Daisy and Dancer Read Free

walked alongside Starlight and they both pointed their toes as if they were dancing.
    And they crossed their legs over in time to the music, like this.
    Then Kate ran next to Starlight and vaulted on for an incredible finale of Round the Worlds (not like the ones we do, but just on her arms with her legs flying in the air not even touching the saddle). Well, the whole audience went crazy after that, clapping and whistling. Kate took a bow in every direction (and Starlight bowed too – how sweet!).

    Then she turned to Sally, wavedand did a bow especially for us, and everyone looked over! I felt so cool, being with someone who knows an actual famous person.
    We didn’t think the day could get any better, but something even more fantastic happened after that. As everyone started leaving their seats, Sally ushered us down too. We were expecting to go straight back to the minibus, but when we reached the front row she told us to go into it and sit down!
    â€œWon’t we get in trouble for sitting here?” said Sasha.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” asked Lara.
    But Sally and Jody just grinned at each other, and Sally said, “Wait and see.”
    Then, would you believe, after a few minutes Kate and Starlight came back out again! We ducked under the barrier to make a big fuss of Starlight and told Kate how talented she was (well, the others did, I was a bit star-struck andnothing would come out of my mouth!). Of course, we all had loads of questions to ask her, and Sally got us to sit back down and stop talking over each other so Kate could actually hear what we were saying!

    Lara asked about her special saddle and Kate explained that it’s called a vaulting saddle, and that her show has developed from her training and background as a vaulter (vaulting is a kind of gymnastics you do on horseback). In an actual vaulting team there are 8 people, and they do all the tricks Kate did, as well as making human pyramids and throwing the littlest one (who’s called the flier) up in the air a lot!
    Kate said she started off as a flier when shewas only 7, which is younger than we are now! Stephanie said she must have been really brave to be thrown in the air from the back of a cantering horse and Kate replied, “A lot of it is about trusting your teammates. If you really believe they’ll catch you, you can do amazing things – it’s true that you still need all your courage, though.” Too right! There’s no way I would dare do anything like that!

    Then Kate explained that you train for vaulting on a lunge rein and she got Sally to lunge Starlight while she showed us the basics. You have to run next to the horse and vault on and then there are these moves, including the handstand and hands-only Round the World from her display, that you need to show in any competition. Apart from that, you can just make up whatever incredible things you like. Kateshowed us her signature trick, a flying twist in mid-air, which made us all gasp and go wow again! When she vaulted off in front of us we all gave her another huge clap. I really wanted to ask for her autograph, but I felt too shy, and anyway I didn’t have anything with me for her to write on.
    I wish I could learn vaulting, because Kate also told us it gives you confidence and self-esteem , and improves balance, strength, poise and grace – exactly what I need! She also told us how important it is to be fit and flexible, and got us up doing exercises in the arena! That was so much fun – we did things like slow jogging mixed with short bursts of fast sprinting, then circling our arms, touching our toes and side stretches, running backwards and sideways (that was really funny because we kept banging into each other and falling over!) and even leapfrog.

    While we were getting our breath back,there was a chance to ask some more questions. I got up the courage to say something then, because I was just so desperate to find out the