Jade at the Champs

by Amy Brown

  The first jump, a blue-and-white straight-bar, was more inviting than the old, peeling practice rails anyway. Concentrating this time, and doing her best to feel confident, Jade didn’t give Pip any reason to baulk. They met the next jump, a red-and-green Swedish oxer, on the right leg and at a good angle. Jade started to actually relax. ‘Good girl,’ she breathed.

  At the white picket fence, just before the triple, Jade felt Pip falter. I didn’t borrow Becca’s whip! she remembered. Still, I’ve got legs and a voice.

  ‘C’mon!’ she growled, and drove Pip on decisively with her legs and seat. It worked. Pip had sensed the importance of the occasion and was performing well.

  Unlike the others, Jade was unfazed by the triple. She knew that if she met the first jump at the right stride, the rest would be easy. For once, they were an easy distance apart for Pip. And as for the ostriches, well, they were no match for Jade’s mature pony.

  In this frame of mind, Jade and Pip looked similar to Becca and Dusty as they approached the triple: determined and successful.

  Taking a good look at the three obstacles in a row, Pip slowed but didn’t show any sign of stopping. Clearing jump A neatly, B and C were, as Jade had predicted, no trouble at all.

  As they landed, clear, over jump C, Jade wanted to make a fuss of Pip right then and there, but remembered Andy’s folly. Instead, she restrained her triumphant pony and ensured that the final wall stayed intact as they sailed over it.

  ‘And that’s our second clear round,’ Jade heard Michaela say over the loudspeaker.

  ‘Only second?’ Jade said to Mr White as she slid off Pip’s back and ran up her stirrups. ‘Only Becca and I have gone clear so far?’

  ‘That’s right,’ Mr White grinned. ‘And there’re only three more competitors, so there might not even be a jump-off. If I were a betting man, I’d put money on it that the two places in the junior team have been filled. But we shouldn’t count our chickens just yet. And what happened at the practice jump?’

  ‘It was terrible,’ Jade said. ‘The entry before me had scratched and the lady at the gate said I could have a practice jump, but only if I rushed. So I cantered over, all stressed, and cut in front of someone else. Then Pip actually stopped and all the rails fell down. I should’ve just taken her into the ring — we were fine in there, amazingly.’

  ‘Ideally, you should’ve warmed her up a little earlier,’ Mr White said.

  ‘But I had to watch Andy!’ Jade said, irritated by Mr White’s tone. ‘Anyway, we got a clear round.’ ‘I know, I know. You did very well in the end. But with a less patient and good-humoured pony you mightn’t have been so lucky.’

  ‘I know,’ Jade agreed, chastised.

  The next competitor knocked two rails down in the triple. The rider after that forgot the course, and in her confusion turned a circle and crossed her tracks, which meant instant elimination. Jade felt sorry for the girl, who was weeping with frustration as she left the ring, especially when the girl’s father started shouting at her.

  ‘You wouldn’t shout at me like that, would you?’ Jade asked her dad quietly, as they watched the angry scene.

  ‘Of course not!’ her dad replied. ‘I’m too ignorant to shout — I don’t even know why she was eliminated.’

  Becca and Dusty stood with Jade and Pip to watch the last rider’s round. The afternoon was still and hot — nearly 30 degrees — and neither the girls nor ponies felt like a jump-off. Mean as it seemed, they were all willing the rider to make a mistake.

  ‘They’re doing well,’ Becca said grimly. The words had barely left her mouth when there was a thunderous crash in the intermediate course, just to the right of the junior ring. A horse had skidded at great speed into a jump, sending poles rolling all over the place. Jade saw it favouring its near foreleg as it left the ring, with a cut on its knee and blue flakes of paint from the jump on its chest.

  The commotion had distracted the chestnut mare in the junior ring, causing her to run out at the yellow-and-black oxer. Trying to look sympathetic, but breathing sighs of relief, Jade and Becca led their tired ponies over to the trough. Their work was done for today; it was time for a drink, a feed and a sluicedown.

  With the ponies comfortably tied up and feeding from their hay-nets at the horse-float, Jade, Becca, Andy and their various supporters picnicked in the shade.

  ‘I wonder where Laura is?’ Becca asked, finishing a sandwich and feeling suddenly like one of the chocolate muffins that their friend had promised she’d bring in the afternoon.

  ‘Maybe she decided it was too hot for a long bike ride?’ Jade said. ‘If so, I don’t blame her.’

  ‘I feel sorry for the senior riders,’ Andy said, gazing back at the third course, which was still in the midst of a jump-off. ‘No one should have to ride in this heat.’

  ‘Well, it looks like they’ve found the winners,’ Jade’s granddad observed as a cheer went up across the paddock.

  ‘Who do you think won?’ Becca’s mum asked. ‘Who’s going to be on the team with you two?’

  Jade and Becca beamed, while Andy and Ryan looked crestfallen.

  ‘Surely it’ll be Kristen Lewis?’ Mr White said, helping himself to another piece of bacon-and-egg pie.

  ‘No, she’s turned fifteen,’ Andy said. ‘That means she’s in the intermediate squad.’

  ‘Gosh, I’m glad we weren’t competing against her!’ Becca said. ‘That’d be impossible.’

  ‘Is Amanda the second intermediate rider?’ Jade asked Ryan.

  ‘I dunno. Didn’t see her round,’ Ryan said quietly.

  Becca raised her eyebrows at Jade. ‘It looks like they’re getting ready to announce the winners at the pony club shed,’ Mr White said. ‘You two had better get over there.’

  ‘Not before you’ve tidied yourselves up!’ Becca’s mum cut in. ‘Rebecca, your hair is a mess, and Jade, you’ve got tomato sauce on your cheek. Andy, can you help them look presentable while Ryan and I clear up the picnic?’

  At the shed, Michaela Lewis was standing on a hay bale and holding a loud-hailer. The pony club district commissioner, Mrs Thompson, standing next to the tiny Olympian, was nearly at the same height as Michaela, despite standing on the ground — and nearly as loud, despite not having a megaphone.

  ‘Welcome, riders!’ she boomed. ‘Today we have tested the best young show-jumpers from each of the pony clubs in the district, in order to create a really fine Flaxton team for the New Zealand Pony Club Association North Island Show Jumping Championships. Gosh, what a mouthful!’ She paused, and beamed. ‘Without further ado, I will invite our local Olympian, of whom we are so very proud, to announce this year’s team. Michaela?’

  ‘Before I tell you officially who’s in the team,’ Michaela said, ‘I’d like to say a few things about my course-building.’

  ‘There have been some complaints,’ Becca’s mum whispered to Jade and Becca.

  ‘In Cambridge, at the Champs,’ Michaela went on, ‘the courses are tough. They require not just fast or brave riding, but thoughtful, creative riding — especially in the jump-offs. While the jumps might not be as high as you’re used to, the distances between them, the angles at which you have to meet them, and the distractions outside of the ring are challenging. In designing these courses today, I tried to prepare you for this. The senior ring had a couple of very tight turns, I know. In the intermediate ring, jump 8 was unusually narrow, which brought some of you to grief. And in the junior ring there was the combined test of the triple and the ostriches. Those of you who managed to get clear rounds under these conditions deserve to be in the team. Now, can we all please congratulate our juniors: Rebecca Brown and Gold Dust, and Jade Lennox and Pip — Whoops! I mean, Onyx.’ Michaela knew Jade’s pony by her paddock name rather than the registration name written on the paper in her hand.

  Jade and Becca went to the front, slightly embarrassed, as the crowd clapped. ‘And,’ Michaela continued, ‘our intermediates: Kristen Lewis and Dorian, and Amanda N
isbet and Blueberry Tart. Well done, sweetie,’ Michaela said, kissing her daughter on the cheek and making her growl ‘Mum!’

  ‘Finally, our seniors, who are fresh from a tiring jump-off: Corina Tawhai on Medusa, and David O’Connor on Toblerone.’

  ‘What a wonderful-looking team!’ Mrs Thompson boomed again. ‘I’m sure they’ll make us proud.’

  5

  A Higher Standard

  What on earth?’ Jade exclaimed, as she unloaded Pip from the float. Mr White turned around and followed Jade’s gaze to Floyd. He was standing in the side paddock, calmly grazing, with a saddle hanging under his stomach.

  ‘Thank goodness you’re home!’ Mrs White said, emerging from the back garden. ‘Poor Floyd has been galloping about like a creature possessed. I tried to get his saddle off, but of course he wouldn’t let me near him. He’s only just calmed down in the last ten minutes.’

  ‘What happened?’ Mr White asked. ‘Where’s Lisa?’

  ‘I’ve no idea,’ Mrs White said, shaking her head. ‘I got back from the supermarket and found him like this.’

  ‘If only Brandy and Hamlet could tell us what’s been going on,’ Jade said. The two placid horses were standing in the shade of the apple trees at the back of their paddock, nibbling at each other’s withers.

  Swiftly putting Pip in a yard with a bin of hard feed, Jade ignored her gear, which was still in the back of the ute, and instead tried to entice the distressed Floyd over to the gate.

  ‘You go by yourself first,’ Mr White told her. ‘You might remind him of Lisa.’

  As Jade approached the anxious gelding, with a halter behind her back and a carrot held out on her flat palm, she wondered whether reminding Floyd of Lisa was such a good thing. She, after all, had no doubt put him in this uncomfortable position.

  Jade was right. Try as she might, making clicking noises with her tongue, she couldn’t coax Floyd at all.

  ‘Maybe he’s sick of young females?’ Jade said, eventually giving up and handing the halter and carrot to Mr White. ‘You’re the opposite — he might like you?’

  Mr White laughed. ‘OK, I’ll give it a try.’ Walking quietly to a point in the middle of the paddock, Mr White called Floyd’s name, gently. ‘Here, Floyd. Let’s get that saddle off you, eh boy?’

  Wiggling his ears and snorting, Floyd trotted in a large circle around Mr White three times before halting, stretching his neck out, sniffing, then finally approaching the carrot.

  ‘Good man, well done,’ Mr White said slowly as the suspicious horse ate out of his palm. Jade watched from the gate, stock-still and silent.

  Gradually, in three smooth movements, Mr White slipped the lead rope around Floyd’s neck, the halter over his sunburnt nose, and the head strap behind his ears. Fastening the buckle at his cheek, Mr White stroked the tense neck.

  ‘Shall I take the saddle off while you hold him?’ Jade asked, beginning to climb over the gate.

  Seeing the girl out of the corner of his eye, Floyd pulled back violently on the lead rope, burning Mr White’s hands.

  ‘No, I think it’d be better if I take him into the yard next to Pip and do it myself. Why don’t you unpack the ute?’ Jade nodded, disappointed that Floyd so obviously disliked her.

  ‘I don’t take it personally,’ she whispered to Pip as she retrieved the now-empty feed bin and scratched the pony’s star, sending a small cloud of white hairs floating like dandelion seeds across the yard. ‘It’s just because I remind him of Lisa, who doesn’t know how to handle him. At least you like me, eh Pip?’ In answer, the contented pony rubbed her nose vigorously on Jade’s shoulder.

  ‘Hey!’ Jade laughed, being pushed against the fence. ‘If my shirt wasn’t already dirty, you’d be in trouble for that.’

  As Mr White unbuckled the girth and freed Floyd of the saddle, Pip leant over from the other yard and sniffed at the new horse. Floyd laid his ears back on his head and stamped a hind leg threateningly.

  ‘Easy, boy — enough of that,’ Mr White soothed. ‘While you’re in here I may as well give you a quick groom and put some sunblock on that peeling nose of yours. And look at your cracked hooves! They’d benefit from some Stockholm Tar.’

  Jade watched admiringly, from the safe distance of the shed, as steadily Floyd settled down and responded to Mr White’s patient handling.

  ‘He likes you,’ Jade said enviously, carrying the last of the tack into the shed. ‘He looks like a good horse right now.’

  ‘I think he is a good horse,’ Mr White replied, gently releasing Floyd’s near-hind hoof and straightening up, holding his back. ‘He doesn’t seem mean-spirited, just poorly handled. It’s a shame. I’d very much like to know where Lisa is right now, and where she acquired this saddle. It looks ancient — and if its tree wasn’t broken before she put it on Floyd, it certainly is now.’

  Mr White wasn’t the only one interested in Lisa’s whereabouts. First thing in class on Monday, Laura regaled Jade and Becca with the excitement of the weekend.

  ‘You will never believe what happened on Sunday,’ Laura stage-whispered, with one eye on Mr Wilde. ‘Lisa was supposed to start at midday and never turned up.’

  ‘Is that why you couldn’t come to the trials?’ Jade answered, forgetting to whisper.

  ‘Yeah,’ Laura replied, slightly louder. ‘We were really busy and I had to cover for Lisa. That’s not all, though …’ Laura paused dramatically.

  ‘Is the gossip of the weekend so pressing that it can’t wait until morning interval?’ Mr Wilde asked wearily, not looking up from the papers on his desk. ‘I believe you each have a copy of Oliver Twist to keep you busy while I collect my thoughts. Or have you been reading so diligently that you’ve finished it already?’

  Jade, who hadn’t had time to so much as open the unappealing tome, suddenly felt nervous. Before she could make an excuse, Laura piped up: ‘I’m sorry, Mr Wilde, but this is really quite important.’

  Peering over his glasses, Mr Wilde looked up in mock interest. ‘Oh, but Laura, you should have said earlier. Please, we must all hear this serious news.’

  If Mr Wilde had expected Laura to be too embarrassed to speak in front of the whole class, he was mistaken. ‘Well,’ she said, looking around at her audience, ‘a new girl that Mum and Dad employed at the café didn’t show up on Sunday, and what’s more, the takings from Friday weren’t banked. She closed up the shop then, so right now she’s the prime suspect,’ Laura finished, grandly.

  ‘There’s more,’ Jade cut in. ‘When we got back from the trials, we found her horse, Floyd, in the paddock with a saddle on. It had slipped under his belly.’ Suddenly aware that this was an anti-climax after the story of the theft, Jade blushed and started picking at her fingernails.

  ‘How exciting,’ Mr Wilde said. ‘A villainous girl thieves and mistreats horses. Because this piece of gossip was particularly juicy, I won’t split you girls up. But, be aware: next time I won’t be so lenient. In future, save your nattering for break-time, please.’

  Relieved that they hadn’t really been told off, but eager to continue chatting, the girls reluctantly opened their copies of Oliver Twist and began reading.

  The long sentences and strange language caused a dull ache behind Jade’s eyes, and Oliver’s not having a mother was an uncomfortable reminder of her own situation. Bored with the first chapter, Jade skipped ahead at random. The page she opened to happened to mention a horse. ‘The hostler was told to give the horse his head; his head being given him, he made a very unpleasant use of it: tossing it in the air with great disdain, and running into the parlour windows over the way; after performing those feats, and supporting himself for a short time on his hind-legs, he started off at great speed, and rattled out of town right gallantly.’ Jade giggled quietly. She doubted that Charles Dickens had ever ridden a rearing horse. Still, the more she pictured the horse ‘supporting himself for a short time on his hind-legs’, the more accurate the description seemed. She smiled.

  ‘I’m
glad you’re enjoying it, Jade,’ Mr Wilde said with genuine pleasure. ‘But I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to put Oliver away for now. It’s time to go over our mathematics homework.’

  Fractions weren’t as diverting as Oliver Twist, though. While Mr Wilde rabbitted on about one-third equating to 33.33 per cent, Jade wondered what had happened to Lisa.

  As soon as the bell rang for morning interval, the girls resumed their conversation. ‘Have your parents phoned the police?’ Becca asked, opening a packet of corn chips.

  ‘Not yet,’ Laura replied. ‘They’re trying to get hold of her first, to see if she’ll give the money back. Mr White doesn’t know where she is, does he, Jade?’

  ‘No, but he’s trying to track her down, too. I’ll be around there before practice this afternoon, so I’ll text you if I hear anything.’

  Michaela Lewis had wasted no time in organizing the first practice for Flaxton Pony Club’s new showjumping team. Usually, even just the thought of it would have given Jade butterflies as she biked to the Whites’ after school. But Lisa’s disappearance made a two-hour lesson with the district’s best young show-jumpers seem relatively trivial.

  Before she was even off her bike, Jade asked Mr White whether he’d found Lisa.

  ‘She’s gone,’ he said simply. ‘Ellen found an envelope in the letter box this morning, with a note from Lisa and some money for grazing. That’s something at least, I suppose.’

  ‘You know where the money came from?’ Jade asked. ‘Laura’s café! Apparently, instead of banking the takings on Friday afternoon, she stole them. She hasn’t been back since, and Laura’s parents are trying to find her. Do you think I could read the note?’

  Jade followed Mr White into his house, guiltily enjoying the detective work. The note, written on a thin sheet of yellow paper, read:

  Dear Mr White

  I’m sorry I haven’t been looking after Floyd very well. Here is some money for his grazing. He is yours now if you want him. If not, I hope it is not too much trouble for you to find him a good home.