She hoped the girls were as nice as they seemed, because if there was one thing that could make her holiday better than ever, it would be having two new horse-crazy friends.
Crystal snorted and started to jig-jog – a sure sign she was ready to do something more exciting than walk. Poppy relaxed the reins and looked over at Katie and Milly who were riding alongside her. She realised something very worrying – she was going to have to up her game.
Ever since she’d started riding at Starlight, Poppy had been the best. There were older kids who had more experience, but everyone made a fuss of how good a rider Poppy was. She wasn’t bothered about any other sports, partly because she hated the idea of having to do anything other than ride on the weekends. Horseriding was the one thing in the world she was really good at.
But Milly and Katie were easily as good as her, and they’d been especially chosen by her aunt and uncle as being worthy of a scholarship. Poppy felt the pang of jealousy again, but pushed it down – she would just have to prove to Aunt Sophie and Uncle Mark that she truly deserved her pony by trying extra hard to be the best.
‘How do you know the Delaneys?’ asked Katie.
Poppy snapped out of her daydream and turned to look at Katie. She was surprised by her question. She’d just presumed they knew.
‘Ah, they’re my aunt and uncle.’
Milly squawked and turned in the saddle. ‘You’re telling me that the one and only Sophie Delaney, like, one of the best dressage riders in the country, is your aunt?’
Poppy laughed. Well, when she put it like that, it did sound pretty cool.
‘Yep, she’s pretty amaz–’
Milly interrupted her. ‘That’s awesome! Do you live with them or something?’
Poppy noticed that Katie was watching her, too, like she was really interested in her answer but was too shy to ask. Poppy knew that she liked the girls already – even if they were a threat to her star-rider status – but she wasn’t ready to talk to anyone about her mum or dad, about what had happened.
‘My family just moved, so I haven’t been out here for a while, but I usually come and stay here a lot,’ she said instead.
Milly groaned, but Katie stayed quiet.
‘You’re so lucky to have them! My mum knows NOTHING about riding but thinks she’s an expert, and my dad just wants me to work hard at school and forget about stupid horses.’
Poppy gave Milly a sympathetic look. Secretly, she was pleased Milly wanted to moan about her parents, because it meant she wouldn’t have to talk about hers.
She waited for Milly to say something else, but she seemed done moaning about her parents, so Poppy quickly asked Katie a question, before Milly asked her anything else.
‘What about you, Katie? What are yours like?’
Katie almost looked embarrassed. ‘My parents are, well, kind of okay.’
Milly scoffed. ‘No parents are okay!’
Poppy ignored her and waited. ‘What do you mean?’
‘They love that I like riding. The only problem is, we have no money, and I have three little brothers, and there just really isn’t any time for me and horses any more. Before the twins were born, I had lessons every week.’
‘At least they like horses, though, right?’ Poppy pointed out.
That made Katie smile, even if she did look like she was going to burst into tears. ‘Yeah, but if it wasn’t for the Delaneys, I wouldn’t even be able to ride again. My dad just told me that they can’t afford to pay for my riding lessons any more. Not even once a month like I’d been having.’ Her eyes welled up with tears, and she patted Cody nervously on the neck.
Milly leaned over and gave Katie’s pony a pat on the neck, too, as they rode side by side.
‘Enough doom and gloom,’ Milly said with a smile. ‘Let’s do some exploring. This holiday is going to be about riding, riding and more riding! While we’re here, we don’t have to worry about anything, right?’
Poppy couldn’t have put it better herself. She grinned and looked over at Katie, pleased to see she wasn’t crying. She knew how hard it was to fight tears.
Instead, Katie smiled, double wattage. Milly seemed like heaps of fun, but Katie was pretty cool, too, Poppy thought. She bet that once they got to know each other she wouldn’t be so quiet, either.
‘Last one to jump that log’s a rotten rat,’ yelled Milly, taking off at top speed.
‘No cantering!’ Poppy called back, feeling nervous.
Milly pulled up to a halt, her horse’s head up high, dancing on the spot. ‘Don’t be such a spoilsport!’
Katie looked at Poppy, and Poppy looked back. When Katie, who seemed to be the sensible one, shrugged and pushed Cody forward, Poppy gave up worrying. What harm could they do having a play through the trees and into the bush?
‘Come on!’ called Milly, taking off again.
Poppy and Katie dug their heels in and raced, too, over the dirt track and toward the little log. Milly took the jump first, then halted, puffing, on the other side. It was a wide jump, and Poppy and Katie cleared it at the same time.
‘Let’s go!’ ordered Milly.
They trotted off after her, ponies pulling on the reins as they tried to stay ahead of one another.
‘What’s over there?’ asked Milly, pointing to a clearing with a rickety wooden gate.
Poppy pushed Crystal to go a little faster through the bush and out of the dense trees, to catch up with Milly. She followed Milly’s finger across the bridle path, past the ‘No Trespassing’ sign to the parched yellow cattle fields beyond. She groaned and felt herself shudder.
‘That’s Old Man Smithy’s place,’ she said, slowing Crystal to a walk, then halting. ‘He’s real scary. I’m not allowed to ride near his property.’
Katie looked worried, but Poppy noticed that Milly was grinning.
‘So what’s he done to make him so scary?’
Poppy gulped. She hated even talking about him. The last time she’d seen him he’d almost scared her to death. She’d been riding along the boundary and he’d suddenly appeared, walking out of some bushes with a poor cow hogtied on the ground behind him.
‘He’s this big old guy, real creepy looking. No teeth, hair all sticking on end. He’s farmed out here for ages, but Aunt Sophie and Uncle Mark have always told me to stay out of his way.’
‘Have they ever said why?’ asked Katie.
Poppy shook her head. ‘Nope, they don’t really talk about him. But it’s weird how all the other neighbours let us ride through their land on trail rides and stuff, but we can’t go near his place. Sophie goes all quiet whenever I ask about him.’
Milly’s face lit up and she directed Joe near the boundary fence on the edge of the forest.
‘Look!’ said Milly, edging Joe closer. ‘There are hoof prints here, and then on the other side. So someone must go riding through there.’
Poppy shrugged, amazed that anyone would risk riding through Old Smithy’s land.
‘I reckon we should go exploring,’ Milly said. ‘And I reckon you should ask your aunt again just what’s so bad about him.’
‘Exploring? Over there?’ As she stared at the farm, Poppy wasn’t so sure she liked having such an adventurous new friend. She could see Old Smithy’s falling-down barn in the distance, and the trees that had fallen in a storm last year and not been cleared.
‘Yeah, over there.’ Milly turned in her saddle and looked at the other two. ‘What do you say?’
Katie and Poppy glanced at one another and then back at Milly.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Poppy. But she kept looking at the hoof prints. Milly was right. Someone had been riding that way – and recently. Must have been someone new to the area who didn’t know, she figured.
‘Well, I’m going for a look,’ Milly said, wide-eyed. ‘Don’t you want to know why the Delaneys are so strict about his place?’
Poppy had always wondered. What had Smithy done to make her aunt and uncle stay clear of him?
> The rumble of a truck made her sit straighter in the saddle. Poppy looked at her new friends and realised they’d heard it, too.
‘That’s him,’ said Poppy, her voice low. She knew the sound of his ute’s rumbly sounding engine from when he’d driven off after surprising her, with the hogtied cow flung on the back of his ute.
Katie looked terrified, but Milly just smiled, her eyes trained on the boundary, where the rumble was coming from.
‘Are you sure?’
Poppy waited. His beaten-up blue ute rolled down the hill, weaving in the distance as it came down a hill toward them. The girls had pulled up closer to the gate, out of the cover of the trees, which meant he’d definitely be able to see them!
‘Yeah, I’m sure,’ she replied.
It disappeared again behind the trees, and Poppy shifted nervously. She didn’t want to draw his attention so that he saw them watching, not when she had such an uneasy feeling about him. And besides, she took her aunt and uncle’s rules seriously.
‘Come on,’ said Katie, pushing up her sleeve to check her watch. ‘We were meant to be back by now.’
Milly looked at her own watch and sighed. ‘Yeah, let’s go, my parents will probably send out a search party if we’re even ten minutes late. And then not let me come back!’
Poppy turned Crystal around. ‘We can spy on him some other time. Come on, I know a short cut back.’
She knew the trails like the back of her hand, despite them being like a maze in places. Poppy had explored the bush for years and loved to shortcut through the dense trees.
‘Is this the right way?’ asked Katie as Cody negotiated a tricky corner and she ducked just in time to avoid a low-hanging branch.
‘Trust me, I’ve been riding through here since I was eight,’ Poppy said, as she pointed Crystal towards an overgrown path that she knew would bring them out around the back of the farm’s stables. A kookaburra flapped out of a tree and made her jump, but Crystal just snorted and trotted past, head held high.
Poppy was enjoying showing off her knowledge of the trails, even if her heart was in her throat from the bird appearing out of nowhere. She just hoped she hadn’t told Milly too much about Old Smithy. Poppy got the feeling that Milly sought out mischief, and that made Poppy worry. Old Smithy was trouble, she just knew it, and she hoped that Milly would forget all about wanting to ride on his land . . .
In all the years she’d been coming to Starlight Stables, Poppy had never tired of the holiday riding camps, even though they did the same thing each time. Each camp lasted a week, and the kids learned to canter and jump, as well as ride through water and care for the pony they rode. Her aunt spent a lot of time with the camp children and did most of the instructing herself, and she always checked on them at night, too, in the bunk rooms before leaving them with the night-time carers.
Uncle Mark and Aunt Sophie let Poppy come to the camps all the time, telling her she paid her own way by helping so much, which meant she’d never had to ask her mum or dad for the money.
Poppy stroked Crystal’s face absent-mindedly, thinking how much she loved being here. She missed her friends, though, even more this time, especially Sarah after she’d spent so much time at her house when her dad died. She’d messaged Sarah earlier, but not heard anything back. Poppy wondered what she was doing while Poppy was away. Not having any fun without her, surely, Poppy laughed to herself.
A squeal reminded her she wasn’t alone.
Poppy looked at the bunch of kids – one or two were close to her age, but they were mostly younger. The odd one probably loved horses as much as she did, but she had a feeling that most of them just came here for something to do over summer. Poppy was in charge of the littlies for the next hour, as the head camp instructor had the morning off, and she knew exactly what would keep them entertained.
‘Who wants to do some painting?’
Six eager faces turned her way.
‘Like, with a paintbrush?’ one of them asked.
Poppy laughed. ‘No, silly, with our hands!’ It had been one of her favourite things to do when she was little, putting coloured handprints on the grey ponies. ‘Follow me! Pony painting, this way.’
When Aunt Sophie came to take over, Poppy was elbow-deep in paint. Crystal was covered in yellow, blue, purple and red handprints, her lovely grey coat like a multicoloured jacket.
‘Thanks, kid. Sorry about the pony.’ Aunt Sophie gave her an appreciative smile and flapped her arms, rounding up the children.
Poppy just shrugged. She supposed, being twelve, she was too old to find this sort of thing fun, but she loved it anyway. Even if it did mean extra work. Crystal would definitely need a hose down and proper wash, and quick, before the smudged handprints became sun-baked on.
The kids all flocked together and chased after Sophie, who was scolding them for running. Poppy laughed and pulled a sugar cube from her pocket, passing it to Crystal. She always used her pocket money to buy a bag at the supermarket before she came to Starlight.
There were only two days until Milly and Katie arrived back, and Poppy realised that she was looking forward to them being here. In fact, she was excited! Once they were here, they’d all be having lessons with her aunt together, and she couldn’t wait to have friends to trail ride with, too.
‘Poppy, the girls arrive tomorrow,’ Sophie said as they sat around the dinner table.
‘A-huh.’ Poppy tried to sound relaxed.
‘We were wondering if they should stay up at the house instead of down in the bunk rooms with the other camp kids.’
Poppy liked the sound of that idea. It would be weird for them to be down there with the holiday camp kids and her to be in the house. ‘Yep, that sounds great.’
Sophie smiled and brushed her fingers over Poppy’s shoulder as she passed.
Less than twelve hours and they would all be together. Poppy felt a flicker of worry, and hoped that everything went to plan. Would they get along okay, week after week? She hoped so, especially since they’d be sharing a room, too. Because, except for a few days at home in the middle, they were going to have three whole weeks together.
Poppy was outside the stables, with her arm around Casper as she stroked his fur. Katie stood a few feet away near her parents’ car, and Poppy could tell that she was close to tears. Poppy watched as Katie’s mum hugged her – the kind of big, tight hug that showed she really cared. Poppy stared at her boots and kicked the gravel, thinking how much she missed those kinds of hugs from her mum.
‘You just call if you need me, okay?’ Her mother looked on the verge of tears, too. ‘We’ll be out next week, so it’s not long.’
Poppy saw Katie nod and rub her sleeve over her eyes, sniffing as her mum got into her car and drove away. Poppy went forward and picked up Katie’s bags for her, giving her a soft nudge on the shoulder.
‘You’ll be fine,’ she said, wishing she knew how to make Katie feel better.
Her new friend braved a shy smile back, blue eyes still swimming with tears. ‘I know, it’s just that I’ve never really stayed away from home before.’
Poppy understood that, sort of. She’d always loved coming to the farm and staying with Mark and Sophie, even if she did get homesick. Even now, being worried about her mum, she was still happy to be on the farm.
The crunch of gravel made them turn and see another car coming up the driveway toward the stables. Casper trotted over to the vehicle, his tail wagging.
‘See ya.’ Milly flung open the passenger door and launched herself out of the car before it had even stopped properly.
Her mother looked alarmed and braked hard, bringing the car to an abrupt stop, but Milly just gave her a wave, bag already over her shoulder. She didn’t have much stuff with her.
‘Hey, you two,’ she said, a wide grin stretching her face, and a hand on Casper’s thick fur as he wagged his tail and leaned against her.
Katie snuffled but smiled, and Poppy gave Milly a beamer back.
‘You re
ady?’ Milly said.
Poppy and Katie looked at one another.
‘Ready for what?’ asked Poppy.
‘The best, most fantastic summer holiday of your life!’
Poppy found herself laughing as Milly thrust one hand out and shook her dark curls back over her shoulder. She hadn’t seen her with her hair out before, and it looked pretty, if not a little wild.
‘Who’s with me?’
Poppy dropped Katie’s bags and put out her hand to cover Milly’s. ‘Me!’
Katie seemed to forget about her tears and covered the top spot with her palm. ‘Me, too.’
‘Let the fun begin!’ squealed Milly.
‘Sorry to break up the party, girls, but we need to get the ground rules sorted this morning.’ Aunt Sophie was leaning against the stable entrance, dressed in cream jodhpurs and a sleeveless pink shirt, her long blonde hair twisted into a fishtail braid. Tall leather boots completed her outfit, making her legs look unbelievably long. Poppy hoped she looked like that when she was older.
‘Come on,’ said Aunt Sophie. ‘Follow me.’
The three girls trooped after Aunt Sophie, through the stable block and past the horses, stopping at their ponies’ stalls. There were only three ponies in – the rest were either out grazing or down in the yards by the camp. Usually it was only the bigger horses that spent time in the stables, unless one of Sophie’s private pupils was keeping their pony at the farm, which made Poppy feel even more special, that Crystal, Cody and Joe were being kept here.
‘Joe and Cody have been left in so you can take them out this morning yourselves,’ Sophie explained. ‘But usually, I let them out into the paddock before 8 a.m., unless we have a morning ride scheduled. We only do this for the horses and ponies being ridden each day. They then come in for their night feed, and spend the night stabled.’
Pony Detectives Page 3