Corey and the Spooky Pony
Pony Tails, Book Nine
Bonnie Bryant
I would like to express my special thanks
to Susan Korman for her help
in the writing of this book.
1 Two Great Ideas
Yeoowwwl!
As Corey Takamura hurried across her backyard to the barn, a howl filled the air.
Yeoowwwl!
The howl came again. Then a big, dark animal raced toward Corey and jumped up on her. She laughed as it began covering her face with kisses.
“I love you, too, Dracula,” Corey told her dog. “But you have to get down. I’m already late for the Pony Tails meeting.”
The big dog let out another of the weird-sounding howls that had given him his name. Dracula might sound spooky, but he was actually a very friendly dog.
After giving Corey a few more kisses, Dracula got down. He followed closely behind Corey as she continued across the yard to meet her two best friends, May Grover and Jasmine James.
Sometimes the Pony Tails got together at May or Jasmine’s house. But today they were meeting inside the Takamuras’ barn. It was the perfect place to meet for three animal lovers who called themselves the Pony Tails. Corey’s mother was a veterinarian. Dr. Takamura—whom everybody called Doc Tock—always had an interesting assortment of animals staying in the barn. This week the patients included an injured ferret, a basset hound named Ollie, and a litter of black kittens. Corey’s pony, Sam, also lived there, and so did her pet goat, Alexander.
As Corey entered the big old barn, a smile spread across her face. She couldn’t wait to tell her friends the news.
Every year one of the younger riders at Pine Hollow Stables gave a Halloween party. Pine Hollow was the stable where all three girls took lessons and went to Pony Club meetings. Corey had decided she would have this year’s party. The best part was, she was going to make it a hay-ride.
The riders from Pine Hollow would love the idea—and Corey knew her two best friends would love it, too!
May and Jasmine were already sitting in an empty stall, waiting for Corey.
“What do you think Corey will say?” May asked Jasmine nervously. “Do you think she’ll say it’s a good idea?”
Jasmine tucked a strand of blond hair back into her ponytail. “I’m not sure,” she said. “It sounds fun. But you have to admit that inviting fifteen kids and fifteen ponies to Corey’s house to go trick-or-treating is just a little bit crazy.”
“It would be so much fun,” said May. “Corey’s mom is used to animals, so she won’t mind the commotion. I bet Corey will think—”
“Think what?” a voice cut in.
May and Jasmine jumped as Corey stuck her head over the top of the stall.
“You scared me, Corey!” Jasmine said.
“Me too,” said May.
“Sorry about that, guys,” Corey said. She opened the door of the stall and sat down beside her friends. Dracula bounded in after her. “So what will I think about what?” she asked.
May shot a nervous look at Jasmine.
“Tell her your idea, May,” Jasmine said.
“Uh-oh. Another one of May’s ideas?” Corey couldn’t resist teasing her friend a little. Even May admitted that some of her ideas were crazy.
“You’re going to love this idea, Corey,” May said. “I’ve decided that you should have Pine Hollow’s Halloween party at your house this year.”
Corey stared at her friend, amazed. “I can’t believe it!” she said. “That was my idea, too!”
“What?” Jasmine said. “You thought of that, too?”
Corey nodded. Actually she shouldn’t have been too surprised that she and May had come up with the same idea. With the Pony Tails, that happened all the time.
Shortly after Corey had moved into the house between May’s and Jasmine’s, the three girls had become best friends. One reason they liked each other so much was because they were all pony-crazy. Each girl owned her own pony, and she loved to ride that pony more than anything else in the world.
“Wait till you hear the rest of my idea,” Corey went on. “I’m going to make the party a hayride! Won’t that be fun?”
Corey babbled on for a few more minutes. Finally she realized she was the only one talking. Jasmine seemed interested in the hayride, but May was just sitting there, staring down at the straw.
“What’s the matter, May?” Corey asked. “Did I say something that hurt your feelings?”
“Of course not, Corey,” May said. She smiled, but Corey thought May still looked sad, or maybe disappointed.
“Don’t you like my idea?” Corey asked.
“Having a hayride is a great idea, Corey,” May began. “It’s just that I had a different idea. …”
“May wanted the party to be a trick-or-treating party,” Jasmine said. “She thought we could invite the riders and their ponies, and we could all go trick-or-treating on horseback.”
“Ponyback,” May corrected her friend.
“Oh,” Corey said as the words sank in. So that was why May had been so quiet.
For a few minutes there was an uncomfortable silence. Corey rubbed Dracula’s ears. She didn’t want to say so, but May’s idea would never work. Doc Tock liked ponies almost as much as the Pony Tails did, but she wouldn’t like fifteen of them coming to her house all at once.
Finally Corey knew what to do.
“I’ve got it!” she shouted. “We can have a hayride and go trick-or-treating on ponyback!”
“What?” May stared at Corey. “Do both of them? I don’t think so, Corey.”
“We can have the hayride for the kids from Pine Hollow a couple of nights before Halloween,” Corey explained. “And then on Halloween, the three of us can go trick-or-treating on ponyback ourselves. That would work—wouldn’t it?”
May beamed. “Corey Takamura, you’re a genius,” she declared.
“No wonder we call you the most sensible member of the Pony Tails,” Jasmine agreed.
Corey smiled happily. “You guys stay right here.” she said, jumping to her feet. “I’ll go get some paper and pencils and we can write down our ideas for the party.”
“Hurry up,” May said. “Halloween is only two weeks away. We’d better get started.”
Corey swung open the stall door and rushed out into the corridor. She was so glad that everything had been worked out.
Suddenly something black and furry ran across the toe of her sneaker.
“Aaagh!” Corey shrieked.
2 The Black Cat
Corey’s sharp cry echoed through the barn.
May and Jasmine bolted out of the stall.
“Are you okay?” Jasmine asked.
Corey was standing in the aisle with an embarrassed look on her face. “I’m fine,” she said. “One of the kittens ran by and scared me.”
Just then the tiny black kitten scooted out from between two bales of hay. It dashed past Corey again.
“Uh-oh, Corey,” Jasmine teased her friend. “You know what it means when a black cat crosses your path.”
“Woooooo.” May made a ghostlike sound. “Bad luck,” she added.
“You two have Halloween on your brains,” Corey said with a grin. “Black cats aren’t really bad luck. That’s just a silly superstition.”
Jasmine nodded. “It’s as silly as believing that walking under a ladder is unlucky,” she agreed.
“Or that breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck,” May added.
“Right.” Corey nodded. On the way to the house, she thought about the black cat that had made her shriek.
How could
a tiny little kitten have spooked her like that?
An hour later, the Pony Tails had finished planning the Halloween party.
First they had decided they’d all be cowboys when they trick-or-treated on Halloween. Even though the Pony Tails rode English style, they were sure they could find or borrow Western gear, like boots and leather riding pants called chaps.
“My mom has a bunch of cowboy hats,” Jasmine said. “And I bet she can make us some Western shirts.”
The Pony Tails had also decided that the “Haunted Hayride” two nights before Halloween would travel through the big field behind their houses. Along the way, they could set up spooky things to scare the kids in the hay wagon.
Jasmine was going to make fake tombstones. May wanted to dangle ghosts made out of sheets from the trees in the nearby woods.
“Maybe I can buy a CD with scary music,” Corey said.
Her friends spoke at exactly the same time.
“Not too scary,” Jasmine said.
“Really scary,” May said.
Corey laughed. The Pony Tails might have a lot in common, but they sure had differences, too!
“The most important thing on this list is renting a hay wagon,” Corey added. “I’d better get Mom to do that right away.” She wrinkled her nose. “I hope it doesn’t cost too much.”
Suddenly May snapped her fingers. “We have an old wagon in our stable,” she said. “I’m sure my dad will let us borrow it. And I bet Hank could pull it.”
“That would be great,” Corey said.
“I’ll ask Dad tonight,” May promised.
Corey checked the list one more time. They were inviting twelve riders from Pine Hollow to the party, as well as May and Jasmine’s friend, Joey Dutton. Joey used to live in Corey’s house.
“I’ll call Natalie, Jessica, Jackie and Amie,” Corey said. “May, why don’t you call Joey, Liam …” Her voice trailed off. “Did you guys hear that?”
Jasmine shook her head. “Hear what?”
“That,” Corey said as the sound came again. “I thought I heard something—like footsteps.”
The girls were quiet for a few minutes, listening. As usual, there were plenty of animal noises in the barn. Jasmine could hear Alexander bleating and Dracula chasing a ball. Outside, Sam was shuffling his feet around in his paddock as he looked for clumps of grass to nibble on.
Jasmine turned back to Corey. “I don’t hear anything,” she told her friend. “Maybe it was the kittens again.”
“Or Jack,” May suggested. Jack Henry was Doc Tock’s assistant, and he was always working in the vet’s office or inside the Takamuras’ barn.
“Maybe it was Jack,” Corey said finally. “Or maybe I was just imagining things.”
“This time you’ve got Halloween on your brain,” Jasmine teased her.
“Definitely.” Corey laughed, then said, “I’ll invite Sarah Henry to the hayride.”
“Who’s that?” Jasmine asked.
“Jack’s niece,” Corey explained. “She’s staying with Jack for a few weeks while her parents are away. She’s been helping him with Mom’s patients. She’s a rider, too.”
“I bet she’d want to go on a hayride,” Jasmine said.
The girls divided the rest of the names of the riders on the party list. They had just finished when they heard one of May’s sisters calling from the next yard.
“May!” Dottie yelled. “Dinnertime!”
“Coming!” May yelled back. “I guess I’d better get going,” she told her friends.
“Me too,” Jasmine said. She rolled her eyes. “My dad’s making tofu burgers for dinner. Yechh!”
Her friends nodded understandingly. Jasmine’s parents were vegetarians. Jasmine liked most of what her parents cooked, but not tofu burgers. “See you guys tomorrow,” Jasmine added.
After her friends were gone, Corey spent a few more minutes in the barn visiting with the bassett hound and playing with the kittens. At six o’clock she hurried up to the house for dinner.
She couldn’t wait to tell her mother about the Haunted Hayride. Spooking her friends from Pine Hollow was going to be so much fun!
3 Something Spooks Sam
“Sam’s doing great today!” Jasmine called to Corey. “He hasn’t missed one of your signals.”
Corey nodded proudly. It was after school on Monday, and the Pony Tails were riding their ponies in the ring behind the Grovers’ house. Mr. Grover was a horse trainer and often used the big ring to train his students. When he wasn’t using it, he let the Pony Tails ride there.
“Good boy, Sam.” Corey patted her pony’s neck. Sam’s real name was Samurai because of the crescent-shaped blaze on his face, which looked like a samurai sword. He was a young pony and not as well trained as May’s and Jasmine’s ponies. But Corey had been working hard with him. That hard work was starting to pay off.
“Let’s trot!” May called out.
Corey nudged Sam with her heels, and the pony obediently switched his gait from a walk to a trot. That was what the Pony Tails were working on with their ponies—gaits. For the past hour they’d been practicing the walk, trot, and canter.
“Good job, boy,” Corey told Samurai. The two of them trotted evenly behind Jasmine and May.
Corey watched Jasmine try to get Outlaw to pick up speed by lengthening his strides. Outlaw was feeling lazy, and that was showing up in his slow trot. Jasmine nudged the Welsh pony, and this time he followed her signal. Like Sam, Outlaw was usually a frisky pony and needed close attention.
Meanwhile May’s pony, Macaroni, was trotting perfectly. Macaroni was a yellow pony, the color of macaroni and cheese. Unlike the other two ponies, Macaroni almost never misbehaved.
The Pony Tails circled the ring at a trot for the third time.
“Hi, Corey!”
At the sound of her name, Corey looked to the right. A girl with short brown hair stood at the side of the ring, watching the Pony Tails ride.
“Hi, Sarah!” Corey yelled. It was Jack Henry’s niece, Sarah. Corey slowed Sam to a walk and rode him over to Sarah.
“Sam’s such a nice pony!” Sarah patted Sam’s soft nose. “Is he always this well behaved?”
Corey smiled and shook her head. “No way,” she said. “He’s a great pony, but he definitely has a mind of his own.”
May and Jasmine joined them at the edge of the ring. Corey introduced them to Sarah.
“Corey’s been working really hard with Sam,” May piped up. “It’s made a big difference.”
“You should have seen him when Corey and her mom first moved in,” Jasmine said. “Sam had a lot of problems getting used to his new home.”
“That’s true,” Corey admitted. “He even ran away for a whole week once. But now our barn is his favorite place in the world. He acts like he’s the king of the place.”
“Well, you must be doing something right, Corey,” Sarah told her. “Sam switches gaits so smoothly. It looks like you’re in total control.”
“Corey told us you’re a rider,” May said. “Do you have your own pony?”
Sarah nodded, smiling happily. “That’s why I’m waiting out here,” she said. “My pony, Midnight, is going to be boarding at Doc Tock’s while my parents are away. Uncle Jack just went to pick her up.”
“Her name’s Midnight?” Jasmine smiled. “I bet she’s a black pony.”
Corey thought Sarah hesitated before she answered. “Actually she’s a gray. Her first owner named her Midnight because she was born at the stroke of midnight.”
“Oh.” Jasmine nodded.
The Pony Tails and Sarah chatted about ponies and riding for a few more minutes. Sarah told them she belonged to Linton Pony Club.
May nodded. “I’ve seen Linton at lots of Pony Club events,” she said.
That reminded Corey. “We wanted to invite you to our Halloween party,” she began. “We’re having a hayride and—”
“I heard you talking about that the other day in the barn,” Sarah
cut in eagerly. “I’d love to come—it sounds really fun.”
So it was Sarah she’d heard yesterday in the barn, Corey realized.
Just then Jack pulled up with a horse trailer.
“Hey, there’s Midnight!” Sarah exclaimed. She ran over to greet Jack and her pony.
“Sarah must be so glad Midnight is here,” Jasmine said. “I hate when I go away and have to leave Outlaw behind.”
Corey nodded. “It’s really hard when I leave Sam to go to my dad’s,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do if you guys didn’t look in on him.”
Corey’s parents were divorced. She spent half the week with her mother and the other half with her father. At first it had been hard living in two different places, but she had gotten used to it.
“Hi, girls!” Jack called as the Pony Tails approached on their ponies. “I’m glad you met Sarah.” He grinned. “I’ve already told her that you three are as pony-crazy as she is!”
The Pony Tails laughed. Corey didn’t know Sarah very well. But she could already tell that Sarah loved her pony.
“Come on, Sarah,” Jack said. He gestured with his thumb to the rear of the horse van. “Let’s get Midnight unloaded. I’m sure you’re eager to go riding with these girls.”
“Why don’t you tack up Midnight and meet us in the ring?” May asked.
“We’re practicing gaits,” Jasmine added.
“Uh …” Sarah blushed. “I can’t go riding right now,” she said.
“Do you have to get Midnight settled or something?” May asked.
“No.” Sarah shook her head. “It’s an odd day,” she said. “And I only ride Midnight on even days.”
“What?” Corey had never heard anything so strange.
“Haven’t you heard that grays are bad luck?” Sarah said, lowering her voice.
“Yes … but …” Corey knew that some people considered gray horses bad luck—especially gray racehorses. But she didn’t know people believed that about ponies, too.
“That’s ridiculous,” May scoffed. “My family owns a gray horse named Hank. He’s going to pull the hay wagon at our party. He’s always been good luck, not bad luck!”
Corey and the Spooky Pony (Pony Tails Book 9) Page 1