“Oh yeah?” he asked, obviously curious. “What’s that?”
For a moment Stevie faltered. The Saddle Club had never talked about secrecy. Still, she wasn’t sure if she should tell Phil about something the club was doing. She could definitely trust him, but would it be right to tell him without consulting her friends?
“It’s sort of a Saddle Club project,” she began uncertainly. “We’re working on a way to give Elsa and Debbie—and anyone like them—a taste of their own medicine. It’s still in the planning stages.”
“Oh,” Phil said. Stevie thought he sounded a little hurt not to be in on the plan.
“It’s really too bad you’ve got those two in your cabin,” Phil continued. “It gives you the wrong impression of this place. Nobody else is like that—at least not that bad. Moose Hill is a wonderful place and Barry is a great camp director and instructor. I had a neat time here last year, and I’m beginning to get the feeling that I’m going to have an even better time this year.”
Stevie knew better than to ask him what he meant by that. “Tell me about Teddy,” she said, changing the subject.
Phil had owned Teddy for three years. He’d had a pony before that and Teddy was his first horse. Teddy boarded at the stable where Phil rode. The Marstons didn’t have room for a horse at their house.
“I offered to share my bedroom with Teddy, but Mom pointed out that the stairs could be kind of tricky.”
“Boy, I’d do anything to have a horse of my own,” Stevie told him. “I’d even trade one of my brothers.”
“What a sacrifice!” Phil grinned. “I thought you said you’d trade one of them for a pack of bubble gum!”
“That too,” Stevie agreed. “Any day. And I don’t like bubble gum.”
“So if Topside isn’t your horse, whose is he?” Phil asked.
Stevie explained how Max had bought him from Dorothy DeSoto when she’d injured her back and had to give up competitive riding.
“That’s Dorothy DeSoto’s horse? You mean the Dorothy DeSoto?” Stevie nodded. “I’m impressed,” Phil said. “With a horse like that under you, you’ll probably take all the ribbons in the show.”
“You mean you don’t think I have the skill to do it by myself? I have to have a championship horse?” Stevie was a little annoyed at his tone. It made her wonder just how right he was when he’d said that Elsa and Debbie were the only two obnoxious competitors in camp.
“That’s not what I meant at all,” Phil reassured her. “I just meant that a rider as good as you on a horse as experienced at Topside … well, you may be unbeatable.”
“That’s the idea,” Stevie said. He smiled at her.
There was a long silence then. All Stevie heard was the gentle lapping of the pond water on the shore and the occasional hum of hungry mosquitoes. She bent her legs and wrapped her arms around them, hugging them close.
“You cold?” Phil asked. “You could have my sweater.”
“I’m okay.”
“Well, you look cold,” Phil remarked, removing his sweater. He put it across her shoulders and left his own arm there as well—for extra warmth, of course.
“Thanks,” she said. “I guess I was a little chilly. I just didn’t know it.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. Then he took his other hand and reached for Stevie’s chin, turning her face toward his.
Stevie couldn’t believe this was happening to her. Her mind was a jumble of confused thoughts and her heart was galloping like mad. Phil was about to kiss her! And she’d never been kissed by a boy before in her life! She didn’t know what to do. Should she close her eyes? Open them? Look away? Look up? Or just plain run?
In the faint evening light, she could see Phil smiling at her. Was he as confused as she was? He didn’t seem to be. Maybe he could read all of her thoughts and was laughing at her. What an awful idea.
“It’s going to be fun riding with you,” Phil said, breaking the silence. “I think I’ll even enjoy beating you in the horse show!” he teased.
Then he hesitated. Stevie gulped … and in that moment’s hesitation, there came a sound. It was the sound of taps on the camp PA system. That meant they were already supposed to be in their cabins—with the lights out.
“Boy, we’ve got to go!” Phil said, standing up suddenly. “Barry can be pretty strict about lights out. We’ll have to run.”
Stevie stood up, and Phil took her hand to lead her through the woods as they hurried back to the cabin area. He seemed to know his way very well, in spite of the darkness. Within a few minutes, he’d brought her to her front door.
“See you in the morning,” he whispered, waving to her.
“Yeah,” she whispered back and waved.
As soon as Stevie turned to the cabin, she saw Lisa and Carole waiting for her by the screen door.
“Get in here fast!” Lisa hissed. “Nora says there’s going to be a bed check in about two minutes!”
Stevie dashed up the stairs. As fast as she could, she took off her sneakers. There wasn’t time to change into her pajamas before the bed check. She just climbed into the bed and pulled the sheets and blanket up high to hide her clothes.
A moment later, the cabin door opened and Betty stepped in. Stevie peeked through one squinted eye. Betty glanced around the cabin and, assured there was a camper in each of the beds, turned to leave.
“Good night, girls. Sweet dreams,” Betty said.
Sweet dreams? Stevie thought. You bet! She was still wearing Phil’s warm sweater, and she pulled it around her shoulders and snuggled down in the bed. She touched her chin where Phil had touched it. Sweet dreams, indeed!
THE HARDEST TIME of the day at camp was in the first class after lunch. It was the only class The Saddle Club had with both Debbie and Elsa. It was the class in which they had to give Debbie and Elsa the impression that they were complete idiots.
“Stevie, what’s the matter with you?” Barry said in an irritated tone. “You know your diagonals as well as you know your own name!”
“Oh, but could you review it for me one more time?” Stevie whined convincingly.
Debbie and Elsa smirked.
Lisa and Carole smirked, too, but for a different reason. Stevie was doing a wonderful job convincing Debbie and Elsa that she was a dolt.
The whole class listened patiently while Barry explained diagonals to Stevie. Diagonals are related to a horse’s trot. At the trot, the horse’s diagonal front and back feet move together, making a two-beat gait. The rider is supposed to post, or rise and sit, with the two beats. When the horse changes directions—or reins, as it is called—the rider changes diagonals. That means that the rider sits for two beats and then begins posting again. New riders always found it a little complicated. Experienced riders did it properly, without thinking. Stevie was an experienced rider, but she was acting like the newest rider there ever was.
Elsa and Debbie gloated. The Saddle Club girls knew that the more inexperienced they appeared, the more certain Elsa and Debbie would be of victory in the horse show. Their plan was working.
Mornings were easier on them than afternoons. The girls had two classes every morning, and both were without Elsa and Debbie, so they could be as good as they wanted to be.
The first real class of the day was a jump class. Stevie and Carole had been jumping for a while and were quite good at it. Lisa had never jumped a horse intentionally. One she’d had to make a very speedy getaway from a bull in a pasture and had taken her horse over a four-foot fence. Max would have blown his stack at all three girls for being in the pasture with the bull in the first place and would have totally lost it if he’d learned how they’d gotten out, so they’d never told him about it and had sworn one another to secrecy. Also, having stayed on her horse on one jump didn’t make Lisa an expert—just lucky.
While Stevie and Carole worked on perfecting style over jumps at all levels, Lisa worked with cavalettis.
Cavalettis, Lisa learned, were really just poles laid on
the ground at intervals that would allow her and Major to get used to obstacles and to keep his strides even. Lisa strongly suspected that Major had a lot more experience in jumping over obstacles than she did. That was okay. Lisa was learning so quickly that she was sure she’d be jumping soon.
By the third day of working with cavalettis, Lisa found that the most important thing she had to do was to control Major’s strides and to learn how long his strides were at various gaits.
“I can’t believe how much fun I’m having beginning my jumping work,” Lisa told her friends while they cleaned tack in between classes.
“Just wait until you really jump over something,” Carole said. “There’s nothing like it. When you do it, it will mean that you have a whole new kind of control over your horse and a whole new skill in your riding. Don’t you agree, Stevie?”
“Oh, yes,” Stevie said. “Phil and I both love jumping!”
Lisa and Carole exchanged glances. They were getting used to Stevie referring to herself as “Phil and I.” It seemed that now that Stevie had a boyfriend, she was no longer one person, but part of a pair. It was always “Phil and I” or “Phil said” or some variation on the theme. Carole and Lisa both liked Phil, but Stevie was really carrying the “we” bit a little too far.
“Are you and Phil finished soaping the saddle?” Carole asked innocently.
The joke was lost on Stevie. “Phil? Is he here?” She turned, looking around for him.
“No, he’s not actually here,” Lisa said. “But you talk about him so much that he could be.”
“Oh,” Stevie said, blushing. Lisa would have thought that Stevie would be the last person in the world to blush, but she was doing an incredible amount of it these days.
“Do you think this is incurable?” Lisa asked Carole after Stevie had left to put Topside’s clean tack away. Since they’d spotted Phil headed in the general direction of the tack room, the girls didn’t think they’d see either of them until lunchtime, when they’d be flooded with new sentences beginning with “Phil and I” and “Stevie and I.” It was strange to see an independent girl like Stevie become so immersed in another person.
“I don’t know,” Carole answered. “But it’s hard to imagine good old Stevie going through the rest of her life in a haze.”
“That makes sense,” Lisa said as she buffed the last square inch of Major’s saddle. “Good old Stevie is still there, under all those “Phil and I’s” and blushes. She’ll reemerge soon enough. Then maybe we’ll be wishing for the dreamy Stevie again.”
“Not me,” Carole declared. “Barry had to call Stevie’s turn three times this morning in class. She was too busy helping Phil untangle his reins!”
Lisa laughed. “Enough! I’m putting my saddle away and then I’m going to check on Major. He had a stone in his shoe today and I want to make sure it’s not still tender. See you at lunch.” She walked over to the tack room.
Somebody had put a saddle where Major’s belonged. Lisa didn’t know whose saddle it was, but she had a good idea whose mistake it was, and his name was Fred. There were several empty saddle racks. Lisa moved the saddle to one of them and put Major’s in its proper place. She looked around. A lot of the saddles were carelessly balanced on their racks. Lisa shifted them so they all sat straight and, frowning at Fred’s carelessness, left the tack room.
Major was in his own stall in the lower section of the barn. She wanted to keep an eye on him until she was sure his foot was all right. Most of the time, when a horse had a stone stuck in his shoe any tenderness disappeared as soon as the stone was removed. Lisa was just being cautious, because every once in a while a stone could cause trouble that continued after it was removed.
Lisa clipped a lead to Major’s halter and led him out into the open area. She walked him the length of the barn. He seemed fine, just as she’d expected. She returned him to the stall and closed the gate.
Basil, Carole’s horse, had the stall next to Major’s. Lisa checked on him as well. He was fine. But there was something wrong with the horse next to Basil. It was Alamo, Nora’s horse. Lisa knew that Nora had finished class over an hour earlier, but the horse still had his saddle and bridle on. Nora wouldn’t be riding him for at least another hour, so there was no need for him to be tacked up while he was supposed to be resting in the stall.
Fred again.
Lisa considered the possibility that Alamo was going out again so soon that leaving the tack on was intentional. However, the last time she’d seen Nora, the girl was dismounting and handing the reins to Fred, and Lisa remembered distinctly that Nora had said she was going to take a swim before lunch. No, there was nothing intentional about this—it was just laziness. Lisa did what had to be done. She brought Alamo out of the stall, removed his saddle and bridle, put him back in, and took the tack up to the tack room.
When she’d finished putting Alamo’s tack away, she found Betty in her office. Lisa didn’t like tattling, but the horses’ welfare was at stake here. It mattered.
She told Betty about the mess in the tack room and about Alamo’s tack being left on him. Betty didn’t say much besides “Hmmm,” but her lips set into a thin angry line and she glared.
“Thanks,” Betty said, dismissing Lisa.
Lisa didn’t know what that meant. Probably Betty didn’t like tattling any more than she did. It was a rotten thing to do, but at any stable, horses came first.
BY THE FOURTH day of camp, the girls were so well settled in that they felt like they’d been there forever. Stevie and Carole were getting good at being bad, Lisa was getting better at being good, and they were all having a wonderful time. While Lisa and Carole’s favorite class was jumping and Stevie’s favorite was whichever one she had with Phil, they all agreed that they liked their early-morning trail rides the best. Anybody who wanted to could join in. Others were expected to use the time to work on specific skills in the ring. The trail ride came before breakfast, when the sun was just up and the fields were still dewy. It was an informal ride, one without constant reminders about keeping heels down and toes in, shoulders back or chin up. It was just for fun, and it was lots of fun.
“Sitting trot and then canter!” Eleanor called from her lead position. At the sound of her words, the horses came to life, ready to do what their riders wanted, ready to follow Eleanor’s instruction.
Max always told his riders that horses couldn’t speak English, so they had to use their hands, legs, and seat to communicate. Lisa suspected that wasn’t entirely correct. Most horses she’d ridden seemed to know the words for the gaits. As soon as Eleanor called out the word “trot,” Major was trotting. It didn’t take much longer until he was cantering.
Cantering was wonderful. It was sort of a rocking gait, and Lisa slid forward and back slightly in the saddle with Major’s strides. Although it was much faster than the trot, it was smoother and Lisa felt more secure. Major seemed to feel her excitement and responded with both greater power and smoothness. Lisa couldn’t help herself. She grinned with the pleasure of the experience.
Eleanor’s hand went up and the riders slowed their horses to a trot and then, quickly, to a walk. Carole pulled up beside Lisa.
“It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” Carole asked.
Lisa nodded.
“It’s what riding is about, you know. I don’t mean just cantering. A horse shouldn’t be asked to canter too much. What I mean is—”
“I know,” Lisa said. “Riding is about having fun, and this is as much fun as there is, right?”
Carole smiled at her friend. Sometimes she couldn’t believe how much Lisa had learned about riding in just a few short months. Lisa was good already, and she was going to get a lot better as time went on.
“That’s one of the things I was going to say, but there’s something else, too. The thing about riding is both learning enough to have fun, like we are right now, and then having enough fun to learn, like we do in class. The more you know, the better you ride, and the more fun it is.�
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The trail was narrowing, so Lisa dropped back behind Carole in line. “You mean that one day I’ll enjoy this even more?” she asked.
“Absolutely!” Carole called over her shoulder.
Lisa sighed contentedly. There was a lot to look forward to!
AT LUNCH THAT day, Lisa found that there was even more to look forward to.
“Girls and boys, may I have your attention, please,” Barry said, standing up in front of the group as they began eating their tuna fish sandwiches.
“Oh, this is going to be our surprise event,” Phil said, leaning toward Stevie and her friends to explain. “Barry does something special at the end of the first week of every session. Last year, we went to see Combined Training at a nearby stable. That would be great—”
“And this year, I have planned something entirely different,” Barry was saying. “Tomorrow morning after breakfast, we are leaving on an overnight camping trip. We will return the following afternoon. Please make sure that all your horses are in shape for the trip and that you have—”
Barry went on. He had a nearly endless list of things they had to do before they could go. The girls remembered their last overnight, right after Lisa had come to Pine Hollow and started riding. It had been fantastic, and they were sure this one would be, too.
“Give me a break!” somebody growled. It was Debbie.
“What’s the matter with an overnight trip?” Carole wanted to know.
Debbie made an unbelievably rude face. “Overnight? When we’ve got a show to train for? The next thing you know, he’ll have us doing—”
“Mounted games!” Barry announced. “Tomorrow after dinner when it’s still light, we’ll set up teams and have a sort of mini-gymkhana!”
Many campers clapped with delight. Debbie didn’t. Neither did Elsa. The Saddle Club girls didn’t care what those two sourpusses thought. They’d been working hard on their skills and it would be fun to put them to the test with some games.
Riding Camp Page 4