Foxy: Rivalry at Summer Camp (4 page)

“Does that look okay?” she asked, avoiding Amber’s eye.

Charlie popped in and checked it. “It just needs to be pulled up a bit higher, that’s all,” she explained, showing Holly how to adjust it.

“Thanks.” She smiled sheepishly. “The ponies at Hilltop have their hay tipped into a hay rack, rather than tied up in a net. I’ve only seen it done in my pony care book.”

Rosie heard another shriek from the pool
and felt even hotter and stickier. She hurried everyone back to the tent, then peeled off her jods and wriggled into her swimming costume under her sleeping bag. Finally she emerged, her towel wrapped round her. Amber started to sort through the stuff on her bed, and pulled her costume out of her bag. When they’d all changed, Holly grabbed her pony book, then they walked to the pool in the warm glow of the early evening sunshine.

“So, have you got any ideas what might have happened to Foxy?” Mia asked Amber.

Amber thought for a second. “Well, the only thing I can think is that one of the other
top-ranked
event riders is jealous,” she suggested. “Lily’s been getting so much attention recently. Maybe they took Foxy to ruin her chances of winning.”

Rosie looked puzzled. “But Lily’s riding Firestorm, not Foxy.”

“I know, but even though Foxy’s retired,
everyone on the eventing circuit knows how much he means to Lily,” Amber explained. “She won’t be able to perform anywhere near her best if she’s worried that he’s gone missing—”

Without warning, Amber’s words choked in her throat.

“We don’t have to give up yet,” Mia said, trying to sound confident. “We’ll still help you find Foxy.”

Amber sighed. “What can any of us do while we’re stuck here at camp? We’ve ridden around, and we didn’t find him. Don’t get me wrong – I’d love to keep looking, but if Foxy’s been hidden somewhere outside this village, we don’t stand a chance of finding him.”

“Ah, but we’re the Pony Detectives and we’ve helped find ponies before, even when their owners thought all hope was gone,” Rosie continued proudly. “We’re like a dog with a bone. We don’t let go when a pony goes missing. Ever. Even if someone shakes that bone. Hard.”

Alice nudged Rosie in the ribs, noticing Amber’s confused expression.

“Is there anything else you can tell us about Foxy that might be helpful?” Alice asked.

“Is there a photo we could see?” Charlie chipped in.

“I don’t just carry one round with me all the time, it’s my sister’s pony!” Amber said testily. The Pony Detectives glanced at each other. Amber caught their surprised looks, then she sighed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. There might be a photo in
Pony Mad
. But listen, going on about Foxy all the time isn’t going to help find him; it’s just going to make me more upset, not less.”

With that Amber put her towel down on one of the loungers around the sparkling pool and slipped into the water. Within seconds, Watty and rest of the blue team had swarmed round her. Holly quietly sat with her pony care book, glancing up occasionally.

“So, it sounds like this case is officially closed,” Charlie said.

“
Officially
, maybe,” Mia mused. “But
un
officially, I say we carry on trying to figure out what happened to Foxy. I know it’s a long shot, but I don’t think we should give up. After all, we haven’t failed to solve a mystery yet. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Charlie, Rosie and Alice said in unison, grinning at each other.

“Maybe we should we get
Pony Mad
from the tent now,” Mia suggested.

“If I have to walk all the way back to our tent or, for that matter, just stand here in this sun for another second I’m likely to spontaneously combust,” Rosie said firmly. ‘There’s no way I can do any more investigating before I jump into this pool to cool down, and that’s official.”

“I guess we can leave it till later,” Mia smiled.

Once that was settled, Rosie finally bombed into the water with a mega splash. Mia leaned
away, squeaking as water flew towards her. Rosie bobbed back up, pushing her drenched haystack of blonde hair out of her eyes, her mind filled with thoughts of heroic detective work.

After they’d fed their ponies, and eaten a dinner of chicken and corn-on-the-cob, cooked on a barbecue, everyone made up their ponies’ breakfasts for the next day. They left them covered in the feed room, then headed to one of the sprawling reception rooms in the Hall. They sank into threadbare, squishy sofas and fat armchairs to watch some horsey DVDs.

When the last DVD had ended, Melissa popped her head round the door. “Right, time to get ready for bed,” she said.

Everyone groaned good-naturedly. Destiny jumped up to turn off the television and the
campers started to spill out into the sticky evening.

“Oooh, let’s check on the ponies on the way to our tent!” Rosie grinned, rushing ahead. Dancer gave a soft whicker as Rosie reached the stables. A second later everyone piled in after her. Hettie was nibbling at the hay, and Phantom raised his head as Charlie appeared at his stable door. He snorted with a relaxed flutter of his nostrils. Scout rustled Alice for some treats and Dancer scraped her hoof, leaning against her door, worried she was missing out. Mia rubbed Wish’s neck under her mane, making her stretch out her head blissfully.

After ten minutes, Melissa and Freddie came out, rounding everyone up and asking them to get washed and then go to their tents.

Rosie gave Dancer a final hug goodnight. The girls grabbed their wash bags and fought for space at the washroom sinks, before everyone finally raced to their tents. Mia brushed her
thick, glossy hair while Holly quickly got changed into her pony print pyjamas and wriggled into her sleeping bag. Holly glanced around the tent before picking up her pony book to read. Then she pulled out a purple notebook and started to make notes.

“You’re dedicated,” Alice said, craning her neck to see properly.

Holly smiled. “I just want to make sure I do everything right for Skylark,” she confessed.

Mia looked round. “We’ll all help you,” she said, “won’t we?”

The others, including Amber, nodded.

Holly blushed furiously as Amber smiled back at her.

“I hope I do well and learn loads this week,” Holly added, quietly. “My parents aren’t horsey at all, and they’re hoping that my obsession with ponies is just a passing phase. But I really want to show them it’s more than that. They keep telling my Grammy to stop filling my head with horsey
dreams. She used to work with horses, years ago. I think I must get my love of them from her.”

Holly looked over at Amber and was about to say something more, when Amber started rummaging through her wash bag. Then Amber got up from her creaking camp bed.

“I must have left my toothbrush in the washroom,” she explained. “I’d better pop out and get it.”

She unzipped the door and headed into the fading light. Rosie glanced around her little patch in the tent. She shifted her sleeping bag and tipped up her pillow. With a frown, she started to delve into her stuffed bag.

“What’s up?” Alice asked through a yawn, climbing onto her own bed.

“I can’t find my copy of
Pony Mad,
” Rosie said. She sifted through her clothes, throwing jods and T-shirts in every direction. Mia caught them and began sorting them into piles. “Has anyone seen it?”

Holly shook her head.

“Are you sure you brought it back into the tent after you fell over earlier?” Mia asked, using her torch to check the corners and under the camp beds in the increasing gloom.

“It was here,” Rosie said, tipping out her bag over the green groundsheet.

“Well, it isn’t now,” Charlie said, helping her look.

“First Foxy, now this,” Rosie frowned. “This is crime central!”

Mia was already in her matching pink shorts and T-shirt ready for bed. While Alice and Charlie quickly changed too, Mia climbed on top of her sleeping bag. “Well, nearly every Lily Simpson fan saw it earlier, and loads of them wanted a copy signed by Amber,” she sighed. “So, half the camp knew which tent to find it in.”

“But I can’t believe anyone would be mean enough to take it,” Rosie huffed. “I’d have let anyone borrow it, if they’d just asked.”

Alice noticed Holly studying her book extra hard, although she hadn’t turned a page for ages. Then she watched as Holly put it down and turned off her torch.

“Oh well,” Rosie sighed, starting to bundle her stuff together and shove it near the foot of her sleeping bag in a haphazard pile. She found her cupcake-patterned pyjamas and wriggled into them. “I guess one article about Lily, Firestorm and Foxy was hardly going to help us solve the mystery of Foxy’s disappearance, was it?”

The Pony Detectives lay in their pyjamas on top of their sleeping bags. Any lingering hope of tackling their first celebrity case was fading fast. They turned their torches off , but it still wasn’t quite dark in the stuffy tent. After a few minutes of silence they heard footsteps running past their tent followed by squeals and giggles.

“I can recognise Watty’s laugh already,”
Rosie smiled. The next second, Watty’s head bobbed in. Her face dropped.

“Where’s Amber?” she frowned, waving a bit of paper. “We’ve found something for her to sign!”

Behind Watty, Rosie could hear the rest of the blue team giggling.

“She nipped to the washroom,” Charlie said, sitting up. “Although she’s been ages. I hope she hasn’t got lost.”

At that moment Freddie’s voice rang out. “That’s enough talking,” he said. “Time for sleep. And I want everyone back in their own tents, please!”

Watty giggled again and her face disappeared. The Pony Detectives settled back down onto their sleeping bags, just as Amber rushed in. She quickly got changed and slid into her sleeping bag.

“Did you find it?” Mia asked.

“What?” Amber frowned.

“Your toothbrush,” Mia said.

“Oh, yes, thanks.” Amber smiled, patting her wash bag.

The tent was silent for a few moments, and then there was a rustle.

“Does anyone fancy a midnight feast?” Rosie whispered.

Alice and Charlie began to giggle.

“Go to sleep, Rosie!” Mia said.

“Is that a no?” Rosie asked, as they all heard a sweet wrapper wrinkle. Alice glanced across, and could just about make out Holly smiling into the darkness. There was a small thud, as a sweet landed on Alice’s sleeping bag. She saw another land on Holly’s.

Alice lay in the heat, unwrapping the sweet. She had a feeling that camp was going to be packed full of fun.

R
OSIE
woke in the green-tinted glow of the canvas after Mia prodded her for the fourth time. The early Sunday-morning sun was already starting to warm the tent.

“What time is it?” Rosie asked croakily, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

“Time to get up,” Charlie replied, pulling on her jodhpurs. “We’ve got inspections, remember?”

Rosie groaned. “Just five more minutes, please?”

“No, come on, we’ve got to feed the ponies,” Alice said, nudging Rosie with her foot.

Rosie sat up and looked round. “Where are Holly and Amber?”

“Holly was out before we even woke up.”
Charlie shrugged. “Amber left a few minutes ago.”

Mia had already brushed and pulled back her long hair. She was dressed in a fresh pair of crease-free pink jods and a clean T-shirt. The others just grabbed what they’d had on the day before.

“I don’t believe it,” Rosie groaned, frantically rummaging through her untidy pile of clothes.

“What now?” Charlie asked, looking over.

“I can’t find a single pair of socks!” Rosie explained. “I must’ve forgotten to pack them! If I go sockless all week my jodhpur boots will be really stinky!”

Alice giggled. “I’ve got some spare pairs. You can borrow them.”

Charlie and Mia dug out a couple of spares, too. Rosie hastily pulled on a pair of Alice’s, which were too tight and swapped them for Charlie’s, which had a hole in, but Rosie kept them on anyway. While Mia tidied her
corner of the tent, the others quickly raked brushes through their hair. Then they stepped out of the tent onto the dewy grass. A few of the other campers were starting to emerge too, and murmuring, sleepy voices having muffled conversations could be heard from other tents.

Holly was already busy forking a full barrow of muck onto the muck heap, but she joined the other teams as they made their way to the feed room.

“How long have you been up?” Charlie asked her as everyone collected their pony’s feed bucket and brought them back to the stables.

“A while,” Holly admitted as Skylark tucked into his feed. “I was too excited to sleep.”

During morning stables, the blue team buzzed around Amber, helping to pick up Copper’s droppings, or refill the water buckets. Once the mucking out was finished, everyone set about grooming their ponies, making them
sparkle. The blue team insisted on fetching Copper’s grooming kit and picking out his hooves for Amber.

After the camp had paused for breakfast, the riders headed back to the stables, grabbing their tack on the way. Scout’s rack was next to Copper’s, and as Alice gathered her gear, Watty and Emily rushed over. Watty quickly grabbed Copper’s expensive saddle from the rack and Alice couldn’t help but overhear her hushed conversation with Emily.

“Amber will
have
to invite us to Chestnut Grove after all this help, won’t she?” Watty whispered, with a little giggle.

“Totally!” Emily grinned, unhooking the bridle.

They ran out, excited, to help tack up. Then stables were neatened, forelocks were combed and hooves were oiled. Watty and Emily fussed around Copper, and when Holly asked someone to check her tacking up before the inspection,
Amber volunteered in an instant, desperate to escape.

As the sun rose in the cloudless sky, so too did the temperature. After the instructors inspected their team’s stables, all the campers led their ponies over to four neatly kept, well-covered grass arenas. Freddie directed the purple team to the furthest one.

“Line up in the middle, please!” he called out.

The six riders stood next to their ponies. Skylark reached his large nose over towards Scout’s, blowing gently down his nostrils. Scout blew back, making Alice and Holly smile as they watched their ponies make friends.

Freddie began inspecting each rider and pony. He pulled a long strand of hay from Dancer’s tail. As he showed it to Rosie, Dancer made a dive for it. The girls all stifled a giggle.

“Remember, good riding,” Freddie said sternly, “starts with good presentation.”

“Ah, so
that’s
where I’ve been going wrong,” Rosie said, looking down at the juice stain on her T-shirt.

Freddie gave Wish, then Copper an appraising glance. “This is a very high standard of turnout,” he said, as Mia and Amber exchanged a smile. “Make sure you both keep it up.”

Then he pulled Charlie up for being scruffy compared to her beautifully presented horse, and Holly for missing a stable stain near Skylark’s girth.

After the inspection was finished, Freddie helped everyone into the saddle, either legging them up or by holding stirrups and tightening girths.

“Before we start, I want to get an idea of everyone’s aim for the week,” he said, “and what everyone’s ambition is in riding. Let’s start with you, Alice.”

“Um, I haven’t ever ridden over a proper cross-country course before,” Alice said, twiddling with Scout’s mane. “So I want to learn how to get confident jumping big, solid fences.”

Charlie said that her big ambition was to showjump Phantom at the Horse of the Year show, but at camp, she’d settle for having as much fun with him as possible. Rosie made everyone – except Freddie – laugh by saying that she’d just like Dancer to move less like a camel and more like a pony. Next up was Holly. She looked round a bit shyly, before clearing her throat.

“This might sound crazy,” she said, avoiding looking at Amber, “but it’s my dream to get to Burghley one day, just like Lily Simpson.”

Alice noticed that the muscle in Freddie’s jaw flickered for a second.

“A noble ambition,” Freddie said, before taking a deep breath and turning to Mia.
Mia said that although she normally aimed for red rosettes in showing classes, this week she wanted her and Wish to try something new.

Freddie nodded and looked over at Amber. “And finally, Amber. What would you like to get out of this week?”

“Um, well, I’d like to compete at the highest level too,” she said. “But my ambition right now is to come first in this week’s competition.”

Freddie nodded, then got the purple team going. He watched as they rode twenty-metre circles, figures of eight and serpentines in walk and trot. Charlie could feel Phantom was tense beneath the saddle, his ears pricked, looking for the slightest excuse to explode. She kept her reins as loose as she dared as she warmed her horse up, talking to him quietly under her breath. As she rode a half-circle, she saw Skylark on the track ahead of her, picking up his round hooves in a high-stepping walk. Charlie steered Phantom round him. On the other side of
the arena, Scout was so excited that he squealed as he went into canter, setting Phantom off in a series of bucks. As Alice called across an apology, Rosie watched enviously.

“Why don’t you ever get excited about schooling, Dancer?” she sighed. As if in response, Dancer trotted slower and slower until she finally ground to a shambling walk.

Wish was as unflappable as ever, even in the new surroundings. The palomino mare swished her cream tail, trotting and cantering elegantly around the arena, with Mia sitting neatly in the saddle. As she turned Wish onto a circle, Mia glanced across and saw Amber pushing Copper into an extended trot. Copper arched his neck, flicking his hooves flamboyantly.

“Watch out!” Alice squeaked.

Mia looked round at the last second, just as she was about to crash into Scout.

“Sorry!” Mia said, steering Wish quickly away.

“Concentrate, everyone,” Freddie reminded them.

The group did as Freddie instructed, and Alice noticed that although Copper was the best schooled pony in the purple team, it was Skylark who really stood out. Alice knew that Holly hadn’t been riding long, and so, she’d expected to see her riding like a novice. Instead, even though her position wasn’t perfect and Freddie had to keep correcting her, she had a natural seat in the saddle. And it was clear from the way that Skylark’s ears were flicking back and forward that he was already listening intently to this new rider. Holly was communicating to him so clearly that by the end of the lesson Skylark was responding to Holly’s lightest command – first in trot, then in canter, too.

Eventually, Freddie called everyone into the middle of the arena. Copper stood square, and Amber sat tall on top, looking immaculate.

Freddie debriefed the ride, pointing out what he wanted them to improve on during the week. Holly had a long list, just like each of the Pony Detectives, but Freddie also singled her out for praise, saying that she had a light touch and that she’d already managed to form an impressive rapport with her pony. He left Amber until last, and Alice thought she looked slightly anxious as Freddie began his appraisal.

“Amber, Copper’s clearly a beautifully schooled pony,” he said, “and you ride very neatly.”

Amber’s pale face lit up, and a broad smile spread across her face.

“But don’t forget that riding’s not just about sitting in the saddle looking pretty,” Freddie continued. “I want to see you tuning in to your pony and responding to what he’s doing under you. That’s what Holly did really well.”

As Holly blushed at the praise, Amber’s smile faded.

“I’ll expect an improvement from all of you this afternoon,” Freddie finished. “Now, time to get the ponies washed down.”

Once the ponies had all been taken back to the yard and hosed down, they were turned out into the paddocks beside the grass arenas. The instructors managed the grazing carefully. Electric ribbon was stretched between the post-and-rail fences to divide up the paddocks. Ponies that were stabled together at home were turned out together, while others, like Copper, had their own individual patches.

Each of the paddocks had some shade from the leafy canopy of horse chestnut trees dotted through them. The Pony Detectives turned their ponies out together, and Charlie ran back to lead Hettie to the field, too. Phantom paced restlessly, his head high, his fine mane swishing
with each step until Hettie appeared at the gate and trotted over to him. Scout and Wish walked the perimeter of their new paddock, while Dancer found a shady spot and chomped great mouthfuls of grass like she’d been starved for years.

The only two that were on a strict ‘no grass’ diet and had to stay in the stables were Skylark and Destiny’s pony, Topaz.

“How come they can’t be turned out?” Rosie asked, chucking Dancer’s headcollar and lead rope back into her stable. She thought how miserable Dancer would be if she couldn’t stuff herself with grass.

“Topaz is prone to laminitis,” Destiny explained as everyone rushed to the hall to grab packed lunches. “If she eats too much rich, sugary summer grass, it affects her hooves and can make her really lame.”

“Freddie said that Skylark’s exactly the same,” Holly said, smiling at Destiny.

Suddenly Holly’s face lit up. “I know! Why don’t we take our sandwiches into the stables and eat them with Skylark and Topaz? That way they won’t feel left out!”

Destiny agreed at once and they both ran off to keep their ponies company.

Rosie and the other Pony Detectives carried their lunches back outside into the sunshine and collapsed under the tree in their paddock. Amber came over and joined them.