by Stacy Gregg
“Ummm…” Issie didn’t know what to say. “It was just going to be me and Aidan.”
Stella’s smile faded. “Oh.”
“But I can tell him!” Issie said. “If you and Kate want to come too, we could all go together…”
“No,” Stella said. “That’s OK. It’s a date. You don’t need us tagging along.” She gave Issie a disappointed look. “You go with Aidan. We’ll go together another time.”
The girls hardly saw Aidan or Hester at all that week. Hot on the heels of the drama with the stranded sheep, Hester received a call from Ranger Cameron. He’d spotted a Blackthorn mare running wild with a young foal at foot, up on the back ridge behind the lake. Hester and Aidan set off to try to catch her, leaving the girls in charge of the school once more.
“You’ll be fine. You girls know what you’re doing,” Hester tried to reassure Issie. “I’m on my mobile if you need me. Just keep working your way through the lesson plan we made up.”
According to the lesson plan, Wednesday was games day. Issie, Stella and Kate organised a barrel race, flag race, bending poles and an egg and spoon competition. Tina and Trisha, who turned out to be complete and utter daredevils, won every single competition between them–except for the egg and spoon race, which Arthur won on Glennie. Everyone was suspicious that his egg had been stuck to the spoon with chewing gum, but Arthur insisted he hadn’t cheated.
Thursday was spent on basic flatwork and pony care. Friday morning was flatwork too and all the riders were excited because they’d been told they’d finally be doing some jumping in the afternoon.
“Has anyone used cavaletti before?” Kate asked the riders as they gathered in the centre of the arena after lunch. The eight riders all shook their heads. “Cavaletti are great for developing your pony’s gymnastics. Can anyone tell me what that means?” Kate asked.
George sniggered. “What like doing forward rolls and cartwheels and stuff?”
“No, I mean gymnastic jumping,” Kate said. “We’re going to do what showjumpers refer to as ‘gridwork’.” She walked to the middle of the arena where two rows of white painted cavaletti were lined up.
“Cavaletti are not big jumps,” she explained. “Their purpose is to teach you how to stay balanced and get a rhythm going. Plus, they’ll make your ponies learn to think and lift their feet. Can everyone get into two-point position like I showed you please?” said Kate. “And take your stirrups up to jumping length first. We’re only going to be jumping very small cavaletti today so two holes should do it.”
Kate, Issie and Stella worked their way down the row of riders, checking everyone’s jumping position.
“In two-point position we stand up in our stirrups a little and balance on our knees and our bodies tilt forward,” Kate explained. “Let’s try to get our positions sorted in the arena without jumps first.” She made the riders trot around the school. “Everyone sitting in their normal position, excellent…Now…two-point!” she shouted and the riders all tilted forward. “And back again!” Kate instructed.
“My legs are getting tired,” Kelly-Anne whined.
“You haven’t even started jumping yet!” said Kate. “You’ll get used to it. Put all your weight into your heels, balance on your knees. Now we’re going to try our two-point over the cavaletti. Tina, you go first.” Tina trotted towards the white jumps.
“Look up!” Kate shouted. “Never, ever look down at the bottom of the jump. If you look down then your horse will stop. You must look where you want to go–up and over the fence.”
“That was cool!” Tina was beaming from ear to ear as she finished.
“You’re next, Kelly-Anne,” Kate called. “Hurry up.
Kelly-Anne! You must look up!” As Julian approached the cavaletti Kelly-Anne ignored Kate’s advice. Instead, her eyes went straight down to the ground where the first pole was. Julian was a well-schooled pony and there was no way he was going to jump a cavaletti if his rider was looking at the ground. He didn’t know what else to do so he stopped dead in front of the poles.
Kelly-Anne let out a squeal, “Stupid pony! Get up!” And before anyone could stop her she had lifted her riding crop up high and brought it down hard on the brown pony’s rump. “Jump, you pig!” she yelled. Julian didn’t have a clue what was wrong. Why was this girl hitting him? He gave an indignant snort and leapt to one side as Kelly-Anne squealed and struck him again. This time she brought the stick down hard on his shoulder. Julian was panicking now; the whites of his eyes were showing as he backed away from the cavaletti.
“Kelly-Anne, stop it!” Issie rushed forward. “He doesn’t know what you want him to do. You’re just scaring him!”
“He’s a stupid, stupid pony!” Kelly-Anne said. She was so furious, so lost in her anger that Issie could see that any drop of common sense she might have had was quickly disappearing, consumed by her fury.
“Give me the whip, Kelly-Anne,” Issie said coolly. Kelly-Anne didn’t respond. She glared back at Issie, who reached out and grabbed the riding crop out of her hand. “I said, give me the whip!” she snapped. “And don’t ever think about riding like that again–or I’ll have you sent home from this school and you won’t be back.”
“I was just teaching him who’s boss,” Kelly-Anne insisted.
“You weren’t teaching him anything except how to be afraid of a girl who doesn’t know how to ride,” Issie snapped back.
Kelly-Anne looked at Issie as if she was going to explode. Then she jumped down, threw Julian’s reins at her and stormed off. “I don’t want to ride him anyway,” she fumed as she stomped towards the stables. “He’s just a dumb learner’s pony!”
“Shall I go after her and try to explain why what she did was wrong?” Stella asked as they watched Kelly-Anne flounce off.
“Leave her,” Issie sighed. “Let’s get on with the lesson. I’m going to tell Aunty Hess tonight. I won’t put up with her treating Julian like that. It’s got to stop now.”
When Hester heard about Kelly-Anne’s behaviour she agreed. “I’ve taken her aside and had a good talk to her,” Hester told the girls as they set the table for dinner. “She’s on a good behaviour bond. The riders are all going home first thing in the morning anyway, so that will give her the weekend to cool down. When she comes back to the school on Monday, I expect her to have a new attitude.”
Apart from Kelly-Anne, who was now in a permanent sulk, everyone was in a cheery mood at dinner. Hester had defied the odds by turning out a decent meal for once, including a steak pie that was entirely edible.
“I have some news,” she told the girls as they tucked gratefully into their unburnt dinner. “Tom Avery is coming to stay.”
“What?” Issie just about choked on her pie in surprise.
“He called today and told me that he was planning to come down this weekend with Dan and Ben to prepare for the Horse of the Year. They were going to keep the horses at a stable near the showgrounds, but I suggested that they come here instead.”
“Do we have enough room for them?” asked Issie.
“Of course. We’ve got loads of grazing and spare loose boxes. Tom says he and the boys were planning to camp in his horse truck, and now they won’t have to. They can stay here at the house instead for the next fortnight. We have loads of room,” said Hester. “Plus, Avery has offered to pay board and grazing costs for the ponies–and right now every bit helps.”
“When do they get here?” asked Aidan, looking less than impressed at the idea of Dan turning up.
“Tomorrow lunchtime,” Hester said. “So I’ll need a bit of help first thing in the morning getting their rooms ready and preparing stalls for the two new ponies.”
“But tomorrow is Saturday!” Issie blurted out. She was thrilled that her instructor and pony-club friends were coming to stay, but did it have to be tomorrow? She had been waiting all week for her date with Aidan and now there was no way she could leave the farm for the day.
“I’m sorry,” Issie told Aida
n when they took their dishes to the kitchen. “About the picnic, I mean.”
“That’s OK,” said Aidan. “I figure we can still ride.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve still got a couple of hours in the morning before they get here and there are no lessons going on in the arena,” Aidan said. “What about if we saddle up Destiny and Stardust and do some showjumping training?”
“Really?” Issie felt her heart race. It had been ages since she did proper jumping.
“Sure, the cavaletti are already set up and I can build us a jumping course too,” Aidan said. “That is…if you want to?”
“I do!” Issie said. Then she hesitated. “There’s just one thing, Aidan. I don’t want to ride Stardust. I want to ride Comet.”
“Really?” Aidan was surprised. “Issie, Comet is pretty green. I’ve taken him over cross-country jumps when we’ve been out riding, and he’s done a bit of gridwork over cavaletti, but Stardust has had far more proper schooling in the showjumping ring.”
“I know,” Issie said, “but he’s a natural jumper, Aidan. I’ve seen him.” She smiled. “He didn’t need any training to learn how to jump out of his paddock, did he?”
Aidan grinned. “No…no, I guess he didn’t.”
Comet seemed to know that something exciting was happening the next morning when Issie arrived at the stables. The skewbald pony moved about anxiously in his stall as she entered.
“Easy, boy,” Issie cooed softly under her breath as she slipped the bridle over his head and did up her own helmet straps, before slipping on her riding gloves. “Let’s go.”
In the arena Aidan and Destiny were already warming up. “I’ve set up a showjumping course,” Aidan said, gesturing to a small circuit of jumps that he had built at the far end of the arena, “but I thought we should start with some cavaletti.”
The two riders did exactly the same gridwork that the kids had been doing earlier that week, practising their positions and making the horses trot through the cavaletti. As she worked him over the cavaletti Issie couldn’t help smiling at Comet. His confidence as he took the jumps was like nothing she had ever seen before. He was such a bold jumper–and such a show-off! Issie had to try not to giggle each time they finished and Comet gave a dramatic flick of his tail, a bit like a horsey version of a high-five, thrashing the air emphatically.
“You are funny, Comet!” Issie gave him a slappy pat on his glossy neck and turned to Aidan.
“He’s going brilliantly, isn’t he?” said Aidan. “They seem pretty well warmed up. Shall we try them over some proper jumps?”
The first fence in the course was parallel rails, the second was a hog’s back, then you turned left to approach the double, which had just one stride between the fences and quite a decent spread on the last fence. The fifth and final fence was the biggest by far and was made up of blue and white painted rails with hay bales stacked underneath.
Issie and Aidan both dismounted to walk the course together. “The striding is pretty easy,” Aidan said. “You have to turn quite sharply to take the hog’s back after the parallel rails, and then there’s one stride in between the first and second fence of the double.”
Issie stood next to the hay bales. It was a big fence. The bales came all the way up past her waist almost to her chest.
“It’s one metre twenty,” Aidan said. “Destiny and I will be jumping this height at the Horse of the Year.”
Issie nodded. She had jumped a fence the size of the hay bales loads of times before on Blaze, but never on Comet. She felt the butterflies in her tummy beginning to flutter. Cavaletti were all well and good, but what would the skewbald be like over such big jumps with a rider on his back?
“I’ll go first, OK?” Aidan said.
Issie didn’t know whether it made it better or worse that Destiny took the five fences so effortlessly. The black stallion positively flew over the double, barely bothering to even put in a stride, and took the hay bales at the end with ease for a clear round.
“Good lad!” Aidan gave Destiny a slappy pat on his broad black neck as he pulled the stallion up to a halt next to little Comet. “Do you want me to put the fences down for you before you go?” Aidan asked. The jumps were at the right height for a horse like Destiny who was sixteen-two, but for a little pony like Comet these were big fences.
As Issie eyed up the jumps, there was something about the way Comet danced and skipped beneath her that made her think he was almost trying to say, I can do this! Let’s go!
“No. Leave them,” Issie said. “I think we’ll be OK.”
When you watch horses showjumping on TV, they make it look so simple. Even the biggest fences seem to be no big deal. But when you are actually riding in the showjumping ring in real life, facing a massive fence made out of painted rails, it’s quite a different story.
Issie had a brief moment as she turned Comet to begin her warm-up circle when she felt her nerve falter. What if Comet didn’t jump? If the pony suddenly stopped or swerved she might lose her balance and fall. She shook her head, as if trying to shake the bad thoughts out of her brain. She remembered what Avery had told her about staying positive and tried to imagine herself soaring cleanly over each fence.
“Steady, Comet,” she said firmly. The skewbald was tense with anticipation. Issie tried to ride him into a steady canter as she approached the first fence. There was a moment, a couple of strides out from the jump, when it looked like Comet was going to refuse, but he simply put in an extra stride to get deeper into the fence and leapt it cleanly. He took the hog’s back too with ease and put in a perfect stride between fence one and two of the double combination.
As they turned to face the hay bales Issie felt herself stiffen in the saddle and the butterflies returned. She looked down at Comet who was pulling like mad against her hands, filled with his own pure love of jumping, and she sat back in the saddle and let him go. Comet put in two huge canter strides, gathered himself up and absolutely flew over the hay bales, giving a high-spirited victory buck as he cantered away on the other side.
“Oh, well done, Comet!” Issie had a grin on her face a mile wide as she pulled the skewbald to a stop and let go of the reins to give him a pat on both sides of his neck. “Good pony!” The sound of applause from the side of the arena made her look up.
“Excellent round!”
“Tom!” Issie was surprised to see her instructor standing there, clapping vigorously.
“That’s quite the horse you’ve got there,” Avery called out to her. “What’s he called?”
“Comet,” Issie said. “His name is Comet.”
Avery ducked down, slipped between the rails of the fence and strode across the arena towards Issie and Comet. He ran his eyes over the horse, his face serious, clearly deep in thought. “Nice solid bone, strong hindquarters,” Avery murmured as he assessed him, “and a scopey jump too. I haven’t seen a pony jump like that in a very long time…” He looked up at Issie. “Well, it looks like I got here just in time.”
“In time for what?”
“To start your training.” Avery patted the skewbald’s neck. “Issie, Comet is a superstar in the making. We’d better get cracking.” He paused. “That is, if we’re going to enter him in the Grand Prix at the Horse of the Year Show.”
Chapter 9
Issie was stunned. Did Avery really think that Comet was good enough to jump at the Horse of the Year? Surely her instructor was joking?
“I’m completely serious,” Avery insisted. “This pony is a natural athlete. I was watching him over those jumps and he’s got a terrific bascule.”
“What’s a bascule?”
“A good jumper will stretch his neck out and tuck up his front feet over a fence so that he almost looks like a dolphin flying through the air,” Avery explained. “That’s called a bascule. It’s absolutely crucial in a showjumper. Comet has it. With a little training to perfect his technique, that natural ability could be enough to earn him a clear
round in the pony Grand Prix at the Horse of the Year.”
Issie vaulted down off Comet’s back and landed on the ground beside her pony. The cheeky skewbald was listening intently with his ears pricked forward, as if he knew that Issie and her instructor were talking about him.
“He can clear any fence on the farm,” Issie said as she told Avery about Comet’s habit of jumping out of paddocks. “He’s totally fearless!”
“Well,” said Avery, “let’s see if we can harness his natural talents. We’ve got two weeks before the Horse of the Year qualifying rounds to get some solid schooling in. I think the best plan is for you and Comet to join in on my jumping lessons with the boys.” Avery saw Issie’s uncertain expression. “Is there a problem?”
“It’s just that I’m supposed to be working, Tom. I won’t have time…”
“Don’t worry,” Avery said. “You can fit it in. Hester needs the arena during the day for her riding school anyway so I’ve agreed with her to use it in the evenings. We’ll switch on the floodlights and have jumping practice after dinner each night. That means you’ll have time to teach the school during the day–although you’ll be pretty exhausted by the end of the day, I should imagine.”
Issie grinned. “That sounds brilliant!”
“Where’s my training squad got to anyway?” Avery looked over at the stables. “I asked those boys to put their horses away in the loose boxes ages ago. What is taking them so long?”
As he said this Dan and Ben emerged from the stables with halters in their hands. When Dan saw Issie his face lit up. He gave her a wave and began to run across the arena towards her. Then he caught sight of Aidan, who was still working Destiny around the showjumping course, and his expression suddenly turned dark.
Aidan had caught sight of Dan too and didn’t look pleased to see him either. He took Destiny over one last fence and then pulled the stallion up and trotted back over to join the group.
“Aidan!’ Avery said. “Good to see you again! You’ve got Destiny going very nicely.”