Foxy: Rivalry at Summer Camp (9 page)

“Y
OU’LL
never believe it, Amber!” Watty guff awed at breakfast on Wednesday morning as she stared up at the score sheet.

“Does she always have to be so loud?” Rosie groaned through a huge yawn. The Pony Detectives had put their ponies away the night before, then crept past Holly and Amber, climbed back into their sleeping bags, and crashed out straightaway. But Mia’s alarm seemed to go off only minutes later. Now they all felt sluggish.

“What?” Amber asked, walking over to stand next to Watty.

“Holly’s only gone and pinched the lead from you,” Watty squawked, “on her
riding-school
slow-coach!”

Watty seemed to have been tickled by the scores, and was completely oblivious to the fact that Amber was quietly fuming beside her.

But it was clear that Holly had noticed. “It’s only by a couple of points,” she said, trying to play it down.

“I can count, you know,” Amber snapped icily.

As she sat down at the long table, Rosie attempted to cheer her up, saying, “At least our team’s still in first place.”

But Amber just glowered at Rosie over her cereal.

“Are we keeping you up?” Freddie asked as the Pony Detectives spent the warm-up yawning their heads off.

“Sorry,” Charlie called back. Phantom skittered away from the first cross-country
fence, sensing Charlie’s lack of concentration, but they jumped it the next time round. Then the group moved on to the water complex. First there was a log pile, and then the ground sloped into a gulley of water with another slope back up on the other side. Two strides of canter would bring them to a narrow brush fence, called a skinny.

Everyone began by walking and trotting their ponies down the slope into the water and back up the other side before they tackled the log pile, water, and skinny fence together.

“Any volunteers to go first?” Freddie asked, looking round.

“I’ll go,” Amber offered, and pressed Copper into a strong canter.

“Short and bouncy, remember,” Freddie called out, but Amber kicked on.

“Looks like she’s going for top marks today,” Charlie said, wincing as Copper stumbled slightly going into the water.

“I guess she wants to get back up to first place on the score sheet,” Mia said, holding her breath as Amber sat still in the saddle.

Copper didn’t see the skinny brush until the last second. He made a huge effort to twist over it, and Amber just managed to cling on.

“Amber, you’ve got a very honest pony there who wants to please, but you can’t just sit there expecting Copper to do it
all
for you,” Freddie called over. “You’ve got to
ride
as the fences get trickier.”

Amber didn’t look over, but jagged Copper in the mouth, looking frustrated. Freddie noticed and took a deep breath. “And don’t tell your pony off. It wasn’t his fault.”

The rest of the riders followed. Dancer goggled and refused the skinny, but on the second attempt, with Rosie growling at her, she bundled over. Then they all moved on to the next fence, a trakehner.

“That looks hideous!” Rosie groaned as
they stared at a thick telegraph pole elevated diagonally across a shallow ditch.

Freddie talked through the approach, but there were still quite a few refusals, including a rare one from Wish. Mia’s mare snorted and insisted on being allowed to inspect the ditch before she’d even think about jumping it. Once she’d seen it, she jumped it neatly enough.

Phantom ballooned over it, chucking Charlie so far out of the saddle that she flew off and landed on her feet next to him on the other side of the fence. She and Phantom both looked as surprised as each other. Freddie legged her back up and next time they stayed intact. By the third time, they jumped it perfectly.

Copper didn’t bat an eyelid as he went over but Skylark had a good look at the trakehner, slowing on his approach. Holly kept her legs glued to his sides, and with a flicker of his ears, he ballooned over it. But, like Phantom, the next time round he was better, and soon Phantom,
Skylark and Copper were leading the other less confident ponies over the jump.

The copse came next. The ponies had to jump over some tyres, taking them from the sunshine into shady woods, ride downhill to a log pile at the bottom, then back up the other side of the hill and out into the sunshine over some more tyres. Alice sat back over the first fence as Scout jumped hesitantly. His hooves skidded down the hill before he scrambled over the log and flew up the hill the other side. He gave an excited buck after jumping back into the sunshine.

Holly sat back in her saddle. She steadied Skylark right up so that he popped into the shade slowly, earning a “well ridden” from Freddie. Phantom, on the other hand, nearly sky-rocketed Charlie when he launched over the first tyres not realising there was a drop the other side.

“Remember that your pony doesn’t know what’s coming next,” Freddie called out to
everyone as they rode to the next fence, “but
you
do. That’s why you have to get the approach right so that they don’t fly a drop fence, or go too slow for a big spread. And the approach is especially important for this next one.”

Freddie walked over to the steps with them. There were three bounces up onto a level bank, then two strides followed by a drop down at the other end.

“You need to approach this fence with enough impulsion to get you to the top,” Freddie explained, jumping up each step to demonstrate, “but at a very steady pace so you don’t jump too big up the bounces. Has anyone ridden steps before?”

Amber’s hand shot up.

“Um, okay, but maybe we should have Phantom or Skylark to go first,” Freddie suggested hesitantly.

But Amber didn’t listen. Instead, she trotted Copper in a sweeping circle, then picked up
canter. She lined up for the first step.

“Steady him,” Freddie called out. “You need to tell him to steady into this!”

But Amber kept on coming. Copper leaped up the first step with too much speed. He landed close to the next step but somehow managed to scramble up it. The honest gelding was about to stop, when Amber gave him a sharp tap with her whip on his shoulder. Copper flattened his ears and redoubled his efforts. He leaped up onto the top level in a tangle of legs, but was almost down on his nose and knees, with his rump higher than his head.

“Sit up!” Freddie yelled, but Amber was already halfway up Copper’s neck as his momentum took him to the edge of the drop on the other side of the bank. He slammed the brakes on to avoid it. Amber was tipped over Copper’s shoulder, and landed with a thud on the ground below.

Freddie rushed over to her, just as she stood
up and dusted herself down. Copper turned and popped back down the steps. He bumped into Wish and stopped, shaking. Mia leaned over and caught up his reins, scratching his withers to try and reassure him.

“I only fell off because my saddle was so slippery,” Amber said. Mia could see the tears welling up in Amber’s eyes as she took Copper’s reins back. “Watty and her gang have been cleaning it every five seconds. If they’d left it alone I would have been fine!”

“You should be cleaning your own tack,” Freddie pointed out, not unkindly.

“It’s not like I don’t
try
,” Amber said, frustration making her voice waver, “they just won’t leave my stuff alone.”

Freddie nodded, then checked Copper. “He seems okay,” Freddie said. “We were going to do the tiger trap last – but I think you should just pop Copper over something simple like the brush fence.”

“But I’m fine to jump the tiger trap,” Amber said, “honestly!”

“I’m thinking of Copper,” Freddie said gently, “not just you.”

Amber sighed, but she didn’t argue any further. “I’ll just take him back, then.”

Freddie watched them walk away for a moment, then turned back to the others. “Right, let’s see how the rest of you do.”

As Holly and Skylark bobbed up the steps in a bouncy canter, Alice glanced behind her. Amber had stopped Copper and turned around to watch Holly jump.

At lunch, Amber looked subdued. Watty and her gang had fussed round, asking if she’d hurt herself, carrying her lunch for her and not leaving her side for a second.

“I can’t believe you fell off!” Watty said,
rubbing it in without meaning to, as all the camp headed back out of the Hall to eat outside. “Even
I
got up the steps in one piece!”

“You might get points for falling off with style, though,” Emily giggled.

Amber smiled, but it looked to Alice like her teeth were gritted. When everyone started to separate into teams for the stable management lesson, Amber seemed relieved.

Freddie talked to the purple team about good and bad conformation in a pony. He used Wish and Copper as examples of well-balanced conformation, pointing out their deep girths to house their lungs and heart, their short cannon bones and their strong backs.

“What about Dancer?” Rosie asked. “I’m sure she’s an example of something. I’m just not quite sure what.”

Dancer’s eyes softened as Rosie rubbed her mare’s nose affectionately.

Next Freddie ran through how to age a pony by looking at his teeth. The Pony Detectives and Holly spent the next ten minutes putting their fingers in Dancer’s and Scout’s mouths. They tried not to get their fingers crunched as they gently pulled back the patient ponies’ lips to get a better look. Amber wandered off to check Copper’s on her own.

When they were done, Freddie checked his watch.

“Right, your ponies have got a well-deserved break for the rest of the afternoon, but you all need to be ready in fifteen minutes,” he said. “You’ll be riding the specially trained vaulting ponies at Hilltop, so don’t forget to bring your riding hats. And for those of you who want to go into the village afterwards, remember to bring some money with you for the shop.”

The Pony Detectives exchanged an excited
glance, which didn’t have much to do with the vaulting. They slid their ponies’ headcollars off and walked back to the stables with their teams.

“Are you both going to the village afterwards?” Rosie asked Amber and Holly.

Amber shook her head and Holly shrugged.