Pony Jumpers- Special Edition 1- Jonty
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“What are you doing? You’re not in this group,” she sneered at me. “This is the group for people who can actually ride.”
Someone behind her sniggered as I stopped Taniwha and looked around.
“Where should I go?”
She lifted a gloved hand and pointed behind me. “Go join Tess’s group. They’re all useless over there. You’ll fit right in.”
This time her friend laughed out loud as I rode away from them.
“Wouldn’t want to be in your stupid group anyway,” I muttered under my breath, patting Taniwha as he walked over to the huddle of ponies that the blonde girl had pointed to.
They looked at me suspiciously, but none of them spoke. I wondered if they were shy, so decided to break the ice.
“Hello. I’m Jonty.”
The girls looked at each other, and one of them giggled, which started the other two off. Where were the other boys? I wondered. Apparently it wasn’t just the tack shop that thought ponies were for little girls.
“What happened to your pony’s ear?” asked a chubby girl on a grey pony.
“Huh?”
“It’s got a piece missing.”
“Oh yeah. He lost it in a battle with another stallion. He used to be wild on the Kaimanawa ranges,” I told her proudly.
To me, the fact that Taniwha had once run wild – a fact suspected by my father and later corroborated by Cecil – was something to be proud of, something that put him, in my opinion anyway, on par with The Black Stallion. He was wild by nature, and whenever he was particularly naughty, I comforted myself with the thought that he was just expressing his natural ways.
But instead of looking impressed, the chubby girl just rolled her eyes and looked away. Before I could say anything else to her, our coach turned up with a tatty notebook in her hand, and started marking us for turnout and attendance.
I listened carefully as she greeted the others by name, chatting familiarly to them and patting their ponies, all of which suddenly looked much better fed and better groomed than Taniwha. I discovered that the chubby girl was called Jody, the girl on the chestnut was Kimmy, the dun pony’s rider was named Ainslie, and the girl on the dark bay was Tess. Our coach’s name was Chloe, and when she got to me, she hesitated.
“Are you joining us today?” she asked.
“Yes. I have a helmet and everything,” I told her, rapping it with my knuckles. The girls giggled again, and I grinned at them to show that I was in on the joke.
“No saddle though,” Chloe commented, coming in closer. Taniwha laid his ears back at her, and she stopped a couple of feet away.
“Not yet. But I’m saving up to buy one,” I told her, daring her to laugh at me.
But she just smiled. “Good for you. Riding bareback isn’t easy, but it’s good for your balance. What’s your pony’s name?”
“Taniwha. Careful, he bites,” I warned her as she moved within range of his teeth.
“Noted,” Chloe said. “I’m supposed to mark you on your turnout of horse, tack and rider.” She looked at my scruffy pony, at my shorts and sneakers and mushroom helmet, then at the old stock bridle that was much too big for Taniwha, with the straps of the cheekpieces dangling below the bit. I didn’t need her to tell me that we weren’t making a great first impression.
“Did you oil his hooves?” she asked, looking down at them.
“Yeah,” I said. I’d rubbed neatsfoot oil on with a cloth, since I hadn’t yet saved up for hoof oil. “I trimmed them myself too.”
“Did you?” Chloe seemed impressed at last. “By yourself?”
“Yeah. Well, sort of. Murray told me what to do, but I did all the work myself. He’s got arthritis, so he can’t.”
Chloe nodded, smiling at me. “Good for you. Looks like you’ve done a nice job. I’m going to give you full marks for pony care.”
She made a note in her book as Jody gasped out loud and shot an agonised look at the other girls, which Chloe didn’t miss.
“Do you shoe your own pony, Jody?” she asked.
“No, I pay a professional to do it, so that I know that it’s been done properly,” Jody replied immediately.
“Well here’s hoping that you never run out of money,” Chloe said, shoving the notebook and pen into her back pocket. “Now, let’s go do some dressage!”
I had no idea what dressage was, but soon learned that it meant trotting in circles around Chloe, trying to get our ponies to arch their necks and bend their bodies around our inside legs. Taniwha wasn’t impressed. At first he just ran faster, breaking into frequent canters and zooming around the outside of the circle past everyone. When he got bored of that, he started running away from the group back towards the gate, which was luckily kept shut, or we could’ve been halfway home before I managed to turn him around. But after he’d tried that three times, he gave up and resorted instead to being the slowest, most sluggish pony in the world, and it was all I could do to keep him moving. Chloe kept telling me to kick him on, but when I took her advice Taniwha just retaliated by trying to buck me off. Chloe eventually gave up on improving Tani, and just occasionally reminded me to sit up straight and look where I was going.
I didn’t blame Taniwha for being naughty, because going round and round in circles was pretty boring. I spent most of my time watching the other riders and listening to what Chloe was telling them. Jody leaned too far forward and held her reins too tight, Kimmy had her reins too loose and slopped around in the saddle, and Ainslie’s toes pointed down all the time, so that when her pony slowed down she pitched forward onto his neck. Tess was a good rider though, and her big bay pony was the best of the lot, trotting nicely around with its neck arched and doing as it was told. Chloe didn’t tell her much, just occasionally said things like “that’s good Tess” and “very nice”.
Eventually we were allowed to canter, but only one at a time, and Taniwha just bolted back to the gate with me as soon as I tried. As I rode back to my group, I saw the blonde girl on the strawberry roan pony going around a jumping course set up in the middle of the rally grounds. She had her hands full as the pony tried to gallop over the jumps, but she was a really good rider and kept the pony under control – well, almost.
“Slow her down Hayley,” her coach yelled, but Hayley either didn’t hear her or ignored her, letting the pony fly at the jump.
The strawberry roan flung itself into the air, clearing the jump easily, and Hayley shot a smug look at her coach as she gave the pony a pat. I knew even less about jumping than I did about dressage, but had already decided that it looked way more fun.
When I got back to my group, they’d finally given up on dressage and were moving on to the bending poles. Chloe explained to me how to weave up between the poles, turn around the top one and weave back, then let the four girls have a go to demonstrate. Jody’s pony ran past the last pole and she had to haul him around, making Chloe yell at her for having hard hands, Ainslie’s pony flat out refused to canter, then stopped when she tried to turn him and she fell on his neck, Kimmy’s pony started well but missed a pole on the way back, and Tess rode slowly and smoothly up the line and back again, her pony flexing its body around each pole.
“Perfect Tess, well done. Just a bit more speed next time,” Chloe encouraged. “Right Jonty, do you want to have a go?”
Bending was harder than it looked, especially on a pony like Taniwha who was difficult to turn at the best of times. The bit in his mouth helped, but by the time I managed to turn him, we’d have gone past the pole already. I’d taken Chloe’s advice to Tess about going faster to heart and tried to get Taniwha to race, which he flat out refused to do, proving to be the worst at bending as well as at dressage.
I slogged away on the row of poles at one end, trying to get Tani to cooperate, while the girls took turns racing each other up and down the remaining rows. Eventually, Chloe got sick of watching us.
“We’ve just got time left to have a wee jump,” she said, as Hayley’s group abandoned the show j
umping and came riding over to the bending poles.
“Can we have a race?” Hayley demanded of her coach, who just shrugged.
“Once down and back then, your ponies are tired,” the woman said.
I watched over my shoulder as Hayley lined her pony up in front of a row of poles. The little roan pony didn’t look tired, bouncing excitedly and lifting her front legs a few inches off the ground as she waited.
“Ready set go!” Hayley shouted, ignoring the cries of her friends who hadn’t been prepared to start.
I watched her pony slither up the poles like a snake, moving at high speed and spinning tight around the top pole before weaving effortlessly back and finishing well ahead of her friends, who were all still at the other end of the poles.
“Wow,” I said out loud. “That was really fast.”
I turned back to look at the other riders in my group, but none of them had been watching, except for Tess. I caught her eye and she shrugged, looking shyly down at her pony’s mane.
“Pink’s really good at games,” she said quietly.
“She’s good at jumping too. I saw her before,” I told Tess. “Tani’s not much good at anything, but that’s okay. I like him anyway. What’s your pony good at?”
Tess just shrugged as Chloe called us over to her. “Tina’s group wants to jump too, so we’re going to split the course and use half each. Stop complaining, it’s this or no jumping at all, so take your pick,” she said as the other girls grumbled that they wouldn’t get to do a full course.
“I want to jump!” I said quickly, and Chloe grinned at me.
“Off you go then, trot your pony over that pole.”
She pointed at a white pole lying on the grass, and I nudged Taniwha into a trot and rode him towards it. Tani took three strides in its direction and slammed on the brakes, snorting. I fell forward onto his neck, much like Ainslie had been doing all rally, and felt my face going red as I pushed myself back upright.
“Come on Tani, it’s just a pole,” I told him, but he just snorted again, sure that it was far too dangerous to approach.
“Give him a lead, Tess,” Chloe told her.
I looked up as Tess trotted smoothly past me, and circled around towards the pole. Her pony stepped calmly over it, and Tess leaned forward and patted her.
“Good girl Rory.”
I was still battling with Tani, who was now backing away from the pole at speed, determined that he wouldn’t go anywhere near the thing. He made the mistake of reversing into a group of parents, who quickly scattered, leaving scathing remarks in their wake.
“What’s the world coming to, when kids can come to Pony Club without even a helmet or a saddle and they still let them join in,” one of the mothers said. “I thought you had to be a member to ride at a rally.”
“Whoever that boy is, he should be ashamed of himself, bringing a skinny pony like that out in public,” said a tall woman with thick curly hair, glaring at me and Taniwha with obvious dislike.
I did my best to tune them out. They didn’t know me, and I was going to prove them wrong soon enough. Maybe not today, and maybe not next week, but someday I would make them eat their words.
“That’s a nice pony you’ve found for Tess,” one first woman said as Tess cantered over a low jump.
“Yes she’s working out well,” said the woman with the curly hair, and I pieced together that she was Tess and Hayley’s mother. “She’s done some metre-fifteens for the last owner, so she’s got the scope, but she’s also dead quiet, which is what Tess needs. She’s never been a brave rider, and every little setback knocks her confidence. Not like Hayley. Nothing ever sets her back. Sometimes I wish it would!”
The other mum started gushing about how brilliant Hayley was, and I would’ve moved away so I didn’t have to listen to them if I could have, but Taniwha had planted his hooves and was refusing to move, no matter how hard I kicked him. Chloe looked over and saw me, and shook her head, her frustration finally showing.
“Give him a whack!” she yelled at me. “Do you have a crop?”
I shook my head, and she held out her hand to Tess, who passed her riding crop over. Chloe marched over and handed it to me.
“Now, hold it in your left hand, then when he ignores your leg aids, give him a big smack right behind your leg,” she told me.
I didn’t much like the idea of hitting my pony with a stick. My dad had given me beating or two and I knew how much it hurt. But Chloe was the coach, and everyone was staring at me, so I did as I was told. I kicked Taniwha, and he ignored me, so I smacked him with the crop. He arched his back and pig-rooted, but didn’t go forward.
“Hit him properly!” Chloe snapped, losing patience. “Hard as you can, make him really listen. He’s just mucking you around. Go on!”
I kicked Tani again, then brought the crop down on his side as hard as I could. Tani squealed indignantly and bucked hard. I was flung forward, and wrapped my arms around his neck in an attempt to stay on. The crop fell to the grass as Tani threw his head up, then reared. He went up and up and up, and my hands slipped around his neck until I found myself sliding backwards, along his back and over his tail, then landing on my bum in the grass.
Tani spun around, kicked out with a hind leg that narrowly missed getting me in the head, and took off towards the gate. The mothers were flapping around like crazy, exclaiming over what a wild and dangerous pony I had, and what were my parents thinking letting me ride him at all, and the tall woman declared that he needed to be shot. I scrambled to my feet, furious.
“He is not useless and he does not need to be shot!” I yelled at them. “You stupid women don’t know anything, so shut up!”
I added a couple of other words for extra flavour, ones that I knew I wasn’t supposed to say, but if anyone deserved to hear them, it was those women on that day. As they started yelling back at me, calling me a rude little boy who needed someone to give him a hiding – as if that hadn’t been tried, or had ever worked – I turned around and ran towards the gate to catch Taniwha and ride him home.
But when I got there, the gate was open, and Taniwha was gone.
It took a long time to walk back to Murray’s. I was almost there before I realised that I still had the helmet on, but I was too angry to turn around and go back to return it to Joy. I ripped it off my head and swung it from the harness, prepared to throw it across the road or into a tree, but I stopped myself in time. It didn’t belong to me, and Joy was the only person who’d been nice to me that day. Even Chloe, who I’d liked at the start, had given me bad advice at the end, and I was suddenly convinced that she’d made me hit Tani and fall off in front of those awful women so they could all make fun of me.
Screw her. Screw them all. Who needed them and their stupid Pony Club anyway? Who wanted to go around in circles for hours, or weave between poles? Not Taniwha, and not me. Give me long rides down the road, or swimming in the river, or galloping up the paddock with no hands on the reins. Alec Ramsay never went to Pony Club either, I was sure of that. And if he didn’t need it, neither did I.
When I finally got back to Murray’s, Taniwha was grazing in the paddock as though nothing bad had happened, his bridle hanging on the gatepost. Murray was sitting on the cane chair outside his house, waiting for me.
“It was stupid,” I told him before he could ask. “I should never have gone. Biggest waste of a day I’ve ever spent.”
“Got outclassed, did you?” Murray asked me gruffly.
“No.”
“Sure about that?”
I sat down on the grass in front of Murray’s house and huffed out a sigh. “They made us do all these dumb things that Tani doesn’t know how to do.”
“Like what?”
“Like go round in circles and bend his neck, or weave around bending poles, or go over a pole on the ground. Tani wouldn’t go near it, and when they told me to hit him, he reared up and I fell off. And someone left the gate open so I had to walk all the way home.”
I flung my hands up and thumped them down onto the grass. “All right, I know! I did everything wrong! Can we just forget I ever tried?”
“Sure. If you never want to succeed at anything, that’s the best way to go about it,” Murray told me.
I glared at him. “What do you know?”
“A damn sight more than you. Do you want to teach Taniwha to do those things? Bending, and circles, and going over poles?”
“No,” I said sulkily.
Murray scratched his beard. “Wouldn’t it be good to learn, then go back to Pony Club and show them all that they were wrong about you, and wrong about Tani too?”
I squinted up at him, wondering how he knew what they’d been saying about Tani. But if I tried and failed, I’d get made a fool of a second time, and I wasn’t sure my pride could handle that.
“Nah, you’re all right,” I muttered. “I’ll just ride around here.”
“Not for long you won’t. If you’re gonna up and quit as soon as the going gets tough, then you can find somewhere else to keep your pony.”
I jolted upright. “What?!”
“You heard me. There’s no quitters here. I always thought you were a hard worker, but I guess I had it wrong.”
Murray stood up, but I was on my feet in seconds.
“I am a hard worker!” I cried indignantly. “Look at your garden! It’s never looked this good, and that was all me doing it, and you know it.”
Murray shrugged. “Gardening’s easy. Gardens don’t talk back, they don’t argue. But that pony out there has a mind of his own. Training horses isn’t about beating them into submission, or forcing them to obey you. You ever hear the saying, you get more with sugar than with vinegar?”