by Kate Lattey
“If he doesn’t need it, then it won’t even come into effect,” she’d assured me. “But best to have it there just in case.”
Once again, she’d been right. I turned Squib in a circle, narrowly avoiding knocking Donna down for a second time, then followed Katy and Rebel, who were walking slowly but at least moving forward through the muddle of strange equipment.
“Hi AJ! Hi Katy!”
We looked over to see Carrie bouncing towards us on her faithful little bay pony Oscar with a wide grin. Her mother and sister were walking along behind, Alyssa’s face set in a permanent scowl. It was strange how two siblings could look so similar and yet so different at the same time. The girls had the same dark blue eyes, narrow faces and smattering of freckles – but Carrie was always cheerful and happy, while Alyssa always looked like she was walking around under her own personal raincloud – just like her mother. They’d turned up at Katy’s yesterday and after watching Rebel be put through his paces by Katy – behaving flawlessly as usual – Alyssa still had to be practically forced into the saddle, and had ridden around like a rigid tin soldier. Katy had stood there grinding her teeth in irritation while Deb patiently coached the young rider through some basic manoeuvres, finally persuading her to have a short canter which Rebel had done willingly, despite his unwilling rider.
“Brace yourself Rascal, here they come,” Katy warned the pony, leaning forward to pat Rebel’s neck. “Make the most of me while you’ve got me, pony. Because you’re about to go back to that.”
Deb was standing near us, and she shot her daughter an annoyed look. “She can’t help being scared,” she replied, but Katy scoffed.
“It’s not even that, though,” she said. “Everyone gets nervous sometimes, it’s part of riding and if we didn’t go outside our comfort zones then we’d never progress. But that kid was so busy freaking out yesterday that she wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to what Rascal was actually doing or likely to do. If you’re going to be that petrified to ride, then either don’t ride, or put in the effort to overcome it, otherwise it’s not fair on your pony. Alana doesn’t want to stop being nervous, she just wants an excuse to quit.”
I watched Alyssa trudging along beside her mother, dressed in expensive riding clothes. “Alyssa doesn’t want to ride, she only does it because her mum makes her. Before Rebel, she had an old pony that was so quiet it barely moved, and she kept throwing tantrums because it wouldn’t do as it was told. She didn’t want to actually work to get the pony going forward, so they bought her a more forward pony, and now she’s scared of him.”
“Imagine not wanting to ride,” Katy said disbelievingly as Deb walked over to greet Alyssa’s mum. “What would you even do with your life?”
“Search me. But some people do actually manage to have lives outside of horses, apparently.”
Katy shuddered. “Stop, you’re scaring me. Leave the Muggles to their boring lives. Oh keep your hair on Rascal, they’re balloons, not sharks,” she told the pony affectionately as one of the balloons wafted in his direction on the light breeze and he skittered sideways, eyes wide.
I felt Squib tense up beneath me as he looked cautiously from Rebel to the balloons, clearly trying to decide whether to flee, or to adopt his usual position of fearless leader in order to show Rebel up. He was still undecided when Carrie reached us and pulled Oscar to a bumpy halt.
“I’m so excited for this rally!” she said happily. “Ooh look Oscar, balloons!”
The young girl reached over and batted one of the balloons with her whip just as Squib stretched his nose out towards it. The balloon sprang to the end of its string and bounced off Squib’s nose. He squealed indignantly and struck out with a foreleg, his ears flattened back to show his extreme displeasure. Rebel immediately shot backwards in horror while Oscar stood there with his eyes half-closed, completely unperturbed, and we all started laughing.
“Oh man,” Katy giggled as she kicked Rebel back towards the balloons. “The look on Squib’s face!”
Donna started yelling at us all then to come together and get into our groups. Katy and I rode over towards Jessie on her fat chestnut pony and Ashley on her nervous Thoroughbred, and I thought to myself that Squib was easily the best-looking pony at the rally. I ran my hand down his strong neck as we halted next to the other girls.
“Be good today, okay?” I told him quietly. “This is your chance to impress Donna and show her how much you’ve improved.”
Squib tossed his head irritably and tried to bite Rebel as Katy rolled her eyes at me. “I don’t get why you even care what that woman thinks,” she said derisively. “As if her opinion even counts, compared to mine.”
I pretended to throw up off the side of Squib while Jessie and Ashley giggled, trying to make a good impression on Katy because she rode in Pony Grand Prix classes and that made her an object of their admiration. That had been me only a few months ago, floored by my first proper contact with a Grand Prix pony and rider, but now Katy’s superiority complex was starting to play on my nerves.
“How does your head even still fit inside your helmet?” I asked her as Donna came marching towards us with a young woman leading a dark bay horse.
“Right Charlie, this is your lot today. They’ve got plenty to work on,” she informed our coach disparagingly. Her eyes skated across us, lingering for a moment on Katy. “Katy can ride, but she’s on a green pony,” she added, bolstering Katy’s self-esteem still further and making me want to gag again. “Anyway, off you go. Have fun.”
Donna strode away as Charlie stopped in front of us and stroked her horse’s neck, smiling up at us. “Hello girls. I hope you’re up for a challenge today.”
Katy looked sceptical but I nodded as Charlie slid her foot into her stirrup and swung up on her horse’s back. As she turned the mare away and motioned to us to follow, I noticed that she wasn’t even using a proper bridle – just a rope halter – and had no bit in her horse’s mouth. We followed her over to the strange obstacle course, where she halted and turned her horse around to face us.
“We’re going to work on some desensitising today. We’ll go through the obstacles one at a time, then put them together at the end, but I’ll give you a quick demo before we start. Watch closely.”
She turned away again, her horse turning on the spot without Charlie even picking up a contact on the reins. At a walk or steady trot, she went through the whole obstacle course – over the tarp, between the balloons, under the streamers that dangled from the metal arch, weaving through the cones, side-passing over a pole on the ground, opening and closing a rope gate before finishing up by stepping up onto a wooden pedestal. Her horse was completely relaxed the entire time, even when Charlie started kicking the balloons with her toes as she rode back past them.
“Wow.”
Katy looked over at me and rolled her eyes. “Oh, great.”
“What? You’re not impressed?”
“By those circus tricks? Nope. What’s the point?”
Charlie overheard the end of Katy’s sentence as she rode back over to us, but instead of looking offended, she just grinned wider. She had a friendly face, with plenty of freckles and a thick mane of dark red hair.
“The point is to improve your relationship with your pony,” she told Katy, polite but firm. “So that whatever you ask him to do, and wherever you ask him to go, he’ll have faith in you and do it willingly.”
Katy still looked sceptical as Charlie looked around at us. “Let’s start with walking over the tarp. Who wants to go first?”
The other two girls hesitated, taking their cue from Katy’s reluctance, so I volunteered. “I will.”
Anxious to copy Charlie’s style, I kept my reins relaxed on Squib’s neck as I rode him forward. Squib strode out keenly until he got to the tarp, where he stopped with a snort, looked at it sideways, then spun on his haunches and tried to charge back to the other ponies.
“Shorten your reins, bring him back,” Charlie said as Jessie st
arted asking Katy why she wasn’t riding Lucas, or as she referred to him, that gorgeous chestnut you brought here last time.
I tuned out Katy’s explanation abut Lucas’s injury as I rode Squib back over to the tarp, closing my legs firmly against his sides on the approach. Squib stopped again, snorted, then pawed cautiously at the tarp. I clicked my tongue to him and he hesitated, then sank down on his quarters. I had time to grab a quick handful of mane before he launched himself into the air, clearing the tarpaulin as though it was an open water jump, his dark grey forelegs stretched out in front of him like Superman.
I dug my knees into the saddle as he landed and circled him, trying to keep him from pulling his head down and bucking me off. I could hear Katy cheering and the others laughing, but my face was red as I brought Squib back to Charlie’s side.
She was smiling too. “He’s keen, isn’t he?”
“He loves jumping,” I agreed. “Any excuse to jump something and he’ll take it.”
“I can see that. Let’s try again to just walk over it though, shall we?”
By the end of the rally, Squib and I had mastered each of the obstacles, although we couldn’t put them together as smoothly as Charlie and her mare. The others had made their own attempts as well, and annoyingly enough, Katy had steered Rebel effortlessly through each element and been the best of the lot of us. Ashley’s young Thoroughbred had viewed every new obstacle with extreme horror and Jessie’s attempts to get her pony to side-pass over the pole or reverse between the balloons or cones was met with stubborn refusal. But I was proud of Squib for attempting all of the elements, and when the rally finished up, I showered him with pats and told him he was marvellous.
“He’s a lovely pony,” Charlie said with a smile, giving him a rub between the eyes herself. “Very brave and willing to try new things.”
“Yeah, he’s always up for a challenge,” I agreed. “Thanks for teaching today. I learned heaps.”
“I’m glad.” Charlie’s eyes slid over to where Katy and the other two girls were sitting, gossiping amongst themselves like they’d been doing all rally. “I’m glad at least one of you got something out of it.”
“Definitely,” I assured her. “And I really like your horse too.”
“Thank you.” Charlie beamed. No matter who they were, horse people always loved to have their horse complimented. “I rescued her from being made into dog food by her former owners, who thought that if she couldn’t show jump then she wasn’t worth keeping alive,” she explained, sounding disgusted.
“That’s terrible! Was she injured?” I asked, my eyes searching the mare for any scars or bowed tendons, but Charlie shook her head.
“No, she’s just very sensitive and they pushed her too hard too fast, and scared the living daylights out of her. When I got her, she was terrified of everything and as soon as I got on she just bolted straight through the bridle.” She rubbed the mare’s forehead affectionately. “They’d been riding her in huge gag bits and all kinds of other junk that was only making her worse. I took her right back to a rope halter and as you can see, that’s all she needs. It’s all any horse needs if they’re schooled properly.”
I looked guiltily at the bit in Squib’s mouth, at the noseband that held his mouth closed, and the running martingale looped onto the reins.
“I’m trying to get Squib into less gear,” I told her quickly, glad that the copper roller at least looked like an innocent snaffle when it was in his mouth. “He’s really strong though, so it’s a work in progress.”
“Well at least you have him in a snaffle,” Charlie said approvingly, making me feel even guiltier. “And I’m so glad to see that he’s allowed to stand on his own feet. Makes a huge difference to their confidence, being able to feel the ground beneath them.”
I realised that she was talking about him being barefoot, and a quick glance at her horse assured me that her mare was unshod as well.
“He’s got really good feet,” I told Charlie. “Katy reckons I should put shoes on him, but I really don’t want to.”
Charlie looked horrified at the suggestion. “Definitely not! What a crying shame it would be to nail metal onto hooves like that. He looks to me like he’s doing just fine without them.”
I nodded, relieved to finally find someone who agreed with me. “That’s what I keep saying!”
“Stick to your guns, AJ,” Charlie told me firmly. “He’s your pony, and only you know what’s best for him. Trust your instincts. If something feels wrong, it probably is. People do all kinds of things just because everyone else does them, or because they’re too scared to try something different, because they think people will laugh at them. It’s not easy to be different, or to work outside of the box, but it’s worth it for the quality of life you can give to your horses. If Jasmine was still being managed in the traditional way, she’d be pumped full of processed feed and then locked in a stable for half of the day. No wonder she was a basket case! But now she’s living a natural lifestyle in a herd environment and as you can see, she’s far happier and more relaxed.”
I nodded in emphatic agreement as Katy walked up to us on foot, Rebel having finally been returned to his owners. I glanced over to see Alyssa riding him tentatively around while Deb chatted to Sandra.
Katy reached my side and put an arm possessively over Squib’s neck. “Home time,” she told me, then gave Charlie a brief smile. “Thanks for the lesson today, it was really good for Rascal’s owners to see how bombproof he really is.”
“You’re welcome,” Charlie said, quite graciously I thought, considering Katy hadn’t exactly been an apt pupil. “Any time.” She looked back at me as I sat on my pony’s back, legs dangling next to his stirrups. “Stay in touch. I’m on Facebook. Charlie Kendrick.”
“I’ll find you,” I assured her as Katy took Squib by the bit and started leading him away with me still in the saddle. “Thanks again!” I called back to Charlie, who gave me a thumbs-up.
“You’re not really going to look her up on Facebook are you?” Katy asked as soon as we were out of earshot.
“Why not?” I demanded. “I like the way she trains her horse.”
“You would.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded.
“She’s a rope twirler,” Katy said derisively. “Going on about groundwork and natural horsemanship and all that rubbish. Trust me, none of that is going to help Squib jump in the Pony Grand Prix.”
“You say that like it’s the only thing that matters,” I muttered, and Katy looked at me in surprise.
“It is.”
“No it’s not. What about your pony’s health and well-being?”
“Well sure, but that’s a given,” Katy said with a frown. “Those things are your side of the deal – keeping him fed and warm and happy. You owe that to him, of course you do. But then he has to uphold his side of the deal too, which is to perform to the best of his ability. And in Squib’s case that’s definitely Grand Prix, right superstar?” she finished, clapping Squib’s neck as she walked alongside him back to the truck.
“What if he doesn’t want to jump Grand Prix?”
“Don’t be stupid, of course he does,” Katy said. “It’s as much his dream to win Pony of the Year as it is yours.”
She sounded so certain, but I couldn’t help thinking of Charlie’s words. If something feels wrong, it probably is. I jumped off my pony as we reached the truck, starting to untack him without another word. Katy went back to fetch her mother as I slipped Squib’s bridle off over his ears and let him rub his head against my shoulder, leaving a trail of grey hairs on my Pony Club shirt. I knew he was a talented jumper, but I was starting to wonder whether my goals for him were at odds with what was the best thing for him. Katy loved her ponies and doted on them, but would she still ride if she couldn’t compete? If Molly could never jump again, would Katy lose interest in her?
I couldn’t be sure about the answer to that, but I knew that if Squib ever got injured so t
hat he couldn’t be jumped or ridden again, I’d still love him every bit as much as I did now. My ‘use’ for him had nothing to do with how much I loved him, and I wrapped my arms around his chunky head and gave him a kiss to make sure he knew that too.
CHAPTER FOUR
I was getting my books out of my locker at school when I heard someone saying my name, and turned to see Harry strolling towards me with a grin.
“Morning sunshine.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Pretty sure it’s the afternoon.”
“Already? Man, time really does fly when you’re having fun.”
“You’re having that much fun at school?”
“I always have fun.”
I shut my locker and turned the key. “Good for you.”
“It is, actually. So when are you going to go out with me?” he asked, leaning his broad shoulder against the row of lockers and fixing me with what he clearly thought was a disarming smile.
“Nice try,” I told him, zipping up my bag.
“Come on, AJ. Put me out of my misery.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I thought you were always happy. Now you’re miserable?”
“Only because of you.”
“And here I thought you were more interested in my sister,” I quipped, shouldering my backpack. Harry gave me a quizzical look, so I elaborated. “She’s pretty keen on you. Might want to watch your step there.”
A smile crept back onto his face. “Aww. Are you jealous?”
“Hardly.”
“Maybe I am going after the wrong girl,” Harry said thoughtfully. “At least Lexi gives me the time of day, and if you say she likes me then I’m already ahead.” I felt my hackles rising and I clenched my jaw, knowing that if he dared mess with her, he’d have me and Anders to deal with.