Comet and the Champion's Cup (15 page)

“That should be strong enough,” Issie said. “Now,” she instructed Kelly-Anne as she shoved the branch at a right angle in between the broken logs, “when I tell you, I want
you to lean back on that branch and push down on it as hard as you can. That should prise the logs around Comet's leg apart for a moment. I'm going to shove your riding helmet in between the logs, which will hopefully hold them apart long enough for us to get Comet out.”

Issie looked at Kelly-Anne. “Do you understand what you have to do? Are you ready?” The girl nodded.

“OK…now!”

As Kelly-Anne heaved against the branch the logs pulled apart and Issie managed to ram the riding helmet in right next to Comet's trapped leg.

“Keep holding it until I can get the helmet all the way in!” Issie shouted.

“I'm trying!” Kelly-Anne snapped.

As Issie forced the helmet in further, Kelly-Anne's strength faltered and she let go of the stick. There was a horrific cracking noise and Issie was gripped with panic. It sounded like the logs had snapped back and crushed the bones of her horse's leg!

She was relieved to realise it was actually the sound of the hard fibreglass shell of the riding helmet cracking under the pressure. Thankfully the cracked helmet held firm in the gap and the logs remained bowed apart, hopefully just enough for Issie to get Comet's leg out.

The sound of the helmet cracking had startled Comet too and the skewbald pony was now moving about restlessly. “Easy, boy,” Issie murmured. “Easy, Comet. I'm going to get you out in just a minute. Steady now…”

There was now room to get both her hands right down into the hole and wrap them tight around Comet's fetlock. Issie lifted the fetlock gently and eased the leg out.

She felt her heart stop when she saw a dark trickle of blood soaking through the jacket that was wrapped around the cannon bone. She told herself to ignore the blood now covering her hands and to focus on getting her horse out. Issie kept lifting the leg, slowly, gently, talking to the quivering skewbald all the time, reassuring him with her voice. It seemed to take forever, but finally she managed to ease Comet's hoof all the way out from between the logs.

“Is he OK?” Kelly-Anne asked.

“I don't know yet,” Issie said anxiously as she lowered Comet's hoof back down to the ground. She hastily unwrapped the makeshift bandages to check his leg. There was a lot of blood but the cut on his cannon bone wasn't deep. “I'll have to walk him and see.”

As Comet took his first steps forward he seemed reluctant to put any weight at all on the injured leg, holding it up in the air.

“He's lame!” said Kelly-Anne.

“Wait a minute,” Issie replied. “He's been stuck in that fence. It's only natural that he's going to favour that leg until he's sure it's OK…”

Sure enough, in a few strides Comet was putting his weight on all four legs again and was walking normally.

When Issie trotted him up to check if he was lame or not, miraculously it looked like the leg was totally sound. The cut on his cannon bone would probably need antibiotic cream, but it seemed to be superficial and other than that the leg was fine. Comet was going to be OK.

“He should be OK to walk home,” Issie said with relief.

“Which one of us is going to ride him?” asked Kelly-Anne.

Issie looked at her with astonishment. “The weight of a rider on his back is the last thing Comet needs right now. Neither of us is riding him. You can ride Diablo. I'm going to walk back.”

Issie looked up at the sun that was now rising over Lake Deepwater. “It should take us about an hour and a half. We'll take it slow to rest Comet's leg, but we'll still make it home before lunchtime in time for your mum to pick you up.”

Kelly-Anne looked even more upset. “Please, Issie.” She had tears in her eyes. “I don't want to go home.”

“Why not?” said Issie darkly. “You don't seem to like it here much–I would have thought you'd be glad to leave.”

Kelly-Anne shook her head. “That's why I ran away on Comet. I thought if Mum came and I wasn't there she'd just give up again and go home. She's going to be so mad at me. Everyone at home is angry all the time. It must be my fault because I know I make people angry. I don't try to, but I do.”

Issie looked at Kelly-Anne, who was trying to hide the fact that she was now crying by making a curtain of hair out of her brown bob.

“Kelly-Anne?” Issie said gently. “I think maybe you're the one that's angry. About your parents, I mean. You've been taking it out on the horses since you got here, and on us. But it's not our fault your parents are getting a divorce. And it's not your fault either. These things just happen.” Kelly-Anne nodded, but she kept her face hidden under the veil of hair.

“Your mum isn't angry at you. She was really worried about you when Hester said you'd been in trouble,” Issie continued. “She told Aunty Hess that things were tough
for you at home. And if we'd known what was going on with the divorce and stuff, maybe we wouldn't have been so hard on you.”

Kelly-Anne parted her hair away from her face and looked at Issie. “Do I have to go home?”

Issie reached her hand down and helped Kelly-Anne to stand up. “I don't know,” she said. “Right now, I think we just need to worry about getting back to the farm before we even think about that.”

Kelly-Anne dusted off her jodhpurs and Issie was about to leg her up on to Diablo's back when the girl hesitated. “You got here really quick. How did you do it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, how did you reach us so fast? I was way ahead of you, I must have been. There's no way you could have caught me up.”

“I went straight over instead of taking the ridge track,” Issie said, pointing back at the steep slope of Blackthorn Hill. Kelly-Anne couldn't believe it.

“But how did you know I was here?” she continued. “How did you know where to come?”

Issie didn't know what to say. She looked over Kelly-Anne's shoulder. There he was, cantering away over the
hills in the distance. She smiled as she watched the grey pony, his mane and tail streaming out in the wind. He was almost out of sight now, rounding over the ridge that would take him out of view into the basin of Lake Deepwater. If it hadn't been for Mystic, they would never have made it here in time to save Comet. As for Kelly-Anne, she would never know how Issie had managed to find her that day.

“You were knocked out for a while,” Issie told Kelly-Anne. “In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't have a bit of amnesia!” That seemed to shut Kelly-Anne up. Before the girl could ask any more questions, Issie changed the subject.

“You see that big hill up there to the right? Once we get over that we'll be back on the ridge track. It's all downhill after that. We'll be home in no time.”

Issie gave Kelly-Anne a leg-up on to Diablo. Then she picked up Comet's reins and checked the skewbald's leg one more time before they began to head for home.

They had just reached the top of the hill when Issie heard the sound of hoofbeats coming from the other direction and a few moments later Hester and Aidan appeared, cantering around the bend on Stardust and Paris.

“Thank God! Are you both OK?” Hester called out. “Kitty told me everything. Why are you walking? What happened to Comet?” Issie told them the story while Kelly-Anne stood there looking suitably ashamed. The utter stupidity of her actions, taking off with Comet like that, had finally begun to dawn on her.

“Is he lame?” Hester asked.

Issie shook her head. “I don't think so. But I didn't want to ride him back just in case. He took a bad knock when his leg went through the logpile.”

Hester looked at Kelly-Anne. “How does your head feel? I'll call ahead now and get the doctor to meet us at the house. He should come and check you for concussion.”

“I'm fine, honest,” Kelly-Anne said. “I'm really sorry. I know I've caused lots of trouble…”

“Aunty Hess,” Issie said, “she really wants to stay. Do you think you could call her mum back and tell her that Kelly-Anne's been given a second chance?”

Kelly-Anne gave Issie a grateful look and then turned to Hester. “Please? I'll make up for everything and I'll do whatever Issie and Stella and Kate tell me to do.”

Hester looked doubtful. “We'll talk about this back at the house. Kelly-Anne, are you all right to ride Diablo the whole way?” Kelly-Anne nodded.

“Issie, you can double home with Aidan on Paris and lead Comet,” Hester added. “It'll be faster than walking.”

Hearing this, Aidan rode forward on Paris. He looked down at Issie but he didn't get off to help her up. Instead, he just took his feet out of his stirrups and lowered a hand for her to grasp. “Slip your foot into my stirrup and I'll swing you up behind me,” he said. Issie looked up at Aidan. She didn't return his smile and she didn't take his hand. “Come on, Issie, what are you waiting for?”

Issie wanted to tell him that she was still mad at him over the whole crazy bet he'd made with Dan. She wanted to tell him she knew everything and she thought the boys were both stupid. If Aidan thought that she was going to be his girlfriend because of some silly bet, he was so wrong.

“Issie?” Aidan's smile faltered. “Take my hand.”

Issie paused for a moment. Now wasn't the time to talk about it. She had to get Comet home. She put her foot in the stirrup and grasped Aidan's hand tightly. “One-ah-two-ah-three!” Aidan pulled her up, swinging her around so that she was sitting right behind him on Paris's back like a pillion passenger on a motorbike.

Issie kept hold of Comet's reins with her left hand. “Put your arm around me,” Aidan instructed her. Issie
did as he said, wrapping her arm around Aidan's waist. He was wearing his favourite old tartan shirt. It smelt good, like fresh soap. She let her head rest against his back for a moment and felt the soft flannel of the shirt against her cheek.

“Are you OK back there?” Aidan called over his shoulder.

“Uh-huh.”

“Then let's go home.”

Issie knew the Horse of the Year was a huge event, but she wasn't prepared for just how huge. There were literally hundreds of horses and riders gathered here at the Gisborne showgrounds. As Avery eased the horse truck across the grass looking for a parking space, the girls gawped out of the windows at the show riders with their glamorous horses tied up to their fabulous, expensive horse trucks.

The horses all had their manes perfectly plaited and their tack polished, and all the riders wore their best sparkling white jods, black or navy hacking jackets and velvet helmets.

“Ohmygod!” Stella squealed. “I just saw Katie McVean! And…I think that blonde girl next to her is
Ellen Whitaker! She's from England–I've seen her jumping on TV! Did you see her Issie? Issie?”

Issie didn't say anything. The tingle of excitement that she had felt when they set out from Blackthorn Farm that morning had turned into a tight ball of nerves in her belly. There had been so much drama in the past twenty-four hours, with Comet going missing, that Issie had almost forgotten about entering the pony Grand Prix and the $15,000 first prize.

Yesterday, when they got back to the farm, Issie had wondered if Comet would be sound enough to ride today. Even though the skewbald wasn't favouring his injured leg at all, Issie was still worried. She made a fuss over the pony the moment they got back, cooling his leg using ice packs and dressing the scratch wound to keep any inflammation down. This morning, before they loaded the horses on the truck, Avery had made her trot Comet back and forth down the stable corridor on the hard concrete. Issie was relieved when Avery said he couldn't see any signs of lameness at all and Comet was pronounced fit to compete.

But now that they were actually here at the Horse of the Year, Issie was almost wishing she had an excuse not to ride. She felt totally and utterly sick. What had she
been thinking? She was completely out of her league! There was no way she could ride in the Grand Prix.

“Nervous?” Avery looked at her.

“Uh-huh,” Issie replied. What she wanted to say was,
Turn the truck around and let's go home–I've changed my mind!

Avery looked at her as if he understood exactly what she was thinking. “It's pretty daunting, isn't it? When you turn up at a place like this and see the competition.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Every rider gets nerves, Issie. The great riders are the ones who can put those fears out of their mind and focus on riding and doing their best.” Avery smiled. “I wouldn't have brought you here if I didn't think you and Comet were ready for this, would I?”

“No,” Issie said uncertainly, “I guess not.”

“You may not have a fancy horse truck or a million-dollar horse, Issie, but you've got a pony with talent and the biggest heart I've ever seen,” said Avery.

“And besides, you are just as fancy as them. You've got your own groom!” Stella piped up. “That would be me!”

Issie laughed. “Well, in that case,” she grinned, “let's do it!”

If Issie's nerves were now gone, well, Comet had
never had any in the first place. The skewbald pony emerged from the truck in the same mood as always–acting as if he owned the place, prancing out of the horse truck with his tail held high and his neck arched like a stallion on parade.

“Comet! Behave!” Issie said as she led him in circles next to the truck trying to calm the little skewbald down.

As Aidan eased Destiny down the ramp of the horse truck and tied him up to the other side he couldn't help laughing at the antics of the skewbald pony. “I don't think Comet has realised that Destiny is actually the stallion here–not him!”

Issie smiled. It was true. Destiny wore a red tag on his bridle today, the mark that a horse was a stallion and that other horses should be wary of getting too close. Stallions were supposed to be watched at all times at horse shows because they might be wild or vicious to other horses. In fact, you couldn't get a more well-mannered horse than Destiny. While Comet skipped and danced about the place, Destiny stood like a perfect gentleman as Aidan unwrapped his floating boots and began to plait up his mane.