“We’ll go around the top end of the reservoir first,” Marta said. “We can walk and trot most places, but we have to be careful where we canter. Some of the bridle path is sort of rocky and that’s rough on the horses’ hooves. Therefore, no cantering without my okay. Deal?”
“Of course,” Carole assured her. “We wouldn’t want to hurt the horses.”
“I wish all the riders felt that way,” Marta said. “A lot of them think all there is to riding is kicking the belly and yanking at the reins. The horses get pretty tired of that, I can tell you. Now, let’s ride.”
With that, they began the ride. Stevie shifted her weight to signal her horse to begin and they were off.
LISA WAS SO content riding in the park that she forgot her disappointment at not seeing Skye Ransom in Washington Square Park that morning. It seemed to her that the trip was perfect enough, in spite of that letdown.
She liked the horse she was riding. She had been riding long enough to know that every horse was different from others, in physical ability as well as personality. This one—his name was Mickey—had seemed a little tense when she’d first gotten on him. Now, she could feel that he was more relaxed and responsive. Considering the variety of riders he’d probably had, she wasn’t really surprised. She’d learned that horses tended to test riders they did not know. Once the rider had shown the horse who was boss, the horse could relax and follow orders. Mickey now did what she told him to with her legs and her hands. She could just relax and enjoy the ride.
Central Park was really very pretty. The bridle path wound through wooded and grassy areas, passing by playing fields and ponds. There were lots of people in the park, too. Joggers trotted around the lake, and dog-walkers were everywhere. There were a few other riders on the path as well.
Lisa observed them critically. One woman passed them coming the other way. She was in total control of her horse. Obviously, she was an expert. At the other end of the spectrum, there were two riders behind them on the path who seemed almost out of control. One was a man. The other was a boy, probably a couple of years older than she was, Lisa thought. She’d only gotten a glimpse of him, but the boy was sitting on the horse all wrong. Lisa hoped he got some control, or he was going to be in trouble.
“We can canter for about a hundred yards up ahead,” Marta said. Mickey’s ears perked up. It was as if he understood the word. Lisa could feel his muscles flex in preparation. They began trotting and then, as soon as the path was smooth, Mickey broke into a canter.
Stevie and Carole began cantering, as did Marta, but Lisa wasn’t happy with the fact that Mickey had made his own decision about gait. She knew it was not a good idea to let the horse do the thinking. He had to remember who was the boss. She reined him in. A little reluctantly, it seemed, Mickey stopped. He watched longingly as his friends cantered on ahead with Lisa’s friends.
“I’m in charge here,” Lisa said to him. She knew he could not understand the words, but he would understand her tone of voice. “Now, we’re going to walk first, then trot, then canter, when I say so, understand?”
Mickey stood obediently until she shifted her weight in the saddle, signaling him to start walking. Carole, Stevie, and Marta were well ahead of her, but they would understand. And, after all, Lisa told herself, the path was really just a circle, wasn’t it? She’d catch up with them. For now, taking the time to reprimand Mickey was more important than cantering freely.
She put a little pressure on Mickey’s sides with her legs and he promptly began to trot. “Good boy,” she said, rewarding his behavior. She sat the trot, rather than posting, since she was about to canter.
It was then that Lisa heard the fast hoofbeats of a canter behind her. Mickey heard it, too. His ears lay flat back on his head and he tensed immediately. Lisa shortened up on the reins. Horses were naturally competitive and did not like to have other horses pass them. It would not take much to get Mickey to canter, too, but Lisa did not want to have him make any independent decisions right then. She had to stay in charge.
The other horse was very close now, and then Lisa could hear that his rider was shouting something. The words were indistinct, but the message was clear: “Help!”
Without looking, Lisa knew what had happened. The young rider behind her had totally lost control and his horse was running away with him. He was right: He needed help.
The other horse and rider flew by. Lisa touched Mickey behind the girth and he spurted into a canter. The other rider was ahead, but Mickey had a lot of pent-up energy and Lisa was pretty sure they’d catch up.
“Hold on!” she yelled to the other rider. “Keep your balance and try to grip with your legs!”
She knew her instructions were right, but they weren’t doing much good. The boy was bouncing all over the horse’s back. “Shorten up on the reins!” she yelled, but then she saw he could not do that. He’d dropped the reins altogether. “Grab the mane!”
He did that.
The boy’s horse veered off the main path onto a footpath that meandered through several baseball diamonds. Lisa followed. She was vaguely aware that the boy’s companion was behind her, and she hoped he’d help, too.
Then, the boy’s horse came to an uphill section. Instinctively, the horse approached it sideways for his own safety. It was the one chance Lisa would have to beat the frantic runaway. She gave Mickey the command and he followed it, going straight up the hill at full tilt. It worked. She and Mickey beat the runaway to the summit!
The runaway took one look at Mickey and Lisa and came to a sudden halt, unceremoniously dumping his rider onto the grassy knoll. The boy’s hat came loose and fell down over his face. He grunted.
Before dismounting, Lisa reached over and grabbed the runaway’s reins. She did not want him to take off again. Then, as quickly as possible, she dismounted. Still holding the reins, she knelt down by the boy’s side. He was breathing okay and that was a relief. She removed the hat to be sure he was all right, and found herself looking straight into the very familiar face of Skye Ransom.
“OH, MY!” LISA said, and then wished immediately that she hadn’t. She thought it made her sound very dumb, which she wasn’t, instead of dumbstruck, which she was. She removed her riding hat, collected her thoughts, and spoke. “You’re Skye Ransom, aren’t you?”
“Guilty as charged,” he said, sitting up slowly. He winced and rubbed his shoulder. “Hey, I like the haircut,” he said, his admiring glance taking in Lisa’s new hairdo. “But who are you?”
For a second, she was so flustered by his compliment that she almost couldn’t remember her own name. She ran her fingers through her hair, stalling. “I’m … ah, uh.” That sounded even dumber to her than her earlier “Oh, my!” She swallowed and then the words came out in a flood. “I’m Lisa Atwood. And I thought you could ride. I read this article about the movie you’re making and I know it said you would be riding a horse, but it didn’t look to me as if you knew what you were doing, do you?”
“Obviously not, huh?” he said, and then tried to stand. She offered him a hand. He accepted it, pulled himself up, and began dusting off the dirt that had smeared onto his pants and jacket. “Riding looks so easy when other people do it,” he continued. “I thought it would be a breeze, so I told the studio I could ride. But it isn’t true. I can’t ride at all. I was watching you and your friends ride in front of us. You girls made it look easy. You even made it look fun.”
“But it is. Both of them, I mean. It’s also a lot of work.” Lisa studied the hand that he had held. It looked the same, but it felt different. It was her right hand. Skye Ransom had actually held her right hand! She felt a nice shiver and then she came to her senses.
Lisa handed Skye his horse’s reins. He looked at them as if he’d never seen them before, and never wanted to see them again. Then he looked pleadingly at Lisa. She realized that Skye Ransom was asking her for help. She smiled at him to reassure him and then began helping.
“You just got off on the wr
ong foot,” Lisa said. “You started riding without knowing what you were doing. Now you’re going to start again, only this time you’ll know what you’re doing because I’m going to teach you.”
“I don’t think I should ride any more,” Skye said, offering her the reins back.
“And I think you should ride a lot more,” Lisa said. “You’ve heard the one about getting back on the horse, haven’t you? Well, it’s absolutely true. Now here’s how you mount.” She told Skye how to hold the reins, mane, and saddle when he mounted his horse. He was reluctant at first, but listened to Lisa’s advice. With her step-by-step instructions, Skye was in the saddle by the time his riding companion joined them. Skye introduced him to Lisa as his manager, Frank Nelson.
“I thought you fell!” Mr. Nelson said.
“I did,” Skye told him. “But Lisa here got me back on.”
Mr. Nelson looked at her dubiously. “She knows what she’s doing,” Skye said. “She’s really good.”
“But will she tell?” Mr. Nelson asked.
“No way!” Skye said. “Will you, Lisa?”
“You mean, do I want to see your face and mine on a newspaper at the supermarket check-out counter with a headline like, Little Lisa Reveals Big Skye’s Secret: He Can’t Ride!” Mr. Nelson’s face paled visibly, and Lisa realized that was exactly what he had meant, and to him it was no joke. “No,” she assured both of them. “Your secret is safe with me.” She heard more hoofbeats coming up behind them. “And my friends,” she concluded.
“Lisa! Are you okay?” Carole asked.
Lisa wanted to tell them that she’d probably never been better in her whole life, but she decided that would be silly—and unnecessary. Both girls and Marta recognized Skye at the same instant and their jaws dropped.
There was a silence and Lisa decided to fill it with the rest of Skye’s first riding lesson. She helped him adjust the reins so he was holding them properly and then she showed him how to signal the horse to begin walking.
“Sit up straight,” she said. “Legs should be relaxed but close. Heels down, wrists should be flexible, hold your hands lower. Now, look where you want the horse to go. It helps with steering and balance. Don’t jiggle your legs. The horse thinks you mean something.”
Skye listened carefully and Lisa could tell that he was trying to follow every piece of instruction she was giving him. Mr. Nelson was trying to do the same.
Soon, with Lisa’s good instructions, they were moving easily with their horses at a walk, and the six riders returned to the bridle path together.
“Good work,” Lisa said.
“This isn’t work, this is easy,” Skye told her.
“Well, when you’re doing it right, it is easy. It’s just that sometimes it’s hard to do it right.”
“You know, from some people, what you just said wouldn’t make any sense at all, but when you say it, I know exactly what you mean. You’re a natural teacher.”
Lisa pinched herself. Not only was she actually talking to the Skye Ransom, but he liked her hair and he liked the way she taught. She decided that she had been right that this trip to New York was perfect and nothing would go wrong. There was a magic spell over the whole adventure. It would not last, of course, but for now, there was magic. It was the only explanation.
Mr. Nelson said he had an appointment and had to get back to the stable. “Ah, come on, Frank,” Skye protested. “I’m just getting the hang of it.”
Marta glanced at Mr. Nelson. “I have to head back too, for a lesson. But I’m sure these girls could safely deliver Skye back to the stables.”
“No problem,” Stevie assured her. “This is a job The Saddle Club can handle, with pleasure.”
“What’s The Saddle Club?” Skye asked as Marta and Mr. Nelson headed back to the stable. They told him.
“So far, I’m not eligible for membership,” he said. “It turns out that I’m not horse crazy, I’m just plain crazy. I’m scared to death of this animal, but I’ve got to learn to be a good rider, by the end of the week!”
“No way,” Carole said. “Riding is something you learn over months and years, not days.”
“There’s going to have to be an exception in my case,” Skye said. “See, we’re filming the horse sequences in just a few days. I don’t actually have to be a championship rider, I just have to look like one and I think it’s going to be the challenge of my acting career!”
“You’re doing okay walking,” Carole told him.
“Great, but in the movie, I have to go really fast—like this horse was doing before, only I have to stay on it! Do you suppose the cameramen could film me walking and then speed it up so it looks like he’s running?”
“The gait is called cantering,” Lisa told him. “And unfortunately, a canter isn’t a fast walk, any more than a person jogging is fast walking. It looks entirely different. I suppose you could take a slow canter and make it look like a fast canter, but that’s about it.”
“Okay, so how do I learn years’ worth in a week?”
“You need a really good teacher,” Lisa said.
“And total secrecy,” he added. “See, part of my contract is my guarantee that I can ride. On second thought, what I really need is a miracle. Does The Saddle Club do miracles?”
“You know,” Lisa said, looking at her friends. “Max is the best teacher in the world, maybe—”
“Oh, Max would never have the time!” Stevie said quickly.
“But he loves instructing,” Lisa said, giving her a look. “And if we asked him, you know, specially—”
“No way.” Carole cut her off. “And besides, Max is the wrong teacher for Skye. His temperament is all wrong for this kind of pressure.”
Lisa thought she saw Carole wink at Stevie and she wondered why.
“What’s wrong with Max’s temperament? He’s strict, sure, but—”
“And Max would never agree to take on an inexperienced student like Skye,” Stevie said firmly.
“But he has a lot of inex—”
“Max is going to be way too busy coaching Dorothy this week,” Carole said. “Remember?”
At first, Lisa could not figure out what her friends were talking about. Max was a great teacher. He liked working with beginners, and he wasn’t coaching Dorothy at all. Were her friends trying to ruin Skye’s chances? Then it hit her.
“They’re right,” she said to Skye. “Max is good all right, but it won’t work this week. He’s just too busy. We, on the other hand, have lots of time. In fact, The Saddle Club just took a vote, and every minute that we’re not actually at the American Horse Show and that you’re not on a set can be devoted to instructing you in the fine art of looking like a really good rider.”
“You mean you’d teach me on your own?”
“Sure,” Stevie said. “It won’t get you a blue ribbon at a horse show, but by the end of a couple of lessons, you won’t be an embarrassment.”
“And we won’t tell, either,” Lisa added with a smile.
“Anyone?” he asked.
That was going to be tough. If they were actually going to spend a lot of time with Skye Ransom, how could they not tell the whole world? They looked at one another. Stevie shrugged and spoke for all of them.
“We’re not really giving up anything, you guys,” she said. “Who would believe us, anyway?” she asked.
Carole, Lisa, and Skye laughed. The deal was made.
They agreed to meet at the stable the following morning at eight-thirty.
The Saddle Club couldn’t wait!
“I DON’T THINK I slept one minute last night,” Lisa confessed to her friends on their way to the stable the next morning.
“Me, neither,” Stevie said. “All I could think about was Skye Ransom. Those eyes, his cute nose—I mean, even his ears …” Stevie sighed.
“But mostly how nice he is,” Lisa continued. “He’s so friendly, and so, I don’t know, just normal. Can you believe this whole thing?”
“
I believe it,” Carole said. “All I could think about is how much he has to learn about riding in how little time! This is no joke, you know.”
Lisa knew that Carole was right, but nothing could ruin her own giddy mood.
“I think our goal should be to build Skye’s confidence in himself,” Carole began.
“You sound like the way my mother talked after she read some dumb self-help book,” Stevie said. “And besides, Skye Ransom is about the most famous movie star there is. How can he need self-confidence?”
“It’s not self-confidence he needs,” Carole explained. “It’s confidence in his ability to manage a horse and ride. You know—you-can-if-you-think-you-can.”
“Now that sounds like the way I took piano lessons,” Lisa said. “I hardly ever practiced, so I just assumed I could do the work at my lessons.”
“And?” Stevie asked expectantly.
“It didn’t work,” Lisa explained. “So I gave up the piano altogether and began working very hard at learning to ride. I’m much better at riding than I ever was at piano and I know it’s because I do work hard and I do practice.”
The girls got to the stable before Skye. They arranged for their horses and his so that by the time he arrived, they were in the ring, ready to mount.
Skye stepped out of the office and walked toward them. He was wearing breeches and high boots. He carried a black velvet-covered riding hat in one hand and a riding crop in the other. He tapped the riding crop up against his leg impatiently as he walked. Lisa almost held her breath watching him. The effect of the dress riding clothes, hat, and crop made Skye look as if he’d been riding all of his life. Lisa could hardly believe he was the same boy who had fallen so badly the day before. He looked like he had more confidence than the entire U.S. Equestrian Team put together—until he got near his horse.
“Is that one mine?” he asked. “He looks so big.”
“He is a she,” Carole explained politely. “She’s a mare named Cinnamon and she’s about fifteen hands—which isn’t considered big for a horse.”
Horse Show Page 4