Chloe and Cracker Read Free

good to learn about all the different bits. Also, Lydia was doing the lecture and she demonstrated tacking up onSuki’s lovely yellow dun Twinkle and then she undid it all and told us to bring Charm and Sugar out too. So we practised tacking up on them in threes, which was cool ’cos I got to spend time hanging round with Charm and making a fuss of him without it seeming strange.
    In our lesson this morning we did flat work, and Sally explained that it will help us with our jumping. Apparently the three important things you need to jump well are balance, impulsion and rhythm. I wanted to call out, “And you need a good pony who listens to you and picks his feet up!” But I didn’t dare say that because Sally is quite strict most of the time and I thought she might get annoyed.
    So we did all these turns and circles, and some riding straight down the centre and three-quarter lines, and we worked on making lots of transitions, which Sally says is good for impulsion. Then we started practising figures ofeight, dropping into trot and changing our canter lead in the middle – we’ll need to do that twice when we jump the course. At first Cracker just wanted to carry on up the track and not come through the middle at all. Then when I finally got him to trot through the diagonal he refused to go back into canter, so in frustration I tapped him with my crop.
    “Get your leg on first, Chloe!” Sally called out. “You can’t just sit there and then blame Cracker when he doesn’t canter!”

    I felt really red and flustered when she said that – I wasn’t just sitting there – to me it felt like I was kicking away like crazy! Bella always got her canter back as soon as she asked – and on the right leg too. Oh, it’s just so annoying! Sally probably thinks I’m completely rubbish – if I was on Charm she’d see that I really can ride, and that I do putmy outside leg back and everything – it’s not my fault that Cracker doesn’t listen to me!
    I was so frustrated I made things a bit awkward in the yard after the lesson, although I didn’t mean to. Bella and I had tied up our ponies next to each other to untack and give them a brush down. The ponies have their own grooming kits and each bit of the kit has the pony’s name on. Well, somehow Charm’s body brush had gone missing and she asked me if she could borrow Cracker’s. I was about to say yes, but somehow a big “No!” came out of my mouth.

    “But you’re not even using it,” said Georgia, looking confused.
    I felt myself going all red and flushed again, like I did when Sally kept correcting me in the lesson. “But I’m just about to,” I mumbled.
    I wished I hadn’t said no, but I didn’t know how to get out of it, so I picked up the brush, planning to use it quickly then give it straight to Bella. But by that time Georgia had stepped in and lent hers, and it looked like I’d started using mine just to be awkward. Urgh!
    Luckily they forgot about it over lunch and everything was fine by the time we got our fruit and yoghurt, but I can’t let Bella find out how I feel about Charm – I’ll have to try even harder to get over my jealousy.

Tuesday, in my room after a lovely tea of jacket potatoes with tuna and sweetcorn – yum!
    Tonight we’re having a table tennis tournament in the games room, and we’ve only got twenty mins before it starts so I’m going to have to write really fast! I’m alone up here ’cos Bella and Georgia are on washing-up duty.
    Before we got our ponies out to mount up for our jumping lesson, Sally called us into the manège. The course had been set up! There were four fences completely up and four trotting poles to mark where the other ones would be. We all walked round the route and Sally explained the best approach to take for each jump and where the tricky bits might be. This is what the whole course is going to look like:

    This afternoon the only fences up were the single and spread at the