AT THE WILD WEST DUDE SHOW
“Quiet, you rock-candy-eatin’ varmint, you,” Sam said to Stevie. He grabbed her by the shoulder. Stevie could see Kate and Chuck nearby. They were almost to the part of the show where Chuck and Sam mounted their horses and began their escape. “Okay, now, I’m tellin’ you that if you make one false move, you’re dead,” Sam growled to Stevie. “So if I was you, I’d let out one mighty powerful scream just about now.”
Obediently, Stevie opened her mouth and let out her most bloodcurdling shriek. Just then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Stewball again. And this time the horse wasn’t just watching. He whinnied and reared, snapping the lead holding him to the hitching post. He reared again, and then, apparently realizing he was free, he galloped straight toward her!
RL 5, 009–012
HORSE TALE
A Bantam Skylark Book/August 1994
Skylark Books is a registered trademark of Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and elsewhere.
“The Saddle Club” is a registered trademark of Bonnie Bryant Hiller. The Saddle Club design/logo, which consists of a riding crop and a riding hat, is a trademark of Bantam Books.
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1994 by Bonnie Bryant Hiller.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information address: Bantam Books.
eISBN: 978-0-307-82517-9
Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.
v3.1
I would like to express my special
thanks to Catherine Hapka for her
help in the writing of this book.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
About the Author
STEVIE LAKE WAS in a bad mood. She wiped her sweating brow and rested her elbows on the saddle that was sitting on the saddle rack in front of her. “I hate cleaning tack,” she muttered. She glanced at her two best friends, Carole Hanson and Lisa Atwood. They didn’t respond. “I said, I hate cleaning tack!” Stevie repeated more vehemently.
Carole and Lisa finally glanced at her, but they didn’t look very sympathetic. That was because they were both busy at the same chore Stevie was complaining about, and they weren’t any happier about it than she was—mainly because the temperature inside the tack room had to be at least one hundred degrees.
“Come on, Stevie,” Lisa said, trying not to sound as annoyed as she felt. She was annoyed because this was at least the twentieth time in as many minutes that Stevie had stopped working to complain. “If we keep at it, we’ll be finished soon.”
“That’s right,” said Carole. “And then I’m sure Max will want us to scrub all the floors, mix the feed for the next six months …”
“And maybe put a fresh coat of paint on the walls while we’re at it,” Lisa offered, only half joking. “Actually, I forgot to tell you, Max asked me if we would muck out stalls after we’re finished here.” Max Regnery was the owner of Pine Hollow Stables, where the three girls took riding lessons. To keep the costs down, Max insisted that all his riders pitch in and help out with the stable chores—and there were plenty of those.
Stevie groaned and started scrubbing halfheartedly at a spot on the saddle. “It’s not that I normally mind being Max’s slave,” she said. “But it does seem especially awful to be working so hard when it’s so hot. Especially in this tiny little room. Is he trying to give us heat stroke or something?”
Lisa and Carole glanced at each other and laughed.
“Stevie, don’t I recall you complaining just a few months ago that Max always seems to make you work the hardest when it’s cold out?” Carole inquired slyly.
Stevie shrugged, but she couldn’t hold back a smile, because she knew Carole was right. And then she remembered something that made her frown again. “Just think,” she said, “we could be having a great time at Moose Hill right this minute, instead of hanging around here.” She was referring to the summer riding camp the girls had previously attended. It held especially fond memories for Stevie because it was where she had met her boyfriend, Phil Marsten.
“We could be if it were open,” Lisa corrected her. “Which it would be, if they hadn’t had that wiring problem and had to close down for the rest of the month.” She shrugged. “Just our luck. We had to pick the one session that got canceled.”
“Don’t remind me,” Carole said. Stevie hadn’t been the only one looking forward to riding camp this year. “As much as I love this place, I was really looking forward to getting away.”
“Me, too,” Lisa agreed. “Just think, we could be riding through some nice cool woods right now.…”
“Or swimming in the pond …” Carole continued.
“Or camping under the stars, in the great outdoors …” Lisa said wistfully.
Suddenly Stevie jumped to her feet. “Lisa, you’re a genius!” she exclaimed.
“Thanks, Stevie,” Lisa said with a laugh. “But why do you mention it now?”
“Because you just gave me a great idea,” Stevie replied. She gestured at the tack room. “There’s really no reason we should be stuck in this stuffy little room, even if we are cleaning tack. Let’s move this whole operation out into the great outdoors!”
Lisa stared at Carole. Carole stared back. Then they both shrugged and smiled. “Why not?” they said in a single voice.
Within a matter of minutes the girls had dragged the tack that still had to be cleaned and the equipment they needed to clean it out to a shady hillside near the paddock.
“I feel better already,” Carole declared, seating herself on the grass with her back against the trunk of a leafy oak tree. She ran a hand through her curly black hair, lifting it off her neck. “I think I actually just felt a breeze!”
“Well, it’s not Moose Hill, but it’s an improvement,” Stevie admitted.
Lisa nodded and picked up a snaffle bit. “Now I think it’s the perfect time for a real Saddle Club meeting,” she announced.
The three girls had started The Saddle Club soon after Lisa began riding at Pine Hollow. The club had only two rules: Members had to be horse crazy, and they had to be willing to help each other out. Both of those rules were easy for Stevie, Carole, and Lisa to follow. Since beginning The Saddle Club they had added a few more part-time members. One of them was Phil, Stevie’s boyfriend, who lived in a town about ten miles from the girls’ hometown of Willow Creek, Virginia.
Two other part-time members who lived much farther away were Kate Devine and Christine Lonetree. Kate’s father had been in the Marines with Carole’s father. But Frank Devine had retired a few years earlier and moved to a dude ranch out West called The Bar None Ranch. The Saddle Club had visited The Bar None several times and had become close fr
iends with Kate as well as with Christine, whose family lived near the ranch. Since Kate had once been a champion show rider and Christine had been riding since before she could walk, they loved to talk about horses just as much as Carole, Lisa, and Stevie did. All the members of The Saddle Club—local and out of town—had different strengths and weaknesses as riders, so that meant they could all learn from one another all the time. And that was a big part of what The Saddle Club was all about.
Right now Lisa had a question to ask Carole. “I saw you and Starlight in the ring earlier,” Lisa said. “You seemed to keep stopping him before every jump. Wasn’t he behaving?”
Carole smiled. “Quite the contrary. He was behaving perfectly.” Starlight was Carole’s horse, a big bay gelding. She loved explaining the steps of Starlight’s training to her friends almost as much as she loved working through them with the horse. Her friends liked to joke about the long-winded answers Carole gave to even the simplest questions, but usually they didn’t really mind. “What I was doing was making sure Starlight knows that he’s supposed to be taking his orders from me, not just doing his own thing on the course.”
Lisa nodded. She knew the importance of a rider always reminding her horse who was in charge. “I’m still not quite sure how stopping him from jumping accomplishes that, though,” she admitted.
“It’s to keep him from just jumping over anything that’s in front of him without waiting for the signal from me,” Carole told her. “Otherwise he might start anticipating my signal and rushing the fences, which would throw off his whole performance.”
Stevie, who had been riding longer than Lisa had, knew all about this aspect of training, so only half of her attention was on Carole. The other half was on a rider in the outdoor ring, which was visible from the girls’ spot on the hillside. “Would you look at that,” she muttered.
Lisa and Carole looked. “Polly looks like she’s having fun,” Carole commented. “Romeo looks great. I think Polly made a good choice.” Polly Giacomin was in the same riding class as The Saddle Club. Her birthday had been a couple of weeks earlier, and her parents’ gift to her had been her very own horse. Romeo was a lively brown gelding with a friendly personality that had quickly made him a favorite with everyone at Pine Hollow.
“I can’t believe Polly has her own horse,” Stevie said grumpily. “She hasn’t even been riding as long as I have.”
Lisa glanced at Stevie in surprise. It wasn’t like her to be envious. “You didn’t seem that upset when my parents almost bought me a horse,” Lisa reminded her. “And I haven’t been riding as long as Polly has.”
Stevie shrugged. “It just seems like everyone has a horse but me these days. I mean, Carole has Starlight, obviously. Phil has Teddy. Phil’s friend A.J. has Crystal. Carole’s friend Cam has Duffy. Kate has Moon Glow. Christine has Arrow. Veronica diAngelo has Garnet.…”
“Okay, okay, we get the picture,” Carole said, laughing.
“I just think it’s time for me to have a horse of my own, too,” Stevie continued. “It’s something I’ve always thought about, but lately I’ve been thinking about it a lot more, you know?”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Carole said, and she did. She thought back to when her father had given Starlight to her. It had been one of the most wonderful moments of her entire life—the moment when she knew Starlight would be hers forever, to take care of, train, and ride. More than anything, she wished both her best friends could experience that feeling for themselves someday soon.
“I know what you mean, too, but I kind of like not having my own horse,” said Lisa. “At least for now,” she added quickly. She didn’t want to rule out the possibility forever! “It means I get to try out lots of different horses and learn what makes all of them tick.”
“Lisa’s right,” Carole said. “Riding all kinds of different horses can be a real learning experience. I sometimes miss that.”
“Sometimes?” Stevie cocked an eyebrow at Carole.
Carole smiled. “Well, not that often, I admit it. Having my very own horse is wonderful. But there is something to be said for variety, you know.”
“I know,” Stevie said. “And thanks for trying to make me feel better. But I really just feel like I’m ready to have a horse of my own now.”
“Have you talked to your parents about it?” Lisa asked.
“I’ve hinted a little,” Stevie said. “But I haven’t found quite the right opportunity to really mention it.”
The other girls laughed. They knew what that meant. It sometimes amazed them to see the lengths to which Stevie would go to trick her parents into seeing things her way.
Carole tossed the last of the newly polished bits into the trunk, stood up, and stretched. “Come on. We’d better get this stuff back inside and start on those stalls before it gets any hotter.”
Lisa stood up, too. “It’s amazing how much quicker we worked once we came outside,” she commented. “If only there were some way of bringing the dirty stalls out here!”
Stevie knew Lisa was joking, but she definitely agreed with the sentiment. She leaned back on the grass and groaned. “Don’t tell me we actually have to go back inside now!”
“Come on, Stevie, I thought the stable was one of your favorite places in the world,” Lisa teased.
Stevie didn’t bother to answer. Instead she just groaned again, stood up, and began gathering up the cleaning supplies they had been using. Carole and Lisa exchanged a glance. Obviously Stevie’s bad mood was back.
Soon The Saddle Club was hard at work mucking out stalls. As they worked, Stevie continued to grumble about all the people she knew who had their own horses. She was especially annoyed when she realized that the stall she was about to muck out belonged to Romeo. “Perfect,” she said, shaking her head grimly. “Polly’s out there having the time of her life on her very own horse, and I’m stuck in here being her stable hand.”
The sound of hoofsteps on the wooden floor of the stable interrupted Stevie’s stream of complaints. “That’s a good boy,” someone said, and the horse snorted. Carole and Lisa recognized Polly’s voice.
Then Carole and Lisa recognized Stevie’s voice. “Hello, Polly,” Stevie was saying sweetly. “How’s Romeo doing?”
“Great!” Polly replied enthusiastically.
Carole set down her pitchfork and left the stall she was working in. She was eager to see Romeo again up close.
Polly was patting the gelding’s nose while she talked to Stevie. “He’s really responsive—all I have to do is signal once and he does whatever I’ve asked,” she said cheerfully. “I could never have imagined how rewarding it is to have a horse of my own!”
Carole stepped forward to pat Romeo’s neck. The gelding bent his head to sniff at her, as if looking for treats. “He’s a beauty, Polly,” she commented appreciatively. “I know you’ll love working with him—it really is rewarding to teach and learn from the same horse all the time. Starlight has taught me so much already.” Then Carole’s voice trailed off as she noticed the look on Stevie’s face. It was a look she recognized, and it meant Stevie was hatching one of her schemes.
Carole didn’t have long to wait before she found out what it was all about. “You know, Polly,” Stevie said sweetly. “You’re lucky you came in right now. Otherwise you would have missed out.”
“Missed out on what?” asked the other girl absently. She was much more engrossed in patting her horse than she was in listening to Stevie.
“Missed out on one of the best parts of having your very own horse!” Stevie announced dramatically.
Stevie had Polly’s attention now. “Oh really? What’s that?”
“The total care experience,” Stevie replied. She clasped her hands together and a blissful look came over her face. Carole and Lisa exchanged a glance. They suspected what was coming. “Isn’t it wonderful to think that Romeo is totally yours now? That he depends on you for every little thing?”
Stevie paused long enough to let Polly
nod.
“I mean, if it weren’t for you, Romeo wouldn’t get fed. He wouldn’t get any exercise. His tack would be a mess. His stall wouldn’t be clean. What a tremendous learning experience it must be for you to be involved in every step of his care. You must really be looking forward to all that.”
By this time Polly was nodding enthusiastically. “It’s almost sad,” Carole whispered to Lisa.
Lisa nodded. “The poor girl doesn’t even see it coming,” she whispered back.
Stevie was shaking her head again now. “And to think that I was about to deprive you of a major part of that joy,” she said. Carole could almost swear she saw tears in Stevie’s eyes. “Part of that honor. Part of that valuable learning experience.” Stevie grabbed Polly by the shoulder. “Can you forgive me, Polly?”
“What are you talking about?” Polly asked, looking confused.
“I really want to make it up to you,” Stevie said earnestly, ignoring the question. She picked up the pitchfork that she had leaned against the wall earlier and shoved it into the other girl’s free hand. “Here you go.”
“What …?”
“Get ready to bolt,” Lisa whispered to Carole.
“To show you how sorry I am, not only am I going to insist that you take over mucking out Romeo’s stall,” Stevie told Polly, “but I’m even going to let you do Comanche’s and Barq’s for me, too.”
As the look of dawning comprehension on Polly’s face turned to one of annoyance, The Saddle Club fled, trying hard not to laugh until they were well out of earshot.
A SHORT WHILE later the three girls were waiting for their ride in the driveway of Pine Hollow. They were having a sleep-over at Carole’s house that night, and her father, Colonel Hanson, had promised to pick them up.
As usual he was right on time, and The Saddle Club piled into the air-conditioned car with relief.
“Hi, honey,” Colonel Hanson said, giving Carole a kiss on the cheek. He greeted Lisa and Stevie too. “Hot enough for you?” he inquired.
Horse Tale Page 1