by Stacy Gregg
Nobody needed convincing. The girls dashed up to their rooms to get their jodhpurs on while Aidan and Hester went ahead to the stables to get the ponies ready.
“I saw the cutest little grey pony grazing next to the arena when we arrived. I wonder if I can try that one?” Stella said.
“I like the chestnut one with the star on his forehead and the three white socks,” Kate said. “What’s his name again?”
“His name is Timmy And your ankles will drag on the ground if you ride him!” Issie giggled. “Hester will probably put you on one of the palominos.”
Issie knew which horse she would be getting. Hester was bound to put her on Stardust, after they had bonded so well on the set of The Palomino Princess.
As they neared the stables it looked like Issie was right. When Aidan emerged from the stalls he had Stardust all saddled up and her reins in his right hand. It seemed like a lifetime since Issie had ridden the pretty palomino. She felt a shiver of anticipation as she strode towards the mare. “Hey, girl.” Issie reached out a hand to stroke her glossy, treacle-coloured neck. She was about to take the reins from Aidan when she heard her Aunt Hester’s voice behind her.
“Issie! There you are! Come with me. I’ve got your horse ready too.”
Issie was confused. “But I thought I’d be riding Stardust, Aunty Hess?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, dear. I thought I told you,” Hester said. “Aidan is on Stardust today. I was hoping you would take on a new mount that really needs the work.”
“What?”
“The skewbald troublemaker,” Hester said, gesturing to the last stall in the loose-box row. “I want you to ride Comet.”
As if on cue at the mention of his name, Comet thrust his chestnut and white face over the Dutch door and let out a cheeky whinny. Issie looked suspiciously at the skewbald pony.
“He needs riding. He gets so frightfully bored standing in the loose box,” Hester said. “It’s his own fault of course. If he wasn’t such a troublemaker, I’d let him back out to graze with the others…I mean, you can’t leave him in the paddock because he jumps out and you can’t leave him in the loose box because he tries to destroy it.”
As if to confirm this, Comet began banging and scraping the bottom half of the Dutch door with his hoof. Get me out of here! he seemed to be saying.
“Naughty Comet! Stop that!” Issie said firmly. She grabbed the skewbald by the reins, unbolted the stall door and led him out into the yard.
Hester had already tacked him up for her and Issie noticed that Comet looked quite different in a saddle and bridle. He was one of those skewbalds with vigorous splashes of white all over his withers and rump. They trickled down his legs finishing up with four white socks–a bit like someone had spilt a can of white paint over him. Even his chestnut tail looked like it had been streaked with a paintbrush.
Once you put a saddle on, though, Comet’s colouring was less obvious. The saddle blanket completely covered up the white marks on his withers and back. He almost looked like an ordinary chestnut with four white socks, except when you looked from the other side you could see a big splodge of white on his hindquarters that looked a bit like a map of India.
As Issie led Comet out into the yard and over to the mounting block the pony danced along beside her, lifting his legs up in a high-stepping trot. When he was sure that everyone was watching him he raised his head and gave a high-spirited nicker, calling out to the other ponies.
“Comet! Stop being such a show-off!” The skewbald skipped about on the spot as Issie tried to steady him long enough to put her foot in the stirrup.
Issie knew she needed to be firm with this pony. Comet was green and he had shocking bad manners. Ponies were supposed to walk quietly beside you, not skip about. But she didn’t have the heart to be too tough on him. There was something about his grand attitude and silly antics that just made her want to giggle. Comet strutted about as if he was a superstar instead of just a little skewbald gelding in the paddock at Hester’s house. Besides, Issie was beginning to realise that Comet didn’t respond well to authority. He was a stroppy pony and if she wanted to bond with him, she was going to have to do things his way.
“Steady, Comet!” Issie gave up on using the mounting block as the pony kept dancing around her. As Comet circled she moved swiftly with him, slipping her foot into the stirrup and, before the pony even knew what was happening, she was bouncing up into the saddle and had landed lightly on his back. “Good boy!”
There is that moment when you sit on a horse for the very first time and you ask yourself, How does it feel up here? Are we right for each other? Do we click? You can never really know for sure straightaway. It takes a long time to get to know a horse. But in those first minutes in the saddle, as you ask them to walk, trot and canter for the first time, you get an inkling, almost like a sixth sense that tells you whether you really belong together.
Right now, Issie didn’t realise it but she was unconsciously, instinctively, feeling this new horse out. She adjusted her position and felt the sturdiness of Comet’s stocky frame, compact and solid underneath her. He was only fourteen-two, which meant that officially he qualified as a pony, not a hack, and yet Issie could sense that he had the attitude of a much larger horse.
As she gathered Comet up and asked him to step forward into a walk and then a trot, Issie felt almost instantly that he was exactly the sort of horse she liked–responsive and peppy. Issie only had to give him the lightest touch with her legs to get him moving.
“Take him on a lap or two around the arena to get used to his paces,” Hester advised her. Issie nodded and asked Comet to trot. He did so immediately, his stride covering the ground in a floating trot with his hocks coming underneath him nicely. His canter too was bouncy and active. Issie felt a thrill of excitement tingle up her spine.
“He’s got lovely paces, Aunty Hess!”
Hester smiled. “He’s still green, but he has loads of potential. I think you’ll get on famously.”
As if to confirm this, Comet raised his head and let out another loud whinny, calling out to the other horses as if to say, “Look at me!” Issie laughed and gave Comet a slappy pat on his glossy neck.
“Well, Comet already thinks he’s famous–I guess that’s a good start.”
Chapter 5
What is a riding instructor supposed to look like? Issie had fretted about it all morning as she got dressed. Today the riding-school kids would all be arriving and Issie, Stella and Kate had to look the part and impress their new pupils.
She thought about Tom Avery. He always cut such a commanding figure at the Chevalier Point Pony Club in his cream jodhpurs, tweed hacking jacket and a cheesecutter cap on top of his thick thatch of dark, curly hair. A riding crop was permanently in his hand–not to use on the horses, but to thwack against his long leather boots for emphasis when making a point. Issie had flirted with the idea of wearing a cheesecutter cap like Tom’s when she was getting dressed, but decided that it looked a bit too much. She had decided to go with the riding crop, however, and she carried this in her right hand as she walked into the kitchen.
“Ohhh, I wish I’d thought of that,” said Stella. Stella and Kate both had on their best instructor outfits too. Like Issie, they were wearing long boots and jods. Stella had on a pink Ralph Lauren polo shirt and Kate was wearing her short-sleeved shirt and her Chevalier Point Pony Club tie, which looked very smart.
“When are they due to arrive?” Kate asked, pacing back and forth, too nervous to eat her toast, which was going cold on the kitchen table.
“Any time now,” said Issie. “Hester went off in the horse truck an hour ago to pick them up at the train station.”
“Do we need to go down to the stables then?” asked Stella. “Hester said we should meet her there to welcome them.”
“I guess so,” Issie said, looking around nervously. “Hey, where’s Aidan?”
“He’s meeting us down there,” Kate said. “He said he had to finish
fixing something. I heard him hammering.” It turned out that Aidan had been adding a new top railing to the paddock closest to the stables.
“I’ve made the fence half a metre higher all the way around,” Aidan said with satisfaction as he threw his tool belt down in the corner of the stables.
“So you think it will hold him?” asked Issie.
Aidan nodded. “With that new rail the fence is almost one metre fifty. It would hold a deer. There’s no way that little skewbald Houdini is escaping again.”
“Poor Comet,” Issie said. “He’s been so fed up with being stabled all week. I bet he can’t wait to get back outside.”
Since their arrival at Blackthorn Farm, Issie had spent all her spare time riding Comet. Not that she had much spare time. Hester hadn’t been kidding when she said there was a lot to get ready before the kids arrived. The ad on the PONY Magazine website had been successful. There were now eight riders signed up to arrive today at Blackthorn Farm Riding School.
“They should be here by now,” Aidan said. “It only takes half an hour to drive back here from the train station…”
As he said this, there was a cacophony of barking as Hester’s dogs, Nanook the Newfoundland, Strudel the golden retriever and Taxi the black and white sheepdog, all bounded out of the door of the stables to greet the horse truck that was pulling up in the driveway.
“That’ll be them now,” Aidan said.
“Well, shall we go and meet them then?” asked Issie, although she showed no signs of moving.
“Is my tie straight?” Kate asked nervously.
“I feel like I’m going to throw up,” groaned Stella.
“There you are!” Hester said as the girls finally emerged through the wide sliding doors at the front of the stables. The young riders had all emerged from the truck with their bags and were standing beside Hester, staring back at the girls expectantly.
“Everyone, I’d like you to meet your instructors,” Hester said. “This is Isadora, Stella and Kate. These girls are senior members of the Chevalier Point Pony Club. They are all B certificate riders with their own horses and loads of experience under their belts. They will be your tutors here at Blackthorn Farm Riding School and I want you to listen to them and do as they say at all times.” The kids all nodded at this.
“You can leave your bags here for the moment,” Hester said. “You’ll be staying in the stable manager’s cottage, but first I’m sure you want to meet the horses you’ll be riding.”
The riders all followed her through the stable doors and there were gasps of amazement from a couple of the younger ones as they saw just how vast and impressive the stables were once you got inside. Hester led them through to the centre of the stable block where a row of hay bales had been piled up to serve as seats.
“We’ve matched you up with your mounts based on your ages and riding abilities,” Hester explained. “In the stalls here today are the horses that you’ll be riding for the next three weeks.”
Hester began with the two red-headed girls sitting on the hay bales at the end. The girls were so similar they were clearly identical twins. “This is Tina and her sister Trisha,” Hester said. “They’re from Wellington. How old are you, girls?”
“Ten,” said Trisha.
“Tina and Trisha attend their local riding school each week. Is that right?” Tina and Trisha nodded vigorously. “You girls will be on Paris and Nicole,” Hester told them. “Matching hair and matching horses!” Tina and Trisha looked pleased with this and instantly began discussing between themselves which one would have Paris and which one would get Nicole.
The next two girls were much younger, perhaps around eight. “Lucy and Sophie have only had a few riding lessons. They can do the basics like rising to trot,” Hester explained to Issie, Stella and Kate. Then she turned to the two girls. “We’ve put you on Molly and Pippen. Lucy, you’ve got Pippen; he’s the little grey in the stable here.”
“He’s beautiful!” Lucy said breathlessly. Sophie was just as impressed with Molly.
“These will be your ponies for the holidays. You’ll be totally responsible for them and will feed, groom and care for them as well as riding them, OK?”
Lucy and Sophie were instantly up from the hay bales and glued to their ponies’ sides. Sophie even produced a carrot that she had been carrying in her pocket for the whole trip to the farm in anticipation of this moment. She held out her palm to feed it to the eager Molly.
Hester moved on to a girl with white blonde hair and a boy standing next to her who had the same hair and was clearly her brother. “Kitty and George…” Hester continued, “who are both horse-mad according to their mum.”
“I’m not horse-mad,” George said. “Kitty is. Mum makes me have lessons and she made me come on this stupid holiday because she couldn’t be bothered booking two school holiday programmes. I’d rather be riding a BMX.”
Hester looked slightly taken aback at this. “Well, George, how about if you ride Diablo?” she said. “He’s the perfect colour for a cowboy like you and he knows all the best tricks. He can count to ten with his hoof, you know.” George looked quite impressed by this. Kitty, on the other hand, was standing there quietly, not daring to say a word. It was almost as if she couldn’t believe her luck being here at all. Unlike her brother, she obviously adored horses. She looked so desperate to ride a horse, any horse, that you could tell it wouldn’t matter which.
Kitty,” Hester said, “I think we’ll put you on Timmy” Hester opened the top door of a loose box to her right and there stood a chubby little chestnut pony with a star on his forehead and three white socks. He was quite clearly one of the Blackthorn Ponies, stocky with a shaggy mane and tail.
“I love chestnuts!” Kitty said. “They are my absolute favourite colour.”
“Well, that’s worked out perfectly then,” said Hester.
She continued along the queue to the second boy who also looked about eight years old. He had a thick mop of dark brown hair and chubby cheeks. Hester looked at him suspiciously as if he might start on about BMX bikes too if she gave him the chance. “You’ll be on Glennie, Arthur.” Hester gestured to the cattle pens just outside the back door where a dapple-grey Blackthorn Pony had his head over the fence and was watching them intently.
They had now reached the last child in the row, a sullen-looking girl with dark hair cut into a blunt-fringed bob. “And last but not least we have Kelly-Anne,” Hester said. “Kelly-Anne will be on Julian.”
Kelly-Anne looked at Julian as if he were something she’d had to scrape off the bottom of her riding boot. Julian, who was a rather ill-tempered little brown butterball of a pony, stared straight back at her with exactly the same expression.
“He looks useless!” Kelly-Anne said. “I don’t want him. I want that one!” She pointed across the stable at Comet who was minding his own business for once and standing peacefully with his head over the loose-box door.
“Kelly-Anne, I’m sorry, but at this school you ride the horse you’re given,” Hester said quite patiently. “Comet is not a beginner’s pony.”
“I’m not a beginner. I’m a really good rider, so I want the best horse,” Kelly-Anne piped up.
“Have you been riding long, dear?” Hester asked. “Do you go to pony club or do you have a local riding school?”
“No,” Kelly-Anne said dismissively. “I don’t like pony club, it’s dumb. Besides, I can already ride, I don’t need lessons. I have ridden loads and loads of times and I can do jumping and cantering and everything!”
“Well,” Hester said, her patient tone slipping a little, “even the best riders have lessons. I’m sure you’ll learn a lot from listening to Issie and Stella and Kate. When it comes to horses we can always learn more, can’t we?”
Kelly-Anne didn’t look at all convinced by this. “I knew this camp would be useless,” she muttered as she stomped back to the horse truck to grab her bag.
Stella watched her go and then leant over and whisper
ed to Issie and Kate, “There’s always a Natasha Tucker in every group, isn’t there?” The three girls exploded in a fit of giggles and had to rather unprofessionally hide in the tack room and pull themselves together while Hester led the young riders through the stables to Aidan’s cottage to show them where they would be sleeping.
There was one room for the girls and the other bedroom was for George and Arthur. The girls had claimed that the sleeping arrangements were unfair as there were six of them in one room and only George and Arthur in the other. But then again, none of the girls actually wanted to move in and share George and Arthur’s room. “Boy germs!” Lucy had shrieked, so that was the end of that complaint. That left the lumpy sofa in the living room. “For the dorm room monitor,” Hester explained. “The girls are going to take turns staying out here at the cottage to keep an eye on you all.”
This was news to Issie, Stella and Kate. It also didn’t go down very well with the Blackthorn riders. “We don’t need babysitting, you know,” George said, clearly insulted by the idea.
That afternoon was pronounced “free time”. Issie and Aidan gave the riders a tour of the farm, introducing them to Hester’s performing animals. The younger riders stayed back to feed the goats, the rabbits and the chickens while the others went with Aidan to find racquets for the dilapidated old tennis court and fishing lines for catching eels in the duck pond by the cottage.
After dinner that night–big platters of spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese cooked by Kate and Stella–it was time to relax before the first full day of riding tomorrow.
“You can watch TV until 9.30 then it’s lights out,” said Hester sternly. “We have early nights at the farm because we need to get up early too. You must all be back here dressed and ready for breakfast by 7 a.m.”
There was a groan from George at this and Kelly-Anne looked sulky as usual, but the others seemed cheery enough as they stacked their plates and headed back down the hill for their first night in the cottage dormitory.