by Stacy Gregg
“Thanks, Tom,” said Aidan.
“You know Dan and Ben, don’t you?” asked Avery.
“Yeah.” Aidan reached down from his horse to shake hands with Ben and then put his hand out to Dan. Dan hesitated for a moment and then reluctantly took his hand and shook it as the boys exchanged a gruff hello.
“I was just asking Issie if she wanted to take part in Horse of the Year training in the evenings now that we’re here,” Avery told Aidan. “Do you want to join us too? We’ll give the horses a day to settle in and then our first training session will be on Monday.”
“Absolutely,” Aidan said. He stared directly at Dan. “If Issie is doing it then I’ll definitely be there. I wouldn’t miss it.”
On Sunday night, when the Blackthorn Riders had returned from their weekend at home, everyone sat around the dinner table and discussed Avery’s training sessions.
“What about us? Can Kate and I do it too?” asked Stella. “I mean,” she added grumpily under her breath to Issie, “unless it’s just you and Aidan, like a date.” Issie felt the sting in Stella’s comment, but Avery didn’t notice the tension between the two girls.
“Absolutely,” he agreed. “I’m sure Coco and Toby are both capable of jumping the heights we’ll be doing at the training sessions if you girls both want to join in.”
The younger riders seemed very excited by the idea of proper showjumping training.
“What about us?” Arthur asked. “Can we all come and watch?”
“I don’t see why not–if that’s OK with you, Hester?” Avery said.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Hester agreed. “We’ll make sure we have an early dinner and then you can meet up at the arena. You’ll learn a lot from watching other riders. I’m sure all of you will pick up some excellent technique tips.”
Kelly-Anne looked doubtful about this. “I don’t want to watch,” she said. “I want to ride too.” There was silence and then a giggle from some of the other kids.
“What?” Kelly-Anne glared at them. “I’ve done loads of showjumping and it’s easy. I could totally compete at Horse of the Year if I had Comet instead of stupid old Julian!”
“No, you couldn’t!” Arthur said.
“I could so!” Kelly-Anne snapped back.
“Gee, Kelly-Anne,” George rolled his eyes. “You are such a fibber!”
“I am not!” Kelly-Anne’s face was red with anger. “You don’t know anything about horses anyway!” There were daggers in her eyes as she pushed her chair out from the kitchen table, stood up and stomped out of the room.
Kelly-Anne wasn’t the only one who was in a dark mood at dinner. Stella was clearly in a huff with Issie. As for Aidan, he was barely speaking for some reason and kept glaring at Dan across the table.
“Did you notice that too? He’s, like, so totally jealous!” Kate insisted when the girls were gathered in Issie’s room later that evening.
“But why?” Issie said. “I’ve already told him that Dan isn’t my boyfriend.”
“Maybe,” replied Kate, “but it’s hard not to notice the way Dan keeps looking at you all the time. And did you see the evils Dan was giving Aidan? He’s just as bad!”
“Well, I wish they’d both stop it,” Issie sighed. “They can’t carry on like this for the next three weeks.”
It wasn’t just the boys who had Issie worried though. How long could Stella carry on being in a bad mood? Ever since Issie had mentioned her date with Aidan, Stella had been acting really weird. Something was definitely bothering her. She had been really quiet lately. And Stella was never quiet!
Stella would talk to Issie if she needed to, like in the arena when they took the riding lessons. But she wasn’t her normal perky, chatty self, and whenever Issie tried to talk to her about what was wrong, she just shrugged and walked away. Issie didn’t know what to do. It had seemed like such a good plan for Issie to come here and help Hester. But was she really helping? Right now everything Issie did just seemed to make matters worse.
“Right!” Avery said, eyeing up the riders who were standing in front of him. “I hope you’re ready for a workout tonight. We need to get these ponies and horses really fit over the next fortnight–and the best way to do that is lots and lots of circles and flatwork to supple them and get them listening, and then gridwork with the cavaletti so that they develop muscle and rhythm.”
Ben looked crushed by the idea of flatwork and cavaletti for two weeks. “But aren’t we going to do any big jumps?” he grumbled. “The horses will have to do big jumps in the competition, won’t they? Isn’t that what we should be practising then?”
Avery nodded. “Absolutely–we’ll be doing a few big fences, but not too many. It’s important not to overjump these horses. There’s too much risk of an injury or making them sour on it. We’re going to build up with some smaller courses before the qualifying rounds in a fortnight, and after that we’ll start to put the jumps up a notch and tackle some big courses.”
Ben didn’t look convinced by this argument. You could see he was just itching to take Max around the course of painted rail fences that Avery had set up at the far end of the arena.
“Now, I see you all have your stirrups at jumping length already,” Avery smiled. “Very good. But tonight you needn’t have bothered.”
“You mean we’re not jumping at all now?” asked Ben, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice.
Avery shook his head. “No, Ben, you will be jumping–you’re just not going to be using your stirrups. We’re going to ride without them.” He walked over to Ben and quickly slipped both the leathers and irons off his saddle so that Ben had his legs dangling with no stirrups.
“Can you all strip your leathers off the saddle please and hand them over to me?” Avery told the rest of the ride.
“Ohmygod! This feels weird,” Stella said as she slipped her stirrups off the saddle and let her legs hang loose down at Coco’s sides.
“How are we going to jump without any stirrups?” grumbled Ben.
“You don’t need stirrups,” Avery insisted. “In fact, relying on your stirrups can teach you bad habits. Learning to jump without them is good for you. It will teach you not to get too far out of the saddle as you go over the fences and you’ll be forced to balance and use your knees effectively.”
He turned to the riders. “Are we all ready? Let’s start work then. Aidan? Can you lead the ride please. Get them working around the arena at a walk and then do a sitting trot in the corner of the arena and come through the cavaletti in your two-point position without stirrups.”
There were a few shrieks from Stella and a bit of giggling and bouncing about as the riders got used to trotting without stirrups. But then things got serious as they did the cavaletti course for the first time and they could all see what Avery meant. Without stirrups they were relying on their own body to hold their position and stay in the saddle, and after a few drills back and forth through the cavaletti all of them had a much better seat.
“Excellent,” said Avery. “Keep your eyes up, Stella! That’s it! Good stuff!” He called all the riders back into the centre of the ring. “Now,” he told them with a straight face, “knot your reins please.”
Stella couldn’t believe this. “You mean we’re going to jump with no stirrups and no hands!”
Avery grinned. “Trust me, Stella. It’s not as scary as it sounds.”
As the horses came bouncing back through the cavaletti at a trot, all the riders managed to stay in the saddle despite having no stirrups and knotted reins. Issie had to hold Comet back as they approached the cavaletti. The skewbald could still get a little fizzy and overexcited when he was taking fences, but as he settled in with the rest of the ride he began to calm down and soon he was trotting the poles like a dream.
“How is he feeling?” Avery asked her as Issie pulled Comet up when they were all getting their stirrups back.
“Really good!” There was a huge smile on Issie’s face. “He’s a b
it hard to hold sometimes though.”
“He’ll settle down,” said Avery. “He’s just fresh, that’s all.” He turned around to the other riders. “That’ll do for tonight!” he called out to them. “Good lesson, everyone.”
“I can’t believe it!” Ben muttered. “When are we going to do some really decent-sized fences?”
It seemed Avery was in no hurry to use the showjumps that were set up at the other end of the arena. For the rest of the week he kept up the same routine, drilling his riders over the cavaletti so that, by the end of it, all of them were quite happy jumping without their stirrups or reins.
The following week, it looked like Ben was finally getting his wish. Avery began to set up a proper jumping course for them to ride. But if the riders had been expecting to jump huge fences, they were disappointed. Avery had built the course with the jumps set low, at a metre high. “We don’t need big jumps,” he reasoned. “This week is all about learning arena craft. You must be able to ride a showjumping course with technical skill and take the best possible line at a fence. Then, no matter what height you are jumping, your horse will always be in perfect balance.”
Comet was a talented jumper, but he wasn’t the easiest horse to control. He was inclined to get a little hot and excited when he jumped. “You need to use your seat to control him,” Avery told Issie as she took him around the course. “Sit back in the saddle if you want him to slow down. Don’t fight him with the reins or he’ll just get stroppy with you. Work with him; focus on being a partnership.”
Issie worked hard, concentrating on what Avery told her to do, and by the end of the second week she felt like her bond with Comet had strengthened even more.
On Saturday, after the riding school had gone home for the weekend, Avery’s riders gathered in the living room of the manor for a squad training meeting.
“The qualifying competition is being held tomorrow,” Avery said. “We’ll be trucking the horses into the local Gisborne pony-club grounds at 6 a.m. so everyone needs to set their alarm clocks for 5.30 a.m.” There was a groan from the riders.
“Meanwhile,” Avery continued, “I thought we’d better get the paperwork sorted.” He picked up a stack of papers and handed them to Aidan. “You all need to fill in one of these. Can you pass them around please, Aidan?”
“What is it?” Issie asked.
“Your entry form for the Horse of the Year,” said Avery.
Issie looked at the entry forms in front of her. Her eyes scanned the long list of competitions and categories.
“I’m thinking of entering Destiny in the Horse of the Year novice category,” Aidan said.
Dan, who was also riding hacks now and could no longer enter the pony ring, glared at Aidan. “That’s the event that I’m entering on Madonna.”
“Then I guess I’ll be riding against you,” said Aidan gruffly.
“Suits me,” Dan bristled.
“What’s this one here?” Stella tried to pronounce the word, “The pussy-ance?”
“It’s pronounced pwee-sonce,” Avery said. “The word ‘puissance’ is French–it means powerful. It’s a high jumping competition basically. The riders jump a brick wall, which gets higher and higher with each round. There are five rounds and it’s a knockout competition. If you don’t get over the wall, you’re out. The idea is to keep jumping until everyone is eliminated. Whoever gets over the highest wall in the last round will be the winner.”
“How big can the wall get?” Ben asked.
“The highest a horse has ever jumped in a Puissance competition is two and a half metres.”
“Ohmygod!” Stella was amazed. “That’s huge!”
Avery stood up and stretched out his arm as far as it would go above his head. “It’s about another half a metre taller than my hand,” he said.
“I think I saw a Puissance on telly once,” Stella said. “The wall was so big you couldn’t see the horse at all–all you could see was his ears sticking over the top before he jumped it!”
“How can they jump if they can’t even see over it?” Ben boggled.
“The Puissance is all about courage,” said Avery. “Once the fence gets to that kind of height, your horse must be truly brave and have faith in his rider because he won’t be able to see what’s on the other side.”
Issie looked back at the entry form and finally found the event she was planning to enter. “This can’t be right!” she said. “It says here that the pony Grand Prix has prize money of $15,000! Is that a misprint?”
Avery shook his head. “No. There are over half a million dollars in prizes at this year’s Horse of the Year. This is the richest show in the hemisphere. There’ll be riders from all around the world competing.”
Issie felt her tummy churning with nerves. “Maybe we should enter something else?”
Avery shook his head. “If you qualify, I definitely think it’s worth a shot to take on the pony Grand Prix. The jumps are big, but Comet has the ability to do it.”
Issie felt her heart racing. “Really? Tom, do you think so?” She looked back at the entry form: $15,000 in prize money! If she won she’d make enough money to help Aunt Hester save Blackthorn Farm!
For a moment, Issie felt so elated at the thought that she could barely breathe. And then her eyes went to the entry details at the bottom of the form and she felt as if someone had punched her hard in the stomach and knocked the wind clean out of her. There at the bottom of the form was a list of fees. The numbers were quite clearly printed in large black type. Entry fee: $500 per rider, per event.
Five hundred? That was crazy! She didn’t have five hundred dollars and she had no way of getting that much money. Her plan was over before she even had a chance–probably her last chance to help her aunt save Blackthorn Farm.
Chapter 10
How was Issie going to come up with $500? “There’s no point in worrying about that yet,” Kate pointed out to her. “We’ve got to make it through the qualifying rounds before they’ll even let us enter Horse of the Year.”
The event on Sunday was the last of the district jump-offs. With the finals happening the following weekend, this was the one and only chance for Avery’s riders to qualify. The riders were all feeling the pressure as Avery pulled the truck up at the Gisborne Pony Club grounds that morning.
“Only the top ten riders in every event will gain enough points to make it through to the Horse of the Year,” Avery told the girls, who were riding in the front with him. “If you don’t make it through today’s competition then you’re out. End of story.”
“So there’s no pressure then?” Stella said sarcastically. She was busily studying the schedule for the day’s events, although Issie suspected that she was mostly reading the schedule as a way of avoiding talking to her. Her long silences during the trip to the club grounds had made it pretty clear that she was still barely speaking to Issie.
“You’re lucky!” Kate told Issie when they got out of the truck and began unloading the horses. “It was much worse being in the back with the boys. Dan and Aidan just keep getting at each other all the time! Honestly,” she shook her head, “I don’t understand boys!”
Things only got worse once the riders saddled up. The running order for the competition was divided into hacks–that’s horses fourteen-three hands high and over–and ponies, which are fourteen-two and under. Dan and Aidan were both riding hacks, and that meant that they were riding first.
Both boys were taking the contest really seriously. Their rivalry had been obvious all week at training, but it finally came to a head when they were warming up in the practice arena. There was one jump, a blue and white crossed rail, set up for the riders to practise over before it was their turn in the ring.
The competition was getting hot and Dan was due to ride next. He’d been waiting for his turn and circling Madonna in the practice arena. At the last minute he decided to try one last practice jump and lined up the chestnut mare to take the crossed rails. He didn’t seem to noti
ce that Aidan was already riding towards the same jump from the other direction.
“Hey! Get out of my way!” Aidan shouted as he saw Dan riding straight at him. Dan had to put in a last-minute change of direction, yanking at Madonna’s head to swerve to get out of Aidan’s path.
“Hey, watch it!” he shouted angrily back at Aidan.
“What?” Aidan said. “You’re kidding? That was totally your fault! You knew I was going to take the jump. You should have stayed out of my way.”
“Well, maybe I’m sick of staying out of your way,” Dan shot back at him. He pulled Madonna up to a halt. “I’ve got to ride now. We’ll finish this later,” he said coolly.
“Count on it,” Aidan replied.
Issie, who was back at the horse truck getting Comet ready, had no idea about any of this. She didn’t see the fight at the practice jump and she didn’t see Dan and Aidan ride their event. In fact, she would never have found out about what happened next if it hadn’t been for Comet’s saddle blanket. She had been saddling the skewbald up when she realised she had left her usual blanket behind at the farm.
“Don’t worry,” Avery had said. “I’ve got a couple of spare numnahs that should be perfect. They’re in the crawlspace above the kitchen.”
Horse trucks always have a crawlspace in them–a platform that is built at the top above the living area. Often, when riders go away on long trips in their trucks to compete, they will sleep on a mattress in the crawlspace. Avery had been planning to sleep there himself on this trip, but since they’d had a change of plans and he was now staying at the manor, he’d shoved all sorts of things into the empty space–including spare saddle blankets.
Issie had climbed up the ladder to the crawlspace and was lying on her belly, feeling around in the half-light for the saddle blankets, when she heard the stomp of footsteps in the living space underneath her. She could hear two voices quite clearly and she recognised them immediately. It was Dan and Aidan, and if they sounded mad with each other before, now they were furious.
“You could have lost me the competition today with that stunt over the practice fence,” Dan fumed.
