Champion Horse Read Free Page B

did.
    It was time to walk the course. I wasn’t sure what to do with Gallant Man, but then a groom for the girl on the bay held out his hand, and the girl said, ‘Andy will hold your pony, if I can walk the course with you.’ She jumped down. I said, ‘Okay.’
    The course was eight jumps, two turns. Simple enough until jump seven, when the girls had to turn away from the jump that came eight strides after number six and roll back to the right, towards another that was more or less behind them –  the clue was that number six was a little brush, and number seven was a little brush. The one they were not supposed to jump was a chicken coop. I pointed this out, and they both nodded. Then we stood in the centre of the ring, and I made them do my favourite thing – hold one of their hands up and walk their fingers around the course while reciting the numbers. After they were done, I said, ‘Do you know it?’ Melinda nodded, and the girl said, ‘It’s easy.’
    I said, ‘We’ll see.’ There were a lot of jumps in the ring. I would have found it confusing. We went back to the horses. Andy handed me Gallant Man. I said, ‘Are you the groom?’
    He laughed, and said, ‘No, I’m the brother. We don’t have a groom or a trainer, just us.’
    The girl said, ‘I’m Daphne.’ Andy gave her a leg-up onto the bay. I wondered where they had come from, since I’d never seen them before, but I forgot about them as soon as I saw Mr Anniston go into the tent by the ring and sit down on one of the benches. I wished Jane would put a bag over his head. Okay, with holes cut out so he could see.
    But Melinda was so focused on remembering the course that she didn’t notice him. She waited for her number to be called, and when it was, she trotted in and made her circle. She did just what I’d told her – she veered as close as she could to some of the jumps, so that Gallant Man could see them (actually, so that Melinda could see them; Gallant Man didn’t care). And after a long minute and twenty seconds, they came out, having done a pretty good job. At least he went straight to the fences, and Melinda’s position was good. Daphne went after them. She was very good. But Melinda didn’t care – she got a ribbon (fourth out of six), and she had taken the whole course by herself without making a mistake. She was grinning. Daphne continued to be nice – back in the warm-up, she called out, ‘Good job!’
    Melinda said, ‘You too!’
    I guessed that Daphne was also eleven, but she seemed older and more self-confident.
    In the flat class, Melinda went around nicely, not quite showing off enough, but evidently happy. She smiled at Daphne every time she saw her, and Daphne smiled back. Daphne got second, and Melinda got third. Rodney met us at the gate. He had Ellen by the hand. Melinda jumped down and ran over to her dad, brandishing her ribbon. He still didn’t smile, but he patted her on the head. That was the last I saw of them, because Ellen was ready to mount up and go. Rodney didn’t give her a leg-up – he picked her up and sat her on the pony. She grabbed the reins, and Gallant Man tossed his head. I said, ‘Ellen, remember what I said about holding him too tightly. He doesn’t like it.’
    She loosened her reins.
    I said, ‘Take a deep breath. Or two.’
    She took two deep breaths.
    I said, ‘Pat the pony.’
    She put both her reins in her right hand and patted the pony. This was something we did at every lesson.
    Ellen was tough and often angry, but if you told her what to do in a way that she understood, she would do it. As we were walking into the warm-up, I said, ‘Don’t show off. It makes you put your heels down too far and arch your back too much. Just try to pay attention to your pony and make it easy for him.’ This was her first show. I had no idea what would happen. In the warm-up, I had her practise walk, trot and canter, since the first class was the flat class.
    There were five kids in the group,