Amy and Amber (2 page)

I’m just grabbing a few minutes to write in here before we go back out. I want to get everything down while it’s still fresh in my mind and not miss out a single thing!

Well, there was definitely nothing to be nervous about – the other girls are LOVELY! Jody came out to the yard with us and introduced us to Sally, who’s the main instructor here, and Lydia, who’s the head stable girl.

Then we all had to say our names and where we were from. Sarah, Genevieve and Shanika (all 11) go to the same riding school in London and are sharing a room together.

Me, Kayla and Millie are in together of course, so that leaves Jasmine and Lexy (who are BFFs too) and they’re sharing with Ava, the youngest. They’re all 9, but Ava’s only just 9 and Jas is 10 next week.

Then Sally showed us round the yard. We all went WOW when we saw the swimming pool – it looks even more amazing than in the pics on the Sunnyside Stables website. There’s a games room too, with
COOL!
stuff like table tennis and Twister and dance mats.

Next we went into the barn and saw the ponies! They’re so gorgeous and my heart was racing with excitement as me and Kayla whispered about which ones we might get! Everyone else felt the same and we made a huge fuss of them all. Back on the yard Sally went through the safety rules about putting equipment away and wearing proper boots and letting an adult know if we leave the group to go to the loo or anything.

Then came the bit we’d all been waiting for – finding out which ponies we were getting! Lydia brought them out one by one and Sally paired us up. This is who everyone got:

Amber is SO gorgeous! Here’s my pony profile of her:

Name: Amber

Height: 13hh

Age: 6

Breed: Maybe some New Forest pony in her, Lydia thinks!

Colour: Dun

Markings: White star, dark brown mane and tail and a cute blackish-brown line down her back

Fave foods: Carrots and apples (according to Millie)

Personality: Sweet, patient, tries hard and GORGEOUS!!

We all lined up to use the mounting block and once we were on, Sally and Lydia came round to sort out our stirrups and girths. Amber was so sweet and stood really quietly so I didn’t need any help, but Sally had to hold Cracker because he kept wandering off whenever Kayla tried to put her leg forward.

We rode into the manège in single file and my heart was pounding because I wanted to impress Sally. As we were walking around to warm up I kept thinking too much about my posture and hands and legs and I felt really awkward, but after a while I relaxed into it. I so enjoyed riding Amber, she makes lovely smooth transitions and she always stopped nice and square when we went forward into halt.

Kayla’s pony Cracker is so cute and cheeky. He cut off the corner when we had to trot to the back of the ride, and Sally got her to circle him round and do it again twice. He kept to the track after that, and Sally said Kayla had done really well.

And guess what?! She did so well that she’s been put in Group B with Shanika, Sarah, Genevieve and Millie. (I’m in Group A with Lexy, Jas and Ava, which is fine by me!) I thought Kayla would be really happy, but when we were untacking in the barn afterwards she was a bit upset that we won’t be riding together. She even wanted me to go with her to ask Sally if she could swap to Group A.

I was secretly a bit upset too, because of course I’d wanted us to ride together, but I was careful to hide it. There’s no way I’d hold her back – that’s not what good friends do. “You should be proud that you got into the top group,” I told her. “You’re such a good rider. This is a great chance to really push yourself.”

Kayla looked uncertain. “Do you really think so?” she asked.

“Of course I do! Go for it!” I cried, giving her a big hug. “And don’t forget, we’ll still have our hack out and beach ride together.” Kayla shrugged, then smiled. “OK.”

It was great fun brushing our ponies down next to each other and getting them some fresh water and checking their hooves and everything.

Oh, Millie’s just come in and said it’s time to go back down to the yard again. Gotta go – I can’t wait one more second to see Amber! I know I’ve only just met her, but I’m completely crazy about her already!

Right now, me, Kayla and Millie are waiting till Jody's gone to bed so we can have our first midnight feast (there's no way we can wait till actual midnight!). So in the meantime I'm writing this under the covers by the light of my torch.

Wow – there's so much to say! Loads has happened. I'll go back to when we went down to the yard after lunch, so I don't miss anything out. Well, first we had a talk about tack and tacking up, and after Lydia had given us a demo on Charm, we all had a go with our own ponies. Amber stood really still while I brushed her down and got her saddle and bridle on.

Then I had to help Kayla get the bit in as Cracker kept tossing his head around whenever she tried.

Our lesson was really fun. There are two manèges next to each other, so both groups ride at the same time. Group B had Sally and we had Jody. She got us doing lots of balancing exercises like riding without stirrups and doing Round the Worlds. I loved it and I know Amber did too. And she was so sweet putting up with me bobbling about at first when we had to trot without stirrups! Jody told us to sit deep in our saddles and let our legs wrap lightly round our ponies, and soon I had a much more secure seat (which was good 'cos otherwise I would have ended up with a v. v. sore bottie!).

Next we had to canter round the manège (
with
stirrups – phew!) then ride a 20-metre circle at the far end. That was amazing!

OK, so some of our circles were a bit eggshaped, including mine, but Jody told us it didn't matter. She said that by the end of the week we'd have perfect ones. She's so nice and patient, I'm really glad I'm in her group. I told Kayla about it afterwards while we were brushing our ponies down and getting them fresh water. She didn't say much about her lesson (probably because she couldn't get a word in edgeways, poor thing!) and I was just about to ask when Lydia came in and gave us our yard jobs.

I was in charge of sweeping the yard with Lexy and we got really into it. We even chased the last little bits of straw around in the wind before they reached the ground to make sure there was not one speck of mess! Then Sally came out of the office to see our work. She said how fab it was and how she'd give us jobs at Sunnyside if we were old enough!

When we'd all finished, we gathered in the barn with Lydia to turn out our ponies. That's when I suddenly remembered my video camera, and I asked Lydia if I could run back to the farmhouse and fetch it. I wanted to get some film of Amber and the other ponies just hanging out in the field. And I'm so glad I did, because it was just fantastic! Amber did a big roll and then went flying about with Charm, both of them kicking their heels and whinnying.

And even more amazing was what happened afterwards at teatime…

We were all sitting round the big table in the kitchen of the farmhouse chatting about our first day, and eating our jacket potatoes and salad and chicken. You could just help yourself to what you wanted, and I ate THREE drumsticks 'cos I was so hungry after all the riding! Jody put my camera up on a shelf so it didn't get covered in food and only gave it back after our pud (banana splits – YUM!).

All the girls wanted to see what I'd filmed, so I showed them on the little monitor. They all went “Aww!” when Amber did the roll, and Jody said it was really good. Then she said something amazing which was, “Would you make us a film to go on our website showing how much fun it is at Sunnyside Stables?”

Well, WOW!!!

I said YES, of course! Everyone instantly started coming up with loads of ideas about what could be in it, like demos of jumping and flatwork, us all out on a hack and riding on the beach, going swimming, the yummy meals, the end of week disco and the gymkhana. The only problem was they were all talking at once!

“Hang on! Hang on!” I cried. “One at a time!” Jody found me a piece of paper and a pen so I could make a list. As well as the girls' ideas, I'm going to film us doing yard work and looking after our ponies too – to show that coming on holiday here really is like having one of your own!

Jody even said we can run the lessons on a bit on Wednesday so that I can film Group B jumping (we can't do it tomorrow 'cos it's meant to be really hot and sunny so they've moved the beach ride forward by a day – hooray!).
Our group is going to do a flatwork demo then too. Jody said she'd ask James (Millie's bro) to film it so that I can join in – how cool!

Me and Kayla had planned to go upstairs after tea and listen to my iPod together, but by the time we'd all finished talking about everyone's ideas we just had to hurry up and get changed to go swimming. I grabbed my camera, so I could make a start on the film right there and then!

When we were at the pool, Lexy had a fab idea for me to film them all jumping in one after the other. They each tried to make the biggest splash and it looked brilliant! Then it was really funny 'cos they were all chanting my name so I gave my camera to Jody to look after and did a big jump into the middle!