OK, so what would you have done? Gone on to win the race, or helped your friend? Yeah right, so a rosette is that important! I dropped my sack, urged Bramble forward and vaulted on to her. And for once I actually made it!

“Come on, girl!” I told her. “This is more important than any sack race!”

There was a gate in the corner of the field. “Kenny, open the gate!” I yelled.

She ran to where I was pointing, undid the catch and pushed the gate open. “Do you know what you’re doing?” she shouted to me.

Kenny actually said that! Kenny, the girl who always rushes into things without blinking an eye and thinks about them afterwards!

“I’m not sure,” I called back to her. “But I’ve got to help Fliss!”

I could see Alfie heading towards the bottom end of the field. I couldn’t believe that Fliss was still managing to cling on to him. But they were heading for disaster: there were fences on all sides of the field, and I knew that if Alfie was really spooked he might try to jump over one of them. Fliss wouldn’t stand a chance then. I urged Bramble towards them as fast as she could go.

“Hang on, Fliss!” I shouted.

Fliss just screamed.

“Try not to scream, Fliss, that’ll scare him even more!” I shouted. “Try talking calmly to him.”

I could hear Fliss whimpering. Of all the people to be sitting on Alfie when he decided to take off, it had to be Fliss! But I wondered why he’d done it in the first place.

Alfie was usually so calm. Something must have really frightened him to make him bolt like that. And he’d been tied up.

“Sit firm in the saddle, Fliss!” I called. “Put all your weight there, and hang on!”

It would have been just my luck for her to fall off as soon as I’d said that. But she didn’t, she hung on in there.

I was almost level with them now, and it looked as though Alfie wasn’t going to jump over the fence after all. He was slowing down and cantering around the edge of the field. I didn’t really know what to do. I didn’t want Bramble to get frightened as well; I just wanted to make sure that Alfie was calming down and that Fliss was safe.

I was very relieved when I heard another horse thundering towards us. It was Mrs McAllister on Marvel.

“Whoa, boy!” she said in her quiet, firm voice. She rode alongside Alfie whilst Bramble and I stayed where we were.

When Alfie had slowed down to a walk, she said to Fliss, “Sit tight, I’m going to take his reins.”

Fliss stayed where she was. She had been holding on to Alfie’s reins as well as his mane, but hadn’t known what to do with them. To be honest with you, if the same thing had happened to me, I don’t think that I would have been able to stop Alfie either. Mrs McAllister grabbed hold of the loose reins in one hand and gradually circled Alfie round to a stop.

I leapt down from Bramble, and Frankie, Kenny and Rosie came hurtling across the field towards us.

“Are you all right, Fliss!” asked Frankie and Rosie together.

“Wow! That was so cool!” panted Kenny. “You were brill, Fliss, hanging on like that. It was better than a Gladiator challenge! Awesome!”

Mrs McAllister dismounted and asked me to hold Alfie and Marvel, then she went to help Fliss dismount. “That was certainly some riding display!” she said. “I’d say you have a natural talent for this. Have you ever thought of taking it up?”

The rest of us screamed with laughter. I know it sounds awful when Fliss had just gone through such a terrible ordeal and everything, but it was sort of a release after all the excitement. Poor Fliss didn’t know whether to laugh or to carry on crying – so she did both!

“Fliss is scared of horses!” I explained.

“In that case you did exceptionally well!” said Mrs McAllister squeezing her shoulder.

We all stopped laughing. The Fun Day would have been a Pretty Miserable Day if Fliss had fallen off and hurt herself. She could have had a terrible accident. It made me go all hot and cold just thinking about it.

“You were really brave, Fliss. Well cool!” I said.

“Yeah, wicked!” said the others.

“Was I?” asked Fliss. She stopped crying and looked up at us. You could tell she was thrilled that we were all praising her. But at the same time, the rest of us knew that she’d be milking this for weeks.

“It just goes to show why you must always wear a riding hat when you’re on a horse,” said Mrs McAllister. “I think I’ll have to stop any more children having their photographs taken on the horses and ponies. It’s not worth the risk of this happening again.”

I was still holding Alfie and Marvel. Mrs McAllister took their reins from me and said, “Round up Bramble, Lyndsey, then we can walk back to the stables. OK, Fliss?”

Fliss nodded and looked all pale and pathetic. The rest of us looked at each other and rolled our eyes, but even we couldn’t have a go at her when she’d just had such a terrifying experience.

Bramble was standing quietly, wondering what all the fuss was about. I gathered her reins and followed the others back to the stables. When we got there everybody crowded round us. They wanted to know what had happened and whether Fliss was all right. Even the photographer from The Mercury wanted a picture of her, so she was well chuffed about that. He took my photograph too, but I don’t know why, just using up film I suppose.

Bramble, Marvel and Alfie loved the attention too. They were patted and stroked and just lapped it all up.

“What I can’t understand,” said Mrs McAllister thoughtfully, “is how Alfie got in that state in the first place. He’s never bolted before. And wasn’t he tied up anyway?”

Just then I spotted the M&Ms hanging around, they looked kind of embarrassed.

“I think I’ve found some people who’ll be able to tell you,” I said glancing in their direction.

Mrs McAllister took in their guilty-looking faces in a flash and stormed over. “I’d like a word with you, girls,” she snapped crossly.

The M&Ms looked terrified as they followed her sheepishly into the stable office.

We tried to sneak up to listen, but I was called for the egg-and-spoon race. To be honest, I didn’t feel like competing in another event. But I’d entered and I suppose I still wanted to win a rosette. But Bramble and I were both tired after our rescue mission and we had a disastrous race. I timed my dismount wrong and nearly took a tumble, then I dropped my egg three times. Nightmare! It was no surprise when we came in last.

Mrs McAllister had reappeared by the time we’d finished. She was a bit red in the face. The M&Ms were bright red and had both been crying. Mrs McAllister ignored them and handed out the rosettes for the sack race and the egg-and-spoon race.

“Never mind, Bramble. Maybe we’ll get one next time!” I said as I stroked her muzzle.

“And there’s a special rosette here for bravery.” Mrs McAllister’s voice suddenly caught my attention. “Through the stupidity of various individuals, one of my horses was frightened and ran off with an inexperienced rider on its back. I would just like to stress that this is NOT a common occurrence at my riding school.” Everybody laughed. “Lyndsey Collins who was leading the sack race at the time, saw her young friend in difficulties and wasted no time in going to her assistance. She did everything absolutely right, so I would like to award this rosette to Lyndsey Collins and Bramble.”

Everybody cheered and clapped like mad. I was embarrassed and thrilled to bits all at the same time, especially when I could hear my crazy friends shouting, “Way to go, Lyndz!”

That was the best bit of the Fun Day for me, but the rest of it was pretty cool too. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves, Fliss most of all. People kept stopping her and asking how she was. She just revelled in it and I swear that she developed a limp as the day wore on! The photographer from The Mercury took loads more pictures. Fliss tried her best to get in all of them, but the rest of us muscled in on quite a few too!

By the time the Fun Day ended, we were all exhausted. But we hung about as our parents counted up the money. There were huge piles of coins and bundles of notes.

“Wow, we must have raised enough to save the stables now!” squealed Rosie when she saw it all.

Do you know how much we made? Over £400. Our parents kept telling us how brilliant it was, but it wasn’t thousands of pounds was it? And that’s what Mrs McAllister said she needed to rebuild the stables. All our efforts looked to have been for nothing. No rosette could make up for that disappointment.

None of us could have expected what happened next though. And it was certainly a shock to Fliss when she saw her photograph splashed over the front page of The Mercury the next day.