by Kate Lattey
“Go get the door.”
“Dad’s doing it.”
“Dad’s been working all day,” I reminded her. “You’ve just been sitting on your butt reading books.”
Astrid rolled her eyes, but still didn’t get up. I snatched her fork out of her hand and jabbed her in the arm with the prongs, looking pointedly at the door.
“Ow! Stop it. Dad’s already up,” she argued, grabbing for her fork as we heard male voices outside, then footsteps crunching over the gravel towards the front door.
Dax started going mental, scrabbling at the door and whimpering excitedly. The door opened, and my eldest brother stepped inside with a duffel bag over his shoulder and a sheepish grin.
“Evening.”
“Aidan!” Mum dropped her cutlery and stood up, surprise and concern warring on her face as he dropped his bag on the floor and leaned down to scruff Dax’s head. “What’re you doing home?”
Astrid took advantage of my momentary distraction to snatch her fork back out of my hand, but I let it go without argument, my attention diverted onto my brother. Aidan had gone off to university months ago, before the semester had even started. He had a job down in Dunedin and last we’d all heard, he was going to be working all through the holidays and wouldn’t make it home until mid-winter.
“Got sick of the weather down south,” Aidan said casually, but he looked nervous as he came over and gave Mum a brief hug. “It’s freezing down there already. You guys have no idea how good you’ve got it in the Bay. That smells good,” he added hopefully, looking around at our loaded plates.
“There’s more in the kitchen,” Dad said, giving Aidan a slap on the shoulder as he walked past to get him a plate of food. “Good to see you, son.”
“Yeah, you too.” Aidan sat down next to me with a grin. “How’s it going, Poss? That pony hasn’t killed you yet, I see.”
“What is it with everyone hating on Squib today?” I demanded. “I’ll have you know that he’s perfectly safe these days, and I haven’t fallen off him in weeks. Katy’s the one with the fire-eating dragon.”
Aidan grinned at me. “Is she? Bet you’ll be riding that one too, soon enough.”
“Oh no she won’t,” Mum declared as Dad came back into the room and set a stacked plate of apricot chicken and rice in front of my brother. She’d witnessed one of Tori’s epic tantrums when she’d swung by Katy’s place to pick me up a couple of weeks ago, and had made me promise then and there never to get on the mare’s back. Truth be told, as much as I felt sorry for the difficult horse, it had been an easy assurance to give her. I had no desire to ride Tori.
“Thanks Dad.”
Aidan started shovelling the food into his mouth at high speed, but Mum wasn’t going to let him off that easy.
“But why are you home so early?” she asked. “Everything okay down south?”
Aidan nodded, chewing on his mouthful of food.
“How’s Sadie?” Dad asked.
Aidan shrugged as he swallowed. “Okay, I think. Dunno really. We broke up.”
“Oh sweetheart, I’m sorry,” Mum said quickly as the rest of us shared startled glances.
Aidan and Sadie had been dating since Year 11, and had both gone to Otago so they could stay together while they were studying. Sadie had gone into pre-med, and Mum had always considered her a good influence, since Aidan wasn’t particularly bookish. His decision to follow Sadie and study physiotherapy had made both of our parents wildly proud. For the rest of us, we’d just been deeply relieved that at least one of us was going to get a degree, which took some of the pressure off.
“It’s okay,” Aidan said. “We’d been growing a part for a while. I reckon I knew it wasn’t going to work out when we went down there, but she wanted to give it a go, so…” He shrugged again, his eyes on his plate.
“I never liked her anyway,” Lexi declared. “I think you’re better off without her.”
“Thanks Lex,” Aidan said, shovelling so much food into his mouth that he could barely chew it.
If he thought that was going to stop Mum from interrogating him, he was wrong.
“How’re your classes going?” she asked. “I didn’t think your break started until next week.”
Aidan didn’t meet her eyes as he replied through his mouthful of food. “Doesn’t. I came home early. Sorry,” he said, lifting a hand to cover his mouth as he sprayed rice on the table next to me.
I picked a grain of rice off my arm and flicked it at his head, watching in satisfaction as it landed in his ear. Bullseye.
“You can’t just skip class though,” Mum lectured him with a frown. “You might miss something important. And what about your job? I thought you were working all holidays.”
Aidan stuck his finger in his ear and fished the rice out, then wiped it on the edge of his plate. “I quit. Don’t look at me like that, Mum. The job sucked, okay?”
“Lots of people work jobs that suck,” Mum reminded him snippily. “That was a good job, one a lot of students would kill for.”
“Let them have it then,” Aidan said. “If they’re happy stocking shelves and being treated like slave labour, more power to them.”
“It can’t have been slave labour,” Lexi piped up. “They didn’t own you, or treat you like property instead of as an individual. And if they did, you have rights under the Employment Relations Act, and you can file a grievance against them.”
“Now look what you’ve done, with your fancy speaking in metaphors,” Anders told Aidan with a wry grin. “Go on Lex, tell us more.”
“Shut up Anders,” I told him as Astrid corrected him.
“It’s not actually a metaphor,” she said. “If he’d said ‘my boss was a slave driver’, that would’ve been metaphorical, but he just said it was like slave labour, not that it actually was.”
“It wasn’t slave labour!” Lexi snapped, still caught up in the technicalities. “It can’t have been; we don’t have slaves in New Zealand.” Her brow furrowed as she dug into her mental encyclopaedia of historical information. Nothing got Lexi more excited than history. “Not since colonial times, anyway. Some Maori tribes used to enslave their captives, but it was never widespread amongst the Europeans…”
“All right, that’s enough,” Dad said, his voice firm but kind.
Lexi scowled and finished her sentence under her breath in an indistinct mutter. Mum took advantage of the momentary peace to restart her sermon on the value of a job, no matter how boring it was, but Dad interrupted her.
“That’ll do, Christina,” he told her. “Let the boy eat his dinner without giving him an earful, hmm?”
Aidan shot Dad a grateful look and kept eating. Mum sighed, and took a sip of wine from her long-stemmed glass. I reached for my own cutlery, only to discover that Astrid had nicked it while I wasn’t looking.
“Oi, Asteroid. Give me back my fork.”
“Don’t call me that,” she scowled.
“I’ll call you whatever I like until you give my cutlery back.”
“Stop fighting,” Lexi said irritably as Anders held out his fork towards me.
“Here, take mine.”
“I don’t want yours, it’s got boy germs on it,” I told him, then instantly regretted it as his eyebrow quirked upwards.
“Didn’t see you being too worried about boy germs when you had your tongue down Scud’s throat the other day.”
Mum cleared her throat, Aidan shot me a surprised look, and I flushed red and ignored them both as I grappled Astrid for my fork. I finally retrieved it from her grip, only to turn back and discover that Aidan had nicked my entire leg of chicken while my back was turned.
“So have you looked for another job yet?” Mum asked Aidan as I tried to reclaim my dinner off his plate.
“Funny you mention that,” Aidan said between mouthfuls, fending me off almost effortlessly with his elbow. “I was actually going to ask this bloke if he’s got any work that needs doing.” He looked at Dad with a hopeful expr
ession. “What with Anders being out of action these days, and you said the other week that you’ve been real busy lately. More work coming in than you could manage on your own.”
“Bit of a commute from Dunedin, son,” Dad pointed out mildly.
Aidan set his knife and fork down on his plate, and I snatched my chicken back while his attention was diverted. “Yeah, well. I’m not going back to Dunedin.”
“Excuse me?” Mum demanded from the other end of the table, as the rest of us fell into shocked silence. “Why on earth not?”
Aidan lifted his chin and looked at her. “I’m not going back,” he repeated. “Because I’ve dropped out.”
* * *
The sun was shining brightly the next morning as I mixed water into the feed bins that Deb had left out for me. She was working overtime while Katy was away with her dad, and had asked me to do the morning feeds. I felt a supreme sense of confidence as I carried an armload of buckets across the dusty yard towards the paddocks. Puppet was waiting for me at the gate to the paddock he shared with Lucas, and I shoved his feed bucket under the post and rail fence, then walked further down and gave Lucas his. Molly whickered a greeting to me and I hooked her feed bin onto the fence, because if I put it on the ground she’d just kick it over and then refuse to eat it. Once they were happily eating, I ducked under the fence and took their covers off, flipping the night rugs upside down on the fence to air out during the day.
Squib whinnied hopefully from the paddock next door, but I shook my head at him.
“Ponies in the fat paddock don’t get breakfast,” I reminded my pony as Robin came up alongside him, looking equally expectant. “Sorry kids, but I cannot be swayed, no matter how cute you are. I can take your pyjamas off though, just give me a second to feed the dragon.”
I looked past them towards Tori’s paddock, expecting to see her pawing at the gate like usual when she thought she hadn’t been fed quickly enough, but she was still standing in the far corner, where she’d been since I arrived. She had her head up and was watching me intently, but hadn’t moved.
“I’ve got yours, I promise,” I called to her, relieved that she was keeping her distance. I’d avoided being bitten by her so far, but by this point I was the only one around here who had.
I grabbed her feed and carried it down to her paddock, ignoring Squib as he pranced along the fence line next to me, trying to convince me that he was about to drop dead of hunger pangs at any second.
“Dream on, Squiblet. If you get any fatter you’ll need liposuction,” I told him as I opened the gate into Tori’s paddock and walked in a few paces.
Usually I just hiffed her feed over the fence, dodging her teeth and flattened ears, but I felt emboldened by the distance she was keeping between us. I set the bucket down on the grass and looked at Tori, who looked back at me but still refused to move. I wondered if it was because I was late, or because she still considered me a stranger. Squib whinnied again, and I shrugged at the black mare and went to take his cover off before he melted.
A few minutes later, as I pushed a wheelbarrow out to Squib’s paddock to start mucking out, I realised that Tori still hadn’t gone to get her feed.
“Tori, c’mon,” I told her. “What’re you waiting for? I haven’t poisoned it, I swear. Squib’ll do a taste teste for you if you want, but…”
The chatter died on my lips as I noticed something unusual. Tori had high white socks on both of her forelegs and one hind leg, but from here, it looked like both of her back legs were black. Squinting in the bright sun, I walked up the fence line towards her, a sense of foreboding adding a chill to the morning air. A few metres away from the black horse, I stopped. Her right hind leg was soaked in dried blood, and a long flap of skin hung down the front of her cannon bone.
“Oh no.” My hand flew to my mouth. “Oh, horse. What’ve you done?”
To be continued…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I live in Waikanae, New Zealand and started riding at the age of 10. I was lucky enough to have ponies of my own during my teenage years, and I competed regularly in show jumping, eventing, show hunter and mounted games before finishing college and heading to Massey University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English & Media Studies in 2002.
In the years since, I’ve never been far from horses, and have worked in various jobs including as a livery yard groom in England, a trekking guide in Ireland, a riding school manager in New Zealand, and a summer camp counsellor in the USA, where I worked at the wonderful Road’s End Farm for five summers. During my time there, I wrote several short stories about the farm’s horses, which were a huge hit with the campers, and their encouragement inspired me to continue writing. I also had the joy and privilege to meet some amazing girls, and one incredible horse named Bittersweet. Her memory will be with me forever.
I currently own a Welsh Cob x Thoroughbred gelding named JJ, and keep myself busy training him for show jumping and show hunter competitions, as well as coaching at Pony Club and judging local competitions.
I have been reading and writing pony stories ever since I can remember, and have ideas for many more! If you enjoyed this book, please check out the rest of my novels on Amazon, and feel free to leave a review. Read on to find out more about the other books I have written.
Also by Kate Lattey:
DARE TO DREAM
Saying goodbye to the horses they love has become a way of life for Marley and her sisters, who train and sell show jumpers to make their living. Marley has grand ambitions to jump in Pony of the Year, but every good pony she’s ever had has been sold out from under her to pay the bills.
Then a half-wild pinto pony comes into her life, and Marley finds that this most unlikely of champions could be the superstar she has always dreamed of. As Marley and Cruise rise quickly to the top of their sport, it seems as though her dreams of winning the Pony of the Year might come true after all.
But her family is struggling to make ends meet, and as the countdown to Pony of the Year begins, Marley is forced to face the possibility of losing the pony she has come to love more than anything else in the world.
Can Marley save the farm she loves, without sacrificing the pony she can’t live without?
Reviews for Dare to Dream:
“There are always two parts to a good horse story–the people and the horses. Sometimes authors get the horses right and Kate Lattey definitely knows horses. All the details are spot on. But for me, it was the people that made this book shine. The relationship and dynamic between the three sisters is filled with warmth, humor, and truth. I recommend this book for all horse-lovers.
– Kim Ablon Whitney, author of “The Perfect Distance”
“I absolutely loved Dare to Dream. I finished it in tears. It’s moving, wrenching, funny. Goodness, it’s good.”
– Jane Badger, author of “Heroines on Horseback: The Pony Book in Children’s Fiction”
DREAM ON
"Nobody has ever tried to understand this pony. Nobody has ever been on her side. Until now. She needs you to fight for her, Marley. She needs you to love her."
Borderline Majestic was imported from the other side of the world to bring her new owners fame and glory, but she is almost impossible to handle and ride. When the pony lands her rider in intensive care, it is up to Marley to prove that the talented mare is not dangerous - just deeply misunderstood.
Can Marley dare to fall in love again to save Majestic's life?
Reviews for Dream On:
“Kate Lattey has produced another tremendous, character-driven book, with every bit of authentic horsey detail you could wish for. I defy you not to cry at the end. If you haven’t already gone and loaded this on to your Kindle go and do it now. You won’t regret it.”
- Jane Badger, author of “Heroines on Horseback: The Pony Book in Children’s Fiction”
“Kate Lattey’s characters are convincing and engaging, and the storyline kept me hooked from the first page to the very satisfying ep
ilogue. A deliciously enjoyable read.”
– Amanda Wills, author of the “The Lost Pony of Riverdale”
Clearwater Bay #1:
FLYING CHANGES
When Jay moves from her home in England to live with her estranged father in rural New Zealand, it is only his promise of a pony of her own that convinces her to leave her old life behind and start over in a new country.
Change doesn’t come easily at first, and Jay makes as many enemies as she does friends before she finds the perfect pony, who seems destined to make her dreams of show jumping success come true.
But she soon discovers that training her own pony is not as easy as she thought it would be, and her dream pony is becoming increasingly unmanageable and difficult to ride.
Can Jay pull it together, or has she made the biggest mistake of her life?
Reviews for Flying Changes:
“Excellent read in the traditional format: girl gets pony, works through traumas with the pony and in her own life. Brilliant New Zealand background, and excellent, accurate horse stuff.”
– Jane Badger, author of “Heroines on Horseback: The Pony Book in Children’s Fiction”
“Detailed and descriptive, it’s one of those books that once you start, you can’t put down.”
– The Children’s Bookstore
Clearwater Bay #2:
AGAINST THE CLOCK
It’s a new season and a new start for Jay and her wilful pony Finn, but their best laid plans are quickly plagued by injuries, arguments and rails that just won’t stay in their cups. And when her father introduces her to his new girlfriend, Jay can’t help wondering if her life will ever run according to plan.
