Team Challenge (3 page)

“His name’s Greg. He’s a teacher. Divorced. He’s got two sons, seven and twelve years old. They live with their mother. He’s very nice, and he was very attentive on our first date—and very interested to learn about your passion for horses. Apparently, he used to ride in his youth.”

“Oh, good, perhaps he can come and be our fourth team member,” I suggested, glumly. “Do you think he can possibly pass as under sixteen?”

“Doubtful—he’s got a beard.”

“Oh, yuck!”

I was getting fed up with trying to think of someone to complete our team. It was so frustrating! If only my old friend Kirsten didn’t live so far away, she’d have thought up something great for the wild card event.

The next day, I was tacking Drummer up to go for a ride by ourselves when James turned up.

“Going riding?” he said.

I nodded.

“Want some company?” he asked. “I’m a bit fed up at the moment.”

Naturally, I didn’t say no.

It didn’t take him long to get Moth in from the field and tacked up, and we rode out along the bridle path that led down to the lake. Moth’s bright chestnut coat gleamed in the sunlight, her four white legs moving in step with Drum’s black ones. Moth has a white face, too, but you can’t see that very well when you’re riding next to her, and she always goes along in a hurry, puffing and slamming her hooves down like an old-fashioned charger, with James playing the role of her knight. At least, that’s how I see it.

“How’s the jumping going?” I asked James. “Did your chat with Moth help?”

“Yes, it did, but it’s all been for nothing,” James groaned.

“Why?”

“Cat told me yesterday that I can’t be on her team. It appears that Leanne had already asked two of her much-more-talented-than-me friends to do the show jumping and the cross-country.”

“What?” I cried, my heart leaping.

“Yeah, I know. What a bummer, huh?” continued James. “I mean, talk about a letdown. She’s nabbed India Hammond for the show jumping, so I get ditched. Leanne thinks she stands a better chance with India and her amazing pony, the Dweeb, than Moth and me. How rude!”

“But that’s wonderful!” I shrieked, sitting up and reining in Drummer. I blessed India, whoever she was—selfish of me, but you know.

“Ow!” said Drummer. “Tone it down, will you? Some of us have big ears.”

“Oh, thanks a lot!” James exclaimed, turning in the saddle to frown at me.

“We’re looking for someone to be on
our
team!” I shouted, bouncing up and down on Drum.

“Hey, I’m not a trampoline. Sit still up there or get off!” grumbled Drum.

“But…but…you’ve got four people already,” James said.

“Not anymore! Dee’s mom’s forbidden her to do it— says it’ll ruin Dolly’s chances of qualifying for HOYS.”

“Oh, awesome!” James said, beaming from ear to ear before forcing his face into looking seriously sad. “Bad luck about poor Dee-Dee, though.”

“Of course.”

“Yeah, of course.”

I don’t think either of us really meant it. Dee’s a bit of a whiner. Well, actually, she never stops whining. I suppose it’s hard for her with her mom always at the stables and on her case the whole time, but even so, it’s a bit wearing.

We rode on with James in a much-improved mood.

“Got our fourth team member?” said Drum.

“Yup!” I told him, patting his neck.

“So we’re still doing it?”

“Yup!”

Drummer sighed. Moth said nothing. She’s not very talkative due to her (understandable) mistrust of humans. She was mistreated before James got her, and she’ll only talk to James. Of course, he can only hear her when he has Epona. We’ve tried holding Epona between us so we can both hear the ponies, but it seems she only works for one person at a time.

“What’s Drummer’s problem?” James asked, hearing me talking to him. James has known about Epona ever since he got hold of her by mistake, but he’d never tell anyone else. I mean, imagine the fuss—everyone would want Epona, and I’d probably have to give her up, and Drummer says that ponies everywhere wouldn’t thank us. So that’s why we keep her to ourselves.

“Oh, nothing important,” I told him. “Let’s canter— I’ll race you!”

Katy and Bean were ecstatic when we told them.

“Fantastic!” Katy screamed, throwing her purple dandy brush in the air. Unfortunately, it landed on the roof with a bang, which made Tiffany, who’d been dozing in her stable next door, almost fall over.

“But wait a minute…” started Bean. “Who’s going to do which event?”

We all looked at Bean. I don’t think anyone could believe she had beaten us all to highlighting the problem.

“What?” she said. “It’s an obvious question!”

“Well,” I said, “we need someone to do the wild card.” I really didn’t want to get stuck with that again—I’d only just wriggled out of it.

“Umm, I don’t think so!” said James firmly.

“Well, what then?” said Katy, her hands on her hips. “I mean, I really, really want to do the cross-country.”

We all agreed that Bluey was the best pony for the job.

“Moth can only do gymkhana and jumping,” James said.

“But I’m doing the show jumping!” wailed Bean. “I’ve been practicing!”

“So have I,” James said. Moth only ever storms around with her nose on her chest, snorting like a dragon. She clearly couldn’t do the dressage—she’d be useless at it. She had to do the show jumping.

“But Tiff’s really well schooled, isn’t she, Bean?” said Katy, determined to win Bean around. “She could do the dressage—Moth can’t.”

“I suppose so,” Bean agreed reluctantly, biting her lip. “But I’m horrible at remembering dressage test movements. The last time I tried it, I totally forgot the way. It was awful.”

I could easily imagine Bean forgetting a dressage test.

“Oh, you’ll be fine!” James said breezily.

“But I’m doing the dressage!” I told them. I didn’t like where this was going.

“You’re welcome to it!” shrugged Bean. “I’ll be just as useless at the wild card as I will be at dressage!”

“You’ll be fine!” repeated James. “It’s settled!”

“I didn’t know it was up to you—you’ve swiped the show jumping, and I’ve been practicing. Dressage isn’t my thing—it really isn’t!”

“Stop being so bossy, James,” said Katy firmly. “You’ve only been in the team five minutes and you’re taking charge. It’s our team, not yours!”

“I don’t know why you’re making such a fuss,” began James, oblivious to Bean’s feelings. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t do the awful dressage—I wanted to, for goodness sake, which is what I told everyone.

“But we need you to do the wild card event,” insisted Katy.

“Why?” I said.

“Yes, why?” wailed Bean. “Tiff and I can do it. I’d rather do that than the dressage. Believe me, you really don’t want me doing the dressage.”

“Pia has a huge advantage—she can talk to Drum and get him to do things none of us could do with our ponies. Don’t you see?” said Katy, getting all earnest in an obvious attempt to win us over. “Pia is the natural choice for the wild card—she has to do it!”

There was silence. That I might be a natural choice was news to everyone, but we could see how Katy was thinking. The image of Drum and me doing the dressage faded away. It seemed Bean and I were both stuck with our respective events, however much we didn’t want them.

I frowned. “What do you mean, Katy? Explain.”

“You just have to think something up. Some sort of routine you can talk Drummer through, something that doesn’t rely on riding or tack. You could, er, well, you could…Oh, I don’t know, how about something without any tack on at all? Wouldn’t that wow the judges? You’d win by a landslide!”

“Yes, Pia!” exclaimed James. “That would be so cool!”

I wasn’t convinced. “Wouldn’t that be cheating?”

“Why?” asked James, totally getting onboard with the idea. “You need to use the skills you have. Not everyone knows you’re a Pony Whisperer.”

“It sounds like cheating to me.”

“No, you’re just pressing home your natural advantage,” Katy continued. “Just as Leanne is really good at dressage— she’s not going to do the jumping because she thinks she has an unfair advantage in the dressage event, is she?”

When it was put like that, it sort of made sense.

“Does that mean I’m stuck with the dressage?” mumbled Bean.

We all looked at her in sympathy. Katy put her arm around Bean’s shoulders.

“You and Tiff can do it! Tiffany does really well, I don’t know why you don’t enter for more dressage competitions. You’ll be great at it.”

“Because I can’t remember the tests!” Bean said through gritted teeth.

“One of us can call for you,” said James. “You can have someone call out the movements if you want to.”

“Yes, that would work!” said Katy, squeezing Bean’s shoulders.

“That’s worse,” said Bean, shaking her head. “It confuses me even more.” She gave a big sigh. “I suppose I can give it a try,” she said. “For the team.”

“We’ll help you learn your test,” I said, impressed by Bean’s attitude. I could see her being great at dressage— Katy was right, Tiffany was well schooled, and Bean rode really well. I was, however, really annoyed about being forced into the wild card thing. My attitude sucked.

“Atta girl!” James grinned at Bean.

“You’re a star!” said Katy. “Besides, only the three highest scores count, so stop worrying.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” said Bean, getting indignant. “I’m just there to make up the numbers, am I?”

“I just thought it would take the pressure off a bit,” said Katy, going red. Bean just sighed.

It was settled.

I couldn’t help thinking how great it was to be on the team. Shame my event was a pile of poo!

Chapter 3

S
o you’re on Katy’s team now?” I heard Catriona’s voice. She and James were outside Moth’s stable.

“That’s right,” I heard James reply good-naturedly. “And we’re going to beat your team into the ground, so don’t get your hopes up!”

Catriona laughed and told James he had no chance.

I walked over to get Drummer’s halter, which was hanging on his door. I always dread seeing Cat. She never misses an opportunity to poke fun at me. I hate the way I feel intimidated just by her being there.

“Oh, there you are, Pia, we were just talking about you!” she smirked. Like I couldn’t hear! I pulled my mouth into a fixed smile. Catriona is annoyingly pretty, with short dark hair and elfin features. The other annoying thing is that she really likes James, and as James hangs around with one of Cat’s three brothers, I can’t help feeling she has the advantage over me. Sooo annoying!

I took myself off to bring Drummer in from the field. He was hanging around the gate, waiting for me.

“Come on, hand over that carrot!” he hissed, edging his way carefully around Cat’s skewbald mare Bambi. Bambi put her ears back and snaked her head at him. She can’t stand Drummer, and he, for some unknown reason, is totally into her.

I thought about Catriona. I bet she was furious that James was on our team—having him in hers had been a definite coup. I grinned to myself. Too bad, I told myself, Leanne didn’t want him so that’s your loss.

I still hadn’t thought of a thing to do for our wild card routine. I’d gone onto the Sublime Equine Challenge website and printed out the rules and regs. It was pretty complicated. Apparently, to qualify for the Brookdale final each team had to finish in one of the first three places of a qualifier. Twice. And to make it more interesting, teams weren’t allowed to enter more than three qualifiers. Tricky. And Katy was right, the highest three scores from each team counted toward the final score, with the lowest score being dropped from the total. Then I had searched for information on the wild card event. The judges will be looking for a performance from an individual that demonstrates a unique partnership with, and understanding of, their pony, it said.

It didn’t say whether I had to ride or whether I could be on foot. It did say each show was not to exceed a four-minute duration. It didn’t inspire me. No light bulb moment occurred; no mother of an idea popped into my head.

I took Drummer for a ride to see whether I could get my head around it. Drummer took advantage of my lack of concentration and bucked a few times, landing me on his neck.

“You’re so not funny!” I told him.

“Oh, but I so am!” he smirked.

We turned into the woods where it was cool and damp. Through the trees I could see the sun sparkling on the lake and Drummer’s hoofbeats became silent on the carpet of pine needles. I’d never been in this part of the woods before, but I knew I couldn’t get lost if I kept the lake in sight. I was still exploring the countryside near the stables, and finding new paths every time we went riding.

Suddenly, all thoughts of the wild card disappeared as Drummer slammed on the brakes and snorted, lifting his head and holding himself stiffly to attention.

“What is it?” I whispered, my hand on his neck.

“Don’t know,” he said. “But the ground around here feels a bit funny.”

“Funny?”

“Yes. I can’t explain it. There’s something strange over there behind the bushes. The whole area’s giving me the creeps.”

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and my imagination ran riot. “Should we be getting out of here?” I whispered.

“What? No, no, it’s old vibes I’m picking up. Let’s take a look,” Drum said, walking forward again. I didn’t know whether I wanted to take a look. What old vibes? What if they were dead body sort of old vibes. And how old? It was uncanny how Drum could feel stuff.

It wasn’t a dead body. We pushed our way through the bushes and there was what looked like a grassy mound with a door in it. A very old, arched wooden door, with rusty nails and a rusty handle. It couldn’t be a house, unless the house was either very small or underground.

“What is that?” I said.

“You’re asking me?” said Drummer. “Get off and take a closer look.”

I slipped out of Drummer’s saddle. “Hey,” I told him, “no running off and leaving me here. Promise!”

“OK, OK. You spoil all my fun.”

I tried the door, but I couldn’t make it budge. It was old and mossy and the handle was riddled with rust. Secretly, I was really glad. I mounted Drum again.