Read all the Saddle Club books!
Horse Crazy
Horse Shy
Horse Sense
Horse Power
Trail Mates
Dude Ranch
Horse Play
Horse Show
Hoof Beat
Riding Camp
Horse Wise
Rodeo Rider
Copyright © 1989 by Bonnie Bryant Hiller
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
“The Saddle Club” is a registered trademark of Bonnie Bryant Hiller.
“USPC” and “Pony Club” are registered trademarks of the United States Pony Clubs, Inc., at The Kentucky Horse Park, 4071 Iron Works Pike, Lexington, KY 40511-8462.
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eISBN: 978-0-307-82485-1
Originally published by Bantam Skylark in 1989
First Delacorte eBook Edition 2012
v3.1
I would like to express special thanks to Marie C. Lafrenz and Karen Hurley, who helped immensely with horse show lore, to Kathy Fallon of the American Horse Show Association, and to Dr. Peter J. Zeale.
—For Suzanne Ziegler
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
About the Author
LISA ATWOOD SAT on a bench in the locker area at Pine Hollow Stables and removed one of her boots. She barely noticed what she was doing. Her mind wasn’t on boots. It was on horse shows. She’d just learned that Max Regnery, her instructor and the owner of Pine Hollow, was going to the American Horse Show in New York to watch his former student Dorothy DeSoto ride. Lisa had met Dorothy when she had given a small demonstration at Pine Hollow. But the American Horse Show … It made Lisa shiver with excitement just to think about it.
Lisa loved horses. She loved riding them and taking care of them. Although she was quite a new rider—she’d been riding for less than a year—Max said she had a lot of potential. She worked hard at her riding, but it was fun work, mostly because she did it with her two best friends. Stevie Lake and Carole Hanson were definitely horse crazy, too.
Lisa pulled off her second boot, stuffed it in her cubby, and began combing her long light brown hair in front of the dim little mirror. She daydreamed about the American Horse Show. She’d seen some horse shows, mostly on television. The American Horse Show was the most important one in the country. She could almost feel the thrill of being there. Max would be there, as well as his mother, Mrs. Reg. Lisa would just be in Willow Creek, Virginia, reading about it in the paper.
“I just heard the most exciting thing!” Stevie bubbled as she bounded into the locker area. “Guess what Max and Mrs. Reg are doing next week? You’ll never guess! They’re going—”
“Max is going to New York!” Carole announced from the doorway. “Can you believe it? He and his mother are going to the American Horse Show to—”
“See Dorothy DeSoto compete,” Lisa said, finishing Carole’s sentence for her.
“How did you know?” Carole and Stevie asked her, almost in unison.
“I saw that Max’s classes were canceled for next week, so I asked him why,” Lisa explained. “How did you find out?”
“I did the same thing,” Carole said.
“And so did I,” Stevie said, plopping down on the bench, next to Lisa. “Max must be wondering if we three ever talk to one another!”
“He knows we talk to one another,” Lisa said sensibly. “He knows it because we’re always doing it in class—and he doesn’t like that!” she added, giggling.
“Well, I think we’re going to have to do some more talking,” Carole said. She sounded very serious. Her tone made Lisa look away from the mirror. “So let’s have a Saddle Club meeting at TD’s in …” She looked at her watch. “How ’bout one half hour.”
That sounded like a good idea to Lisa and Stevie. There was always time for a sundae at the Tastee Delight ice cream store. A half an hour gave them just enough time to change their clothes and get to the meeting on time.
The Saddle Club was a group the girls had formed. The three of them were the only active members, though there was one out-of-state friend who was an honorary member. The requirements for membership were that each girl had to be horse crazy (which they all were) and had to help other members when they were in trouble (which they did). Trouble could include horseback riding, but it could also mean schoolwork, family problems, or, occasionally, boy trouble. When friends needed help, Saddle Club girls were there.
The Saddle Club didn’t have formally scheduled meetings. The girls just got together when it seemed like a good idea. Most of the time, Saddle Club meetings meant gossiping about horses and riding. This time, Lisa suspected Carole had something more specific on her mind.
The girls usually met at TD’s. It was at the local shopping center, home of a supermarket, an electronics shop, a jewelry store, and a couple of shoe stores. Other shops there came and went at a rapid clip. Fortunately for The Saddle Club, TD’s stayed in business. It was the girls’ favorite hangout.
“Isn’t it exciting!” Carole said, after they had given the waitress their orders. It was almost exactly a half hour later, and they were sitting in their favorite back booth at TD’s. “Max is going to New York!”
“What’s so exciting about that?” Stevie asked, trying to sound very cool. “I went to New York with my family last year. We saw a lot of dirt and garbage, some tall buildings, and an island full of people in a rush.”
“But you didn’t see the American Horse Show, did you?” Carole asked.
“Nope. We did see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. Does that count?”
“No, it definitely does not count,” Carole told her. When Carole’s mind was on horses, that was all she wanted to talk about. “There’s no comparison between show girls in sequinned costumes doing high kicks and a real horse show.”
“I bet my brother Chad would disagree,” Stevie joked.
When Carole got too single-minded, Stevie took it as a personal mission to try to loosen her up. It was a way she had of teasing Carole.
“I got a new issue of Teen Month,” Stevie said to Lisa. “They’ve got a whole article on Skye Ransom. He’s making a new movie and it’s called City Cowboy. He is so cute!”
“You can say that again,” Lisa said, sighing dreamily.
Stevie giggled. “He’s so cu—”
“Can we stick to the subject?” Carole asked.
“We are sticking to it,” Stevie said. “See, in this movie, Skye has to ride a horse. Wait’ll you see the picture of him in breeches and boots. He’s just—”
“I bet he’s a wonderful rider,” Lisa said. She thought Skye Ransom was just plain wonderful. “He does everything. Remember in his last movie when he had to do all that dancing? And the one before when he was playing the guitar?”
“I heard that somebody else actually played the music,” Stevie said.
“Well, he looked like he did it well and that’s what’s important in a movie,” Lisa said. She didn’t mind making allowances for someone as cute as Skye
Ransom. “You know what I heard? I heard that City Cowboy, Skye’s new movie, is being filmed in New York. Maybe Max will see him when he’s in New York!”
“I doubt it,” Stevie said, “but you never know.”
“Ahem,” Carole said. “And that brings us back to the subject—which was the American Horse Show in New York next week,” she said, reminding her friends why they were there. “When Skye Ransom can compete in the American, we can talk about him at a Saddle Club meeting.”
“Horse show?” Stevie said innocently. “You mean the American Horse Show, where Max and Mrs. Reg are going to watch Dorothy DeSoto compete? The one we wish we could go to?”
“That’s just it!” Carole said, obviously relieved that the conversation had finally gotten to where she wanted it. “We wish we could go, too.”
“Wouldn’t it be fantastic?” Stevie said. She was done teasing Carole, and her attention was now turned completely to the horse show. “The American isn’t like any other horse show. It’s the real thing. The big one. The best riders in the world will be there. Including Dorothy DeSoto.” She sighed. “Maybe if we begged our parents they would let us go,” she said.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not the begging type,” Lisa said, a bit primly. Lisa was, in fact, always sensible and logical and organized. As she scraped hot fudge from the side of her dish she thought about what it would mean to be able to go to the American Horse Show and to see the greatest riders in the world. She could feel the excitement of the competition. She began to imagine what she would learn from watching those riders. She realized it would be helpful to her. And exciting, too. “So maybe I should threaten to lie down on the train tracks in front of an oncoming train,” she suggested.
Stevie giggled. “I could just about see you do that—the same day I offer to wash dishes for a month to get my parents to let me go or, even worse, promise to keep my room clean!”
“I think I’d promise Dad I’d polish all his brass for the next inspection,” Carole said. Her father, a colonel in the Marine Corps, had to keep his brass shinier than all the troops. “Even the buttons on his dress uniform. And I’d promise to remember every single homework assignment all year long, too.”
“If they won’t go for the train-tracks bit, maybe my mother would let me go if I promised her I’d take up ballet, piano, violin, painting, and needlework lessons again,” Lisa said.
“You really used to take all that stuff?” Stevie asked with a groan.
Lisa nodded. “My mother has a lot of ideas about what makes a ‘proper young lady.’ Unfortunately, they don’t include most of the things that interest me.”
“You’re more proper than I am,” Stevie said.
“Almost anybody’s more proper than you are,” Lisa teased, knowing Stevie would agree with her. She did.
“I think Stevie should talk to Max,” Carole said, suddenly serious. She turned to Stevie. “I don’t know how you manage to talk him into things, but you do have a track record, so you’re appointed.” She turned to Lisa. “And everybody knows you’re totally sensible. You are an expert at convincing parents—”
“Everyone’s but mine,” Lisa cut in.
“I was about to get to that,” Carole said, continuing. Her dark brown eyes gleamed with excitement. “You talk to my father and to Stevie’s parents. You talk them into letting us go, then Stevie can talk your parents into letting you go.”
Lisa could see the logic of Carole’s plan. If she could convince Carole’s dad and Stevie’s parents, it would be a breeze to convince her own. Maybe.
Inspired with the idea of pulling off the Great Convincing Plan, as the girls called it, they plotted busily while they finished their ice-cream sundaes.
Stevie tried to rehearse her speech to Max. “Why Max!” she cooed. “Wouldn’t it be much easier for you and Mrs. Reg in New York if you had the three of us along to run errands for you?”
Carole rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Give me a break,” she said. “What kind of errands are we going to run for them?”
Stevie wrinkled her nose in thought. “We could buy them some subway tokens,” she suggested. “You need a lot of them in New York. Or, we could flag taxis for them. I bet Mrs. Reg will like taking taxis.”
“Maybe, but I don’t think that’s the way to convince Max. Why don’t you try something about how good it will be for our riding experience to see the champions.”
“Right!” Lisa chimed in enthusiastically. “And how great it will be to see Dorothy ride again. She’ll be on Topside, won’t she?”
Topside was Dorothy DeSoto’s championship horse and her favorite. “That pair has won more blue ribbons together than most people could even imagine. I bet she has a whole room full of ribbons in her house.”
“I bet she has a whole house full of ribbons,” Stevie said. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could actually go?”
The Saddle Club meeting continued. The girls switched back and forth between topics, but they always returned to the main subject: how much they wanted to go to New York. They didn’t notice when the waitress at TD’s gave them a look to hurry up. They didn’t notice when school friends of theirs came in. They didn’t even notice the time, until it was very late.
“Yipes!” Lisa exclaimed, finally looking at her wristwatch. “My mother was expecting me home hours ago. If I know her, she’s called out the state police by now!”
“No way,” Stevie said with a grin. “The first place they would check is here!”
“This is no joke,” Lisa said. “After all, I’m supposed to do some heavy convincing and it’s not going to be easy if I’m in the doghouse. I’d better give her a call.”
She stood up from the table and rushed to the pay phone. Then she hurriedly dropped the coins in and dialed her home number. She was only a few minutes away, but her mother was a born worrier. Lisa had recently realized that there was no way she could keep her mother from worrying. It was easier just to keep from giving her anything to worry about.
“Hi, Mom, it’s me,” she said.
“Oh, I’m so glad you called!” her mother said. “You really have to hurry home, Lisa. I mean, get here right away!”
There was such urgency in her mother’s voice that it concerned Lisa.
“What’s up, Mom?” she asked, feeling her stomach begin to churn.
“Well, it’s Max,” her mother said. “He called a while ago. Said he wanted you and your friends to go on a trip to New York with him. Something about a student of his and some little horse show? Anyway, you must get home right away. We have to look over all of your clothes. You don’t have a thing to wear in New York!”
At first, Lisa could not believe her ears. Then she almost could not keep from laughing. While she and her friends had been working out the most devious plot in the world to solve what seemed like an insurmountable problem, Max had solved it for them!
“I’ll be there right away,” Lisa assured her mother. “Sorry I was so late to call you.”
“Oh, that’s all right, dear,” her mother said cheerfully. When she had a project like outfitting Lisa for a trip to New York, Mrs. Atwood could be downright easygoing.
Walking on air, Lisa returned to her friends.
“I can’t believe it!” she announced, pulling out her chair.
“What’s the big deal?” Stevie asked. “Was your Mom mad?”
“It’s so amazing …”
“What?” Carole asked.
“You’ll never guess—”
“Tell us,” Stevie demanded.
Lisa clasped her hands in front of her, her eyes sparkling. She couldn’t hold it in any longer. “We’re going to New York!” she squealed.
“I THINK I forgot my hairbrush,” Carole said one week later as the three girls sat on a train bound for New York City. They were on the Metroliner, and the New Jersey countryside rushed past them.
“You didn’t forget it,” Lisa said, glancing at Stevie and rolling her eyes. “You just used i
t fifteen minutes ago. It’s in your purse.”
“Oh, right,” Carole said, checking the contents of her overstuffed bag. “Yeah, and here are my slippers, too.”
Stevie started giggling. Carole, who never forgot anything having to do with horses, could be very disorganized about everything else. Her packing showed it.
“Well, I think I forgot my boot hooks,” Lisa remarked.
“You can’t have forgotten anything,” Stevie said. “You brought four suitcases!” Stevie recalled how both of Lisa’s parents had helped her carry the bags from the car to the train station. She was pretty sure she’d have to help with Lisa’s bags when they got to Penn Station in New York. She just hoped they weren’t too heavy.
“Not me,” Lisa told her. “My mother packed them. I have no idea what she put in there, but I bet she didn’t remember the boot hooks.”
“You can use mine when we go riding—if we go riding,” Carole said.
“How can it be so hard to go riding in such a wonderful place as New York?” Stevie said. Max had told the girls that there was only one riding stable near them in the city. She couldn’t believe that was true, though. New York was so big!
“New York City, Pennsylvania Station in ten minutes!” the conductor announced.
“Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden, site of the American Horse Show,” Carole said, as if to correct the conductor.
“New York’s the site of a lot more than that,” Lisa reminded Carole. “There’s Greenwich Village, the Empire State Building, Broadway and Times Square, the Statue of Liberty—have I forgotten anything?” she asked.
“Yeah, how about Bloomingdales, Lord & Taylor, Bergdorf Goodman, Tiffany’s, and Saks Fifth Avenue?” Stevie joked.
“A little out of my price range,” Lisa said.
“Well then, how about all the great shops in Greenwich Village? I read about this barbershop there where we can get our hair dyed purple.”
“Just the exact color my mother’s face would be if I ever did that!” Lisa joked.
Max and Mrs. Reg came over then and told the girls to collect their belongings and not to forget anything on the train. Stevie smiled to herself. Those were exactly the same things her parents would have said to her if they’d been there. Her mother had been a little concerned about her being homesick. How could she be homesick when it seemed as if her parents were still with her?
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