Carole was thrilled with the idea of competing at Briarwood. It was a very famous horse show. She didn’t think her friends knew what an honor it was to be able to be there. She could hardly wait.
Stevie was itching to find out who the fourth young rider from Pine Hollow would be. There were a lot of pretty good riders, and there were some who weren’t so good but who might do well in a beginner class. There was only one person she didn’t want there: Veronica diAngelo. Veronica was a snobbish girl who owned a purebred Arabian and who cared more about her horse’s pedigree than about her own riding skills. In spite of that, Stevie had to admit that Veronica was a pretty good rider.
Lisa was still so excited about her ride on Prancer that it was almost all she could think about. She’d been assigned another horse, Barq, to ride for class, though she would have preferred Prancer. She kept trying to pretend that Barq was Prancer. Barq was a perfectly nice horse, but Barq was no Prancer. Still, if she closed her eyes…
“Lisa? Are you asleep?” Stevie asked just before they entered the arena for class.
“No, just dreaming,” she told her friend, and it was true. She was dreaming about the magic moment when she and Prancer would enter the ring at the Briarwood Horse Show.
STEVIE GROANED INWARDLY. It would have been impolite to do it out loud, but it was very tempting. She was standing in Max’s office, between her two best friends. Next to Lisa stood the fourth member of the Pine Hollow team going to Briarwood—Veronica diAngelo. Max didn’t seem to notice Stevie’s unhappiness. At least he wasn’t paying any attention to it. He was very busy explaining what would happen at the horse show.
“All right now, here’s how it works,” he began. “You are all Intermediate riders in the Junior Division. There are five different classes for you each, and each class stresses different skills and talents. Don’t assume that because you’re good riders you will do well in all of the classes. That’s not always the case.”
Carole thought he was talking to her. She did think of herself as a good rider and hoped she would do well in all the classes, but she wasn’t sure she expected it of herself.
Lisa’s mind leapt in another direction. She felt that Max was telling her that although she was the newest rider of the group, it didn’t mean she couldn’t succeed at the show. She smiled to herself, glad that Max was giving her such assurances.
Stevie, on the other hand, thought it was interesting that Max had found such a subtle way to tell Veronica she wasn’t going to sweep the ribbons. After all, nothing spurred Stevie to excellence like competition. This show was going to be a wonderful opportunity for Stevie and her friends to humiliate Veronica!
Veronica just stood and smiled smugly while Max spoke.
“The first class of the day for you will be Fitting and Showing. You’ll lead your horses into the ring without any saddles on them. The judges will be looking for grooming, conformation, and manners. The second class is Equitation. In that, you will be showing your riding skills. You’ll follow instructions about gaits, directions, turns, and gait changes. These will be many of the same things we cover every week in class. If you have been listening to me, rather than daydreaming or talking among yourselves, you will do well in this class.”
Lisa squirmed uncomfortably. She’d daydreamed a lot in the last class. Max had had to tell her twice to trot, and he’d spoken to her several times about keeping her heels down. Although he often told her she was making a lot of progress as a rider, he still managed to point out four or five of her riding faults at a time! She was going to have to work hard to be worthy of this horse show. She promised herself she’d stop daydreaming altogether. As of now.
“The next class is a Pleasure class. That’s just what it sounds like. There are no tricky maneuvers expected, just good, solid riding and a good relationship between horse and rider. This is the class where that’s the most important. If you work well with your horse and if you both enjoy it, you’ll do well in this one.”
In spite of her vow only a few seconds earlier, Lisa’s mind wandered at the mention of the word “pleasure.” Prancer was a pleasure. Prancer was wonderful, and riding Prancer was a joy.…
“… over poles and around cones, as if they were actual obstacles …”
“What?” Lisa asked, startled back to reality.
“Trail class,” Max said patiently. “It takes place in a ring, but the route that you ride will be set up like a pretend trail. There may be a few low fences—perhaps six inches high—just so the judges can see how you prepare your horses for obstacles like that.”
“Oh,” Lisa said. She wondered if she’d missed anything and made a note to ask Stevie and Carole about it later.
“And then, finally, there is the Jumping class. It’s hunter jumping, and the jumps won’t be over three and a half feet. What the judges are looking for here is style. They want to see you riding at an even gait, going over the jumps smoothly, with takeoff an appropriate distance from the jump—again, everything you’ve learned in class with me over the past few years. I’ll schedule some special prep classes for the four of you before we go so you can each put your best foot forward at Briarwood. I want you to remember a few things, though, and one above all. This may be a chance for you to show off skills and win a ribbon or two, but most of all, it is a chance for you each to learn. You will learn from your own mistakes, and you will learn from other people’s talents and skills. Keep your eyes and your minds and your hearts open at all times.”
He looked at each of them solemnly as he spoke. With that look, the girls found themselves readjusting their initial reactions to going to the show. Carole wasn’t so sure then that she would do well in every event. Stevie wasn’t positive she’d do better than Veronica. Lisa decided that she had to find a way to surpass everybody’s expectations.
“Now then, you will each need a permission slip signed by your parents. Here you go,” he said, handing them out. “I’ll need them back by next week, at the latest. And I need you each to tell me officially which horse you intend to ride in the show since you are entered as a pair. Carole?”
“Starlight, of course. It’ll be a challenge for him, and I know he could use some more training, but I think the experience will be good for him, as well as me.”
“I agree,” Max said. He jotted down the name.
“Veronica?”
“Garnet,” she answered. “She’s so beautiful, she’s sure to catch the judges’ attention.”
“Yes,” Max said. Stevie had the sneaking suspicion he wanted to groan then.
“Stevie?”
“Topside. He knows more about horse shows than I do.”
“I agree,” Max said. “And Lisa?”
It seemed like the chance of a lifetime to Lisa. Without hesitation she spoke her answer. “Prancer,” she said.
Max looked at her. For a second Lisa thought he was going to object. Carole began to speak, but Max held up his hand to silence her. “Interesting,” he said. Then he nodded. “Well, then, Prancer it is. All right, I’ll see you all next time. Bring those permission forms.”
They’d been dismissed.
“ARE YOU CRAZY?” Stevie asked. She didn’t have the patience for diplomacy. The three girls were on their way to their favorite hangout, an ice-cream shop called TD’s, for a much-needed talk about the upcoming horse show. Stevie, however, couldn’t hold her thoughts in for one minute longer. “You can’t ride Prancer in the horse show!”
“Sure I can,” Lisa said. “Max said it was all right.”
“Well maybe he’s crazy, too,” Stevie said.
“Why? What’s wrong with riding Prancer?” Lisa challenged her friend.
“Everything!” Stevie said. “Prancer is a very valuable horse—”
“You think I’m not good enough to ride a Thoroughbred like you are?” Lisa asked. She was getting really angry at Stevie, and it wasn’t like her to do that.
“That’s not what I meant,” Stevie said.
; “It’s what you said!”
“No, you didn’t let me finish saying what I was going to say,” Stevie persisted, trying to get her point across. “Prancer is valuable and beautiful, but all of her training has been for speed and none of it for horse-show skills. She’s just not ready.”
“Oh, come on,” Lisa said. “How many times have you two told me that a horse is only as good as the rider in the saddle? Prancer can do anything!”
“Sure she can,” Stevie began. “With the proper training …”
Lisa scowled at Stevie. Then Carole came to her rescue.
“Prancer certainly is a wonderful horse,” Carole began carefully.
“See? I told you, Stevie!” Lisa said. “All you have to do is try riding her. I’m telling you, it was like love at first sight between us.”
“I know the feeling,” Carole said. “Remember, I’ve ridden Prancer.”
The girls continued toward the ice-cream shop in silence. It was unusual for there to be a disagreement among them, but that was clearly the case now. Stevie and Carole were worried about Lisa’s decision while Lisa was convinced she was right. In spite of her conviction, Lisa didn’t like being at odds with her friends. She decided to change the subject. They entered TD’s and took their favorite booth at the back of the shop.
“None of this may matter anyway,” Lisa said, sliding across the smooth red plastic of the seat. “The hardest part of the horse show may be getting my mother to sign the permission form.”
Stevie’s eyes lit up. This sort of thing was right up her alley and had the sound of a real Saddle Club project. Her mind raced.
“Got it,” she said, reaching for the menu. “Have your father sign the form.”
“I’ve been trying that tactic for years,” Lisa said. “My parents figured it out the first time I tried to get an allowance from each of them. I can’t split their ranks. Try again.”
Stevie was only too willing to try. “Okay, then, there’s the burnt-out light bulb ploy. You can only use it once, though.”
This was definitely classic Stevie Lake. Lisa could feel the tension drain from among the three of them, and she was very relieved about it. These were her two best friends in the whole world. She didn’t like being angry at them or having the feeling that she couldn’t trust them.
“Okay, the light bulb thing works this way: All of the light bulbs in the room burn out at once—really what you do is flip the circuit breaker, and later you tell them you were ironing and making toast at the same time and you’re awfully sorry—and just at that moment, you ask your mom for her autograph. Then you give her the permission form. She’s so flattered you want her autograph that she doesn’t even look at the paper.…”
“Has this actually ever worked for you?” Carole asked in disbelief.
“Not for me, but it’s definitely worth a try. Besides, my parents are always suspicious of me. The minute I’d say I was ironing, they’d know something was up.”
“What’ll you have?” the waitress asked the three girls. She dutifully wrote down the two hot-fudge sundaes that Carole and Lisa wanted and then grimaced as she steeled herself to take Stevie’s order.
“Oh, uh, coffee ice cream,” Stevie began. “Then I want some maple-walnut syrup and blackberry preserve, plus peanut-butter crunchies and, naturally, whipped cream. Oh, don’t forget the maraschino cherry this time, will you? I think you forgot it last time.”
“And you noticed?” the waitress asked. Carole and Lisa stifled smiles. Since Stevie’s sundaes always combined so many strange ingredients, it was amazing that she had noticed one was missing—even if it was the maraschino cherry.
As soon as the waitress was gone, Stevie leaned forward conspiratorially. “I think they do that sometimes just to check on me,” she said to her friends. “As a matter of fact, I think they have bets about it!”
Lisa and Carole were quite sure Stevie was right, because they would have done exactly the same thing if they’d had to make up the sundaes that Stevie invented!
“Okay, now, back to business—you could just try forging your mother’s signature,” Stevie suggested.
“I could,” Lisa said, “but she’d find out. No, the trick here is going to be to get her to sign it and want to sign it.”
“Harder, much harder,” Stevie said. That didn’t mean she was defeated. Just that the challenge was going to be more fun.
“You could ask Max for help,” Carole suggested.
Stevie gave her a withering look. Asking adults for help when a mischievous and sneaky method was available was out of the question. She scratched her head.
“Three hot-fudge sundaes,” the waitress announced.
“That’s not what I—”
“I know. I’ve brought you what you ordered,” the woman assured Stevie. “I just can’t bring myself to say what’s in it. Here, eat it.”
The concoction appeared. Stevie looked at it and smiled. “Oh, good, you gave me two maraschino cherries this time!”
“Trying to make up for last time,” the waitress said. Then she hurried away before she had to watch Stevie eat any of it.
For the next few minutes, the girls were quite occupied with their sundaes. They couldn’t even talk about horses, but their minds weren’t far from the subject. As they ate, each thought about Briarwood and how wonderful the show would be.
“I’m just going to have to get my mother to sign it!” Lisa blurted out. “I mean, they have to let me and Prancer ride in the show!”
“Oh, they will,” Carole said. She couldn’t imagine how a parent could refuse to give permission for something that exciting. Certainly her father would be as excited as she was.
Lisa took a final spoonful of her sundae and then took a big gulp of cold water. “I’d better get going,” she said, fishing enough money out of her wallet to cover the sundae and a tip for the poor waitress. “I’ve got some work to do—on my parents.”
With that she stood up and waved good-bye to her friends. “See you Monday—and I’ll talk to you before then. For sure.”
“For sure,” Stevie agreed.
“Bye,” Carole said.
“I still think she’s crazy,” Stevie said to Carole when she was sure Lisa was out of earshot. “Prancer is no more ready to ride in that horse show than my pet turtle is.”
“You don’t have a pet turtle,” Carole said.
“That’s what I mean,” said Stevie.
“But Max agreed—”
“I wonder why,” Stevie mused. “He usually has his reasons.”
“He usually does,” Carole agreed. “So let’s you and me worry about other things. There’s something I want to ask you about. What do you think about working on jump training with a lunge line?”
Stevie thought for a moment. A lunge line was a long leash attached to a bridle on a horse and could be used for training. It gave the trainer a different perspective on the horse’s movement than being in the saddle did. “Sounds good to me,” she said.
“I don’t know,” Carole said thoughtfully. The reason she was asking Stevie about it was that Cam had suggested it and Carole was still annoyed that Cam had been right about the need to x-ray Prancer. On a computer note Carole had told Cam that jumping was best done in the saddle, but now she wanted Stevie’s opinion. “Don’t you think it’s better to practice jumping in the saddle?” she asked Stevie.
“Most of the time, sure,” Stevie agreed. “But using a lunge sometimes would be helpful. You’ve lunged Starlight to keep his gaits even. Why not do it for jumping?”
“Maybe,” Carole said, but she didn’t like saying it. Although she’d asked Stevie’s opinion, what she had really wanted was for Stevie to agree with her. She wasn’t too pleased with the fact that Stevie seemed to be siding with Cam—even though Stevie didn’t have the faintest idea in the world that Cam even existed!
Stevie looked at her oddly. She wondered what was going on. But Carole’s face told her she wasn’t going to get any more infor
mation, so she changed the subject.
“What do you think Veronica will do to try to mess up the horse show for the rest of us?”
Now there was a topic they could both enjoy discussing at length!
“REALLY,” STEVIE SAID into the telephone. “We’re going to be at Briarwood! Isn’t it great?” She was curled up on her bed, talking to her boyfriend, Phil Marston. Since he was a rider, too—in fact, he even owned his own horse—she loved talking with him about riding as much as she loved talking about it with Lisa and Carole.
“All three of you?” Phil Marston asked. “Competing against one another?”
“What?” Stevie said, startled by his comment. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. I was thinking of it as us competing against everyone else.…”
“That’s not how it works,” Phil said. “I’ve been in horse shows. Believe me, when you’re out in the ring in a class, or performing individually, you’re alone. You and your horse are the only two creatures on the earth that matter—except for the judges, of course. I know you, Stevie. You’ll want to win.”
Will I? Stevie asked herself. Would she want to win so badly that she’d want to beat her two best friends? She didn’t want to think about that.
“You’re all good riders, of course,” Phil continued. “But I have my favorite of the three of you.”
“You do?” Stevie asked coyly. “And just who is your favorite?”
“Well, I’ll give you a hint.…,” he began. Stevie fluffed up her pillow and leaned back on it to relax. She was having a really good time. But she also couldn’t help wondering how much she would tell Carole and Lisa about her talk with Phil when she saw them on Monday.
“IT’S A REALLY important horse show,” Lisa said to her parents. “It’s a regional AHSA show, and it’s rated A-minus.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that even just competing in it is important, Mom,” Lisa explained carefully. “And winning in it would be even more important.”
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