Even though she ached all over and was dying for a hot bath, Issie knew she had to take care of her horse before she could finally go home. In the tack room she scooped out four big handfuls of pony pellets and mixed in some oats and a little chaff. Then she grabbed Blaze’s cover off a hook on the wall.
As the chestnut mare ate her dinner, Issie did up the cover straps and unbandaged Blaze’s legs. Then when she’d finished the last of her food, Issie slipped the halter off her slender head and let her loose.
“Typical!” Issie grinned as Blaze trotted off, her nose trailing the ground, heading straight to the dustiest patch in the paddock to have a good roll. Dropping to her knees, Blaze gave a satisfied grunt, then a series of ecstatic groans as she rolled from one side to the other, getting herself covered in thick dirt in the process.
Standing up again, the mare shook herself and a cloud of dust rose off her cover. There were clumps of grass stuck in her mane.
“Oh, Blaze,” Issie sighed, “it’ll take me hours to groom that out!”
But Blaze wasn’t listening. She had headed off down the paddock in a high-stepping trot, her head held erect. Issie watched as the mare let out a shrill whinny, looking for paddock mates. She was surprised when she heard another whinny in reply.
The whinny rang out across the paddock and then, at the far end of the field, down by the river, Issie saw him. A grey horse. Not a big horse, no more than fourteen hands probably. Light grey, with his dapples faded from old age. As he whinnied again, Blaze lifted her head and broke into a canter, running to him.
Issie watched in silence as the two horses began to run together. Over the past few weeks she had begun to think that maybe Mystic was her guardian angel. Now, as she saw her two horses together, Issie wondered: was it really her that Mystic had been looking after? After all, it was Blaze’s life that he had saved. Was it possible that horses could have guardian angels of their own?
“Don’t worry, Mystic,” Issie called out to him, “I’ll take good care of her.”
She turned her back on the horses and threw Blaze’s halter over the handlebars of her bicycle. It was getting dark and it was a long ride home.
Don’t miss Issie’s next adventure – click here to order Blaze and the Dark Rider now
Every girl dreams of becoming a princess.
But this real-life princess has a dream of her own.
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Have you read the Pony Club Rivals series by Stacy Gregg? Click here to order book 1 The Auditions now!
The Pony Club Secrets series:
1. Mystic and the Midnight Ride
3. Destiny and the Wild Horses
4. Stardust and the Daredevil Ponies
5. Comet and the Champion’s cup
6. Storm and the Silver Bridle
7. Fortune and the Golden Trophy
8. Victory and the All-Stars Academy
9. Flame and the Rebel Riders
10. Angel and the Flying Stallions
11. Liberty and the Dream Ride
12 . Nightstorm and the Grand Slam
Also available in the series:
Issie and the Christmas Pony
(Christmas special)
Copyright
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2007. HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd, 77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 8JB.
This edition published in 2014.
www.harpercollins.co.uk
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 ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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.
Stacy Gregg asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Source ISBN: 978-0-00-724519-2
Ebook Edition © 2009 ISBN: 978-0-00-734066-8
Version: 2014-01-08
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