Pony Story

First sight

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"Dad please!"

"I'm not going to argue with you. I said no, and I meant it."

"But I'm older now. I can stay on!"

"Seven is still too young. I don't want you getting hurt. Do you know how many accidents are caused by horses?"

"No, but I wouldn't have an accident! I'm stronger now!"

"I've told you what age you can have a pony and I'm not changing it."

"But Dad!"

"Stop right now, or I'll turn the car round and we'll go home again."

Shara shut her mouth. She sat in the back seat of the car behind her father, and argued with him in her mind. "I don't care if I fell off when I was six. It was a stupid pony anyway. Not even broken in properly. How was I to know it would throw me off?" She looked angrily out the window and fought back the impulse to say what she was thinking.

Outside, the weather was as fair as any spring day. Sunny and warm. The paddocks were wearing their new green covers and willows were bursting into softer greens, like ladies trying on new dresses. A sprinkling of daffodils dotted the streams like stars, and the early lambs pranced about their mothers.

But Shara didn't feel happy. She thought back to the wonderful day when she had owned her very first pony. She had been six then, and it had been a two-year old, brown, with white socks and a blaze down the nose. Buffy, she had called it. Lovely dark eyes with large lashes. Just like a lady. Her Dad had bought it for her, and had even paid for a brand new saddle and reins. She remembered the smell of the leather, and the shine on the metal.

But Buffy had not been broken in properly. In a paddock, with other ponies, she always behaved well. She walked when she was told to, and trotted when she was urged on. Shara had laughed with delight as she went slowly round and round the circle with the other, older girls. But someone had opened the gate and Buffy had started to trot towards it.

"Pull her in!" shouted the older girls.