Emily and Emerald Read Online Free PDF Page A

it, so long as I stay calm and focused. But I’ll have to see what Sally thinks.
    At teatime, all the girls were chattering away about the trip. Because I didn’t go I felt kind of left out and I was tempted to just fade away into the background. But something, maybe seeing Emerald’s courage in the lessons with Western Bob today, made me try to join in. I asked a few questions, and everyone was really keen to chat to me about it.

    Then Elena asked me how my day was, and at that moment everyone seemed to have finished talking and they were all paying attention to me . I blushed and that old feeling of wanting to turn invisible came back, but then I thought, If Emerald can be brave, so can I. And once I started talking about Emerald, I got pulled along with excitement about what we’d done andhow much she’d come on today. Then Morgan started telling a story, and I was just sitting there thinking, Wow, did I actually have everyone listening to me and being really interested?
    That made me feel so happy, and when we went swimming this evening I went and joined in doing handstands on the bottom of the pool and having races and playing water volleyball without even thinking that I was joining in. That’s amazing for me!

    So it’s not just Emerald who has gained a lot of confidence with Sally and Western Bob’s help. I have, too!
    Gotta go, Frankie’s saying hurry up ’cos my hot chocolate’s getting cold!

Thursday , after our lecture on road safety and first aid and what to do if you get lost (fingers crossed THAT won’t happen!)

    Sally said me and Emerald can go on the picnic ride with everyone else. YAY! When I went to muck Em out this morning, she was looking out of her stable door, waiting for me! How brilliant is that! I was so pleased and I gave her a massive hug. I started to feel a bit upset then, though, because tomorrow is the last day of Pony Camp. I know that paying for this holiday was a massive stretch for Mum and there’s no way I’ll be able to come here forlessons during term time, so it will be the end of Em & Em.
    Still, feeling sad made me more determined to enjoy every second I have left with my gorgeous pony. I’m off down to the yard now to tack up, and Lydia’s going to show us how to bandage our ponies’ legs because we’ll be going through the woods and it might be quite brambly.

Thursday still, but after the picnic ride—well, me and Emerald had the most amazing (and scary!) adventure today
    Me and Frankie have worked out that we did about two and a half hours’ riding this afternoon – no wonder our legs are so tired! We made sure our ponies had fresh water when we got in and gave them a brush down in the barn, but Sally let us off doing our usual TONS of yard work because we were all so completely flaked out from the long, hot ride. Instead, she let us go swimming to cool off! It was so refreshing diving into the water and splashing about.

    So now we’ve dried off and got dressed, and me and Frankie are writing in our Pony Camp diaries. We’re sitting on the platformthing overlooking the manèges (not that there’s any riding to watch at the moment, but it’s a nice place to hang out).
    When we were tacking up our ponies for the ride, Lydia showed us how to put their head collars on under their bridles. I thought it was a bit strange at first, but she explained that while we were having our picnic we could slip the bridles off so they could have a munch on the grass!
    Johnny, Sally and Lydia all came with us – Sally was riding Blue and Lydia was on Fly, who is seriously speedy!
    We all rode in single file up the road. Sally told me to wedge Emerald in behind Prince and Neema because:
    a . Prince wouldn’t spook if Emerald jumped at something
    and
    b . he’d stop her bolting off.

    We were all walking along in the sunshine, then we turned up a track and had a little trot and it was just so fab! We rode for ages