by Karen Wood
Grace wore jeans that looked like they had been worn for days. She held her reins in one hand and kicked her gangly-legged grey horse up into the uneven trot typical of a freshly started mount.
As the sisters approached, it became obvious they were going to stop and say hello. Jess considered fleeing but realised she had left her run too late.
Oh, great, I look like the elephant man.
‘Hi.’ She looked away, trying to hide her face.
‘Hello,’ said Rosie, bringing her horse to a halt. Both girls loosened their reins and allowed their horses to stretch their necks and pick at the grass. ‘Horse go through the fence?’
Jess fiddled needlessly in her pocket. ‘A rather large goat, actually. Probably wanted to pick at the lucerne trees.’
‘You’re Jess, aren’t you? You go to Coachwood Pony Club.’
‘Yep.’ Jess couldn’t justify fiddling in her pocket any longer and looked up. ‘Rosie and Grace, right?’
‘Kwor! What happened to your eye?’ Grace gawked shamelessly.
‘Yes, I’m Rosie and this is my sister, Grace. Sorry about her.’
Grace barged on, ignoring Rosie. ‘So what happened?’
‘A horse reared up in my face.’
‘Did you fall off?’
‘No.’
Grace looked approving.
‘We were really sorry to hear about Diamond,’ said Rosie.
‘Yeah, that sounded terrible,’ said Grace. ‘We couldn’t believe it when we heard about it.’
‘We used to love watching her jump at gymkhanas. She could jump so high for such a small horse,’ said Rosie. ‘We used to run over and watch when your name was called.’
‘And you guys were amazing at mounted games,’ Grace chipped in. ‘How do you do all that vaulting on and off?’
‘Grace is your secret admirer,’ said Rosie.
‘As if!’ Grace snorted and then changed the subject. ‘So, are you going to get another horse?’
Jess shrugged. ‘Dunno.’
Buzz, rumble.
Jess ignored it.
‘You’re so nosy, Grace,’ said Rosie.
‘What?’ said Grace. ‘It’s just a question.’
Rosie looked at Jess. ‘You’re so lucky you don’t have to put up with a little sister.’
‘Umm.’ Jess wasn’t sure what to say. ‘So, what did you hear about Diamond’s accident? Who told you about it?’
‘Tegan Broadhead reckons she was stuck in the cattle grid for hours and there was blood everywhere and her legs were nearly ripped right—’ ‘Grace!’ Rosie hissed.
Grace quickly changed tack. ‘But I wouldn’t believe anything Tegan says. She’s a real troublemaker.’
Jess steeled herself. She had to know the details. ‘Was Tegan there? Did she say how Diamond got out of her paddock in the first place?’
The two sisters went quiet.
‘What?’ Jess pressed. ‘You know something. What happened?’
‘No, really,’ said Rosie, ‘that’s all we heard. They said that she was found lying in the cattle grid and she was badly injured. Was that your phone before?’
‘It was Shara Wilson’s horse that hunted her through the cattle grid. Tell her about that,’ said Grace.
‘What?’ Jess was stunned. ‘Rocko?’
Katrina’s words echoed in her ears.
Why don’t we just toss it out onto the river flats and let other people’s horses chase it through a cattle grid?
Rosie turned to her sister and spoke with gritted teeth. ‘Grace! Tegan was just making trouble when she said that. Don’t go spreading stuff around when it’s probably not true.’
‘But Tegan said she saw it,’ said Grace. ‘So did Katrina.’
‘They saw it? What? Were they there when it happened?’ Jess pressed urgently for more.
Buzz rumble.
She flipped her phone open impatiently.
Shara: meet me down at drover’s yards, jess,
pleeease!!!
Jess’s mind raced back to the accident.
Where was Rocko? I didn’t see him. Where was he?
She stared at the screen of her phone. Surely it couldn’t be true.
Jess looked up at Rosie. ‘Were Tegan and Katrina there when it happened?’
‘They were passing on gossip, that’s all,’ said Rosie. ‘I don’t know for sure if they were there or not. But I do know that I wouldn’t trust anything they had to say. They’re trouble, those two – nasty trouble.’
Jess tried to untangle her thoughts. She didn’t know what to believe. Five days ago her life had made perfect sense. Now it was all jumbled. She just couldn’t believe that Shara would keep something like that from her. She wouldn’t just leave Diamond lying in a cattle grid. Jess opened her phone, brought Shara’s message back up and punched in a direct question.
did rocko chase diamond thru that grid?
She snapped her phone shut and stared back up at Rosie and Grace. ‘I’d better get back to fixing this fence,’ she said in a tight voice. ‘I’ll see you around.’
‘You can tighten that wire up with a stick. Want me to show you?’ said Rosie, slipping off her horse and picking a stick up off the ground, which she began to twist around the wire. ‘This is an old bushie’s trick that Harry taught me.’
‘Who’s Harry?’
Jess watched Rosie turn the stick like a tap. The strand of wire began twisting around and around itself, pulling tighter and tighter.
‘He’s our uncle,’ said Rosie.
‘Yeah, that’s where we’re going now,’ said Grace, ‘if we ever get there.’
‘He breeds stockhorses. We’re just on our way to see his foals. He has eight of them.’ Rosie stood back and viewed the fence with a satisfied look on her face. ‘Hey, why don’t you come with us? Come and see the foals.’
‘Yeah,’ said Grace. ‘They are sooo cute.’
‘Thanks, but I don’t have a horse to ride.’
‘You could walk,’ shrugged Rosie. ‘If you get tired, you can jump on the back of Buster.’ She gave her horse a slap on the rump. ‘He’s real comfy!’
Jess’s head was still reeling with images of Rocko chasing Diamond. ‘Hey?’
Rosie patted Buster’s rump again.
‘I look like a freak,’ said Jess.
‘Don’t worry about it. The foals won’t care,’ said Rosie.
‘Maybe next week.’
‘Nup,’ said Rosie. ‘You gotta see them when they’re newborn. They won’t be the same in a week. They won’t be all funny and wobbly.’
‘Just jump on Buster,’ said Grace. ‘He won’t hurt you. He’s built for comfort, not speed – that’s what Dad reckons!’ She began making pig noises.
‘Shut up, Grace,’ grumbled Rosie.
‘Well, I’m kinda grounded too.’ Jess could hear herself making excuses. That last one wasn’t even true. But she hadn’t planned on having a good day today. She had planned on being miserable. Right now she was downright angry.
‘Okay, but we better get going, because we told Harry we’d be there before lunch,’ said Rosie, putting her foot in the stirrup and climbing back on her horse.
‘Wait. I just . . .’
She just what? What was her problem? Was she seriously planning to miss out on eight newborn foals?
‘Hang on. I’ll get my bike.’ Jess switched her phone off and shoved it back in her pocket. She could think about Shara later.
8
AFTER AN HOUR’S ride over bumpy and sometimes steep trails, Jess was glad to get off the bike. She propped it up against the fence and squeezed her aching butt cheeks together. What a torture rack!
From behind her, Grace giggled. ‘Give me a horse and saddle anytime!’
Jess wiggled her legs, purely for Grace’s amusement, and then unlatched the gate for them to bring their horses through.
Inside was a set of timber cattle yards adjoining a fullsize rodeo arena. Next to it was a huge barn, and beyond
that stretched acres of green pasture. Sitting on the top rail of one of those yards was an old man wearing a battered old hat.
‘Hi, Harry,’ Grace and Rosie chorused.
Harry answered in a voice as croaky as a cane toad’s. ‘Hey! How you going, girls? Come and see the colts!’
Rosie and Grace tethered their horses and jumped up onto the timber slab fence. Jess followed. In the yard, two teenage boys sat on jet-black colts. The horses’ coats shone like glossy patent leather. Both had large, soft eyes and handsome heads, but one had a small white star on his forehead and a snip on his nose, while the other had no face markings but did have small white socks on his hind feet.
Rosie glanced down at her from the fence and grinned. ‘They’re twins – pretty special, hey?’
‘Who, the boys?’ asked Jess.
‘No, the horses,’ laughed Rosie. ‘The boys aren’t even brothers.’ She pointed to the taller of them. ‘That’s Tom, on Nosey. He stays here during the holidays. Private-school boy – he gets to break up from school earlier than us. Both his parents are lawyers and they’re always working.’ She bent down and whispered. ‘They are so rich. You should see all the gear he has for riding. His saddle cost four thousand dollars!’
Jess made a choking sound. ‘Four thousand bucks? I didn’t know you could pay that much for a saddle!’
‘Yep, you sure can,’ said Rosie. ‘Anyway, Tom doesn’t care about all that. He lets me ride with his saddle all the time.’
‘Cool,’ said Jess, wondering what a four-thousand-dollar saddle would feel like to ride in. ‘So who’s the other one?’
‘Oh, that’s Luke, on Legsy.’ Rosie seemed to have trouble tearing her eyes away from Tom. ‘He came here to do a brumby-gentling program a few years ago, and he was so good with horses that Harry asked him to stay. He’s a foster kid.’ She lowered her voice to a whisper again. ‘He was a real mess when he first came here. He used to come home from school all busted up from fighting. Harry doesn’t make him go to school anymore – reckons he’s better off working with the horses and doing something he’s good at.’
Harry interrupted their whispering. ‘Are you going to introduce me to your friend, Rosie?’
Jess looked at the ground.
‘Jess, this is Harry,’ said Rosie.
‘G’day, Jess!’ said Harry. He pulled a chewed toothpick from his mouth and flicked it onto the ground. ‘How do you like my colts?’
‘They’re like something out of a movie. They’re beautiful.’
‘They’re twins. First I’ve ever had survive,’ said Harry. He looked proudly at the two colts.
‘They’re the first twin horses I’ve ever even seen,’ said Jess.
‘Want to see them draft some cattle?’ asked Harry.
‘Umm . . .’ Jess wasn’t really sure what ‘draft some cattle’ meant. She remembered that Shara had talked nonstop about something called campdrafting when she came back from a holiday in Darwin once. She was so taken with the sport that she had spent the next month chasing her parents’ purebred Droughtmaster cattle up and down their hilly property, despite their demands that she stop. Her dad had eventually grounded her.
Harry didn’t wait for Jess to answer. ‘Cut out a beast, Tom,’ he yelled, then turned to Jess and patted the fence rail. ‘Hop up, kiddo. You won’t see much from down there.’
Tom nodded briefly at Harry, and rode the horse into a yard full of cattle.
Jess climbed up onto the rail. She watched Tom single out a big, ugly cow and push it away from the mob. It trotted to the top of the yard, moaning loudly in protest, and then tried to dart back to the mob. Quick as lightning, the colt swung to the left and blocked its path. The heifer lunged to the right, only to have the colt spin on its heels and block it again.
‘Real cowy, these colts,’ Harry muttered as he climbed off the rail and opened a big set of gates. The cow lifted its heels and gave a clumsy skip with its hind legs as it bolted out of the arena. Tom held the colt steady as he cantered after it.
‘Go easy now, Tom. Just track after it for a bit,’ Harry called out.
After following the cow for a minute or so, Tom reined the colt in and brought him back to the others. Tom was as tall and gangly as the colt he rode and his white teeth were the only part of his face Jess could make out under his black helmet.
Luke gave his horse a nudge to make it step forward. He had the crumpled appearance of a teenager who did his own washing. Rusty-brown hair poked out from his helmet and his face was covered in freckles. ‘Want me to put Legs around, Harry?’ he asked.
‘Sure, Luke, let’s see what he can do,’ said Harry, opening the gate and waving him into the yard.
Luke walked the horse into the yard. He lifted the rein slightly and clicked it up. The colt bounded to the left as if on springs. With barely a shift in the saddle, Luke commanded it to halt, reined it back again and sent it leaping to the right as he singled out a cow.
‘Not a bad rider, ay?’ Harry winked at Jess. ‘That’s the more flighty of the two colts. Luke keeps ’em steady.’
Harry swung the gates open and let Luke, the colt and the cow into the large arena. He watched them work with a satisfied look on his face.
Then he turned to Jess. ‘Come on, Jess, I’ll show you their sire if you like.’ And just assuming she would like, he limped towards the arena gate, calling back to Tom and Luke, ‘Righto, boys, that’s probably enough for now.’
‘Are you going to show Jess Biyanga?’ asked Grace, jumping from the fence. ‘I wanna come too.’
‘Me too,’ said Rosie.
‘Get those horses watered first,’ said Harry. He motioned for Jess to follow him towards the barn.
Inside the big timber barn were twelve stables. The walls were built from hardwood slabs, thick enough to withstand a double barrel from a horse’s hind legs, and high enough that even a tall horse couldn’t see over them.
As Jess caught up, Harry glanced sideways at her. ‘So, what happened to your eye?’
At that very moment Katrina Pettilow emerged from a stable, leading Chelpie behind her. Every horse in the building immediately started whinnying and fidgeting.
Jess immediately forgot Harry’s question and confronted Katrina. ‘You saw Diamond’s accident happen, didn’t you?’
Katrina stared in disgust at Jess’s face. ‘No,’ she said, and turned away.
‘You did, I know you did,’ said Jess. ‘Why don’t you just tell me what happened?’
‘Why don’t you ask your best friend?’ snorted Katrina.
‘Best keep that mare away from the stallion, Katrina,’ interrupted Harry. ‘She in season or something? She’s upsetting all the other horses.’
Katrina kept her back to Harry and didn’t answer. She tethered Chelpie to a piece of hay twine that hung from the stable door. Jess felt a twinge of satisfaction when she saw that Chelpie’s tail still had a hint of green to it.
‘This way,’ said Harry. ‘So, what happened to your eye?’ he repeated.
‘A horse banged his head in my face.’ Jess answered quietly so that Katrina wouldn’t hear her. There was something about Harry that she instantly trusted. Katrina Pettilow, however, was a different story. She glanced over her shoulder and saw her brushing Chelpie. Jess wished she’d had more time to grill Katrina before Harry led her away.
‘Hmmm,’ said Harry.
At the end of the stable aisle was a loosebox. It was twice the size of the others and had a door opening out into a large yard at the back. Harry pointed at the adjoining feedroom. ‘Pick me out a nice big biscuit of hay, would you, Jess?’ He unlatched the stable door and called out, ‘Hey, big daddy-o!’ He motioned for Jess to take the hay inside. ‘In you go.’
A fat black and white pig came trotting into the stable, grunting and squealing. He nudged at Jess, demanding the hay, and nearly bowled her over. She gave a surprised laugh. ‘Is this Biyanga?’ she asked, fighting off the hungry pig as it ripped at the hay and made it s
pill all over the stable floor.
‘That’s Grunter, his stablemate. Ryan saved him from the dogs on a hunting trip and gave him to Annie – that’s the missus – to fatten up for Christmas.’ He laughed. ‘Nice gesture, but we don’t have a sty. I had to lock him in here or Annie was gonna stick him in the freezer.’ Harry rolled his eyes. ‘Biyanga’s fallen in love with him. He won’t go anywhere without his pig. He comes to all the campdrafts with us.’
Jess gave the pig a scratch along his back and he wriggled with delight.
Who’s Ryan?
At that moment, the stallion walked in.
He was hooded and rugged so that all Jess could see were four jet-black legs poking out from below his rugs, a black nose with white markings, and the same soft, kind eyes as the colts. He gently nuzzled the pig, then pushed it away from the hay. It squealed in protest.
‘They’re like an old married couple, can’t live with or without each other,’ said Harry. He hobbled into the stable and began to unbuckle Biyanga’s rug. With one big pull from the back end, it slid off into his arms, unveiling the most impressive horse Jess had ever seen.
He was the stuff dreams were made of: as black as black, with a thick, wavy tail, powerful hindquarters and flawless straight legs. He had a long, elegant neck and a perfectly symmetrical, thin white stripe running down his face.
Harry stood back and admired him. ‘What do you reckon?’
‘He’s so fat he can hardly walk,’ said Grace, appearing at the stable door. ‘Look, he’s got cellulite on his bum.’ She giggled, ducking a swipe from Harry.
‘Cheeky little brat,’ he chuckled.
Jess stepped forward and ran a hand over Biyanga’s glossy neck. He squealed suddenly and rushed to the door, slamming her against the wall of the stable. She lost her footing and fell into the sawdust, just inches from the stallion’s front feet.
Harry took a step forward, placing himself between Jess and the stallion. ‘Easy does it, fella,’ he soothed. ‘She’s not for you.’ He reached a hand down to Jess and pulled her up, and then turned to Katrina. ‘I’ve told you ten times not to bring that mare in here while she’s in season.’
‘She’s not in season,’ argued Katrina. ‘And I need to talk to you about her stable.’
