Brumby Rescue
Page 10
Milly let out a groan. ‘How is that a treat? We eat them all the time!’ she exclaimed.
Poppy giggled.
‘Pizza then,’ Mark said, throwing his hands up in the air.
Poppy didn’t care what they ate. She just loved the fact that she’d made her aunt, uncle and friends so proud. And Uncle Mark had been right: wild horses were trainable, but poor old Storm had just needed someone to figure out what was wrong with him first.
‘Oh, and girls, I have some news about the baby kangaroo,’ Mark said. ‘I just had a call from the rescue centre. Sadly the mother didn’t make it, but the little one has settled in and is doing really well. He’s alive because of you.’
Poppy smiled at her friends. She hated that the mother hadn’t made it, but it felt good knowing they’d been brave enough to follow the noise and save the baby.
Poppy reached for one last slice of Hawaiian, sighing. Her stomach was so full, but the pizza was so good.
‘Poppy, I think we’ll turn Storm out at the end of the week,’ Aunt Sophie said as she wiped her hands on a napkin.
‘How long for?’ Katie asked, as Poppy nodded and finished her mouthful.
‘Maybe a couple of weeks,’ Sophie said. ‘What do you think, Mark?’
‘That would do him good,’ Mark agreed.
Poppy smiled at her aunt. ‘I’ll still be able to go into the paddock and see him though, right?’ she asked. ‘Or does he need to be away from humans?’
Sophie returned her smile as she reached for more pizza. ‘Of course you can see him whenever you’re here,’ she said. ‘It’s more a matter of letting him relax and get used to his surroundings, interact with our other horses and mature. He’s only young, I think Mark thought he was only three or four years old from the look of his teeth.’
‘It’s so weird that you can tell a horse’s age from their teeth,’ Poppy replied.
‘Why do you turn him out? Won’t he forget what you’ve taught him?’ Katie asked.
‘When young horses are started under saddle, it’s best not to put too much pressure on them. You don’t want to work their bodies too hard, and you also don’t want to overload their brains,’ Aunt Sophie explained. ‘He won’t ever forget what he’s learnt over his weeks here already, and I will keep training him all this week, but after that I want to take the pressure off. In a couple of weeks’ time I’ll bring him in and start riding him and working with him every day.’
‘And Poppy will have double the riding to do on weekends once he’s going well,’ Uncle Mark said.
‘It was so cool riding him today,’ Poppy said, still buzzing from the feeling of climbing onto his back. She couldn’t wait to have two horses to ride! ‘He’s pretty awesome.’
‘Yeah, so awesome,’ Milly agreed, holding her hand up for a high five.
Poppy laughed and slapped her palm to Milly’s. ‘Today was almost the best day of my life.’
‘What was the best?’ Katie asked.
Poppy didn’t have to think before answering. ‘The day I got Crystal. She’s still the best thing that’s ever happened to me.’
Her friends both smiled, and she knew they felt the same about the day they’d gotten their ponies.
‘Girls, Poppy told me about the Barmah National Park muster,’ Aunt Sophie said, surprising her. ‘Mark and I have looked into it, and we’re going to talk to some friends and see what more we can find out. But if we can make it work, we will.’
Poppy held her breath, digging her fingernails into her palms. She didn’t dare look at Milly or Katie.
‘I know we might be cramping your style, but it’s a long way to drive and I doubt you girls are allowed to be there alone anyway,’ Uncle Mark told them. ‘If it happens, all five of us will be going.’
‘So that’s a yes, right?’ Milly exploded in a loud voice.
Poppy swapped glances with Katie, feeling like she was going to pop with excitement. They might actually be able to take their ponies, go camping with them and look for wild mobs of brumbies!
‘We need to talk to your parents first and see if we can make the dates work, and we don’t know the cost or other details yet,’ Aunt Sophie said. ‘So let’s just say we might be going.’
‘Yes!’ Milly squealed.
Katie grinned. ‘So who will you ride, Sophie?’
Sophie laughed. ‘Well, Storm if Poppy will let me.’
‘You’re asking for my permission?’ Poppy asked, flabbergasted.
Sophie shrugged. ‘He’s your horse, so yes, I am. I thought it might be nice to ride him through country he knows, and it’ll be a good chance for me to ride him off the property.’
Poppy put down the crust of pizza she was holding and nodded, trying to play it cool.
‘Of course you can,’ she said.
Poppy looked at Katie then and her friend grabbed her hand, squeezing it so hard.
Milly jumped to her feet. ‘Let the fun begin!’ she hollered, holding out her hand.
Poppy jumped to her feet and planted her hand over Milly’s, and Katie did the same. But it was Uncle Mark standing up and placing his hand down over Katie’s that made them all laugh.
‘Come on, Soph!’ he said. ‘We’re all going on this road trip, right?’
‘We might be,’ Sophie told him. ‘Don’t go making out like it’s a sure thing yet.’
But her aunt still touched her hand down over Mark’s, smiling.
‘On three!’ Milly ordered. ‘One, two, three!’
‘Let the fun begin!’ Poppy shouted, before falling into her seat and laughing. Her stomach hurt from too much pizza, her cheeks ached from smiling so hard, and she couldn’t stop thinking about her seriously awesome horse. Life didn’t get much better than this.
‘So how many water troughs will you girls clean in exchange for going on the muster?’ Sophie asked.
Milly thumped her forehead down onto the table. Katie was still laughing.
Poppy groaned. Maybe things weren’t so perfect after all.
As a horse-crazy girl, Soraya dreamed of owning her own pony and riding every day. For years, pony books like The Saddle Club had to suffice, until the day she finally convinced her parents to buy her a horse. There were plenty of adventures on horseback throughout her childhood, and lots of stories scribbled in notebooks, which eventually became inspiration for Soraya’s very own pony series. Soraya now lives with her husband and children on a small farm in her native New Zealand, surrounded by four-legged friends and still vividly recalling what it felt like to be 12 years old and head over heels in love with horses.
Penguin Random House would like to give special thanks to Isabella Carter, Emily Mitchell and India James Timms – the faces of Poppy, Milly and Katie on the book covers.
Special thanks must also go to Trish, Caroline, Ben and the team at Valley Park Riding School, Templestowe, Victoria, for their tremendous help in hosting the photoshoot for the covers at Valley Park, and, of course, to the four-legged stars: Alfie and Joe from Valley Park Riding School, and Carinda Park Vegas and his owner Annette Vellios.
Thank you, too, to Caitlin Maloney from Ragamuffin Pet Photography for taking the perfect shots that are the covers.
PUFFIN BOOKS
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Penguin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies
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First published by Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd, 2018.
Text copyright © Soraya Nicholas, 2018.
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owne
r and the above publisher of this book.
Design by Marina Messiha © Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd
Cover photograph © Caitlin Maloney, Ragamuffin Pet Photography
penguin.com.au
ISBN: 978-1-760-14680-1
THE BEGINNING
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