Corey looked at May because May was great at making speeches. But May shook her head. “You do it,” she said.
Smiling, Mr. Lee handed Corey a silver cup with the names of the three Pony Tails engraved on it.
What do I do now? Corey thought. But then she remembered that at the Academy Awards people always hold up their Oscars. She held up the cup so that everyone could see it.
For a second Corey watched snow falling on the beautiful cup. But then she realized that everyone was waiting for her to make a speech.
“This is a big surprise,” Corey said. “I mean really big.” Beside her Jasmine and May were grinning. “It makes me think of Christmas presents. When you open your presents, they’re never what you expect. They’re better.”
Corey thought that was a pretty good speech. But then she realized that people were waiting for more. She tried to remember what winners said when they accepted Academy Awards. She remembered that they always thanked a million people. “I’d like to thank my parents,” Corey said. Her father had come up out of the crowd. He was standing next to her mother, and both of them were beaming. Her parents turned and smiled at each other. It was the smile of friends.
“I’d like to thank Max Regnery of Pine Hollow Stables,” Corey said. Max stepped out of the crowd, his blue eyes gleaming. “Max has taught us more than we can ever tell.”
“And finally,” Corey said, “I’d like to thank May Grover and Jasmine James, who are the two best friends on earth.”
Next thing Corey knew, everybody was shaking her hand, patting her on the back, and taking her picture. She grinned at May and Jasmine. It was like being a star.
Mr. Lee came up to Corey with a camera. “How about a picture of you and your mother?” Somehow Mr. Lee didn’t seem so horrible now.
“No problem,” Corey said. She put an arm around her mother.
Mr. Lee turned to Corey’s father. “How about a picture of the three of you?”
Corey was astounded. Her father and Mr. Lee didn’t hate each other. Her father smiled and said he thought that was a great idea.
Then Corey had her picture taken with Mr. Lee and her mother. At first the idea made her nervous. But then it felt okay. She took another look at Mr. Lee. Maybe he wasn’t so bad. And he certainly made her mother happy.
She had her picture taken with her first-grade teacher. And with Jack, her mother’s assistant. And with Kelly, Jack’s girlfriend.
Corey realized that being a star was a tough job. You could get a smile-ache.
Finally Doc Tock said, “Corey, you look tired. It’s time to head home.”
“Great idea!” said Corey. “We can show the cup to the ponies. They’ll be proud.”
“I’m sure they will,” said Doc Tock with a smile. She turned to May and Jasmine. “Would you like to come with us? It looks like your parents are busy.” Mr. Grover was talking to someone who wanted him to train a horse. And Mrs. James was talking to the art teacher at the Willow Creek school.
“Absolutely,” said May. “The ponies have got to hear about this.”
In the car on the way home the Pony Tails didn’t say a thing. They snuggled together, feeling happy and close. When Doc Tock drove the car into the garage, they jumped out and ran to Corey’s stable to see Samurai.
“You won’t believe what happened,” Corey said to Sam. “I thought my mother was engaged, but she wasn’t engaged, and there was this whole big crowd, and we fed the animals, and then we had to sing this silly song. And I nearly cried. And then we became world famous. But otherwise, it was a kind of boring night.”
“Too bad you didn’t hear us sing,” said May to Sam.
“You really missed something,” said Jasmine.
“Maybe we should sing for Sam,” said May.
“That’s okay,” Corey said. “I don’t want him to have nightmares.”
On the other side of the stable door the snow was falling harder now.
“It’s going to snow all night,” Jasmine said. “I heard it on the radio.”
“I have an idea,” said May.
“Ho boy,” said Corey and Jasmine together.
“This is a good one,” May said. “We haven’t given the ponies their Christmas treats.”
“How could we forget?” said Corey, slapping her forehead.
“And this is the first snow,” May said. “They love snow. Or anyway I do, and that’s good enough for me.”
“Yes?” said Corey, wondering what May had in mind.
“Why don’t we take the ponies outside and let them eat their treats in the snow?” asked May.
“Wow,” said Corey. “That is an excellent idea.”
Jasmine went to her house to get the treats. When she came back, the girls led their ponies into the Grovers’ paddock. It was snowing heavily now, and the paddock was blanketed with white.
The girls put the bouquets on top of the snow. The ponies began to munch.
There was no sound except for the noise of the ponies chewing and the gentle hush of falling snow.
“I got my wish,” Corey said softly. “I wanted the best Christmas ever, and this is it.”
“It’s my best, too,” said Jasmine.
“Mine, too,” said May.
Corey looked at the row of houses—hers, May’s, and Jasmine’s. They were so bright and warm and cozy. She looked at the dark, jagged line of the trees against the sky. “Next year is going to have good things and bad things,” Corey said. “Adventures and …”
“Catastrophes,” said May.
“But we’ll be together,” Jasmine said.
They put their arms around each other so that they made a ring. They leaned together, their heads touching. Corey felt snowflakes prickling the back of her neck.
Something was poking her. She turned to look. Sam was done eating, and he wanted to get into the circle. She pulled him into the circle. Jasmine and May pulled in Outlaw and Macaroni.
The Pony Tails and their ponies stood in a circle as snow settled on their heads. Corey said what they were all thinking: “We’re the best six friends on earth.”
COREY’S TIPS ON PONY SNACKS
I sometimes joke that my favorite class in school is lunch. It’s no joke at all that Sam’s favorite time of the day is feeding time. No, that’s not quite true. He loves his meals, but what he loves the best is snacks. If he could talk, he’d tell me he wants a lump of sugar every time I pat him. I could give him all that sugar, but it wouldn’t be good for him.
Snacks are important for ponies (just as they are for the ponies’ riders). And because they are important, there are two things I always have to be careful about with Sam’s snacks: what I give him and when I give it to him.
The what part is the same sort of thing your parents say to you about snacks. Snacks shouldn’t just be empty calories. When my taste buds say, “Sticky, gooey, cream-filled baked thing!”, my mother says “Apple!” She’s right, too. The bakery treat doesn’t have any vitamins, but it does have lots of fat, which my body doesn’t need, and loads of refined sugar, which doesn’t stick around long enough to give me much energy. It just stays with me long enough to wreck my appetite for dinner. The apple has all kinds of vitamins and minerals in it, plus natural, unprocessed sugar, which I need for energy. I also like raisins, peaches, oranges, and plums, and my favorite is celery with peanut butter. I don’t like apricots, but that’s just me. And every once in a while, I really want a bakery treat. That’s okay, too. Every once in a while.
It’s the same thing with horses. Samurai would be only too happy to have a constant supply of sugar lumps. It doesn’t do him any more good than the bakery treats do me. He needs things that he likes that will improve his diet, not ruin his appetite. (I sound more and more like my mother every day—and I’m only eight!)
In fact, ponies need a lot of the good things they can get from snack foods. Carrots are especially good for them because they’ve got body builders that ponies sometimes can’t get anywhere
else except in special feed mixes. I keep a bag of carrots in the refrigerator, marked “Sam,” so that it’s always there when I go out to the stable. I also chop up carrots and put them into Sam’s morning feed mix. He likes carrots so much that they make him not notice some of the things he’s not so crazy about in his feed.
I usually give him a carrot when I finish a ride or a workout with him and after he’s been particularly well behaved as I groom him. He gets a carrot when the farrier gives him a new set of shoes (that is, if he behaves). I use carrots as rewards.
Sam gets other things besides carrots. I know this sounds funny, but he loves pumpkin! When I buy my Halloween pumpkin, Mom and I always pick up an extra for Sam. I cut it into small pieces, and he just gobbles it! He also likes turnips and parsnips. That’s a good thing, because I hate them. If Mom is making turnips for dinner, I always tell her that we have to share with Sam, and I give him a big share (cut up and raw) so that I’ll get a smaller share (cooked and mashed). That’s just one of the nice things about having a pony.
Sometimes he enjoys a little snack of lettuce, or any greens. He’s welcome to all those things, in small portions. He can also have apples. Ponies love apples. They’re sweet and juicy, but it’s a good idea to limit the apples a pony gets. Two is enough in any one day for a full-sized horse. I limit Sam’s apple eating to one a day. The thing about apples is that they can affect a pony’s digestive system, and ponies have very fussy stomachs. The last thing I want is to have Sam get colicky because of a treat I gave him!
Now, the other thing I have to tell you is that it matters when I give Sam treats, and this is true for every pony in the world. If an owner gives a pony a treat every time she sees him, the pony expects a treat every time his owner shows up. He’ll nuzzle her pockets, reach for her hands with his nose, and try to sniff where the treat is. This can be cute once. It tickles, and the owner laughs. Maybe she’ll laugh the second time it happens. But when it becomes a habit, it happens every single time. The pony doesn’t want to do anything until he gets his treat. He can become balky, feisty, and moody. What he’s learned is that he’s supposed to get a treat before anything else happens. Wrong!
The solution to that is that you only ever give treats as a reward. If your pony has done something right, let him know. Pat him, talk softly to him, cluck your tongue to him. It makes him feel good when you feel good. And sometimes you can give him a treat, too. That makes him feel even better. He knows he’s earned it. That will get you a well-behaved pony, and a well-behaved pony deserves lots of treats. As long as they’re healthy treats, you’ve done two good things for him.
Oh, and every once in a while, Sam gets a sugar lump. He likes it, and it reminds me that it’s probably time to ask my mom for a gooey bakery treat.
Turn the page to continue reading from the Pony Tails series
1 A Busy Breakfast
Jasmine James finished brushing her long blond hair for school. She turned and looked again at the large poster lying on her desk.
For the past month, Jasmine’s class at school had studied dinosaurs. Jasmine’s teacher had asked each student to do a final project showing what he or she had learned.
Jasmine had decided to draw a poster that showed the different types of dinosaurs. Because she loved ponies, and loved to draw them, too, she also knew how to draw other animals.
The poster was divided into several sections. One section showed that some dinosaurs had skeletons that looked like the skeletons of birds and others had skeletons that looked like the skeletons of lizards. Another section showed that some dinosaurs were meat-eaters and others ate only plants. Everything was labeled in Jasmine’s neat handwriting.
Jasmine had used every single color in her marker set and worked for hours and hours on her poster. Looking at it, she knew she had done a good job. But she felt slightly flat inside. She wasn’t sure why. Then she heard her mother calling from downstairs.
“Jasmine, your breakfast is ready!” Mrs. James said.
Jasmine called back, “Be right down, Mom!”
She carefully rolled up her poster and taped a large piece of paper around it so that it wouldn’t get dirty on the bus ride to school. Then she paused. If her poster was rolled up, her parents wouldn’t be able to see it at breakfast.
Then she remembered what breakfast was usually like these days. It was total chaos!
Lately, Jasmine’s parents were so busy that they rushed through breakfast with Jasmine and Sophie, her baby sister, before hurrying off to work. Mrs. James, who was an artist, had missed a conference with Jasmine’s teacher two days ago because Sophie had been slightly feverish that day. Now Mrs. James was working days and nights in her studio. She was trying to get ready for an exhibition in which her work would be shown along with the work of several other artists.
Mr. James, who worked for an environmental group, also seemed busier than usual. He was spending a lot of time at his office in Washington, D.C., and in his study at home. When he wasn’t working, he took care of Sophie so that Mrs. James could get her work done.
Somehow Jasmine didn’t feel right reminding her father that he had promised to take her and her two best friends, May and Corey, to a movie tonight.
Jasmine looked at her rolled-up poster again. “They’re probably too busy—I’ll show it to them some other time,” she told herself. She picked up the poster and her school bag and went downstairs.
On the way to the kitchen, Jasmine remembered something that cheered her up. Last night, May had called her and summoned the three Pony Tails—May, Jasmine, and Corey—to riding practice after school today.
The three girls called themselves the Pony Tails because they were best friends who loved to ride ponies. They lived next door to each other and belonged to the same pony club. The Pony Tails also had weekly riding lessons at the same stable, Pine Hollow.
The Pony Tails were so crazy about ponies that they took every opportunity to practice riding. Luckily, the winter in Virginia was really warm this year, warm enough to ride outdoors in the schooling ring next to May’s house.
I’ll practice my cantering, Jasmine thought. She had a big smile on her face as she went into the kitchen.
“Morning,” she greeted her mother and father. “Good morning,” she whispered as she leaned over Sophie in her baby seat.
Mrs. James smiled at Jasmine. She looked tired. She plunked a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of orange juice in front of Jasmine. “Here, honey,” she said. “I wanted to make French toast this morning, but I was up so late last night …” Her voice trailed off as Sophie started to whimper.
Mr. James was sitting at the table, drinking coffee and flipping through a thick three-ring notebook. He looked up and smiled at Jasmine. “Good morning, Jazzie,” he said. He looked down at the notebook again.
Jasmine tucked her poster and school bag under her chair and sat down. No one had asked her about the poster.
She looked around for the brown sugar. Her mother knew she loved brown sugar on her oatmeal, and she usually put it on the table the days when they had oatmeal for breakfast.
But Jasmine didn’t see any brown sugar on the table. She got up and found the stepstool, then got the brown sugar from where it was kept above the sink.
Her mother was picking up Sophie and cooing to her. “Honey,” she said to Mr. James, “I’m going to feed Sophie now. Then can you watch her for a few hours while I work this morning?”
Mr. James nodded. “I have to go into the office this afternoon, though. We have a big meeting,” he said. “I won’t be home until dinnertime, so maybe we should get a baby-sitter this afternoon.”
Mrs. James sighed and shook her head. “No, I can handle it,” she said. “Jasmine, where will you be?”
“Riding with the other Pony Tails,” replied Jasmine. “Maybe I’ll do something with them tonight, too,” she added, looking at her father. She wondered if he would remember about the movie.
He just smiled absently at her, thoug
h, and said, “Great. Don’t forget to call and let us know what you’re doing.”
“Have a good day at school, Jasmine!” called Mrs. James as she hurried into the den to nurse Sophie. Mr. James looked at his notebook again.
Jasmine finished her breakfast and placed her dishes neatly in the sink. She retrieved her poster and school bag from under the chair and went out to meet May and Corey at the bus stop.
I bet we can still do something fun together tonight, she thought. The Pony Tails almost always had a good time. The key ingredients, as they all knew, were their love of ponies and each other.
2 Jasmine Jumps Ahead
Jasmine, May, and Corey got off the bus after school and waved good-bye to their friends. May started jumping around. Unlike Jasmine and Corey, who were usually calm, May was always excited about something. Today she had a good reason.
“It’s Friday!” she sang out.
Friday meant no school for two days. This Friday also meant that tomorrow, Saturday, the girls would go to Pine Hollow for a Pony Club meeting.
The three friends belonged to a Pony Club called Horse Wise. Horse Wise held a mounted meeting every other week. For mounted meetings, the Pony Tails brought their own ponies from home.
“Let’s change and start practicing right away,” suggested Corey.
“Oh yeah, don’t forget—bring your ponies,” added May.
Jasmine and Corey giggled. Then May put on a mock-stern expression and said, “We’ve got to work, work, work on our riding skills!”
This made them laugh even more. Even though practice was good for their riding skills, none of them considered it work. It was too much fun!
As Jasmine turned toward her house, Corey suddenly noticed the rolled-up poster under Jasmine’s arm. “Hey, what’s that?” she asked.
May noticed the poster, too. “Is that your dinosaur project?” she asked.
Jasmine shrugged. “It’s nothing,” she said. “Just a homework assignment.”
Pony Tails 15- Corey's Christmas Wish Page 4