April Story Contest
A Pony For Andrea
By: Andrea585
Age: 12Andrea, that’s me, known as Wiggin’s local barn rat. I would do anything to be like Pam, Anna, and Lulu and have my own pony, but all I do is sit in the barn taking care of Splash and Daisy. If I’m lucky, when there are no lessons, I can go for a ride. But that is only when I’m very lucky. Now, my story starts on a nice spring morning when a horse trailer arrives in the driveway for the Crandall’s barn.
The girl who walked out of the passenger door of the silver mustang hauling the trailer was wearing fancy white riding pants, custom Jet black DerDua riding boots, and a fancy blue show shirt. She had her chocolate hair pulled back in a fancy bun and was slapping a crop against her leg. She had a sinister look on her face as she walked to the trailer. My first impression of this girl was that she was rich and mean. She constantly had a frown on her face.
Mrs. Crandall came speeding out of the tack room and jogged up to the driver’s door. Another woman came out of the 1996 mustang; she seemed much kinder and was dressed casually. The younger girl walked up to the back of the trailer and unbolted and lowered the ramp I heard what sounded like a loud whinny and saw the girl drag out an angered bright red chestnut pony with a white snip on his nose. He clearly disliked the girl and was bucking and rearing as she made the attempt to lead him into the barn. I quickly ran outside to try to help, but the girl just slapped the pony with her crop while yelling “Quit it! Stop!” As soon as the crop hit the pony’s body his eyes whitened with fear and he stopped moving, his nostrils flaring. After this, they finally managed to lead him into one of the empty stalls.
After the girl and who seemed to be her mother left to let the pony settle in, I went up to Mrs. Crandall to ask her about the new arrival. “Mrs. Crandall, who was that?” “That was Isabelle Reeves bringing in her pony Chester; He will be boarded here from now on.” I looked at Mrs. Crandall with a weird face, I couldn’t have been the only Pearson the see Isabelle slap the pony with her crop. I then remembered all the fancy gear that the girl was wearing and it clicked in my head. The Crandalls were having money problems, and Mrs. Crandall might overlook this problem for the extra cash. So, quickly thinking, I asked “Can I see to it Chester is cleaned up and his feed is in order?” Mrs. Crandall smiled and said, “Of course! That’s what you’re here to do Isn’t it?”
I walked into the pony’s stall and fell in love with him at first sight! He seemed to be a Connemara pony-Arabian mix. The closer I got to him though, the more scared he seemed to be. I took a closer look at him and saw how scruffy he seemed, he had patches of dirt everywhere and his hooves where a mess. I stepped toward him, speaking softly to him at the same time, “Steady boy, easy, steady. I won’t hurt you, come here boy,” He stepped toward me and sniffed my outstretched hand. I was able to slip a halter on him before he could step away. I led him outside with a few brushes, a hoof pick, and hoof polish. Pam was riding back from a trail ride and met up with me in the yard.
“Is that the new pony Andrea? If only he wasn’t Isabelle’s” “Yeah, he’s the new pony, and he seems to be afraid of most people.” “Yeah, and he’s in bad shape too, I have to bring in Lightning and then head over to the Harleys, We can talk later!” Pam smiled and then led Lightning to his stall. I turned back and begun my work. It took me over an hour just to get the caked on dirt off with the curry comb. Then cleaning the rest of the dirt took another half an hour. After that I stopped counting time and sprayed on some coat shiner and dried Chester with a cleaning rag. His coat looked gorgeous, but I had to finish the hooves. That took me a while to do, but I was happy with the results, Chester was gleaming. It was around 1:00 pm. I have Chester an apple and led him back to his stall. Our friendship just begun…….
*****
Over the next few weeks, after being ridden, Chester seemed to be in more and more pain. Soon enough, he wouldn’t let anyone near him. Me and the pony pals knew we had to do something. Every day after school, we would meet up in the hayloft to try to devise a plan to save Chester. Most of the plans where impossible. After a while, only one seemed possible, buying Chester. Pam started to explain the whole plan “Okay, so if we use the money we have all been saving up, I think we can scrape up the 300 Wiggins bucks that he’s worth. How much money do you have saved up Anna? I have 89 bucks” “I have 67, what about you Lulu?” “I only have 52dollars, what about you Andrea?” “I have 33 dollars, we’ll never be able to get him, we’ve...” I added up all of the money “Only got 241 Wiggins bucks, Chester costs 300! We need 59 more dollars to get him!” Pam put her arm around me, “It’s okay, we all just need to do some work around here, like, Cleaning the stalls, tacking up for the kids at riding lessons, or running errands for the townspeople, we just have to save him, then he’ll be yours!”
For a whole week, we all barely had time to go riding! There was actually more to be done in town then we thought! We ran errands, stocked shelves, cleaned tack, and just about a million more things! By the end of the week, not only did we have the 59 dollars for Chester, but we earned 237 to split among ourselves! On Saturday, we all had a meeting in the hayloft again, “Okay, Pam, Anna, Lulu, we have enough money to get Chester, but the problem is, buying him from Isabelle.” “That is a pretty big issue, Andrea; I think you should offer her 400 bucks just to be safe. Me Anna and Lulu will wait up here, Good luck!” So it had come down to this.
I climbed down the hayloft ladder and walked up to Isabelle. “What do you want you little stable rat?” I gulped and then began to ask the million dollar question, “Umm, are you willing to sell your pony to Chester to me for 400 Wiggins bucks, you can keep his tack.” “Sure, I was going to sell the runt anyways, he bit my hand! Can you believe that?” “Nope, I can’t” I said sarcastically, “Well, pay up,” I reached into my pocket and counted out 400 dollars, “Thank you,” She started to walk out of the barn, counting each dollar with surgical precision. “You can keep the tack, I don’t need it anymore.” She stepped out of the barn and hopped into her silver mustang and drove away. I looked into the corner of the barn and found her riding gear, she seemed to be finished with horses so I grabbed it and headed into the locker room.
I stepped out wearing some of her cheaper riding gear, a pair of green riding pants, a pair of leather black riding boots and white show shirt. I stepped into Chester’s stall and gave him a good grooming and tacked him up. I stepped out of the barn and found Pam, Anna, and Lulu mounted up waiting for me. “Come on! Let’s go!” We all galloped off through the woods. My life as a pony pal had finally begun!