Adventures of Princess Isadora - The Birthday Present

Adventures of Princess Isadora

The Birthday Present

Isadora was fed up.  Henry her new playmate turned out not to be such good company after all.  He had chores to do so every time she went looking for him Mrs Gray would say.

"Henry has to do his chores Isadora he can't be here to play with you all the time.  He has to help Maisie with the fires in the morning and in the afternoon he has to go to the stables and help Joseph with the horses."

Isadora didn't see why Joseph couldn't look after the horses on his own, after all there were only two horses now and after The King fell off his horse about a year ago he decided he was too old for riding.  Trouble with The King was he was very accident prone and a danger to himself!  She asked if she could ride one of the horses but The King said she wasn't big enough yet maybe when she was a bit bigger.  She measured herself every week to see if  she had grown a bit bigger but sadly Nanny always said

"Not yet Isadora maybe next week."

It was her birthday in three weeks she would be 5.  Nanny said once she was 5 she would have to learn her letters and then write her name.  She wasn't looking forward to that she would rather be in the garden with Seb the gardener.  She liked Seb as he was teaching her all the names of the pretty flowers in The Queen's courtyard  garden. Sometimes it was a bit noisy as the music room was near there but Seb was deaf so didn't make any difference to him.  She told him she would like to ride one of the horses.  Seb said what she needed was a Shetland Pony as they were just right for her height.  Isadora looked interested but didn't think The King would buy her one.  Seb knew differently as he and Joseph had been to a farm not far from the castle where there were two Shetland Ponies for sale.  Joseph had told The King and he said if Joseph was happy to teach Isadora to ride then she could have one for her birthday.

The day of her birthday arrived and Nanny dressed her up in her best dress and took her to see The King and Queen in the dining room.  The breakfast was all set out and there were pretty ribbons decorating the table.  Isadora sat at the table quietly and ate her breakfast.

The King got up from the table and asked her to join him at the window.  Isadora was a bit puzzled but then The King did do some peculiar things.

"The Queen and I thought for a long time of what to buy you for your birthday and then we heard that you would like to learn to ride a horse.  As you know both our horses are too big for you at the moment so we decided to buy you a smaller horse to have for your very own."

Isadora looked out of the window and there on the drive in front of the house was a grey dappled Shetland Pony.  She squealed with delight.

"But who is going to teach me to ride him Daddy?" she said

"Joseph is going to teach you so I think you had better go down and see him and he will give you a hat which you must wear on your head at all times around the horses"

Isadora was so excited, she was almost at the door when she remembered.

"Thank you Daddy that is the best present ever.  I can't wait to tell Henry"

She gave The King a huge hug and ran down to see her new friend.