Pony Jumpers 7- Seventh Place

by Kate Lattey

  I knew what she meant, and shook my head regretfully. “Not with me, sorry,” I replied. “Don’t you?”

  She shook her head, and it finally dawned on me. “Is this your first time?” Bella’s chin wobbled, and my heart went out to her. “Aw, don’t worry. The nurse will sort you out. I’m sure she’s fully prepared for this kind of thing.”

  We reached the end of the corridor and I pushed the door open into the main courtyard. Bella baulked at the sight of so many students still milling around.

  “Here.” I reached into my backpack and pulled out my jersey. “Tie this around your waist, then nobody will be be able to tell.”

  Bella took it with a doubtful expression. “Are you sure? What if it gets…” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence, but I just shook my head at her.

  “I’m not worried, I can wash it. Go on.”

  Bella tied the jersey around her waist to hide the stain on her skirt and walked with me towards the office, her head held higher now. But her steps faltered again when she saw Jonty walking in our direction with a couple of his mates. He noticed us, and broke away from his friends. His surprised smile dimmed as he saw the tearstains on Bella’s cheeks.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah. We’re just going to the office. No worries.”

  Jonty looked at me, then back to his sister. “What happened?”

  Bella kept her eyes on the ground, refusing to look at her brother.

  “It’s fine,” I told him. “Trust me. I’ll take care of her.”

  Jonty still looked concerned, his eyes flickering quickly between the pair of us. He was very protective of his sisters, and I knew it took an effort for him to walk away and leave her in my hands when she was clearly upset.

  “You sure?” he asked her, and Bella nodded emphatically.

  “I’m all right,” she mumbled. “Tess is helping me.”

  Jonty shot me a doubtful look, and I smiled reassuringly at him. “It’s all good. Just go to class. We’ll talk later.”

  Jonty nodded, leaned in and kissed the corner of my mouth before hurrying after his mates, who were hooting appreciatively. I ignored them, putting a hand on Bella’s back as we walked on.

  She glanced at the boys behind her. “Are they laughing at me?”

  “Nope, they’re laughing at your brother.”

  “You won’t really tell him, will you?” She looked up at me, her big brown eyes so much like his.

  “Not if you really don’t want me to,” I said. “But he’s pretty nosy, so if I don’t, he’ll just start pestering you about it. You can choose which one of us gets to spill the beans.”

  She cringed as we reached the adminstration building, and I pulled the door open. “Can’t he just mind his own business?”

  “Not his strong suit,” I said, following her into the building. “He’s your brother, so surely you know that by now.”

  “I guess.”

  The front desk was abandoned, and the door to the nurse’s office was shut. I hesitated for a moment, wondering what to do next, until a harassed-looking teacher came out of the photocopying room with an armload of papers and spotted us.

  “What are you girls doing in here? You should be in class.”

  “We need to see the nurse,” I told her.

  “Both of you?”

  I glanced at Bella and knew I couldn’t abandon her now. “Yes.”

  The teacher pursed her lips as she rapped on the nurse’s door it, then opened it a few inches and peered in. “Two girls here to see you.” She nodded, and shut the door again. “She’s with a student right now. Wait there,” she told us, pointing at a row of chairs against the wall before striding away.

  I took a seat, and Bella followed suit, her eyes still on the floor.

  “Don’t feel too bad about it,” I told her. “Happens to us all.”

  She looked at me dubiously. “Has this happened to you?”

  “Not exactly,” I admitted. “My first time was even worse.” Bella looked sceptical, so I explained. “I was at a horse show.”

  “Oh.” She thought for a moment, then her eyes widened. “Were you wearing white jodhpurs?”

  “Cream ones, which is just as bad,” I told her, feeling my cheeks flush slightly at the recollection of that day. “And I didn’t even realise until I’d jumped my round. Came out of the ring feeling quite pleased with myself because we’d gone clear, then Hayley met me at the gate and told me. I was so embarrassed.”

  “Did she laugh at you?” Bella asked, her eyes darkening.

  “No, she was actually nice about it,” I said. “Took me back to the truck and found me some stuff, gave me some of her jodhs to borrow. I didn’t want to go back for the jump off, but she made me do it.”

  Bella’s face had turned hopeful, looking for a happy ending. “Did you win?”

  “No. I fell off.”

  “Oh.” Bella scuffed the lino with the toe of her battered shoe. “That’s a shame.”

  “Happens to me a lot,” I admitted to her as my shoulder throbbed, as though remembering suddenly that it was sore.

  Bella scoffed. “But you’re such a good rider.”

  “Not really.”

  “Yes you are. Jonty says you are, and he knows.”

  “He’s just being nice,” I told her, but she shook her head determinedly.

  “No he’s not. He said…”

  But I never found out what it was that Jonty had told her, because the nurse’s door opened and a tall boy with a bandaged hand walked out, followed by a large woman with dark red hair in a nurse’s smock.

  “What can I do for you girls?”

  I explained the situation as quickly as I could, relieved to see the sympathetic look on the woman’s face.

  “Oh dear. Don’t worry love, we’ll get you sorted out,” she told Bella kindly. “Come with me now.” She looked over at me. “Thanks for bringing her in. You can go to class now.”

  That didn’t sound like a request, so I stood up. “Okay.” I looked at Bella. “You’ll be okay now?”

  She nodded, biting her lip. “Yeah. Thank you.”

  “No worries. That’s what friends are for.”

  Bella’s eyes lit up at my words, and she broke into a wide smile, then flung her arms around me in a tight hug. Surprised, I hugged her back.

  “I’ll see you on the bus later, okay?”

  “Okay.” Bella turned and followed the nurse into her office, and I finally went to class.

  “I believe this is yours.”

  I was standing on one leg and pulling my jodhpur boot on with one hand when my school jersey flew through the air and hit me in the face.

  “Nice throw,” I told Jonty as he came into the tack room.

  “Hey, you caught it, didn’t you?” He sat on the tack box in front of me and drummed his fingers against the worn wood. “So now that I’ve got you alone at last,” he continued with a lifted eyebrow, “are you going to tell me what was going on with Bella today? Because she’s refusing to spill.”

  I put my foot on the tack box next to his hip and zipped up my leather chap. “Maybe you don’t need to know,” I teased him. “Maybe it’s our little secret.”

  “Yours and Bella’s?”

  “Sure, why not?” I returned my foot to the floor and couldn’t help smiling at his disappointed expression. “Look, it’s not a big deal, honestly. Bella was just…experiencing some women’s problems,” I said delicately, folding my jersey and putting it on the table behind me.

  Jonty frowned. “She what? What’s that supposed to… Oh.” I turned around in time to catch the look on his face as he caught on. “And she needed your help?”

  “Let’s just say she had a leakage issue, and leave it at that,” I told him, unable to suppress a grin at his horrified expression. “Hey, you wanted to know.”

  “Yeah, yeah, okay.” He threw his hands up and got to his feet. “I’ve heard enough.”

  I laughed. “Told you n
ot to be so nosy.”

  “Lesson learned.” He reached past me to take Copper’s bridle off the wall. Hayley wasn’t allowed to start riding again yet, and Jonty had been working her big chestnut horse for her while she was out of action. “You ready to ride today?”

  No. Not remotely. “Yeah. But can we just go for a quiet hack? My shoulder’s still pretty sore.”

  It was true, but it wasn’t the real problem. The nerves that I’d somehow managed to overcome in the past few months were back with a vengeance, and the thought of getting on Misty was making me feel physically sick.

  “Of course we can.” His brow furrowed as he noticed my expression. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  I couldn’t fool him though. He always saw straight through me.

  “Nervous?”

  “How’d you guess?”

  He slung Copper’s bridle over his shoulder and put his hands on my waist. “I’m a mind-reader.”

  “Oh yeah? What am I thinking right now?”

  “I don’t want to say.” He pulled me in closer, bowing his head until our foreheads were touching. “I wouldn’t want to make you blush.”

  “Too late.”

  He laughed softly as he leaned in and kissed me. His arms tightened around my waist and I closed my eyes, reaching up to cradle the back of his neck with one hand as I deepened the kiss.

  “Would you two get a room?”

  Jonty and I jerked apart and turned to look at Hayley, standing in the doorway.

  “We’re in a room,” Jonty told her with a grin.

  “A room without me in it,” Hayley clarified. She was leaning one shoulder against the door frame, and I tried not to notice the dark circles under her eyes, and how exhausted she looked. “Do you think you can take your tongue out of my sister’s mouth for long enough to tell me how Copper’s going?” she asked Jonty.

  “Behaving himself, most of the time.”

  “Have you jumped him lately?” Hayley glanced at me, a sudden spark coming back in her eyes. “That was a question for Jonty. No need to ask you that question after what I just witnessed.”

  “Shut up,” I told her as Jonty gave a traitorous laugh.

  “Not lately,” he admitted to my sister, but his eyes lit up in anticipation of what was coming next. Part of the deal was that he was only allowed to jump Copper under Hayley’s supervision. Since Jonty rode the horse ten times better than Hayley did anyway, it seemed overly controlling to me, but that had always been Hayley’s style. She liked to have everyone under her thumb.

  Stop it, I told myself as I picked up Misty’s saddle with my good arm. She’s sick. Be grateful she’s still here to annoy and embarrass you. Someday you might miss it.

  “You can jump him today, if you want,” Hayley said casually, and I knew that a quiet hack was definitely off the cards now. There was no way I was taking Misty into the hills alone. But if I joined them in the paddock, Hayley would expect me to jump.

  “What do you say, Tess?”

  How could I say no?

  “Fine by me.”

  I had to jump again eventually, and the sooner I got back on the horse – literally – the better.

  Right?

  I watched nervously as Jonty sat the pole on top of the two barrels, making a jump just over a metre in height. I’d been over it a hundred times before, but today it suddenly seemed immense. You don’t have to jump it, I reminded myself. They can’t make you.

  I lifted the saddle flap and tightened the girth a notch, dodging Misty’s teeth as he attempted an indignant nip.

  “Be nice,” I told the pony as I gathered my reins up into my left hand and prepared to mount. “Just for once, please. Be nice to me.”

  I could hear Jonty talking to my sister as he came to take Copper from her, laughing at something she said before swinging lightly up into the saddle. I grasped Misty’s stirrup with my right hand and angled it towards me, doing my best to ignore the ache in my shoulder and the churning in my stomach. I felt physically sick, and my hands were shaking.

  Just get on with it.

  I tried. But as I lifted my left foot an inch from the ground, my right knee went weak and buckled over. The strength disappeared from my body and I grabbed a fistful of Misty’s mane, sagging against the saddle.

  “Come on Tess, get on your pony and stop mucking about.”

  I tried again, but this time I couldn’t even lift my left foot. It was unnerving, as though I was suddenly paralysed, and sheer panic set in. I forced myself to move, just to prove to myself that I still had control of my own body. I let go of Misty’s mane and stepped back to the end of his reins, my legs trembling. The grey pony turned his head and gave me an irritated look, wondering why I insisted on wasting so much of his time.

  Copper’s shadow fell over me, and I looked up at Jonty, staring down at me with concern in his brown eyes.

  “You okay?”

  I shook my head. “No. Not really.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know.” I swallowed hard as he slid down from Copper’s back and put an arm around me.

  “Just ignore her,” Hayley snapped impatiently from behind us, where she was perched on an overturned barrel. “She’s just being a drama queen as usual.”

  We both ignored her. “I can’t make myself get on,” I told Jonty, my voice trembling around the words.

  Jonty’s breath was warm against my cheek. “D’you want a leg up?”

  I took a breath, and nodded. Fake it ‘til you make it. “Okay.”

  “On three.”

  I stepped back in towards Misty and shortened the reins, then placed my hands on the top of the saddle. My right shoulder screamed in agony, and I pulled it back down with a yelp, cradling it against my side.

  “Oh for crying out loud,” Hayley grumbled.

  “Ignore her,” Jonty said softly in my ear. “You can do this. Just use one arm.” He reached down and grabbed my calf, bending my knee and preparing to boost me into the saddle. My right leg wobbled precariously as I balanced on it. “One, two…”

  But it was too late. The memories I’d been trying to supress broke through my mental barriers and flooded into my head like a tidal wave, each memory crashing harder against me than the last. The suspended moment of impending doom…the crash of falling poles…the searing pain in my shoulder…the hoof in front of my face that seemed closer every time I remembered it, missing me by the barest inch…

  “No!”

  I pulled away from him, away from Misty, and staggered a couple of steps before bending over and vomiting into the grass. My whole body was shaking like a leaf, and my skin was clammy and cold. I could hear Hayley asking questions as I felt Jonty’s hand on the small of my back, reassuring me that it was okay.

  But it wasn’t okay. Because I’d been nervous before, but this was something completely different. I wasn’t just scared to ride.

  I was terrified.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  I live in Waikanae, New Zealand and started riding at the age of 10. I was lucky enough to have ponies of my own during my teenage years, and I competed regularly in show jumping, eventing, show hunter and mounted games before finishing college and heading to Massey University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English & Media Studies in 2002.

  In the years since, I’ve never been far from horses, and have worked in various jobs including as a livery yard groom in England, a trekking guide in Ireland, a riding school manager in New Zealand, and a summer camp counsellor in the USA, where I worked at the wonderful Road’s End Farm for five summers. During my time there, I wrote several short stories about the farm’s horses, which were a huge hit with the campers, and their encouragement inspired me to continue writing. I also had the joy and privilege to meet some amazing girls, and one incredible horse named Bittersweet. Her memory will be with me forever.

  I currently own a Welsh Cob x Thoroughbred gelding named JJ, and keep myself busy training him for show ju
mping and show hunter competitions, as well as coaching at Pony Club and judging local competitions.

  I have been reading and writing pony stories ever since I can remember, and have ideas for many more! If you enjoyed this book, please check out the rest of my novels on Amazon, and feel free to leave a review. Read on to find out more about the other books I have written.

  Also by Kate Lattey:

  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