“Of course we can beat you,” she said, absolutely certain that she was one hundred percent right.
“That’s what you think.” He spoke sharply. Stevie was angry. How could he possibly think that he was as good a rider as she was? He was almost as good as she was, but not better, and certainly not better than Carole.
“You’re crazy,” she snapped. “The Saddle Club is going to outride, outrun, and outribbon every single rider in this camp. You included.”
Stevie stood up. Phil stood up, too.
“I—” he began. Stevie didn’t let him finish. She didn’t want to hear whatever it was that he had to say. If he thought he was better than she was, well then he could just spend some time alone with that wonderful thought.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” she announced. She spun on her heel and marched through the woods. Branches snapped in her face, but she didn’t feel them. She nearly tripped over a root, and didn’t notice. A briar ripped at her sweater. She didn’t care. For a second, she thought that she heard Phil call her name.
“Better than I am? No way!” she said to herself. “Better than Carole? Out of the question!” She continued talking as she stormed through the forest.
The woods were unfamiliar, but she remembered that the campsite was in a valley and that she and Phil had been walking uphill all the way. In just a few minutes, she came upon the flickering flames of the campsite. Unnoticed, she slipped into the tent she shared with Carole and Lisa. She put on her pajamas and climbed into her sleeping bag. She was still too angry to sleep, though.
Outside, beyond the canvas walls of her tent, she could hear her friends talking.
“… And then the werehorse said to the vampmare, ‘Don’t worry, my bark is worse than my bite.’ And the vampmare replied, That’s funny—mine isn’t!’ ” There were giggles and laughter. Stevie didn’t laugh. Right then, nothing was funny, except maybe the idea that Phil-the-super-duper-rider who thought he could take all the prizes might, just might, get lost in the woods.
And that was a comforting notion to go to sleep by, Stevie thought, drifting off at last.
“DO I DETECT trouble in paradise?” Lisa asked Stevie as casually as she could manage. She was riding next to Stevie as the campers returned to Moose Hill and for the first time in days, Phil was not in sight.
“Why would you say that?” Stevie retorted.
“Maybe it has something to do with the stony look on your face,” Carole said. “Which, I might add, perfectly matches the one on a certain guy’s, although you might not know it, since you haven’t looked at him all day.”
“Who?” Stevie asked innocently. Her friends got the message.
“Well, well!” Lisa said lightly. “Looks like the old Stevie is back!”
Stevie just glared. It was clear that she wasn’t up for any teasing. Lisa and Carole decided to leave her alone.
For Lisa, it was a little sad to be returning to Moose Hill. She’d had a wonderful time on the trip, enjoying every minute of it and learning every minute of it, too, thanks to Carole.
“Since we missed jump class again today,” Lisa said, “would you be able to work with me on the cavalettis and low jumps during free time this evening?”
“Oh, sure,” Carole replied enthusiastically. She was as glad for an opportunity to teach as Lisa was eager for one to learn. “You know, I think you’ll have a good shot at earning a ribbon in the Beginning Jumper category at the show. Don’t you agree, Stevie?” Carole asked.
“I don’t want to talk about the show,” Stevie grumbled.
Carole and Lisa were surprised. Whatever it was that was wrong with Stevie, it wasn’t just Phil. And it was clear that until Stevie got into a talking mood, they weren’t going to learn a thing. In the meantime, the best thing to do was to stay out of her way.
LISA HAD HAD a vague hope that the enjoyable time the campers had shared at the campsite, with the mounted games and the silly ghost stories, might improve the general attitude around camp and make a change in the way campers took care of their horses when they returned to camp. She was wrong.
The horses had no sooner reached the barn than the campers were nearly shoving one another aside to find the best untacking position, which was nearest the tack room and required the shortest walk carrying tack. Everybody seemed grumpy and selfish. Nobody wanted to do their own work, much less help others. It wasn’t the way riding should be, Lisa thought angrily. Friends helped one another and had fun working together. At least that was what she had found in The Saddle Club. So why couldn’t everybody see that? Why couldn’t everybody cooperate?
The whole operation was complicated by the fact that the farrier was coming in the morning. Barry had made an announcement about it. Most horses needed new shoes about once a month. A couple of the camp horses needed shoes and Barry wanted to make sure everybody who needed them would get them. All of the campers were to make a special check of their horses’ hooves and shoes, and any horse who needed new shoes would be kept in a stall in the barn overnight. The farrier would arrive at dawn and most of the horses would have their shoes by noon.
Lisa finished untacking Major, got him a bucket of fresh water, and led him out by the paddock, where she could groom him in the sunlight.
Every grooming began with a check of the horse’s hooves. Lisa began with Major’s left front foot. There was a lot of dirt lodged in there, but it all came out with a simple picking. She tapped the shoe. It was secure. One down, three to go. His left hind foot wasn’t so easy. The mud came out, but as soon as she tapped the shoe with the pick, it dropped off. That meant that Major would have to spend the night in the barn, waiting for the farrier. Worse still, he might not have his new shoes in time for her jump class. Lisa sighed. If riding horses meant having a wonderful time, it also meant learning patience.
Major’s right front shoe was missing and had to be replaced. If one was gone, all four had to go, because it meant the other three might go as well. There was no getting away from it: Major needed new shoes. And in the meantime, Lisa really shouldn’t ride him. She hoped Carole would let her ride Basil when they practiced this evening.
Lisa finished grooming Major, packed up his grooming gear, and took him into the stable area beneath the main barn. As she was giving him fresh hay in his stall, she suddenly remembered that she’d wanted to tell Barry about the moldy hay Fred had brought on the trip. She finished her work with Major and returned to the main level of the barn.
Barry was there, all right, but he was very busy. Debbie, it seemed, was now completely recovered from whatever it was that she’d been sick with yesterday and was having a heated argument with Barry.
“You said the judging at the show would be fair!” Debbie said hotly.
“And it will be,” Barry replied, trying to sound calm.
“How can it be fair if one of the other rider’s mother is a judge?” Debbie challenged.
“She’s a good judge,” Barry said. “She’s judged all kinds of competitions, including American Horse Show Association shows.”
The more Lisa listened, the more she learned. It turned out that one of the judges was Elsa’s mother. No wonder Debbie was so upset! It might even make her really sick! It occurred to Lisa that if Elsa’s mother was going to judge the show, it might not be too wonderful for The Saddle Club’s latest project, either, but she quickly dismissed the thought. She would love it if The Saddle Club could take all the ribbons at the show and teach some people lessons, but as she’d learned from Carole, the most important part about riding was learning enough to have fun.
In any case, it was clear that this was no time to talk to Barry, and Eleanor was nowhere in sight. That meant it was time for her to unpack her own overnight sack, put on a bathing suit, and test the waters in the pond. Without regret, she left the barn.
* * *
“STEVIE?”
Stevie didn’t look up. She was working on Topside’s coat, grooming it to a wonderful sheen. She knew who wa
s talking to her. She didn’t want to talk to him.
“You there?” Phil asked.
“Hmmm.”
“Teddy’s favoring one of his legs. He won’t let me touch it. Can you help him?”
That put Stevie in a quandary. She was still steaming mad at Phil and she didn’t want to lift a finger to help him. But helping Teddy was another matter. It was unfair to make Teddy suffer just because she was mad at his owner. Besides, since Phil had put it in terms of helping Teddy, she decided she could do it.
“You’re the best there is at picking out stones. That’s what I think it is. I hope—”
“Let’s see,” Stevie said abruptly. She put down the tools and looked up for the first time. Phil had cross-tied Teddy right across the barn from Topside. It was almost true that she hadn’t noticed Phil until he had spoken.
She rummaged through her tool bucket, took out her own hoof pick, and walked over to the horse.
Stevie could see right away that Teddy’s left front foot was bothering him. A horse at rest might lift a rear foot and casually shift his weight or just point the toe, holding the heel of the rear foot off the ground. But, when a front foot was held that way for a long time, there was probably something wrong.
Stevie approached Teddy. She patted him and spoke to him reassuringly. The last thing she wanted to do was to startle a horse with a sore foot.
“He was okay when I was riding him. I’m sure I would have noticed. So he must have just picked up a stone on the way into the barn. Isn’t that strange?”
Stevie just grunted. She spoke gently to the horse. “It’s okay, boy. I’m not going to hurt you. No trouble; here, boy. Just let me have a look.”
She slid her hand down his leg, put her shoulder against his, and reached for the hoof. Teddy lifted it for her.
“How do you do that?” Phil asked. Stevie didn’t bother to answer. After all, if Phil thought he was such a hotshot on horseback, why should he need any horse-care tips from her?
Gently, she probed the tissue of the hoof, removing dirt with her pick. She didn’t see anything wrong right away, but as she tapped the shoe, she knew there was something in there, because Teddy flinched at the touch.
She kept talking to him. It was the best way she knew to calm a horse, and this one needed calming. So did his owner, but Stevie didn’t speak to Phil.
“You picked something up here, didn’t you, boy?” She felt under the shoe with the pick. “I feel something there. We’ll get it out.” Whatever it was, it wouldn’t budge with the pick. Stevie tried the next best thing—her finger. She probed until she could reach the stone and then, slowly and carefully, began moving it. Every time it moved, Teddy reacted. Although she didn’t like hurting him, it would hurt him a lot worse if she didn’t get it out.
“It’s coming now, boy. It’ll just be a little bit longer. Hold on there, okay?”
With a final tug, Stevie got the stone out. It clattered to the barn floor. Stevie picked it up to examine it.
“That’s a nasty one, boy,” she told Teddy, looking at the sharply pointed stone that had been giving him so much trouble. “I don’t know how you stood it at all. Now let me have another look at that hoof.”
There was a bucket of water nearby. Stevie took her water brush, dipped it in the bucket, and began washing the sole of the horse’s foot. When the area was clean, she could see some discoloration. “Looks like you’ve got a bruise here, boy,” she said to Teddy. “It may be nothing, but if I were you, I’d tell my owner that I should stay in the barn tonight and be checked by the farrier in the morning. Besides, you don’t want to go running all over the paddock competing with those other horses when you’ve got a sore foot now, do you?”
She put the horse’s hoof down and stood up. “That’s a good boy,” she said, patting him.
“Thank you, Stevie,” Phil said. “You’re the best at that.”
“I’m glad to know you think I’m the best at something!” Stevie retorted and, without another word, returned to grooming Topside.
She thought Phil Marston had a lot of nerve trying to make her feel better by saying she was good at getting stones out. She was good at it, but it wasn’t what she wanted to hear him say.
When she finished with Topside, she turned him out into the paddock with the other horses and she returned to the cabin. Lisa had said something about a swim before supper. That would be good—especially if there were no boys there.
LISA WAS HAVING a wonderful dream. It was all about the camp-out—the trail ride, the games, the ghost stories around the camp fire. She was listening to more ghost stories around the camp fire. She could almost smell the pungent smoke. It tickled her nostrils and irritated her eyes. She was roasting marshmallows. But there was no smell of marshmallows. There was just the smell of smoke.
Lisa sat upright in bed. There was still a smell of smoke. “Fire!” she whispered, almost too frightened to say it out loud.
“Hmph,” rumbled one of her sleeping cabin mates.
She sniffed again. There was no doubt about it. Something was burning and Lisa had the awful feeling it wasn’t a camp fire. She hopped out of her bed and ran to the window. She could see the barn at the top of the hill. A flicker of orange was coming from the hayloft.
“FIRE!” Lisa yelled. Everybody was awake at once.
The girls didn’t wait to dress. They ran out of their cabin, screaming out the frightening word fire as they rushed through the cabin area. Other campers quickly joined them.
Lisa raced up the hill, Carole and Stevie beside her.
“It’s the hay,” Lisa said. “I know it’s the hay! All that moldy hay, and Fred left it in the barn. It started a fire!”
“Come on,” Carole urged. “Right now, that’s not important. Someone’s told Barry. He’ll call the Fire Department and they’ll take care of the barn. We’ve got to help the horses!”
The Saddle Club knew they only had a few minutes and every second could mean a horse’s life! Barns were filled with things that burned well. Hay, grain, straw, dry wood—all of it would fuel the fire, and within a short time the whole thing could just about explode.
Carole pointed to the upper paddock on the far side of the barn, where the horses were beginning to panic. The horses clustered near the barn, as if they were looking for the safety of a familiar shelter. They shifted and pranced, nudging and frightening one another. Their ears were pinned back in fear and tension, their eyes were opened wide, showing white all around. The horses were in terrible danger and every instinct they had was putting them at greater risk.
“Get them away from the barn!” Carole cried. “It could collapse on them!”
Lisa saw at once that she was right. If the animals could be moved to the other end of the large paddock and kept there, they’d be safe no matter what happened to the barn. Cooped in the paddock next to the barn, they only terrified one another, endangering themselves even more. But what could the girls do?
“The hilltop!” Lisa cried to Carole. “If we can get them on the other side of the hill, they won’t see the fire, and maybe they’ll stay away.”
Carole nodded. There wasn’t a second to spare on conversation. She barked orders at everybody nearby, and everybody began following them.
“Lisa, Debbie! Climb the fence on our side—don’t go inside, the horses could crush you—and try shooing them away from the barn. Jack, Nora, Elsa, go get cavalettis, jumps, barrels, anything you can think of to create a makeshift fence to restrain the horses in the far end of the paddock. You four, bring water, hay, grain, anything you can lay your hands on, to give the horses when they get there. We’ll need a big welcoming committee to make them feel at home. Seth, you help Lisa and Debbie. Use your shirt to wave at them if you want. Anything to get them to move, because I’ve got the feeling that wall’s going to collapse. And when it does, the horses aren’t the only ones who will have to be out of its way!”
Lisa looked over her shoulder at the barn. The long upri
ght slats of wood were glowing red with the heat and licking flames were visible behind them. The hay in the loft was burning so fast that the entire barn could be gone in just a few minutes. She began waving her arms at the frightened horses, just as Carole had told her. It was hard to imagine that this frantic herd of horses, prancing, jumping, and whinnying with fear, were the same horses who had been so obedient just a few hours ago when they’d been ridden. Her eyes searched among them for her own horse. But she didn’t see him. Maybe he was smarter than the others. Maybe he was already safe at the far end of the field.
Then the realization hit her. Major wasn’t safe in the field. He wasn’t safe at all. Major was in the barn!
STEVIE RAN TO the lower entrance of the barn where the horses were stabled. The fire had started in the loft, at the top of the barn. “Hot air rises,” she told herself. “It’ll burn, the whole thing will burn, but it goes up faster than it comes down. I’ve got time. I’ve got time.”
But when she got to the barn, she wasn’t so certain. The air was filled with the sound of crackling fire and it was close, too close. She could barely breathe, but the only thought she had was for the horses. Especially one horse—Teddy. She had put him in the barn, and she would get him out. There wasn’t time to get Barry or Eleanor to help. All she had to do, she told herself, was to open the door. The horses would run.
She could hear their loud whinnies and cries above the terrifying crackling of the consuming fire. The horses stomped on the wood floor in complete panic, drumming their hooves irregularly.
The she heard one cry, louder than the rest. She couldn’t wait. She had to free the horses. It didn’t matter where they went. It just mattered that they didn’t stay.
Without another thought, Stevie grabbed the handle to the door and pulled.
NEARLY FIFTY HORSES pressed forward in the upper paddock toward the barn. The fence was strong, but it wasn’t designed to withstand pressure like that. Lisa could feel the wood wobbling under the crush of the horses’ power. She waved frantically at the animals, but it was as if they didn’t see her at all. They pushed her hands away with their noses. Debbie, next to Lisa, wasn’t having any more luck. Eleanor and Betty joined them, as did six other campers. Finally, with so many people trying to get them to move away, the horses stepped back, but the horses in the rear hadn’t gotten the message. They pushed the whole herd forward again, surging against the weakened fence.
Riding Camp Page 6