It was such a bright morning that Mia couldn’t help doing a little skip as she and Mum walked across the yard. She was wearing her jodhpurs, wellies and a vest top, and she could already feel the sunshine warming her shoulders. Best of all, she had the whole day to spend with Polly!

As they walked up to the offices, Mia spotted Lindsay, one of the other grooms, standing with a wheelbarrow and some fresh straw.

“Hi Lindsay!” Mum called.

“Hi guys,” Lindsay said. “Mia, you’re just the girl I want to see. Do you want to give me a hand mucking out?”

“Sure!” Mia grinned.

“I wish you were as keen to tidy your bedroom as you were to clean the stables,” Mum laughed. Mia shrugged. Mucking out was hard work, and she knew some people wouldn’t like the idea of sweeping up the dirty straw, but she loved making a nice clean bed for the horses.

“If you don’t mind, that would be great,” Lindsay replied. “We’re very lucky to have your help – there are lots of jobs to do.”

“I’m going up to see Polly,” Mum called.

Oh! I want to see Polly! Mia thought to herself. Her disappointment must have shown on her face, because Mum bent down and gave her a kiss on the top of her head.

“There’s plenty of time,” Mum told her. “Polly’s doing fine, and you’ve got all summer long here, don’t forget – lots of time to spend getting to know her.”

Mia nodded, then turned to help Lindsay. Soon she was happily forking clean, fresh straw into the stall. As she carefully spread it out, sunlight streamed through the stables and the dust from the straw shimmered in the air like golden fairy dust.

I’ve got all summer long! Mia hugged the thought to herself as she finished spreading out the straw in Dapple’s stable, testing with the fork to make sure it was deep enough to make a nice comfy bed.

As soon as she finished, there was the sound of a horse on the gravel, and Mia looked over to see Amanda leading Beans into the yard. “Neigh!” Mia joked, poking her head over Dapple’s stable door like one of the horses.

“Hi, Beans,” she said cheerfully, going over to stroke the bay horse. Beans turned his head and huffed at her happily.

“He did really well today!” Amanda said, patting the frisky horse on the neck. “We had a good ride, and did lots of pole practice. When he came in, he hated anything going near his feet. But now. . .”

Leaving Mia holding Beans, she picked up a pole that was leaning nearby and put it down on the ground. Then she took the reins and clicked her tongue to call Beans forward. The horse stepped over it without even blinking.

“Well done, Beans!” said Mia encouragingly.

Just then someone started up an engine nearby and Beans whickered and started to toss his mane, kicking the pole.

“Oh Beans!” Amanda sighed as the horse danced around. “He still hates loud noises though. Let’s get you rubbed down and into your stable, mister. Would you mind cleaning his tack for me, Mia?”

Mia looked from Amanda to the path up to the isolation stalls. Normally she wouldn’t mind doing anything Amanda asked – the RSPCA groom was really kind and had taken her out riding lots of times – but she wanted to see Polly!

She took a deep breath and smiled at Amanda. “Of course I’ll help!” After all, she thought, Mum’s right. I do have all summer with Polly.

Mia soon got lost in the soothing rhythm of cleaning tack – cleaning the reins, saddle and bridle with saddle soap and rubbing them dry. Mum always gave her pocket money for helping out at the stables, but Mia liked doing the chores. Besides, she had to learn how to do it if she was going to have a horse of her own one day.

When she’d finished she hung everything up on the right peg in the tack room and called out to Amanda, “I’m going to go and find Mum.”

“OK!” Amanda called back. “Thanks for all your help!”

Mia raced up to the isolation stables, but slowed down when she got there so that she could go quietly and carefully to Polly’s stable. Mum was nowhere in sight, and all the stables were empty. Mia turned to look in the isolation paddocks. Polly was down in her field, chomping on the grass. Mia slowly walked down towards the fence, trying not to make too much noise as her wellies crunched on the gravel.

Polly looked up as she came closer, her ears twitching anxiously.

“Hi, Polly,” Mia murmured. “I’ve been thinking about you so much.” Mia took a deep breath as she reached the fence, but Polly didn’t move.

Mia stood there quietly, and Polly put her head back down to eat, her ears still pointed towards Mia nervously.

Mia waited, hardly daring to breathe, as Polly started to munch the grass, her tail swishing softly. She got closer and closer to the fence, so close that Mia could hear her chomping and chewing, and could reach out a hand and touch her.

Mia felt butterflies in her tummy. If she tried to stroke Polly, would it scare her? Would she canter off to the other side of the field? She didn’t want to upset her, but she wanted to stroke her so much and show her that not all people were horrible. I wish Mum were here to tell me what to do! she thought.

She shifted her feet, and Polly looked up at her, her deep chocolate-brown eyes curious. Mia started talking gently, hoping that Polly would understand somehow.

“Hi, Polly,” she said again. “I’m going to stroke you, OK?” As slowly as she could, she raised her hand and reached out to touch Polly on the side of her neck.

Polly stepped back and tossed her head. “It’s all right,” Mia soothed, “I’m not going to hurt you. Yesterday I went riding with my Auntie Sandra and her horse Gypsy. You’d like Gypsy – she’s really friendly. She’s beautiful, but she’s not as lovely as you.”

Polly looked at her and gave a quiet huff. “I want to be your friend,” Mia continued, putting her hand out again. This time Polly sniffed at her hand, and then rubbed her nose against it, asking for a stroke.

“Good girl,” Mia said, keeping the same calm voice, even though her heart was racing. She was stroking Polly on her nose!

There was a crunch of gravel from behind her, and Mia turned to see Mum there, watching with a big grin on her face. Mum looked from Mia to Polly and gave an amazed shrug. “Brilliant, Mia. She hasn’t let me touch her much at all. She must like you!”

Mia felt a thrill of pride and tickled Polly behind her ears. She liked Polly, too!

 

“Last one in’s a rotten egg!” Jacob yelled as he and Sam ran into the boys’ changing room.

“Quick!” Jasmine shrieked. She and Mia ran into the girls’ changing room and started putting their swimming costumes on as quickly as they could.

“I just can’t wait to get on the flumes!” Jasmine squealed.

Mia grinned at her best friend. She’d been so excited when Jasmine had called and invited her to go to Splashdown! She’d never been to a swimming pool with slides and rides before.

“Calm down!” Jasmine’s mum laughed as Mia tried to get changed quickly and got tangled up in her T-shirt. “We’ve got all day, there’s no need to rush. Although no one wants to be a rotten egg,” she added mischievously, her eyes twinkling.

Jasmine’s swimming costume was yellow with flowers on it, and Mia’s was blue and stripy. Jasmine had special goggles instead of her glasses, and a nose clip as well. “I dobt dike it when dhe water goes up my does,” she explained. Mia giggled and grabbed her best friend’s arm as they went out on to the pool side.

“Walk! Don’t run. The edge of the pool might be slippy,” Jasmine’s mum called after them. “I’ll be in the Jacuzzi if you need me.” She pointed up to the round bubble pool next to the changing rooms. “Tell your brother I can spy everything from there, and if I see him dive-bombing he’s coming straight out.”

“OK!” Jasmine replied. The girls walked as fast as they could out on to the poolside, then stopped in amazement. There were huge flumes in different colours twirling down from the ceiling. Tall staircases led up to each one, and there were already queues of people waiting for a chance to whizz down and splash into the water.

A boy standing in one queue waved, and it took Mia a second to realize it was Jacob, wearing long, bright red swimming trunks.

“Hey slowcoaches!” he called. “We’re going on the deathslide! It’s the black one, the worst slide in the whole place.”

Mia looked at the looping black tube and shuddered. Jacob’s friend Sam didn’t look too happy either.

“Are you girls coming, or are you too chicken?” Jacob joked.

Mia put her hands on her hips. “Jacob Parker, if I can ride a fifteen-hand horse all by myself I’m certainly not going to be scared of a silly water slide. But Jasmine and I are going on the rubber-ring raft ride first.”

Mia took Jasmine’s arm and stormed off.

“You weren’t really going to go on the deathslide, were you?” Jasmine asked, looking amazed.

Mia burst into giggles. “No,” she laughed, “but Jacob doesn’t know that! Besides, there’s no point doing something scary just to show off. And the rubber rings look MUCH more fun!”

Mia and Jasmine found their way to the huge rubber rings and picked one each. “You can get in together, girls, if you like,” said the lifeguard man, holding it still so they could climb on. Mia jumped in, hanging her legs over the side. Jasmine climbed on next to her and the lifeguard gave them a push. Soon they were floating along, carried by the current, the ring twisting and turning as they gently bobbed about.

“I love summer holidays!” Jasmine sighed happily.

“Me too!” Mia grinned. “Especially now Polly’s here!”

“How is she?” Jasmine asked.

“She let me stroke her,” Mia told her friend delightedly. “And Mum said I was dealing with her really well.”

“By the end of the summer you might be riding her!” Jasmine grinned, trailing her hands in the water as they floated along.

“I’m not sure – it’s going to take a long time for her to get better,” Mia told her. But then she thought of the way Polly had nuzzled into her hand, and grinned. “But she will, I just know she will!”

After the rubber-ring ride, Mia and Jasmine played in the main pool, pretending they were mermaids as they ducked and swam beneath the water. They went in a vortex that pulled them around in circles, and took turns jumping over waves from the wave machine. Then they went on the rubber-ring ride again, racing against Jacob and Sam to see who could reach the end of the river fastest.

By the end of the day Mia’s fingers and toes were all wrinkly from being in the water for too long, and she was tired and hungry, but really happy. She hoped Mum and Polly had had as good a day as she had!

As they drove home, Jasmine nudged Mia. Jacob was fast asleep next to her, his mouth open as he snored gently.

The girls giggled. “Who’s the baby now?” Jasmine whispered, and they laughed so hard that they woke Jacob up.