Pony Jumpers 2- Double Clear Page 6

  “Well then. Let’s go get him ready to knock their socks off!”

  Squib had certainly improved a lot in the past few weeks. I watched AJ trot her spunky grey pony across the grass between the coloured fences, Squib’s eyes bright and eager as he looked around at the course. Most of the fences were straight-forward, but there were a few tests. A solid brick wall, a high plank vertical and a fence with a checkerboard fill that half of the ponies in the class had been baulking at. AJ carefully steered her pony past all of them before her bell sounded, and Squib obligingly spooked at each one, eyeing the wall with particular suspicion and diving sideways when asked to pass the checkerboard.

  Anders stood next to me with his arms folded, watching as AJ moved Squib up into his bounding canter and rode a steadying circle.

  “Squib looks a bit full of himself.”

  “He always is,” I said with a smile. “Part of what makes him so special.”

  Astrid stood on the other side of her brother, chewing on a fingernail and looking around vaguely. A rider on a big black horse came cantering past right behind us, and she squeaked slightly and jumped forward. Anders put a steadying hand on her back, and I watched her relax under his touch. I wasn’t sure if I was jealous because it was Anders, and as much as I refused to admit it to my mother, I had a huge crush on him, or because I wished I had a big brother of my own. It must be nice, having someone to look out for you like that, I mused as AJ and Squib cleared the first jump with plenty of room to spare, and my attention was focused back on the ring.

  Squib was jumping well, still a bit quicker and stronger than was ideal, but he was learning to wait and trust AJ instead of taking everything into his own hands – well, hooves. They were all clear as they made the turn towards the wall, and Squib looked at it suspiciously, seeming momentarily startled that he would be expected to jump something so solid. AJ clicked her tongue to encourage him, and he quickly rose to the challenge, launching himself over and clearing it by almost a foot. Given that this was already a metre-ten class, it was an impressive effort, and I grinned as I heard various other spectators exclaim over his scope. Riders behind us pulled up their horses and stopped to watch, and I felt a surge of pride at how well AJ was doing. She was a hard worker and had a good basic foundation, so getting her up to scratch had been pretty straightforward so far. The things she didn’t know, like how to school lateral movements, or teach Squib to jump from the base instead of half a stride out, were things she’d picked up quickly, and her improvement was coming on in literal leaps and bounds.

  I watched her steady up for the double, and Squib jumped cleanly through, then turned back to the planks. He strained at the bridle, pulling hard, and I could see the concentration on AJ’s face as she tried to make him sit on his hocks and wait for the distance. Two strides out, I could see that it wasn’t going to happen. He was coming on a long, forward stride and if she left him alone, he’d make it over cleanly. But AJ kept fighting him, and Squib threw his head up and propped, losing some of his momentum.

  “Put your leg on,” I hissed under my breath and she did, but it was too little, too late. He came in deep, and had to really push up from his hindquarters to jump the fence. He had the power, but he didn’t have a fast enough reaction time in front, and his shoulders came up late. One front foot hit the plank, and it tumbled straight off the flat cups and hit the ground.

  I swore, and I saw AJ shaking her head in disappointment as she continued on, muttering an apology to Squib as she turned him towards the checkerboard fence. This time she let Squib have his way, riding him forward and letting him jump off his preferred long stride. He had all the scope in the world to clear it, and he did, kicking up his hind legs so far in triumph at getting his own way that AJ looked for a moment as though she was going to tip off over his head. But she regained her seat and balanced him nicely for the last couple of fences on the course.

  Scattered applause accompanied AJ out of the ring, and she patted Squib’s neck enthusiastically as he jogged back over to us, looking decidedly pleased with himself.

  “That was good!” I told her, and she pulled a face. “Just should’ve left him alone going into the planks.”

  “He felt like he was getting too strong and was going to jump it too flat,” she told me, bringing Squib to a halt next to us and rubbing his neck. “So I took a pull and he dropped the contact. I was lucky he didn’t refuse!”

  “He wouldn’t dream of it,” I laughed. “Let you spoil his fun? No way.”

  Anders was standing next to Squib now, patting his sweaty neck, then clapping his sister on her leg. “You did awesome, Poss. I had no idea the Squirrel could jump so high!”

  “Squib can jump way higher than that,” I told him. “AJ just has to learn to keep up with him!”

  AJ laughed, then turned Squib away. “I’d better walk him out, let him cool down. Come on superstar, let’s move.”

  She rode off, and Anders turned back to me. “What happens now?”

  “She got four faults, so she can’t do the jump off,” I explained. “So she’ll cool him down and wash the sweat off him and then…”

  Anders laughed, cutting me off. “I meant for you. Are you competing today?”

  “Oh. Yeah. On my young one. He’s in the same class, but he’s way down the order so he won’t be on for at least half an hour. I should get back though, see if Mum’s got him tacked up yet.”

  Anders fell into stride next to me as we walked back to our yards, Astrid trailing behind. “Your mum’s really into this horse show thing, huh?”

  “Yeah. She rode as a kid, but she couldn’t really afford to compete much, so she’s living vicariously through me.” It came out sounding a bit harsher than I meant it, and I quickly clarified. “I mean, it’s great. I can’t imagine what we’d have to talk about if we didn’t have the ponies.”

  “Is that why you have so many?”

  “That, and because Mum’s a hoarder and keeps buying them,” I told him, and he laughed.

  We walked past the Maxwells’ big silver truck and I saw Hayley’s head swivel around, watching Anders with almost predatory interest. I quickened my pace and kept talking, hoping he wouldn’t notice her. I was well aware that I couldn’t compete with Hayley’s glossy blonde curls, full lips and perfect body, which looked especially good in the skin-tight designer breeches that she was wearing.

  I prattled on, trying to keep Anders’ attention before he noticed her. “But I’ve only got five at the moment, because we sold Fossick, and Lucas and Robin have both gone lame. And Molly’s being sold, so really I only have two.” I thought for a moment. “I honestly can’t remember the last time I only had two ponies to ride. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.”

  “AJ told me about Molly. Sorry to hear that.”

  “Thanks,” I said, surprised that they’d been talking about me. What else has AJ said? I wondered as we reached our yards to find Mum bridling Forbes.

  “There you are Katy. Hello again Anders, nice to see you. Have you come to watch?”

  “Thought we might as well.” He glanced behind him then, as if to satisfy himself that Astrid was still tagging along. She’d stopped in front of Puppet’s yard and was tentatively reaching a hand up to pat him.

  “Careful, he bites,” I warned her, and she snatched her hand back nervously. I pointed to Molly, standing across the aisle and looking more beautiful than a pony had any right to. “You can pat Molly though. She wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

  Molly wandered to the front of her yard and poked her nose over, and Astrid moved closer to her, still looking uneasy.

  “I didn’t mean to scare her,” I told Anders, who shrugged.

  “Don’t worry about it. She spooks easy sometimes.”

  Astrid shot him a dirty look over her shoulder, and I smiled at her. “Sounds like you’ll get on well with Molly then. She’s always freaking out at little things like plastic bags, or leaves, or even her own shadow. I had twenty dollars i
n my pocket once when I went for a ride, and it fell out and started blowing away. I tried to go after it, but Molly flat out refused to go anywhere near it and before I could talk her round, it was long gone.” I shook my head at the pony, who was snuffling at Astrid’s hair. “Talk about throwing your money away.”

  “Stop chatting and get dressed, would you?” Mum snapped as she buckled Forbes’ noseband. “You’ll be on soon and you haven’t even warmed him up.” I knew she was thinking about Robin, but I didn’t like her snapping at me like that in front of Anders.

  “Keep your hair on,” I told her, then glanced at Anders. “I’ll be right back.”

  I’d only taken a couple of steps towards our truck before Hayley came striding into the yards, her eyes glancing off me and immediately fixing on AJ’s brother.

  “Hi Katy,” she said with a beaming smile as she approached. At least she didn’t ignore me entirely, although she probably wanted to.

  “Hey.” I stopped in front of her, forcing her to stop as well. She was still staring over my shoulder, and I knew there was no holding her back from what she wanted, so I turned and introduced them.

  “Hayley, this is AJ’s brother Anders, and her sister Astrid.” I motioned at her. “This is Hayley.”

  “Hi,” Hayley said, flicking her hair over her shoulder and holding out a hand to Anders to shake, her bright pink nail polish standing out against her tanned skin. He shook her hand and gave her one of his gorgeous smiles, that dimple appearing in his left cheek, and jealousy roiled around inside me.

  “Katy,” Mum said in her warning voice, and I rolled my eyes.

  “I’m going, I’m going.”

  I met AJ on the way out, and scratched Squib’s neck as we passed each other. “Watch out for your brother,” I warned her. “Hayley’s on the prowl, and she’s got Anders in her sights.”

  “Sounds like Anders is the one who should be watching out,” she replied bitterly, and I headed into the truck to change.

  Forbes jumped a tidy double clear, but I didn’t push him in the jump off since he was still pretty green at the height. I felt a bit bad about showing up AJ’s efforts in front of her family, but she was the first one to congratulate me when Forbes and I came out of the ring. We were surrounded by people, Mum and AJ on one side of my pony, and Astrid and Anders on the other, all patting Forbes and saying how well he’d gone. Mum, of course, had a couple of comments to make about how I’d ridden out of the second last turn, and that I’d been lucky going through the double the first time, but I tuned her out as much as possible.

  It was when I looked over her head in an attempt to refocus my attention away from her criticism that I saw Susannah. She was standing on the other side of the ring, watching me. I’d noticed her there when I’d ridden in for the class, but I’d pushed her presence out of my mind and focused on getting Forbes around the course. She saw me watching her now, and met my eyes defiantly for a moment before turning away. Even across the distance between us, I knew what that look meant. She was determined to take Molly away from me, and she wanted me to be fully aware that she had the means to do it.

  I cut off Mum’s nagging and spurred Forbes forward abruptly, making him jump and Astrid scurry backwards. “He needs walking off. Meet you back at the yards in ten.” And I turned him around and rode away from Susannah and her arrogant stare.

  “We’re going to get an icecream. You coming?”

  I looked up from where I was crouched next to Forbes, unscrewing the studs from his shoes.

  “I’m not a big icecream eater,” I told AJ, giving the spanner one last twist before dropping the stud into the box at my feet. My bad mood still hadn’t quite evaporated, as much as I wished it would. I was trying to put Susannah out of my mind, but every time I looked at Molly it made me feel sick to my stomach. To make matters worse, Steph had stopped me while I was cooling Forbes out and told me that Susannah was going to trial Molly in the Grand Prix tomorrow morning, and the very thought of it was giving me heart palpitations.

  “You sure?” AJ pressed. “Anders is buying.”

  Consider my mind changed. “In that case, count me in,” I replied. “Just give me a sec to get these studs done.”

  “Okay.” AJ went to speak to Squib again as I moved to Forbes’ back legs. From the corner of my eye, I noticed someone coming into Forbes’ yard. I lifted my pony’s back leg and rested it on my knee, wondering idly whether the hoof black would mark my white breeches. Mum would have kittens if it did, but I couldn’t be bothered getting changed and I wasn’t going to leave Forbes standing around studded up for no reason.

  Anders stopped next to me, his orange sneakers contrasting with my black leather tall boots.

  “Taking his sprigs out?”

  “Studs,” I corrected his terminology. “This is show jumping, not rugby.”

  “Same deal though, right?” he asked as I set the spanner around the rim of the stud. “For extra traction.”

  “That’s the idea.” I pushed down on the spanner handle to loosen the tight stud. I’d been putting studs in and out of my pony’s shoes for years and could practically do it blindfolded, but of course when Anders was standing there watching me, my hand slipped. I lost my grip on the spanner and it tumbled into the shavings at our feet, and I grazed my wrist on the sharp stud. It was a new one, and still had a little nub on the end that hadn’t worn away fully yet.

  “Damn.” I glanced at the trickle of blood running down the inside of my wrist. “That was awkward.”

  Anders reached down and picked up the spanner, then handed it back to me. “Need any help?”

  “No.” I reset the spanner and gripped tight this time as I loosened the stud. It resisted for a moment, and I mentally cursed my mother for having tightened them so much, but then it gave, and I was able to unscrew it without any further fuss. Hitching Forbes’ leg higher against my thigh, I unscrewed the inside one, then let his hoof down with a sigh of relief.

  “Is your arm okay?”

  “It’s fine.” It was just a scrape, and hardly bleeding at all. It also stung like hell, but I wasn’t going to admit that to him. I ran my hand across Forbes’ rump as I went around to the other side of him and lifted his hind leg. Anders followed me, putting himself right into the line of fire as Forbes kicked out a couple of times, and I had to grab his leg tight to make sure Anders avoided injury.

  “Woah!” He moved fast when he was startled.

  “Careful,” I grinned before setting to work on the studs. “He’s a bit touchy with his back legs still. I think someone tried to rope him when he was a youngster, or hobbled him or something. You couldn’t touch his legs at all when we got him. Or touch his head.” I thought for a moment longer as I dropped one stud into the box. “Or lead him anywhere without him trying to run over top of you or slam you against the wall.”

  “He sounds crazy.”

  “Just misunderstood.” I removed the last stud with – thankfully – no more issues, and replaced it in the stud kit with the spanner, then snapped the box shut. “Now, did someone say icecream?”

  I didn’t really want an icecream – I hadn’t been kidding when I’d told AJ that I didn’t really like the stuff – but Anders insisted on buying me one. Or, more accurately, he bought me one before I realised what he was doing, and it would’ve been super rude of me to say no, so I smiled and licked vaguely at it, just doing enough to keep it from running over my hands as it melted in the afternoon sun.

  We sat in the grandstand and watched the Young Rider class, which had seemed like a good idea until Hayley found us and started drooling over Anders again. I was in the midst of rolling my eyes at AJ and wondering what excuse I could use to escape when Hayley leaned past Anders and looked at me.

  “When are you going to come and try Misty?”

  I smiled at her, my irritation forgotten. “Whenever you like.”

  She looked at her watch. “How about now?”

  “Sounds good,” I said as my phone buzze
d in my pocket. It was Mum, and I debated hanging up, but thought I’d better take it. “What’s up?”

  “I just got hold of the vet and he can come and see Robin this afternoon, so I’m packing up the truck and I need you to come back and load the ponies.”

  “Oh.” I wondered whether to tell her about Misty, but I wanted to surprise her. She felt almost as bad as I did about my sudden lack of Grand Prix ponies, and I knew she’d be thrilled if I could take over the ride on such a good pony. “Okay, we’ll be there soon.”

  I hung up, and turned back to Hayley. “Rain check? We’ve got to get home and get the vet to see Robin. But we’ll be back in the morning.”

  “Are you riding Molly in the Grand Prix?” she asked and I reluctantly shook my head.

  “Susannah is.”

  Hayley looked as horrified as I felt at the prospect. “On your pony? Ugh! That is so unfair.”

  “She’s not really my pony,” I muttered, but Hayley waved a hand dismissively. “She might as well be, you’re the only one who’s ever been able to ride her. Susannah’s dreaming if she thinks she’ll get her around the PGP tomorrow. Oh well, maybe Molly’ll throw her into the wall and shatter a few bones. Prove a point.”

  “Fingers crossed.” I stood up, and AJ followed suit. “Well, we’d better go.”

  Hayley looked as though she’d just realised what that meant. “You’re all leaving?”

  We all looked at Anders, who looked a bit like a possum in headlights under our stares. “Uh, yeah. We’d better get home, eh Chook?” he asked Astrid, who shrugged. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he grinned, then winked at me as he stood up, and my insides melted.