Too Many Ponies

by Wilkinson, Sheena;

  ‘You’ve done it!’ said Erin, who seemed to have tagged on to them and to whom Kitty had taken a great shine because she said Midge was the cutest pony she had ever seen.

  ‘No,’ Kitty said, ‘they’ve got it wrong. They’ve been making mistakes all day. Some of the others were clear.’

  ‘No, they weren’t, Kitty. Remember we thought that lot were clear but the grey stopped at the water, only we didn’t see?’

  ‘But were the Donegal ones not faster?’

  Aidan’s mum looked at her very scribbled-over list and screwed up her eyes at it. ‘I think we’re in the lead,’ she said.

  Kitty and Lucy and Erin started shrieking.

  ‘Stop it!’ Dad ordered. ‘Shh. Seaneen, let me look at that.’

  There was a lot of counting and scrambling and checking and passing round of the list and arguing. Mum gave Dad a hug that went on for so long that Kitty complained, ‘Mu-um!’

  Aidan leant against Firefly, too tired suddenly to join in. Having started the day as groom, and graduated merely to make-weight, it was hard to adjust to suddenly being not just part of the team, but one of the ones who had made the best round. All the way round it had been about Firefly’s ability and his own courage. Now the five thousand pounds had come back into the equation – and it was all too much.

  The consensus seemed to be that they were, however unbelievably, in the lead.

  ‘Now all we need is for this lot to do badly,’ Lucy yelled gleefully. ‘Let’s hope they all fall off at the first jump.’

  ‘Shh!’ Cam warned her. ‘You have a lot to learn about being sporting, young woman. And anyway, their first rider’s just gone clear in a brilliant time.’

  Lucy said nothing, but her mouth took on its familiar determined look, and Erin looked as if she was incanting some kind of falling-off spell under her breath.

  It worked too. The second Shoreside rider, on a flashy palomino, after clearing the first jump, had a stop at the second, came round again with a ringing belt with her whip on the palomino’s shining quarters, whereupon the horse stood straight up on its hind legs, deposited its rider in a heap and galloped off towards the car park. Lucy and Kitty looked at each other in glee. ‘If that’s their standard …’

  But it wasn’t. Their third rider was clear and fast. The fourth had only one down.

  ‘We’re neck and neck!’ Kitty shrieked. ‘It’ll depend on their times!’

  ‘Shh,’ Lucy and Aidan said at the same time.

  ‘They’ll tell us now,’ Cam said.

  The loudspeaker crackled and hissed.

  Aidan chewed his nails. Lucy scratched her arm under the big blue plaster.

  ‘And now the results.’

  The Rosevale team all looked at each other.

  ‘In first place, with 290 points in five minutes and 39 seconds is … Shoreside!’

  There was a ripple of clapping and some cheering.

  ‘Second place, Rosevale.’

  There was no money for second prize.

  ‘Oh, well,’ Cam said. ‘We had a good day out. Now, for goodness’ sake, clap and cheer and look like you mean it!’

  ‘And we never expected to do this well,’ added Dad.

  ‘You were all brilliant.’ Mum hugged Kitty, who burst into tears, and Aidan, who didn’t, but could easily have done so if he had been nine and a girl.

  ‘Well, that’s that,’ Dad said. ‘Better get these horses home.’

  They walked back to the car park, a silent, dispirited procession, apart from Cam who kept telling them how brilliant they’d been and reminding them that second place was way beyond what they had dreamed of.

  If they had come tenth or fifth, Aidan thought, it wouldn’t have mattered so much. It was being so close – just seconds away from victory – that was so infuriating. If he hadn’t hesitated at the water … if Ty hadn’t spooked … if Lucy hadn’t broken her arm.

  But at that thought he stopped, feeling the bulk of Firefly walking beside him across the pitted field, solid, warm, his own pony. Even for five thousand pounds he wouldn’t have missed the chance to jump round that course on Firefly, to prove to himself that he could do it too. But at home at Rosevale, the roof still needed fixing, winter’s chill was already breathing down their necks, and they still had too many ponies. Lucky Kitty, being young enough to cry about it. Though his mum, leading Midge for Kitty, said sharply, ‘Stop it, Kitty. Do you want people to think you’re a bad loser?’

  Their lorry, parked beside the purple monster, looked shabbier than ever. There was hustle round the purple lorry, and a lot of talk and pointing as the Rosevale team approached. ‘They only came eighth,’ Lucy said in what, for her, was a subtle whisper.

  A tall thin woman with orangey lipstick and a very puffy body-warmer disentangled herself from the group and came over.

  ‘I hear you saved Cody,’ she said to Aidan. ‘I’m Jade’s mum.’

  ‘Um, I just stopped him and undid his reins,’ he said.

  He hadn’t told the rest of the team what had happened, so there were explanations and exclamations, helped out by a very enthusiastic Erin.

  ‘He could have broken his leg,’ Jade’s mum said. ‘We’d like to give you a reward for being so helpful.’

  In a book, Aidan thought, she would write them a cheque for five thousand pounds, or at least send them enough bedding for the winter – because in a book her family would run a shavings emporium, or maybe a feed store. Free feed for life.

  But it was real life, and he didn’t want a stupid reward for just doing what anybody halfway sensible would have done.

  ‘I don’t need a reward,’ he said.

  He caught sight of Olly and Josh eating burgers. Yellow relish stuck to Josh’s chin. Aidan remembered him hopping and crying. He smiled at Josh and knew Josh remembered it too. Then he went round the back of the lorry, tied Firefly up, untacked, rubbed him down, and put his fleece rug on, ready for the journey. The pony stood quietly, resting a hind leg.

  ‘You were brilliant,’ Aidan said, and because nobody was about, he put his arms round Firefly’s neck and hugged him. ‘Thank you.’

  Firefly gave the little flutter with his nostrils that meant someone was coming, and Aidan pulled back. The old man in the baseball cap stood beside him. He put out a hand and stroked Firefly’s neck. Firefly didn’t flinch at the stranger’s touch.

  ‘Yous did very well, son,’ the old man said. ‘I thought for a while yous were going to win.’

  ‘So did we,’ Aidan admitted. ‘Sorry,’ he went on. ‘I just need to put him into the lorry. It’s too cold for him to be standing around.’ He led Firefly up the ramp and tied him up with a hay-net. When he came out again the old man was still there, talking to his dad, who was holding Folly and Midge. Aidan stepped forward to take Midge and sort him out for the journey.

  ‘I’m interested in your work,’ the old man said. ‘My grand-daughter’s told me about yous. Are these rescue horses?’

  ‘This one is.’ Dad launched into the horrible tale of how he had found Folly starving in a barn with a dead mare and a dying foal, and of how it had taken years to teach her to trust people again. ‘And Aidan’s pony – the chestnut – maybe you saw him jump? Well, he was a grade A jumper until he had an injury, then they just got rid of him. He was going for meat.’

  ‘All he needed was time,’ Aidan put in. ‘Dad, tell him about the black cob.’

  Dad was never much of a talker but this was his pet subject, and as they got the horses ready – the old man stepped in to help, filling hay-nets from the bale Aidan carried out for him – he went on to describe some of the other horses Rosevale had helped.

  The others appeared with Ty, and Aidan tried to introduce the old man, since he showed no signs of going.

  ‘Are you here with a team?’ Aidan asked politely, though every time he had seen the old man he had been alone. Probably lonely, and he obviously liked horses.

  ‘No,’ he said. He pushed his baseball cap bac
k. ‘I’m here with my grand-daughter.’ He gestured at Erin, who grinned at him. ‘And I suppose you’d call me a sponsor.’

  ‘Sponsor?’

  ‘Aye, I live here.’ He held out his hand for Dad to shake. ‘Dermot Doyle. Have yous time for a cup of tea up at the house?’

  If Dad was as surprised as Aidan it didn’t show in his voice. ‘We … well, we can’t keep the horses standing round too long,’ he said.

  ‘Fair enough. Well, sure, we can have a wee chat now.’ He sat down on an upturned water bucket. ‘I’ve always loved horses,’ he said. ‘I grew up in the Markets – och, it’s all knocked down now, but when I was a wee fella you’d still see the odd horse about. But the nearest I ever got to them was having a wee bet. I’d have loved to learn to ride but I worked on the roads all my days and I’d had five of a family to rear, and – sure, you know what it’s like.’ He looked at Erin. ‘Maybe she’ll get the chances I never had.’

  Erin beamed. ‘Granda’s getting me a pony,’ she said.

  ‘Well, I got this lottery win,’ Doyle went on. ‘Yous’ll have heard about it. And I always wanted a big house with land and horses about the place. I’m too old to learn to ride now –’

  ‘I’ve taught older than you,’ Cam said.

  ‘But I’d just like to have the horses about me. I thought this competition might be the start of something – getting people in, letting them use Greenlands, but … Och, I don’t know. They’re maybe not my type of people. I heard a few things …’

  Not from us, thank God, thought Aidan.

  ‘Anyway, I want to make a donation to your sanctuary. A regular one. And those old horses you were talking about – the donkey and the shire horse and the wee foals – I’ve two hundred acres here. I’m not a farmer and I’m not going to try to be. I’m going to keep some fields for hay and I’m lending some out as allotments. But I wondered – would a couple of big meadows be any use to you? About thirty acres. I’ll see to the fences. All you need to do is put the horses in and keep an eye on them. Well, I’d help out with that myself if you trusted me.’

  ‘And they can keep my pony company when I get him!’ Erin added.

  ‘But you – you won ten million!’ Kitty burst out. ‘You could buy posh horses and get the best of lessons.’

  ‘Cam’s the best instructor,’ put in Lucy. ‘Erin, you should go to Cam. She’s a bit bossy but she’s brilliant. So should you, Mr Doyle.’

  Doyle laughed. ‘I don’t think I’d have the nerve for it at my age,’ he said. ‘But I’d like to help horses that need it. So do you think we could have a deal?’

  Chapter 19

  Going Home

  THE lorry came to a standstill in the darkening yard. Declan switched off the ignition, leaned back against the seat and let out a long sigh.

  ‘Well, we did it,’ he said. ‘Not the way you planned, Lucy, but we did it.’

  ‘Thirty extra acres,’ gloated Lucy, ‘and a big donation – I wonder how big?’

  ‘I’m surprised you didn’t ask him,’ Cam said, and they all giggled.

  ‘He heard me telling off those snobby girls,’ Kitty said for about the tenth time. ‘I think it was all down to me.’

  ‘Erin saw Aidan helping that pony,’ Seaneen said. ‘So it might have been due to him.’

  ‘It was a team effort.’ Declan yawned. ‘OK, we’ve got four cross-country stars to put to bed. Come on – we can’t sit round here all night.’

  Cradling her bad arm, Lucy couldn’t do much to help, but she looked in at Puzzle and he came to meet her, blowing in her hair and biffing at her pockets for treats. She heard Aidan bringing Firefly into the stable next door.

  ‘You were brilliant,’ she said. ‘I knew you could do it.’

  This wasn’t quite the truth. Nobody had been as surprised as she was to see him taking Firefly so boldly over all the big jumps.

  Erin was going to have private lessons with Cam, and in the spring they were all going to help her find a pony. ‘Why didn’t you tell us who your granda was?’ Lucy had asked her, but even before Erin had answered she knew the reason. She could just imagine how nicey-nicey Jade and Miranda would have been if they had known about the ten million pounds. They would be desperate to have Erin at Sunnyside now. Lucy grinned.

  ‘It was you too. You made Firefly remember he could do it,’ Aidan said.

  They stood side by side, leaning on the adjoining half doors, watching their ponies eat, the electric light gleaming on their quilted rugs.

  ‘Puzzle will be OK,’ Aidan said. ‘If he has to be turned out for a while he can go in Greenlands, with all the oldies. And you can ride Firefly if you want. Sometimes anyway.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  From the isolation stable there came a high-pitched neigh.

  ‘Let’s go and see Victor,’ Aidan said.

  ‘Victor?’

  He shrugged. ‘It feels like the right name to give a horse today.’

  And they turned off the light, leaving their ponies pulling at the hay, and set off across the yard to persuade the newly christened Victor to be brave enough to eat carrots from their hands.

  Because that was the wonderful thing about Rosevale, Lucy thought, watching the black cob inch across the stable to Aidan’s outstretched, patient hand. There was always another horse to help.

  THE END

  Acknowledgments

  AS always I am grateful to the friends and family who help me with all kinds of practical things, from pony-sitting to ironing, to give me time to write, and to travel to meet readers. Mummy, John, Anne, Patrick, Sharon, Caoimhe and Nicole – thank you!

  Siobhán Parkinson and Elaina O’Neill at Little Island do the work of ten women; thanks to them for wanting this book in the first place and for being so fantastic to work with – again! And thanks to my agent Faith O’Grady, who continues to support me wisely and well.

  A huge thanks to Claire Noble and all at www.ponymadbooklovers.co.uk for their enthusiastic response to my books. I hope you enjoy this addition to the stable!

  Thanks to Rhona, Susanne, Elaine and Julie, who read and commented on the first draft; and especially to my youngest readers, Agnes and Saoirse. Lee Weatherly has been her usual wonderful helpful self, and her enthusiasm for my work means a great deal. Being granted a Major Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland will allow me to write fulltime next year, and I am very thankful for their continued support.