If there was one thing that Sylvia did not like it was getting up early in the morning. So, why was she up at down long before six in the morning on such a cold day? I suppose, although Sylvia would have been the last to admit such a thing, that it was something to do with the honour of the club. Having had to carry on the activities for so long in an 'underground' way because of the nature of their sport, it was still something of a surprise to Sylvia and her club mates that out of the blue they had received a challenge from a similar club to races over varying distances. Sylvia was considered the long distance expert and was very anxious to do well in her own races and was keen to get in plenty of practice before the big day, now only a week away. Although she normally had plenty of confidence in herself, the fact that she had no knowledge of the standard of ability of the opposition made her a little bit on edge.

It was not only Sylvia that did not like being up in the cold early morning. The pony girl that she has hauled out a few minutes before was also not too happy about it. Sylvia at least had on jodhpurs and a nice warm polo neck jumper but the pony girl was, apart from running boots and a leather bra, quite naked and Sylvia made her stand rigidly still at attention between the shafts of the sulky while she made sure that all the harness was really tight. The tight straps that ran from the bridle to the wide girth strap round her waist, and in fact were bearing reins that made her keep her head well up for a good turn out, were hardly pleasant for the pony and as Sylvia roughly took the reins from the bit under her belly and uncomfortably between her legs she knew that her mistress was not in the best of moods.

Sylvia stood back to survey her handiwork. The shafts of the sulky that could not be raised above the horizontal kept the pony girl permanently in a bending over position. They and the four wheels and the driving seat were bright red while the rest of the sulky was of silver coloured tube steel. The harness was of a shiny black leather as were the blinkers and the girl was held firmly in position with the back slightly hollowed and the head and rump held well up.

However, Sylvia was not really in the mood to feel satisfied with anything much at that hour of the morning, not even with herself. She got up in the driving seat and took a firm grip on the reins which the pony girl felt sharply both from the steel bit in her mouth and the leather reins in her crotch. Sylvia gave no command but brought her thin whalebone whip down hard across the pony girl's hindquarters. The girl jumped at the biting sting and seemed to go straight from standing still at attention to a fast trot but still got another three vicious stripes from the whip across her rump - the traditional whipping up which Sylvia always gave to a pony girl almost as a matter of course.

Sylvia drove at a fairly fast trot along a glade in the woods where there was still quite a lot of morning mist and thought that at least she had the advantage of being able to practice over the course where the race would be held whereas the other club would not have seen it until they arrived. With somewhat more that a mile to go Sylvia knew it was no use making the girl go too fast and wearing her out but she kept a firm eye on the girl to see that she did not slack. She kept jerking at the rein and now and again gave the pony girl a sharp cut across the arse to remind her of the flavour of the whip.

As they got farther round the course the pony girl of course got somewhat more tired but somehow managed to keep her aching legs going at the speed that her mistress required. In the cold morning air steam was quite visible from her naked body which was naturally sweating heavily. She was very sore and uncomfortable in her mouth and between her legs from Sylvia's constant use of driving aids and her bottom was stinging and smarting from the attentions of the whip. As they came towards the end of the drive she was fortunate that Sylvia did not decide, as she often did, to drive at full speed for the last few yards, but even so, the girl had of course become pretty tired and Sylvia had to use the whip quite a lot to make her keep up the speed.

When they got back to the yard a number of the other club members had got pony girls out and were exercising them and practicing sprinting distances, starting and various other things. A pony girl standing against the wall upright harnessed with a saddle on her back was obviously waiting for her mistress to practice one of the riding events.

Margaret, Sylvia's close friend, who had undertaken to enter a pony girl in the high stepping event, which up until now the club had never gone in for, was giving her chosen pony girl intensive training in one corner of the yard. The girl wearing bit and bridle and with her wrists between her shoulder blades and with wrists and elbows fastened tightly with straps but otherwise absolutely naked was running on the spot with very high knee raising while Margaret was vigorously applying a plaited leather whip to her bottom.

The sight of all this activity and the fact that she had had a fairly good practice drive cheered Sylvia quite a bit. She was now somewhat more optimistic about the forthcoming 'great day'.