Daisy and Dancer (6 page)

“What on earth were you thinking?” Jody demanded. I blushed. It all sounded a bit silly now.

“Isabel was sure she’d seen a ghost,”
I muttered, “and I just thought we should have a look. We were going to ask, but you were on the phone and we waited for ages, and we only meant to be out there for a minute so…”

Jody frowned. “Do you understand you’re never to leave this house like that again without telling me?” she asked. “And the same goes for you too, Isabel and Rosie?”

She looked really cross and we all nodded miserably and said sorry again.

“I mean it, not even if you thought you saw a pink elephant juggling fire sticks,” she added, smiling a little. Phew! So she wasn’t
too
cross after all. Well, she was, but she knew we’d got the message. Then Johnny and James came in and told us that Charm had somehow managed to get the gate to the field open, and if it hadn’t been for us then
all
the ponies could have been wandering round in the dark all night.
Jody said well done to us three then, for stopping a serious accident from happening (though she did tell us again that we should never have gone out by ourselves in the first place!).

We got our hot chocolate after that, and everyone wanted to hear the whole story, so we told them all the details. Isabel and Rosie wouldn’t stop going on about how scared they were and how brave I was – well, I didn’t think it was that big a deal, but everyone else seemed to!

When we were all in bed and the lights had been out for a while, Isabel and I crept into Rosie’s bunk, and hung our towels down to make a secret camp. We got out our stash of sweets and started to tuck in. And that’s when I found myself telling them how I feel about the display. I wasn’t planning to, but it just came out. Somehow, after everything, I felt really close to them, and it was easier whispering it in the dark than saying it out loud in the daytime. I told them all about how frustrating it was not being able to get the hang of the moves, and how bad I felt for letting Dancer down by being so nervous when I should have been leading her. “Maybe I should pull out of the display altogether, tell Jody I’m ill or something, and you two can do it without me,” I said. “I don’t mind, honestly. I just don’t want to spoil it for you by being rubbish.”

“Absolutely no way,” Rosie whispered. “It’s one for all and all for one!”

“I wish you’d told us all this sooner,” said Isabel. “I feel awful now, like we’ve made you do things you weren’t confident about. If anything,
we’ve
spoilt it for
you
.”

“Of course you haven’t!” I insisted. “I don’t blame you two. I’m just really relieved you’re not upset with
me
.”

They absolutely promised they weren’t, and Isabel gave me her last drumstick lolly to prove it, even though they’re her favourite. “You may not be confident about the display,” said Rosie, “but you are in other things. Look at us two with our ponies in the barn, worrying about getting our feet trodden on and being nervous of putting the bit in! You’re so confident you just get on with it, and you help us out too! And remember how brave you were tonight staying out in the dark by yourself.”

Well, I hadn’t thought of it like that before! I’ve been so busy concentrating on the things I’m not very good at, I forgot to see all the things I
am
good at! I guess sometimes it takes your friends to point the obvious out to you!

“Thanks, that means a lot to me,” I told them. “But seriously, what are we going to do about the display? You’re both so supple and balanced, and there’s no way I’m going to suddenly be like that by Friday! But if we cut all the things I can’t do out of the routine it’ll look really boring!”

“Don’t worry,” Isabel said then. “I’m sure we can find a solution. Let’s get some sleep and talk to Jody about it tomorrow.”

So we scoffed the last of the flying saucers, and Rosie and I crept back into our own beds.

I feel so much better now I’ve told them the truth, and it’s great that they’ve been so understanding. It’s really nice of them to want to help me, but I still can’t think of a solution. I guess I’ll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings!

Wow, this morning went really well – much better than I could ever have imagined – and it was all thanks to Rosie and Isabel (and Dancer, of course!). After we’d got our ponies in and brushed them down, we all gathered round

Jody in the barn to find out what our yard jobs were. Everyone was given theirs and went off to get started, except us three. Jody gave me a smile and said, “Isabel and Rosie mentioned to me this morning that you’re feeling nervous about the display.”

At first I was a bit embarrassed that they’d told her, but then I was just relieved that I didn’t have to pretend any more. “Yes, I am…” I admitted. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, though,” I added quickly. But I didn’t sound very sure, not even to myself!

“Daisy, there’s no need to put on a brave face,” said Jody, “we’re all here to help you. In the lesson this morning we can have a think about how to adapt the routine so that you’re confident about it.”

“But I don’t want to spoil things for my friends,” I mumbled, glancing at Isabel and Rosie.

“You’re not,” Rosie insisted.

“We want you to have fun and enjoy yourself, that’s the main thing,” Isabel promised.

“Are you really, really sure?” I asked.

“Daisy!” cried Isabel. “You have to believe us! I gave you my last drumstick lolly and everything!”

I grinned at them and they grinned back. What fab friends!

“Meanwhile, Isabel and Rosie have come up with some ways to help you improve your balance and confidence,” Jody said then, “so instead of doing yard jobs, I’d like you to spend the next hour working together on that.”

So that’s exactly what we did! First they set up a line of straw bales down the middle of the barn and we all jumped from one to the other (the ponies were watching us, wondering what on earth we were doing!). When I got the hang of it they spaced them further and further apart. I really had to concentrate hard to keep my balance when I landed, and I fell off a couple of times. I did improve, though, and in the end they were so far apart that even Isabel toppled off at one point, so we thought we’d better stop there!

Then we all did the tree pose, which is this yoga thing that they learned from their mum. The ponies were definitely wondering what was going on then!

After that we went out and tried some handstands up against the back wall of the stables. I did get a bit better, but my legs were still falling down sideways and I couldn’t stay up very long before my wrists started to hurt. “I’m really sorry,” I said, after about the fifteenth try, “but I don’t think it’s going to work, and in the manège I won’t even have the wall and it’s much harder to balance on the woodchips.”

I started to feel a bit upset again, but Rosie said, “Don’t worry about it, honestly, it is really hard when you’re not used to it,” and then Isabel came up with a fab idea of how to adapt
the routine. So now we’re going to all dismount at the end and walk forward away from our ponies, and then I’ll jump into a star shape and they’ll do their handstands up against me, so I’m holding their legs. Rosie thinks it will look even better than our original ending because they can stay up far longer with me holding them and I can count to five so they come down at exactly the same time, which will look SO cool!

By the time we’d finished, I felt so much better. I couldn’t stop smiling, and I told Dancer all about it while I was getting her tacked up for the lesson. When the ponies were ready, us girls went over to the manège and did a fitness
warm-up with Sally again, which was really fun. Even when I got stuck halfway over Isabel’s back in the leapfrog and we both fell down, I just collapsed in giggles. And the same thing happened to Millie when she was trying to leapfrog over Stephanie, so it’s not like I was the only one.

Then we had to do the trust exercise of falling backwards and catching each other, which Kate showed us on Tuesday. I didn’t think I’d dare, but I
do
trust Rosie, so I just let myself fall backwards (shrieking out loud as I went, but still!). And I made sure I stood really strong and solid when Isabel had to fall on to me, too, so that I didn’t let her down.

Then it was time to get the ponies and mount up for our lesson. I was feeling so much more positive and confident, I hoped it would
rub off on Dancer too! I gave her a big pat before I got on and told her how well we were going to do today. She walked into the manège really calmly and nicely and did the warm-up without any problems. And she even stayed on the circle we were trotting when Sally clanged the gate of the other manège. It was working!

I really believed everything was going to be fine, but despite all my positive thinking, when the ribbons came out Dancer just spooked again, as badly as last time. She didn’t even want them near her and kept trying to go sideways to get away.

“OK, don’t worry, Daisy,” Jody called, seeing me get a bit flustered. “You’re focusing on the ribbons a lot, which means Dancer will as well. Just pretend the ribbon stick is a crop in your hand and ride normally, as if nothing’s different.”

I nodded and gathered all my courage – I really was determined to crack it!

Jody called out instructions and we all followed, doing turns and circles and changes of pace just holding the ribbon sticks like crops (Sasha and Libby joined in with this as well, but without the ribbons). It was tricky at first, but Jody kept calling out new things and in the end I just had to concentrate on those and I really did forget I had the ribbons at all. Dancer seemed to as well and in the end she relaxed and was going really smoothly, and you wouldn’t have known she’d started off any more nervous than Amber or Monsoon.