Comet and the Champion’s Cup
“It’s not like you were her slave! Aunty Hess paid us to work on The Palomino Princess!” Issie said indignantly.
“What-ever!” said Natasha. “Anyway, I’d rather be riding my own horse than trying to teach some snot-nosed brats how to keep their hands steady. You probably won’t even get a chance to ride. You’ll be too busy mucking out the stalls and grooming all their ponies for them.”
Natasha smirked at this put-down, then made a vague gesture across the club grounds to the far paddock. “Anyway, if you’re looking for Stella and Kate, I think I saw them over by the main arena.” And with that, she turned her back on Issie and began to busy herself with attaching Fabergé’s bell boots.
Issie didn’t care what Stuck-up Tucker said. Maybe the riding school would be a lot of hard work and not much actual riding. But it would still be fun just being near the horses, helping to groom them and look after them. She just hoped that Stella and Kate would both feel the same way. Aidan needed all three of them.
Issie found Stella and Kate with their horses, under the shade of the plane trees by the main arena. The girls had finished riding for the morning and were watching the other riders in the showjumping arena.
Stella was lying on the grass next to Coco, her little chocolate brown mare. She had taken off her riding helmet and her wild red curls were sticking out at funny angles with a flat patch on the top of her head where the helmet had been. Kate was standing next to her holding the reins of her rangy bay Thoroughbred, Toby. She was taller than the other two girls, even though they were all in the same form at Chevalier Point High School. Kate still had her helmet on and she wore her blonde bobbed hair tucked up neatly out of the way in a hairnet–which was actually a rule for club days although Stella clearly hadn’t bothered. Stella wasn’t very big on rules. Issie noticed that she wasn’t even wearing her club tie underneath her navy vest.
“Issie! Ohmygod. What are you doing here?” Stella shrieked when she saw her best friend. She shrieked even louder when Issie told her about Aunt Hester’s riding school.
“Us?” Stella shrieked. “Riding instructors!”
“Uh-huh,” Issie said. “The kids are novices so we’ll just be teaching them the basics. Plus, we’ll have to help Hester to run the camp, doing all the other stuff like cooking meals and grooming the horses. She can’t afford to pay us, but we get room and board. Plus you get to bring Toby and Coco with you and we can hack out across the farm after we finish schooling each day.”
Stella grinned. “Cool. If I can bring Coco then I’m totally there!”
Issie knew it would be easy to convince Stella–she was mad keen on anything horsey. But sensible, practical Kate was a different story.
“Why is Hester running a riding school? I thought she trained movie horses,” Kate said.
“Ummm…the movie business is having a few hiccups,” Issie said. “Anyway, it’s not just a riding school, it’s like a camp for horsey kids like us. The riders come and stay at Blackthorn Farm for three weeks over the school holidays and learn to ride…” She saw Kate’s hesitant expression. “Come on! It will be really good fun…”
“When do we go?”
“We need to spend the week before the kids arrive getting the camp ready. Aidan is coming with the horse truck to pick us up on Tuesday.”
“That’s only two days!” Kate boggled. “Issie, I don’t know if I can. Mum will flip out if I tell her I’m going away for a whole month!”
“Please, Kate!” Issie begged. “I know it’s short notice, but Aunty Hess needs us straightaway.”
Issie had been desperately worried that Kate would say no. Of course she would be put off by the idea of suddenly changing her holiday plans and going all the way to Gisborne for a month. The problem was, she couldn’t imagine going without Kate. Cool, calm Kate was a really good riding instructor; she was brilliant with kids and had loads of patience. All the junior riders at Chevalier Point totally adored her and Kate was always Avery’s first choice to fill in and teach the younger kids if an instructor failed to turn up for a practice session.
Kate looked thoughtful. “Issie, do you think you could get your mum to ask my mum? If your mum has OKed it, she’d have to say yes. Besides, I’ve stayed at Hester’s before and she let me go that time, didn’t she…?” Kate was smiling now. “And if I can take Toby with me, how excellent would that be?”
Issie squealed and threw her arms around Kate.
“I knew you’d say yes! Oh, this is going to be so cool!”
The only thing left to organise now was Storm. Issie would miss him so much, but she was sure that Avery would take good care of the colt and Blaze while she was away. Avery had looked after Blaze when she was in foal and Issie was away working on The Palomino Princess. She knew that Avery would be more than happy to take care of Storm and Blaze while she was gone. She saw him over by the clubhouse and set off to ask him.
“I can’t,” Avery told her. Issie couldn’t believe it.
“Issie, you know that normally I would do it,” Avery continued. “The problem is, I was planning to go to Gisborne myself in a week. It’s the Horse of the Year Show. I’m taking Dan and Ben down to prepare their horses to compete in the showjumping. This is the first time Dan will have a chance to compete on his new horse. We’ve been planning it for ages.”
Of course! How could Issie have forgotten? The Horse of the Year was the biggest event on the equestrian calendar.
Avery looked concerned. “I’m sorry, Issie. I can look after Storm and Blaze for the first week, but then we’re trucking Madonna and Max to Gisborne to start training there and I’m afraid that leaves you stuck–unless you figure out a solution.”
Issie was devastated. This completely ruined their plans. She couldn’t leave Storm behind with no one to check on him and care for him each day. And she couldn’t take the colt with her. There was no way he was old enough to travel all the way to Blackthorn Farm. The trip to Gisborne took most of the day in the horse truck, much too far for a three-month-old colt. There was only one solution, Issie decided. She couldn’t go.
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Mrs Brown said when Issie met her back at the car and broke the bad news. “Of course you’re going. It’s all arranged.”
“But, Mum, I can’t leave Storm and Blaze alone.”
“I’ll look after them,” Mrs Brown said confidently.
“You? But, Mum, you don’t even like horses…”
“Oh, for goodness sake, Isadora,” Mrs Brown said. “OK, I think we’re all aware that I’m not exactly Pippa Funnell, but it’s not like you’re asking me to ride at Badminton, is it? I’ve been around them for long enough now and I think it’s perfectly within my capabilities to go and check on your ponies each day. I’ll make sure they’ve got food and water and that Storm hasn’t got himself tangled in the electric fence!”
“Really?”
“Absolutely,” Mrs Brown smiled. “They will be just fine, I promise you.”
Aunt Hester was thrilled that evening when Issie phoned her with the good news. “Aidan’s quite convinced that this riding-school plan will save our bacon–and I certainly hope he’s right,” Hester said. “Is your mum OK about you coming here for the holidays? I haven’t ruined any family plans, have I?”
“Mum’s been great!” Issie said. “And she talked to Mrs Knight and convinced her to let Kate come. She’s even looking after Blaze and Storm while I’m away.”
“Well, well,” Hester said. “It might not be too late for that sister of mine to turn horsey after all.”
“I know!” Issie said. “I can’t believe it’s all organised and we’re really coming. By this time tomorrow we’ll be at Blackthorn Farm.”
Chapter 3
“We’re nearly there!” Issie pressed her face up against the window at the back of the truck cab and mouthed the words through the glass at Stella and Kate.
“What’s she saying?” Kate was frustrated. “I can’t hear her through the glass!”
“Issie!” Stella shouted back. “We can’t hear you! What are you saying?”
The cab of Aunt Hester’s horse truck wasn’t big enough for all the girls to fit up front so it had been decided that Issie would travel in the cab with Aidan while Kate and Stella rode in the back.
The girls didn’t mind riding in the back. The truck was fitted out a bit like a camper van, with a shower, kitchenette and bunk beds, and it was comfy enough travelling on the bench seats. Plus, from where they sat, Stella and Kate could keep an eye on Toby and Coco who were travelling at the very back of the truck in their stalls. The girls could see Issie and Aidan too by peering through the little window with very thick glass at the back of the truck cab.
Issie tapped on the glass and tried again. “I said…We’re nearly there!”
“Oh, give up, Issie!” Aidan grinned. “They’ll figure it out for themselves soon enough. We’re about to reach the turn-off.”
The six-hour drive to Blackthorn Farm had somehow seemed shorter this time. That might have been because she and Aidan hadn’t stopped talking from the moment Issie got into the truck. There was so much for them to catch up on.
“I haven’t seen Nightstorm since he was two days old,” Aidan said, “so that would make him…”
“Three months old!” Issie said. “He’s already almost thirteen hands. Avery reckons he’ll grow to sixteen-two, and he’s so beautiful. He’s losing all his foal fluff and he’s got the most amazing deep bay coat, with a thick black mane and tail and black points. He looks so cute with his white blaze. He’s exactly like his mum in some ways, but he’s kind of like Marius too. He has his own personality though–he’s really smart. I taught him to wear a halter in just one day.”
Aidan pushed his long, dark fringe out of his eyes and looked at Issie. “It must have been hard to leave him.”
“Uh-huh,” Issie said. She didn’t want to tell Aidan that she had been in floods of tears when she said goodbye to the colt last night. She knew it was only a month, but it seemed like such a long time to be away from him when he was so young.
“Well, I’m really glad you came,” Aidan said softly. Then he realised he sounded mushy and tried to make up for it by adding, “Ummm…cos Hester really needs your help.”
Issie smiled. “Hester says you’ve been schooling up a few of the Blackthorn Ponies that we caught when we were here last time.”
The Blackthorn Ponies were a wild herd that roamed the hills around Blackthorn Farm. On her last holiday at the farm Issie and Aidan had saved the herd from a cull. Most of the ponies had been sent to new homes, but Hester had kept a few of them with her at the farm.
“That’s part of the problem,” Aidan continued. “The cost of those extra ponies adds up fast. Hester has thirteen horses now–that’s a lot of farrier bills and hard feed.”
“So the riding school will cover the bills?”
“Uh-huh,” Aidan said. “We won’t make a fortune out of it, but hopefully we’ll make enough to keep the farm going until the next movie job comes along.”
Issie looked worried. “And what if another film job doesn’t come along?”
“Something will turn up soon,” Aidan said reassuringly. “I’m sure everything will be fine.”
“But, Aidan, what if it’s not fine?”
“Well, if things got really tight, I guess we’d have to sell some of the horses,” said Aidan quietly. “Diablo and Stardust are experienced stunt horses–they’re both worth quite a lot. But if that’s not enough…”
“Then what?”
“Then Hester will have to sell Blackthorn Farm.”
For the first time since they had set off on this trip, silence settled over the truck cab. Issie stared out of the windows at the road ahead and couldn’t help wondering if this would be the last time she would be making this journey.
By the time the horse truck came through the narrow Gisborne gorge and began to travel up through the green cornfields towards the high country, Issie had pulled herself together again. In fact, she was positively filled with resolve.
“You’re right. Things will be fine!” she said firmly, smiling at Aidan. The riding school would make enough money–or they’d think of something else. No matter what, there was no way her aunt was going to lose Blackthorn Farm.
Half an hour later, they reached the crest of a very steep hill. To the right, Issie could see the bright blue sea of the Gisborne coastline, and on the left was farmland and forest. Up ahead she could see a gravel road that veered to the left off the main highway.
“We’re here!”
Aidan turned off down the private road, slowing down a gear as the truck struck gravel. Issie watched as the trees closed in around her and the truck became cocooned in the dense native forest that bordered the sides of the driveway that led to Blackthorn Farm. Low-hanging pohutukawa branches scraped against the roof of the truck.
“I keep telling Hester we need to prune the trees back to get the truck through,” Aidan said as he heard the branches scraping the roof above him. “She just tells me to ‘add it to the endless list of things that need doing’!”
A few more scrapes and bangs later and they had emerged into the bright sunlight once more. Issie’s heart leapt when she saw the familiar sight of the cherry trees, their white and pink petals falling in a snowy carpet on the circular lawn in front of Blackthorn Manor.
The tumbledown mansion was just as she remembered. The enormous two-storeyed country manor must once have been very grand, but was, she noted with fresh eyes, definitely rickety and in desperate need of a new coat of white paint.
“It must have been horrible being here over the past couple of months. You know, with all those movies cancelling at the last minute.”
“Actually,” Aidan said, “this will sound weird, but it’s been great. I mean, yeah, it’s been stressful, especially for Hester. But having no film work has meant that I could spend more time riding. I’ve been doing loads of training sessions on Destiny.”
“Like movie training?” Issie asked.
Aidan shook his head. “Showjumping. Destiny’s a natural jumper. He picks his feet up really cleanly and never knocks the rails.”
“How high have you been jumping?”
“He can do about a metre twenty,” Aidan said. “Easily big enough to put him in the prize money.”
“What prize money?” Issie was confused.
“The Horse of the Year Show,” Aidan said. “I haven’t asked Hester yet, but I was thinking of entering him in the novice horse class.”
“Do you think he can win?”
Aidan nodded. “Yep–and it’s decent prize money too. The Horse of the Year is the richest competition in the whole Southern hemisphere. There’s half a million dollars in prize money. If Destiny and I win the novice class, that’s worth $10,000.”
“$10,000?”
“There’ll be loads of competition though,” Aidan continued. “There are riders from all over the country coming down for it.”
“I know,” Issie said. “Tom is coming down next week. He’s bringing Dan and Ben. I think Dan’s riding in the novice class too.”
Aidan seemed to go very quiet at this news. When he finally spoke his voice sounded quite different. “That guy Dan. You go to pony club with him, right?”
“Uh-huh,” said Issie.
“And he’s, like, a friend of yours?” Issie nodded. Aidan went quiet again for a moment.
“Is he your boyfriend?”
Issie was stunned. She hadn’t been expecting this. “No,” she said, “no, he’s not.” Aidan looked relieved.
“Hester is probably waiting for us down at the stables,” he said. “We’ll drive straight through to unload the horses.” He nosed the truck to the right of the circular lawn so that they swept right past the front door of the manor and headed down the limestone drive towards the stables.
“Issie?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You know what I said before? About me being glad that you were here? Well, I am, Issie. I’m really glad. It seems like ages since I saw you and…” Aidan stopped paying attention to the road and stared at Issie. He was fidgeting nervously with the sleeve of his tartan shirt. “The thing is, I’ve been wanting to ask you something the whole way down here…”
He was suddenly interrupted by Issie who let out a loud shriek. “Stop the truck, Aidan! You’re going to hit him!”
Aidan’s foot instinctively went for the brake as he turned to see what had made Issie shout out. In front of them, galloping straight for their truck, was a pony.
“Aidan!” Issie yelled again.
“I see him!” said Aidan, sounding the horn at the pony.
“What’s wrong with him?” Issie asked. “Why doesn’t he get out of the way?” The pony was still galloping towards them. There was no way the truck could stop in time. They would hit him for sure.
“You’ve got to stop!” Issie shouted.
“I’m trying!” said Aidan. “It’s not that simple–we have horses in the truck to think about!”
Issie realised that he was right. If Aidan slammed the brakes on too quickly then Toby and Coco would be thrown forward violently and might be badly hurt. But if Aidan didn’t brake fast enough then the poor pony that was bearing down on them would be killed.
It felt as if everything was in slow motion as the pony continued to gallop at them and tyres skidded against the limestone gravel as Aidan tried to stop. The horrible squeal of truck brakes filled Issie’s ears, overwhelming her in a rush of memory. She had a sickening sense of déjà vu–as if she was reliving that awful day at Chevalier Point. The day when Mystic had been killed. It was nearly two years ago now that the accident had happened. Her mind always got so confused when she tried to think about that day.
Issie remembered trying to stop the runaway horses from heading out on to the main road, her sense of horror as Mystic had reared up to face the truck. Then she was falling backwards and the tarmac was rushing up to meet her. There had been a sickening crack as her helmet hit the road, and the taste of blood in her mouth before it all went black. After that, she couldn’t recall anything until she woke up hours later in the hospital with her mother calling her name. Her mother told her what had happened. She explained how Mystic had saved Issie by throwing her clear of the truck. Issie still remembered the desperate expression on her mother’s face as she struggled to answer her question. “Mum? What about Mystic? Is Mystic OK?”
It was the very worst moment in Issie’s life. Her first pony Mystic had been her best friend. She had loved him so completely, so deeply. Losing him was like losing her own soul.
Now, suddenly, she was living through it all over again. Only this time she was watching it all from inside the truck, powerless to do anything as she sat waiting for the awful, inevitable moment of collision with the horse in front of her.
Issie shut her eyes and held her breath. She couldn’t bear to look. Instinctively she put her arms on the dashboard to brace herself for the impact. A few seconds later, when the crash didn’t come, she opened her eyes again.
The truck had stopped. The horse was nowhere to be seen and Issie suddenly realised that she was crying and shaking and Aidan was holding her tight in his arms. “It’s OK,” he was saying, “it’s all right. We didn’t hit him.”
“Aidan!” Issie felt like she couldn’t breathe. “We were going to hit him. I was sure we were going to…”
“Shhhh, it’s OK. I know. I thought we were going to hit him too. He got out of the way just in time. Are you OK?” Aidan let go of Issie and sat back in his seat.
“Uh-huh.” Issie dried her eyes. “I’m fine.”
“That was close, huh?”
“Where did that horse come from?” Issie wondered. “He seemed to come out of nowhere.”
“He must have jumped out of his paddock again.” Aidan shook his head. “That’s the third time this week. He might have escaped the truck, but I’m pretty sure that this time Hester is going to kill him!”
“You mean he’s done this before?”
“Yeah. Last time he jumped out, he managed to get into the garden shed and ate all of the dog biscuits. He is totally crazy, that pony. Hester is so fed up with him. She can’t afford to put up deer fences to keep him in–and, knowing Comet, he’d probably jump over them anyway!”
“Comet?” Issie said.
“Uh-huh,” Aidan replied. “He’s one of the Blackthorn Ponies that Hester decided to keep. Although I think she’s been regretting the decision ever since.”
Just as he said this, Issie saw her aunt emerge from the rear of Blackthorn Manor. She had a makeshift lead rope in her hands that she had made out of the belt from her dress. She was using it to lead a cheeky-looking skewbald. The pony, for he was just a pony and couldn’t have been more than fourteen-two hands, was skipping merrily at her side. He didn’t seem to notice or care that Hester was looking at him with a murderous expression. The skewbald looked so pleased with himself that, despite the heart attack he had just given her, Issie couldn’t help but immediately have a soft spot for him.
“So that’s Comet?”
“The one and only,” Aidan said darkly. “The skewbald that no paddock can hold.”
As Comet came closer, Issie could see that he was actually rather pretty. The pony was a chestnut with white patches, and he had white socks and a broad, white stripe down his nose. Comet was sturdy and muscular, like all wild Gisborne hill ponies. He had solid legs with thick cannon bones, strong shoulders and powerful hindquarters made for jumping–a fact which he was clearly using to his advantage to get out of the paddock whenever he liked. The pony’s conformation was powerful, but it was his eyes that had Issie totally bewitched. Those eyes! They burnt with an intensity that she hadn’t seen before in any horse.
Comet seemed thrilled that everyone was paying him so much attention. As he danced along at Hester’s side, Issie could have sworn he had the attitude of a champion racehorse. In his mind, this pony wasn’t little at all. He was a colossus.
“Comet! Stand still, naughty pony!” Hester growled. Then she turned to Issie and Aidan. “Isadora! Lovely to see you. I take it you’ve already met Comet?”
“You could say that,” Issie smiled.
“Well, my favourite niece, as you can see, this place hasn’t changed a bit–it’s still completely mad!” Hester said. “Welcome back to Blackthorn Farm.”
Chapter 4
“You mean we were nearly hit by a comet?” Stella said. She and Kate had emerged from the truck and were totally confused by what had just happened.
“No,” Issie giggled. “We nearly hit him. Comet is a horse!” She gestured towards the skewbald pony who was still skipping about as Aunt Hester tried to hold him with the belt off her dress.
“He escaped on to the driveway and we nearly ran him over,” Aidan explained.
“Are Toby and Coco OK?” Hester asked.
“They’re both fine,” Stella said. “They scrambled a bit when the truck stopped suddenly, but they didn’t fall over or anything.”
“Let’s get them unloaded,” Kate suggested. “We can check them over properly in the loose box once we take off their floating bandages.”
Since the truck had been forced to stop halfway down the driveway it seemed easier to simply unload the horses there and walk them the rest of the way.
Toby and Coco came down the ramp with their ears pricked and their heads held high, as horses do whenever they arrive somewhere new. When he saw them Comet gave a whinny of greeting. His whole body reverberated as his clarion call rang out, shaking with a neigh of excitement at having new horses for company.
Hester glared at him. “Oh, do behave yourself, Comet! You really are the most troublesome pony.” She turned to the girls. “I don’t want you to think they’re all this bad. Most of the Blackthorn Ponies we have here are very well schooled. I’ve got several new horses that are perfect learners’ ponies, ideal for the riding school. Come on, let’s put your horses away and then you can meet some of them.”
The stable block at Blackthorn Farm was built from the same white-painted weatherboards as the manor. Inside it was like a giant barn, with bales of hay stacked up in one corner, a storage room for tack and two rows of loose boxes. On the door of each loose box a horse’s head was carved into the honey-coloured wood above a plaque with the horse’s name inscribed on it.