Scout and the Mystery of the Marsh Ponies

by Belinda Rapley

  “Is he looking a bit lame to you?” Poppy called out.

  The others made a show of checking Scout’s trot, but they decided that, if he was, it must be intermittent. Poppy tipped forward a few more times, then turned him to the cross pole, the lowest of the six fences set up around the schooling paddock. He jumped it eagerly and, after a few times over it, Poppy asked for it to be raised.

  This time she turned him to it in a canter but, a few strides before the fence, she pulled Scout up, paused for a second, then reined him back, getting him to step backwards at an angle from the fence. Alice had to smile to herself. She knew exactly what Poppy was doing because they’d set it up beforehand, as they’d sat quietly together in the tack room. Alice knew that Poppy had asked Scout to stop properly and had performed a good rein-back. Only to someone watching who didn’t know any better, from the way Poppy had acted in the saddle they’d have thought that Scout was playing up, refusing to go near the fence.

  Tallulah frowned.

  “Is he often like this?” Poppy asked, sounding frustrated and impatient. Tallulah turned to look at Alice crossly, as if it was all her fault.

  “He can be,” Alice replied apologetically, glancing at Tallulah. “He’s been like it a bit more recently.”

  “Maybe you’ve over-faced him,” Poppy replied, “taking him over fences that are too big for him. I’ll try him again, but he hasn’t got that forward-going feel of a pony who really takes you into a fence, one that you know will always jump when you get there, no matter what’s in front of you, like Moonlight does. That’s the sign of a true star.”

  With each comment Tallulah glowered more darkly at Alice, her nostrils flaring furiously.

  Poppy jumped Scout a few more times, setting Scout up expertly on a stride that took him in close to the fence, then asking him to stand off, but not once getting him to do anything that would have scared him. It was just her antics in the saddle which made the jumps look erratic. Each time, she grimaced or purposely lost a stirrup or almost fell off sideways out of the saddle.

  “Scout’s jumping technique’s really odd,” she commented, bringing Scout back to a walk. “It’s really hard to predict what kind of jump he’s going to make, so it’s difficult for me to ride into the fences with any confidence. Weird!”

  Tallulah’s face turned pink. She glared once more at Alice, who had to turn away so Tallulah couldn’t see her smile.

  “Let’s put it up a bit,” Poppy said. “Although if he’s as inconsistent as that over the small fences, I doubt he’ll be any better over the bigger ones to be honest. But it’s worth a go – I might be wrong.”

  Rosie and Charlie rushed over to the fence, slid out the metal cups and slotted the pins in three holes higher.

  Poppy turned into the bigger fence. This time she tucked Scout in close to the fence and tipped forward, landing as if she was about to fall off the side. Poppy made a show of only just clinging on to the saddle before pulling him up. As she did, she tipped forward once more.

  “Are you sure he’s not a bit lame?” she asked, looking down at his off fore as she rode over to the centre of the school. “Maybe it’s all the jumping catching up with him. It might be that he hasn’t got the strongest tendons.”

  Tallulah’s eyebrows disappeared under her fringe. She fumed so violently that Rosie worried that she was in danger of exploding.

  “Did you want to try him over a course?” Mia asked, standing up. “We put the other fences up specially.”

  “Erm, actually I don’t think I’ll bother,” Poppy replied, patting Scout then swinging her leg over and jumping down. She immediately bent over to run her hand over the tendons on Scout’s off fore before looking up at Alice and passing her Scout’s reins. “Oh well, I’m glad I’ve tried him. You never know, maybe I just caught him on a bad day.”

  Poppy smiled, but she didn’t sound convinced.

  “Well, we all know he can jump,” Tallulah said defiantly as Alice led Scout back to the yard. “Maybe you just didn’t click with him like I did. Because I ride so many ponies, I can normally strike up a partnership pretty quickly.”

  Alice looked nervously across to Mia, who made a bit of a face until she saw Tallulah looking at her suspiciously. She changed it quickly into a smile, feeling her olive skin flush slightly as if she’d been caught out. She seriously hoped that Tallulah wouldn’t work out what was going on.

  As soon as they got back to the yard, Poppy made a fuss about tacking Moonlight back up and getting going.

  “I’ve got loads of tack cleaning to do tomorrow ahead of the show,” she groaned, “so I better get back. I guess I’ll see you in the Sweetbriar Cup, Tallulah.”

  “I’ll be there, although I’ve got such a good team of ponies I haven’t actually decided which one I’ll enter yet,” she replied, showing off.

  “Oh, right,” Poppy said, before turning to Alice. “Let me know if you want any help finding a real jumper for your next pony. I’m sure I can find you one with more scope and ability than Scout.”

  At that, Tallulah gasped slightly. Then she flounced across the yard and seconds later roared up the drive in her mum’s car. As she disappeared, the others all looked at each other.

  “Do you think I’ve done enough?” Poppy whispered.

  “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see now,” Mia sighed. It was impossible to tell if Tallulah really believed she was a better jockey than Poppy, or if she had been put off Scout by the fact that Poppy pretended not to rate him any more.

  “Well, we don’t have long now to wait before we find out,” Charlie said, as Poppy got Moonlight tacked up and led him out of the spare stable.

  “Good luck, Alice,” she said, looking over with a bright smile, hoping to make Alice feel confident. “At least you know you’ve done everything possible. Just a question of fingers crossed now!”

  Alice nodded, a feeling worse than entering fifty huge shows suddenly coursing through her and making her shiver. She turned and hugged Scout, then checked her watch. Mrs Hawk was due in just under three hours. It sounded like nothing, but she knew it would be the longest and most nerve-racking three hours of her life. She just had no idea which way Tallulah would go. None of them did.

  ALICE felt sick. She’d heard the car on the track and felt her knees buckle, thinking that it was Tallulah’s horsebox. When Rosie, being lookout again at the gate, had called out that Mrs Hawk had arrived, her sickness turned to a twist of nerves as she thought about what was about to happen. She willed the RSPCA Inspector to turn up, but Rosie kept reporting that there were no other sightings, making her heart sink down into her boots as Mrs Hawk stalked onto the yard. If Mrs Hawk was here she knew it meant that Tallulah hadn’t called to cancel the sale. And that meant that their plan that morning must have failed. The RSPCA was Alice’s last hope, but so far they were nowhere in sight.

  Mrs Hawk stopped by Scout’s stable and looked over the door. Alice had spent the last three hours glued to his side, hugging him, grooming him, plaiting and unplaiting his mane, but mainly just leaning against him, whispering with a nervous, shaky voice as she told him that he wouldn’t be going anywhere. She’d hugged him as he rubbed his head against her.

  Suddenly, as badly as she’d wanted her dreams to come true, the cold, unbending reality pushed its way into her thoughts: that very soon she could be standing in an empty stable and Scout would be on a strange yard, not knowing any of the smells, the noises or the people or ponies around him. Alice had wanted desperately for time to stand still, but it wouldn’t. She’d tried, but as the clock ticked closer to three, she could no longer hold back all the fear that had been racing around in her mind for the past week and hot tears started to spill down her cheeks.

  She’d heard the bolt on her door go and turned to see Rosie, Charlie and Mia standing next to her. Rosie had put her arms around her and Mia had told her with a wobbly voice that somehow it would all work out all right. Alice had nodded, wanting desperately to believe
her, but somewhere deep in her heart her unfailing belief was starting to feel shaken. She was worried that everything was happening too late.

  She’d blown her nose just as Rosie had gone to be lookout and Charlie and Mia had gone to check on their ponies. Two minutes later, Mrs Hawk had arrived.

  “Glad to see you’ve made him look half decent,” Mrs Hawk commented as she glanced over the door, her wig and hat back in place, along with the sunglasses.

  “Not that there’s much point,” Rosie muttered under her breath as she strode over, “because he’s not going anywhere.”

  “What was that?” Mrs Hawk asked irritably, looking at her watch and tutting as it ticked to five past three.

  “I said he won’t be going anywhere,” Rosie repeated louder. Alice felt her insides twist as she saw Mia and Charlie heading towards the stable. They’d agreed that if the RSPCA Inspector didn’t show up they’d confront Mrs Hawk themselves before Tallulah got there. It looked as if the others were just about ready.

  “What are you talking about?” Mrs Hawk scoffed. “As soon as Tallulah’s dad turns up with the cash that grey will be out of this wretched little place.”

  “But we know your secret,” Mia said, standing on one side of Scout’s stable with the others, while Mrs Hawk stood on the other.

  “Hmm? What secret’s that?” Mrs Hawk asked distractedly, checking her watch again.

  “How Roger Green keeps prices low on certain ponies at his auctions,” Mia continued, taking a deep breath as she saw Mrs Hawk stiffen slightly, “then you buy them with his help. You loan them out and sell them on for a big, fat profit, which you split with the auctioneer.”

  Mrs Hawk lowered her glasses for a second, looking at Mia with beady eyes, her anger glowing.

  “Rather clever of me, don’t you think?” she gloated. “Anyway, it’s not against the law.”

  “No, but owning ponies when you’ve been banned is,” Mia replied. “Mrs Hawk!”

  “Ha!” Rosie cried, pointing her finger in the air.

  Mia nudged her.

  “What? I didn’t know what else to say, and I wanted to add my bit!” Rosie whispered back as Mrs Hawk stood for a second, her thin lips curling into a slow smile.

  “We know everything,” Mia continued, showing her the newspaper article. Mrs Hawk reached to grab it, her wig twisting sideways, but Mia flicked the paper out of her grasp just in time.

  Mrs Hawk still looked annoyingly triumphant, although Alice noticed a bead of sweat form on her top lip. “Oh, do carry on. Tell me what you think you know,” she sneered.

  “We went to try to find you at the address in Hollow Hill that you gave Alice.” Charlie cleared her throat, thrown by a hard stare from Mrs Hawk. “We didn’t find you but we did find Beth Bright. She led us to Sammy, who told us you bought Scout at an auction at a knock-down price. Then we heard the phone call from ‘R’, Roger Green, and followed you to his auction, where we found out about your deal with the auctioneer.”

  “And we worked out the link between all the ponies on the marsh,” Alice continued, “so we called the owners and found that you’d told everyone the same story. And before you ask, we’ve got evidence – of you talking to Roger Green, and your wig.”

  “You had to wear a disguise so that no one recognised you,” Mia added, “once you’d been banned.”

  “But you couldn’t fool the Pony Detectives,” Rosie said triumphantly.

  Mrs Hawk lowered her sunglasses to look at the four girls. For a fleeting second there was a flash of admiration in her eyes before they turned steely again.

  “Oh, you may think you’ve got one over on me, but I’ve managed to escape detection this long and I don’t intend being caught now. Especially not by four interfering girls – the Pony Detectives, indeed!” Mrs Hawk chuckled gleefully to herself. “Anyway, as interesting as all this is, if it’s a ploy to get me to sell Scout to you, it won’t work. As soon as Tallulah turns up, I’m grabbing the cash and disappearing. Very soon no one will know where I am or what disguise I’m wearing next, except me and Roger. So it really doesn’t matter what you know – it’ll make no difference the moment I drive away from this lousy yard.”

  Alice opened her mouth, holding Scout. At that second a phone rang. It was Mrs Hawk’s.

  “Ah, that’s Tallulah’s dad now,” Mrs Hawk smiled thinly, “no doubt telling me they’re on their way. This will all be over in a short while, and this pony and I will be nothing more than a distant memory.”

  Mrs Hawk took the call. The girls could hear Tallulah’s dad ranting in the background, but couldn’t make out any of the words. But they didn’t need to: Mrs Hawk’s twisted face said all they needed to know.

  “What do you mean, no good at jumping? He’s been coming first all summer! Anyway, we had a deal!” she fumed. “I’ve cancelled my advert in Pony Mad because of you – you can’t just change your mind now, it’s too late! Hello… hello?”

  Mrs Hawk stared at her phone incredulously. She frowned, reached for Scout’s stable door and swung it open furiously. Rosie looked up and nudged Charlie and Mia, who glanced over to the track beyond the cottage and smiled secretly to each other.

  “That’s it!” Mrs Hawk exclaimed, grabbing at Scout’s lead rope. “I’m off, and before you go getting any ideas about keeping this pony, he’s coming with me!”

  But as Mrs Hawk dragged Scout out of his stable a car door slammed and a man and a woman walked in through the gate and marched straight up to her. They were both wearing uniforms with peaked caps, and had RSPCA logos on their tops.

  “Going somewhere, Mrs Hawk?”

  For the first time, Mrs Hawk looked alarmed. She was cornered. She glanced furtively around the yard, beads of sweat rolling down her face as she desperately searched for an escape route. The only one was right past the Inspectors. She seemed to sense that she was defeated and, with sagging shoulders, she dropped the lead rope and accompanied them to the tack room. Alice quickly took hold of the rope, patting a slightly confused Scout before taking him back to his stable.

  The four girls waited till Mrs Hawk had disappeared into the tack room with the Inspectors, then crept up and stood by the door, straining to hear Mrs Hawk’s responses as the Inspectors produced some paperwork and asked her to sign it.

  “What is it?” she croaked suspiciously.

  “This is to sign over every pony you currently own to us,” the woman said, “including the grey on this yard and the three others you have out on loan. Then there’s the dun pony from the marsh, which we’ve got in the back of our trailer right now.”

  Mrs Hawk grumbled under her breath and the girls heard her muttering about them being busybodies before she snatched the pen from the man and scrawled her name on the page held out to her.

  “So what does that mean?” Alice whispered, turning anxiously to the others, suddenly panicking that Scout might get loaded into the trailer with the rescued dun. “What happens to Scout now?”

  At that moment the RSPCA Inspectors came out and led Mrs Hawk to their car.

  “Excuse me…” Alice cleared her throat, going pink as the man turned back to her. “It’s just that I’ve got a pony on loan from Mrs Hawk, the grey over there… what’s going to happen to him? Will he have to be taken away?”

  Alice felt her heart flip as he smiled at her kindly.

  “Well, now we’ve got him signed over to us, along with the others which we’ll locate,” the man explained, “we’ll start the process of rehoming the ponies which are in good enough condition.”

  “Rehoming…?” Alice said, her voice sticking in her throat. Her eyes prickled and her vision blurred at the thought that her saviours were about to become the ones to finally take Scout away from her.

  “With someone suitable and knowledgeable,” the man said seriously, “someone who can offer the pony a forever home, who’ll promise to love the pony for its whole life.”

  Alice nodded, looking at a yellow dandelion on the floor which danc
ed and smudged in front of her eyes as a big teardrop rolled down her face and landed on it.

  “We have to check that the stables are safe. And although the pony officially is always owned by us, we have to make sure that the person taking the pony is dedicated to having him on long-term, permanent loan,” the man continued, looking round at Blackberry Farm’s yard. “And this, to me, looks like just the kind of place that I’d be looking for.”

  Alice nodded again. Then she heard Rosie gasp, and Mia and Charlie start to laugh, slightly hysterically. She looked up. The man was looking at her, smiling so that his eyes had almost disappeared in all the crinkles on his face. Alice glanced round at the others, not able to catch her breath for a second.

  “Do you… do you mean…?” Alice looked at the man, who was the one nodding now. She burst out laughing but it came out as a huge sob and she suddenly heard someone squeal and realised it was her. The others all hugged her, bouncing up and down on the spot.

  “I’m happy that keeping this pony here with you is the best outcome for him,” the man said, laughing too. “There’ll be paperwork and proper checks for us to complete but we can do that after we’ve sorted out Mrs Hawk. I’ll pop back tomorrow.”

  With that he turned and walked over to his car. Alice stood, stunned for a second, before rushing over to Scout’s stable. She let herself in and hugged him, patting him over and over, kissing his muzzle and, with shaking fingers, finding him mints.

  “Did you hear that, Scout?” Alice whispered through big gulps. “I promise to look after you and love you for ever, and there’s nothing now that will ever, ever keep us apart.”

  Scout rested his chin on Alice’s shoulder, his warm breath fluffing her hair as he blinked his eyes softly. Alice knew then that he finally really was hers and that her biggest dream had just come true.

  Alice couldn’t stop grinning as she waited just outside one of the roped-off rings at the Sweetbriar Stud show. It was the last show of the summer holidays and the paddocks were filled with milling crowds and dogs barking in the bright September sunshine. Rosie had persuaded them to forget about serious jumping or showing competitions for once. After the week they’d had, she’d suggested that they ought to just have some fun instead. The others had totally agreed. Alice sighed happily. The RSPCA Inspector had arrived at the yard that morning first thing and her parents had joined them there. They’d gone through all the documents and paperwork, just like the Inspector had promised they would. Alice felt the happiness bubble up inside her. Scout was finally, officially on loan to her – for ever – and the Pony Detectives had successfully solved their second mystery.