Pony Club Secrets 05- Comet and the Champion's Cup by Stacy Gregg

Author:Stacy Gregg [Gregg, Stacy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: E, YA
ISBN: 0007270305
Publisher: HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks
Published: 2009-08-06T04:00:00+00:00

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 notice 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.

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