For Sale or Swap - Alyssa Brugman [56]
'Do you know back?' she whispered to him.
Echo took one step backwards. 'Back,' said Shelby again, experimenting. Echo took another step backwards.
'Back, back, back,' she said. Echo took the corresponding steps.
'Very good,' she said, smiling. She loosened her grip on the reins and let him walk around the other ponies and into her place in the line.
It was over. She'd done her best. While she waited for the other pony to complete its workout she thought over her own and tried to remember if she had done anything wrong. She looked over at the fence line to where Mrs Crook was waiting. Mrs Crook held two thumbs in the air, and then kissed her fingers – bellissimo.
The other pony had finished now and the judge rearranged them in the line. She put Shelby on the right, then the last pony and then the other two. She asked Shelby to step forward. She watched in delight as the judge wrapped a blue ribbon around Echo's neck.
'Congratulations,' she said, shaking Shelby's hand.
'Thank you so much,' Shelby gushed. She turned to watch as the judge put the red and yellow ribbons on the other girls' horses and then congratulated them too.
So this is what it feels like to be a winner, she thought, patting Echo on the neck.
'Woo hoo, look at you,' said Mrs Crook as she headed over toward the fence. 'Fantastic.'
'Thanks,' said Shelby, grinning.
'We should bring you along more often.'
Shelby laughed.
'No, I'm serious,' said Mrs Crook. 'The programs are only going to get worse for us when Scamp comes back. It would be handy to have an understudy – if you're interested.'
'That would be unreal!' said Shelby.
'Now, hurry up and give me that ribbon. Your age class is up next.'
'Really?' Shelby could understand why they wanted her to ride the horse in the pony class, where it was Echo being judged, but there was no need for her to enter the rider class.
'Why not? Off you go,' Mrs Crook said.
Hayley and Erin rushed over to hand Mrs Crook their blue and red ribbons and then they all rode off together back into the ring. This time Shelby was called in again, last after Hayley, Erin and another girl that she didn't know. In this ring they were much closer to the sideshow and Shelby could hear the excited screaming from the rides.
Hayley completed a perfect workout. Erin's was correct, although she did flop around a bit in the saddle. The other girl was good as well, but Shelby thought she leaned too far forward and her hands were low, as if she was holding the horse's head in. Next it was Shelby's turn. She was more relaxed now and able to listen to what the judge asked her to do.
She walked up the centre line and then trotted off in a circle to the right, then back to the middle again and off to the left. Things were going well until it was time to canter to the left. Shelby looked up and a sight from the sideshow caught her eye.
At Pete's Pony Rides there was a girl on a paint horse. Shelby could only see the back half as it strode away behind the clown caravan. Just as it disappeared from view the little paint horse swished a particularly long, thick tail – a tail so long that it dragged on the ground.
27 A Mental Blank
Shelby had used the expression 'mental blank' many times, but she had never really known what it felt like. There she was cantering around in a circle on a horse. Which horse exactly, she didn't know – nor why. The important thing seemed to be to get it over with as soon as possible so that she could see if what she saw really was what she thought she saw.
She looked back at the others lined up in a row in the middle of the showground. The judge had one arm across her chest, resting her chin on her hand, and frowning.
What on earth was she supposed to do next? She tried to think back to what the judge had said. Halt and back.