“Because Aunty Hess really needed a fourth rider and it had to be a girl because we’ll be stunt-doubling for the actresses in the film. Natasha is a good rider and she was the only other person I could think of.”
“What about Morgan?” Kate offered. “Couldn’t you have asked her instead?”
“She’s away on the showjumping circuit right now with her mum,” Issie said.
“This is a nightmare!” Stella fumed.
“I can’t believe Natasha wants to come with us,” Kate said. “She usually ignores us at pony club.”
Issie shrugged. “I know.” She had dreaded turning up at the River Paddock this morning to break the news to Kate and Stella. She knew they would take it badly.
“What a nightmare!” Stella groaned again.
“Oh, Stella, get over it. Don’t be such a drama queen,” Kate snapped.
“Natasha will have to behave herself,” Issie pointed out. “Aunty Hess will be there running things and so will Aidan…”
“Aidan?” Stella said. “Ohmygod, Issie! You didn’t tell me Aidan was going to be there. You haven’t seen him since last summer.”
“Yes, Stella, I know. I don’t need reminding,” Issie replied, trying to shut Stella up.
Aidan was Aunt Hester’s stable manager. The last time Issie saw him was the morning they left Blackthorn Farm. She still remembered Aidan’s kiss, the way his long dark fringe had brushed against her face and she had felt her heart race. She had been so shocked that she hadn’t known what to say. Then Aidan had got all embarrassed and run off and they hadn’t spoken since. Only Stella and Kate knew about this–she had told them once they got home. Although Issie was beginning to wish she hadn’t said anything about it to Stella at all. Stella was her best friend but she was also boy-mad and could be a bit of a twit sometimes–she was bound to blab to Aidan and embarrass her!
“Don’t say anything to him about it, OK, Stella?” Issie begged her.
Stella grinned back. “About what?”
Issie blushed. “Anyway,” she said, changing the subject back to Natasha, “I’ve already asked Natasha. Her mum says it’s OK and she’s coming and that’s final. You need to be at my house tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. We’re all trucking out to the film set together.
“How far is it?” Kate asked.
“It’s only about an hour away, up past the lake,” Issie said. “You know where the ruins of Chevalier Castle are, on that big hill? Well, that’s why they’re filming here. They’re using the castle as part of their film set and they’ve built all these other sets and everything there. There are sleeping quarters for the stunt riders and wranglers too. We’ll be working long hours and we need to take care of the horses so we’ll stay there during the week, but we can come home at weekends.”
“What about Blaze?” Kate asked. “You can’t leave her here alone all week with the foal coming.”
“I’ve already moved her to Winterflood Farm,” Issie said. “Avery says he’ll keep an eye on her. Besides, the vet says she’s still not due for another month…”
“It’s so exciting!” Stella blurted out. “I can’t believe Blaze is actually going to have a foal!”
Issie still couldn’t believe it herself. When the vet at Blackthorn Farm had told her the news she had been in shock. At first, Issie had assumed that the father must be the jet black wild stallion Destiny. Destiny had amazing bloodlines. He had been sired by Aunt Hester’s own beloved Swedish Warmblood stallion, Avignon, so Issie had been very excited at the prospect of Blaze carrying the black stallion’s foal.
Then, when Issie got home and her own vet examined Blaze, he dropped a bombshell. Blaze wasn’t just a little bit pregnant. It seemed she was very pregnant indeed. The mare was more than three months gone already! That meant that Destiny couldn’t possibly be the sire. Issie had been stunned. If Destiny wasn’t the father of this foal, then who was? Finally, she figured it out. Marius! The great, grey Lipizzaner stallion was the star of the El Caballo Danza Magnifico —the famed Spanish dancing horses. Blaze had once belonged to the troupe too, one of the El Caballo’s seven Anglo-Arab mares, renowned for their beauty and balletic performances in the arena.
When Issie thought about it the timing made perfect sense. Blaze had been returned briefly to Francoise D’arth, the head trainer at the El Caballo Danza Magnifico. Issie remembered going to visit Blaze at the El Caballo stables. She had arrived to find Francoise busily ticking off the stable boys for allowing Marius to jump out of his paddock in with the mares. It took almost all day before the stable boys realised the stallion was in the wrong paddock.
Issie had immediately sent a letter to Francoise, telling her the exciting news, but she hadn’t had a reply. Then Issie saw a big story in PONY Magazine about the El Caballo Danza Magnifico which said the troupe was still on its world tour. Perhaps Francoise hadn’t been home and had never received Issie’s letter. The French trainer would surely have got in touch if she knew that Blaze was going to have a foal.
There was still a month to go, but every day that Issie checked on Blaze she seemed to be more and more enormous. Her belly was now so huge that Issie couldn’t fit a girth around her and the pony was eating twice as much hard feed as usual, as well as the lush spring grass in her paddock at Winterflood Farm.
Avery, meanwhile, was like an expectant father, fussing over the mare. He had set up the barn ready for the birth and organised the foaling monitor that would alert them the minute Blaze went into labour.
“The foaling monitor means we can leave her outdoors to graze naturally until she actually goes into labour. After that, things tend to happen very quickly,” Avery warned Issie. “When my great showjumping mare Starlight was foaling, I popped off to grab a cup of tea and by the time I came back from the kitchen she’d had him and the little tyke was already trying to stand up!”
Everything was prepared and the vet had pronounced Blaze perfectly healthy. Still, Issie was nervous about going away with Aunt Hester and leaving her pony.
“She’ll be fine,” Avery reassured Issie. “You go and have fun. I’ll keep an eye on her, don’t you worry. You’re only an hour away–I’ll let you know the minute anything happens, I promise.”
“Just don’t make any cups of tea while I’m gone. I don’t want Blaze to have her foal without me!” Issie had joked.
Even with Avery’s reassurances, Issie didn’t want to say goodbye to Blaze. On the night before the truck was due to pick them up and take them to the film set, she stopped by Winterflood Farm and stood in the paddock for ages, giving the mare snuggles and feeding her at least six carrots.
“After all,” she giggled as Blaze snuffled and munched a carrot from the palm of her hand, “you are eating for two, aren’t you, girl?”
She ran her hands one last time through Blaze’s long flaxen-blonde mane. The mare was so pretty with her dished Arabian face and her perfect white blaze. Issie loved Blaze so deeply now it seemed strange when she thought back to the day they first met.
It was Tom Avery who had brought
