Hot Potato (Shelby and Blue) - Alyssa Brugman [21]
Erin's mother tried to make conversation but Erin grumbled monosyllabic answers under her breath.
'I can see you're in a mood,' her mother commented, and they drove on in silence.
In the back seat Shelby squirmed. She hoped one day she could talk her own mother into driving them to the stables. Then she wouldn't feel like such a scab.
Lindsey was waiting for them at the edge of the arena. Miss Anita had a young roan cutting horse on a lunge rein.
'Are you guys ready?' Lindsey asked.
'I'm going to ride my own horse today.' Erin stalked past Lindsey towards Bandit's paddock.
'What's up with you, grumpy-trousers?' Lindsey called after her.
'Ask Shelby,' she shouted over her shoulder.
Lindsey turned to Shelby with an eyebrow raised.
'We should probably ride Hot . . . the pony tomorrow,' Shelby said. 'We'll just check on her today.'
The two girls saddled up Blue and Cracker. On the way to the back paddock they saw Erin in the jumping arena. She was taking Bandit around the course. She didn't stop when her friends rode past. Shelby wasn't even sure if she saw them.
'Bandit's jumping well,' Lindsey commented.
Shelby only nodded in reply.
At the back paddock Lindsey opened the gate for Shelby and they cantered up to the ridge, halting at the top. All of the spelled horses were standing around the dam. Three horses stood shoulder-deep eating the weeds from the water's surface. Shelby shivered, thinking how cold the water must be and wondering what might be lurking on the silty bottom or swimming around their legs – yabbies possibly, ugly catfish or slimy black eels. She had fallen into a billabong similar to this last summer, and the memory of unseen slippery things brushing against her flesh made her skin crawl.
The little chestnut pony was grazing happily between two fat broodmares. Shelby and Lindsey watched her for a little while longer.
'Do you think I'm a scab, Lindsey?'
'Is that what this is all about?' Lindsey laughed. She gathered up her reins. 'Race you back!' Then she was gone, scattering pebbles behind her.
Shelby wheeled Blue around and he lunged forward, keen for the chase. She crouched over his neck as he gathered speed. Her eyes watered and the wind whistled as it rushed past her ears.
Lindsey was streaking ahead. Cracker was stretched out low. Shelby could hear Lindsey's laughter as she urged him forward.
At the gate Cracker skidded to a stop. Lindsey brought him up close to the latch and flung the gate open.
'Close that, will you?' she called over her shoulder and then Cracker was off again, his pounding hooves creating a cloud of dust that made Shelby cough.
'No fair!' Shelby shouted, grinning. Lindsey didn't answer. Shelby could hear her yelling, 'Yar! Yar!' like a stockrider.
Blue skipped through the gate, backed up, and stood quietly so that she could fasten the chain. When she'd finished Blue needed no encouraging – he spun around on his hind legs and sprang forward, flicking his tail.
Closer to the stables Shelby slowed Blue to a trot, and then a walk, letting him cool down and catch his breath. She unsaddled him and let him loose in the paddock.
Lindsey was already in the feed shed.
'What took you so long?' she asked.
'You had a head start! If it wasn't for the gate, I would have beaten you easily,' Shelby joked. Gate or no gate, Shelby knew Lindsey was a bolder rider.
Lindsey climbed up the bales of hay that were stacked to the ceiling as though they were a set of giant stairs and rolled a new bale down to the floor. Dust and loose strands of lucerne flew up into the air. One of the rat-cats sneezed.
'You didn't answer my question,' Shelby said.
Lindsey sighed. 'I think you want a horse that's as good as you think your horse should be, but I don't think Bess is that horse.'
She frowned at Shelby, concentrating. Shelby guessed Lindsey was trying out different ways to say something Shelby didn't want to hear. Eventually she shook her head. 'She's pretty, but she's not a nice person.'
'But she could have had a bad life so far. We don't know.'
Lindsey