The day after my birthday, I knew exactly what awesome thing Fozzles and I were going to do.
Mum sent me down to Ness’s place to pick up a couple of things for the horses. ‘She just rang,’ she said. ‘She forgot to bring up some brushes and one of the saddle blankets.’
‘Can I ride?’
She shrugged. ‘Of course.’
The ride to Ness’s place takes about fifteen minutes. We’ve done it practically every day since we first met Tessa and James and started riding in the afternoons with them. It’s mostly over paddocks, but there’s one bit I love when it’s hot, and that’s where we have to go through the stream, which is ankle deep.
When Coco and I walk over, we always take our shoes off and go through barefoot, although you’ve got to watch out for leeches. Once Coco got a leech on her ankle. The whole valley would have heard her screaming and me laughing. I always laugh at Coco when we cross on horseback because Fozzles is really cool about getting her feet wet and will go right in with no hassles, but Cupcake, Coco’s horse, is difficult. Sometimes she’ll do it, but most of the time Coco has to get off and lead her across.
‘Good girl, Fozzles,’ I said as she clip-clopped on through the water, splashing my legs a little bit. I reached down to pat her neck. ‘You’re amazing.’
When we got to Ness’s place, I found her and Tessa in the round yard, with Tessa on her horse, Prince, who was all tacked up.
‘What are you doing?’ I slid off and tethered Fozzles to the fence. ‘Practicing for something?’
‘Tessa wanted to start practicing for the show this year.’ Ness gestured to the middle of the ring where there were some red and white horse jumps made out of poles and rails set up. ‘Jumping.’
‘Oh.’ I climbed up onto the fence and settled in to watch. ‘Does she do it every year?’
‘Mostly. Since she was about ten.’ She watched as Tessa swung Prince around and came in to the rail at a canter. She swerved at the last minute and avoided the jump. ‘The lead up was good,’ she yelled to Tessa. ‘Now you have to jump.’
I wiped the sweat off my nose. ‘Why didn’t she?’
‘She gets nervous. Prince gets nervous too. I might take the jump down a bit.’ Ness walked out into the ring and pulled the highest pole off the stand. ‘Try that.’
Again, Tessa brought Prince in towards the rail at a canter. I could feel Ness’s tension beside me, and as they got close to the jump, both she and I kind of lifted off our seats at the same time, like we were jumping over ourselves.
‘Well done,’ shouted Ness, and then she looked around at me, flicking a fly from under the brim of her hat. ‘Did you just do that?’
‘Do what?’
‘You anticipated the jump.’
‘I guess. I couldn’t help it.’
She nodded towards Fozzles. ‘Hop on. You should have a go.’
‘On the jump? Awesome.’
In three seconds flat I was on the horse and in the ring, and cantering towards the rail.
‘Slow it down.’ I could hear Ness yelling out from the side. ‘You don’t know what to do.’
But it was too late. Fozzles was already flying across the jump, mid-air, with me on her back, shocked into silence, even though inside I was squealing. We landed and kept running until I realised what we were doing, so I pulled her in and around to come back to Ness. She and Tessa were standing there with their mouths open.
‘Seriously, you just jumped,’ said Tessa. ‘That was amazing.’
‘That was dangerous,’ said Ness. ‘You should have waited for me. When I said “you should have a go” I didn’t mean straight away. There’s a lot of learning to do so you don’t come off and kill yourself.’
I hung my head to show I was sorry, but I wasn’t really. I peeked out at her and smiled.
She gave me what looked like a reluctant, don’t-do-that-again, fierce kind of smile. ‘Have you ever jumped before?’
I shook my head. ‘Nup.’ I was still smiling—I couldn’t stop—and I could still feel the blood gushing through my arms and legs.
Ness looked at Tessa. ‘I think I’ll be training the two of you.’
My plans to grab the brushes and saddle blanket and head home disappeared from my brain. Three hours later, after jumping and more jumping; low first, until Ness was satisfied I could control Fozzles (and myself) and then finally, a little bit higher, when my legs and arms and everything was sore and saddle-tired, Mum rang Ness to find out where I was.
‘You’ll come back tomorrow, yeah?’ asked Tessa. ‘We’ll have to get in as much practice as we can before school starts next week.’
I made a face at her that said ‘there is no way you are going to stop me coming back here and jumping over stuff on my horse’ and we both laughed until I made another face, this one not so happy. ‘School.’ Even though I hardly ever get nervous about stuff, there was something about starting a new school in a week’s time that was creating a kind of bubble in my stomach. It was weird, and not a feeling I’d had in a long time. ‘I wish we were going to the same school,’ I said. For some reason Mum and Dad had ended up sending us to the Anglican College in town, not the Catholic school down the road that James and Tessa went to.
Tessa rolled her eyes. ‘I know. Parents, right?’ She made an effort to look more cheerful. ‘But you and Coco will be fine. Everyone in your year will love you.’
I shrugged my shoulders and smiled. ‘Nothing to worry about.’
‘Exactly.’
Mum was kind of mad about me not coming back straight away. ‘You could have at least called.’
It was true, so I felt a bit guilty and apologised. ‘Sorry, Mum. I really am.’ I meant it, so she didn’t stay mad. (She never really does with me, unlike Coco. In fact, she spent pretty much the whole of last year being mad with Coco, but then, everyone else was too, me included, so it wasn’t that surprising.) Instead, she served up dinner, and then was nice enough to listen to me talk and talk and talk about show jumping and how awesomely cool it is.
‘Did you actually jump over that pole thing in the yard?’ Coco couldn’t quite believe it. She’s a good rider, but she’s not what you’d call brave. ‘Did you feel like you were going to fall off?’
‘It just kind of happened. The first time, at least. And then it was like I had to do more of it. It was amazing.’
Josh shrugged. ‘Jumping motorbikes is better.’
Coco took his bait immediately. ‘Motorbikes don’t love you like horses do.’ She never just lets him be. She either bites back or makes a big fuss about deliberately ignoring him, which just makes him tease her even more. I get Josh back by smiling nicely and ignoring him, without all the drama.
‘Motorbikes are cool,’ I said, and Josh looked first surprised and then pleased.
‘You’re not jumping your motorbike,’ Mum and Dad said in unison, from across the table.
‘Let’s change the subject,’ said Mum.
‘Yes,’ said Dad. ‘Let’s talk about the year ahead.’ He likes conversations like this, all about plans and dreams and things the family should do together. ‘What do you guys want to achieve this year?’
Josh made a face. ‘Do jumps on my motorbike.’
Coco twisted her mouth. ‘I don’t know. Like maybe, just make friends at school.’ She shrugged, then looked shy. ‘And hang out with James, obv—’
Josh cut in with a ‘woo woo’ sound and was shushed by Mum who gave him a glare.
‘Stuff like that,’ Coco finished up. ‘Normal kind of stuff.’
The table was silent for a moment and then I opened my mouth. ‘I want to do something,’ I said. Although it was more like an announcement than just normal words. Mum put her fork down and Dad stopped chewing his mouthful. Coco turned to look at me and even Josh moved his head.
‘I want to be a champion show jumper.’ It came out of somewhere in my belly. I hadn’t actually planned it or thought about it, even though if someone had asked me, I would have known that was what I was thinking. But when I heard the words come out of my mouth, and saw them form shapes above my head, it made it certain.
Comments (0)
See all