She was brushing Sam’s coat when Amie and Jackie hurried over.
“We can’t wait for your party,” Jackie said. “Are you really going to make it a haunted hayride?”
Corey nodded. “We’ve got lots of spooky stuff planned,” she said. “And after the hayride we’re going to have a bonfire and tell ghost stories.”
Amie grinned. “Oh, good. I love ghost stories!”
Suddenly it seemed as if everyone wanted to talk about the party. While Corey was grooming Sam, several other riders came up. Every one of them said they were looking forward to the party. It made Corey feel even more glad the Pony Tails had decided to have a hayride.
After lunch, it was time for the Pony Tails to start the stable chores. The first chore was cleaning the tack in the tack room. Polishing metal stirrups and bits and rubbing down saddles with soap wasn’t Corey’s favorite job. It wasn’t too bad when her best friends did it with her.
As the Pony Tails worked, Jasmine told Corey that Sam had been good while Corey was at her father’s.
“Even around Midnight?” Corey asked.
“Well …” Jasmine hesitated. “Midnight wasn’t in her stall when we checked on Sam one time. Then another time, they were both in the paddock, but they weren’t grazing near each other.
“Corey,” May said sternly. “Forget about Midnight. She’s not bad luck, and she’s not spooking Sam.”
“Okay, okay,” Corey said. She grinned sheepishly. “You guys are right. Even Max said how great Sam’s doing.”
“Right. The one to worry about is Sarah,” May said.
Corey put down the jar of metal polish. “What do you mean?”
May and Jasmine exchanged looks.
“The other day we asked her if she wanted to ride with us,” Jasmine explained. “She said she couldn’t—”
“Because it was another odd-numbered day!” May chimed in. “Can you believe her? And get this. Yesterday, before she rode Midnight around the ring, we watched her tack up. Before she put the saddle on Midnight’s back, she walked around her three times. Then she said, ‘Hocus pocus, sucoh, sucop.’”
“What?” Corey wrinkled her nose. “Sucoh, sucop? What does that mean?”
“It’s hocus pocus spelled backward!” Jasmine exclaimed. “That’s what she said that lady, Mrs. Lily, told her to do before tacking up.”
May and Jasmine started to giggle.
Corey couldn’t giggle with them. She was still too worried about Sam and Sarah and her superstitions, no matter how silly May and Jasmine made them sound.
7 The Good-Luck Horseshoe
At four o’clock, it was time for the Pony Tails to go home. May’s father would be arriving soon to pick up the girls and their ponies.
May and Jasmine were ready first.
“We’ll meet you outside, Corey,” May yelled. “We’re going to wait in the driveway for my dad.”
“Okay,” Corey called back. “I’ll be there in a minute.” She hurried to Sam’s stall to untie him.
“Time to go home, boy,” she said, clipping on his lead rope.
On her way out of the stable, something caught Corey’s eye.
It was the good-luck horseshoe, which hung on the wall above the mounting block.
When Corey had started riding at Pine Hollow, the horseshoe was one of the first things May and Jasmine had told her about. Every rider was supposed to touch the horseshoe before a mounted Pony Club meeting. According to May and Jasmine, no rider who had touched the horseshoe had ever been seriously hurt. Corey had never really thought about it before, but in a way, the horseshoe was a superstition, too.
“Staring at the horseshoe won’t do you any good,” a voice said suddenly.
Corey turned around. Mrs. Reg, Max’s mother, was standing there, smiling.
“You have to touch it,” the older woman added. “The horseshoe can’t bring you luck unless you rub it.”
“I know.” Corey nodded. “May says it’s like magic.”
Mrs. Reg’s blue eyes twinkled. “Then again, maybe it’s just a silly superstition that everybody’s afraid to break.”
Corey stared at her, surprised. Mrs. Reg had done it again. Somehow Max’s mother always seemed to know what riders were thinking about—sometimes even before they knew it themselves!
Corey turned back to the horseshoe. “Why do people believe in superstitions anyway, Mrs. Reg?” she asked.
Mrs. Reg shrugged. “For some people they make new or unfamiliar situations less frightening.”
“Do you believe in them?” asked Corey.
“The way I see it, most superstitions are just plain foolish,” Mrs. Reg answered. “But a few of them are harmless. Like the good-luck horseshoe. It sure doesn’t hurt anybody to touch it. And it reminds riders to be careful.”
A horn tooted in the driveway outside.
“That’s Mr. Grover,” Corey said. “See you later, Mrs. Reg.”
Corey took one last look at the good-luck horseshoe.
Did it really protect the riders? she wondered.
She wished she knew the answer.
The Pony Tails chattered about the hay-ride all the way home from Pine Hollow.
“I finished making the tombstones for the graveyard last night,” Jasmine said. “Wait till you guys see them. I painted them with glow-in-the-dark paint.”
“Cool,” said May.
“My mom and I are going to work on a shopping list tonight,” Corey said. “We’re going to make spider cookies and some other Halloween snacks.”
“I’m still working on the ghosts to hang from the trees,” May said. “Believe it or not, my sisters offered to help us on the night of the party.” She giggled. “They’re very good at scaring people, you know!”
“Did you buy the CD, Corey?” Jasmine asked.
Corey nodded. “Wait till you hear the music—it’s pretty spooky.”
“Boy, you girls have thought of everything,” Mr. Grover said from the front seat.
“The Pony Tails always come prepared,” May declared.
A few minutes later, Mr. Grover stopped the station wagon in the Grovers’ driveway. Corey followed May and Jasmine as they hopped out of the car and ran around to the trailer in back.
“We’re home, boys!” May called to the three ponies.
Macaroni was the first to come down the ramp. As usual, he walked down with no fuss.
But when Jasmine tried to lead Outlaw out of the van, he tossed his head stubbornly.
Uh-oh, Corey thought, Outlaw’s about to make trouble.
Then Outlaw looked at Macaroni standing calmly outside. That was all he needed. He practically trotted out of the van and over to his friend’s side.
Corey laughed. Sometimes the Pony Tails’ ponies seemed to be as good friends as their owners were!
“Your turn, Sam,” Corey told her pony. She climbed into the horse trailer and untied Sam. He refused to budge.
“Come on, boy,” Corey murmured. Her friends were already leading their ponies over to the Grovers’ paddock. “You’ve been so good all day. Don’t make trouble now.”
Sam stomped one hoof and blew air through his nose.
“I guess you’re not going to do what I’m asking you to do,” Corey sighed. She headed down the ramp alone.
“May! Jasmine!” she called to her friends. “Can you …”
Corey’s words trailed off. She spotted something near the Takamuras’ barn. Sarah was leading Midnight around the paddock.
A shiver went up Corey’s spine.
Is that why Sam is being so stubborn? she wondered. Is he scared of Midnight?
Just then Sam let out a loud, pitiful whinny.
“What’s the matter, Corey?” May yelled as she and Jasmine raced over. Their ponies were tied to the fence around the Grovers’ paddock. “Won’t Sam come out?”
Corey shook her head. She was still staring at Sarah and Midnight.
May looked in the same direction.
“Corey,” May said warningly. “This doesn’t mean that Midnight spooked Sam.”
“You always have problems unloading Sam,” Jasmine reminded Corey.
Corey didn’t say anything as she and her friends tried to get Sam out of the trailer. She was worried about Sam. What if everything Sarah had told her was true? What if Midnight had spooked Sam? And what if Midnight spooked him again, the way he’d spooked the Thoroughbred at his last home? What if she couldn’t ever ride him again?
She couldn’t bear the thought.
A few minutes later the Pony Tails managed to get Sam down the ramp, but not without a fight. The three of them practically had to drag Sam outside and into the Takamuras’ barn. By the time Sam was settled in his stall for the night, Corey had made up her mind. Just as Mrs. Reg had said, some superstitions couldn’t hurt.
Corey was going to make a garlic necklace for her pony.
8 The Garlic Necklace
The next morning Corey and her mother went to the grocery store to buy food for the party.
When they got home, the phone was ringing in the kitchen.
Doc Tock picked up the receiver. “Hello?” she said. “Oh, hi, Jeff. How are you?”
Corey watched her mother’s face as she talked to the new vet at CARL.
“No, that’s not what I do.” Doc Tock frowned. “Champ gets fed twice a day, not once.” She listened for a second, then snapped, “Oh, I suppose so …”
When she hung up the phone, she sighed with frustration. “What is it with that man?” she burst out.
Corey smiled sympathetically. “It sounds like Dr. Helmer’s driving you crazy, Mom.”
“He is,” Doc Tock said. “He acts like he’s been around CARL forever. He doesn’t seem to respect any of my systems for treating the animals.”
Doc Tock continued to complain about Jeff Helmer while they unpacked the groceries.
Corey unloaded the bag filled with the ingredients for the spider cookies: plain wafers, vanilla frosting, and black licorice. She also unpacked the jar of marshmallow spread, which would get smeared across toast cut out in spooky shapes for the “ghost toast.”
Suddenly Doc Tock stopped talking about Dr. Helmer. She held up a plastic bag filled with garlic. “You never told me, honey. What’s the garlic for?”
Corey felt her face turn red. “I’m, uh, making a garlic necklace.”
“Is that to keep away the vampires during the hayride?” Doc Tock asked, laughing. “Boy, this is going to be some party. You girls have such great ideas.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Corey pretended to laugh along with her mother as she took the garlic and shoved it into her backpack. She wanted to tell Doc Tock the truth. She wanted to say that she was planning to make a garlic necklace to protect Sam from Midnight. Corey knew her mother would tell her she was just being silly. It was easier to just let Doc Tock think the garlic was for the party.
Corey had decided not to tell May and Jasmine about the necklace, either. For now it would be her secret.
As soon as they had finished unpacking the groceries, Corey grabbed her backpack and hurried upstairs. She dumped the garlic on her desk, then searched her drawers for a ball of string.
For the next few days, Corey managed to stop worrying so much about Sam. It helped that she spent most of the week at her father’s apartment. By the time she returned to her mother’s on Thursday, there was plenty to do for the Haunted Hayride.
On Friday afternoon the Pony Tails met in the Grovers’ stable.
“Ready to decorate?” May asked.
Corey nodded and took a roll of orange crepe paper from May. The girls were getting the hay wagon ready for the next night. Corey had the orange crepe paper, May had a roll of black crepe paper. They wound it around the wagon and taped it in place. Jasmine was in charge of fastening scary pictures of witches and skeletons to the sides of the wagon.
“It looks great!” May announced when they were through. Jasmine and Corey quickly agreed.
The Pony Tails’ next job was to load up the wagon with bales of hay. May stood on top of it while Jasmine and Corey lifted the bales up to her. The bales were heavy, and it was hard work.
Corey was thinking they would never finish when Sarah stuck her head into the Grovers’ stable. “Need help?” she asked.
“Sure!” May told her. “Come on up.”
Sarah hopped on top of the wagon. Things went much more swiftly after that. Together May and Sarah arranged the bales of hay around the edges of the wagon. Then the four of them covered the floor of the wagon with loose hay.
While they worked, Sarah told them more about her Pony Club.
“Next month we’re putting on a holiday show to raise some money. I’m supposed to be in the dressage competition.” She sighed. “I hope it’s held on an even day.”
May and Jasmine exchanged looks. But Corey was impressed. Dressage was a form of riding that required a lot of skill and precision. She hadn’t seen Sarah ride much, but if she and her pony could handle dressage movements, they must be pretty good together.
A few minutes later Sarah said she had to go.
Corey thanked her for her help.
“It was fun,” Sarah said, smiling. “I can’t wait for the party—Midnight and I are going home afterwards. My parents will be back by tomorrow night.”
The Pony Tails waved as Sarah left the barn.
“I’m glad she helped,” May said. “We’d still be working if she hadn’t come over.”
Jasmine was quiet. Suddenly she turned to Corey.
“I just remembered!” she declared. “That’s where I saw Midnight!”
“Where?” Corey asked.
“Remember that big Pony Club rally a few months ago?” Jasmine began.
“Yes.” Corey nodded. Jasmine was talking about a big rally Horse Wise had attended, along with several other local Pony Clubs.
“I think Midnight was the pony that threw a rider from Linton Pony Club,” Jasmine went on, “I don’t think the rider was Sarah—this girl had long blond hair.”
“Right.” May suddenly remembered. “Emma O’Rourke. She broke her arm, didn’t she?”
Jasmine nodded.
Corey could remember the rally, but not the accident. The event had been held right around the time she’d moved and started riding at Pine Hollow. Back then, she was still trying to learn about Horse Wise, her own Pony Club. She hadn’t paid much attention to the riders from other clubs.
May smiled. “I wonder if Emma made a mistake and rode Midnight on an odd day,” she said.
Jasmine giggled. “Maybe she forgot to say ‘Hocus pocus, sucop, sucoh,’ before she got on.”
Corey listened to her friends talk about Midnight and Sarah. She felt more and more nervous.
That was what Sarah had meant when she said Midnight had caused trouble at a Pony Club event. Midnight had thrown Sarah’s friend. That was one of the reasons Sarah believed Midnight was bad luck.
As soon as she got home that afternoon, Corey raced up to her room. She got down on her hands and knees and checked under her bed.
The garlic necklace looked a little dusty, but it was lying just where she’d put it earlier in the week.
“Don’t worry, Sam,” Corey whispered as she pulled it out. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you tomorrow night.”
9 All Aboard the Haunted Hayride
“Howdy, pardner!” A boy in a bat costume said as Corey opened the door. “I’ve come to suck your blood!”
“Cool costume, Billy,” Corey said, laughing. “Come on in. Everybody’s in the living room.”
Billy flapped his inflatable bat wings and followed Corey into the Takamuras’ house. Most of the riders from Pine Hollow had already arrived for the haunted hayride.
Doc Tock was trying to keep two of them under control.
“That’s enough, boys,” she called to Joey and Liam. Joey had on a pirate costume, and Liam was dressed as a knight. For the past ten minutes, they had been
trying to stab each other with their plastic swords.
“Sorry about that, Doc Tock,” Joey said, putting down his pirate sword.
Doc Tock smiled. “I don’t want anyone walking the gangplank before the hayride,” she joked.
The Pony Tails were dressed alike in their cowboy costumes. They each had on chaps, Western riding boots, tall cowboy hats, and shirts that Mrs. James had decorated with beads and fringe so that they’d look Western.
Erin Mosley had come as a princess, in a long white gown and a sparkling tiara. Sarah was dressed in a bright orange pumpkin suit.
“The hayride is going to be so great,” May whispered in Corey’s ear. “Everybody’s really excited.”
Corey nodded. “I hope it doesn’t rain,” she whispered back. “The weatherlady on TV said there’s going to be a thunderstorm tonight.”
“No way,” May said. She showed Corey her crossed fingers. “This is for good luck.”
A few minutes later May pointed out the window. “He’s here!” she shouted. “My dad’s here with the wagon.”
Everybody scrambled to get their coats and head out the door.
“All aboard the Haunted Hayride Express!” Mr. Grover called.
For the occasion, May’s father had gotten dressed in his own costume—flannel shirt and overalls, complete with a red-and-white bandanna and a monster mask.
Mr. Grover and Jack helped the kids climb onto the wagon. Liam and Joey were the first aboard. The two boys immediately raced for the back and start throwing hay everywhere.
“Cut it out!” Erin cried. She brushed hay from her tiara and gave the boys a nasty look.
May giggled. “She’s afraid they’ll ruin her princess costume.”
Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Wouldn’t that be a shame,” she muttered.
Minutes later, everyone was seated. The hay throwing had stopped—at least for now.
“We’re off,” Mr. Grover shouted. He flicked the long reins gently against Hank’s back, and with a lurch, the hay wagon left the Takamuras’ yard.
The Pony Tails exchanged excited looks.
Corey and the Spooky Pony (Pony Tails Book 9) Page 3