Greener Pastures - Alyssa Brugman [0]
Alyssa Brugman
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Greener Pastures
ePub ISBN 9781864714609
Kindle ISBN 9781864717150
Original Print Edition
A Random House book
Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd
Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060
www.randomhouse.com.au
First published by Random House Australia in 2008
Copyright © Alyssa Brugman 2008
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry
Brugman, Alyssa, 1974–.
Greener pastures.
ISBN: 9781741662269
For primary school age.
Horses – Juvenile fiction. Friendship – Juvenile fiction.
Pets – Death – Juvenile fiction.
A823.4
Cover and internal design by Sandra Nobes Cover photos by Alamy.com
Typeset in Sabon 11/17pt by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Printed and bound by Griffin Press, South Australia
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter 1 An Offer
Chapter 2 Grass and Bread and Stuff
Chapter 3 Castles
Chapter 4 The Crush
Chapter 5 Chance
Chapter 6 Chicken
Chapter 7 Birthday Party
Chapter 8 A Serious Horse Person
Chapter 9 A Jenny Craig Paddock
Chapter 10 A Matter of Arithmetic
Chapter 11 Shelby Names a Price
Chapter 12 The Date
Chapter 13 Googling
Chapter 14 The Consult
Chapter 15 Promises
Chapter 16 A Dinner Cut Short
Chapter 17 A Second Opinion
Chapter 18 Prince Blue
Chapter 19 Dandelion Flat
Chapter 20 The Stupid Camel Club
Chapter 21 Tongue-tied
Chapter 22 Sunk
Chapter 23 A Dumb Design
Chapter 24 Boxes
Chapter 25 New Recruit
Chapter 26 Baby's Got Blue Eyes
Chapter 27 Memorial
Chapter 28 Halfway Out
Author's Note
1 An Offer
'I've finally found something that my horse is good at and I don't want to do it!' Shelby wailed. 'What am I going to do now? I can't do dressage, or eventing, or hacking, or even interclub.'
'Why not?' Chad asked. He was riding one of the trick-riding horses, Texas, along the sandy Gully track with the kind of comfortable lack of focus that Shelby had come to associate with riders who had not had a big fall. . . yet.
It was the first of the humid spring days, which had taken Shelby by surprise after a cold and rainy August. She was hot in her corduroy jodhpurs. Chad had taken off his jumper and tied it around his shoulders.
Shelby wrinkled up her nose. 'Because my horse is daggy.' Blue's ears flicked, and she patted him on the neck in apology.
Blue was like a pair of old trackies, stretched across the knees and the seat, with food stains on them. You loved them and wore them every opportunity you could, but you wouldn't wear them out in public.
'He's not too daggy for trick riding,' Chad observed.
'Yeah, but when we do that he has blinkers on and a saddle that covers almost his whole body! Nobody can really see what he looks like.'
It had been an exhilarating experience, performing in front of a crowd with Keisha and Molly at half a dozen shows and rodeos. They'd designed sparkling pink costumes, and matching blinkers for the horses.