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My dad came rushing up to me from the side wings, grabbing my jumping whip off the ground as he came. He chuckled as he helped me to my feet.

     “No worries, sweetheart. This sort of thing happens to everyone. As for Maisie…” my father glanced at Maisie, who, like a donkey, was looking innocently down at me, head hung low and ears all floppy. “Well, let’s just say it’s expected of her.” And he chuckled again.

     Meanwhile, the audience were on the edge of their seats, waiting to see if I was okay. I stood up, brushing the sand off of my brand new white jodhpurs with my sweaty, sticky hands, and immediately a small, polite ripple of applause echoed throughout the arena and into the air. Grabbing Maisie’s tangled reins, I started to lead her out of the arena, feeling as if a huge weight had suddenly been thrown upon my shoulders.

     Dad, sensing something was wrong, put his arm around my shoulders and squeezed.

     “No worries, Freya,” he repeated, smiling. “You’ve still got another hour to rest and prepare for the team show jumping. That’s another chance for you to show everyone here you are a winner. My girl.”

     My mother was waiting by the gates. Once we had come out of the arena, she hugged me too, while dad took the reins from me. Maisie was still huffing slightly, though now she wore a look that told me she wasn’t sure that what she did, was right.

     When we got back to the caravan, the whole crew cheered loudly, congratulating me – (gran: “No-one else could ever control that bloomin’ nutter better than you, my love!”) – and they invited me to sit down with them and eat.

     Even though the dreaded course was over, I couldn’t down my sandwich, knowing I still had to impress my teammates, and give the audience a taste of how brilliant Maisie truly is at jumping. Thank goodness the teams were chosen randomly, for no one would want to be stuck with me in theirs.

~~

Soon the time came, and, after I had given Maisie plenty of rest with water and hay, I had to lead her back out into the field, beside the warm-up ring. The weather outside now looked more promising, with shafts of light seeping through the dissolving clouds.

     The board high above showed the 20 different teams, and I craned my neck to see the members of my group. There would be a boy named Harry, a girl called Leila, and, as soon as my eyes latched onto the name ‘Carissa’, the star herself appeared straight in front of me, graceful and tall.

     She smiled gently, “I see you’ll be in my group for the team show jumping,” her voice was as sweet and sickening as a bowl of melted candy. “Don’t worry,” she added. “You’ll be brilliant. I mean, it’s not always about winning, is it?”

     Clearly she had won too many shows to care about a few silly rosettes.

     Me? I clearly cared too much.

     Thank goodness my gran interrupted before Carissa could give me anymore words of wisdom.

     “Hey, aren’t they the two other members of your team?”

     And, sure enough, they were. Leila seemed extremely bossy from the first glance, and the first gesture Harry made, was take an abnormally long look at Carissa. I found both of them rather irritating, but, as long as they could win the team show jumping for me, I wasn’t really that bothered.

     After a few minutes of boring discussion about tactics, an announcement came through for the teams to prepare in line for the event. We were going to be the 17th team to enter.

     “Nearly last,” I groaned.

     “More time to see who you have to beat and how,” mum wisely said.

     This time, we would be jumping in an indoor arena, even larger than the last one, and, to prevent cheating from taking place, after one person has finished their round, they have to pass a jumping whip onto the next person, who also has to stand behind a line.

     Just great, I thought, more possibilities of me making a fool of myself.

To be continued.