Hide & Seek - Alyssa Brugman [26]
'This one's done.' Lindsey passed Shelby the roan's lead rope so that she could take the newly wormed horse into the paddock. Outside the gate Shelby slipped off the halter and the horse sauntered away to graze. He still had white paste on his lips and poked his tongue out, as if he was thinking, 'Yucko!' Shelby stepped back into the yard to catch another.
'So what do you think, Lin?' Shelby asked, trying again.
'Think about what?'
'About those people who had Diablo.'
Lindsey bit the cap off another worming plunger and spat it into the dirt. 'I think there are good, strug-gling poor people, like your family, and then there are bad, drug-taking, stealing, no-fixed-address poor people,' Lindsey said.
Shelby felt her mouth open with surprise. She had never heard her friend speak like this before. It made her uncomfortable. She had always thought that Lindsey's situation was the closest to her own.
Hayley's parents gave her everything she wanted and Erin was pretty spoiled too. Neither of those girls knew what it was like to have to ask for things when you knew it would be a struggle for your parents.
Lindsey and her mother worked hard every day. They didn't buy new things when a second-hand item would do the job. The Edels' house was small. It had old threadbare furniture in it, and it was untidy a lot of the time, with horse gear draped across the table, or rugs needing repair folded on the floor.
'And what kind of a poor person are you?' Shelby asked.
'Lindsey's not any kind of poor person!' Hayley laughed.
Shelby frowned, confused.
'Don't you know that?' Hayley grinned.
'Shel, you know that property up on the corner that was for sale? It sold for two and a half million dollars a few weeks ago. It's five acres.' Erin smiled knowingly. 'Lindsey's mum has one hundred and seventy-five acres.'
Shelby's eyes widened.
'And that's just the value of the property. Think about how much this place rakes in. A service from Diablo is worth two and a half grand. You've seen how often mares go through here,' Erin said. 'How many trail riders are there every day? Twenty? At forty-five dollars a pop, that's what . . . twelve and a half grand just over this school holidays!'
'And what about agistment?' Hayley added. 'People pay fifty dollars a week each, just to keep a horse in the very back paddock. That's not even counting all the horses in the front paddocks, or in the stables. And what about those ones like Ajax on full board? They pay a hundred and fifty dollars a week each! Lindsey is a multi-squillionaire, Shel!' Hayley laughed again.
Shelby stared at her friend. 'Is this true?'
Lindsey didn't answer. Instead she squeezed another tube of paste into the horse's mouth.
'What do you do with it all?' Shelby whispered.
'It's actually really hard to make money out of a horse business,' Lindsey said. Hayley groaned, but Lindsey ignored her. 'I know you guys think we charge a lot, but we're constantly upgrading the equipment, there are always fences that need doing, or mainten-ance to machinery, and we buy the best quality feed. Then there are clients who don't pay, or who leave us with vet bills. Half the riding school ponies are aban-doned agisters. People run up thousands of dollars in debt – way more then their horse is worth, and then just leave it here. We never hear from them again.'
'Really?' Shelby was shocked.
'We use them for the riding school, or we sell them. It happens all the time. That's why I'm riding Lyrical – the Arab. The guy said he was into endurance riding, but we haven't seen him for six months. If she's any good we'll tell him to post over her papers and we'll be square.'
'Wow,' said Shelby. 'Free horses.'
'No, they're not free,' Lindsey snapped. 'They owe us more than they're worth.'
'Don't change the subject!' Hayley said.
Shelby led the horse out and then caught another horse, Beaumont – affectionately known as Blockhead
– a big, grey Percheron, and one of Shelby's favourites. 'Mum has a fair bit in managed funds,' Lindsey
admitted.
'What's that?' Shelby asked.