The Thirteenth Horse

by Amanda Wills

  Sighing, she picked up the last broom and called them back to order. ‘Alright, no more high jinks. We need to concentrate on the routine. Remember to keep even spaces between your broom and the broom in front.’

  It was much more fun following the moves on their imaginary horses. Even Norah saw the funny side when William’s broom clipped Sofia’s during the threading the needle and they both collapsed on the ground in hysterics. They were having so much fun that they decided to run through the routine a third and final time, and by the time they stopped in front of the judge they were all rosy-cheeked and breathless.

  ‘Bravo!’ called Emma from the entrance to the indoor school.

  Norah groaned. ‘No-one’s going to take me seriously ever again.’

  ‘No offence, but you need to lighten up, sis,’ said her brother. ‘It’s supposed to be fun, remember.’

  THAT NIGHT KRISTY dreamt it was the day of the show and they were riding their routine in the town square, watched by hundreds of people. Cassius looked as if he was going into battle with his neck proudly arched and his white sheet like a medieval caparison. He floated into the square in a beautifully collected trot and the crowds clapped and cheered. Kristy felt her heart swell with love for the big, brave Percheron. But as they swept through their serpentine people started laughing and pointing at them. The babble of laughter grew louder and Kristy looked around her wildly, wondering what was causing such hilarity.

  ‘Couldn’t she afford a proper horse?’ cried a small boy.

  Kristy looked down and to her horror Cassius had disappeared and she was riding a wooden broom. But this broom had a life of its own, leaping and prancing like a wild mustang. She tried to control it but it was impossible. The broom kept twisting and bucking. Feeling herself slipping, she gripped the broom handle so tightly her knuckles went white. But it was no good. When the broom finally went into a ninety degree spin she was thrown to the floor, landing unceremoniously on her backside. Kristy howled with pain and the crowds howled with laughter. The broom cavorted out of the square and Norah cantered over on Silver and skidded to a halt centimetres from Kristy. Her eyes blazing, Norah shouted, ‘I knew we should have asked someone else to join the team. You’re a disaster, Kristy Moore. You and that blind old clodhopper have ruined everything!’

  Kristy jolted awake, her heart racing. The dream had felt so real she could still feel the flush of embarrassment burning her cheeks. She knew Norah thought she and Cassius were the weak links in the team. As she lay in bed staring at the ceiling, Kristy vowed to do whatever it took to prove her wrong.

  11

  PRIVATE LESSONS

  K risty sat at the breakfast bar the following morning surrounded by pieces of paper. As she dipped a spoon absentmindedly into her bowl of porridge she studied Norah’s routine, her brows knotted in concentration as she visualised the moves. Once she’d finished her porridge she drew the routine over and over again, muttering under her breath as she did, ‘Right at C, serpentine, twenty metre circle, figure of eight. Don’t get too close to Copper! Don’t forget the salute!’

  ‘Homework?’ smiled her mum, flicking on the kettle and spooning coffee into two mugs.

  Kristy tried not to look guilty. She should have been doing her homework. She had a history assignment to write. But that could wait. The quadrille was more important.

  ‘Kind of,’ she said, gathering the papers before her mum could see.

  ‘You’ve got your jodhpurs on. You’re not going to the stables again?’

  ‘Just for a couple of hours. It’s really important I get Cassius fit, Mum.’

  Her mum sighed. ‘I know. Dad told me about the quadrille. I’d like to come and watch you ride. I could pop over this morning if you like?’

  ‘This morning?’ said Kristy, her voice rising an octave.

  Her mum gave her a wounded look. ‘Don’t you want me to?’

  Kristy knew that if her mum found out that Cassius was blind in one eye she would never be allowed to ride him again. It was vital that she didn’t go anywhere near Mill Farm until after the quadrille.

  ‘Of course I want you to. But we’ve only just started practising. I want you to see us when we’re polished and professional. So you can be really proud of me,’ Kristy added with a hopeful smile.

  ‘OK, we’ll save it for the show. But take Dad’s camera and get some nice photos of Cassius. I’d like to know what he looks like.’

  KRISTY SWEPT the dandy brush over Cassius’s thick winter coat. Her early morning rides were doing the job - he already looked fitter and his muscle tone had improved. He lifted each leg so Kristy could pick out his feet, and nibbled her pockets while she combed his long, wavy mane.

  ‘I’ve learnt the routine and we’re going to have a go at it, just the two of us,’ Kristy told him. ‘We’ll try it at a walk first, and then at a trot. But I don’t want you turning into a broom halfway around, OK?’ she said, rubbing his ear.

  Although he didn’t turn into a broom, their serpentine was woefully wonky and their figure of eights left a lot to be desired. Kristy found it hard to judge the size of a twenty metre circle and the ten metre circles seemed impossibly small for a horse as big as Cassius. She had no idea how they would manage one in a trot. ‘But it gives us a good foundation on which to build,’ she told the gelding, more confidently than she felt.

  She walked him around the school on a long rein so he could stretch his neck before they attempted the routine in a trot. Remembering the moves was even harder when they came around so much faster, and she forgot the two twenty metre circles completely.

  Perhaps Norah was right, she thought gloomily. Perhaps they were the weak link in the team. She’d once crept in to watch Sofia schooling Jazz, and the older girl had made leg yields, half-passes and flying changes look easy. Compared to her, they were complete amateurs.

  Kristy gathered her reins. ‘One more go and then we’re done, I promise.’

  Once more Cassius trotted willingly around the school. If he wondered why his young rider kept changing her mind as she steered him this way and that, muddling her aids, he didn’t protest. He just carried on, as steady as a rock. Kristy knew not every horse would be so obliging.

  Emma was in the yard. ‘How did it go?’

  ‘Not great,’ Kristy admitted. ‘But that was down to me, not Cassius. He didn’t put a foot wrong.’

  ‘Have you done any dressage before?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘Would you like me to give you some lessons?’

  Kristy’s jaw dropped. ‘You said riding wasn’t part of the job.’

  ‘I’m doing it because it suits me. I’m much more likely to sell Cassius if you’ve been schooling him.’

  Kristy bit her lip. She’d pushed the fact that Emma still planned to sell Cassius to the very back of her mind. She jumped off and busied herself loosening his girth and running up her stirrup leathers while she considered the offer. If she said yes, someone was likely to snap Cassius up when Emma advertised him. Yet she knew they needed to practice more if they weren’t going to let down the team. It was a horrible dilemma.

  ‘Well?’ said Emma.

  Kristy played with a hank of Cassius’s mane. ‘Yes please,’ she said eventually.

  Emma clapped her hands. ‘Excellent. We’ll start at six thirty tomorrow.’

  ‘WE’LL BEGIN with some simple circles and figures of eight,’ said Emma, as she stood in the centre of the school and watched Kristy appraisingly.

  ‘Shouldn’t we just work on the routine?’ said Kristy.

  ‘Definitely not. If you ride the whole thing too often Cassius will learn it, too, and will start to anticipate the movements, and we don’t want that. We’ll practice it in sections, so you are comfortable with all the movements, before we put it all together. Right, I’d like you to change rein diagonally from F to H.’

  As they passed F Kristy tugged the Percheron’s left rein and squeezed with her right leg.

  ‘Look
in the direction you want to turn. Check his inside rein lightly to warn him you are about to ask him to turn, and then open your inside rein. Make sure your inside leg is on the girth and your outside leg is just behind so he keeps his momentum. You want him to bend his whole body, not just his neck. Try again at H.’

  Kristy ran through Emma’s instructions in her head. Look where you want to go. Lightly check with the inside rein. Open the inside rein. Inside leg on the girth. Outside leg just behind.

  ‘Much better,’ said Emma. ‘But you need to relax your arms more and sit up tall in the saddle. No, you’ve hollowed your back now. Imagine there’s a line running from your shoulder through your hip, down to your heel. That’s it, well done. Now we’ll try a figure of eight.’

  ‘How do I make my circles circle-shaped and not egg-shaped?’ Kristy asked desperately as Cassius drifted onto his forehand.

  ‘Look where you’re going. That’s really important. Make sure he’s flexing in the direction of the bend. You should just be able to see his eye. And keep your outside leg slightly back so he doesn’t swing his quarters out and turn your lovely circle into an oblong.’

  ‘It’s a lot to remember.’

  Emma laughed. ‘We haven’t tried it at a trot yet!’

  The next morning they tackled a serpentine. Kristy gazed at the school, trying to work out her line.

  ‘Don’t over-complicate it,’ said Emma. ‘It’s just a series of semi-circles with a change of rein every time you cross the centre line. Just make sure each loop is equal in size and shape.’

  ‘So if I start at C on the right rein I turn at M, E and F?’

  ‘That’s right. Make sure Cassius is bent around your inside leg and as you change rein over the centre line ride in a straight line for a few strides before you ask him to bend in the opposite direction.’

  Cassius’s stiffness on his left rein was more pronounced as they walked the serpentine.

  ‘Don’t worry. That should improve in time. He hasn’t been schooled for well over a year, don’t forget. I’d say he’s doing pretty well,’ said Emma.

  Kristy allowed herself a small smile, even though there wasn’t a bone in her body that didn’t ache. The early morning riding lessons and the two hours of mucking out after school were beginning to take their toll and she was permanently exhausted. The previous lunchtime she had even fallen asleep over her books as she’d sat in the library, and had woken, dry-mouthed and dazed, when the bell for lessons had sounded. She was constantly stifling yawns at home and was in bed and fast asleep by a quarter past eight most nights. If her parents had any inkling how shattered she was they would ban her from the stables, no question.

  Kristy was also terrified her school grades were in danger of slipping. She was running through the quadrille in her head when she should have been concentrating in lessons and she was rushing her homework. Although Mr Baker had been pleased with her essay on Percherons, he’d only given her a C for her latest assignment. Kristy didn’t blame him. She’d dashed it off in about ten minutes flat during morning break.

  ‘ - Kristy, I said left rein, not right!’

  Brought swiftly back to the present by the ring of exasperation in Emma’s voice, Kristy dipped her head. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered.

  ‘Alright, but you need to concentrate. Otherwise we may as well not bother.’

  Kristy banished all other thoughts from her head as she focused on the rest of the lesson, and at the end Emma patted her on the back and said ‘Good job’.

  But it was little consolation and as her dad drove her home she stared glumly out of the window, answering in monosyllables when he asked her about her lesson. Through the steamed-up windows the streets were as dank and grey as her mood. The problem was inescapable. When she was at the stables she worried about school, and when she was at school all she could think about was Cassius and the quadrille. Something had to change. Kristy just didn’t know what.

  12

  A HELPING HAND

  K risty’s heart sank when she saw Norah making a beeline for her at morning break the following day. It plummeted even further when she recognised the determined jut of Norah’s jaw as she clasped a clipboard to her chest and forced her way through a swarm of schoolchildren all heading in the opposite direction.

  ‘Kristy!’ she said, her smile not quite reaching her eyes. ‘I’m glad I’ve found you. I just wanted to see where we were with the costumes.’

  If Kristy had thought her heart couldn’t have sunk any lower, she was wrong.

  ‘The thing is, Norah,’ she said, ‘I’ve been a bit busy. I haven’t actually made a start on them yet.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Norah, writing something on her clipboard. ‘That’s a bit of a worry. We only have just over three weeks before the show, you know.’

  ‘I do know,’ Kristy said evenly. ‘And they will get done. I’ll bring a tape measure tonight and get everyone’s measurements so I can order the onesies. Have you found white sheets for Silver and Copper yet?’ she asked, hoping to wrong-foot her.

  Norah smiled complacently. ‘Yes, all sorted. Mum bought new ones, actually.’

  ‘Excellent. At least that’s one thing you can tick off your checklist, hey?’

  Kristy was inordinately pleased to see a dull flush creep up Norah’s neck. ‘I’ll see you tonight. After I’ve mucked out your pony. And soaked his hay,’ she added, plunging into the mass of children without a backward glance.

  KRISTY WAS STILL BASKING in her tiny victory when Sofia found her in the library at lunch. They’d fallen into an easy routine, catching up in snatched whispers for ten minutes before settling down companionably, Sofia reading whatever pony book she was currently devouring, and Kristy working her way through her piles of homework.

  ‘You’re looking very pleased with yourself,’ said Sofia.

  ‘I saw Norah at break. She was hounding me about the costumes. I reminded her that I’ve got a little bit more on my plate than she has, what with working all hours and getting Cassius fit. I think she got the message.’

  ‘Good. She can be a bit bossy, I know -’

  ‘You can say that again,’ said Kristy.

  ‘- but she means well.’

  ‘What I don’t understand is how she suddenly seems to be in charge. You were supposed to be our leader. It’s like she’s taken over by stealth.’

  ‘I know,’ Sofia sighed. ‘But she’s so much better at it than me.’

  Kristy looked at her pile of books in despair.

  ‘What’s up?’

  ‘I literally don’t know where to start. Every teacher is handing out homework like it’s going out of fashion. And if my grades drop I’ll have to stop working at Mill Farm. And if that happens I won’t be able to ride Cassius. And if I can’t ride Cassius I’ll have to drop out of the team.’

  Sofia looked at Kristy in horror. ‘We can’t let that happen!’

  ‘Believe me, it’s the last thing I want, too. But I’m struggling to fit it all in.’

  ‘I’ll help you with the costumes for a start,’ said Sofia decisively. ‘How else can we help?’

  Kristy gave her friend a wan smile. ‘You could do my history assignment for me. It’s supposed to be in tomorrow and I haven’t even started it.’

  Sofia stared into the distance. ‘I’ve got an even better idea,’ she finally announced. ‘Leave it with me.’

  WHEN KRISTY ARRIVED at the stables just before four o’clock she was surprised to see Sofia and the twins already there.

  ‘You’re early,’ she said.

  ‘There’s a reason for that,’ Sofia grinned. ‘We’re here to help.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Sofia said you were struggling to fit everything in,’ said Norah, giving Kristy a faintly patronising look as if she would never have been so feeble. ‘She suggested that if we helped muck out you’d be finished in an hour and we can bring our quadrille meeting forward so you can go home early and do your homework.’

  K
risty fiddled with the zip of her coat. ‘Emma won’t like it. She’s paying me to work.’

  ‘We’ve cleared it with her,’ said William. ‘She said she didn’t mind who did the jobs as long as they were done.’

  ‘And it’s only while we’re training for the quadrille,’ said Norah. ‘After that you won’t need us, will you?’

  ‘But Sofia, you said your dad would go mad if he found out he was paying for work you were doing.’

  Sofia waved a hand dismissively. ‘I’m not going to tell him, are you?’

  Kristy looked at them all in turn. ‘It’s very kind of you, and I really appreciate it, but I can’t let you help. I can cope.’ She set off towards the barn but Norah stepped into her path.

  ‘I wasn’t sure it was a good idea at first, either. I wondered why we should do the work you’re being paid to do. But I’m not doing this for you, Kristy, I’m doing it for the team. So just accept our help with good grace and move on. Alright?’

  Norah’s eyes burned with intensity, but there was no animosity there. Kristy realised that although she might not always like what the other girl had to say, at least she spoke her mind. Perhaps Sofia was right and Norah did mean well. And if she was able to go home early she would have time to finish the two assignments due in the morning. Otherwise she would be setting the alarm for five o’clock.

  She knew that if she didn’t change something there was a chance she would crack under the strain. And here was a solution, being offered to her on a plate.

  ‘For the team?’ she said.

  ‘For the team,’ Norah repeated.

  Kristy smiled gratefully. ‘Thank you.’

  They worked quickly, Sofia, William and Norah mucking out their own ponies while Kristy ran around emptying wheelbarrows, laying down fresh straw and filling haynets and water buckets. It took a quarter of the time it normally took her.