Jade's Summer of Horses

by Amy Brown

  It was fortunate that he had had a good drink, as his hydration levels were checked, along with his heart rate and respiration, at the vet check in the next clearing. Although Andy and Piper still weren’t anywhere to be seen, Jade did as she had been told and copied the rider in front of her.

  The vet at this stop was less friendly than the first vet. She ticked boxes and examined Basil without talking to Jade.

  ‘Is everything OK?’ Jade asked, nervous now.

  ‘Fit as a fiddle. You can carry on straight away if you like.’

  Jade was surprised and a little disappointed. Obviously, she was glad that Basil was in good health, but she had hoped to have an excuse to wait for Andy. Still, she wanted Basil to finish with a good time, even though they couldn’t officially be awarded a prize, so she carried on, following a woman in front of her on a skewbald cob.

  The day was getting even warmer. It seemed a shame to leave the shade of the bush and return to farmland, but that’s where all the other horses were going, and Jade was determined not to get lost. This time, when offered his turn at the trough, Basil drank greedily.

  ‘Would you like me to do him, too?’ asked a girl with a wet cloth, who had been mopping her chestnut’s neck.

  ‘Um …’ Jade looked at Basil’s neck, which was sticky with sweat. ‘Yes, please.’

  ‘No problem.’ With a few quick strokes, the girl sluiced water from her drink bottle over Basil’s neck, then wiped the water away. ‘You’d better keep going now. Don’t want to lose time.’ The girl smiled, squinting in the sunlight.

  ‘Thanks,’ Jade said, unsure if this was normal. Whether it was or not, it was kind of the girl to rid Basil of the itchy salt on his neck.

  Jade’s legs and bottom were getting sore from the old saddle by the time she reached the third vet check. As she dismounted, her ankles felt weak under the weight of her body.

  ‘I haven’t got your number on my list, dear,’ the third vet said.

  ‘What?’ Jade suddenly remembered that it had been ages since she had seen Andy.

  ‘Is there a chance that you were entered for the short course, but went too far?’

  ‘Yeah, that must have been what happened.’

  ‘Don’t look so worried: it’s not the end of the world.’ The vet smiled. ‘If you were on a different horse it might be, but young Basil is still raring to go, I reckon.’

  Jade brightened. ‘It doesn’t matter?’

  ‘I don’t see why. So long as you stick with some other riders, you shouldn’t get lost. You’ll no doubt sleep well tonight, though. Lucky the vet check is just for the horse and not the rider, eh?’

  Jade tried to look stronger. ‘I’m not too tired yet.’ The vet laughed. ‘Good for you, dear. Best of luck.’

  At the next water trough, Jade recognized two familiar chestnut rumps.

  ‘Hello,’ she called.

  ‘Jade?’ Flora said. ‘What happened? Why are you still riding?’

  ‘I got a bit lost.’ Jade looked sheepish. ‘I thought all the horses were taking the same trail, and that we’d just have an earlier finish line. I didn’t realize I couldn’t follow just anyone.’

  Nellie chortled. ‘You’re going to be so sore tomorrow. Your first race and you go forty k’s!’

  ‘She hasn’t finished it yet,’ Flora said sternly to Nellie, before turning to Jade. ‘It’s not too late to go back if you like. You don’t have to carry on.’

  ‘I may as well,’ Jade said, ignoring her stiff legs. ‘Basil’s enjoying it.’

  Flora grinned. ‘That’s the spirit.’

  Having two friends to ride with for the rest of the trail helped the time pass quickly. Jade stopped thinking altogether about when to trot or canter, or even where she was going. She just followed Flora, and Nellie followed her. Eventually, as they turned onto a gravel road, the landscape started looking familiar.

  ‘Are we nearly finished?’ Jade asked, trying not to sound too relieved.

  ‘Sure are,’ Nellie said. ‘The finish line is just at the top of the hill. See the cottage and the trucks? We’re back to where we started.’

  As soon Basil crossed the finish line, Jade slid, jelly-legged, to the ground. ‘Good boy, Bas! Thank you, boy.’

  ‘You can make a fuss of him soon. Vet check first,’ Flora ordered.

  As they waited in the queue for the vet, a worried Andy joined them. She had returned to the truck nearly two hours earlier.

  ‘I was worried you’d fallen, or accidentally gone off the track and ridden back to Flaxton,’ Andy scolded.

  ‘Sorry, Andy,’ Jade said. ‘I didn’t mean to. When I realized what had happened, it was too late to turn back.’

  ‘No, it wasn’t,’ Flora corrected. ‘I gave you the chance and you chose to ride the full distance. I knew you had potential in endurance, Jade — I knew it. Can’t wait to see you back here next year with Tani.’

  While the vets’ results were tallied up against the stopwatch times, everyone made their horses comfortable. As Jade handed Basil a bucket of hard feed, her own stomach rumbled.

  Nellie, who was untacking Precious nearby, heard the rumble and laughed. ‘There’s a lunch at the house soon. The organizers know that the horses aren’t the only ones who get hungry after a long ride. It’s always good, too, because people bring leftovers from Christmas Day.’

  Jade tried to be polite, but she was ravenously hungry and rushed towards the table on the veranda which had been laid with cold meat, barbecued meat, bread, leftover salads and Christmas cake.

  When all the riders were eating and gossiping, the vet from the first and last check, who was also the event organizer, announced the results.

  Nellie had made a good point earlier when she’d said that Flora only said the Boxing Day Race wasn’t competitive because she won it so easily. The bonus for Samudra this year was that Andy won the junior event, too, and Nellie and Precious had the second-best result in the open category.

  ‘Finally, we have a competitor today who also deserves a mention. One, because it was her first race,’ Jade began to blush as people clapped and cheered, ‘but that’s not all.’ The vet paused and smiled. ‘It was her first race and she did the full forty kilometres. By mistake!’ There was a combination of gasps and laughter.

  ‘Obviously, if her horse wasn’t ready for the full race we wouldn’t have let her continue, but because she was riding a Samudra animal, we had no reason to stop her. So, I’d like to present Jade Lennox with a little impromptu prize, and Flora, too, for once again demonstrating her skill as a trainer.’

  Beaming, Flora stepped forward, dragging a shy Jade by the elbow. A miscellaneous purple ribbon with OCEAN BAY BOXING DAY RACE printed on it was tied around Jade’s arm, and the vet presented her with a bag of chocolate gold coins. Jade wondered whether they had been hastily taken off his Christmas tree.

  Flora’s impromptu prize was a bottle of wine. ‘I’ve been acquiring quite a few of these lately,’ she said to Jade. ‘Maybe I’ll have to find a house with a cellar when we move.’

  Jade’s heart sank. For the whole day she hadn’t thought once about Kim Bandt. It was sad to be reminded.

  There was another, much worse, reminder when they returned to Samudra. An official-looking envelope had been taped to the front gate. Nellie tore it open before the horses had even been unloaded. For the second time that day, she swore colourfully.

  ‘I don’t want to know,’ Flora groaned.

  ‘They want to “level” the youngsters’ paddock,’ Nellie read, voice wobbling. ‘The horses, and Casey’s container, have to be gone by the 28th. In two days!’

  Flora shook her head and muttered under her breath.

  ‘What was that?’ Andy asked, nervous.

  ‘She isn’t getting away with this,’ Flora fumed. ‘Come on, first we have horses to unload.’

  As Jade let Basil go in his paddock, her dad appeared at the gate. He was grinning and gave her the thumbs-up.

  Jade frowne
d and shook her head. ‘We’ve had bad news, Dad,’ she said as he approached.

  ‘What? I just talked to Mata and Ngaire. They said you cleaned up at the race. Good work!’

  ‘Yeah, that was good,’ Jade agreed. ‘But it’s all forgotten now. Flora got another letter from Kim Bandt today. That paddock,’ Jade pointed to where the youngsters were playing together, ‘is going to get flattened out. The horses have to be gone by the 28th. And Casey’s container, too.’

  Jade’s dad’s eyes were still twinkling.

  ‘Dad, didn’t you hear me?’

  ‘I have some news, too. Good news this time. Shall I wait until dinner time or tell everyone now?’

  Jade ran across the paddock to where Nellie, Flora and Andy were letting the mares go.

  ‘Come quick — Dad has good news. He can stop Kim Bandt!’

  ‘She’s the mayor’s ex-wife?’ Nellie repeated, taken aback. ‘What?’

  Jade’s dad launched into his story for a third time. Everyone understood it by now, but it was comforting to hear it again. ‘That’s right. Kim Bandt, many years ago, was the wife of Jack McSkimming, mayor of the Flaxton district. I am guessing that this swift re-zoning of the land on which Samudra lies is to do with a divorce settlement. One way or another, it is certainly not legit. And everyone who reads the Flaxton Times is going to know about it by tomorrow!’

  Why don’t we open this now?’ Flora said, remembering the bottle of wine she had won. ‘It has been a good day, after all.’

  They were sitting around the table, eating large helpings of a tomato and pipi pasta dish made by Rhian and Andy’s mum. Although they didn’t enjoy the taste of the wine particularly, Jade and Andy were permitted to drink a small glass each, so they could join in the toast to Samudra.

  ‘To Samudra!’ Jade’s dad raised his glass.

  ‘To Kim Bandt’s come-uppance!’ Casey added. Since the good news, Casey’s mood had lightened considerably. He seemed like a different person.

  ‘It’s not over yet, though,’ Nellie said. ‘Kim hasn’t really had her come-uppance. How shall we do it?’

  ‘Well, my article will be in the Times tomorrow,’ Jade’s dad said. ‘That should get the public on your side. I’ve urged everyone who cares about Ocean Bay to come and join the protest.’

  Nellie nodded. ‘And?’ She looked at Flora, Casey, Andy and Jade. ‘What exactly is going to happen when the bulldozers and diggers drive up on the 28th? What’s the protest?’

  ‘They might not after the article,’ Flora pointed out.

  ‘But what if they do? We need to be prepared.’

  In another life, Nellie could have been in the army, Jade thought.

  ‘I want to make more banners and placards,’ Andy said. ‘Rhian, will you help? You’re so good at painting.’

  Rhian nodded.

  ‘We’ll have to move the youngsters, just in case,’ Flora said. ‘Whatever happens, I don’t want them getting upset. And, Casey, it’d be safest if you move Sir William and your valuables up to the house. Just in case.’

  ‘Valuables!’ Casey scoffed.

  ‘What if I chained myself to the front gate?’ Nellie mused. ‘That might work …’

  ‘These all sound like excellent photo opportunities. Maybe I’ll get a photographer from the paper to come out here,’ Jade’s dad considered.

  The plotting lasted for several hours. By ten o’clock, Jade’s eyes could no longer stay open. She and the other two girls said good night to everybody and retreated to the sleep-out, and her dad borrowed a torch from Flora and wandered back down the beach to Mata and Ngaire’s.

  Jade didn’t see her dad at all the next day. According to Mata and Ngaire, who had dropped by at lunchtime to show Flora the article in the paper, he had been on the phone all morning.

  ‘Sounds like he’s in a bit of trouble,’ Mata said.

  ‘Not necessarily,’ Ngaire cut in. ‘Just because he’s upset some people in high places doesn’t mean that he’s in trouble.’

  Jade smiled. This was the old dad she remembered from Auckland. During the year that he had been working at the Flaxton Times, he hadn’t seemed excited by his work — until now. Finally he had broken a real story, which, in the quiet holiday season, had made the front page.

  There was a large, bright photo of a small girl playing with a St Bernard on the beach. The caption read: Happy Holidays at Ocean Bay, but for how much longer? Next to the photo was the ominous headline:

  OCEAN BAY CORRUPTION

  ‘We’re losing our homes’

  There was another, smaller photo of the youngsters lined up at the fence, clearly interested in the camera.

  ‘Dad must have taken these!’ Jade said proudly.

  ‘The photos are good, but the story’s better,’ Nellie said, reading aloud over Flora’s shoulder:

  The council, in conjunction with Bandt Developers, has planned to begin work on Samudra Riding School land at 9am on 28 December.

  ‘That’s great — it’s pretty much an invitation to our protest. We won’t be alone.’

  Lessons and rides proceeded as usual. Jade and Andy took turns at helping Rhian and Andy’s mum make the protest banners, and assisting Nellie and Flora with the riding-school jobs. The result of this multi-tasking was horse hair stuck in the painted signs, and paint-stained jodhpurs.

  ‘Careful!’ Rhian yelped, as Andy stood on the corner of an old white sheet that was turning into a sign. ‘You’ll ruin it.’

  ‘This isn’t NCEA Painting, Rhian. It doesn’t have to be perfect,’ her mum soothed.

  Rhian scowled. ‘I like all my work to be perfect. I am a perfectionist.’

  ‘It is perfect — perfect for the job it needs to do,’ Andy said. ‘It’s funny and bold.’

  In red and green house paint, the sign said: Everybody Needs Good NEIGHbours. Next to the words, Rhian had painted a cartoon horse head. Secretly, Jade reckoned that Andy’s horse drawings were better, but that opinion didn’t need to be shared.

  ‘Come along first thing tomorrow,’ Nellie called to her group of beginners as they left. ‘Flora has promised to cook breakfast for all the protesters.’

  This wasn’t quite true, but if Nellie suggested the idea to Flora it would probably go ahead.

  ‘What’s for breakfast?’ Ralph and Paul asked in unison.

  ‘Um, pancakes?’ Nellie was uncertain.

  ‘Yum!’ The twins were happy.

  ‘I’m sorry for my greedy little boys,’ Mrs Charleston apologized. ‘We’ll be here, breakfast or not. And I’ll carry that placard.’ She pointed to an old For Lease sign, on the back of which Andy’s mum had painted: MARES ARE BETTER THAN MAYORS. The terrible pun appealed to her.

  ‘Pancakes?’ Flora said, aghast. ‘When will I have time to make a hundred pancakes? Couldn’t you have said we’d have a barbecue lunch or something? Almost anything would be less laborious than pancakes.’

  ‘I don’t think there will be a hundred protesters,’ Andy’s mum said. Flora gave her a withering look. ‘Sorry, that’s not the point, is it?’

  ‘No, it isn’t.’

  ‘Well, the Charleston boys liked the idea,’ Nellie said. ‘If I wasn’t going to be chained to the gate, I’d make them.’

  ‘Can we chain ourselves to the gate, too, Mum?’ Andy said, ‘we’ meaning herself and Jade.

  ‘What is it with you girls and chaining yourself to the gate?’ Flora rolled her eyes. ‘It seems a bit dramatic.’

  ‘Exactly! That’s the whole point,’ Nellie argued. ‘It’s what people do to get attention. It looks dangerous.’

  ‘Will it be dangerous?’ Andy’s mum asked, now worried.

  ‘I just think you’ve been watching too many movies,’ Flora said. ‘And where are you going to get a chain from? Have you thought of that?’

  Nellie hadn’t considered that would be a problem. Surely Flora must have a chain somewhere in her cavernous shed? The girls spent the half-hour between lunch and the afternoon trek scouri
ng the shed for chains and padlocks.

  ‘Would this do?’ Andy asked, holding up a coil of fraying rope.

  ‘It doesn’t look right,’ Nellie complained. ‘How can it be that Flora doesn’t own any chain?’

  ‘Maybe Mata and Ngaire have some?’ Jade suggested. ‘They have a boat, don’t they? Maybe they have a chain, too.’

  ‘I know who has a chain!’ Andy exclaimed suddenly. ‘Casey.’

  ‘Of course,’ Nellie said. ‘I knew I’d seen one somewhere. I just couldn’t place it.’

  ‘It’s keeping his door locked,’ Jade said. ‘Maybe he needs it?’

  ‘All his “valuables” will be in Flora’s house anyway,’ Nellie replied. ‘I’m sure he won’t mind. Let’s ask him after this afternoon’s trek.’

  Even though Jade’s muscles were still aching from the long ride the day before, she went along on the afternoon trek, mostly because it had been a few days since Taniwha had been exercised, and she felt guilty about neglecting him. It felt good to be back in her own saddle, on her own pony’s familiar back.

  ‘He’ll go far one day, if you put in a bit of training with him,’ Flora said, from Blackadder’s back. They were riding side by side in the lead, with Samudra’s clients — a couple and their daughter, who was about Jade’s age — following, and Nellie and Andy at the back.

  Nellie and Andy, who were resting Precious and Piper after the Boxing Day Race, looked humorously large on the low backs of Secrets and Pikelet. The remaining adult-sized horses, Jeeves and Datura, were reserved for the couple. Marama, at 13 hands high, suited their daughter well enough.

  Once they were past the bustle of the lifesavers’ red-and-yellow flags, the beach ride became very pleasant. The paying riders were all competent enough to canter, and Flora, wanting a distraction from the stress of the impending protest, led them on a fast, exciting ride.

  Leaning forward in the saddle, and keeping the reins loose as she had when riding Basil the day before, Jade realized that since she had arrived at Samudra Taniwha hadn’t once felt out of control. It must have been a record — a record that made her smile. The ill-treated, difficult pony she had first met at the showjumping champs nearly a year ago had all but disappeared. In his place now was a relaxed bay, happy to lead a convoy of horses splashing through the shallows. Samudra, Jade decided, was a good place for horses. And for people. If the protest didn’t work, it would be a terrible shame.