The Water Jump

Text 1: Little Man, by Thaddeus Crane

An original novel extract.

Pepper had refused the water jump once already, and the whole showground knew it. Grace could feel them watching from the rails, a long line of anoraks and flasks and folded arms, as she circled the little grey pony back towards the fence. The loudspeaker crackled her number. Four faults. One more refusal and they were out.

‘Come on,’ she whispered into his mane. ‘Come on, little man.’ Under her she felt him gather, felt the muscles bunch along his neck, and she knew without looking that his ears had gone flat. The water lay ahead of them, a narrow strip of blue painted on plywood, glittering, harmless. To Pepper it might as well have been the sea.

Three strides out, she felt him hesitate. Two strides. She did not use the whip. She sat deep and closed her legs around him and thought, as hard as she could, of the hundred mornings they had spent in the frozen field behind the farm, just the two of them, the fallen log, the puddle, the patience. One stride. And Pepper, for reasons Grace would never fully understand, decided to trust her. He flew. For a moment there was nothing under them but light, and then they were down and galloping on, and the rails were cheering.

How does Thaddeus Crane use language and structure to show the bond between Grace and her pony?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.