Flame and the Rebel Riders by Stacy Gregg Page A

oppositedirection. But if Avery knew she was lying, he didn’t let on.
    “Just let me give Cookie his feed,” he smiled at her, “and we can have a cup of tea. I’ve just made a fruit loaf.”
    Five minutes later they were in the kitchen and Issie was telling Avery all about Flame rushing his jumps and getting crazy every time he was faced with even the tiniest fence.
    Avery listened with a frown furrowing his brow. “Issie, I want to help, I really do, but I can’t tell you what to do with someone else’s horse…”
    “I know that, Tom, but I thought we could at least talk about it. I keep thinking that his training isn’t helping. We’ve been rapping him for the past two weeks—”
    Avery froze. He stopped what he was doing and turned to face Issie again.
    “Did you just say that Ginty is rapping him?”
    “Uh-huh,” Issie said. “She does it with all the horses.”
    “Issie, this is exactly why I didn’t want you working for Ginty. I can’t believe she’s rapping the horses — it’s a horrid practice — it should be outlawed.”
    “But Ginty said everyone does it! It’s just a training technique.”
    “Some showjumping stables still do it,” Avery admitted. “And sometimes it works. But it can be disastrous. For a horse like Flame all it does is make them lose their nerve, and then they become terrified every time they see a jump.” He shook his head. “Besides it’s cruel. I’ve seen horses that have been rapped until their legs bled. Not that Ginty would care. She’s always been like this — willing to do whatever it takes to win.”
    “She’s not like that!” Issie said, standing up for Ginty. “She actually fired one of her grooms for giving a horse an illegal injection! You don’t know her! She really, really cares about the horses!”
    “Oh, wake up, Issie!” Avery replied. “I know better than you exactly what Ginty is capable of. I’ve seen the damage that she’s done in the past. She destroys good horses, and for some reason people pay her big money to do it.” He looked Issie square in the eyes. “You can’t stay on at the stables — she’s mistreating those horses.”
    “What else am I supposed to do?” Issie asked.
    “I don’t know,” Avery said, “but you can’t continue working for her.”
    “But I can’t just leave. Working in professional stables is what I’ve always dreamt of. Tom, she’s talking about offering me a full-time job at Dulmoth Park once I leave school.”
    “You can’t actually be considering it?” Avery was appalled.
    Issie didn’t know what to say. Did Avery really think that Ginty was so terrible that he wouldn’t want Issie working for her? Even if it helped her to achieve her dream?
    “I’ve gotta go,” she said, standing up and putting down her slice of half-eaten fruit loaf. “Mum is expecting me for dinner.” She walked out the door and grabbed her bike hastily, noticing that her hands were shaking as she wheeled it down the driveway.
    “Issie, wait!” Avery called after her. But she pretended she didn’t hear him as she clambered on quickly and leant hard against the pedals. She cycled like mad and managed to make it to the end of the driveway and out of Avery’s sight, before she pulled over, her chest heaving, and burst into tears.

Chapter 10
    When Issie arrived at the stables the next morning and saw that Flame was the first horse on her roster she felt sick at the prospect of trying to jump him again. She was hoping that maybe they’d be exercising the horses on a forest ride instead. But according to the roster they’d be working in the arena, where the jumps were set up at a substantial height ready for training.
    Ginty hadn’t managed to get another rider to replace Verity yet, but she did have two of the groundskeepers from Dulmoth Park on hand that morning helping out with the jumps. The two boys knew next to nothing about horses, but they had been given a brief explanation of what to do and now