Dream Pony Page 2

  “Yes, but Susie Matthews and Emma James went on a Rychester hack last week and said it was brilliant,” Jess remarked. “They came back full of it – how clean and smart Rychester was, how beautiful and responsive the ponies were, how they’d gone on a really fast ride…”

  “How they almost broke their necks, how expensive their hack was, how they’d almost throttled a snotty girl on a palomino pony,” Rosie finished, grinning.

  “Maybe,” Jess laughed along with her friend. “But you must admit, Rosie, they were all pretty good riders. A bit dangerous perhaps, but certainly daring.”

  “Well, you’ve always been more adventurous than me, Jess,” Rosie sighed. “Anyway, do you really think that Nick is worried about Rychester?”

  “It definitely sounds that way,” Jess replied grimly.

  “I suppose money’s always tight here at the best of times, and with Storm Cloud being lame, Nick hasn’t got as many horses to hire out as before,” Rosie mused.

  “That’s true.” Jess paused in her polishing. “And what with lessons being cancelled because of the bad weather – apparently Rychester has an indoor school, and it’s full-sized!”

  “Luxury!” Rosie said.

  Jess looked around the scruffy tack room, and down at Minstrel’s worn bridle in her hands. “You know, if I didn’t love Sandy Lane so much, I’d probably think it was rather run-down.”

  “It’s not run-down, it’s just…” Rosie paused while she searched for the right words. “It’s just lived-in, that’s all!”

  “What’s lived-in?” A voice at the doorway made them jump. They whipped around to see Nick standing behind them.

  “Oh nothing, Nick,” Rosie blushed furiously. She wondered how much he had heard. But Nick was smiling at them.

  “Well done you two.” He entered the tack room and indicated the pile of tack on the table. “That needed a good clean. I think there’s enough there to add up to a lesson at 2 o’clock for you both. If you want to have one that is.”

  “Oh yes please!” Jess and Rosie cried at once.

  “Good. I’ll see you later in the outdoor school then.” Nick gave them a wave and then he was gone.

  “Do you think he heard?” Jess asked as soon as he was out of earshot.

  “I don’t think so,” Rosie reassured her. “Don’t worry, Jess. I’m sure Sandy Lane isn’t about to fall apart just yet. But that bridle will if you don’t get some saddle soap on it!”

  3

  THE UNFAIRNESS OF LIFE

  “So you didn’t win your precious dream pony then,” Jack laughed as he read the local newspaper.

  “What was that?” Jess looked at her brother over the top of her horse book.

  “You didn’t win that competition – the one you made Mum sign the form for,” Jack started again and grinned annoyingly.

  “Give me that.” Jess scowled, grabbing the Daily Advertiser out of Jack’s hands.

  Quickly she turned to the page Jack had been looking at and scanned the article. Sure enough, the winner of the ‘Win a Dream Pony Competition’ was announced. So that was that then. Jess threw down the paper and sighed. She’d known there was no chance of winning, but a little part of her had half-hoped that she might.

  Jess picked up the paper again and scrutinised the words mournfully. “Local girl, Amanda Fisher, twelve years old and now the proud owner of her dream pony…” Jess read aloud.

  “Ah, the unfairness of life.” Jack swallowed the last of his toast and grabbed his coat from the back of a chair. “It’s a valuable lesson to learn,” he said. “The Jess Adamses of this world never win the competitions. It’s always the Amanda Fishers.” He was out of the door before Jess had time to throw a cushion at him.

  At school the next day, Rosie mentioned the competition too.

  “I saw that the pony had been won by someone local. Lucky girl, whoever she is.”

  “Isn’t she?” Jess replied. “Of course I knew I wasn’t really going to win, but there was no harm in hoping.”

  Rosie smiled sympathetically as Jess shrugged her shoulders and moved on in the lunch queue.

  “Well, yours was a good tiebreaker, Jess,” Rosie said as she slid her tray along the canteen shelf and put a plate of salad on it. “Still, just think of that two hour hack Nick’s got lined up for us on Saturday.”

  “That’s true,” Jess grinned, piling her plate with chips. “Things aren’t so bad, are they?”

  “Jess Adams!” Miss Gregory, the maths teacher, appeared at her elbow. “If I don’t see your homework on my desk by the end of the lunchbreak you’ll be doing it after school under my supervision.”

  Jess made a face at the teacher’s departing back and Rosie laughed reassuringly. “Come on,” she whispered. “I’ll help you finish it. It’s not that difficult actually.”

  By the time the school bell signalled the end of the day at 4 o’clock, Jess had almost forgotten about the competition. With Rosie’s help, she had finished her maths homework and handed it in on time. Then they had had double English till the end of the day.

  “Very good, Jess,” the English teacher, Mrs. Peters, had commented, staring over Jess’s shoulder at the pony doodles on Jess’s pad. “I’m sure you’ll make an excellent artist.”

  “What? Oh–” Jess reddened. “I-I–”

  “Hmm, well don’t let me catch you doing it again. But Mrs. Peters was smiling as she walked up to the front of the classroom.

  “Sorry,” Jess mumbled as she packed up her things and left the classroom, hurrying to catch the bus home.

  As Jess turned down the path to the ramshackle old cottage where she lived, her mother opened the front door.

  “Hurry up Jess,” she called, waving the telephone receiver in her hand. “There’s a phone call for you.”

  “Who is it?” Jess cried, flinging down her school bag in the hallway.

  “Wait and see,” her mother said mysteriously as she handed the receiver over to Jess.

  “Hello,” Jess said, a little breathless from the run.

  “Is that Jess Adams?” said a friendly female voice at the other end. “Hi, I’m phoning from Browne’s Department Store. You recently entered our ‘Win a Dream Pony Competition’ – the one sponsored by Vrai Vert Cosmetics?”

  “Yes, yes I did,” Jess said, her heart beating faster as she waited for the woman to go on.

  “Well, congratulations,” the voice continued. “You’re now the proud owner of that pony.”

  “What?” Jess’s heart was in her mouth. “But I-I thought someone called Amanda Fisher won it. It said so in the paper.”

  “She did,” the woman said. “Only unfortunately what we didn’t find out until today was that her parents hadn’t actually given her permission to enter.”

  Jess’s heart started to beat faster. “But didn’t they sign the entry form?” she asked.

  “I’m afraid that Amanda Fisher forged her mother’s signature,” the woman went on to explain. “And her parents don’t want her to have a pony. So that disqualifies her – we cannot give her the pony if her parents don’t agree. It’s very sad for her, but good news for you as first runner-up. I only wish we’d found out the truth before it had gone to press.”

  Good news for you. The words rang in Jess’s ear.

  “Jess, are you there?” The woman started to speak again.

  “Yes, yes, I’m here,” Jess said, excited.

  “Well, I was going to be phoning you anyway with the news that you’d won some runners-up beauty products,” the woman explained. “But I’m afraid this means you won’t be getting them now.”

  Jess almost laughed out loud. Imagine Rosie’s face if she had won those! But that didn’t matter. And now the woman was starting to talk again.

  “Needless to say, I had a word with your mother, but it seems that her signature on your entry form was genuine, although I get the impression she was a little taken aback. Of course there’s free stabling for a year at Rychester Riding Stables
and the pony’s tack is part of the prize too…anyway, I’ve popped all the details in the post. You should get them tomorrow. So, well done Jess. … Jess? Hello? Are you still there?”

  Jess hadn’t heard much of what the woman was saying but one word had jumped out at her – Rychester. Had she heard correctly? Had the woman really said Rychester? Jess stood rooted to the spot, butterflies darting and spiralling in her stomach.

  “But I ride at Sandy Lane Stables,” she started slowly. “Can’t I keep the pony there?”

  “I don’t think that would be possible,” the woman said. “You see the deal’s already been arranged.”

  “But couldn’t it be changed?” Jess pushed, starting to panic.

  “Not at this stage, I’m afraid.”

  “Oh.” Jess didn’t know what to say. It was a dream come true to have won a pony, but to have to stable it somewhere other than Sandy Lane and worse still – Rychester!

  Suddenly Jess pulled herself to her senses. She was being silly. Here she was, being handed a prize pony on a plate, and she was arguing about the stabling. How selfish of her!

  “Rychester it will have to be then…yes thanks,” Jess said, quick to remember her manners.

  Gently her mother took the phone away from her. From what seemed like miles away Jess could hear her mother’s voice, wrapping up the conversation.

  “Yes, thanks for ringing. We’ll wait for the details. Of course Jess will be happy to do some publicity photo-shots. Yes that would be great. Speak to you soon. Bye.” And then she had put the receiver down and turned to Jess.

  “Well,” she said finally. “I’d never have signed that form if I thought there was a chance you’d actually win the wretched thing. I don’t know what we’ll do when the year’s up and the free stabling comes to an end, but I suppose we’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.” But she was smiling, and Jess could see she wasn’t cross. “We’ll talk about it when Dad gets home. Are you all right, Jess?”

  “All right? All right?” Jess let out a whoop of delight and flung her arms around her mother. “A pony! A pony!” she cried. “My very own pony! I can’t believe it. This is the happiest day of my life. It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of!”

  4

  NO MORE SANDY LANE?

  Jess read the letter through again. She had already read it twice, but it was only now as she read it a third time, that it all really sank in.

  “Congratulations Jess,” she read. “You are the lucky winner of the Browne’s / Vrai Vert Cosmetics dream pony. Your pony will be arriving on Saturday March 1st at 11 o’clock at Rychester Riding Stables, Rychester, near Colcott, where it will be stabled for a year, free of charge. We have arranged a time for you to look around your pony’s new home the Sunday before its arrival.”

  Then in smaller type was something about the winner giving permission for photographs and a lot of legal looking instructions. Jess didn’t look too closely at that. She was too excited. She loved the bit in the letter about having won her own pony, but the words that kept jumping out at her were Rychester Riding Stables. Would this mean she would have to leave her beloved Sandy Lane Stables behind forever? And then she couldn’t help but remember Nick’s worried face when he’d been telling them about Rychester. Whatever was he going to say when he heard about this?

  Jess paced up and down the hallway. Maybe there was something Nick could do. Just maybe if she showed him the letter, he’d be able to persuade the competition organizers to let her stable her pony at Sandy Lane. Then everything would be perfect.

  Jess turned these thoughts over in her mind as she looked at her watch. It was already half past one and she’d promised to meet Rosie at Sandy Lane at two. She’d have to be quick. Rosie would be dying to know all the details about the pony. By the time Jess had rung her the night before to tell her the news, it had been late and there hadn’t been much time to talk.

  Rosie was waiting impatiently at the tack room door when Jess cycled into the stable yard twenty minutes later.

  “I can’t believe it, Jess,” Rosie cried at once. “You lucky thing. Come inside and tell me all about it.”

  Jess dumped her bike and followed her friend’s excited chatter into the tack room.

  “It’s all thanks to you, Rosie,” she said. “After all, I’d never have sent off the competition form if you hadn’t encouraged me.”

  “Yes, but you wrote the tiebreaker,” Rosie said charitably. “Anyway, I hope you’re going to let me ride this pony whenever I want to, Jess,” she finished with a grin.

  “Of course you can,” Jess smiled with excitement at her friend. “I don’t even know what the pony looks like yet,” she admitted. “But I keep on imagining it. Perhaps it’ll be a beautiful chestnut like Chancey. Or a black thoroughbred like Midnight.”

  “It might be a palomino,” Rosie cried.

  “I won’t even care if it’s a shaggy little skewbald like Minstrel,” Jess smiled happily. “Whatever it’s like it’ll be my own pony, Rosie. My very own.”

  One by one, the rest of the afternoon ride piled into the room and Jess was quick to share her news.

  “Your own pony?” Kate exclaimed. “Lucky, lucky you.”

  “I was going to enter that competition,” Alex said. “I just never got around to it.”

  “Congratulations,” Tom grinned.

  And as everyone checked their names in the ride book and gathered up tack, there were more questions.

  “So what’s this pony like then, Jess?”

  “When’s it arriving?”

  “Will you be jumping it at Ash Hill?”

  “Just think, another pony at Sandy Lane,” Rosie cried. “It’s exciting for all of us.”

  Jess squirmed in her seat.

  “Well actually, there’s a bit of a problem, Rosie,” Jess said, feeling uncomfortable. “You see I might not be able to stable it at Sandy Lane. It’s already been arranged for the pony to be stabled somewhere else.”

  “Somewhere else?” The others looked on in disbelief, as if there could be no other place in the world except Sandy Lane. “Well, where then?”

  “Um, it’s at Rychester actually,” Jess blurted the words out.

  “Rychester!” Rosie was the first to speak. “Oh no Jess.”

  “I know.” Jess hung her head sorrowfully. “They said it had all been arranged already.”

  “Oh.” Jess’s friends didn’t know what to say.

  “Well, it might have seemed like a pretty reckless stables, but perhaps it won’t be so bad,” Tom offered tentatively.

  “And maybe the riders won’t be so snooty in real life,” Kate added.

  But it was Rosie who openly voiced the real opinions of the others.

  “Oh Jess, you can’t go to Rychester,” she wailed. “What about Nick?”

  “Do you think I want to go there?” Jess interrupted her. “There’s no way I want to leave Sandy Lane, Rosie. In fact, I was going to talk to Nick straight away and show him the letter…see if he can do anything about it.” She made a determined face and leapt up from her chair. “I’ll go and look for him now.”

  Jess ran across to the little cottage just behind the stables where Nick and his wife Sarah lived. The door was on the latch as usual. All the Sandy Lane riders had to do was give a quick knock and push it open. Nick and Sarah were always available and always welcoming. Jess paused in the hallway to give Ebony, the black Labrador, a pat. “Nick?” she called out.

  “In the kitchen,” he replied.

  Nick sat at the kitchen table surrounded by paperwork. “I’m doing the accounts,” he said as Jess walked in.

  “Oh,” Jess said, shifting from foot to foot, excitement making her unusually nervous.

  “Nick, I’ve won a pony,” she said slowly.

  “A pony?” Nick’s voice sounded pleased and surprised. “Well you don’t look very happy about it, Jess. That’s brilliant news. Congratulations, how did that happen?”

  Quickly, Jess
explained everything. “I know it should be perfect, it’s just that there’s a slight catch,” she said, drawing her breath in sharply.

  “A catch?” Nick looked seriously at her.

  “It’s the stabling,” Jess hurried on. “You see it’s free for a year, only I’ve got to keep the pony somewhere that the competition organizers have arranged, and that place is at Rychester Riding Stables.”

  “Rychester Riding Stables?” Nick’s voice was polite and measured.

  “Yes, look, it’s all in this letter,” Jess said handing it over. Nick started to read as Jess began to speak again.

  “Only I was wondering, well hoping really, that you might phone them for me…see if we could change the stables to here. It would sound better coming from you, Nick,” she said.

  “Well, I don’t know,” Nick said doubtfully. “You see it lays out the terms and conditions quite clearly,” he said, pointing to a section of the letter.

  “I know.” Jess looked glum.

  “Look, I’ll give them a ring on Monday and see what they say. They’ll be closed over the weekend. Maybe Sarah and I could even come up with something here if we could use the pony in lessons in return for stabling. Leave it with me to consider over the weekend.”

  “Oh thanks Nick,” Jess said, relieved.

  “I’m not making any promises, Jess,” Nick said seriously. “So don’t go pinning your hopes on anything.”

  “I won’t,” Jess said, skipping out of the door with new resolve.

  Pausing by the trough in the corner of the yard, Jess looked around her at Sandy Lane Stables and sighed. The water in the small pond just in front of the cottage was muddied and cloudy. The surface in the outdoor school was worn and patchy. And one of the barn doors was hanging off its hinges. The stables looked worn and shabby, but they were clean, and Jess couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

  5

  RYCHESTER

  Rychester Riding Stables lay a good twenty minute bike ride from Jess’s house, right on the other side of Colcott. Tomorrow was Monday, when Nick would be phoning the competition organizers to see what he could do. In the meantime, there was no harm in going along with the competition letter and looking around Rychester. Jess knew though, if she was completely honest with herself, that she wasn’t just at Rychester that Sunday because it had been arranged for her to look around the stables. There was something else too – Jess was curious…curious to see what the stables that was taking so much Sandy Lane custom was like.