Sophie and the Spooky Pony Read online

  “Uh-oh.”

  Jumping up, Sophie grabbed the full bucket, sloshing water all over her feet as she made her way back to where Gorse was fiddling with his lead rope. He looked sideways at Sophie, as if telling her that had he been left a minute longer, he would have been loose and causing mayhem. Sophie gave him a hug and set to work on washing him down, still thinking about the strange prints.

  But once Gorse was sponged off and back in the stable, this time with the kick bolt firmly in place, she couldn’t find her friends, who had long finished their chores. Instead, crossing the yard, Sophie met Lainey, who was leading a prancing and snorting Bertie back towards his own stable.

  “Goodness me!” Lainey said, looking hot. “Calm down, boy.” She sounded both exasperated and amused. “Really, you’re far too old to be behaving like this.”

  Bertie gave another snort and leapt about a bit, ignoring Lainey as she tried to lead him into his stable. His eyes were fixed on something, and he looked really spooked.

  “Shall I go and get a feed scoop?” Sophie asked, and Lainey looked up. She seemed surprised, Sophie thought. Perhaps she wasn’t used to Sophie being sensible.

  “Thank you, Sophie. Good idea,” Lainey said in a relieved voice. “That would be really helpful.”

  The pony nuts did the trick. Bertie’s ears pricked as Sophie ran back, giving the scoop a good shake, and his eyes lit up as he obediently followed her into the stable. But even as Lainey gave him a handful of the nuts as a reward, Bertie still seemed distracted, pausing as if looking or listening for something before resuming his munching.

  “Well, I don’t know,” Lainey said, giving him a pat as she let herself and Sophie out of the stable. “The two biggest on the yard are the two most jittery today!”

  “What do you think it is?” Sophie asked curiously.

  “Oh, just horses being horses,” Lainey said. “Sometimes when one gets spooked, the others follow – herd behaviour.” She chuckled. “Bertie should know better, though, at his age.”

  But Sophie remembered the note of uncertainty in Lainey’s voice earlier, when she and Poppy had been talking about ghosts. Was there something else going on?

  CHAPTER 4

  “What exactly do you want us to look at?”

  Willow sounded a bit confused. She and the other camp members had just been hanging out in the cool of the camp barn where they slept when Sophie came to find them.

  “You’ll see!” Sophie hopped from foot to foot. “I saw something earlier, something really weird! Strange paw prints.” She grinned at her friends. “Come on! Just come and look for yourselves!”

  “Oh, Sophie, I don’t know,” Poppy said, sounding unsure. “I really don’t like the thought of something scary out there. Especially after what Lainey said this morning, about horses seeing things.”

  “She’s only winding us up,” Gracie said kindly, giving Poppy a gentle nudge.

  “I’m not!” Sophie insisted. “They were like wolf or even bear prints. Or werewolf.” She flexed her fingers like scary claws. “Maybe that’s why Sox was so freaked out!”

  “Fine,” Jess said, rolling her eyes. “We’ll come and see these prints. I bet it was just a chicken!”

  Everyone laughed at this, even Poppy. Sophie laughed too, but she knew they weren’t. She’d seen them for herself! She’d been trying to come up with the perfect prank, but this was even more fun!

  “Come on!” Leading the way, Sophie headed back out into the stable yard and across to the little paddock where the sheep and chickens were.

  “So what are we looking at?” Willow said, sounding a bit huffy.

  “I don’t see anything,” Gracie said. “See!” She smiled at Poppy. “Told you she was just joking.”

  Sophie frowned and looked. Where she’d let Gorse’s bucket overflow, the water had flowed over the dust, sinking into the dry earth. The sheep were mooching around, and the chickens were scratching enthusiastically at the dampened soil. There were sheep prints and chicken prints and a few Fable hoofprints, but no sign of the strange prints Sophie had seen. They had completely vanished!

  “Ha, ha,” Willow said. “I knew you were having us on. Come on, you’ve jumped out on us, like, three times in the hay barn so far. All you do is joke!”

  Sophie bit her lip. “I’m not having you on!” she said. “I promise you, they were just here. Really weird paw prints – I’ve never seen anything like them.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Willow seemed to have lost interest. “Come on, let’s finish reading Pony magazine.”

  Feeling a bit deflated, Sophie trudged behind her friends as they headed back to the barn. She hadn’t been joking at all. She knew what she had seen!

  A short while later, with everyone back in the camp barn and crowded round the latest copy of Pony, Sophie found her thoughts wandering. She felt annoyed that no one had believed her earlier. Distracted, and not really that interested in the magazine quiz, she found her eyes drawn to the horseshoe the girls had hung on the barn wall for luck on their first day at camp. Willow had found it underneath the old oak tree in the yard. It had been a talking point, something that had helped the girls bond as they hung it up together.

  Frowning and glancing round at her friends, who were totally engrossed in the quiz, Sophie reached up. Unhooking the horseshoe from the nail, she turned it over in her hand, stroking the worn metal. There was some faint writing on the inside, but they’d all been too excited to try to read it at the time.

  Squinting, Sophie looked closely at the inscription, tracing the words with her finger. Sophie gazed at the shoe. Who was the pony behind the words? Carefully placing it back on the wall, she headed out to Gorse, giving him a big hug as he whickered in delight at seeing her.

  Lainey, passing by with an armful of bridles, stopped and smiled.

  “Thanks again for your help,” she said. “Bertie’s calmed down a bit but, goodness me, what a carry on!”

  “That’s OK.” Sophie patted Gorse, then let herself back out of the stable. Lainey glanced in, and Sophie looked guiltily at the slapdash banks of shavings around the edge and the hastily swept back bed. Henry’s stable, next door, was beautifully neat, and Sophie knew Poppy’s hard work made her efforts look worse. And it appeared Lainey had noticed too. She gave a little frown.

  “I think it would be good for you to do another job for me now,” she said in a brisk voice. “I’ve got just the thing…”

  CHAPTER 5

  A short while later, Sophie muttered darkly to herself as she pushed a wheelbarrow up the field behind the stables. This was where the ponies spent the late afternoon after lessons, before the camp members brought them back in for the night. There were some other ponies in the field next door, on the other side of a post-and-rail fence, ponies who were not taking part in the week’s camp but were having a rest instead. With Vale Farm’s camps proving very popular, they needed plenty of ponies so they could all enjoy some weeks off.

  Sophie pulled a face as the hill got steeper. She knew deep down that Lainey had given her the task because she had been shirking her stable duties, and it could have been so much worse – she could have had her riding lessons taken away, especially after Gorse escaped. Perhaps Lainey had been planning to do that, she thought, but then I helped her with Bertie and she decided to give me another chance. Grabbing the fork, she got to work picking up the poo from around the field, grumbling to herself as she did so.

  The barrow started to grow heavy so Sophie put it down and looked around. Actually, it’s quite nice being up here, she thought. She could see the yard and the sheep and Fable in the little paddock. She couldn’t see Gorse but she hoped he was snoozing in the shade of his stable. Balancing the fork on the barrow and sitting down, Sophie let the warm sunshine wash over her. There was plenty of time to finish this boring chore.

  Suddenly the peace was shattered. The ponies in the next field all looked up with a startled toss of their heads, a few began trotting nervously around as on
e whinnied.

  “Hey, guys?” Sophie thought she had better go over to the fence, just in case they needed calming down. “What’s going on?”

  Then she looked up, following the ponies’ gaze to the very top of the hill, and felt her heartbeat quicken. There was something there, something in the hedge that bordered the top of both fields. Something big. The lower branches were shaking, but it couldn’t be the wind as the air was still and warm. Sophie picked up the fork and edged forward. As she drew nearer, she could hear a loud rustling coming from deep within the brambles.

  Sophie smiled to herself as she reached the hedge, imagining Poppy in the same situation – she would be terrified. But Sophie just felt curious. Crouching down, she held her breath, daring to poke the lower branches with the end of the fork.

  “Hello!”

  “Aargh!” Leaping into the air, Sophie placed a hand on her chest as something scrambled through the brambles out of sight. She glared in the direction of the voice. She could practically hear her heartbeat through her camp T-shirt; it was thumping like a drum.

  A woman about her grandmother’s age was standing on the other side of the hedge. Sophie let out a big sigh of relief. The ponies seemed to recognise the woman and trotted over eagerly to the top gate, where she greeted them with lots of friendly pats. Cautiously, Sophie moved over to the gate too.

  “Hello, Star; hello, Tinker. Ella, there’s a girl.” The woman then noticed Sophie and smiled. “Oh, sorry, dear,” she called over. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Sophie smiled back. She had been startled, but she was glad it had just been the woman and not something strange!

  “That’s OK,” she said. Then she had a thought. “Did you see anything just now? Like something in the hedge?”

  The woman shook her head.

  “No,” she said, with a little shrug. “I expect it was my dog, Alfie, sniffing around.”

  Sophie looked down. The dog was sitting at the woman’s feet. He was obviously quite old and also really small, not like her family’s big boxer dog. She was pretty certain that whatever had just spooked the ponies wasn’t the dog. But what other explanation was there?

  “Are you enjoying camp?” the woman asked.

  Sophie nodded, wondering how she knew about it.

  “Loads,” she replied. “It’s the best.”

  “It was a super idea of Lainey’s,” the woman said with a smile. “I’ve known her since she was a little girl, and I always knew the stables had big potential. I used to ride the ponies, and we would have people asking to bring their children up for lessons even then. I’m so glad Lainey opened up the yard.”

  “Wait, did you use to work here?” Sophie asked, her ears pricking up, and the woman nodded, leaning on the gate.

  “It’s many years ago now, but I still like to walk Alfie up and say hello to all these lovely ponies. It’s all very different today, though, with all your high-tech rugs and horse feeds!”

  Sophie knew she wasn’t going to get the job done quickly now. The woman reminded her of her grandmother, and Sophie asked her question after question. She learned her name was Mary, and she enjoyed her stories of plaiting ponies’ manes for gymkhanas, and of jute rugs and bran mashes cooked up on the old stove in the feed room.

  “Well!” Mary laughed as they finally finished chatting. “I must get on with Alfie’s walk now.” She eyed the barrow as she straightened up. “Looks like you’ve got work to do too.” Then she glanced up at the sky. “It’ll be a full moon tonight, so maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of dear Rosie.”

  Now Sophie was really intrigued!

  “Who?” she asked, the poo picking completely forgotten.

  Mary smiled and leant back on the gate, stroking a grey pony who had come up to them. Mary didn’t seem in a hurry to leave any more.

  “Rosie,” she said. “Fable’s mum.”

  Sophie thought of Fable, who’d been grazing out in the little paddock where she’d found the prints.

  “Do you know about Fable’s past?” Mary asked, and Sophie shook her head.

  “No,” she said. “Only that Lainey’s owned her for years and years.”

  “Since she was born.” Mary gave a small sad smile. “It was almost thirty years ago. I was there.” She paused, as if recalling the memory. “Darling Rosie fought so hard but she didn’t get to stay long with Fable after the birth. Lainey did so well, bottle-feeding little Fable all through the night for weeks and weeks, and she wasn’t much older than you are now.”

  Sophie gasped. “Rosie died?”

  Mary nodded.

  “It was so terribly sad,” she said. “But she’s still around, really, looking after Fable, keeping an eye on the stables and all the ponies and the children. When the moon is high and the nights are clear, sometimes you can see her, just galloping up over the fields. It’s nice knowing she’s there. She was a lovely pony. Mischievous too, so mischievous. She knew how to open stable doors.”

  “Oh my,” was all Sophie could say. She didn’t feel spooked in the slightest. It made her feel special, knowing a bit of the yard’s history. And Rosie sounded so like Gorse with her stable-opening abilities!

  “Well, I really must go now,” Mary said with a smile. “Nice to meet you!”

  Alfie got up and yawned, and with a wave Mary set off on her way. Sophie headed back to the barrow. She checked her watch and realised she needed to be tacking up Gorse ready for her next lesson in a few minutes. She was sure she’d missed a few poos, but it couldn’t be helped, not when she’d just learnt all about Rosie and Fable!

  CHAPTER 6

  A short while later, Sophie was quickly slipping the bridle over Gorse’s furry ears and rearranging the brow-band on his generous forehead. She gave him a kiss. The little Exmoor had given her a merry whinny as she hurried over to his stable with his tack. Sophie’s head was still full of the conversation she’d had with the lady in the field.

  “Before you all get on,” Lainey told the camp members gathered in the stable yard, “I just want to remind you about the camp cookout this evening.” She looked around at all the eager, expectant faces with a smile. “We’ll be heading out to the big field for a barbecue after you’ve done your stable chores.”

  Everyone looked around at each other and an excited murmur ran through the group. The ponies seemed to be picking up on it too, and a few of them jostled around. Leaning forward and giving Gorse a pat, Sophie was struck by a thought. The lady had said they might see Rosie on a full-moon night! They would be out in the big field, so it would be the perfect place to spot her.

  It would be a fun evening for telling spooky stories too. For now, though, she just wanted to keep Fable’s story to herself. It didn’t seem right to tell the tale straight away. It was special, not a joke. And anyway, she had other things she could spook her friends with. She knew the prints had been real, and then there was the strange rustling in the hedge earlier, and the alarm of the ponies!

  “Round the corner, inside leg on and ask for canter!” For the next hour, Sophie had to concentrate hard on Lainey’s instructions. Lainey had set up a little grid in the arena, and they were jumping the low cross-poles without stirrups, and then without reins, holding their arms out like aeroplane wings. It was right up Sophie’s street – fun and a bit daring too. It was a chance to show off her riding skills. With natural balance and rhythm, she found the jumping exercise really easy!

  Kicking her feet out of her stirrups, Sophie took her place in the line-up, awaiting her turn. Amina and Nutmeg, a sweet palomino and Welsh Shetland cross, were now jumping through the grid. Amina was grinning happily, her two long plaits flying out behind her, and little Nutmeg was popping over the jumps, tucking her feet up neatly. Jess was waiting next to Sophie on her pony, Merlin. But Merlin seemed unsettled and wouldn’t stand still. He shuffled his feet and flung his head around. It was very similar to how Sox had been behaving before the hack.

  “Steady, Merlin,” Jess said calmly. She w
as a brilliant rider and Sophie knew she had loads of horse experience. “There’s nothing there.”

  “Nutmeg!” Looking a little breathless, Amina pulled up the small pony. Nutmeg’s tiny ears were pricked forward as far as they could go and her eyes were wide as she flung her head up.

  “There’s something in that corner she doesn’t like!” Amina said, patting Nutmeg as the pony wheeled round, looking down into the bottom corner of the arena.

  “That’s what Merlin was looking at,” Jess said with a little frown. “I really had to work hard to get him past that corner. One minute, fine, then not. So weird.”

  Sophie looked too. The bottom corner of the arena bordered the little paddock where Fable lived with the sheep and chickens, the same paddock where she had found the prints. There was an old blue barrel on its side, not particularly spooky, and, anyway, it had been there for ever, so the ponies were used to it.

  “It’s probably whatever made those prints!” she said aloud, and Poppy, who had just joined them, went pale.

  “Not that again,” she said. “There wasn’t anything there!”

  Sophie frowned. “I’m telling, you, there was!”

  Just you all wait until later, she thought. She would recount what she’d seen in the big field. Then she could tell them what the lady had told her, about Fable and Rosie. She’d save that story for last, because it was the best.

  It was now Sophie’s turn to jump for the final time. Patting Gorse’s sturdy neck, Sophie gathered up the plaited reins and gave him a nudge. Gorse was forward-going and loved jumping. But as Sophie trotted him down the long side of the arena, it was as though a current of electricity had passed through him. Sophie felt his whole body tense as he tucked his head in and slowed right down, blowing out from his nostrils, his eyes bulging.