Emily and Emerald (5 page)

Well, this afternoon Sally rearranged things so that me and Emerald could have a one to one lesson with her! So I had the lecture with Frankie’s group (which was really fun, on points of the horse and colours and conformation), and then rode in the second manège while they had their lesson. That meant the Group B girls had to have their lecture just on their own with Lydia. I thought they might be annoyed with me for making things change round, but actually they were happy ’cos it meant they got to ride straight away after lunch – phew!

In the manège, Sally asked me to warm up Emerald by myself, and I felt really grown up deciding things like when to make transitions into halt and do turns and circles and go into trot.

After about 15 minutes, Sally called to me to halt at M and she came up and gave Emerald a pat. When she said how well we’d done in the warm-up, I couldn’t help grinning with pride, and Emerald looked pretty pleased with herself, too. She definitely prefers being on our own to the group lessons! Then Sally said, “Right then, let’s get going. What do you think we need to work on?”

I said: 

I thought I was being really horsey by going into all that detail, but Sally just gave me an amused look. “Actually, there’s only one main thing we need to work on,” she said, “and it begins with ‘c’.”

I stared at her, puzzled, and went, 

I felt so silly when she said, 

Of course! If we can both gain confidence, Emerald’ll calm down, and then a lot of our problems will improve naturally.

So we got to work. Sally kept reminding me to pay attention to the signals Emerald was giving, so that if she was getting too wound up in walk and threatening to bolt off, I could
change direction or circle her or ask for a small section of trot. It was great, but not the kind of thing you can do in a group lesson. Like, you couldn’t suddenly change direction without warning everyone!

As the lesson was ending, we had a bit of a disaster, though. Jody opened the gate of the other manège to let Group A out, and when she shut it, it kind of clanged and Emerald went bolting off again and bucked across the manège. I forgot all the confidence stuff we’d been learning and just grabbed the reins and stiffened up. 

When Emerald finally came to a stop, my heart was absolutely pounding. It really hit me how much work we still have to do before we’ll even be able to fit in with Group A, and I think we can forget about taking part in the gymkhana.
I felt very disheartened, but Sally was quite firm and told me we just have to keep going, one step at a time. Then she got us to do some nice trot and canter transitions on a 20-metre circle, so we’d end on a good note.

Afterwards, I walked Emerald round on a long rein to cool down ’cos we were both boiling! As Sally held the gate for me (being careful not to let it clang!), she said, “We’re doing well, but I think I know someone who can help us do even better. How would you feel about missing the carriage-driving trip tomorrow?”

“To be with Emerald?” I asked. Sally nodded and I instantly said it was fine. The more time I can spend with my fab pony the better!

Sally didn’t explain any more. Instead she just smiled and said, “OK, let me see what I can arrange. And well done today.”

I thanked her, and took Emerald back to her pen to untack and brush her down. As I was a
bit late finishing, the Group A girls had untacked already, and Group B were skipping out the barn, chatting away. Then Harry did a really loud laugh at something Elena said and made poor Emerald jump. I stroked her nose and whispered, “It’s OK, Em, you don’t need to be scared any more. It’s different here.”

Saying that made me think about myself, too. I’m like Emerald, jumping at every little thing – I’m always expecting the older ones suddenly not to like me. But the fact is that they haven’t done anything except be nice.

Then I thought about how Frankie’s been such a good friend, and I suddenly realized that I’m starting to trust her, just like Emerald is starting to trust me.

“It really
is
different here, Em,” I whispered again. “For both of us.”

Last night, me and Frankie made a secret camp by hanging our towels down from her bunk across mine so you couldn’t see in. It was so cool! We did try and get Millie to come in with us, too, but she was so fast asleep we couldn’t wake her up!

Frankie brought out this big pink tub which was full of yummy things for a midnight feast, and soon we were whispering jokes to each other, and scoffing mini rolls and jelly babies and crisps (we were giggling so much ’cos we had to suck them instead of crunching so that Jody wouldn’t hear us!). It was really fun, like having a sleepover.

I hope Frankie will come for a real sleepover at my new house, like next week or something. I think she will if I ask her ’cos we’ve become really good friends –
and
she lives in the same town that we’ve just moved to! In fact, we’ve got so close that I started telling her something more serious, about what happened in my old yard, with the older girls.

It was
Frankie
who called it bullying.

I hadn’t really thought of it like that, but actually she’s right.

I told her everything – about how Suze and her friends used to act as if they owned the yard and made me do all the horrible jobs, like poo picking the field and scrubbing the feed and water buckets. And how they did all the nice stuff like grooming the ponies and tacking up ready for people’s lessons. And then I told Frankie the worst thing of all – about the way they went quiet when I came into the tack
room or wherever, like they’d been talking about me. Then Suze used to say stuff to me like, “Yes, can we help you?” and I always went bright red and wished I could become invisible and melt away. It made me upset even
thinking
about what happened. Frankie put her arm around me then.

“I suppose you think I’m really weedy,” I said, but she went, “No way! ’Course I don’t think that! I think you were brave to keep going there when they were so awful – it shows how much you love ponies! Anyway, the yard staff should have been keeping an eye out for bullying, and
they didn’t. That was out of order.” She frowned at me and added, “You should’ve told someone.”

I shrugged. Maybe for someone like Frankie that would’ve been easy, but I’m just so shy.

But I loved that she was so angry with Suze and her mates. She really is a true friend.

Later on, we were talking about schools and we worked out that I’m going to be in the same class as her at Westbrooke Juniors when term starts! Frankie started telling me all about her friends and the different teachers and the lunchtime clubs you can do. Anyway, we completely forgot about being quiet! Frankie started doing an impression of this teacher called Mr Gregson, who’s like a mad scientist, and it made us both laugh so much we had to stuff our fists in our mouths to stop the noise coming out.

Too late, though. The next thing we knew Jody was coming up the stairs! Frankie vaulted on to her bunk and scrambled under the covers. We were both pretending to be asleep, but we couldn’t stop ourselves from giggling into our pillows. Frankie did this big fake snore and that made me laugh even more. Jody hissingly whispered to us to go to sleep, but she didn’t seem
really
angry (phew!).

Oh, it’s so cool here at Pony Camp! Everyone’s lovely and I’ve made a good friend and got the pony of my dreams! I’m really looking forward to spending the whole day with Emerald tomorrow! I wonder what Sally’s got lined up for us? I can’t wait to find out!