Stacy Gregg - Victory and the All-Stars Academy

www.stacygregg.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2009. HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street london SE1 9GF

Text copyright © Stacy Gregg 2009

Illustrations © Fiona Land 2009

Cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2020 Cover photography © Shutterstock.comCBBC logo © British Broadcasting Corporation 2016

The author and illustrator assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of the work.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007343034

Version 2020-08-18

For my Nan, Stella Walters, with love from your Mokopuna

Contents

Cover

Title Page Pony Club Secrets Victory and the All-Stars Academy Stacy Gregg

Copyright www.stacygregg.co.uk First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2009. HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street london SE1 9GF Text copyright © Stacy Gregg 2009 Illustrations © Fiona Land 2009 Cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2020 Cover photography © Shutterstock.com CBBC logo © British Broadcasting Corporation 2016 The author and illustrator assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of the work. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007343034 Version 2020-08-18

Dedication For my Nan, Stella Walters, with love from your Mokopuna

Maps

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

About the Publisher

Issie Brown may have been a long way from Chevalier Point, but from the moment she walked into the stables at Havenfields, she felt like she was home.

It was the smell that did it. That familiar scent of horse sweat, saddle soap and warm straw. Issie took a deep breath and held it. You could always tell a real horsey girl by her sense of smell, Issie thought to herself. If you totally loved horses then everything to do with them was heavenly—even the smell of horse dung!

As she cast her gaze down the main corridor of the stables, Issie felt a tingle of anticipation. There were a dozen loose boxes lining both sides of the corridor. Four of them were empty—the straw had been mucked out and they had been left wide open to air. The remaining eight boxes were bolted shut and behind each of those doors was a horse.

My horse , Issie thought, my horse is inside one of those stalls . But which one? It wouldn’t be long now until she found out. When the rest of the New Zealand Young Rider Squad arrived this morning, choices would be made. Somehow the eight riders would decide which of the horses in this stable would be their new mount for the next two weeks.

It wasn’t what Issie had been expecting at all. When she first found out that she had made the National Young Rider Squad and would be travelling to Melbourne to compete, she had naturally assumed she would be riding one of her own horses. She had been torn, trying to decide which one she should take—Blaze or Comet. Blaze, her beautiful liver chestnut mare, was back in work and doing fabulous dressage, but Comet was her superstar showjumper. It was impossible to choose between them. It came as a total shock when Chevalier Point’s head instructor, Tom Avery, broke the news to Issie and the other club riders that they wouldn’t be taking any of their horses with them.

“It’s not fair. Why can’t we take our own ponies?” Stella had griped. “Marmite would love to go to Australia.”

“Yes, Stella, I’m sure he would love the trip,” said Avery, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “only it turns out that horses can’t fly in economy class like you and me. They need specially built, very expensive crates, in their own cargo hold. A fee of about $10,000 per horse should cover it. If your parents would like to pay that much, then by all means we can take Marmite with us. Otherwise, I suggest you do what the other seven riders in the New Zealand team will be doing and borrow one of the loan mounts that the Australian team are kindly offering us.”

There were four riders from Chevalier Point Pony Club in the Young Rider Squad, and so Avery decided to call a mini team meeting at the clubroom a couple of weeks before they departed.

Issie, Stella and Kate arrived first, and when Avery dashed briefly out of the clubroom to grab the stack of trip itineraries he’d left in his car, Stella instantly lunged at Issie and bombarded her with questions.

“So, have you spoken to Aidan? Are you back together with him? Has he called you? Have you called him?”

Issie groaned. “No,” she said. “No, he hasn’t called me. And I don’t think he’s going to.”

It was three weeks since she had broken up with Aidan. Twenty-two days, nine hours and seven minutes to be exact—not that she was counting.

Issie was the one who had decided that they should break up—but that didn’t make it any easier. It should have been one of the best moments of her life when she was chosen to compete in the Young Rider Challenge against Australia. But when they called her name at the Open Gymkhana prize-giving, Issie knew it was good news for her—and bad news for her relationship with Aidan.