Her mum and dad were in the crowd watching the horse trials event. She hoped she could make them proud. It would be great to win a rosette to take home.

Alex sat tall, looked straight ahead and kept her heels down. Strands of her shoulder-length brown hair blew out from under her riding hat.

‘One! Two! Th–’ she said under her breath. ‘Oh!’ At the last moment, her chestnut pony seemed to miss a step.

Pasha swung her hind legs sideways, just avoiding banging into the fence. But with a whinny of pain, the pony sank on to her haunches. Alex only just managed to stay on as Pasha scrambled to her feet and stood with her head hanging down.

Alex gasped with dismay as she realized that something was badly wrong.

Dismounting quickly and trying to fight down panic, she led her pony away from the course. ‘Poor girl. Have you hurt yourself?’ she said gently. ‘Come on, slowly now. Let’s get the vet to look at you. She’ll make you better.’

As she led the limping pony to one side, her mum and dad were already racing towards her. Alex gave up all pretence of being calm.

‘Mum! Dad! Something’s happened to Pasha!’ she wailed.

‘All right, love. You’re doing all the right things.’ Her dad took over. He bent and swiftly ran his hand down the injured pony’s back leg. Pasha flinched and tremors ran over her chestnut coat. ‘I hope it’s just a sprain and not a torn ligament.’

A torn ligament was serious. A feeling of dread jolted through Alex as she saw her parents exchanging serious looks. She’d had Pasha for three years and loved her to bits. She couldn’t bear to think of the plucky little chestnut pony being in pain.

A voice came over the loudspeaker. ‘Vet to showjumping, please. Right away.’

It seemed like hours before the van arrived and the vet was examining Pasha with her expert eye. Alex stood with her arms round her pony’s warm neck, trying hard not to cry. ‘Don’t be scared, Pasha. The vet’s a kind lady. She’s going to help you,’ she said gently.

Mrs Judd put a hand on her daughter’s arm. ‘Why don’t you go and wait with Zoe, love? She looks worried to death for you over there. We’ll take care of Pasha. I’ll call you over the moment the vet’s finished.’

Alex didn’t want to leave Pasha, but she nodded miserably. She walked over to her best friend who was standing a few metres away with Maxi, her brown-and-white Welsh pony.

Zoe looked close to tears too. ‘Poor Pasha. What an awful thing to happen. Is she going to be OK?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know. The vet’s still examining her,’ Alex gulped, grateful that Zoe was there. They lived a few kilometres away from each other up at Denton Moor and had known each other since they were tiny. Both pony mad, they did everything together.