the car that morning, Issie had to resist the urge to ask if they were there yet. Her mum hated it when she did that. Instead, she sat in the passenger seat positively twitching with expectation and, just when she didn’t think she could stand it any more, her mum said, “Ah! Here we are!” and turned the car down a narrow gravel driveway.
Issie could see a paddock ahead of them. There was a corrugated iron shed with a hitching rail next to it and a little grey pony tied up with his saddle and bridle already on. Issie’s heart skipped a beat as she realised that this must be him. Her new pony.
Mrs Brown parked the car and turned to Issie. “Well, what do you think?”
Issie wasn’t sure what to say. She realised now that she had been expecting it to be love at first sight. But the pony didn’t look at all the way he had sounded in the advertisement. He was really skinny and bony. Issie could actually see his ribs sticking out. His head was hanging down in a miserable kind of way and, despite being saddled up, he hadn’t been brushed and his coarse, dull coat was covered with caked-on mud.
“Well,” said Mrs Brown uncertainly, “he’s not in very good nick, is he? He needs a good brushing for a start. Still, he looks very sweet, don’t you think?”
Actually, Issie thought the pony didn’t look the least bit sweet. He looked sulky and mean. His dark eyes glowered at her and his ears were permanently pinned flat back against his head-which Issie recognised as a sure sign that a pony is angry or upset.
Issie’s mum didn’t seem to notice these things. She knew nothing about ponies. Mrs Brown didn’t even like horses. It was Issie’s Aunty Hess who was the horsey one in the family. The only problem was, Hester was so busy getting the stables ready for her new horse-training business, she didn’t have time to come and help Issie buy a pony.
When Mrs Brown had phoned her sister last night to get some advice on how to go about buying a horse, Hester was adamant. “First of all,” she said, “I don’t think you should be buying one at all, Amanda. You know nothing about horses!”
“I’m sure I can manage,” Mrs Brown had replied huffily.
“Not without a professional there to help you,” Hester insisted. “It’s a tricky business buying horses. A dishonest business too.”
“But, Hess, the pony in the paper sounds lovely!” Mrs Brown had argued.
“They all sound lovely, Amanda!” Hester had snapped. “But I think you’ll find that those ads in the paper very rarely have much to do with the truth of the matter.”
“Well,” sighed Mrs Brown, “can’t you at least give me some pointers so that I’m not completely green when I go in there and look at these horses.” There was silence on the other end of the phone.
“All right,” Hester said reluctantly. “I’ll tell you some of the really obvious stuff to look out for. But please, Amanda. Promise me you won’t buy Issie a pony without having it properly checked by someone who knows what they’re doing. If you wait a month or so, I can come and help you, but right now I can’t leave the farm…”
“And Issie needs to get a pony by Christmas or she won’t be able to go to this camp. So just tell me what I need to know,” Mrs Brown said firmly. “I’m sure I can manage.”
Luckily, Mrs Brown couldn’t see Hester on the other end of the telephone rolling her eyes at this.
“All right,” Hester said. “There are a few basics. My first tip is that you must catch the pony yourself and saddle it up yourself.”
“Why?”
Hester had boggled at her sister’s lack of common sense. “For heaven’s sake, Amanda! How else will you know whether he’s hard to catch? A dodgy owner will catch it for you so you don’t realise that the pony is difficult or naughty.”
This didn’t seem like such a big deal to Mrs Brown, but Hester assured her that it was. “Trust me. You don’t want to buy a pony only to spend all your time chasing it around the paddock for hours-it doesn’t leave much time for actual riding.”
Mrs Brown had listened to her sister’s advice and asked the man over the phone to leave the pony in the paddock for them to catch when they arrived. But he clearly hadn’t listened as the pony was all ready and waiting, tethered to the rail and saddled up.
“Not a good start,” Mrs Brown said ominously as she got out of the car. She eyed up the pony. “He does look skinny, doesn’t he?”
Issie got out of the car too and began to walk over towards the grey pony. She was still a few metres away when the pony began to back away nervously, jerking his head against the lead rope.
“Hey, boy,” Issie said softly under her breath. “What’s your name, huh?” She stood still and waited for the pony to calm down, talking to him the whole time. Slowly, very slowly, Issie stepped forward and reached out to stroke the pony’s mud-caked coat. The little grey flinched as Issie tried to pat him and then he started to back away again.
“It’s OK, boy.” Issie spoke softly to the pony. “I won’t hurt you…” The pony didn’t understand Issie’s words, but he did seem to grasp her meaning. He stopped trembling so much and stood still as she ran a hand down his neck.
“Good boy, easy now,” she murmured to him. “There’s nothing to be frightened of…”
As Issie said this, the grey pony’s mood changed. He flattened his ears back against his head and pulled against the lead rope. He looked totally terrified as he strained against the railing, trying to free himself.
“What’s wrong, boy?” Issie couldn’t figure out what had the pony so spooked. Then she heard a noise behind her and turned to see a blue truck pulling up and a man in a pair of grey overalls coming towards them.
“Easy, boy,” Issie tried to calm the pony. “It’s just a truck.” But surely the pony already knew that? It looked like the truck driver was his owner, so why was the pony so scared?
“You must be Amanda.” The man in the overalls stuck out his hand to Issie’s mother. “I’m Paul,” he said. “I see you’ve already met Apache.”
Paul stepped towards the pony, and Apache instantly put his ears flat back and shook his head violently up and down, making it quite clear that he wasn’t interested in making friends. Stay away from me! he seemed to be saying.
The man growled at the little grey and raised his hand as if he was going to hit Apache, terrifying the pony even more; the whites of his eyes showed with fear as he strained against the rope, trying to get away from the man.
“Leave him alone. You’re scaring him!” said Issie.
“Just teaching him who’s in charge,” the man replied gruffly. He went to raise his hand again then saw the look of horror on Issie’s face and thought better of it. He dropped his hand and changed his tone, his voice suddenly oily with charm. “Good lad!” he said to the grey pony. “You’re a lovely pony, aren’t you? Shall we show this young lady what a good pony you are?”
He turned to Issie and spoke to her in the same way, his words positively dripping with fake sincerity. “Is he going to be your pony, sweetheart?” Issie nodded mutely. “Well, you’d better get on and have
