Blaze and the Dark Rider (7 page)

School was a nightmare the next day. Issie was exhausted after spending half the night sneaking about at the pony club.

After her tussle with the stranger in the tack room Issie had gone back and found the keys to let Mystic through the gate. Then, with Mystic’s help, she had eventually found Blaze in the far paddock where, to Issie’s great relief, the mare appeared to be safe and sound.

As the dawn haze was just beginning to creep up the horizon, she had ridden home on Mystic, making it back in time to slip into her room and back into bed before her mother noticed she was missing.

It seemed to Issie that her head had only just hit the pillow when her alarm went off again and she had to get up and pull on her school uniform. She had to get to school early to find Stella and Kate before class and tell them about what had happened.

By the time she reached school it was too late, the bell had gone. Luckily their first class that Monday was P.E. with Miss Burgess, which meant that Issie could fill her friends in on everything while they got changed into their gym gear.

Well, not everything, exactly. She skipped the bit about Mystic of course. Sometimes she longed to tell her best friends about the grey ghost horse, but she knew instinctively that Mystic was meant to be her secret. And so she told them that she had woken up from a dream, a premonition that Blaze was in danger, and biked up to the club grounds instead.

“Issie! How dangerous!” Kate said when she told her about the stranger who had knocked her down.

“Did you get a good look at her?” Stella asked.

“No, not really.” Issie shook her head. “It was dark in the tack room and by the time I switched the light on she had gone. I’m pretty sure it was a woman, and
she had long, dark hair. And, well, Francoise had just been to see Blaze that morning and Blaze had acted so strangely!”

“Do you think it might have been Francoise? Maybe Blaze is connected somehow to the El Caballo mares?” Stella’s eyes were shining with excitement now. “I mean, if she has no papers, but she really is an Anglo-Arab and she’s the same colour as them then maybe they’re from the same bloodline?”

“Oh, don’t be silly, Stella! There are loads of horses who are the same colour and it doesn’t mean they’re related or anything!” Kate said sensibly.

“But, I mean, they even have the same colour manes and white socks as Blaze. Deep liver chestnut with flaxen mane and tail? It’s not a boring, common colour like bay…”

Kate glared at her. Stella realised what she had said. “I don’t mean that Toby is common and boring. I just meant…Anyway,” Stella continued, ignoring the fact that Kate was now in a sulk, “if Blaze isn’t related to the El Caballo mares then why was Francoise sneaking around like that? What does she want?”

Issie looked serious. “Stella, we don’t know that it
was Francoise. She seemed really worried about Blaze when she bolted in the paddock.”

“Why did Blaze bolt?” Stella was puzzled.

“It was weird,” Issie said. “Francoise did this whistle with her hands and then Blaze just went crazy. I don’t know why but that’s how it seemed anyway. I mean, why would someone whistling make her act so strangely. I’ve never seen her rear up like that before and it took ages to calm her down.”

“Is Francoise coming back again to see Blaze?” Kate asked.

“No, but she said if we wanted to, we could go to the show again. She’s going to leave us tickets on the door and we can go backstage afterwards and meet the horses,” Issie said.

“We should definitely go!” Stella said. “Issie, we need to find out more about Francoise and why she was at the paddock in the middle of the night. And besides,” she added, “I want to learn how they teach those horses to bow—then I can teach Coco to do it!”

“Oh, Stella!” Kate rolled her eyes. But she agreed that they should all go and see the El Caballo Danza Magnifico horses again.

The girls didn’t see each other again at school that day until lunchtime. They were sitting in the sun on the sports field eating lunch—or rather Kate and Stella were eating their lunch, and Issie was poking suspiciously at a lettuce and tomato sandwich that her mother had packed for her—when Annabel Willets came over to say hi.

Annabel was a year older than Issie, Kate and Stella, and she was in year nine this year, so they hardly ever saw her at school. But now that they were all in the same team for the Gold Shield, Annabel was much more chatty.

“Avery suggested that we should get together tonight to do some practice for the relay races,” Annabel told them.

“Good idea,” Kate agreed. “We need to tell Dan and Ben to be there too. Issie, why don’t you phone Dan to check that he knows about the practice tonight?”

“Why me?” Issie squeaked. She felt a bit embarrassed around Dan these days. Ever since he asked her to go
and see the bands play at Summer in the Park and she had got angry with him because she thought he was going out with Natasha Tucker…well, everything had got so confused. She knew now that Dan was never dating Natasha. He had only asked her along because his mum made him. Dan did seem to really like Issie. You could tell because he always, always smiled at her and kind of teased her. But she had hardly seen him all winter. They went to different schools, after all, and it had only been at the pony-club rally last weekend that they had really started hanging out together again.

Issie felt weird about phoning up Dan. But she realised that if she told Kate and Stella that, they would know that she really did like him. She faltered for a moment, “I mean, I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to call him. It’s Avery’s job to organise team training. It would be a better idea if we got him to call Dan and Ben, and he’ll probably want to get Natasha and Morgan along too because they’re the reserves.”

To Issie’s relief everyone agreed that this was the best plan. Avery would call the others and they could all meet that afternoon at the pony club for the first team practice session.

It was already getting late in the afternoon when the girls arrived at the paddock to bring their horses in to prep for the training session. Issie’s mum had given them a lift so they wouldn’t have to ride their bikes along the dangerous main road at dusk.

“If Mum only knew that I rode here in the middle of the night on Mystic to see you,” Issie whispered quietly to Blaze as she brushed the mare. Blaze nickered back to her, and Issie giggled. Last night’s drama in the tack room seemed so distant now that Issie began to wonder if she had imagined the whole thing.

She had gone into the tack room as soon as she arrived with Stella and Kate, and all three of them had taken a good look around. They had all left their tack there overnight—and so had Annabel Willets—and nothing seemed to be missing.

“It can’t have been thieves,” Stella pointed out, “because nothing was stolen. It must have been Francoise. Who else would have a reason for being here in the middle of the night?”

Annabel had walked into the tack room at that point to grab Eddie’s halter, so the girls had stopped talking about Francoise and gone to catch their ponies and saddle up too.

By the time they had brushed out their manes and tails, everyone had arrived.

As they saddled up, Avery rallied the parents together, “Come on Mrs B and Mrs H,” he said to Issie and Dan’s mums. “Let’s get the games sorted, shall we, while the kids tack up?”

While the team got ready the mums helped Avery prod the bending poles into the ground in two neat rows. “We’re going to practise relay races,” Avery explained, “so we’ll only need the two rows of poles—one for each team.”

Avery split the riders into two teams. Natasha, Morgan, Dan and Ben were on one team. Issie, Kate, Stella and Annabel were on the other. The riders stood there, lined up in front of Avery in their two teams, and he explained what they were about to do.

“You’ve all done bending races before and you’re all very quick through the poles,” Avery said, “but as I’ve said before, the Gold Shield is all about teamwork and
you’ll need to play to your strengths if you’re going to make a good time in the relay event.

“There will be six of you in the relay race team at the real event, but today for training purposes I’ve split you into two teams of four,” Avery continued.

“The idea is to pass the baton from one rider to the next. You cannot cross the line and start the race until the baton has been passed to you.”

“We need to find the fastest riders to go first and last. One of you will hopefully set the pace and get us an early lead. The other rider brings up the rear in the running order so that if we are losing in the final stages then we still have a chance to make up lost time and win. The rest of you will make up the middle order, and the main thing to remember is do not, no matter what, drop that baton.”

Avery looked serious. Issie remembered what Kate had said about Marsh Fields rubbing it in the last time they won. She also remembered Avery’s own name on that Gold Shield when his team had won it back in 1985.
This must mean a lot to him
, Issie thought. Avery clearly meant for his team to win this time.

“Now,” he eyed up the eight riders, “do any of you
have horses who don’t get along with each other? I want to make sure there’s no trouble while the horses are lining up to race and the last thing we need is a grumpy mare taking a swipe at the horse next to her.”

Stella raised her hand. “Coco can get a bit stroppy sometimes and she doesn’t like standing next to Max,” she admitted.

“Good. Thanks for that, Stella. Let’s make sure Coco and Max are separated in the running order. Anyone else with problems?” Avery looked around the group. “No? Excellent. Let’s begin then, shall we?”

Avery passed a baton each to Issie and Natasha, who were both first to ride in their groups. The two girls lined up at the starting line and the other riders lined up in two rows behind them.

“Now, as you race for the finish line at the end you need to pass the baton right hand to right hand,” Avery pointed out to them. “So you must all take the right hand side of the very first pole. Otherwise you’ll be on the wrong side and you’ll get yourself in an enormous tangle.” He looked at them with a considered gaze.

“Get it? Good. Let’s give this a practice run without a stopwatch just to see how you go,” he said. “On your
marks…” his voice was deep and serious, “get set…GO!”

Issie and Natasha both shot forward at the same time and began to weave their way furiously at a fast canter through the bending poles. By the time they reached the last pole at the end of the course, Issie was just slightly in the lead. Then Blaze made a tight, hard turn at the last pole that put her almost a length ahead on the way home.

“Go, Issie! Go!” Stella and Annabel were screaming her on as Issie slalomed through the very last pole with her arm outstretched, the baton in her hand. On the other side of the start line Kate clucked Toby on so that he was already in a canter as he crossed the line and Issie smoothly passed Kate the baton.

“Go, Kate!” the others on the team shouted. But Toby was slow and lumbering through the bending poles. They lost their lead to Dan who was over a length ahead and already passing his baton to Ben.

As Kate finally weaved her way to the finish line she got the baton tangled in her reins and fumbled it as she charged past Stella. Toby kept right on cantering and Kate still hadn’t handed Stella the baton.

“Stop him, Kate!” Stella screamed at her as she turned Coco around and cantered frantically after the big bay who was still heading off towards the clubroom.

Kate finally managed to pull Toby to a halt and pass the baton to Stella, who wheeled Coco around again and took off hell for leather towards the bending poles, but by then the girls had well and truly lost their lead. The other team were ahead by over three lengths.

“It’s up to you, Annabel, you’ll have to make up the lost time,” Issie told her as Annabel lined Eddie up at the start line.

“I’ll try,” Annabel said, trying to keep Eddie steady as he danced nervously waiting for their turn to race.

Stella had made up almost a length in her race against Ben and now she handed the baton smoothly to Annabel.