Koolio, the Problem Pony by Kelly Wilson

Author:Kelly Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143772279
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-04-07T16:00:00+00:00

But the next day, as they drove home after the show, she began to wonder if Vicki had been right. Again, Kelly and Dandy had won ribbons only in the rider and hunter classes. In the flat classes, in which Dandy normally excelled, the judges had barely looked at him. Not once had she and Dandy even made it into the top six, who got to do individual workouts before the judges chose the placegetters.

“What am I doing wrong?” Kelly asked her sister. “I made sure that Dandy looked a million dollars, but the judge still chose plainer horses over us.”

“You really want to know?” Vicki said.

Nodding, Kelly waited impatiently for her sister’s reply.

“When he’s in the ring, he looks like he’s barely trained.”

“He would have won more Champions than any other pony at the show!” Kelly broke into a fit of laughter. “And at events far more prestigious than Ribbon Days.”

“But you’d never guess that by looking at him now,” Vicki said frankly. “He’s not soft and supple, or working in the correct frame.”

Kelly felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. She realised the truth of her sister’s words, but she couldn’t help the anger that flared inside her.

“It’s not my fault you didn’t train him properly,” she snapped.

“We won Supreme Champion in the last show I rode him at,” Vicki retorted. “He was judged the very best — from all the ponies at the show, across every ring. So don’t you tell me I didn’t train him properly. You’re the one who’s not riding him well enough.”

“Girls!” Dad said firmly. “That’s enough.”

Kelly glared at her big sister. She was fuming. Yet there was no denying that she could see a pattern forming. Koolio had performed terribly for her, and now, with Vicki, he was consistently winning. Dandy, who’d previously won everything with Vicki, wasn’t placing in any of the flat classes now Kelly was riding him. And yet surely her riding couldn’t be at fault when she almost always won her rider classes, both on the flat and over hurdles?

“It doesn’t make sense,” Kelly said after a long silence. “The judges obviously think I’m a good rider.”

“You’re a pretty rider,” Mum said hesitantly, “but not always the most effective.”

Kelly’s anger flared again, and she struggled to keep her voice even. “What do you mean ‘not effective’?”

“At home you mostly ride for fun,” Mum said kindly. “You don’t put the hours into the ponies’ training like Vicki does, and you don’t have the same expectations of them to work correctly. Most of the time, even at shows, you ride around on a long rein and your ponies don’t work on the bit, which is what the judges expect.”

“Vicki takes her ponies on farm rides all the time, too,” Kelly grumbled.

“Yes, she does,” Mum said. “But a couple of times a week she schools them in the paddock, too, and not just riding around like hooligans like you and Amanda. Don’t get me wrong — there’s nothing

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