Emily and Emerald (4 page)

Johnny was just about to start our table tennis tournament when Sally poked her head round the games room door and asked if I wanted to help her turn Emerald out for the first time.

Well, of course I did! Any chance to spend more time with my pony! 

But it didn't exactly work out in the end.

With Sally beside me, I walked Emerald up the lane to the field. All the other ponies were already grazing, as I led her through the gate and unclipped her lead rope. Then Sally and I leaned on the fence and watched.

Emerald didn't seem to know what to do. At first, she stood by the gate just eyeing the others nervously. Then when Sally encouraged
her to go off, she bolted straight up to Flame, who just chased her back across the field, squealing and bucking.

So poor Emerald ended up by herself again.

I felt like shouting to Flame, “Be nice to her! She doesn't know anyone and she's only trying to make friends with you!” But Sally explained that ponies have a sort of special code that new arrivals have to respect, and that Emerald was ignoring it.

“Well, she doesn't
mean
to,” I grumbled. “It's not like she's trying to be horrible.”

“No, of course not,” said Sally. “But she's been on her own for so long she might have
forgotten, or perhaps she was taken away from her mother too young, so she never learnt these things in the first place. She doesn't understand how to fit in.”

I felt even sorrier for Emerald then. I find it difficult to fit in, too, so I understand exactly how she feels!

Emerald tried to make friends with Flame a couple more times, but she kept getting chased away.

I felt really awful just watching – it reminded me of when Suze at my old yard suddenly decided she didn't like me, and then her friends all followed her lead and wouldn't hang around with me either.

Sally sighed. “This isn't going as well as I'd hoped,” she said. “I think we'll have to stable Emerald for a while until she gets the hang of group dynamics.”

Of course I wanted my gorgeous pony to join in with the others, but I could see that wasn't going to happen. And we couldn't leave her there feeling frightened and lonely all night. At least in a stable she'd be cosy and safe.

So Sally went into the field and caught her, and we got a nice deep bed ready in a spare stable in the main yard. I led Emerald in, and as I took off her head collar, I gave her a big kiss and cuddle and told her not to worry about the other ponies being meanies because I love her LOADS. 

I kept finding excuses to stay with her, like filling her water bucket right up,
double-checking
her hooves for stones and wiping invisible specks of dirt out of her eyes. Sally had to call me away in the end.

When I got back to the games room the table tennis tournament was half over, but I did get to join in the doubles 'cos Frankie asked me to go with her. We turned out to be pretty good against Millie and Neema, and when we won Frankie held up her hand to do a high five. I did it back even though I was nervous about Chantelle and Harry watching (I thought they might think I was acting like a big head). But they didn't seem bothered.

Oh, that's Millie out of the shower, so I absolutely
have
to go in now, seeing as I'm the last one and I don't want to miss out on having my hot chocolate in the kitchen – yum! 

This morning when I got on to the yard poor Emerald was hiding at the back of her stable, still really nervous and shy. I made a big fuss of her, and then tied her up outside so I could muck out. While I was giving her a brush down, I had a good talk to her about how brave she was to try making friends with the other ponies last night.

Group B were jumping this morning, so we went in with Group A. Me and Frankie were really happy about being in the same group. First we warmed up in walk and trot and did a few changes of rein and turns and circles to get our ponies listening. Then Jody said we'd practise the gymkhana games we'll be doing on Friday.

Madison and Morgan were really excited because they've never done a gymkhana before. Frankie started telling them all about the different games and how much fun they are, until Jody told her to stop chatting and concentrate on her riding! I've done a couple of gymkhana days, so I know a lot of the games, and also I was feeling quite confident because Emerald had been so good during the warm-up – she even stayed calm when Madi and Sugar trotted to the back of the ride and came to a stop really close behind us.

But when we started practising, Emerald went to pieces. First we had to do the walk, trot, canter game. Me and Frankie went against each other, and she was great – instead of being competitive, she just did the walking up and trotting back really calmly so Emerald wouldn't get razzed up. But even with Frankie and Star completely chilling out, when I asked for canter Emerald bucked and went sideways, nearly running into them.

I tensed up and squealed with fright, and of course that only made Emerald worse, so we had to give up on that game.

When Madi, Morgan and Neema rode against each other, me and Frankie had to stand by the gate. Poor Emerald wasn't keen on those three racing up and down in the same manège as her, and she kept trying to yank the reins out of my hands.

I think she would have been good at the weaving in and out of cones game, if we'd done that first, but she was so wound up by then that
she kept shooting out her hindquarters when we were bending round the cones. I did try to hold her in with my outside leg, but she ignored it and did her sideways prancing thing. I got really stressed out then, and I didn't enjoy the rest of the lesson, especially not when she bolted off while we were waiting for our go in the relay race.

When we were all untacking in the barn, Sally came over to me. Emerald was still in her separate pen, so I was on my own with her. Sally had noticed it hadn't gone too well, and I tried to act like everything was fine, but she could tell I was pretty upset. She even said I might have to give the gymkhana a miss on Friday, if things don't improve A LOT.

And then she said the WORST thing, which was, “Emily, you can always swap back on to
Flame for the rest of the week, if you like. That doesn't mean you won't be able to spend time with Emerald, but you'll get more chance to focus on your own riding and development.”

I felt all hot and flustery then, and I really hoped Emerald couldn't understand what she was saying.

I looked at my pony's gorgeous face and stroked her neck.

“No thanks, I'm fine,”

I murmured, hoping Sally wouldn't be too annoyed with me.

“No, I didn't think you'd want to,” she said. “I do admire your loyalty and determination. But I'll have to have a think about how we can make this work so that you both get the best out of the week.”

“OK,” I managed to mutter. “Thanks.”

When she'd gone, I gave Emerald a fierce hug. NOTHING is going to separate us!

At lunch, Frankie could tell I was still a bit stressed out and she cheered me up in a typical Frankie-type way, which was by having a competition to see how many grapes we could get in our mouths at once. (I got 9 and she got 12, the big mouth!) We ended up in fits of giggles, and I do feel a bit better now.

Oh, gotta go. Frankie wants me to go round with her and make a list of everyone's fave songs!