Horse Care

by Bonnie Bryant

  ALONE AND AFRAID

  Lisa collapsed flat on the ground on her stomach, squeezing her eyes shut tight as she waited for the shooting pains to subside again. What was she going to do? She was in a strange forest, far from any traveled trail, in the middle of a rainstorm. She couldn’t walk, and even if she could, she wouldn’t know which way to go. She buried her face in her uninjured arm and started to cry.

  She was sobbing so loudly that she almost didn’t hear the sound coming from directly above her. A soft, tentative sound, almost lost in the pounding of the rain and the whistling of the wind through the treetops. A familiar sound. Lisa stopped crying. Could it be?

  Gathering all her strength, she rolled onto her side and looked up. A pair of large, soft brown eyes stared back at her. Then the sound came again: a whuffling nicker.

  “Tiny!” Lisa cried to the horse. “You came back!”

  RL 5, 009–012

  HORSE CARE

  A Bantam Skylark Book / April 1998

  Skylark Books is a registered trademark of Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Registered in U.S. Patent

  and Trademark Office and elsewhere.

  “The Saddle Club” is a registered trademark of Bonnie Bryant Hiller.

  The Saddle Club design/logo, which consists of a riding crop and a riding hat, is a trademark of Bantam Books.

  “USPC” and “Pony Club” are registered trademarks of The United States

  Pony Clubs, Inc., at The Kentucky Horse Park, 4071 Iron Works Pike, Lexington, KY 40511-8462.

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 1998 by Bonnie Bryant Hiller.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  For information address: Bantam Books.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-82577-3

  Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada.

  Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.

  v3.1

  I would like to express my special thanks to Catherine Hapka for her help in the writing of this book.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  About the Author

  LISA ATWOOD GLANCED at her watch as she hurried up the driveway of Pine Hollow Stables. “Rats,” she snapped, even though there was no one around to hear her. She broke into a jog.

  When she reached the main stable building, she swung open one of the big double doors and went inside. Then she glanced at her watch again. She wasn’t going to be late for her Pony Club meeting. That was a relief. She hated being late, even for appointments she set for herself. And today she had planned to spend some time with Prancer, the mare she usually rode, before her Pony Club meeting. Why had her mother chosen this morning—right before Horse Wise—to break her rotten news?

  “At least it’s not a mounted meeting,” Lisa muttered under her breath as she rounded the corner into the U-shaped stable aisle.

  Horse Wise, Pine Hollow’s Pony Club, met every Saturday morning. The meetings alternated between mounted and unmounted sessions. At the mounted meetings, the students practiced their riding and learned new skills. At the unmounted meetings, they learned about all aspects of horse care, from grooming to veterinary care to stable management. Today’s meeting was an unmounted one, which meant that Lisa didn’t have to tack up Prancer, which meant that she still had a few free minutes before she had to head to the indoor ring.

  When Lisa reached Prancer’s stall, the tall, elegant-looking Thoroughbred was munching quietly on a mouthful of hay. When she saw Lisa, she pricked her ears forward and let out a snort.

  “Hey there, girl,” Lisa whispered, reaching over the half door of the stall to stroke the horse’s glossy neck. Just seeing Prancer made her feel a little calmer. She let herself into the stall and went about giving the horse a quick grooming.

  A few minutes later she reluctantly said good-bye to Prancer. “Sorry to groom and run,” she told the horse with a final pat. “I’ll make up for it after the meeting. I promise.”

  Lisa left the stall and went to find her two best friends. She found them exactly where she expected to find them—in the stalls of their own horses.

  Carole Hanson was spreading fresh straw on the floor of a large box stall while her horse, Starlight, waited patiently in cross-ties in the aisle. Stevie Lake was letting herself out of the stall next to Starlight’s. Stevie’s horse, a lively mare named Belle, was nibbling at her owner’s sleeve as if to hold her back.

  “Stop it, Belle,” Stevie said, giggling, as she pushed the horse’s head away and swung the half door closed. “I already told you, you big goofball. You can’t come to the unmounted meeting. Not even if you sit in the back and keep quiet.”

  Despite being distracted by her own worries, Lisa couldn’t help smiling at the image of Belle sitting on a bench in the indoor ring, listening to a lecture on horse-manship. “I don’t know about that,” she said. “Maybe if you put one of those fake-nose-and-glasses disguises on her, Max might think she was just a visiting student from another stable.” Max Regnery was the owner and manager of Pine Hollow, as well as the girls’ riding instructor. He definitely was not the type of person who would fail to notice if a horse showed up where it wasn’t supposed to be, disguise or no disguise.

  Stevie looked up. “Hi, Lisa. Hey, that’s not a bad idea,” she said with a grin. “Come to think of it, I have one of those disguises in my cubby.”

  Carole rolled her eyes. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Stevie’s sense of humor was legendary. She loved to play pranks and practical jokes of all kinds.

  Carole and Lisa weren’t nearly as mischievous as Stevie most of the time. But that hadn’t stopped the three of them from becoming best friends and forming The Saddle Club. The group had only two rules: Members had to be horse-crazy, and they had to be willing to help each other out however and whenever help was needed. Sometimes the girls’ different personalities meant they provided different kinds of help. Stevie was always ready to suggest impulsive solutions to problems. Lisa usually had sensible, well-thought-out ideas. And Carole, the horse-craziest of the three girls, almost always managed to involve horses somehow.

  “Come on, let’s get to the meeting,” Carole said, glancing at her watch. “I want to get a good seat.”

  “Do you know what it’s about?” Stevie asked, latching Belle’s stall door.

  “Max didn’t say last week.” Carole led Starlight back into his stall. Then she leaned out to add, “But a little bird told me Judy’s coming to speak.”

  Judy Barker was a local vet who took care of the Pine Hollow horses. Carole sometimes volunteered after school as her assistant, accompanying her on her rounds of the area’s stables and farms.

  “Did she tell you the topic?” Stevie asked, reaching into Belle’s stall to tickle the mare playfully in her favorite spot.

  Carole shrugged as she emerged from Starlight’s stall and closed the door. “No,” she said. “
She says it’s a surprise. But she promised it would be interesting.”

  “Maybe I should have asked Phil to come this week,” Stevie mused. Horse Wise members were allowed to bring guests to unmounted meetings, and Stevie sometimes invited her boyfriend, Phil Marsten, who lived about ten miles away and rode at a different stable. “That reminds me,” she said with a sudden frown. “I was all set to beg Max to make a special exception so that Phil could come to next week’s mounted meeting. But before I could come up with a good story, Phil told me he can’t make it.” She shrugged, looking annoyed. “Something about his sister’s birthday party.”

  “What a silly excuse,” Carole said jokingly. But she could understand why Stevie was disappointed. Max had already announced that he would spend next week’s Horse Wise meeting working with the more advanced older riders on the pirouette, a challenging dressage move, while the younger riders worked with Red O’Malley, Pine Hollow’s head stable hand and a great rider and teacher in his own right. All three members of The Saddle Club were excited about improving their pirouettes, in which the horse must complete a full circle with its front hooves while keeping its back hooves in one spot. Stevie was the most excited of all. She was very interested in dressage and loved to practice it. “And how inconsiderate of his sister,” Carole went on. “What nerve, being born on the same day as a Horse Wise meeting.”

  Stevie was still looking grumpy, but she couldn’t help laughing. “Ha,” she said. “Very funny.”

  Carole winked at Lisa, then turned back to Stevie. “Don’t worry,” she said. “Once Phil hears you’re working on a pirouette at the walk, he’ll find a way to work on it himself and do it at the canter. Just to make sure your relationship stays interesting.”

  Stevie grinned. She and Phil were both very competitive, a trait that had almost ruined their relationship more than once. But by now they had learned not to take things so seriously—most of the time, anyway. “Very funny,” Stevie said again, sticking out her tongue at Carole. “You don’t know what it’s like. Just wait until you have a boyfriend. A very busy boyfriend who never has time for you.”

  Carole laughed. She could tell Stevie was joking. “Hey, no problem,” she said. “As long as what he’s busy with most of the time is horses, I’ll be satisfied.” She glanced over at Lisa for support, but Lisa was staring blankly at Starlight.

  Stevie noticed, too. “Uh, Lisa?” she said. “Earth to Lisa! Come in, Lisa!”

  Lisa blinked, then glanced at her friends. “Oh!” she said. “Sorry about that. When you mentioned next week’s meeting, I guess I kind of spaced out.” She took a deep breath. “You see, I just found out I won’t be able to make it.”

  “What!” Stevie exclaimed, knocking over Belle’s grooming bucket. She hardly noticed when the brushes and rags and currycombs scattered across the floor. “What do you mean, you can’t make it?” Such a thing was unheard of. Nothing short of a major vacation or serious illness kept a member of The Saddle Club away from Pine Hollow on a Saturday morning.

  “I was pretty stunned myself when my mom told me,” Lisa said grimly.

  “Explain,” Stevie said simply, picking up the grooming tools.

  “My mom made a new friend at one of her volunteer committee meetings,” Lisa said. “Her name is Mrs. Mills, and she lives over in Colesford.” That was the name of a town about twenty miles from Willow Creek, Virginia, where The Saddle Club lived. “She invited my parents to some kind of fancy all-day charity auction and party next Saturday.”

  “What does that have to do with you?” Carole asked. “If your mom is worried about your being home alone, you can come and stay with me.”

  “Great idea,” Stevie said. “Why don’t we make it a sleepover? We can make popcorn, watch movies …”

  “Talk about pirouettes,” Carole supplied. “Maybe call up Phil and taunt him about not being able to do one.”

  Stevie grinned and tossed a rub rag at Carole. “And figure out where to find Carole a boyfriend who’s even horse-crazier than she is,” she teased. “If that’s possible. Which I doubt, unless you’re talking about a member of the Olympic Equestrian—”

  “Stop!” Lisa interrupted, a little upset. Her friends already seemed to have forgotten what they were supposed to be talking about. “That’s not the problem. The problem is that I’m supposed to go to Colesford with them and spend the day hanging out with Mrs. Mills’s daughter, Marguerite.”

  Carole looked confused. “Why?” she asked. “You don’t know her, do you?”

  “Of course not!” Lisa felt frustrated. Sometimes the three members of The Saddle Club seemed to know each other so well that they could read each other’s minds. This clearly wasn’t one of those times. “Don’t you get it? My mom is so impressed with Mrs. Mills that she’s sure Marguerite is just the right kind of friend for me to have. So she volunteered me to go riding at Marguerite’s stable in Colesford and then hang out with her all evening until the adults get back from their fancy party—even though it means I’ll miss Horse Wise and our jump lesson afterward.”

  Carole wasn’t sure why Lisa looked so angry. It was definitely disappointing to have to miss a day at Pine Hollow—especially a day when they would be learning something so interesting. But the alternative didn’t sound as horrible as Lisa seemed to think it was. “At least Marguerite is a rider,” she offered tentatively. “It might be fun to try a new stable.”

  Stevie nodded. “And you never know,” she added. “Marguerite might be nice.” She shrugged. “I’m sure Max will forgive you for missing one Horse Wise meeting. Maybe. If you muck out about a million stalls and promise to mix the grain for an entire year.”

  Lisa could tell that her friends were trying to cheer her up. Maybe they had a point. Maybe she was making too much of this because she was angry that her mother hadn’t consulted her. She shouldn’t take that anger out on Marguerite Mills—or on the rest of The Saddle Club, either.

  Lisa did her best to smile. “Well, maybe you’re right.” She bent to retrieve a dandy brush that Stevie had missed and tossed it into the bucket. “My mom said she told Mrs. Mills about how I like to ride, and Mrs. Mills says Marguerite spends just as much time at her stable as I do here.”

  “Where does she ride?” Stevie asked.

  “Fox Crest Farms,” Lisa said. “I’ve never heard of it, have you?”

  Carole shook her head. “I guess they’re not on Judy’s list of patients.”

  “Well, my mom seems to think it’s very exclusive.” Lisa rolled her eyes. “It’s very small and probably outrageously expensive.”

  “Really?” Stevie said, looking interested. “Hmmm. Maybe we can convince our favorite local snob to start riding there instead of here. What do you think?”

  Both of her friends knew exactly whom Stevie meant—Veronica diAngelo. Veronica came from one of the wealthiest families in town, and she thought that made her better than everyone else. She was always bragging about her expensive horse, Danny, or showing off her overpriced, custom-made riding attire.

  Stevie continued without waiting for a response. “That could be the perfect solution,” she said. “I mean, sure, Colesford is a bit of a drive from here. But I’m sure Veron—Hey! Ow! What did you do that for?”

  Carole had just elbowed Stevie in the ribs. She did it again. “Shhh,” she hissed. Then she nodded toward the end of the stable aisle. Veronica herself had just come around the corner.

  Veronica spotted them immediately and frowned. “What are you three still doing here?” she said in her usual unpleasant tone. “Shouldn’t you be in the ring sucking up to Max by now?”

  Carole and Lisa didn’t bother to respond. They didn’t care if Veronica thought they were teacher’s pets. They knew it was only because she was so careless about her responsibilities around the stable. Max expected all his riders to help out with chores, but Veronica had a real talent for making herself scarce whenever there was work to be done.

  Stevie couldn’t let the snobby g
irl’s comment pass, though. “Hey, Veronica,” she said. “Didn’t you just wear those boots yesterday? I thought you had a new pair for every day of the year.”

  Veronica rolled her eyes. “Is that supposed to be funny, Stevie?” she said with a sneer. “That’s pretty weak, even for you. Anyway, you’d better be a little nicer, or I might not tell you the fantastic news I just heard.”

  If there was one thing Stevie was sure of, it was that Veronica couldn’t keep her mouth shut when there was gossip to spread. Usually her gossip was boring stuff about who was having a party or about the latest new couples at school. Still, Stevie thought, it was just faintly possible that Veronica had actually managed to find out the secret topic of today’s meeting.

  “What is it, Veronica?” Carole asked. Stevie could tell that her friend was thinking the same thing she was.

  Veronica smiled. “Oh, it’s no big deal,” she said in a casual tone. “It’s just that I heard we’re getting a new student today. A boy. And I hear he’s incredibly cute.”

  Stevie snorted. “Stop the presses,” she said dryly. She glanced at Carole and Lisa. “Come on, we’d better get over to the ring. I think Judy’s talk will be more interesting.” She turned around to give Belle a good-bye pat, purposely ignoring Veronica.

  Veronica looked annoyed. “Fine,” she said. “I should have known you three were too immature to appreciate my news.” She spun on her heel and stomped away, not even pausing to look in on Danny, who was in a stall nearby.

  “Do you think we’re really getting a new student?” Lisa wondered aloud as Veronica disappeared around the corner.

  Carole shrugged. “Who knows? She hardly ever gets her facts straight.” She grinned. “If there really is a new boy joining Horse Wise, he’s probably six years old.”

  “Good point,” Stevie said. “After all, most of those younger kids really are pretty cute.”

  “Veronica seemed pretty excited about the whole idea of a new boy, though,” Carole mused as the three started walking down the aisle toward the indoor ring. “I wonder if that means she’s lost interest in Simon already.” Recently Veronica had dated a Pine Hollow rider named Simon Atherton. When Simon had first come to the stable, he had been an awkward, gangly, nerdy boy who could barely stay in the saddle. Then his family had moved away. When Simon had returned a few months later, his riding skills hadn’t improved much. But the rest of him had. He had become a tall, broad-shouldered, good-looking boy who could barely stay in the saddle.