Greener Pastures - Alyssa Brugman [10]
'That's a deposit on a house,' she said instead.
Erin blinked. 'A house in Wambangalang.'
'Where's Wambangalang?' Shelby asked.
'This is my point. You might be able to buy that, though,' Erin said, nodding ahead.
At the end of the cul-de-sac was Lydia's little fibro house. The two girls were not yet able to see into the back garden due to a tall corrugated iron fence, and a ute and trailer parked in the driveway. The trailer was sign-written in a sloping script, 'Greener Pastures', and then in smaller print, 'Meeting your commercial landscaping needs naturally'.
Shelby bit her lip. She liked to think of herself as open-minded, but after talking to Lydia and learning where she lived, she had already made a judgement about what she expected to see behind that fence. What worried her was whether she was going to be able to do anything about it.
5 Chance
Lydia's parents had cordoned off a bit of scrub behind the house with star pickets and three rows of white electric tape wired to a battery unit. The paddock was about half an acre, with lots of trees, interspersed with patches of tufty native grasses. There was a laundry tub for water. There was no stable or shed that Shelby could see – not even a garden shed for storing feed, but it was a reasonable, safe, sheltered paddock considering what she had been expecting.
It was a much better paddock than the one where Shelby used to keep Blue before he moved to the stables. That paddock had been fenced mostly with rusted strands of barbed wire, old shipping pallets and baling twine. Thinking back now, Shelby realised she was lucky he'd never tried to escape. It reminded her of just how far she and Blue had come in the past few years.
Their new friend was near the makeshift gate astride a pretty grey pony of about thirteen hands. Shelby thought he looked at least part Arab. He was a bit thick around the joints, but otherwise appeared to be in very good condition – perhaps even a little fat.
Lydia introduced the girls to her father, Lee. He was fit and wiry, with a deep tan. Shelby guessed he must spend a lot of time outdoors with his landscaping business.
'Is that your trailer out the front?' Shelby asked.
Lydia's face lit up. 'Dad just got a big contract doing the landscaping at the Gully Golf Club.'
'That's why we got the pony for Lydia,' Lee added.
Shelby assumed he must mean that they couldn't afford to keep a horse before.
Erin surveyed the paddock with her hands on her hips. 'Not much pick. Must be a good doer,' she commented.
'I'm sorry?' asked Lee.
'She said the pony can maintain his weight,' Shelby explained. 'So what's his name?' she asked as she tightened the cheek strap of his bridle. The ring-snaffle had been hanging low in the pony's mouth and he was chewing on it, as if trying to hold it in place. The rest of the gear was basic, but clean and in good nick.
'He's called Chance,' Lydia replied. 'He's a foundation horse.'
Shelby understood 'foundation' to be a breeding term. She hadn't researched breeding much but she thought it meant a horse that was the beginning of a bloodline in a studbook.
'Is he a stallion?' Shelby asked.
'Yes, but he's been fixed,' Lee said. 'Neutered.'
Shelby shot a look at Erin, who shrugged. It was obvious that Lydia and her dad didn't know much about horses. 'Gelding' was a pretty basic term. She wondered if they had misheard about him being 'foundation'.
'Where do you ride around here?' Shelby asked.
'Up the road and around the corner you can get onto a fire-trail that goes to the back of the show-ground. It goes further, but I haven't explored any more yet.' Lydia grinned again. Shelby remembered what it was like when she first got Blue and every single ride was an exciting adventure.
'Are you ready to go then? We don't