Pony Jumpers 4- Four Faults

by Kate Lattey

  My pony turned his head around and nuzzled Harry’s rear end in his usual friendly way. Harry jumped, dropping Squib’s hoof to the concrete and spinning around to look at me with one eyebrow raised.

  “Did you just touch my butt?” he asked, sounding taken aback.

  “Me?” My face flushed bright red. “No! It was Squib.”

  Harry looked at Squib, who was regarding him with equal scepticism, then back to me. “Then how come he’s not the one who’s blushing?”

  “Quit flirting and get on with the job,” Rick told him from the other side of Robin. “We’re on a schedule here.”

  Harry shot me a wicked grin. “You heard him. So behave yourself, all right?”

  He turned around again and picked Squib’s foreleg up once more. This time when my pony tried to turn his head around to nuzzle him, I kept the lead rope firm and made him continue facing forwards, anxious to avoid any further embarrassment.

  I carefully observed Squib’s hoof trimmings as they fell to the concrete, hoping that Harry wouldn’t do anything stupid like take too much off and leave my pony lame. He didn’t seem to be removing very much at all, which I supposed was good, although it bothered me a little that I would be paying full price for him to do what looked like a minimum effort job. He set the nippers down and picked up the rasp, and I shifted around to the side of my pony to get a better look at what he was doing. Taking full advantage of my decreased concentration level, Squib swung his head to the left and immediately started snuffling Harry’s butt again, much to my horror.

  Harry turned his head and looked at me. “Do that again and you’ll have to buy me dinner.”

  When Rick was done with Robin, he tidied up his tools while Harry finished up with Squib. He lowered his last hoof, clapped my pony’s shoulder, and turned to his father.

  “All done.”

  “Let’s have a look.” Rick went around each hoof in turn, but other than a quick rasp on one back hoof to bring the inside heel a little lower, he didn’t make any alterations.

  “Good work,” he said approvingly. “Nice tidy job.”

  Harry grinned and turned towards me and Katy, holding up his hand for a high five. Katy slapped it willingly, making Squib jump, but when he turned towards me I avoided his gaze, staring instead down at my pony’s hooves and trying to decide whether I thought they looked a little differently-shaped in front.

  “Planning on going into the family business?” Deb asked Harry, who shook his head.

  “This is a mug’s game,” he said with a glance at his father. “I’d like to still be able to walk when I’m sixty, thanks very much.”

  “Watch it,” his father warned him. “I’m still a long way off sixty.”

  “You keep telling yourself that, we’ll keep humouring you,” Harry shot back as a dark green sedan drove into the yard, stopping in a small cloud of dust.

  Katy immediately stood up straighter and started fussing with her hair, and I rolled my eyes and walked Squib out to the paddock, calling over my shoulder to Anders.

  “I’ll be there in a sec!”

  I led Squib through the gate and unbuckled his halter, letting him go free. He stood with me for a moment, snuffling my pockets for treats, so I gave him a peppermint and a rub between the ears.

  “I hope that wasn’t a big mistake,” I whispered to him, looking again at his newly trimmed hooves, but Squib seemed unfazed by my concern, checking me once more for treats before wandering off in search of tasty grass, and I walked back to the yard.

  Anders was leaning against his car, one elbow resting on its roof as he chatted animatedly to Harry. I walked around to the passenger door and opened it, throwing my school bag onto the floor and looked over at my brother.

  “I’m ready when you are.”

  Anders tilted his head and looked back at me. “Do I look ready?”

  I looked from him to Harry and back again, then nodded. “Yeah.”

  Harry winced, clutching at his chest. “Ouch.” He looked at Anders and shook his head. “Your sister’s a bit deficient in the charm department. Did you take the entire family’s allocation?”

  “Not all of it,” Anders objected, glancing at me. “Lexi’s positively overflowing with personability.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “Don’t even start,” I warned him. “You definitely got her share.”

  “Yeah, but I evened it out by letting her have all the brains,” Anders grinned.

  Harry was following our conversation with interest. “I know Lexi,” he said. “She’s in my History class. She’s a funny one, eh?”

  Our heads both snapped towards him, and I could feel the tension rising under my skin. Even Anders tensed up slightly, though he did his best to hide it.

  “She can be,” my brother said, trying to keep his voice casual.

  Harry grinned. “She’s hysterical. Corrects the teacher constantly, but the best part is that she’s always right. She should be teaching that class,” he continued. “Knows more about it than Mr Gibbs ever will, the old dinosaur. Reckon he might as well retire and let her take over full-time. We’d all learn a helluva lot more.”

  I let out a breath I hadn’t realised I was holding, filled with a palpable sense of relief that he hadn’t made fun of Lexi. Anders and I were allowed to do that, because she was our sister and we had to live with her day in and day out, which wasn’t always easy. But nobody outside of the family was allowed to mock or complain about her – it was an unspoken rule of siblinghood. That was something that Katy was still learning, but I doubted that Harry was an only child like her.

  “Got any sisters yourself?” Anders asked, reading my mind.

  “Sadly yes,” he said. “None quite as touchy-feely as yours though,” he added, wiggling his eyebrows at me suggestively and making me blush yet again.

  Anders gave both of us a suspicious look. “Not sure I want to know about that.”

  “Probably best not to, mate,” Harry said agreeably, and before I had a chance to explain, Rick interrupted.

  “Right boy, enough,” he said, pulling the door of his ute open with a creak and climbing in. “We’ve got dinner on the table, remember?”

  Harry saluted his father, clicking his heels together and making Anders chuckle as he got back into his car. I began to follow suit as Harry strolled around to the passenger door of the ute and pulled it open, then looked over his shoulder at me.

  “Hey, AJ.” I paused, half in and half out of Anders’ car.

  “What?”

  “I’ll be waiting for your call about dinner.”

  “You’ll be waiting a long time,” I told him, slipping into the car and slamming the door behind me.

  Anders started the engine, giving me a strange sideways look as he waited for Rick to drive out first, but he didn’t say anything until we’d reached the end of Katy’s road and turned in the opposite direction.

  “So. Scud, eh?”

  I looked at Anders blankly. “What?”

  He flicked his head in the direction that Rick had driven. “Scud. Or whatever his real name is. Harry?”

  I blinked. “Scud?”

  “On account of the way he takes off like a missile whenever he gets the ball,” Anders said by way of explanation. “Straight through the opposition. Boom.”

  And then it clicked in my head. “He’s in your rugby team.”

  Anders reached over and ruffled the top of my head. “You’re so smart,” he teased me.

  “Shut up.” I pushed his arm away, and pulled my hair out of its ponytail. “How well do you know him?”

  “Scud? Pretty well, he’s been on my team all year. Best winger we’ve had in ages.” He looked over at me. “Bit of a ladies man though.”

  “Unlike you.”

  Anders grinned. “Yeah, well. Me I trust around my little sister. Scud?” He sucked in some air through his teeth, considering. “Not sure on that one.”

  “Well you can relax. I only met him today, and he’s definitely
not my type.”

  Anders didn’t seem reassured. “Sure about that? Because you’re definitely his.”

  * * *

  It’s weird how you can go for years without even noticing someone, but as soon as they’ve been brought to your attention, you start seeing them constantly. That was certainly the case with Harry (I still couldn’t bring myself to think of him as Scud, which was one of the worst nicknames I’d ever heard). I’d barely walked in the school gates the following morning before a rugby ball came flying towards my head. Instinctively I reached up and caught it, then turned to look where it had come from and saw Harry jogging towards me with a smile.

  “Nice catch.”

  “Thanks. Crap pass.”

  He stopped a few metres from me, his smile playing around the edges of his mouth. “It was a kick actually.”

  “Even worse.”

  “Think you can do better?”

  I didn’t dignify that with an answer, except to drop the ball onto my shoe and punt it cleanly back into his hands.

  “Not bad,” Harry said approvingly as he caught it. “You play?”

  “I used to. Not anymore. Too busy with the ponies now.”

  His smile faded slightly. “Ah, horses. Waste of time and money, if you ask me.”

  “Good thing I didn’t, then.”

  “Didn’t have to. That gem of knowledge was on the house.”

  “Wow. Your generosity knows no bounds.”

  Harry grinned wider, shuffling the ball from one hand to the other as he walked towards me, his green eyes fixed on mine. “So how is it that our paths have never crossed before?”

  “Pure, unadulterated luck,” I replied.

  Harry laughed. “Guess your luck just ran out.”

  “You noticed that too?”

  He started to say something else, but the bell rang to summon us to class, drowning out his attempt to speak. He waited for it to finish, then sighed.

  “Saved by the bell.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Wow, you’re original. How do you come up with this stuff?”

  “Hours of practice,” he said, his face deadpan serious. “Occasional cue cards, but mostly I work without them these days.”

  “Am I supposed to be impressed?” I started walking towards my classroom and he fell in next to me. His friends had dispersed, although one was following us at a slight distance.

  “If you think it’ll help my chances, sure.”

  I looked at him sideways. “I think you’re dreaming, if I’m honest.”

  “I like to think of myself as persistent.”

  “Or creepy.”

  “You like me,” he insisted, and I snorted.

  “Delusional, too.”

  “Enthusiastic,” he countered, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Is this really the best you’ve got?”

  Harry feigned disappointment. “Not working, huh?”

  “Not nearly.”

  “Hmm. I might have to reshuffle my cue cards and get back to you.”

  “Good luck with that,” I told him as I turned towards my homeroom, but he stopped and pointed in the opposite direction.

  “I’m going this way.”

  “Good for you.” I kept walking, reaching a hand out to push the double doors open into the corridor.

  “I’ll miss you,” he called, and I turned around in bemusement to see him watching me, one hand laid dramatically over his heart and a lovelorn expression on his face.

  I just shook my head at him as the girls in front of me started giggling. “You’re pathetic.”

  Harry grinned. “You’ll come around. Just wait.”

  “In your dreams.”

  I pushed my way through the doors, letting them swing closed behind me and trying to ignore the looks that the other girls were giving me. A few strides down the corridor and I glanced back over my shoulder, but Harry was gone.

  * * *

  “Pass the mashed potato.”

  “What’s the magic word?”

  “Pass the mashed potato, asshole.”

  “AJ!” Dad scolded me as Anders widened his eyes and tightened his grip on the bowl.

  “Well now you’re definitely not getting any,” he told me primly. “What kind of example is that setting for the younger generation?”

  I looked around the table. “What younger generation? Astrid’s not even here.”

  Anders’ eyes followed mine. “Huh. So she isn’t.” He set the potatoes down again and started looking around the room, then ducked his head under the table. “Astrid, you down there?”

  Ignoring his attempt at humour, I stood up and reached over in front of Lexi to reach the unguarded bowl, then dished another spoonful onto my plate as I sat back down.

  “Astrid’s at a friend’s place,” Dad explained as Anders sat back up.

  “A sleepover on a school night?” Anders sounded scandalised. “I know they say the rules don’t apply to the youngest child, but this is taking it a bit far! Next thing you know she’ll be staying out all night and coming home plastered, setting a bad example to us all.”

  “She’s not sleeping over, Aidan’s picking her up on his way home from the gym,” Dad said. “Lexi, you’re not to leave the able until everyone’s done, you know that,” he warned my sister as she abruptly got to her feet.

  “But AJ eats so much,” Alexia complained, slumping back down into her chair and glaring at me.

  “Better get her a grazing muzzle like Squib’s, what d’you reckon?” Anders asked her, and she smirked.

  I lifted my fork and flipped a chunk of mashed potato in my brother’s direction, but he just moved his head and caught it in his mouth.

  “Thanks sis,” he said once he’d swallowed it. “I heard you were showing off your footy skills to Scud this morning.”

  I half-choked on my mouthful of potato, which only made Anders’ smile widen. After taking a swig of water, I started defended myself.

  “He kicked the ball at my head,” I told him. “If I hadn’t caught it I’d have been knocked flat.”

  “He’s just pulling on your pigtails,” Anders teased, making me roll my eyes.

  “Well you can tell him to give it up,” I replied. “He’s not nearly as charming as he thinks he is.”

  “Are you talking about Harry Conrad?” Lexi said. “Because people call him Scud.”

  “Yes we are, and yes they do,” Anders said agreeably.

  “He’s in my History class.”

  “Is that so?”

  “I think he likes me.”

  Anders and I looked at each other across the table, then both of our heads swivelled back towards Lexi.

  “Oh yeah?” Anders asked. “Why d’you say that?”

  “Because he told the other boys to stop annoying me, and they did.” Lexi looked pleased with herself. “They didn’t stop when I told them to, but they listened to him and then they left me alone.”

  “Well that’s good,” I said, my throat thick with potato.

  “And he sat next to me in class and he liked it when I had to remind Mr Gibbs that Rasputin was shot three times, not four. Once in the stomach, once in the kidneys and once in the head. I think he’s going to ask me to be his girlfriend.”

  We all knew that she wasn’t talking about Rasputin. I shot an astonished look at Anders, who raised a sceptical eyebrow at me.

  “That’s great, hon,” Dad said, sounding genuinely pleased and clearly oblivious to the nuances of the situation. “I’ll look forward to meeting this young man.”

  “I’m going to invite him over for pizza tomorrow night,” Lexi said decisively, standing up and breaking into one of her rare, genuine smiles.

  “I hope he can make it,” Dad said diplomatically.

  Lexi left the room, and we could hear her humming to herself in the kitchen as Dad stood up and followed suit, leaving Anders and I alone at the table.

  “Huh.” My brother leaned back in his chair and cracked his knuckles. “This is going to go
well.”

  More books by Kate Lattey

  available on Amazon

  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.