“How far is it?” Kate asked.
“It’s only about an hour away, up past the lake,” Issie said. “You know where the ruins of Chevalier Castle are, on that big hill? Well, that’s why they’re filming here. They’re using the castle as part of their film set and they’ve built all these other sets and everything there. There are sleeping quarters for the stunt riders and wranglers too. We’ll be working long hours and we need to take care of the horses so we’ll stay there during the week, but we can come home at weekends.”
“What about Blaze?” Kate asked. “You can’t leave her here alone all week with the foal coming.”
“I’ve already moved her to Winterflood Farm,” Issie said. “Avery says he’ll keep an eye on her. Besides, the vet says she’s still not due for another month…”
“It’s so exciting!” Stella blurted out. “I can’t believe Blaze is actually going to have a foal!”
Issie still couldn’t believe it herself. When the vet at Blackthorn Farm had told her the news she had been in shock. At first, Issie had assumed that the father must be the jet black wild stallion Destiny. Destiny had amazing bloodlines. He had been sired by Aunt Hester’s own beloved Swedish Warmblood stallion, Avignon, so Issie had been very excited at the prospect of Blaze carrying the black stallion’s foal.
Then, when Issie got home and her own vet examined Blaze, he dropped a bombshell. Blaze wasn’t just a little bit pregnant. It seemed she was very pregnant indeed. The mare was more than three months gone already! That meant that Destiny couldn’t possibly be the sire. Issie had been stunned. If Destiny wasn’t the father of this foal, then who was? Finally, she figured it out. Marius! The great, grey Lipizzaner stallion was the star of the El Caballo Danza Magnifico —the famed Spanish dancing horses. Blaze had once belonged to the troupe too, one of the El Caballo’s seven Anglo-Arab mares, renowned for their beauty and balletic performances in the arena.
When Issie thought about it the timing made perfect sense. Blaze had been returned briefly to Francoise D’arth, the head trainer at the El Caballo Danza Magnifico. Issie remembered going to visit Blaze at the El Caballo stables. She had arrived to find Francoise busily ticking off the stable boys for allowing Marius to jump out of his paddock in with the mares. It took almost all day before the stable boys realised the stallion was in the wrong paddock.
Issie had immediately sent a letter to Francoise, telling her the exciting news, but she hadn’t had a reply. Then Issie saw a big story in PONY Magazine about the El Caballo Danza Magnifico which said the troupe was still on its world tour. Perhaps Francoise hadn’t been home and had never received Issie’s letter. The French trainer would surely have got in touch if she knew that Blaze was going to have a foal.
There was still a month to go, but every day that Issie checked on Blaze she seemed to be more and more enormous. Her belly was now so huge that Issie couldn’t fit a girth around her and the pony was eating twice as much hard feed as usual, as well as the lush spring grass in her paddock at Winterflood Farm.
Avery, meanwhile, was like an expectant father, fussing over the mare. He had set up the barn ready for the birth and organised the foaling monitor that would alert them the minute Blaze went into labour.
“The foaling monitor means we can leave her outdoors to graze naturally until she actually goes into labour. After that, things tend to happen very quickly,” Avery warned Issie. “When my great showjumping mare Starlight was foaling, I popped off to grab a cup of tea and by the time I came back from the kitchen she’d had him and the little tyke was already trying to stand up!”
Everything was prepared and the vet had pronounced Blaze perfectly healthy. Still, Issie was nervous about going away with Aunt Hester and leaving her pony.
“She’ll be fine,” Avery reassured Issie. “You go and have fun. I’ll keep an eye on her, don’t you worry. You’re only an hour away–I’ll let you know the minute anything happens, I promise.”
“Just don’t make any cups of tea while I’m gone. I don’t want Blaze to have her foal without me!” Issie had joked.
Even with Avery’s reassurances, Issie didn’t want to say goodbye to Blaze. On the night before the truck was due to pick them up and take them to the film set, she stopped by Winterflood Farm and stood in the paddock for ages, giving the mare snuggles and feeding her at least six carrots.
“After all,” she giggled as Blaze snuffled and munched a carrot from the palm of her hand, “you are eating for two, aren’t you, girl?”
She ran her hands one last time through Blaze’s long flaxen-blonde mane. The mare was so pretty with her dished Arabian face and her perfect white blaze. Issie loved Blaze so deeply now it seemed strange when she thought back to the day they first met.
It was Tom Avery who had brought Blaze to her. The chestnut Anglo-Arab had been so awfully mistreated, she was in a terrible state. Avery and the International League for the Protection of Horses had rescued her. Issie couldn’t believe it when Avery told her he wanted Issie to be her guardian and take care of the mare.
It was a lot for him to ask. Until Blaze turned up, Issie had sworn off horses for good. She didn’t want anything more to do with them after what had happened to Mystic.
Mystic had been Issie’s first ever horse. A fourteen-hand, swaybacked grey gelding with faded dapples and a shaggy mane. Issie had loved Mystic deeply from the first day they met. When Mystic had been killed in a road accident at the pony club, Issie thought she would never get over it. She was sure she would never have another horse. But Avery knew better. He brought Blaze to her and together the broken-hearted girl and the broken-spirited pony healed each other and became a real team.
And Mystic? His death was just the beginning of a whole new adventure. Issie’s bond with Mystic was more powerful than even she suspected. In fact Mystic wasn’t truly gone at all. Whenever things got really bad, whenever Issie needed him most, he would be there at her side–not like a ghost or anything like that, but a real horse, flesh and blood.
Mystic was her guardian angel. He had saved her and Blaze countless times now. She hadn’t seen the grey gelding in a long time, but she felt his presence more strongly than ever now that Blaze was close to foaling. Just knowing that the grey gelding was watching over Blaze and protecting her made Issie feel better about leaving the mare behind.
“I have to go, but Mystic will keep an eye on you, OK, girl?” Issie murmured as the mare nuzzled against her. Then she gave Blaze one more carrot for the road and left the mare in the paddock, heading home to pack her bags.
But when she got home, Issie was surprised to find her bags already packed and her sleeping bag rolled and ready at the front door.
“Mum?” Issie called out. Mrs Brown emerged from the kitchen.
“There you are!” she said breezily. “I figured you’d be running late so I went ahead and packed for you. I’ve washed and folded all that stuff you had in your laundry basket and put that in, and you’ve got three pairs of jodhpurs, your new hoodie and your PONY Magazines…”
“But Mum, I thought you didn’t really want me to go,” Issie said.
“Well, I was hoping you’d get a nice, safe, ordinary part-time job on the supermarket check-out for the holidays.” Mrs Brown put her arms round Issie and gave her a hug. “But then I realised you wouldn’t be my Issie if you did that, would you?”
Mrs Brown’s hug got tighter. “I’ve told Hester to take good care of you this time, and I’ll be there to pick you up and bring you home at the weekend.” She let go of Issie and smiled. “Your dinner is ready–go and sit at the table. After that, you better get straight up to bed. You have an early start in the morning.”
Issie did go straight to bed after dinner and she was so exhausted she had no trouble