The Prize Read Free

the last things that mattered in a horse. Georgie’s first two ponies, Smokey and Millie, wouldn’t have won any beauty contests, but they were bombproof and sweet-natured.
    Georgie was ten years old when her mum bought her Tyro. The black Connemara was barely broken-in when they brought him home to their farm in Little Brampton.
    â€œYou’ll school him yourself,” Ginny Parker told her daughter firmly. “It won’t be easy, but it will make you a better rider. And one day he’ll be a brilliant pony and you’ll be able to say that you taught him everything he knows.”
    Bringing on a green pony like Tyro wasn’t easy, but Georgie worked hard over the winter months so that when spring came she was ready to take him out to his first competition.
    Unfortunately, the Little Brampton gymkhana dates clashed with the Blenheim three-star horse trials. Georgie usually accompanied her mum to all the big events as her junior groom, but she was so desperate to give Tyro his first outing she decided to go to the gymkhana instead. Her mum’s best friend, Lucinda Milwood, who ran the local riding school, would accompany her.
    Georgie would always look back on her decision that day with regret. But how could she have known that while she was having the time of her life at the local gymkhana, events at Blenheim were about to change her life forever.
    Georgie still remembered the devastation on her father’s face when she had walked in with her armful of red ribbons. “Where’s Mum? Isn’t she back yet?”
    Then her father’s words, chilling and ominous. “Georgie… There’s been an accident, your mother fell on the cross-country course…”
    Her mother’s death devastated Georgie, but there was a second blow to come. Grieving for his wife, Georgie’s dad, Dr Parker, could no longer face being surrounded by her horses. So he sold off Ginny’s eventers, and would have got rid of Tyro too if Lucinda Milwood hadn’t offered to keep the pony at her riding school.
    In exchange for Tyro’s livery, Georgie helped Lucinda around the stables. The yard became like a second home to her over the next three years. Despite her mother’s tragic accident, Georgie was determined to follow in her footsteps and become an international eventer, and with Lucinda’s support she finally convinced her father to let her audition for Blainford Academy.
    Blainford, the exclusive equestrian boarding school in Kentucky, USA, had a track record for producing world champions in every field of horse sports. Georgie’s mum and Lucinda had both been pupils there, and it was Georgie’s dream to take her pony and go there too.
    But when Georgie aced the auditions Dr Parker broke the news that he couldn’t afford to send Tyro with her. The fees for the Academy were exorbitant for Georgie alone, and the cost of shipping her beloved Connemara all the way from the UK to the USA – plus the boarding fees for the pony – would simply be too much.
    Desperate to go Blainford, Georgie was forced to make one of the toughest decisions of her young life. She agreed to sell Tyro and ride one of the Blainford school horses instead.
    That horse turned out to be Belladonna. Beautiful, talented, and oh-so-difficult, the bay mare with the white heart on her forehead had something special about her. It wasn’t until halfway through the first term that Georgie found out that she had been paired her up with the foal of Ginny Parker’s favourite mare, Boudicca.
    Belle was a complicated ride and Georgie had spent the first three terms at Blainford coming to grips with this difficult new horse.
    Then, just when she was finally connecting with Belle, came the worst blow of all. Georgie was dropped from cross-country class.
    Faced with finding a new riding subject, Georgie had taken up polo. Belle coped surprisingly well with the fast-paced, rough action on the polo