Lisa looked at her mother and shook her head in sorrow. She could tell that her mother didn’t understand. Her mother could offer her comfort and support, but her mother just didn’t understand about horses and horse shows. Lisa thought it wasn’t all that surprising that her mother didn’t understand, though, since she herself had only recently—like in the last two minutes—come to see what this was really about.
Mrs. Atwood offered her arms for comfort once again.
“Thanks for listening, Mom,” Lisa said, accepting the hug and knowing that it was the only thing her mother could do for her.
“I’m just sorry for you, dear. Now let me take you home. Your dad will be home in a little while. You can take a nice hot bath, and then maybe we’ll go to a movie.…”
Home? There was something inviting about a steaming bubbly bath and the comfort of the love and support of her parents, but Lisa knew that wasn’t what she needed. She had work to do right here.
“I can’t do it, Mom,” she said. “I have to stay here.”
“Why? There’s nothing here for you, is there?”
“Maybe not me,” Lisa said. “But there is something for my friends, and I want to be here for them. Stevie and Carole are both doing well in the show. I’m going to stick around and cheer them on.”
That was right. It sounded right and it felt right. It was the first right idea Lisa had had since the moment she had chosen Prancer for the horse show.
“But how will you get home?”
“Max will bring me,” she said. “Or maybe Stevie’s parents. Don’t worry. I’ll find a way.”
Lisa was a little startled then to find that Max was standing behind her. “No problem, Mrs. Atwood. I’ll bring her home,” he said. “Lisa’s right to stay. She’s got some work to do.”
“I do?”
“Yes, you do,” he said.
“Well, I have these tickets,” Mrs. Atwood said. “Maybe I’ll just stay around here and watch some of the horse show. It seems that there are a lot of things about horse shows I don’t understand. I might learn something watching.”
“Yes, you might,” Max agreed. “There’s a lot of learning going on here today.” Then he told Mrs. Atwood where he’d seen some empty seats, and she left to find them.
Lisa spoke before he had a chance to say anything. “I really blew it, didn’t I?”
He smiled at the way she’d put it. “Yes, I think you did. But I knew your mind was made up. It reminded me of a time I was just determined to ride a new horse that Dad brought into the stable. His name was Lightning, I think. He was a beauty, too, and I just had to take him out on a trail ride.…”
Lightning? That was the name of the horse in the story Mrs. Reg had told Lisa. That meant that the story was about Max!
“You were in the hospital?” Lisa asked.
Max stopped talking and looked at her in surprise. Then he understood. “Do I gather that my mother has beat me to the punch on this story?”
Lisa nodded. “I guess you and I have something in common.”
“Sure,” Max agreed. “It means we’ve both done things we should have known better than to do. And it appears that we’ve both learned from the experience.”
He put his arm across her shoulder and gave her a hug. It wasn’t a warm maternal hug, the way her mother had hugged her, but it was a very important one. Max’s hug told her that she, Lisa, was going to be able to make everything all right for herself.
“Thanks,” she said to Max. “I needed that. Now I think my friends need me. I’m going to go help them get ready for the Trail class.”
“No, there’s something else you need to do,” Max said, stopping her midtrack.
“What?”
“Well, according to the Briarwood rules, your disqualification applied to Prancer, not necessarily to you. I would like to see you compete in the last two Intermediate classes here today.”
“Me, too,” Lisa agreed. “But I think the Briarwood rules require that I be on the back of some sort of four-footed animal.…”
“Like Barq?” Max said.
“Barq?”
“Sure. We brought him because one of the adults is going to ride him later in the Senior Jumping class. Until then, he’s available for any rider who might consider petitioning the judges to permit her to ride a new horse. It’s the sort of thing that would be permitted if a horse became lame. That’s just another kind of disqualification.”
“How do I petition? I mean, do I have to sign something?”
Max’s eyes flicked around until they found what he was looking for. He pointed to a place where the three Intermediate judges were standing and chatting during the break. “I think all you have to do is to go ask nicely. See if you can do it without kicking anybody, okay?” he teased. Then he gave her a gentle, encouraging shove.
A half hour later, Lisa was back in the saddle, this time mounted on Barq, and all ready to compete in the Trail class.
Veronica had given her a nasty look, and that made Lisa feel good. Even better, though, Stevie and Carole had given her high fives when she’d shared her exciting news. Even the judge who’d been kicked by Prancer seemed pleased. She’d wished Lisa good luck. Max clapped loudly when she entered the ring. Her mother waved with excitement. Mrs. Reg smiled. But best of all was the way Lisa felt about herself. No matter what happened for the rest of the day, Lisa understood that she was a winner.
BARQ WAS A wonderful horse. Lisa had ridden the bay gelding before and had just forgotten how nice it was to give a horse an instruction and have him follow it. There was an exciting feeling of freedom, and Barq sensed her joy. The two of them worked in near-perfect union for the entire class.
In the Trail class, the ring had been set up with a path each rider had to follow in turn, with small obstacles along the way. There were no jumps, as there would be in the actual Jumping class, but poles and cones had been set out to simulate a crooked trail with various natural objects that a horse and rider would have to maneuver around.
Barq seemed to think it was a lot of fun to follow the circuitous trail and step gingerly over the poles and the pan of water that had been laid out as a “creek.” Barq especially liked the creek. Lisa wondered if it actually reminded him of Willow Creek, which wandered through the woods behind Pine Hollow. She would never know, but what she did know was that her horse accepted the challenge and met every turn and obstacle like the fine trail horse he was.
When she’d finished riding the “course,” Lisa found she didn’t care a bit whether or not she won a ribbon or even placed. She’d competed. She’d had fun. That was all that mattered.
She watched as the other riders followed the trail. Some were better than others. Veronica and Garnet had some trouble because Veronica wasn’t paying enough attention. When Garnet stopped to take a drink out of the “creek,” Lisa knew she was out of the running for a ribbon. That didn’t bother Lisa at all.
Carole and Starlight had fun, just the way Lisa had. Starlight seemed to like events that didn’t require perfect attention the way Equitation did. He moved easily and gracefully among the obstacles, and Carole was pleased with his performance.
Lisa was very glad to see that Stevie and Topside were back in top form, too. This wasn’t going to be Topside’s best event because, in a way, Topside was the complete opposite of Starlight. Topside was at his best when total structure was called for. That was what his training was. He was good at trail riding and he enjoyed it, but his heart was in dressage, and that was where he excelled. Still, he was doing pretty well, and Stevie, at least, looked as if she were enjoying herself. Actually, when Lisa caught her attention briefly, Stevie winked at her. That was a sure sign that Stevie was having fun. Lisa was glad she’d talked Stevie into continuing in the show. She was also glad that Stevie had told her to take her own advice, because that was just what she was doing.
When the ribbons were handed out, Lisa could hardly believe that she got a red one—second place! It seemed ri
ght, too, that Carole’s friend, Cam, got the blue. He and Duffy had done a wonderful job on the trail and deserved the blue. Carole came in third. She seemed pleased by that, and Stevie took a fifth. Veronica didn’t place at all. That seemed right, too.
Then it was lunchtime. It would give the young riders a chance to see what was going on in the Senior Division competition because the Seniors’ lunch break would come later. It would also give the young riders—especially The Saddle Club—a chance to talk. And there was so much to talk about. The threesome, joined by Cam, bought hot dogs and sodas and walked around the whole area of the show.
The Junior riders (both Beginner and Intermediate) were using two rings off one end of the stable, whereas the Senior Division used several larger ones off the other end of the stable. The girls and Cam had spent all of their time so far with the young riders and hadn’t even seen where the Seniors were performing. The four of them found a spot by the fence of the ring and watched a hunter-jumper class.
“Look at that form!” Cam said in frank admiration while one rider completed the course flawlessly. None of them was surprised when she took the blue ribbon in the event.
“What I have to do is learn to maintain an even pace the way that rider did,” Carole said.
“Oh, I think you can do it,” Cam told her. “Starlight moves so beautifully that he can certainly do it with an even pace. And how does he jump?”
“He’s the best,” Carole said enthusiastically. “He can jump very high, and it’s like flying. In fact, sometimes the real trick is holding him back.”
“Right. It’s not good form for a horse to jump four feet high over a two-foot fence.”
“It’s better than the other way around,” Stevie said philosophically.
All four of them laughed. To each, the tensions of the morning, the disappointments, the difficulties, and the stress of the hard lessons, seemed to drain away. They were thoroughly enjoying themselves while surrounded by the one thing they each loved the most: horses.
When the hunter-jumper class was finished, Lisa looked at her watch and informed the others that it was time for them to get back to the stalls. They needed to prepare for the last, and hardest, event of the day, Jumping class.
In the first three classes of the day, all of the competitors had been in the ring at the same time. The Trail class and Jumping class were different from those in that the competitors each performed separately, alone in the ring.
Stevie was the first of the four of them to go through the course. She leaned forward and gave Topside a reassuring pat on his neck before they entered the ring. Then she heard her name and Topside’s announced. It was time to enter the ring and begin the course. Suddenly she was flooded with thoughts. She thought about how wonderful it had been to win a blue in Equitation and how awful it had been to do so badly in the Pleasure class. Then she recalled the feeling of relief when she’d done her best in the Trail class and placed just about where she’d thought she ought to place. It had been a long day, but she felt as if she’d come so far. Now all that was left was this. She and Topside could complete the course, and they could do it well. That’s all she wanted. Not only would it be enough for her, but it would be wonderful.
She clucked her tongue and entered the ring, a big smile on her face. She was ready and set. It was time to go.
“See how nicely she’s doing that!” Lisa said excitedly.
“She’s on a great horse,” Cam said.
“It’s not the horse that’s the most important. It’s the rider,” Lisa said. “It’s the rider who has to make all the important decisions and the horse that has to be well enough trained to do the job.”
“Very good!” Carole said, teasing. “This has been a productive day, hasn’t it?”
Lisa smiled, knowing she deserved a little ribbing. “Yes, it has. Oh, there she goes again, flying over the jumps. Stevie’s great!”
Then Stevie was finished. She rode out of the ring and straight over to her friends. Lisa and Carole both reached out to slap the hand she offered. It wasn’t the same as the hug they wanted to give her, but it was the best they could do on horseback.
“Topside was in top form,” Stevie said. “I’m pretty sure we’ll place in this one.”
“Of course you will,” Carole said. Then, still in a teasing mood, she continued. “The only real question is which one of us, you or me, will take the blue!”
“Or me,” Cam interjected.
Carole felt a little twinge of discomfort and confusion. She had found during the course of the day that she really liked Cam. He was a good rider. He knew a lot about horses, and he was generous with his knowledge. When she’d been writing to him, his generosity had sometimes sounded like showing off, but in person that wasn’t it at all. He was just a nice person. In fact, he was more than just a nice person. It was one thing to joke with her friends about competition and blue ribbons, but was it okay to joke with Cam about it? Carole realized with a start then that her friendship with Cam might go further than a shared interest in horses. Could he, maybe, one day, be a boyfriend? Suddenly she was flooded with unfamiliar thoughts. If he was going to be a boyfriend, was it all right to joke and tease with him? Was it acceptable to want to beat him in the horse show? How about actually beating him? She wasn’t sure how she felt—other than confused—and she wasn’t sure what to do. Stevie solved the immediate problem for her.
“You’ve already had your blue,” she said to Cam bluntly. “Now it’s Carole’s turn again. No horse in this ring is a better jumper than Starlight anyway.”
“She’s right,” Lisa piped in.
“Maybe,” Cam said. “But that won’t keep me from trying.”
“I certainly hope it won’t,” Carole said, gaining the confidence she needed from her friends. “See, I want to beat you fair and square!”
He laughed, recalling that he’d used those very words on Carole. Then he offered his hand. “A deal,” he said. They shook.
“Cam Nelson on Duffy!” the amplifier squeaked. It was Cam’s turn.
The three girls watched every minute of Cam’s performance, and it was very good.
“He really knows what he’s doing,” Lisa said.
“Yeah,” Carole said. Stevie thought she sounded wistful, but dismissed the thought. There was no way Carole was going to go soft and mushy when the subject was horses. Horses were Carole’s life. Then she had another thought: Was the subject horses or Cam? She glanced at Carole. The look on Carole’s face gave Stevie a hint. Something was going on!
“Duffy’s quite a horse,” Lisa said. “Cam has really trained him very well. Look how he keeps him alert and responsive all the time.”
Carole focused on Cam’s performance. He was using the same techniques he’d recommended to her that had worked so well for her in the Pleasure class. What a nice thing it had been for him to remind her about those mini-aids. It had definitely helped her.
Cam finished his round then and returned to where the girls were waiting for him.
“You’re next,” he said to Lisa.
She was, and she was ready. Jumping a horse was different from flat riding, and Lisa hadn’t been jumping for very long. She didn’t expect to do all that well here. She certainly didn’t consider herself to be anywhere near as good as Stevie or Carole, but she did consider herself to be good enough to do her best and to make Barq do his best. That was all she asked of herself. Earlier in the day it would have been more than she could have done. Now she felt it was the right goal for herself. She gave Barq a nudge, and they began the course.
There were ten jumps, and the course involved a lot of tricky turns to navigate it correctly. It took every ounce of Lisa’s concentration. She and Barq got to a nice smooth canter, aimed straight at the first jump. She never moved her eyes from it. Then, at just the right moment, she rose in the saddle, leaned forward, gave Barq some rein, and the two of them soared over it, landing smoothly. Barq never missed a beat of his canter.
&nbs
p; “One down, nine to go,” Lisa whispered to herself.
Barq understood. He knew what to do. He’d done it before, and he wasn’t going to let her down now. The next jump was as smooth as the first. The third jump gave them some trouble. They went over it all right, but they weren’t in the center of the jump, and Lisa was pretty sure that would cost them some points. The next two jumps were better, but after the sixth, Barq began hurrying. It was as if he could feel that this was almost over, and Lisa knew that she’d lost some of the control she had to keep in order to do well. She pulled in a little on the rein. Barq slowed down and then once again found his even pace. They completed the last three jumps successfully. They’d done well and Lisa was proud of it. She couldn’t think of a time when she’d jumped a course of obstacles any better than what she’d just done with Barq. That was what it was about. That was how a rider succeeded in a horse show. She felt good and was glad to receive the congratulations from her friends when she got back out of the ring.
Stevie’s round was very good. Again, this wasn’t Topside’s strongest class, but he was a good, solid jumper and Stevie was a good, solid rider. Topside’s previous owner, Dorothy DeSoto, had ridden him in jumping competitions, but they were usually stadium jumping, where the height of the jumps and the speed of the round were more important than style. He was better at that than at hunter jumping, where style counted for almost everything. They did well, though, and they didn’t make any obvious faults. Stevie was convinced the judges had noticed a lot of things she never would have noticed herself. She hoped she was wrong.
And then it was Carole’s turn. She and Starlight were announced. Carole could feel the tension rise in her. She was nervous and she thought Starlight was, as well. She’d always thought this would be her best class. Starlight was a natural jumper. She was suddenly filled with doubts. Would she clutch the way Stevie had, or freeze as Lisa had? Would she slip and lose her attention and let Starlight’s attention lag? Would she…
She didn’t want to think about all the things that could go wrong, and very quickly she found that she didn’t have time to think about those things anyway. She was in the ring. It was her turn.
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