess.”

  She finished the tail plait and then did three neat twists, like a chignon, before tying off the ends so that the tail was tucked up.

  “She’s a good-looking mare. Where did you get her from?”

  Georgie had known that this would be his next question. And she also knew that James wasn’t going to like the answer.

  “I exchanged one of my other horses for her.” James frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I swapped horses with Riley. He took Marco and he gave me Princess.”

  “This mare is Riley’s horse?”

  “Well, not technically,” Georgie said. “She’s mine now. We traded.”

  “I thought you told me that you weren’t seeing him any more.” James’s tone had turned defensive.

  Georgie shook her head. “You said you didn’t want me to see him. I never agreed.”

  “So you’re hanging out with him behind my back? He’s been here again, in these stables, after I told him to stay away?”

  “You don’t actually have the right to order him off school property, James,” Georgie replied. “It’s not like you own Blainford.”

  “We own quite a lot of it. My family paid for the library,” James countered.

  “Well the next time Riley comes round I’ll make sure he doesn’t borrow any books,” Georgie said.

  “Is that supposed to be a joke?” James said. “There’s not going to be a next time, Georgie. I don’t want you seeing him.”

  “James,” Georgie said, “is this really about Riley? Or is it about you owning me like you own the library and everything else around here?”

  “What are you talking about?” James’s eyes blazed with anger.

  Georgie knew it was too late to back down now. “The other day, when you asked me out, was it because you really wanted to go to the movies with me or were you just trying to outdo JP?”

  James frowned. “You think I’m going out with you just to mess with JP?”

  “No,” Georgie said, “I think you asked me out to mess with JP and then you gave me that ring because you were jealous of me and Riley.”

  Georgie reached into her pocket and pulled out the polo ring. “Here – I want you to take it back.”

  She handed him the ring and watched as James closed his fist round it until his knuckles turned white. “So that’s it? You’re dumping me for some loser who doesn’t even go to Blainford?”

  “It’s not just because of Riley,” Georgie said. “I don’t think we should ever have got back together. Things have been weird between us.”

  James glared at her. “You are so ungrateful. I take you back, despite everything you’ve done. And now you do this? Kennedy was right – you’re not good enough to date a Kirkwood!”

  “Hang on a minute!” Georgie’s eyes widened. “You dumped me because you were too stupid to realise your own sister was pulling your strings. Then you wante
d me back – but only because you were jealous of JP and Riley. And now you’re upset because my dumping you is going to make you look bad? Oh, and do tell me again about how special the Kirkwoods are – I never get tired of hearing about that!”

  Georgie grabbed Princess by the reins and unbolted the door to the loose box, but James blocked her way.

  “Georgie, you don’t want to do this. If you get on the wrong side of me I have the power to make your life hell at this school.”

  Georgie laughed. “Make it hell? Where have you been for the past term?”

  She pushed past him, led Princess out of the loose box and mounted up. As she trotted the mare down the corridor she suddenly felt very glad that she was on her way to play polo. She had never felt quite so much like hitting something before in her life.

  *

  Georgie was running late and she was still shaken from her fight with James when she arrived at polo class.

  “Are you all right?” JP muttered to her.

  “I’m fine,” she told him. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

  “We’re having a proper match today,” Heath Brompton told the class. “We’ll split into four teams and use two fields.”

  Georgie raised a hand. “Sir, can I be excused from the teams? Is it all right if I just play stick-and-ball by myself up the sidelines?”

  Georgie would have loved to have joined in the game to let off steam, but she knew it was the wrong thing to do. Princess had never played polo before and Georgie had to ease her into the game gently.

  And so she looked on enviously while the other riders played proper chukkas on the main fields and she kept Princess on the sidelines, working her back and forth, getting her accustomed to being near the mallet and the polo ball, and testing her speed and responses.

  As she left the field Heath Brompton barked at her, “If you can’t take the heat, Parker, perhaps you should consider getting out of the kitchen.”

  It wasn’t until she was untacking Princess that Georgie finally twigged what he meant.

  “Heath thinks I skipped the game because I’m scared of falling off again!” Georgie told the others when they met for stick-and-ball after school. “So now he thinks I’m a coward!”