Maddie’s Dream (18 page)

The ding of the toaster broke Brooke out of her thoughts. Grabbing her toast, she tossed it onto a plate, then poured herself a glass of orange juice. Wandering
into the den, she set her breakfast down next to the computer. The screen was a lot bigger than the one on her laptop, and she was hoping Maddie had put more photos on the Pony Post.

The Pony Post was a private online message board with just four members. Brooke had never met the other three in person, but she considered them among her best friends. Over the past year and a half, the four of them had bonded over their shared love of Chincoteague ponies.

Maddie Martinez had been the one to come up with the idea of the site. She lived in northern California and rode a Chincoteague mare named Cloudy who was the spitting image of the original Misty. Maddie was the type of person Brooke wished she could be—active, outgoing, and fun-loving.

Then there was Nina Peralt. She lived in New Orleans with her parents and owned a pony named Bay Breeze. She was one of the coolest people Brooke knew—sociable and artsy and smart—and her whole big-city existence seemed very sophisticated compared to Brooke's life.

The final member was Haley Duncan, who lived on a small farm in Wisconsin. Her pony was a spunky gelding named Wings that Haley leased from a neighbor. Haley was bold and determined and focused, which were all traits that Brooke guessed were very necessary for Haley's chosen sport of eventing.

Sometimes Brooke's friend Adam made fun of her “imaginary friends,” as he called them. But Brooke couldn't imagine life without Maddie, Nina, Haley, and the Pony Post.

Brooke chewed a bite of toast as she logged on to the Internet. Soon the familiar Pony Post logo popped up. It showed four Chincoteague ponies galloping through the surf on Assateague Island, which was only an hour or so down the coast from where Brooke was sitting at that very moment.

Quite a few new posts had appeared since Brooke had checked in the evening before. There were several new photos, too, just as she'd hoped. Maddie had participated in a special trail ride at her barn the previous weekend, and she'd been sharing photos ever since.

[MADDIE]
Check it out, guys—my friends e-mailed me more pix from the Snack & Swim. Vic even got one of me diving off Cloudy's back! Hope you like them!

[NINA]
Fab photos! Wish we could do something like that at my barn. But I guess we'd have to swim in the Mississippi River, lol! Probably not such a brilliant idea.

[HALEY]
LOL! Def. not. We don't want u and Breezy to get swept out into the Gulf of Mexico!

[NINA]
No worries, we already know all our ponies can swim, right?

Brooke smiled as she read her friends' comments. Their ponies' special heritage was what had originally drawn the Pony Post members together. But only Brooke had actually seen her pony swim across the channel between Assateague and Chincoteague islands during the annual
pony penning. That was almost four years ago, when Brooke was barely eight years old, but she remembered it as if it had happened yesterday.

Brooke had loved horses and ponies for as long as she could remember. She'd started riding at age five on the neighbors' gentle, patient draft horses, and had taken weekly riding lessons the summer she was seven, though somehow there hadn't seemed to be enough time or money to continue after the twins came along. Brooke had dreamed of her own pony for so long that when her parents had finally agreed to let her use her saved-up allowance and birthday money to buy one at the Chincoteague pony auction, Brooke had barely dared to believe it.

Actually, Foxy hadn't been her first choice. Brooke had hoped to find a pinto like the famous Misty. She'd stayed at the pony pens long after her parents had lost interest and wandered off to find something to eat, looking over each spindly-legged foal and taking notes to help herself remember which were her favorites. She'd spotted a sweet-faced bay filly with markings similar to Misty's, and a little buckskin colt with bold white splashes on both
sides. Those had been her favorites, though Brooke had also picked out two or three other cute spotted foals.

Then the pony auction had started. When the bay filly's turn came, Brooke never even got the chance to bid. The opening bid was double the total amount she had to spend. Within seconds, other bidders had jumped in, and Brooke didn't even hear the final price.

“Never mind, sweetie,” her mother had said. “You can try for the next one.”

But the buckskin colt had sold for triple Brooke's top price, and the others for more than that. Even the solid-colored foals were more expensive than she could afford.

Finally there were only a few young ponies left. One of them was a gangly yearling filly that Brooke had barely noticed in the pens, a chestnut with a lighter mane and tail. She didn't fit Brooke's idea of the perfect Chincoteague pony. But she had a soft eye and a calm temperament, and at that moment, that had been enough for Brooke to raise her hand when the auctioneer called for bids. Brooke had never regretted ending up with Foxy—or forgotten the way her stepfather had
kicked in an extra hundred dollars at the last minute so Brooke could buy her.

Brooke smiled as she thought back to that exciting day, even as she continued to scan the rest of the new entries on the Pony Post.

[NINA]
What are you and Cloudy up to now that the Snack & Swim is over? And how about the rest of you? Haley, Brooke?

[MADDIE]
Back to reg. lessons. Ms. Emerson says we're going to start doing some jumping gymnastics. Should be fun! I love jumping, and so does Cloudy!!

[NINA]
Cool! I just started doing more jumping too, mostly b/c I found out my barn is having a show this fall. There's going to be a costume class too! Can't wait to think of ideas for that!!

[HALEY]
Excellent! What other classes will u enter?

[NINA]
Not sure yet—my instructor says we'll figure it out by the end of the summer. What about u, Haley? Got any events coming up or anything?

[HALEY]
Wings and I have big plans for this summer. I have almost enough $ saved up for another lesson w/ my XC coach.

[MADDIE]
XC? That's cross-country, right? Like jumping over big giant logs and other scary stuff like that?

[HALEY]
LOL! It's not that scary—it's fun! U should try it sometime . . .

Brooke scanned the rest of the entries. Nina and Maddie asked Haley more questions about eventing, then added more about their own lessons. They all had such big plans for themselves and their ponies for the summer!

And what plans do I have?
Brooke wondered, nibbling at her toast, which had gone cold as she read. Nothing.
Just riding around the neighborhood trying not to get sunburned or eaten alive by mosquitoes and blackflies. Big whoop.

She sighed. It wasn't as if she had much choice. Lessons and shows cost money, and Brooke never seemed to have enough of that. She'd recently spent everything she'd saved up from her allowance and the past couple months of odd jobs—washing cars at the lot, feeding the neighbors' drafts when they went out of town, the occasional babysitting gig—on fly spray and horse treats, a new hoofpick to replace the one she'd lost somehow and a new halter to replace the one Foxy had broken. There never seemed to be an end to the expenses a pony could run up!

Still, Brooke knew she should stop feeling sorry for herself. She was lucky to have a pony at all. She was lucky her parents had helped her buy Foxy, and that they paid for the pony's basic needs, even if her stepfather still grumbled every time he swiped his credit card at the feed store or wrote a check to the farrier who trimmed Foxy's hooves.

She skimmed her friends' posts again. Their summer
plans sounded so exciting. But why should they have all the fun? Even if Brooke and Foxy wouldn't be showing—or even taking lessons—anytime soon, that didn't mean they couldn't train as if they were. Right?

Brooke's mood brightened as she turned the idea over in her head. She owned a whole shelf full of books about horses and riding, and there were more in the library, not to mention plenty of videos online. She'd done most of Foxy's training herself so far, with lots of research and advice from her neighbors and others. And Foxy was five now—old enough to do anything Brooke wanted to do with her. So why not get more serious about their training? It would be fun!

“Thanks, guys,” Brooke murmured, closing the Pony Post page. She'd wait and update her friends later. Right now she was eager to head back out to the barn and get started on her own big plans.

Brooke dropped her dishes in the sink, then went back outside. It was hotter already, and the drone of insects filled the air. Brooke grabbed Foxy's halter as she entered
through the people part of the barn, then headed out into the pasture. Foxy was grazing in her favorite spot right across the fence from the draft horses' shade tree. She lifted her head when Brooke called her, then ambled over to meet her owner.

“Hey, girl,” Brooke whispered, running her hand up the pony's sleek reddish-brown neck to scratch her favorite spot. “Ready to become a show horse?”

Foxy curled her neck, her lower lip flopping with pleasure as she leaned into the scratch. After a moment Brooke slid the halter onto Foxy's head, then led her over to the hitching ring in the run-in stall.

“Be right back,” Brooke said, giving the mare a pat. She hurried back into the people part of the barn. She kept her grooming tools in a bucket that had held Foxy's water for the first few months Brooke had owned her. That winter, the bucket had cracked in the first hard freeze, and Brooke had had to beg her parents for the money to replace it with a rubber one. But the plastic one still worked fine to hold her grooming stuff.

Soon she was hard at work brushing the dirt out of Foxy's coat and picking burrs and twigs out of her mane and tail. By the time the mare was halfway clean, Brooke was sweaty and panting as if she'd just run halfway to Salisbury. The thought of lugging her saddle out of the barn and tacking up made her want to lie down and take a nap in the shade.

“Maybe it's too hot to start our training right now,” she told Foxy, who had one hind foot cocked and appeared to be half asleep. Brooke glanced down at herself, realizing something else. “Besides, I forgot to change clothes.”

She'd ridden countless times in her current outfit of shorts and tennis shoes, but rarely in a saddle. The leathers of her English saddle always pinched her bare legs, and the fenders on her battered old Western one rubbed.

Brooke hesitated, glancing toward the house. It wouldn't take long to run inside and change into jeans and paddock boots. But was it really worth it on such a hot day?

Instead, she ducked into the people part just long enough to grab her plastic schooling helmet and Foxy's
bridle. Moments later, she was slipping on to Foxy bareback from the fence rail. She glanced at the humble riding ring she'd laid out in one corner of the pasture, then tugged on one rein to turn Foxy in the other direction.

“It's no big deal,” she murmured, rubbing the mare's withers as they set out along the edge of the soybean field next door. “We can start our training tomorrow.”

Marguerite Henry's Ponies of Chincoteague
is inspired by the award-winning books by Marguerite Henry, the beloved author of such classic horse stories as
King of the Wind; Misty of Chincoteague; Justin Morgan Had a Horse; Stormy, Misty's Foal; Misty's Twilight;
and
Album of Horses
, among many other titles.

Learn more about the world of Marguerite Henry at
www.MistyofChincoteague.org
.