Pony Club Secrets 07- Fortune and the Golden Trophy by Stacy Gregg

Author:Stacy Gregg [Gregg, Stacy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: YA, E
ISBN: 0007270321
Publisher: HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks
Published: 2009-08-06T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

With the Chevalier Point dressage day approaching, Issie had a good excuse to forget about jumping for the next week and focus on learning her dressage test.

The dressage day would be Fortune’s first ever show and Issie had entered him in the novice class for horses who had never competed before. The novice test wasn’t complicated—just a few twenty-metre circles and lots of trot to canter transitions. Issie had run through it a few times and been surprised to find that Fortune did it quite nicely. Even though his bloodlines were made for showjumping, and his paces were a bit rough for dressage, the piebald was doing his best to please her. She could sense that Fortune was really trying his hardest as he grunted and bounced his way through their rehearsals.

As the dressage day grew closer Issie was quietly confident that the piebald would actually put in a reasonable performance.

With all the effort she was putting into Fortune, Issie hadn’t had enough time to train properly with Blaze. She was worried that the mare wouldn’t be ready to do the advanced test that weekend. Issie had managed to ride Blaze a few times each week since she brought her back into work, but was that enough? Issie had been thinking about withdrawing when the decision was made for her. She turned up at the paddock two days before the show to find that Blaze was lame.

Avery came immediately, took one look at the mare and confirmed Issie’s diagnosis.

“It’s probably a stone bruise,” he said, examining Blaze’s near foreleg. “I’ll call the farrier straight away. That shoe will have to come off.”

The farrier clipped back the nails and levered off the metal shoe, exposing a massive stone bruise which oozed pus when it was cut open.

“It’s a bad one,” the farrier told Issie. “I’ve cut away the damaged hoof, but you’ll need to poultice her for a week and you won’t be able to ride her for at least a fortnight.”

Issie was hugely disappointed. She had struggled to get Blaze back into work and now this! Stella, meanwhile, had changed her mind about riding Comet too. She had been planning to enter the skewbald in the advanced class. Then, a week before the show, Mrs Tarrant took her to see a prospective pony to buy. The new pony seemed perfect and the owners had let her take him for a week on trial. Now Stella was planning to ride him at the dressage day instead of Comet.

“I’m sure he’s the right one. He’s not another disaster like Misty,” Stella insisted. In fact, this new pony seemed like the opposite of Misty in every way, and had no conformation problems. He looked utterly perfect and even had fancy breeding and a flashy name—Quantum Leap. He was a very showy pony, a glossy bay, fourteen-two hands high with swishy, elevated paces. Avery had taken one look at Quantum Leap when he first arrived at the paddock and given him the thumbs-up on the physical.

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