Horse Crazy

by Bonnie Bryant

  Lisa closed her eyes for just a few minutes. When she opened them again, the moon had set. The sky was dark except for the soft sparkle of a few stars. The mirror on her vanity was completely dark.

  LISA STOOD CAUTIOUSLY next to Pepper in his stall. It was Tuesday, time for her next riding class. She was still feeling torn about her riding lessons. It was one thing to have fun with horses, another to have fun with friends, and it didn’t seem to her any more likely that the two things would happen together at Pine Hollow Stables than it had while she was trying to get to sleep on Saturday night. She was probably going to quit. She’d just about made up her mind when her mother had loaded her into the car to come to this lesson. Now she was sure. This would be her last.

  She was uncomfortably aware of Veronica in Cobalt’s stall next to Pepper’s. Veronica was having a hard time with her Thoroughbred and, as Lisa listened, it seemed that the horse was having a hard time with his owner. There was a loud thump when Veronica swung the saddle onto Cobalt’s back—and a second thump just as loud when the saddle hit the ground. Lisa knew that if you threw a saddle onto a horse’s back, he was likely to object. And she couldn’t say she blamed him!

  “You dumb horse,” Veronica whined. “I’ll have to get Red to saddle you. Red! Where are you?” she called. There was no answer. Lisa had seen Red in the tack room and knew he could hear Veronica perfectly well. It didn’t really surprise her that Red was ignoring Veronica’s call. She decided to do the same.

  Lisa smoothed the saddle pad onto Pepper’s back and then gently swung the saddle up onto the dappled gray horse. He shifted his weight from one side to the other, but he remained standing still. Then, just as Red had showed her, she checked the pad for wrinkles and then lifted the saddle forward over the end of the mane so she could slide it back into place, brushing Pepper’s coat in the right direction. She had learned that if she didn’t do that, she’d end up with the saddle too far back and she’d be tilted forward when she tried to ride.

  The front of the saddle had to be at the horse’s withers. When she first heard the word, Lisa thought withers sounded like something shriveled, but Red had told her it was just the name for the slight bump in a horse’s back at the top of his shoulders.

  When she was sure the saddle was in the right place, she reached for the girth.

  At that moment, Lisa heard Carole’s voice. “You want some help?”

  Lisa was about to say yes, then realized that Carole wasn’t talking to her. She was talking to Veronica, who eagerly said yes.

  “That stupid, lazy Red! He won’t give me any help and I’m sure he’s not taking proper care of my beautiful horse,” Veronica said petulantly.

  Carole didn’t answer that. She began talking to Cobalt. “There, there, boy,” she said soothingly. Lisa could hear her patting the horse’s neck. He nickered gently in response. Carole continued talking to him while she tacked him up. There were no thumps and bumps this time. It was as if the horse understood her. When the bridle had been secured, Carole spoke to Veronica. Perhaps because she couldn’t see her—only hear her—Lisa was particularly aware of the change in Carole’s voice when she spoke to Veronica. The assurance was gone. The gentleness was missing. Carole, the totally assured Carole, was apparently uncomfortable talking to Veronica.

  “I really had a good ride on Cobalt the other day. Max and I were working on things with him in the ring. I—”

  “I hope you didn’t tire him out, Carole,” Veronica spoke sharply.

  “No, I didn’t. I just rode him for an hour for exercise, but I was wondering if I could—”

  “Carole,” Veronica spoke again, this time more sharply. Lisa was surprised that Carole could be spoken to this way, but Veronica seemed to have the upper hand. “You haven’t …”

  “Look, Veronica, don’t talk to me like that. I didn’t tell anybody, not even Max, that you slammed the door and scared Patch. If you want to add Lisa to your collection, it’s okay with me, but I think she’s too smart for you.”

  “Collection?” Veronica said, as if she didn’t understand the word. “I’m sure Lisa’s smart, but we really don’t have anything in common. She’s not even a good rider,” Veronica said smugly.

  “Good rider?” Carole echoed. Then, suddenly on the offensive, she challenged Veronica. “What would you know about that?”

  There was a moment of silence before Veronica spoke again. “Listen, Carole, if you’d like to ride Cobalt again on Thursday, it’s okay with me. Just don’t get him too tired this time, okay?”

  The next sound Lisa heard was the clunking of Cobalt’s hooves as Veronica led him to the mounting block. Lisa ducked below the edge of the wooden wall of the stall so that neither girl would know she’d been there.

  Her hands felt clammy. It was humiliating to hear herself discussed that way. An addition to a collection? Nothing in common? Not even a good rider? What was she? Some kind of toy to be played around with? Just who did Veronica diAngelo think she was? She thinks she’s the daughter of Willow Creek’s richest resident, that’s who she thinks she is, Lisa answered her own question.

  And then the tears came. Once they started, there seemed to be no way to stop them. She sniffled and tried to wipe them away and she stifled the cries she wanted to make. There was no way in the world she would ever, ever let that awful girl Veronica know she’d hurt her. No way!

  “Pepper, you okay?” Carole’s voice came toward the stall. “Say, what’s up, boy? Your gear on okay? I’ll check it for you,” she said. And then the stall door slid open and Carole stepped in. There was no place for Lisa to hide from her. As soon as Carole saw her, she knew what had happened. The look on her face confirmed it.

  “You heard that, huh?” Carole asked.

  Lisa nodded.

  “Better now than later,” she said matter-of-factly. “Veronica’s a rotten person. You shouldn’t believe anything she ever says about anybody—good or bad.”

  Sitting on the straw in the stall, Lisa drew her legs up to her chest and put her forehead on her knees. The last few tears dropped onto the straw. When her crying stopped, she looked up at Carole, who had put on the bridle and was patting Pepper.

  “What about you?” she asked. “When do you tell the truth?”

  “Me?” Carole looked at her, puzzled.

  “Yes, you. You knew all along that it was Veronica who slammed the door the day I was riding Patch, didn’t you?”

  “Well, yes, but—”

  “But what? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “What difference would it have made?” Carole asked.

  “It would have kept me from thinking I could be her friend. I would have known right away that she was a jerk—”

  “Everybody knows that,” Carole said.

  “Well, I didn’t; I’m new. Anyway, it would have kept me from blaming Stevie,” Lisa told her.

  “You thought Stevie did that?” Carole asked, astonished. Lisa nodded. “Oh, boy,” Carole shook her head. “Stevie does jokes, all right—like the dumb thing with your stirrups—but she’d never, and I mean never, do something dangerous like slamming a door when Patch was around.” Carole paused. “I guess you deserve an explanation,” she said. “The reason I didn’t tell you it was Veronica was because if I had, she wouldn’t have let me ride Cobalt. He’s the most wonderful horse in the world, and I couldn’t give him up. I’m really sorry if it hurt you, though.”

  Lisa stared at her, astonished. Before she could speak, though, the loudspeaker in the stable area crackled. “Time to assemble for class,” Mrs. Reg’s voice announced.

  “Oh, no!” Carole squealed. “I have to tack up Delilah. Say, you want to go over to the shopping center after class, maybe get some ice cream at TD’s?”

  “Uh, sure,” Lisa said uncertainly.

  LISA WAS RELIEVED when class began. When she was trying to figure out how to tack up a horse or make sense out of her classmates, everything was a hopeless muddle. But when Max was running the class, i
t was very clear what she had to do. She had to do exactly what Max told her. And when she did what Max told her to do, Pepper did what she wanted him to do.

  All the horses were lined up to trot around the outdoor ring when Stevie arrived.

  “We’re proud to have you join us, Miss Lake,” Max said. Some of the girls giggled, but Lisa could tell from the tone of his voice that he wasn’t being funny. He took riding very seriously and didn’t like to have any disruptions in his class. A student coming in late was a disruption. So was talking. So was not paying attention. Max didn’t seem to care if you didn’t know things, or if you’d forgotten how to do something. The important thing was for you to try as hard as you could. If you were late, or talking, or not paying attention, you weren’t trying.

  “I’m sorry, Max. There was something I had to take care of and it made me late. I promise—”

  “It won’t happen again?”

  “Yes, Max. It won’t happen again,” she said, and then mounted Comanche. She joined the end of the trotting line.

  Max had them working at keeping the distance between their horses the same. Lisa found it very hard to do. Pepper liked to trot and he liked to trot quickly. He seemed to have a natural competitive spirit, always wanting to catch up to and pass the horse in front of him.

  Lisa was riding behind Polly Giacomin. Her horse, Nero, was an old stable horse. He’d taken so many classes he knew the routines better than Max. In fact, he’d learned them the same way Max had. They’d both been trained by Max’s father. Nero seemed to know exactly how slowly he could go and get away with it. Lisa was becoming exhausted trying to get Pepper to go more slowly, and wished Polly would get Nero going a little faster.

  Usually, Max would have been after both of them, urging Polly to “trot on,” and telling Lisa to control her horse. Both of them certainly deserved warnings today. But Max’s attention was focused on Stevie.

  “Stevie, use your legs to even your horse’s pace. Stevie! Your diagonals! Come on, now, you missed the beginning of the class, you’ve got to catch up. I won’t have you slacking off!”

  Stevie just nodded. Lisa cringed a little bit for her, surprised to find herself feeling sorry for Stevie Lake. Maybe she was more relieved that Max wasn’t watching her so closely this time.

  “Stevie Lake! There’s a phone call for you,” Mrs. Reg announced over the loudspeaker. “It seems to be very important. Please come to the office.”

  “Uh, Max, could I please be excused to go to the phone?” Stevie asked politely.

  Max glowered in silence while Stevie led Comanche to the gate of the ring.

  STEVIE WAS HAVING a horrible day. Two of the people she’d gotten jobs for this afternoon hadn’t shown up. Right before she had left home, there had been the two furious phone calls. She’d only had time to make a few calls, looking for replacements, and ended up leaving a desperate note for Alex before she’d had to run over to Pine Hollow. And then she’d been late.

  “Hello,” she said warily into the phone.

  “Stevie, it’s Alex. I got the note and there is no way I’m going to go shopping with old Mrs. Ramsey. She’s a crabby lady and—”

  “Alex, I’m desperate!” Stevie wailed over the phone. “Sid Jackson said he’d do it and then he ratted out. Mrs. Ramsey just needs somebody to go along and help her read the labels and stuff and then carry things home for her.”

  “No way,” Alex said.

  “She’s a poor old woman, can barely see; she just needs a helping hand for an hour or so.”

  “No way.”

  “I’ll pay you the full five dollars,” she said, her voice dripping with temptation.

  There was silence for just a moment. Alex sighed and then spoke. “All right. Just this once. But never again!”

  “You ungrateful—” Stevie began, but she didn’t bother to finish. Alex had hung up on her.

  Stevie hung up the phone and walked out of the office to return to class. She released the knot in Comanche’s lead rope but then saw the horses trotting in pairs. Class was almost over. There was no point in going back to the ring. She led Comanche back to his stall for untacking, going over her checklist of the things she needed to do before she went home. She had to give Carole her money for grooming Cobalt yesterday, but first, she had to collect it from Veronica. Then, she had to stop by Mrs. Traeger’s to get paid for the job one of her classmates had done there yesterday. Then she had to go and fill in on the sitting job for Mrs. Vitelli that Betsy Cavanaugh had begged out of and then she had to—

  “Stevie!” It was Max. Stevie stiffened when she heard his tone of voice; he didn’t sound happy. Normally, she liked talking to Max. He was a wonderful teacher and a good rider and a nice man. But he took riding seriously and Stevie knew that she had been pretty sloppy today.

  “Stevie, can you spare me a minute?” he asked sharply.

  “Yes, Max,” she said.

  “Then please come to the office when you’ve untacked Comanche.”

  “I’ll be there in a second,” she said, knowing that all the other things on her list would have to wait. After all, riding was very important to her. The only reason she was working was to be able to go on the MTO. Max would understand that, she told herself. Wouldn’t he?

  “YOU READY TO go?” Carole asked, peering into Pepper’s stall. When she saw Lisa hugging Pepper, she was glad she’d decided to be friendly. It had been tempting to ignore Lisa, with her fancy riding clothes, trying to be Veronica’s friend. But something about the way Lisa was handling Pepper told Carole that although there was a lot Lisa didn’t know about riding, there was little she wouldn’t learn. They had a lot in common.

  “Just a minute more,” Lisa told her. “I just wanted to visit with Pepper a little.”

  “You had a good ride on him today, didn’t you?” Carole asked. She’d noticed how well-behaved the horse had been in class, and it was obvious that Lisa was having fun riding him.

  “Yeah. But you know, I don’t understand something.” Carole nodded, waiting. “The first time I rode him, he was sort of hard to handle. He didn’t do anything I wanted him to. The next time, he was better, and every time since then, he’s been better. Was he sick or something?”

  Carole started laughing, but stopped when she saw that she was hurting Lisa’s feelings. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not making fun of you, it’s just that this almost always happens with new riders,” she said. “They think they’re getting better horses with every lesson, but what’s actually happening is that their horses are getting better riders. You see, the more you know, the more you let the horse know who’s in charge. A horse somehow senses when a rider doesn’t know what she’s doing. And horses will take advantage of that right away. That’s why Max usually starts the newest riders on Patch. He’s very gentle and sweet—”

  “Except when he’s frightened, right?”

  “That’s right. Normally, you could trust him with a two-year-old. But Pepper, on the other hand, has a mind of his own. You’ve just learned enough about riding to show Pepper you’re the boss. You’ve learned a lot in just a few lessons, you know?”

  Lisa’s face flushed a little pink. She was both pleased and embarrassed. Carole was such a good rider that a compliment from her was almost as good as one from Max. She didn’t know how to respond, so she changed the subject from riders to horses. “Are horses really that different from one another?” Lisa asked.

  “You bet they are,” Carole said. “As different as people are. Pepper’s a nice even-tempered horse—as long as he knows what he’s supposed to do. If his rider starts giving him confused signals, say kicking with the legs to go forward and pulling on the reins to stop, he’ll get really stubborn. He likes things just so. Max really trusted you when he put you on Pepper.”

  Lisa gave the horse one final hug and pat, and when she was sure he was safe in his stall, she picked up the tack and stepped out into the hall. Carole rolled the door shut and latched it with the bolt and
the key chain snap.

  “What about Cobalt?” Lisa asked. “What’s he like?”

  “Cobalt’s a high-strung Thoroughbred. His mother is a hunter-jumper and his father was a racehorse. In horse talk, that’s his dam and his sire. Anyway, the result of breeding like that is that he’s very competitive—always has to be at the front of the pack. He competes with horses and with people and he always wants to take charge. If his rider gives him his way, forget it, he’s almost uncontrollable.”

  “Is that why Veronica has such a tough time with him?”

  “Yeah, and she’s scared of him, too.”

  “Would he hurt her?” Lisa asked.

  “Probably not. Most horses never want to hurt people, but they’re so big that sometimes they can’t help it. Anyway, there’s a greater danger that Cobalt would hurt himself than his rider if he got out of control.” Carole hated the idea of an innocent horse being hurt by a thoughtless or careless rider. She was thoughtfully silent while she helped Lisa hang up Pepper’s bridle. They each took the soda that Meg Durham gave them and left the stable, heading for the shopping center.

  “Then there’s a horse like Nero,” Carole continued. “He’s so laid-back that you think he’s lazy. But really, he’s just taking life at his own pace!”

  “I know that. I was trying to hold Pepper’s trot behind Nero today. It wasn’t easy!”

  “No, it wasn’t. But you were doing a pretty good job,” Carole told Lisa. “And Max noticed it, too.”

  “Hey, Carole, wait up!” Stevie called out. Carole stopped and turned around. Stevie was dashing after them.