Greener Pastures - Alyssa Brugman [17]
You would need at least one fancy competition horse, but three was too many to keep in show condition when you had to go to school as well. You would also have Hayley's problem, which was that she couldn't ride them all if their competitions were on at the same time. Two competition horses then, she decided, and Blue to muck around on – assuming that she decided to keep Blue. Three horses sounded pretty serious.
Three horses on her ten-acre property. She had learned so much from the Edels about how she wanted to set up her own place, when the time came. She could probably even take one or two horses on agistment. She could keep Bandit for Erin since she couldn't see Erin buying her own horse place.
But all of that was a long way away. She really wanted three horses now. If only she could convince her parents to let her have even one other horse. They never would.
Thinking about her parents reminded her of their decision to go to London. So far she'd been doing a pretty good job of pretending it wasn't happening.
'How is Echo anyway?' Shelby asked.
'We saw him at the All Breeds Show a few weekends ago. He won supreme gelding,' Mrs Crook answered. 'He's doing very well, but he only has a few more years left in him. His hocks already looked as though they were stiffening up. Didn't you think so, Hales?'
Her daughter nodded.
'Don't you miss him?' Shelby asked.
'Nah,' Hayley said. 'We've known the people we sold him to for years. They have a really nice place. They're good competitors.'
Shelby stared at her friend. How could she be so offhand about it?
'Your trouble is that you're too sentimental, Shelby,' Mrs Crook said, glancing at her in the rear-vision mirror. 'Echo was too small for Hayley. Better he go to a home where he suits the rider. He's very happy there.'
'But. . .'
Mrs Crook cut Shelby off. 'It's arrogant to think that you're the only one who knows how to look after an animal. Echo's new owners are perfectly capable.'
Shelby was embarrassed. Mrs Crook wasn't talking about Echo at all. She was talking about Blue.
Shelby took a deep breath. 'Someone has offered to buy Blue for ten thousand dollars.'
Neither Hayley nor Mrs Crook even blinked. They were used to trading in horses for those kinds of sums. For Shelby it was so much money that it didn't seem real.
'Do you want to buy Scamp?' Hayley asked. 'He'd be a good size for you.'
Hayley's small thoroughbred was amazing, but for some reason Hayley didn't like him as a person. She'd been trying to talk her mother into selling him for ages.
'We could sell him for nine and a half, don't you reckon, Mum?'
'Who are you going to ride?' Shelby asked.
'Mrs Edel has asked me to start a filly by Diablo.'
Shelby wondered why the Crooks hadn't come to that sort of arrangement with Mrs Edel before. The Crooks would have a free lease and free agistment. Mrs Edel would get her stallion's prodigy out there competing, and probably winning, which would increase the value of all of the young stock.
'You definitely need something bigger, with a bit of an education. Even something like Erin's Bandit would be good for you,' Mrs Crook told her.
Shelby murmured vaguely. The Crooks seemed to be assuming that she had already made the decision to sell, as if it wasn't even worth pondering for a while. She had been without Blue before and it had broken her heart. It had given her nightmares.
This time would be different. She would know where he was. Shelby would be able to visit him whenever she wanted to. But there was no guarantee that Zeb would keep him forever. What would happen if he decided to