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paddock before it was time for Shelby to go.
Shelby was glad, because she wasn't sure how they
would behave.
    'It's OK.'
    'Did you have a ride?'
    'No.' Shelby wound down the window and rested
her feet on the dashboard.
    At the bottom of the driveway her mother waited
for a break in the traffic. She steered the car onto the
road. 'Are you going off horses?'
    'No way! I'm still going to be riding horses when
I'm eighty.'
    'It's just that normally I wouldn't be able to shut
you up about a new horse. You went on for a week
about that riding pony.'
    It was true. The previous month Miss Anita had
schooled a beautiful black show pony for a few weeks.
While he was there Shelby tried to get through her work
quickly so that she could sit on the fence at the edge of
the arena and watch Miss Anita work. Afterwards she
would offer to hose him off in the wash bay and take
him back to his yard. He loved a bath and would poke
his nose into the stream of water with his eyes closed.
    Shelby had decided that pony was her second
favourite horse in the world, after Blue, of course, but
now the black pony had shuffled down to third place.
    Shelby shrugged. 'There's just nothing to say.'
    'Did something happen at the sales that you
haven't talked about?'
    'What makes you say that?'
    'We were so sure that you were going to be upset,
and since then you've been quiet. I want you to tell me
if you're upset about something. It's bad for you to
keep things locked up inside.'
    'I'm not upset,' Shelby reassured her.
    Her mother glanced at her. There was a long
silence while she waited.
    Shelby shrugged again. 'You can't tell where
they've come from. You have no idea if they've come
from a bad home and are going to a good one, or the
other way around,' she explained. 'Besides that, it's a
completely unnatural place, so of course they're going
to be a bit frightened. Also, you only see them for
about half an hour. You don't know anything about
them. Some of them had cuts and scratches, but you
don't know how they got them. They could be mean,
like Ajax, and just picked the wrong horse to bully.'
Shelby paused, frowning while she thought about it.
'I'm sure I could get upset if I had more information.'
    'That's a sensible way to think about it. It's wise to
delay distress until you know all the facts.' Her
mother smiled.
    They stopped at the supermarket on the way
home. Shelby helped her mother select the week's groceries.
She persuaded her mum to buy tacos. The
whole family loved them, although Shelby's brothers
generally wore more than they ate.
    They played a game where Shelby had to add up
each item as they went around, and if she got the total
right at the end she was allowed to have a Chupa
Chups. She was out by four dollars, but her mum let
her have the lollipop anyway.
    As she helped her mother load the bags into the
boot she noticed that her mother was smiling.
    'What?' Shelby asked.
    'I was a bit worried when Brenda first offered you
the job at the stables. I didn't think you were mature
enough. There have been times in the past when
you've been impulsive and not thought your actions
through, but you seem to have settled down and
started making sensible decisions recently. I was
wrong. This job has been really good for you.'
    'Mm, yeah,' Shelby replied. 'I'm looking forward
to those tacos!'

9 Gwen's Pony
    The next day at school before the lessons began, Erin
ran towards Shelby in the quadrangle, her bag
bouncing on her back. Even from a distance Shelby
could see her grinning. It seemed as though Shelby's
tantrum had been forgotten.
    'We're going to give CC to Gwen Stefani,' Erin
puffed when she reached her friend.
    'What?' Shelby scooted along the bench to give
Erin some room.
    'If Lindsey's mum sees this horse that doesn't
belong to anyone, then we're in all sorts of trouble, so
we've decided that we are going to give her to Gwen
Stefani. Lindsey came up with the idea. The girl's a
genius.'
    'What are you talking about?'
    Erin sighed, as though she