Fiona Cummings - Sleepover Girls on Horseback

by Fiona Cummings

Cover

Title Page by Fiona Cummings

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Have you been Invited to all these Sleepovers?

Sleepover Kit List

Copyright

About the Publisher

Hi there. Do you want to come and see the horses with me? That’s where I’m going now. Look, I know you’re thinking, Lyndz is going to bore us with all that dreary stable stuff! The rest of the Sleepover Club used to think that as well. And tut and sigh and make neighing noises. But not any more. Not after our latest adventure. In fact, they’re coming to see the horses too. I’m going to meet them there – honest!

I haven’t told you before, but I have a riding lesson once a week and I help out at the local stables whenever I can. I don’t talk about it too much in front of the others because they start getting bored and yawn a lot. Still, when you hear about their riding experiences, it’s not surprising really. Take Fliss for a start.

Whenever I even mention mucking out, she puts her hands over her ears and starts squealing. She’s far too anxious about staying clean and tidy to get involved in things like that! Actually I enjoy all those bits – the mucking out and the grooming – almost as much as the riding. You feel kind of close to the horses and they smell all sort of sweet and leathery and warm.

Sorry, there I go again! Where was I? Oh yes, Fliss. She can be a bit of a wimp sometimes and she actually admits that she’s frightened of horses. I suppose I can sort of understand that – they are kind of big. But they’re just so gentle! Even Fliss understands that now, but boy did she find out the hard way! I think we all feel a bit guilty about what happened, but she’s OK now.

Frankie is more sensible. She went for riding lessons with Kenny once. Can you imagine that? Kenny on a horse acting the fool and pretending to be a cowboy! It was all “Yee-ha!” and “Hi Ho, Silver!”

You know Kenny: she always wants to do everything as fast as she can. She expected to be out hacking on her first lesson and jumping fences by her second. She just didn’t realise that riding isn’t like that. It’s all about communicating with the horse. You and the horse have to work as a team. Riding is very hard work. And Kenny doesn’t like hard work at the best of times. So she gave up.

Frankie lasted a bit longer, but you could tell that she wasn’t in love with horses in the way I am. I think you really do have to love them to want to work at getting everything right. You have so much to think about – squeezing your legs here, holding the reins there, sitting just so. It’s not just about trotting along and looking pretty. Which is just as well because I never look pretty. That’s what my four stupid brothers tell me anyway. Even Spike, and he’s only a baby!

Rosie is the fifth member of the Sleepover Club and she didn’t take to riding either. She went along after her brother, Adam, started. You rememer Adam, don’t you? He’s a year older than Rosie and has cerebral palsy. Riding is a form of therapy for him. He started going once a week with his school and when his mum realised how much it was helping him, she arranged for him to go with two of his friends on another afternoon.

He rides at the same stables as me. Mrs McAllister, who owns it, is a qualified instructor for the Riding for the Disabled Association. She’s brilliant because as well as knowing everything there is to know about horses, she knows exactly what kind of horse someone like Adam needs to ride. She says that a little pony like Bramble would have too choppy a stride, so he goes on Marvel, who is a chestnut mare. Her walk is much smoother, but Adam still has to squeeze his legs very hard to make her obey his commands. And when you think about it that’s really tough for Adam because he spends all day in a wheelchair so he’s not using his leg muscles at all. Just balancing on Marvel gives him a really tough workout.

Crikey, I sound like some kind of doctor, don’t I? Kenny would be proud of me!

Adam was so thrilled about riding Marvel, he told Rosie all about it. Of course, she wanted to have a go then. She was put on Alfie, the most gorgeous bay with a white star on his forehead and eyelashes to die for, but poor Rosie just couldn’t get it together at all. First she had trouble mounting him, then her legs wouldn’t stay in the right position in the stirrups. And Alfie just did his own thing, no matter what Rosie tried to tell him to do. In the end she told her mum that riding wasn’t for her and she never went again.

I bet you’re wondering what this has to do with our latest adventure, aren’t you? Well, quite a lot actually – come with me to the stables and I’ll tell you all about it on the way.

It started when we were round at Rosie’s one afternoon after school. We were working on some dumb geography project.

“I don’t know why Mrs Weaver doesn’t just send us all on holiday if she wants us to find out about other countries,” snarled Kenny, stuffing yet another chocolate biscuit into her mouth.

“Yes, I wouldn’t mind a week on the beach in Barbados,” sighed Frankie.

“Or a trip to Disneyland!” yelled Fliss.

“That’s not a country, stupid!” laughed Kenny.

“I know that, smartypants!” snapped Fliss. “I’ve been to EuroDisney. I’d just like to go to Disneyland in America to see if it’s any different, that’s all!”

“Ooh! Hark at her!” we all screeched together, pulling faces at each other.

Fliss hates it when we make fun of her, even though she usually deserves it. She flung her pencil case at Kenny and all her felt pens sort of burst out, scattering around the kitchen. We all creased up and scrambled on to the floor to pick them up. We were scrabbling about under the table, when we heard the front door close.

“That’ll be Mum and Adam,” said Rosie.

We waited for Adam to burst into the kitchen in his wheelchair like he usually did. But he didn’t. All we could hear were lots of strange wailing sounds coming from the hall.

“Oh no!” gasped Rosie. “That’s Adam. It sounds like he’s really upset about something.”

We rushed into the hall to see what was wrong. Rosie’s mum was crouched over Adam, trying to calm him down, but we could tell just by looking at him that something awful had happened.

“What is it, Mum? What’s wrong?” asked Rosie anxiously. “Is Adam OK?”

Her mum nodded, but carried on stroking Adam’s arm. “He’s just heard some bad news,” she said softly.

“What sort of bad news?” shrieked Rosie. She’d gone completely white and her eyes looked as though they were going to burst out of her head. The rest of us sort of hung back in case it was a private thing.

“We’ve just heard that there’s been a very bad fire at the riding school,” said Rosie’s mum.

“Oh no!” I gasped. For a minute I felt as though I couldn’t breathe. I sat down on the stairs. “What happened? Are the horses safe?” I asked. My voice sounded kind of wobbly. It didn’t sound like my voice at all.