SANDY LANE STABLES, BOOK 5 - DREAM PONY

CHAPTER 4 NO MORE SANDY LANE?

Jess read the letter through again. She ahd already read it twice, but it was only now as she read it a third time, that it all really sank in. "Congratulations Jess," she read. "You are the lucky winner of Browne's / Vrai Vert Cosmetics dream pony. Your pony will be arriving on Saturday March 1st at 11 o'clock at Rychester Riding Stables, Rychester, near Colcott, where it will be stabled for a year, free of charge. We have arranged a time for you to look around your pony's new home the Sunday before its arrival." Then in smaller type was something about the winner giving permission for photographs and a lot of legal looking instructions. Jess didn't look too closely at that. She was too excited. She loved the bit in the letter about having won her own pony, but the words that kept jumping out at her were Rychester Riding 

Stables. Would this mean she would have to leave her beloved Sandy Lane Stables behind forever? And then she couldn't help but remember Nick's worried face when he'd been telling them about Rychester. Whatever was he going to say when he heard about this? Jess paced up and down the hallway. Maybe there was something Nick could do. Just maybe if she showed him the letter, he'd be able to persuade the competition organizers to let her stable her pony at Sandy Lane. Then everything would be perfect. Jess turned these thoughts over in her mind as she looked at her watch. It was already half past one and she'd promised to meet Rosie at Sandy Lane at two. She'd have to be quick. Rosie would be dying to know all the details about the pony. By the time Jess had rung her the night before to tell her the news, it had been late and there hadn't been much time to talk. Rosie was waiting impatiently at the tack room door when Jess cycled into the stable yard twenty minutes later. "I can't believe it, Jess," Rosie cried at once. "You lucky thing. Come inside and tell me all about it." Jess dumped her bike and followed her friend's excited chatter into the tack room. "It's all thanks to you, Rosie," she said. "After all,

I'd never have sent off the competition form if you hadn't encouraged me." "Yes, but you wrote the tiebreaker," Rosie said charitably. "Anyway, I hope you're going to let me ride this pony whenever I want to, Jess," she finished with a grin. "Of course you can," Jess smiled with excitement at her friend. "I don't even know what the pony looks like yet," she admitted. "But I keep on imagining it. Perhaps it'll be a beautiful chestnut like Chancey. Or a black thoroughbred like Midnight." "It might be a palomino," Rosie cried. "I won't even care if it's shaggy little skewbald like Minstrel," Jess smiled happily. "Whatever it's like it'll be my own pony, Rosie. My very own." One by one, the rest of the afternoon ride piled into the room and Jess was quick to share her news. "Your own pony?" Kate exclaimed. "Lucky, lucky you." "I was going to enter the competition," Alex said. "I just never got around to it." "Congratulations," Tom grinned. And as everyone checked their names in the ride book and gathered up tack, there were more questions. "So what's this pony like then, Jess?" "When's it arriving?" "Will you be jumping it at Ash Hill?" "Just think, another pony at Sandy Lane," Rosie cried. "It's exciting for all of us." Jess squirmed in her seat. "Well actually, there's a bit of a problem, Rosie," Jess said, feeling uncomfortable. "You see I might not be able to stable it at Sandy Lane. It's already been 

arranged for the pony to be stabled somewhere else?" "Somewhere else?" The others looked on in disbelief, as if there could be no other place in the world except Sandy Lane. "Well, where then?" "Um, it's at Rychester acually," Jess blurted the word out. "Rychester!" Rosie was the first to speak. "Oh no Jess." "I know." Jess hung her head sorrowfully. "They said it had all been arranged already." "Oh." Jess's friends didn't know what to say. "Well, it might have seemed like a pretty reckless stables, but perhaps it won't be so bad," Tom offered tentatively. "And maybe the riders won't be so snooty in real life," Kate added. But it was Rosie who openly voiced the real opinions of the others. "Oh Jess, you can't go to Rychester," she wailed. "What about Nick?" "Do you think I want to go there?" Jess interrupted her. "There's no way I want to leave Sandy Lane, Rosie. In fact, I was going to talk to Nick straight away and show him the letter... see if he can do anything about it." She made a determined face and leapt up from her chair. "I'll go and look for him now." Jess ran across to the little cottage just behind the stables where Nick and his wife Sarah lived. The door was on the latch as usual. All the Sandy Lane riders had to do was give a quick knock and push it open. Nick and Sarah were always available and always welcoming. Jess paused in the hallway to give Ebony, the black Labrador, a pat. "Nick?" she called out. 

"In the kitchen," he replied. Nick sat at the kitchen table surrounded by paperwork. "I'm doing the accounts," he said as Jess walked in. "Oh," Jess said, shifting from foot to foot, excitement making her unusually nervous. "Nick, I've won a pony," she said slowly. "A pony?" Nick's voice sounded pleased and surprised. "Well you don't look very happy about it, Jess. That's brilliant news. Congratulations, how did that happen?" Quickly, Jess explained everything. "I know it should be perfect, it's just that there's a slight catch," she said, drawing her breath in sharply. "A catch?" Nick looked seriously at her. "It's the stabling," Jess hurried on. "You see it's free for a year, only I've got to keep the pony somewhere that the competition organizers have arranged, and that place is at Rychester Riding Stables." "Rychester Riding Stables?" Nick's voice was polite and measured. "Yes, look, it's all in this letter," Jess said handing it over. Nick started to read as Jess began to speak again. "Only I was wondering, well hoping really, that you might phone them for me... see if we could change the stables to here. It would sound better coming from you, Nick," she said. "Well, I don't know," Nick said doubtfully. "You see it lays out the terms and conditions quite clearly," he said, pointing to a section of the letter. "I know." Jess looked glum. "Look, I'll give them a ring on Monday and see what they say. They'll be closed over the weekend. 

Maybe Sarah and I could even come up with somthing here if we could use the pony in lessons in return for stabling. Leave it with me to consider over the weekend." "Oh thanks Nick," Jess said, relieved. "I'm not making any promises, Jess," Nick said seriously. "So don't go pinning your hopes on anything." "I won't," Jess said, skipping out of the door with new resolve. Pausing by the trough in the corner of the yard, Jess looked around her at Sandy Lane Stables and sighed. The water in the small pond just in front of the cottage school was muddied and cloudy. The surface in the outdoor was haning off its hinges. The stables looked worn and shabby, but they were clean, and Jess couldn't imagine being anywhere else.