by Amy Brown
‘Yeah, but the hooves are a problem—white hooves are weak hooves. Do you jump her?’
‘I want to,’ Jade said firmly. ‘And I think we’re almost ready.’ Mr White laughed at this.
‘Well, you’ll want to get some shoes on her when you start going in for the shows. I’m sure I’ve shod her in the past.’
‘Really?’ Mr White said, interested. ‘There’s a bit of a story about how Jade acquired Pip.’ He filled Mr Finch in on the rescue from the pound.
‘Well, you’ve certainly got some gumption,’ Mr Finch chuckled. Jade didn’t reply, but made up her mind to look up ‘gumption’ in the dictionary as soon as she got home.
With both Mr White and the farrier present, Jade wanted to show off. Last week she and Pip had trotted elegantly over poles on the ground. Trotting in a circle around the jumps now, using her legs and squeezing on her inside rein to get Pip to bend in the right direction, Jade was disappointed that her pony was sluggish. It was a warm day and the other horses were relaxing in the yards, but still, Jade thought, couldn’t Pip be as enthusiastic as her rider?
Jade rode towards the criss-cross. It was the smallest, most approachable jump in the paddock. Pip didn’t seem to be focusing on the task ahead of her; instead, she cantered lazily towards the obstacle, took a long stride and then a tiny one, which surprised Jade. Both horse and rider cleared the little jump, but neither was graceful.
Mr White laughed pleasantly. ‘Got that one a bit wrong, didn’t you? Why don’t you do some more schooling with her, Jade? It’s hot and I don’t think Pip’s in the mood for jumping today; besides, you’re not quite ready yet, yourself.’
Jade was angry, but tried not to show it. ‘OK,’ she said, ‘but I just want to jump this one properly first. I want to end on a good note.’
As they approached the jump again, Pip was still lethargic. Noticing out of the corner of her eye that the farrier had stopped working and was watching her now, Jade decided to give Pip a nononsense tap on the rump with the whip. She’d never done this before and clumsily hit her pony harder than she’d intended. The strike of the whip distracted Pip from the jump. She bucked angrily and ran straight through the criss-cross, scattering poles right and left.
Midway through the buck, Jade had lost her stirrups. Her reins were loose after she’d used the whip, too. As Pip careered through the jump, Jade toppled off, landing awkwardly on the jump stand.
The fall had winded her, but she got up straight away, ashamed of herself. Pip had trotted back to the yards to seek solace with Brandy and Hamlet.
‘Are you OK?’ Mr White asked as Jade approached.
‘Yeah, just embarrassed. I deserved that: Pip didn’t do anything wrong.’
‘You’re right there,’ the farrier chipped in, irritating Jade. ‘First fall, was it?’
‘Yep.’
‘You landed pretty well. That’s an important skill to learn.’ Jade smiled and forgave Mr Finch for his last comment.
‘You’re holding your wrist, Jade. Are you sure you’re all right?’ Mr White asked.
Jade looked down and saw that her left hand was indeed clutching her right wrist. She let go, and as her arm swung down she felt a hot pain. ‘It is a bit sore, actually. I thought I was fine, but my arm feels hot.’
‘It’s not your writing hand, is it?’ Mr White asked as he drove her to the doctor. He’d untacked Pip quickly and left Mr Finch to finish off Hamlet’s shoe. Again, Jade felt embarrassed.
‘No. I’m left-handed.’
‘Can you wiggle your fingers?’
Jade tried. ‘Yes, but it hurts.’
‘Probably a minor sprain, then.’
Mr White, as usual, was right. The doctor at the Flaxton clinic bandaged her wrist up tightly, put it in a sling and gave her some painkillers.
‘Will I be able to ride?’ Jade asked the doctor.
‘I’d give it at least a week to rest. You don’t want to make it worse.’
Crestfallen, Jade let Mr White drive her home.
‘I’ve undone all the good work we did last week,’ Jade said, gloomily.
‘Yes.’ Mr White’s agreement surprised her.
‘I should’ve listened to you when you told me to stop jumping.’
‘Yes.’
Jade looked so sad that Mr White patted her shoulder gently. ‘It’s not the end of the world. Pip will have forgiven you in a week’s time. At least, we should hope so, because I was planning to take you both to a pony club rally.’
‘Pony club?’ Jade’s face lit up.
‘Yes, they’re meeting next Sunday. If you’re both up for it, I thought we could enrol you. Now that you’ve learnt the basics I think you’d benefit from some competition and teaching. Would you like that?’
‘I’d love it! But they’ll all be better than me, won’t they?’
‘I wouldn’t suggest it if I didn’t think you could cope.’
The prospect of pony club cheered Jade up. She stopped scolding herself for riding Pip badly, and falling off in front of Brian Finch, and started thinking about what pony club might involve.
Once, when Jade was younger, she and her family had driven past the Flaxton Pony Club grounds. There must have been a gymkhana on, because the paddock was filled with shining ponies and young riders wearing spotless jodhpurs, gleaming boots and coloured sweatshirts. Some were riding in circles, others were racing each other, weaving between poles, and some were jumping. The paint was peeling off the jump rails, but the course still looked professional and exciting with its red-and-white flags and judges’ truck.
Jade and her mum had both admired the pony club.
‘It’s a shame we live in the city, isn’t it?’ her mum had said. ‘If we lived here, you could learn to ride.’
‘Let’s move here,’ Jade had said, not taking her eyes off the riders.
‘You’d miss your friends, and Dad and I wouldn’t have jobs. You wouldn’t get to go to the movies as often, either. Sometimes I wish you could’ve grown up in the countryside, but Auckland’s not so bad, is it?’
And now I’m here, Jade thought, confused.
To take her mind off the memories, she made lunch for her and her granddad, buttering bread, slicing tomatoes, rinsing lettuce and frying bacon. It was difficult working with one arm, but it provided a good distraction. As she arranged the sandwiches on plates, her granddad came in, carrying letters.
‘That bacon smells lovely. You’re a good girl. But what’ve you done to your arm, Jade?’ her granddad said, looking up from the post and seeing the sling.
‘I had my first fall off Pip,’ Jade said, almost proudly. ‘It was all my fault, but I’ve only sprained my wrist. It’s not so bad really.’
‘Crikey, girl, and you still managed to make us some lunch? You take it easy this afternoon, you hear?’
Jade nodded.
‘There’s a letter here for you—from your friend Rose, by the looks.’
‘Really? Cool!’ Jade took the letter and tried to rip it open with her teeth.
‘Let me do that for you,’ her granddad said, chuckling.
It was a quiet, sombre lunch, with Jade poring over Rose’s letter and her granddad leafing through the bills.
‘Bad news?’ her granddad asked, seeing that Jade was frowning.
‘No, good news, really. Rose has invited me to stay with her in Auckland over the holidays.’
‘That’ll be nice—you can see your old friends.’
‘Yeah, I guess. It’s just that Becca might have a pony too by then, and I don’t want to leave Pip for two weeks.’
Granddad could see that Jade was more upset about this than she was letting on. He understood that returning to Auckland would be tough for her, having to spend time with kids who knew what she’d been through and might not be gentle about it.
‘I’m sure Mr White would keep an eye on Pip,’ he said, slowly.
‘I know he would, but that’s not the point!’ Jade snapped. ‘I need to keep
riding if I’m going to be good enough for next season’s shows.’
‘I see. But you’d quite like to catch up with Rose?’
‘Yes, I think so.’
‘Well, why don’t you invite her to stay here?’ As he said this, Granddad was wondering how he’d cope with two eleven-year-old girls for a whole week.
‘You wouldn’t mind? Thank you so much, Granddad!’ Jade’s mood had changed entirely. She leapt up and kissed her granddad’s cheek, chattering away now about what she and Rose would get up to.
‘Rose really wanted to meet Pip, and now I can teach her to ride a bit, too. I bet she’ll like Laura and Becca. We can all hang out at Laura’s café together. It’ll be wicked.’
‘Wicked?’ Granddad shook his head.
A week is a long time when you have your arm in a sling and wish you could ride your pony. Although Jade enjoyed watching Becca exercising Pip, she itched to get back in the saddle herself.
‘What if I’ve forgotten how to ride? I’ll look like a fool in front of Rose,’ Jade complained for the umpteenth time to Laura, as they both sat on the fence, watching Becca.
‘You’re worrying too much,’ said Laura. ‘Can Rose ride?’
‘No.’
‘Well, she won’t know if you’re doing it right or not. And if she’s a real friend she won’t care anyway. Did you go to school with her in Auckland?’
‘Yeah. Though we’ve known each other since we were babies—our mums were next to each other in hospital when we were born.’
‘Wow, you’re like twins then.’ Laura sounded slightly jealous.
‘It feels like that sometimes.’
Laura slipped off the fence and bent down to pat Bubble and Squeak, who’d come along for the walk. ‘She might not like staying in dumb little Flaxton after Auckland.’
‘It’s only for a couple of weeks—and she’ll have us and Pip to entertain her. Who needs the city when you’ve got a pony?’
Laura didn’t say anything, but looked worried.
6
Pony club
On Friday afternoon Jade’s spirits were high. Mrs Crawford had given the class an extension on their maths homework until the following Wednesday, the wrist was only a little stiff now, and pony club was only a couple of days away.
She raced around to Mr White’s in record time, not stopping for a hot chocolate at Laura’s café.
Anticipating Jade’s eagerness, Mr White had already caught Pip and tied her up in the yard. Hamlet was tied up next to her.
‘Are you going to ride, too?’ Jade asked.
‘It’s such a nice afternoon, so I thought, Why not? Plus, I want to make sure that Pip doesn’t mind riding near other horses. I’m sure she’ll be fine, but better to be safe than sorry, especially with pony club on Sunday.’
As they’d hoped, Pip was fine riding behind Hamlet. In fact, she behaved angelically, bending nicely as she turned the corners, cantering on the right leg every time and accepting the bit.
‘A week off seems to have done her good,’ Jade said, surprised.
‘You’re forgetting that Becca has been riding her all week. That might have something to do with it, too.’
‘Because she’s better than me?’ Jade looked hurt.
‘Well, more experienced. Or perhaps Pip’s just glad to have you back,’ Mr White said hurriedly, seeing that he’d offended Jade. ‘Look, why don’t we go for a road ride, seeing as I’ve got Hamlet here?’
Setting off along the wide grass verge cheered Jade up immensely. She even forgot about the nagging ache in her wrist.
As they turned left at the end of the road, Jade saw Natasha and her roller-blading posse.
‘Oh no,’ Jade whispered. ‘Can we please ride to the pony club and have a look?’ She turned around in her saddle to ask Mr White. The pony club grounds were in the opposite direction, away from the bullies.
‘It’s a bit far, really. And the road’s too busy. You’ll see it soon enough, anyway. Can you be around here at eight tomorrow morning?’
‘Of course! I can’t wait. It’s just…’ Jade felt pathetic saying it, ‘I don’t want to ride past those girls.’
‘Their roller-blades might upset the horses, but if you keep your heels down and sit deep in the saddle, you’ll be fine.’
‘No, that’s not what I mean,’ Jade said, exasperated. ‘They hate me and Pip—I think they were the ones who opened the gate.’
‘Are you sure?’ Mr White asked. He listened attentively as Jade told him the whole story.
‘Right,’ he said sternly, when she’d finished. ‘You don’t mind having a little canter, do you?’ Before Jade could answer, Mr White had urged Hamlet into a creaking trot, then a canter. Jade followed, excited. As they reached the girls, the horses were racing.
‘Out of our way, please!’ Mr White bellowed, pointing a now-impressive Hamlet straight at the group.
The girls screamed, blading away in all directions. In her haste, Natasha fell in the ditch.
‘Watch out, you mental perv!’ she yelled, struggling to stand up, but not quite managing with her roller-blades in the muddy grass.
At this, Mr White pulled Hamlet to a halt and turned him around.
‘Mind your manners, Natasha,’ he growled. ‘And if I ever find that someone has opened the gate to my paddock again, or so much as laid a finger on my horses, I will call the police and I will call your mother.’
For once, Natasha did not get the last word. Jade and Mr White jogged away, on their now thoroughly excited horses, without receiving any more abuse.
‘I suggest that you don’t ever do anything like that again,’ Mr White said, when they were out of earshot of the girls. ‘I’m sorry—it was extremely foolish of me, cantering off like that. Is your wrist all right?’
‘It’s fine,’ Jade said, still stunned at what had just occurred. ‘Thankyou!’
‘My pleasure,’ Mr White said, smiling slightly.
Jade woke the following morning at seven, happier than she’d been in months. Pulling back the faded brown curtains, she was disappointed to find the day grey and drizzly. It wasn’t raining heavily, though, so she pulled on her pristine jodhpurs, boots, T-shirt and jersey that she’d got ready the night before, and went to the kitchen to make herself breakfast. Walking past her granddad’s room, she heard only snoring so didn’t bother asking if he’d like a cup of tea. The walk to the Whites’ house was long and grim. By the time Jade arrived, she was both flushed and bedraggled and didn’t look nearly as sophisticated as she’d hoped.
The horse-float was attached to the ute and the shed door was rolled up, but there was no sign of Mr White. Jade caught Pip and tied her up in the yard, then went and knocked on the Whites’ back door. Mrs White opened it and ushered Jade inside.
‘Hello, Jade, would you like a Milo? Not the best weather, is it?’
‘Yes, please. No, it isn’t,’ Jade mumbled, confused. ‘Where’s Mr White?’
‘Well, to be honest, he’s put his back out—all that gallivanting around chasing young girls yesterday,’ Mrs White said, laughing shrilly. ‘But he’s determined to take you to pony club. I’d do it, except I don’t like driving with the float on.’
‘Oh,’ Jade said, knowing that she should probably say that pony club wasn’t that important and Mr White should really just rest.
‘Would you mind awfully, Jade, if you missed pony club this morning? I don’t think Jim should be going anywhere.’
‘Nonsense!’ Mr White said, hobbling into the kitchen. ‘It’s just a twinge. It’ll pass soon. Anyway, you’ll be the one doing the riding and grooming, won’t you, Jade? I’ll just have to sit in the ute.’
‘Promise that you won’t try and lift jump stands or anything,’ Mrs White told him firmly, frowning.
‘I’ll hardly leave the driver’s seat,’ Mr White said.
‘Watch him for me, Jade,’ Mrs White said as they finished their hot drinks and went out to the ute.
Jade made su
re that there was nothing for Mr White to do. She groomed Pip quickly and thoroughly, tacked her up correctly and mounted, somewhat inelegantly, off the side of the horsefloat.
‘Go and sit in the ute, I’m fine,’ Jade kept telling Mr White, but he insisted on walking with her over to the group of ponies and parents assembled outside a shed. And, if she was being honest, Jade was glad that she wouldn’t have to ride over alone and introduce herself to the other riders, all of whom seemed to be wearing the same pale blue sweatshirt.
As they approached, Jade recognized Ryan from her class. He was sitting on a handsome liver chestnut gelding, a bit smaller than Pip, and talking to an older girl on a beautiful bay.
‘Hi,’ Jade said shyly, riding up to Ryan and the girl. Fortunately, Pip had stopped neighing and pulling at the reins; now that she was closer to the other horses the only evidence of her excitement was her pricked ears.
‘Hi, Jade,’ Ryan said, more relaxed than in class, but still a little aloof.
The other girl gave Ryan a ‘who’s she?’ look, and he said, ‘This is Jade—we’re in the same class at Flaxton. I didn’t know you had a horse, Jade.’
‘I’m sure I told you,’ Jade said quietly. ‘What’s your name?’ she asked the girl.
‘Amanda,’ the girl said, curtly.
‘So you already know Ryan and Amanda? Good,’ Mr White said, oblivious of how uncomfortable Jade was feeling. ‘They’re both very slick show jumpers—watching them will be a good way to learn.’
Amanda looked pleased. ‘So you’re just learning?’ she asked.
‘Yeah,’ Jade said, clenching her teeth.
The riders were soon split into groups according to experience, and Jade was able to leave Amanda and Ryan. She was, to her embarrassment but also relief, in the baby class. Riding around in a circle with six-year-olds on Shetland ponies was, when Jade stopped being vain, quite relaxing. The instructor, a young woman called Megan, had a soft voice and was encouraging.
