Endurance Ride

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Lisa!” Jasmine, May, and Corey swarmed around Prancer. “We’ll take her, Lisa,” May offered as Lisa dismounted. Lisa saw that they had hay and water buckets waiting. Deborah was talking to Max, and Mrs. Reg was helping Carole. Chloe’s parents were next to Mrs. Reg.

  “Thanks,” Lisa said gratefully. “I’ll be just one second.”

  She unzipped the fanny pack and pulled out the can. The soda was warm—no, hot—from the afternoon sun, but Lisa didn’t care. Right now, even boiling-hot soda sounded like nectar from heaven.

  Lisa opened the can. The hot, shaken soda sprayed out like lava from a volcanic eruption. The first vicious, bubbling stream caught Lisa in the face. She shrieked and held the can away—and soaked the Pony Tails, Prancer, Mrs. Reg, and two of the other competitors. Corey and Jasmine screamed and ran. May, holding Prancer’s reins, ducked to Prancer’s far side. The competitors and Mrs. Reg scattered. Only Prancer seemed totally oblivious. She munched her hay with a tranquil expression.

  The soda explosion settled into a foot-high fountain. Lisa looked at the mess splattered across the seat of her saddle. She felt the sticky solution dripping off her bangs. She thought about how thirsty she was. She heard a voice behind her.

  “In general,” Chloe said, “carbonated beverages are a bad idea on an endurance ride.”

  Lisa couldn’t help herself. She whirled to face Chloe, and somehow—just somehow—the still-spraying soda caught Chloe in the face. “Sorry!” Lisa chirped, holding out the can. Chloe leaped backward, looking stunned. The soda stopped gushing. Lisa looked through her dripping bangs at Chloe’s dripping face and shirt. She snorted, started to giggle, then lost control and laughed and laughed.

  For a moment Chloe looked furious; then suddenly she was laughing, too. “I wish that had been a cola,” she said. “I hate the smell of root beer.”

  “I’m sure it will wash off,” Lisa said, wiping her eyes.

  “Yeah, right. Are you really so thirsty that hot root beer sounded good?” Lisa nodded. “Then here.” Chloe bent forward and offered Lisa the tube of her ridiculous water-filled backpack. Lisa drank gratefully. The water tasted sweet and almost cool.

  “Thanks.”

  “Why didn’t you say you were thirsty? I’ve had this all along.”

  “I don’t know,” Lisa said. Suddenly she felt a little more comfortable around Chloe. The other girl wasn’t actually trying to show off, Lisa realized. She just did know a lot about endurance riding, and she was the sort of person who liked to talk. Even if she was driving them all crazy, she really was trying to be nice. “Sorry about the soda. I know root beer explodes when you shake it. I just didn’t realize how much I’d been shaking it.”

  “That’s okay,” Chloe said. “I’m just glad you didn’t hit my horse. Whitey might have thought it was a waterfall.” She grinned. Lisa smiled back and went to take care of Prancer. She felt happier somehow.

  Lisa soaked Prancer’s legs and used a damp towel to clean the soda off her saddle. She watched Carole take Starlight through the vet check. Carole paused at the end to speak with the officials, and when she came back her face was dark with concern.

  “Starlight’s fine,” she said in response to Lisa’s unspoken question. “I just happened to see the checklist of riders, and Stevie, Phil, and Mr. Baker haven’t come through the check yet.”

  “They must have,” Lisa said. “Otherwise we would have seen them on the trail. They were really far ahead of us, remember?”

  “I know. I asked the organizers, and they said Stevie definitely hadn’t been through. They must be lost.”

  Lisa handed Prancer’s reins back to May. “Let’s tell Max,” she said.

  Max took Carole’s news very seriously. He immediately went to some of the ride officials. Lisa could see them gathering equipment, getting ready to go back down the trail in search of the missing trio.

  “How could we have missed them?” she whispered to Carole.

  “I don’t know,” Carole said. “I hope Stevie’s okay.”

  Just then Lisa saw a familiar bay mare coming out of the woods. “Carole, it’s Belle! They’re okay!”

  TEDDY WAS ALREADY starting to improve, thanks to the salts he’d been given on the trail. Phil hovered over him, mixing more salts into a five-gallon bucket of drinking water. Mr. Baker and Stevie took their horses through the check, but Phil didn’t even try. “I’m out,” he said to Stevie. “Absolutely out. You win. I’m done. I wasn’t ready.” For once, Phil didn’t seem upset about losing. He was much more concerned about his horse.

  Mr. Baker looked concerned. “I really should pull out, too, and stay with Phil,” he said.

  “No problem,” Stevie said cheerfully. “I’ll just go back with Max and The Saddle Club.” Max, Carole, Lisa, and Chloe had all stayed in the check much longer than they needed to, because they wanted to make sure Teddy was okay.

  “We’ll wait a little longer so that Belle gets a good rest,” Max said.

  “We aren’t in any hurry,” Chloe added, looking at her watch. “It’s one-thirty now, and we’ve only got thirteen miles to go.”

  “That’s right,” Stevie said, looking up at Chloe, “you’re not in any hurry, so long as we finish. Right?”

  “Right,” Chloe said with a grin. Stevie rolled her eyes. Lisa sighed.

  “We’ll be just about last,” Max said. “But we’ll finish in good shape, and that’s all that counts.”

  As they got ready to go, Phil came over to say good-bye. He promised to wait at the end and see Stevie finish. “I’m sorry I was such a jerk this morning,” he added.

  “That’s okay,” Stevie said magnanimously. “You weren’t really a jerk, you just didn’t know what you were talking about. Teddy’s okay, and that’s the important thing.”

  “I’m really proud of you,” Carole told her as they set off on the final leg of the ride. “That’s the first time I’ve seen you beat Phil at anything and not gloat about it for days. You were really gracious, Stevie.”

  “Oh well,” Stevie said modestly. “Why rub it in? It’s enough to know that this time I was absolutely, positively, one hundred percent right.”

  Carole and Lisa laughed. They exchanged looks they both understood. Stevie would never, ever change.

  AS THEY RODE along, Lisa realized that while she might have found peaceful ground with Chloe, Carole and especially Stevie had not. Stevie was giving in to her tendency to brag, and Chloe didn’t seem impressed.

  “Yeah, as I told Phil, you’ve really got to get your horse in shape for an endurance ride,” Stevie said. “I’m really glad we learned so much, Carole. It’s helped a lot. Look how fresh Belle looks.”

  Lisa had begun to suspect that The Saddle Club still didn’t know that much about endurance riding, even though she felt that she personally knew a whole lot more now than she had that morning. But she didn’t say anything. She was too tired to speak.

  “I think it’s good you guys worked hard to condition your horses before the ride,” Chloe said politely. Since Stevie had started talking, Chloe had become quieter, and her remarks had taken on a slight edge.

  “Yes,” Stevie said happily. “I’m sure you must spend some time working with your horse, too.”

  “Of course I do,” Chloe replied. “But there is a little more to it than that. Your boyfriend’s horse looked like a quarter horse—”

  “Purebred,” Stevie confirmed.

  “Well, that’s usually a stocky sort of horse. I was telling Lisa and Carole how conformation can have a real effect on a horse’s endurance capabilities. Quarter horses are sturdy, but sometimes they heat up more quickly than other breeds. Lisa said your mare was a Saddlebred–Arab cross. I’d expect her to be better at endurance riding. It’s more what she’s built for. I don’t think it’s entirely training.”

  Stevie took a long, deep breath. She felt sorry for Carole and Lisa, that they’d had to endure the whole ride with Chloe. “Belle’s a pretty special horse,” she bega
n, but then she didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t say that Belle wasn’t built for endurance riding: In the first place, she probably was, and in the second place, Stevie never liked to admit that Belle wasn’t fabulous at everything. But she certainly didn’t appreciate Chloe’s input. At least her friends let her talk without argument.

  “That’s a nature-versus-nurture question, and I don’t think the answer matters,” Max said gently. “As long as Teddy was stopped when he needed to be, and taken care of, and all our horses are still comfortable, that’s what important.”

  “You’re right, Max,” Stevie admitted. She was glad that Belle seemed comfortable, because that made one of them. Stevie was incredibly uncomfortable.

  “You keep wincing, Stevie. Why?” Lisa looked sympathetic.

  “The inside seam of my blue jeans is rubbing holes in the sides of my knees,” Stevie said. “It hurts.”

  “My ankles are killing me and Carole’s got blisters on her calves,” Lisa countered. “And Max has discovered that Barq’s saddle doesn’t fit his seat. You’re looking kind of sunburned, too.”

  “It’s sunny,” Stevie replied.

  “Chloe’s got sunscreen,” Lisa said. “She gave me some.”

  “Here,” Chloe offered, taking it out and handing it to Stevie.

  “No thanks,” Stevie said. “I’m glad to have the chance to work on my tan.”

  “Are you guys really hurting that much?” Chloe asked in amazement. Carole nodded. She was riding with her feet pointed out much more than normal to take the pressure off her blisters. All that seemed to be doing was giving her blisters in new places. “Wow,” Chloe said. “That’s too bad. I guess having the proper gear really is important.”

  Up until that moment Carole had not considered any of Chloe’s gear proper. Strange-looking, certainly; acceptable, maybe. But proper? Still, Chloe didn’t have blisters, or sweat pouring down her face because of an unventilated helmet, and she could take a drink of water whenever she wanted one, without taking her hands from her reins. And she was wearing sneakers.

  “We’re battered but not broken,” Max said cheerfully. “We’ve got—what? About another seven miles?”

  “Yes,” said Chloe, “and the last five are easy. The next two, though—”

  “Oh, yuck,” Carole groaned. She stood at the foot of a steep, rocky ridge. It looked like the trail went sideways across a small mountain. On the right side, a thin line of trees grew along the trail, and the mountain rose above them. On the left, a clifflike slope descended into a far-off valley. The riding trail in between was about ten feet wide.

  “Double yuck,” Chloe said. She slid off Whitey’s back, crossed her stirrups over her saddle, and gathered her reins in her right hand.

  “What are you doing?” Lisa asked.

  “Walking,” Chloe said. “I think it’ll be easier on him. It can’t be much more than half a mile.”

  “Good thinking,” Max said, dismounting and giving Barq a pat. With various groans, The Saddle Club did the same.

  Lisa never minded thinking of Prancer’s comfort first. That was expected of any rider. But as she climbed the slope, she reflected that tall riding boots were not made for walking. She hadn’t thought her feet could hurt worse, but they did. She was also not all that keen on walking so close to a cliff edge. Riders always walked their horses on the horse’s left side, and Lisa knew Prancer wouldn’t like being led on the right, because it wouldn’t be what she was used to. But Lisa was wary of heights, and seeing the ground fall away so quickly beside her made her feel dizzy. She tried to find something else to look at, and something besides her feet to think about.

  Chloe tromped along unfazed. Carole, coming next, struggled to walk as fast as Chloe. At least, walking, her blisters didn’t bother her. Stevie was thinking that her sunburn actually was starting to hurt, and Lisa was staring at the back of Stevie’s T-shirt and repeating the multiplication tables under her breath to take her mind off her feet and the cliff. So none of them saw what actually happened.

  There was a sudden noise that made their horses jump, and then there was a thump and a yell from Max that echoed down the valley.

  The girls whirled just in time to see Barq, shying sideways from something on the trail, take another sideways leap. Max was fighting to control him, but Barq’s shoulder slammed into Max’s chest. Both Barq and Max lost their footing and fell over the edge.

  “Max!” Lisa screamed. She clutched Prancer’s reins helplessly and heard her friends’ screams echo in her ears. Barq slid down the slope on his side, crushing saplings and brush, his legs thrashing wildly. Max was airborne for a moment. He seemed to move in slow motion, elegantly, like a dancer. His head hit a rock. His body followed with a thump that raised dust from the ground, and he lay perfectly still.

  CAROLE HAD NEVER seen a true disaster happen right in front of her eyes. Max wasn’t moving. Barq scrambled to get to his feet, fell again, crashed against a boulder, and slid farther down the valley. He quit sliding and staggered to his feet, nearly twenty yards downhill from Max, then hung his head and stood still. He was bleeding.

  Carole couldn’t believe it. She was sure Max was going to get up in a moment, shake his head and laugh, and make some joke about looking foolish in front of his three top students. But he didn’t look foolish; he looked dead. For a moment Carole’s feet were frozen in place and her brain refused to think past the fact that Max wasn’t moving, wasn’t moving at all. She felt tears on her cheeks.

  Then suddenly her feet could move again. She thrust Starlight’s reins at Chloe and ran to the trail’s edge. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Stevie and Lisa doing the same thing. “Hang on, Max, we’re coming,” she yelled. She stepped over the edge and nearly somersaulted. She lost her balance and grabbed frantically at weeds. Small stones skittered down the slope.

  “Careful, careful!” Lisa shouted, grabbing Carole’s arm. They had to go slowly, no matter how desperately they wanted to hurry. Max seemed far away. Carole took another step and nearly fell again.

  “Like this,” Stevie said, sitting down and letting herself slide on her seat. “Like the horses did.” Sliding, slipping, they reached Max’s side.

  He was lying on his back with his face turned to one side, his head pointing downhill and still leaning against the rock it hit. The velvet cover of his helmet was torn, and the side of it was crushed. His skin was pale, and blood from a gash on his arm poured in a steady stream onto the ground.

  “Let’s get his head up.” Stevie grabbed his shoulder and started to pull.

  “No!” Carole yelled so urgently that Stevie instantly froze. “No,” she repeated. “I had first aid in gym class last spring, remember? We can’t move him. He might have hurt his back or his neck, and we could make it worse. We can’t let him move at all.”

  “Sorry.” Stevie backed away. They stared at Max, afraid to touch him.

  “We have to do something,” Lisa whispered.

  “Right,” Carole said. “Of course.” She couldn’t think. What came first? What had she learned? Gym class seemed like years ago.

  “Carole? What should we do?” Stevie asked, her voice uncharacteristically uncertain.

  “I’m thinking,” Carole said. She struggled to remember. “Let’s see. Breathing. He has to be breathing. That’s first.” She put her hand against Max’s cheek. How could she tell if he was breathing? His chest would move, that’s how. She looked carefully. Max was breathing.

  “Okay, then; he has to have a heartbeat. That’s second.” She remembered how to feel for a pulse on the side of the neck and was relieved at the strength of Max’s heartbeat.

  “So he’s not dead,” Lisa said quietly. It was what they had all feared.

  “No,” Carole said. “He must have a concussion, like Stevie did last year. He could be hurt in other places, but we won’t know until he wakes up or gets to a hospital.” She looked around the hillside. How would they get Max off the trail?

 
; “I’ll go for help,” Lisa said. “The end of the ride isn’t too far, so I’ll go there as quickly as I can. They’ll know what to do. You guys stay here and take care of Max—and Barq. No, really,” she added when Stevie started to protest. “Prancer is the fastest horse; she and Starlight got to rest more than Belle did at the last check; and, Carole, you obviously know more first aid than Stevie or me. And Chloe’s got all that trail gear—she might be able to help you. I’ll go.”

  “Maybe someone else will come along soon,” Carole said. “One of the other endurance riders.”

  “So many people passed us since the last check,” Lisa said. “We might be the last riders on the trail. Besides, we can’t wait.”

  “I know. Of course not,” Carole said. “I just wish I knew more what to do. Hurry, Lisa! Please hurry.” Lisa started up the slope.

  “Be careful!” Stevie shouted after her.

  At the top, Chloe listened anxiously to Lisa’s account of Max’s condition. “I’ll ride for help if you want,” she offered. “You can stay here. He’s your instructor.”

  Lisa blinked back tears. She wanted to stay with Max, and with Stevie and Carole. She was a little afraid of being on the trail alone, when her errand was so crucial. “No, I’d better go,” she said to Chloe. “You know more about riding on trails than we do, and you’re more prepared. Stevie and Carole probably need your help.”

  Chloe nodded agreement. “Once you get into the woods, the trail is flat from then on,” she said. “You’ll be able to go fast, but don’t panic.” Lisa nodded. To her surprise, Chloe gave her a brief hug. “Good luck.”

  Lisa mounted and gathered up the reins. “Take care of Max,” she told Chloe. She urged Prancer forward, resisting the impulse to turn and look back. Forward was what counted. Max needed help as fast as possible.