Comet and the Champion's Cup Read Online Free PDF

he’s done this before?”
    â€œYeah. Last time he jumped out, he managed to get into the garden shed and ate all of the dog biscuits. He is totallycrazy, that pony. Hester is so fed up with him. She can’t afford to put up deer fences to keep him in–and, knowing Comet, he’d probably jump over them anyway!”
    â€œComet?” Issie said.
    â€œUh-huh,” Aidan replied. “He’s one of the Blackthorn Ponies that Hester decided to keep. Although I think she’s been regretting the decision ever since.”
    Just as he said this, Issie saw her aunt emerge from the rear of Blackthorn Manor. She had a makeshift lead rope in her hands that she had made out of the belt from her dress. She was using it to lead a cheeky-looking skewbald. The pony, for he was just a pony and couldn’t have been more than fourteen-two hands, was skipping merrily at her side. He didn’t seem to notice or care that Hester was looking at him with a murderous expression. The skewbald looked so pleased with himself that, despite the heart attack he had just given her, Issie couldn’t help but immediately have a soft spot for him.
    â€œSo that’s Comet?”
    â€œThe one and only,” Aidan said darkly. “The skewbald that no paddock can hold.”
    As Comet came closer, Issie could see that he was actually rather pretty. The pony was a chestnut with white patches, and he had white socks and a broad, whitestripe down his nose. Comet was sturdy and muscular, like all wild Gisborne hill ponies. He had solid legs with thick cannon bones, strong shoulders and powerful hindquarters made for jumping–a fact which he was clearly using to his advantage to get out of the paddock whenever he liked. The pony’s conformation was powerful, but it was his eyes that had Issie totally bewitched. Those eyes! They burnt with an intensity that she hadn’t seen before in any horse.
    Comet seemed thrilled that everyone was paying him so much attention. As he danced along at Hester’s side, Issie could have sworn he had the attitude of a champion racehorse. In his mind, this pony wasn’t little at all. He was a colossus.
    â€œComet! Stand still, naughty pony!” Hester growled. Then she turned to Issie and Aidan. “Isadora! Lovely to see you. I take it you’ve already met Comet?”
    â€œYou could say that,” Issie smiled.
    â€œWell, my favourite niece, as you can see, this place hasn’t changed a bit–it’s still completely mad!” Hester said. “Welcome back to Blackthorn Farm.”

Chapter 4
    â€œYou mean we were nearly hit by a comet?” Stella said. She and Kate had emerged from the truck and were totally confused by what had just happened.
    â€œNo,” Issie giggled. “We nearly hit him. Comet is a horse!” She gestured towards the skewbald pony who was still skipping about as Aunt Hester tried to hold him with the belt off her dress.
    â€œHe escaped on to the driveway and we nearly ran him over,” Aidan explained.
    â€œAre Toby and Coco OK?” Hester asked.
    â€œThey’re both fine,” Stella said. “They scrambled a bit when the truck stopped suddenly, but they didn’t fall over or anything.”
    â€œLet’s get them unloaded,” Kate suggested. “We cancheck them over properly in the loose box once we take off their floating bandages.”
    Since the truck had been forced to stop halfway down the driveway it seemed easier to simply unload the horses there and walk them the rest of the way.
    Toby and Coco came down the ramp with their ears pricked and their heads held high, as horses do whenever they arrive somewhere new. When he saw them Comet gave a whinny of greeting. His whole body reverberated as his clarion call rang out, shaking with a neigh of excitement at having new horses for company.
    Hester glared at him. “Oh, do behave yourself, Comet! You really are the most