‘Watch your language, Kitty,’ Mum said. The old man in the baseball cap grinned at her.
‘Watch the course,’ Dad ordered. ‘Cam – is that animal OK?’
‘Bit hyper.’ Cam sounded breathless and clearly had her hands full with a very het-up Ty, who was spooking at every noise and going into hysterics if a dog walked past – even Alfie. Aidan was grateful to be on Firefly, who took the sounds and sights in his stride. Folly was prancey and on edge too, but Aidan could see how his dad, with hands and legs and voice, reassured her that everything was OK.
The first team were very hesitant, stopping all over the place, and three out of the four went for the small jumps, so their score, when it was finally posted, was a feeble 105. The next team – the Donegal ones – were the opposite, very dashing and bold, and nobody went for the small jumps, so they got 290 marks in a combined time of five minutes fifty one seconds.
‘We’ll never beat that,’ Kitty complained.
‘We aren’t trying to,’ Dad reminded her. ‘Just jump round safely.’
If Lucy were here, Aidan thought, he wouldn’t be saying that. If Lucy were here there would be a chance, because Kitty’s round wouldn’t have to count. The thought depressed him so much he broke out of the watching line and walked Firefly about a bit on his own. There was no doubt about it, his pony was going well. Even walking, he was listening to Aidan. He remembered their gallop yesterday, the speed and lift and plunge of Firefly, fit and eager. It could be like that today, if he could forget there were people watching, forget the small matter of the ten jumps. Just let them come at you, was what Cam always said about jumps. All those training sessions at Cam’s, when he had been the more or less unwilling groom, he had listened.
The fifth team was jumping now. It was all taking for ever, and yet it would soon be over, Aidan thought, smoothing the red strands of Firefly’s mane. His hands sweated on the reins and he realised he wasn’t wearing gloves. He rode back to the car park. A big purple lorry had squeezed in beside the scruffy Rosevale one, where there wasn’t really enough space, and he had to manoeuvre Firefly carefully between them.
There was nobody much about. Everybody was watching the jumping. He could hear laughing and carrying on and the thud of running feet from the far side of the purple lorry, but he didn’t pay it much attention until after he dismounted and loosened Firefly’s girth. Then he heard the voice he’d been dreading.
‘Ah, if it isn’t My Little Ponyboy. This your nag? Ugly thing, isn’t it? I was hoping to see the pink fluffy one.’
Don’t react, Aidan told himself. He can’t do anything to you. And surely even Olly wouldn’t start a fight with someone who was actually holding a horse.
He led Firefly round to the back of the Rosevale lorry. He wanted to tie him up so he could go in for his gloves, but he didn’t trust Olly, so instead he kept Firefly’s reins over his arm while he rummaged in the tack box at the side of the lorry. He knew his own gloves weren’t there but with luck he would find some old pair that would do. Hopefully not Kitty’s old pink ones.
‘Olly! Where are you?’ Josh’s voice came from the other side of the purple lorry. Well, it didn’t matter what they did or said, he was just going to get his gloves and go. At least if they were messing round here it meant they weren’t too interested in watching the actual jumping, so he might be able to make a fool of himself without them seeing. The voice came again with a note of panic in it this time. ‘Olly, c’mere, this thing’s going mental!’
Ignoring them, Aidan delved through old tail bandages and lead ropes with broken clips. No gloves. Blast! If only there were someone normal around, he could get them to hold Firefly while he went in to fetch his own pair. Or if Olly and Josh would just go, he could tie his pony up safely.
A sudden high-pitched neigh from a frightened horse pierced the air, making Firefly start and twitch. Next minute, in a blinding flurry of mane, tail and hooves, a grey pony skidded round the side of the lorry. It took Aidan a second to realise that it had got its front leg through its reins. And two seconds to see that it was followed by a terrified, screaming, hopping Josh. ‘It’s broken my foot!’ he yelled.
Aidan didn’t have time to think. Praying that Firefly wouldn’t panic, he tied him up roughly and approached the grey. It was snorting and plunging, eyes huge with panic, one leg hopping, caught up. It wouldn’t take much for it to break a leg.
‘Stop it, stop it,’ blubbed Josh. ‘It’s going mental!’
‘Shut up,’ Aidan ordered in the quiet firm voice his dad always used in these situations. ‘You’re making things worse.’ He reached his hand over to the terrified pony. ‘Whoa,’ he said. ‘Steady the horse. Steady the good pony. It’s OK.’ With one hand he unbuckled the reins so they no longer formed a noose round the pony’s front leg. The grey snorted and jumped, staggered on the captured leg, then, realising it was free, gave a huge shudder and relaxed.
‘Good boy,’ Aidan said, running a calming hand over the heaving shoulders.
Jade ran round the corner, in much the same state as her pony. ‘What happened him? You were meant to be looking after him!’ she screeched at her brother. She flung her arms round her pony, which backed away and tried to graze. Josh spluttered and sobbed.
Olly tried to bluster. ‘He just went berserk for no reason. Wasn’t our fault.’
‘You said you’d look after him. You’re pathetic! I wouldn’t leave you with a toy horse.’
‘He broke away. I couldn’t hold him. He was mental,’ Josh said. He wiped his eyes. ‘Stupid animal! He nearly killed me. He stood on my foot. I bet it’s broken.’
‘He’s a psycho,’ Olly muttered. His face was even redder than before and Aidan wondered how he had ever been afraid of him.
The grey was grazing quietly now, only the curling, sweated coat and loose reins giving evidence of his recent panic.
Aidan heard his own voice, calm and somehow distant, say, ‘He got his leg caught in his reins, but he’s OK now.’
‘Did you catch him?’
Aidan nodded. ‘I didn’t see what happened,’ he said.
‘I did.’ Of all people, Erin from his class marched up. ‘They were teasing him.’ She pointed at Olly and Josh. ‘Trying to jump on him. And then he’ – she pointed at Josh –‘started crying because the pony stood on his foot. And he let go of his reins. If it hadn’t been for Aidan, the pony’d have broken his leg.’
Olly and Josh looked foolish.
‘You wait till I tell Mum, Josh,’ Jade said. She turned to Aidan. ‘Right. They have to thank you. And make friends.’
Aidan untied Firefly, mounted in one easy swing, and then walked him so close to Olly and Josh that he nearly went over the top of them and they backed away, their eyes big in their stupid faces. ‘Don’t bother,’ he said loudly. ‘I’m fussy who I make friends with.’
He rode off, feeling completely calm. How could he ever have let those snivelling, incompetent boys make him feel small? He was pretty sure they wouldn’t bother him again, but even if they did, he knew he wouldn’t let it get to him. So what if he liked horses? So what if they called him gay? He would keep the memory of them blubbing and freaking out somewhere very easy to reach.
But there was still the jumping. In all the excitement he had almost forgotten what they were actually here for, but as he rode back to his team, Firefly lively beneath him, glad to be on the go again, he knew that he might have won one big victory, but another battle was about to begin.
Chapter 18
The Final Score
EVERYONE agreed Aidan should jump last.
‘It’s only fair,’ Cam said. ‘See how the rest of us go and if we’re all rubbish – well, there’ll be no pressure. Gosh, Declan, have you no gloves? Here, take these.’ She pulled off her gloves and handed them to Declan.
‘You could even scratch if you wanted to,’ Dad said. ‘I mean, if we’re so far out of the running.’
‘I won’t scratch,’ Aidan said.
It’s real, Aidan thought. It’s actually going to happen now.
Dad and Folly went first, Mum closing her eyes as they sailed over the first few jumps. ‘I can’t help it,’ she said. ‘When he was show-jumping it was bad enough, but this …’
She needn’t have worried. After a slightly edgy start, with Folly overexcited and impetuous, she settled beautifully and took all the big jumps in her stride. Dad had to push hard through the water, and they all held their breath when she hesitated at the big hedge into the final field, but Dad gave the kind of kick he would have scolded Aidan and Kitty for, and they got through OK.
They galloped through the finish. One hundred points, in a time of one minute thirty one. It was the best round of the day.
‘Well done!’ they all called, as Folly slithered to a halt beside them.
Dad nodded, panting, his cheeks pink with galloping. ‘Careful … with the approach … to the big spread in the first field,’ he said. ‘It’s pretty churned up.’
‘Next to go, Camilla Brooke for Rosevale, on Tyrone Top Cat.’
Ty took a while to settle into his round, stopping once at the water, but then waking up and realising that Cam meant business. He cleared all the rest with huge scope, and galloped home like the point-to-pointer he had been bred to be.
‘Sorry about the stop,’ Cam panted.
‘Ninety points in a time of one minute fifty-eight.’
Kitty leaned over and whispered urgently to Aidan. ‘We’re one of the best so far. I have to go for the big jumps! It’s our only chance. Dad and Cam won’t be able to do anything about it.’
For a moment Aidan wanted to say Yes! Go for it. He had no doubt Kitty had the courage and the determination to try the bigger jumps. They weren’t huge – she had tackled larger in the school – but these jumps were solid. If you hit them they didn’t fall. And game little Midge was easily the smallest pony in the competition.
‘Don’t!’ Aidan said. ‘It’s not worth it!’
‘Well, are you going to?’ Kitty flung back at him. And she cantered off to the start, both she and her pony looking so spirited and so tiny that she got an extra round of applause.
They cantered steadily to the easy first jump, a simple log. Right up until the last minute, Aidan was sure she would go for the small log, but she didn’t: she headed straight for the big one. His breath caught in his throat as little Midge reached and stretched and made it.
Cam and his dad looked at each other. ‘The wee –’
‘She promised she wouldn’t,’ Aidan said unhappily.
Dad sounded annoyed but sort of proud too. ‘I should have known.’
‘But, Declan – she can’t do all the big ones. Midge would never manage the big water! Or the downhill brush. She wouldn’t be so stupid … would she?’
Dad sighed. ‘I don’t know, Cam. I hope not.’
They were powerless, stuck at the top of the hill, with a great view of what was happening, but unable to do anything to influence it. Aidan was so nervous for Midge – if Kitty wanted to break her neck it was her own lookout – that he forgot to feel scared when one of the helpers shouted over to him, ‘OK, you, stand by.’
He cantered Firefly up to the start as if they were just going for a bit of a hack.
‘Aidan!’ He spun round in the saddle at the cry. Lucy, her arm in a huge plaster and sling, caught him up. ‘How are we doing?’ she demanded. ‘I just got away this minute! And look, Erin’s here.’
Erin grinned at him. ‘I’m with my granda,’ she said. ‘He’s mad on horses. That’s who I take after.’
‘Dad and Cam did well. Kitty’s on now.’
Lucy and Erin fell into step beside him and together they looked down at Kitty, very faraway and small, Midge a toy pony cantering towards the third jump. He wondered if they had done the big one or the small one for number two.
‘She’s game anyway.’ He recognised the accent of the old man again.
‘Chip off the old block,’ grunted another voice. ‘Sure, her da could ride anything.’
Words, Aidan thought, that are not going to be said about me. Firefly pranced, ready to be off.
The third jump was a brush fence with a bit of a spread. Walking the course, Aidan had identified it as one of the many he wasn’t looking forward to. Its smaller companion was fairly innocuous, with hardly any spread. Surely Kitty wasn’t going to –
But it seemed clear that she was. She chose her line, right into the big spread fence. Aidan, Lucy and Erin watched, silence heavy between them, as Midge stood back a little, then made a valiant leap and landed right in the middle of the jump.
‘Ugh!’ Erin and Lucy said together.
There was a tangle of pony and brush, with branches flying everywhere. And somewhere in the middle of it, the tiny doll – from this distance – that was Kitty.
Aidan groaned.
‘I can’t look,’ Lucy yelped.
The tiny doll and the toy pony scrambled to their feet. Officials talked to Kitty. Aidan saw her nod, thought he heard her laugh, and then she was back on board. She trotted Midge round and then headed him for the smaller jump. He hesitated. ‘Come on!’ they heard, and next thing Kitty and Midge were safely over and galloping up the hill to the gap in the fence.
‘Surely she’ll do the wee ones now?’ Aidan asked Lucy. ‘She was told to.’
‘She’ll have time faults. It won’t matter what she does now. Eejit! She shouldn’t have been so reckless.’ This, from Lucy!
He was about to ask why it wouldn’t matter what she did now, when he realised. It was best three out of four. They had all assumed that Aidan’s round wouldn’t count. But now –
‘Look,’ Lucy said urgently. ‘I know you didn’t want to do this. And I know you don’t think you’ve got what it takes. And I’m not trying to get you to take risks. But –’
‘But you think I should try for the big fences.’
‘Firefly can do it. Honestly, Aidan. These jumps – they’re nothing to him. We did bigger ones at Cam’s. He’s a fantastic pony. I hate to say it, but he’s even better than Puzzle.’
And Lucy was better than Aidan. If she had had both her arms she would have been about to start her round, and she certainly wouldn’t have been going for the small jumps.
‘OK, ready?’ The helper gestured at him.
He stood at the start, feeling very alone, except for Firefly.
‘Go!’
Aidan had always thought the worst thing would be the fact that people would be watching him. But once he got started, cantering towards the uphill log, which from the ground had looked easy – even to him – he had only the vaguest awareness of spectators. There was him, and there was Firefly, and it was just a matter of facing each jump as it came. Firefly’s long red ears were pricked and he covered the ground easily. The log was behind them – from Firefly’s back, the bigger one hadn’t seemed much different from the little one, and now it was the gap into the next field. The bigger one looked huge, but it was brush, not solid timber – they had nothing to lose. Firefly, he kept reminding himself, can do it.
Firefly never felt like stopping. The unsure pony, needing his rider to tell him what to do, relying on his rider for confidence, had been replaced by this jumping machine. All thanks to Lucy. Aidan crouched over his pony’s withers, galloping strongly uphill to the water.
But Firefly wasn’t a machine, and when Aidan saw the water, how much deeper and longer the ten-point jump was, the pony checked, feeling his rider’s uncertainty.
‘Come on!’ Aidan used his legs hard, steered firmly towards the middle of the big jump, grabbed a handful of mane and they were over.
That was the worst one, apart from the downhill. And if they wanted to, they could do the five-point downhill. Maybe it was better to be safe than sorry. After all, look what had happened to poor
Kitty.
But as the downhill approached, he thought, No! If I don’t try, I’ll never know.
They seemed to be suspended in mid-air for ever, the landing looking a long way down. Once again he took a firm grip of mane – and they were over.
And now all they had to do was gallop like they had never galloped before. Crouched like a jockey, Aidan urged his pony on for the final stretch, but Firefly needed no encouragement. His ears laid flat back, he thrust himself forward in great pounding strides. Flags, people, dogs on leads, horseboxes like toys – all flashed past. He thought he saw Olly and Josh, open-mouthed, but they seemed like people from another world, nothing to do with him.
Galloping through the flags of the finish, they slithered to a breathless, triumphant stop.
The rest of the team crowded round.
‘Was it clear? It looked clear, but we couldn’t see the far side of the second field.’
‘Don’t tell me you did the big water!’
‘I didn’t think you could ride like that.’
‘We did the … the big everything.’ Aidan felt the grin split his face. He slid down from his pony, ran up the stirrups and loosened the girth, using the chance to hide his face for a moment against Firefly’s damp shoulder. There must have been other moments of triumph in his life, but right now, he couldn’t think of anything to compare with this.
‘Do you think we’ve won?’ Lucy said what everybody was thinking. ‘Seaneen, haven’t you written down all the scores?’
At that moment the loudspeaker crackled and the voice came over: ‘That was another great round for Rosevale, one hundred points in one minute fifty-three.’ So he had lost time at the water, with that stupid moment of indecision.
That makes a total for Rosevale of 290 points with a time of five minutes and 36 seconds. That’s the team to beat! And now our final team, all the way from Fermanagh, it’s the Shoreside Equestrian Club. And first to go for them is …’
They all turned to each other.
Too Many Ponies Page 10