Magic Spirit The Dream Horse

Chapter three

All Tilly thought about for the rest for the week was her day at silver shoe farm, which was arranged for Saturday. The time in between couldn't go fast enough. She sat through school,daydreaming about magic spirit and wondering if he was okay. Her geography teacher had to repeat her name four times before he could get her attention. And her best friends, Becky, said it was as if she was on another planet: planet pony. When Saturday finally came, Tilly was awake at six in the morning. She lay in bed and checked through her latest copy of pony, looking for ideas about grooming and handling- making sure a horse is tied before grooming it; caring for its hooves. She wanted to impress Angela with her knowledge. After a bowl of muesli and banana, Tilly's favourite breakfast, her dad drove her to the farm. At first they missed the Turning because the lane was half hidden by leafy,overhanging tress branches. It was like a secret hide-away. When they finally found it, and saw the sign for silver shoe farm, Tilly could feel butterflies in her stomach. They drove up an avenue of silver birches until they reached open field for as far as the eye could see. In the middle of these fields was a group of cream building with reddish slate roofs,and a couple of newly-creosoted black wooden barns. "This must be it" said Mr Redbrow. "It's perfect," whispered Tilly.

Angela met them in the yard, which was bustling with activity. There were three long stable blocks organised around a square patch of grass. Some of the horse were leading their head out, waiting for someone to give them some attention or, if they were lucky, the odd titbit. Other were being tack up, or led through the yard, keen on the idea of having a few hours out in the paddocks. A couple of girls, about Tilly's age,walked across the yard. One was struggling to carry a hay bale, and the other was holding a bucket of water. They looked at her and smiled. "That's call and Mia," said Angela. "They're here every weekend. We're a friendly bunch. You'll definitely be made to feel welcome at silver shoe. I've told everyone about you. Let me show you around, and then I'll introduce you to some of our horses and people." Tilly said goodbye to her dad, and didn't feel at all nervous about begin left without him. She and Angela walked the length of yard, and Angela explained that they had twenty stable and thirty acres for grazing. "We're also got lots of woodland nearby, tack room, and that little building next to it is the club room- where gang like to chill out at the end of the day. And over there," she said, pointing to a large building beyond the stable, "we have an indoor ménage for the winter months, and a big outdoor training area, with a gallop for the racehorse and eventers- that's where all the best stuff happens." "Like what?" Asked Tilly. "Why don't you come and see for yourself?"
The outdoor area was Huge grass area, lined with tress, with a sand school a smaller pen for lunging, surrounded by wooden fencing. "There's Red Admiral" said Angela "he's a young thoroughbred. He's been injured recently; it's going to be a long time before he sees a race course."  They stopped at the fence and watched the proud chestnut-red horse being led round the pen. Eventually his handler, an old man in a checked shirt, brought him over to say hello. "So, you must be Tilly," he said. "very pleased to meet you. I'm jack fisher, Angela's father. I'm the owner of silver shoe - if you need anything p, just come and ask. Angela's told me all about your efforts with the rescue horse the other day. Quite impressive." "You mean magic spirit?" Said Tilly, glancing between him and Angela. "Where is he ?can I see him?is he doing okay?" "He's .....um....he's having a bit of a hard time,Tilly,"said Angela slowly. The tone of her voice was worrying. "He's a tricky character all right," added jack fisher. " but it's not unusual for rescue horse to be difficult, especially if they've been treated badly. We're had to keep him in a separate barn - he's kicked all the walls and chewed the wood. He hates the other horse and he won't take human contact. Every time someone has tried to get near he's reared. It's been almost a week and I desperately want to get him wormed and vaccinated, but at the moment he's too dangerous." "I could help," said Tilly. "I think he trusts me - I could reassure him." "Oh, I don't know about that," said jack swatting a fly away. "We promised your dad We's look after you- we can't just send you into a barn with a traumatised animal. That's a crazy idea." Tilly was frustrated. "There's something about this girl though,dad," said Angela urged quietly. "Honestly, she's got a special way from what I've heard. I reckon we should at least try- for magic spirit's sake. Don't worry, I'll make sure she's safe and we won't take any chances." "You'll drive me to to an early grave one of these days,"muttered jack rubbing his head Red Admiral started to snort impatiently. "Look, I've got to get back to work with him. You girls go over to the barn and do what you can for magic spirit, but any sign of trouble and you're straight out of there, right?" "Right," they both said together, smiling.