by Kate Lattey
I get Tegan positioned beside me, and she tentatively puts her weight on Nugget’s head, holding it to the ground. The pony thrashes again for a moment, then makes an agonised groaning sound.
Tegan looks at me with tears streaking her face. “Hurry.”
I nod, and scramble up the bank towards Finn as fast as I can. She rolls her eyes at me and I notice that her shoulders have broken out in a nervous sweat.
“Easy girl,” I reassure her. “Come on, we’ve got to ride for help.” I unhook her reins and pull them back over her head, fumbling slightly as she throws her head up and makes it difficult for me. I try not to hear Tegan’s sobs from the ditch down below as I shove my foot into the stirrup and swing into the saddle, then urge Finn forward without bothering to seek out my offside stirrup.
“Let’s go,” I tell her. “Fast as you can.”
One great thing about Finn is that she never needs encouragement to travel at speed. After the initial steep section, the trail levels out and makes a smooth arc back towards the road. Finn races down the hill like a bolt of lightning, and I cling on tightly, my heart in my mouth as her legs pound against the earth. At the bottom there is a forestry gate, with a narrow gap on one side that we usually ride through. But we’re going too fast to bother with that, and I sit down in the saddle and urge my pony on towards the gate, encouraging her to jump it. She baulks, and for a moment I think she’s going to refuse and I’ll fly off over her head – I have no chance of keeping my seat at the speed we’re travelling. But she changes her mind, bunches her hindquarters under her, and soars over the gate, landing smoothly on the gravel track that leads onto the road.
For once I’m glad that we live on a dirt road, and I don’t have to worry about her slipping on the tarmac. I turn Finn to the left and let her race towards the Harrisons’ farm, my heart thumping heavily in my chest. Nugget’s stuck in a ditch, we need to get him out. The words pump through my head on a constant cycle of panic. Finn doesn’t need directing, swinging to the right and racing up the Harrisons’ driveway towards their house. I pull her to a heaving stop as we reach the woolshed, and look around frantically.
“Alec!” I yell desperately. “Tabby! Help!”
But the farmyard is empty, and as my eyes fall on the empty patch of grass in front of the house where Tabby’s car is usually parked, I remember what I already knew. They’re not here. Nobody is.
I struggle to stay calm as I turn my fidgeting pony back down the driveway, trying to work out where to go for help. I’m quickly calculating the best route to the nearest neighbours’ farm when I hear footsteps behind me, and swivel Finn around to see Liam walking across the yard.
For a moment, I hesitate, but only for a moment.
“Help!” I cry, urging Finn towards him. “I need your help, it’s an emergency!”
He turns and stares at me in surprise. “Were you yelling? I thought I heard something.”
“Tegan’s pony is up on the logging road, he’s stuck upside down in a ditch and he can’t get out,” I tell him frantically. “He’s got his leg trapped in a tree root and he’s freaking out, we need to get him out of there!”
Liam is already moving towards his Land Rover. “How far up the logging road?”
“Not too far, just at the first steep section,” I tell him. “I can show you.” I start to turn Finn, ready to lead him to Tegan’s pony, but he shakes his head.
“Put your pony in a yard, she’ll just get in the way.”
He strides towards the garage, and I quickly do as he says, shoving Finn into one of the high railed yards and pulling her saddle and bridle off before running back to the truck. Liam walks out of his shed carrying an armload of thick ropes, which he throws into the back of the Land Rover, then turns away again and goes into the house. I stand anxiously next to the vehicle, feeling my knees shaking as I try to remain as calm as I can.
He’s going to help, I reassure myself. He’s a farmer, he’ll know what to do. The screen door slams shut and I look up to see him walking towards me, keys dangling from one hand and his rifle slung over his shoulder.
No! Not again, I want to scream at him, but my breath catches in my throat and I can’t form any words. Liam sees me staring and shakes his head.
“Last resort,” he says gruffly. “But if it’s broken its neck or something I’m not leaving it there to die.”
I swallow dryly and nod, then scramble into the passenger seat as he starts the engine. I grab the door handle as we bounce across the uneven turf and down the potholed driveway. Liam drives fast, and he doesn’t speak. When we get to the entrance to the logging road, I suddenly panic, wondering how we’re going to get through the gate. He stops the Land Rover, letting the engine idle, and glances at me before reaching over to the glove box. It falls open, banging onto my knees, and much to my relief, he pulls out a set of keys. Moments later he has the gate unlocked and we’re driving up the trail.
“It’s just up here,” I tell him nervously, and see him nod, his jaw tightly clenched. For a moment, out of the corner of my eye, he looks like Alec, and I wish that his son was here to reassure me and calm me with his presence. But Liam is all I have right now, and I just have to hope that he’ll be enough.
Please let Nugget be okay, I pray as I lean out the window, looking down the bank to try and spot Nugget’s black shape. Please don’t let him have to be shot. I can’t begin to imagine how Tegan would cope with the loss of her beloved pony.
“There they are!” I cry, pointing to my friend and silently blessing her decision that morning to wear a bright orange top, which stands out like a road cone in the forest of green.
Liam stops the Land Rover and climbs out, moving quickly. Tegan looks at me desperately as we scramble down the bank towards her pony, who is lying still now, but breathing heavily.
“He got his foot out,” I notice with relief, and Tegan nods, but she doesn’t look relieved.
“Just a moment ago, but I heard… I heard something crack and he hasn’t moved that leg since.”
Her voice quavers, and I stand in shock, hoping against hope that doesn’t mean what she clearly thinks it does. I move to her side and wrap one arm around her shoulders, and run the other down Nugget’s sweat-drenched neck. Tegan gives a gulping sob, then we both look up at Liam, who is standing with his hands on his hips, surveying the area carefully.
I follow his eyes, wondering what he’s thinking as he assesses the situation. The bank is steeper on the side closest to the trail, and Nugget has gouged out a significant portion of earth from it, which has only made his situation more precarious as a sizeable portion of the bank looks like it’s about to collapse onto him. The ditch is shallower on the other side, but only for a metre or so, then it drops away sharply. Rolling Nugget that way risks him losing his footing and falling further, and I look desperately at Liam, willing him to come up with a solution. He doesn’t meet my eyes, instead turning abruptly and climbing back up the bank towards the Land Rover.
Tegan and I look at each other nervously.
“Why did you bring him?” she demands in a shaky voice. “He’ll probably just want to shoot Nugs!”
“He was the only one home,” I tell her. I don’t tell her about the rifle sitting on the back seat. I don’t even want to think about that right now.
A moment later, Liam reappears, and I’m relieved to see the heavy bundle of ropes in his arms. He drops them, then shakes out one end of a rope and throws it to me.
“We need to get this under him, so I can tie it around him and we can try and drag him further up, where the ditch is a bit wider. Then if he can roll over and get some grip, he should be able to make it onto his feet.”
I look at the place Liam is motioning towards, and realise that he’s right. The drop from the road isn’t quite so steep, and there’s a thick clump of trees on the other side that would stop him toppling further down the hill.
“What about his leg?” I ask, but even as I speak Nugget struggles again, kicking out sa
vagely and not flinching as his previously trapped leg connects with the bank. I breathe out a sigh of relief, and hear Tegan take a shaky breath next to me.
“Tegs, you’re going to have to stand up,” I tell my friend as Liam and I lay the rope on the ground just above the black pony’s head and start walking towards his hindquarters, dragging the rope along the ground.
Tegan nods slowly and gets to her feet, her hands tightly gripping Nugget’s reins. He starts thrashing around again immediately, and Tegan starts crying again as she begs him to calm down.
“Get his head up,” Liam barks at her. “We need to get this rope under it. Come on, don’t just stand there bawling, do something.”
Tegan doesn’t stop crying, but she manages to grab Nugget’s bridle and helps to lift his head as we work the rope underneath and then start pulling it under his neck. It’s hard work, and I’m straining to keep up with Liam, who has managed to pull his side of the rope much further under the pony’s body than I have. He looks at me in irritation as he gets the rope back behind Nugget’s elbow on his side, and I pull as hard as I can, trying to work the rope on the other side of Nugget’s withers. Liam drops his end and comes to my side, putting his heavy calloused hands just below mine, and helping me to pull. We get the rope in position, and after a hair-raising moment when he almost gets his face kicked in, Liam gets a knot tied, securing the rope just behind Nugget’s forelegs.
“We’ll try this,” he says. “Both of you, c’mere and help me pull. I don’t wanna use the truck to pull him unless I have to.”
Tegan and I look at each other nervously, then line up behind him, gripping the rope tightly.
“On three. One, two, three!” Liam counts out loud, and we put our backs into it, straining hard against the rope. I can tell that Liam is doing most of the work, but after a moment Nugget starts thrashing his legs around again, and suddenly I feel the rope slacken a little as the pony slides towards us.
“Again!” Liam demands, and we keep going, slowly but surely moving Nugget further along the ditch. Sweat is pouring down my back, sticking my t-shirt to my skin, and I can hear Tegan puffing behind me. The rope burns against my hands, but I do my best to ignore the pain, focusing all my energy on getting Nugget to safety.
Liam stops. “This is as good a spot as we’re going to get. If we can get him over on his side, he’s got a chance.”
We all look at the exhausted black pony, then follow Liam’s directions to stand on one side of him and try to move him again.
“There’s not much room for leverage, unless we go down the bank, but then we risk pulling him on top of us,” Liam mutters. “Well, we might as well try.”
We reposition ourselves, and start pulling, but Nugget just lies still. I start to feel the hopelessness of the situation wash over me as we strain uselessly against the rope.
“Come on pony, you have to bloody try,” Liam growls between gritted teeth.
“He’s scared!” Tegan defends her pony.
“Not scared enough. We can’t get him his feet by ourselves,” Liam tells her. “If he gives up now, he’s as good as dead.” He thinks for a moment, then drops the rope and motions to me. “Jay, come help me get some gear out of the truck.”
We leave Tegan murmuring reassurances to Nugget and climb back up the bank towards the Land Rover. My hands are shaking as I wonder what he’s planning to do next.
“He could still make it,” I insist, trying to convince myself as much as Liam.
“I’m not giving up on him yet, but he has to keep fighting. No good if he doesn’t want it,” Liam replies. He opens the back of the Land Rover and passes me a shovel, then another one. He thinks for a moment, then goes to the front passenger seat, grabs the old ragged piece of carpet that sits on the floor of the vehicle and drags it out.
Together we go back down the bank, and Liam takes a shovel and starts digging out the area closest to Nugget’s hind legs. I help him, staying well back from the pony’s flailing hooves, but Liam isn’t so lucky, and gets badly clipped by one. He swears, and I freeze, blood chilling in my veins, but he just shakes his head and keeps going. We manage to flatten the edge of the ditch, and Liam throws the carpet down on top of the newly turned earth.
“If he can’t get purchase on that, he’s buggered,” he says as we return to the rope. “But he’s gonna have to put some effort in now.”
Tegan joins us, and together Liam counts us in.
“One, two, three!” We pull as hard as we can, but Nugget doesn’t move. Liam swears.
“Enough of this,” he tells the black pony. “Come on, get up!”
Taking the end of the rope from me and Tegan, Liam swings it in a loop above his head, then brings it down with a crack on the pony’s hindquarters.
Nugget jerks to attention, lashes out with a hind leg, then lies still again.
“Oh no you don’t. Come on,” Liam mutters, bringing the rope down on the pony’s flank again.
Nugget scrambles, and as he does, his hind hooves find the scrap of carpet. We watch him start to find some purchase on the ground, and as he continues to struggle, Liam hauls on the rope once more. Tegan and I spring to help him, and suddenly Nugget is moving, rolling over onto his stomach. As we watch, hearts in our mouths, the black pony gets his legs underneath him. He lies there, staring at us nervously, and I will him not to quit. Tegan grabs his reins and pulls, but it’s Liam’s third and final swing of the rope onto the pony’s quarters that finally brings Nugget, shaking, to his feet.
My own legs feel as wobbly as Nugget’s, but Tegan is elated to have her pony the right way up again.
“Don’t get too excited yet,” Liam warns her as she showers her pony in praise. “He’s still got to get back up the bank.”
It isn’t easy, but through a combination of pushing and pulling, we manage to convince Nugget to scramble up onto the trail. He stands there, his head between his knees, coated in mud and his sides heaving. His saddle is all askew, so I unbuckle the girth and pull it off his back. It feels odd in my arms, and when I look at it more closely, I realise that the tree is broken. I turn to tell Tegan, but she has her arms flung around her pony’s solid neck and is hugging him with desperate enthusiasm, and I know that she couldn’t care less about the state of her saddle right now, or anything else except knowing that her pony is safe at last.
Liam takes the mutilated saddle from me and throws it in the back of the Land Rover, then finishes coiling up his ropes.
“Better keep him moving in case he goes down again,” he says emotionlessly. “I’ll go and ring the vet, get her to head up as soon as she can.”
“Can you ring my mum too? She’ll be wondering where I am,” Tegan says.
Liam gives a curt nod, then gets into the Land Rover and starts the engine.
I turn back to look at him, and force myself to smile. “Thank you.”
Tegan echoes me as Liam nods once, puts the truck into gear, and drives back down the hill.
“Come on then Nuggy,” Tegan tells her pony, urging him forward. He moves reluctantly, his whole body stiff and probably aching like mad. The rope burn on my palms starts to sting, and the sweat on my back sticks my shirt damply to my skin. It’s been an incredibly long afternoon.
“I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along,” Tegan says shakily as we trudge downhill.
“I’m just glad I heard you. Good thing you’ve got such a loud voice.”
Tegan laughs shakily, and my heart is warmed by the sound. “I’m sorry for fighting with you, it was dumb.”
“Yeah it was,” I agree. I don’t want to let her off too easily, but she’s been through a lot already today, and I’m too tired to argue. “I’m sorry too.”
“And you can be friends with Natalie if you want to,” Tegan says. “It’s not really any of my business if you have terrible taste in friends.”
I snort, and sling an arm around her shoulder. “You should know.”
She pulls a face
and shrugs me off good-naturedly. “We’re even now anyway. I made Cambridge and you made HOY. I just hope you do better than I did.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” I mutter as we trudge on down the hill. “It’s only three weeks away, we’ve got no warm-up shows left, and I just know everyone thinks I shouldn’t even be in the team.”
Tegan snorts, suddenly back on my side. “You’ll be fine, Finn’s amazing. She’s just waiting for her chance at the big time, and you’ve had all those lessons with Abby. How was that, by the way? Did you get to ride any of her horses?”
“Only all of them,” I grin, and start filling her in as we continue our slow walk back to the Harrisons’, relieved to finally have my friend back.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
There’s no other show in New Zealand with an atmosphere like the Horse of the Year. It’s the biggest equestrian competition in the Southern Hemisphere, with hundreds of horses and ponies competing in dozens of classes over several disciplines. Not just show jumping, but showing, driving, dressage, eventing, show hunter, breed classes, mounted games, sidesaddle – anything and everything you can do on a horse is here, and the grounds are packed. Last year I was a mere spectator, dreaming about having the opportunity to ride at such a grand event, and now here I am, not only as a competitor but the member of a team, riding in one of the show’s biggest events.
The Pony Club Teams event will start on Friday, with each team member jumping one round – set at 1m for the pony riders, and 1.10m for the riders on horses. The worst score from the first day gets dropped, and the other three scores are combined to get the team’s total. From there, only the top eight teams will get the chance to ride in the Premier arena the following day, in front of the huge grandstand, surrounded by tents, banners and trade stalls, and jump around a course of the same fences that have been used all week for the biggest, most illustrious classes in the show. Again, only the top three scores will count, and in the case of a tie, the teams select one rider to ride the jump off course against the clock to try and secure the win.