Hide and Seek by Alyssa Brugman Read Free Book Online Page A

held up his lunge whip, the first horse peeled away across the middle and rejoined the others at the back. Shelby was astounded to see that they were completely without any sort of harness. Nothing. Not even a halter. She had read about liberty work before, but she had never seen it in real life.
    One after the other the ponies slipped around, taking it in turns to be at the front. The man stepped forward and raised his whip slightly, and all at once the three ponies turned around and trotted in the opposite direction.
    Behind the round yard a temporary paddock had been constructed with an electric fence. About half a dozen horses of different sizes stood in the middle of the yard picking from a round bale of hay. One was a Clydesdale. As she watched, a miniature pony – pied like Blue – wandered, head-down and oblivious, straight under the Clydie's belly on its way to the water trough. Shelby covered her mouth to stifle a giggle.
    There was a flat sandy space on which two ladies rode matching black horses, thick-haired and cresty – Shelby guessed they were Friesian. The ladies were riding side by side, going through a routine not dis-similar to the pairs workouts that Shelby had done with Erin at Pony Club. She admired the way the lady on the outside was able to lengthen her horse's stride around the corners, without looking like she was rushing. Then they performed a piaffe in time and Shelby whispered, 'Wow!' She had read in her horse encyclopaedia that the piaffe – jogging on the spot – was originally designed to keep horses warm in battle.
    In the middle of it all there was a red-brick house with aluminium windows, a cement veranda at the front and a garage with a roller door. It was the most ordinary-looking house in the whole world and it seemed to Shelby to be the odd one out, like a kazoo in an orchestra. It was mundane and ridiculous, where everything else was mesmerising.
    Two women sat on the front steps talking. Shelby could see the steam rising from the mugs they were drinking from.
    Beyond the house there was another arena, but this one was fenced, and inside there were six forty-four-gallon drums with a rope between them, creating a narrow track.
    A solid, bald-faced quarter horse, wearing what looked to Shelby like a western saddle, cantered around the track. A girl of about Shelby's age squatted over the saddle on her haunches, like a jockey. A slightly built, older man in a waistcoat sat on one of the drums on the opposite side, clapping in time with the horse's stride.
    When the quarter horse came around the corner Shelby could see more clearly. The girl's feet were tucked into a strap that was looped over the front of the saddle. The horn was much longer than on an ordinary western saddle, and metal, rather than leather.
    The girl rose up so that she was crouched, holding the horn on the front with one hand and the horse's mane in the other. Slowly she stood, letting go. Her arms pin-wheeled and then she squatted again. The horse skidded to a halt in the corner.
    The man on the side with the waistcoat stopped clapping.
    'Shut up! I can do it!' the girl shouted.
    The man tipped back his head and laughed.
    'You do it then!' the girl challenged, pulling her feet out of the strap and dropping to the side of the horse.
    In a flash the older man was up. He sprinted across the circle and flicked himself up into the saddle. He tucked his feet into the strap and then, carefully, he stood up. He held both arms wide, palms up, grinning at the girl. She folded her arms and scowled back at him.
    Shelby leaned forward, straining to hear what the girl would say.
    'Der! As if I couldn't do it standing still,' the girl grumbled.
    Shelby had never known about trick riding before, but from what she had seen today, she knew that this was what she wanted to do. She would have to train all day long, and then perform, and when she wasn't doing that there would be stables to muck out, and feeds to make up and tails to