Twins and Horses at Bracken by Gillian Baxter

Author:Gillian Baxter [Baxter, Gillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter nine.

Later in the week Bobby’s show jumpers kept up the standard. Tapestry qualified for a final in the famous main ring with its iconic permanent fences and finished a creditable fourth. Bobby won a big class on Folly and then saved him for the last day’s Nations cup, in which she had been chosen for the team. Treasure, however, felt distracted. There was a restless horse whinnying constantly in the collecting ring and he wanted to go and investigate. He whinnied himself, staring that way, and after he had twice knocked down the practise jump Bobby was tempted to withdraw. Hal Johnson was in the member’s stand and had seen what was happening and he came down to speak to her.

‘it’s up to you,’ he told her. ‘You’ve got an early draw, perhaps the steward could make it later, give him time to settle.’

It was worth a try. The secretary was contacted and agreed and with an extra half hour Bobby took Treasure over to see the whinnying horse. Treasure was excited, prancing sideways and whinnying a reply, almost quivering with eagerness, but as the horse came past them, calling again, Bobby felt the tension go out of him, his head came down and she

knew that he was disappointed. Amber, who was groomIng again, had followed to watch and now she said ‘he’s looking for a friend, isn’t he? Brody was a bit like that when we got him. I think that’s why he sometimes turns on the others, like he did when he chased that black one. He’s cross because he can’t find the old pony he used to go out with.’

She patted Treasure and Bobby was surprised by her understanding.

‘I think that’s exactly what it is with Treasure,’ she said. ‘Probably another palomino if he came from a stud.’

‘And then he got blemished and couldn’t be shown any more,’ said Amber and Treasure sighed and pushed his nose into her as if he knew what she had said.

The steward was looking for Bobby now, she would have to jump if she was going to. She turned Treasure back towards the ring.

For the first time since she had jumped him Treasure felt flat. He was light and willing but the flair was lacking and they had one pole down. Hal met them when they came out looking mildly disappointed.

‘Maybe he’s not quite the Olympic horse I was hoping for,’ he said. ‘But it’s early days. Now that coloured horse of yours, he really has got the potential.’

That was something that Folly proved on the final day of the show, in the Nations Cup.

It was a strong class with teams from all over Europe including France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, four horses per team, best three to count. There were two rounds, the

second against the clock. Bobby had been in teams before although she had avoided too much travelling because of her family but Folly was known to be reliable and she was last to go, relied on to repair the score if earlier horses had faults.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.