The Girl who Wanted a Horse

The Girl who wanted a Horse

by Maurice Bird

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, adapted, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the author.

The rights of Maurice Bird to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, 2013, Maurice Bird.

Published by Maurice Bird at Smashwords. Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The book is fictional and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

To Sam and Nicole.

A big thank you to Frances of Holmstead Farm, Keal Cotes and her horse Della.

Also a big thank you to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre, Great Steeping, Lincolnshire.

Thank you Cheryl for your usual and valuable help, plus Sarah and Steve of Steve Hill

Photography, Lincoln who helped to produce the cover for the book.

Finally, a huge thank you to Brenda Howden who puts everything together and produces

my books.

Running Free

They will gallop through the wind

With their free spirit

We cannot own their spirit

As they are free

We are passengers on their back

They decide when they stop

They are the ones in control

As they are free

Just like the spirit

As they run through the wind

Note from the author – On World Book day I was privileged to be invited to read to the students of The Linkage Community, a national charity based in Lincolnshire, delivering high quality specialist education, care and employment support to learning disabled people. As well as reading I was asked to judge a poetry and story competition. It was a very difficult task but I eventually picked the above poem as the winner. It was written by Melody Davy-Blakey.

Introduction

The Girl who wanted a horse tells the story of a young girl who loved horses and wanted one of her own. Susan Tindell, known by her relations and friends as Suzie came from an ordinary family, typical of the nineteen eighties. They were not poor but at the same time were certainly not in any way rich. Providing the family lived within their means they could enjoy a relatively comfortable life. It did mean though that young Suzie would never own that horse she had always dreamed about. That is unless in the future she married a rich man or carved out a good career for herself. Until then her dreams would have to satisfy her wishes and she resigned herself to be a horse lover rather than a horse owner.

It was shortly before her fifteenth birthday that a life changing occurrence could be taking place. It was the sight of her grandfather secretly delivering a bale of hay to a building at her parent’s cottage. Suzie Tindell became very excited. Was she about to become a proud owner of the horse she had so desperately wished for?

Note. What people outside of the horse circle call brown horses are actually bay horses. Both references are used in the book to describe the same colour.

Chapter One

The school trip

The early morning air was cold when Susan Tindell, or Suzie as she was known by her friends and relations, stepped outside the cottage where she lived and made her way to the junction which joined the main road. The luggage in her right hand contained enough clothes for two days, the duration of the school trip to London.

Any minute now and the blue and yellow coach would arrive full of all Suzie’s classmates, no doubt all as excited as each other. For them it was the first time they had spent time away from home, and as far as Suzie was concerned it took some coming to terms with what was actually happening. She could never have imagined in her wildest dreams that one day she should be going, not only to London, but to witness an event which she absolutely loved.

Fourteen year old Suzie used to sit in front of the television with her mum and dad and watch the horses vie for the top spot in the Horse of the Year show. Now she was on her way to see it live. It was going to be so exciting.

The bus trip had been organised by Miss Williams, the PE teacher at the Marlton Girls High School of which Suzie was a fourth year pupil. Earlier in the year all the everyone in the class were asked, if they had a choice, which City would they like to visit? It came as no surprise that London came top, even though they didn’t know what Miss Williams had in mind when she asked the question.

For one pupil the purpose of the trip was heaven sent. Suzie Tindell couldn’t believe her luck when it was announced that Wembley Arena had been chosen as the main event of the visit. The other places chosen like the National Art Gallery and Oxford Street were interesting, but nothing could compare with the home of show jumping. What an interesting couple of days the trip was going to prove.

There was a lot of shouting and singing coming from the coach as it pulled up where Suzie was waiting. She was actually the last to be picked up as either all of her classroom mates had joined the coach at school, or had been picked up en route prior to Suzie’s stop. For no known reason a load cheer rang out as the last passenger stepped aboard. This was followed by further whooping and was probably due to the fact that the real journey was now ready to commence.

Because Suzie lived quite a distance away from any of the other girls she didn’t have what she could call a close friend, nevertheless she was warmly beckoned to the rear of the coach and invited to join a group of the girls on the back seat. With her case safely stored on the rack above her head the driver was invited to ‘let the journey begin.’

It was a very early start to the day for Miss Williams and her girls, and after a boisterous half hour or so, every single one on board, except for the driver of course, settled down to either read or catch up on lost sleep. In around two and a half hours all would rouse themselves to take in the sights of the Capital City as the coach made its way to the hotel where the girls would spend their night’s stay.

To save on cost Miss Williams had arranged for her class to share three to a room. Each room therefore had twin beds plus a sofa bed, and these were allocated on a first come first serve basis. As expected there was something of a rush to the rooms with those at the rear of the coach needing to jostle for a good bed. Suzie for her part was quick off the mark and finished up with one of the comfy twin beds.

It was almost lunchtime when the girls finally got settled into their home for their next two nights. With a big programme planned though there was no time to get too comfortable. It was a matter of unpacking, freshening up, and then the first experience all of them had of a journey on the City’s underground system, their destination, the shops in Oxford Street.

If Suzie had her way she would have given this part of the trip a miss. She would have preferred to have spent the whole two days with the horses at Wembley Arena. Unfortunately she didn’t have that choice so a visit to Oxford Street it was.

To make things interesting, and educational, Miss Williams had arranged for the girls to make their own way to Oxford Street. Furthermore, they were to set off in groups of three and congregate later at the perfume department in Selfridges. Should any of them get lost they were to make their way back to the hotel and wait arrival of the rest of the class and Miss Williams. Should need be, the lost pupils were instructed to get a taxi, or as a last resort, approach the nearest policeman and seek assistance.

The journey to Oxford Street would, according to the pupils’ teacher, be a good learning exercise and not only teach the girls how to get around London, but to learn how to work in teams, albeit teams of three in this instance.

And so it began. The girls set off to the nearest tube station and worked out the route to get them to the shops. Suzie and the two which would accompany her, Wendy and Tanya, were heading for the nearest station just before nine o’clock in the morning. It was a decent morning and the trio soon found themselves inside the designated Underground Station.

Being relatively intelligent it wasn’t long before they had worked out how the system worked, and had purchased the necessary ticket which would eventually lead them to Oxford Street. There would be a tube change required but this didn’t faze them in any way. They were confident on reaching Oxford Street in a very short time.

The first part of Miss Williams’ educational exercise was a resounding success and every one of her pupils could claim satisfaction with their achievement. Considering none of the girls had ever been near such a big city their performance was impressive and all felt confident they could achieve any task put before them. Miss Williams smiled with satisfaction.

The rest of the day was spent visiting other attractions and without doubt, every single one of the girls thoroughly enjoyed their experience around probably the finest Capital City in the world. They all went back to the hotel looking forward to next day.

Sonya Williams could easily have passed as any one of the girls’ elder sister. She was in fact twenty six years old but didn’t look a year over twenty. Apart from her very young looking features her stature was that of a slim model one would expect to see on the front page of a glossy magazine. Sonya was a great athlete. Not one