by Stan
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Excerpt from The Berenstain Bears and the Red-Handed Thief
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About the Authors
Copyright
About the Publisher
When Sister Bear saw Ms. Toni’s horses, she fell in love.
Head over spurs.
It was love at first sight.
Sister had seen horses before. There was Farmer Ben’s big wagon horse. And they had pony rides at the church fair.
But Ms. Toni’s horses were something else. They were tall and slim. They had long, silky manes and tails.
Then Sister saw the sign on Ms. Toni’s fence. It said MS. TONI’S RIDING SCHOOL AND STABLE.
Sister knew what she had to do.
She begged to be allowed to take riding lessons.
Mama and Papa thought about it. They saw the light in Sister’s eyes. Sister was in heaven when they said yes.
Sister took to riding like a fish to water. She loved the lessons. But they weren’t easy. In fact, they were hard. They made her legs hurt. They made her backside hurt.
The first time she was up on a horse, she was scared. It was so high. You could fall off. You could be hurt. You could even break something!
But she didn’t fall off. After a while, she began to feel safe.
“Okay, Sister,” said Ms. Toni. “I’m going to walk Old Bess around the ring. You just sit easy.”
Old Bess was a mare. That is what you call a female horse.
It was Sister’s first lesson.
Ms. Toni was holding the reins. She was leading Old Bess around the riding ring.
“How do you feel up there?” asked Ms. Toni.
“Kinda wobbly,” said Sister.
“Why are you holding on to the saddle?” asked Ms. Toni.
“So I won’t fall off,” said Sister.
Ms. Toni laughed.
“You won’t fall off,” she said. “Just keep your feet in the stirrups.” The stirrups were the foot-holders that hung from the saddle.
“Let go of the saddle and take hold of these,” said Ms. Toni. She handed the reins to Sister.
Holding the reins made Sister nervous at first.
But after a while, it was fun. There she was, sitting on a giant horse. It was exciting. She felt like the queen of the world. Old Bess kept walking slowly around the riding ring.
Ms. Toni picked up something.
What was it?
It looked like a long, thin black snake. It was a whip!
Sister got frightened. “You’re not going to whip Old Bess,” she said.
Ms. Toni laughed again. “Of course not,” she said. “This isn’t that kind of whip. This is a training whip. I use it to tell a horse what to do. I’m going to tell Old Bess to trot.”
Sister knew what a trot was. It was a slow run. She had read a lot of books about horses. That’s how she got interested in horses. Now here she was, sitting on top of one about to trot. She was nervous and worried again. It was so high. She kept hold of the reins with one hand. She took hold of the saddle with the other.
“No, Sister,” said Ms. Toni. “You must always hold the reins with two hands. That’s how Old Bess knows you’re in charge.”
In charge, thought Sister. In charge of a giant horse that weighs a zillion pounds. That’ll be the day!
Ms. Toni didn’t even touch Old Bess with the whip. She flicked it in the air. Old Bess started to trot.
Sister went from wobble-wobble to bouncy-bouncy.
Was it ever exciting!
As time went on, Sister learned that there was more to riding than wobble-wobble and bouncy-bouncy.
A lot more.
There was mucking out.
That was cleaning the dirty straw and horse mess out of a stall and putting in clean straw. Sister was very good at mucking out.
Ms. Toni told Mama Bear what a good mucker-outer Sister was.
Mama laughed. She was surprised.
“Hmm,” said Mama. “She’s not so good when it comes to mucking out her room.”
There was combing the horse’s hair with a comb. It got the tangles out of the horse’s mane and tail. Sister was very good with the comb.
Ms. Toni told Mama that Sister was good at getting tangles out.
Mama laughed again. “You should hear her when I get her tangles out,” said Mama.
There was feeding the horse good oats and hay and not too many sweets.
Ms. Toni said Sister was good about that, too.
“Hmm,” said Mama. “I just wish I could keep Sister away from sweets.”
But a funny thing happened. Mama got her wish about Sister and sweets.
Not only that. Sister began taking better care of her room.
And she began getting her own tangles out.
Sister was still Sister. But she had changed.
Everybody saw it.
“It’s the horses,” said Papa. “It has made Sister more responsible.”
Responsible. Papa loved that word. It meant doing what you were supposed to do.
“Yes,” said Brother. “She’s not such a pain in the neck now. It must be the horses.”
“Sister has changed,” said Mama. “And mostly for the better. But all she ever thinks about is horses. What about school?”
“What about it?” asked Papa.
“Well, just take a look at her right now,” said Mama.
Papa looked. Sister was sitting at the dining room table. She was supposed to be doing her homework.
“Hmm,” said Papa. “I see what you mean.”
“Sister,” said Papa.
There was no answer from Sister. She had that dreamy look on her face again.
“Sister,” said Papa.
“Er…huh?” said Sister.
“A penny for your thoughts,” said Papa.
“I was thinking about tomorrow’s riding lesson,” said Sister. “It’s really going to be something! We’re going to have our first jumping lesson—Sally, Jill, Gwen, the whole bunch of us. Not big jumps. Just little ones. I’ll be on Old Bess, of course. Sure, she’s old. But we’re such a great team….”
“Sister,” said Papa.
“Yes,” said Sister.
“Tomorrow’s riding lesson is one thing,” he said. “But what about tomorrow’s homework?”
Sister sighed. “But school is so boring. As for this homework, it’s boring, boring, boring!”
“What is your homework?” asked Papa.
“Problems in my numbers workbook, and I have to write a story,” grumped Sister.
Papa picked up the numbers workbook. He read the first problem. “You have seven ducks. You sell three. How many ducks are left?”
Sister threw up her hands.
“Don’t know and don’t care!” she said. “Who cares about ducks anyway?”
“All right,” said Papa. “Let’s try it this way. You have seven horses. You sell three. How many horses are left?”
“Four, of course,” said Sister.
Papa put horses into all the numbers problems. Sister got every one right.
“Now, about this story you have to write,” said Papa.
“Boring!” said Sister. “Boring, boring, boring!”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Papa. “Perhaps you could write a story about horses.”
Sister’s eyes lit up.
“Yeah,” she said. “A story about horses.” She began to write. She wrote a whole story about horses. It
was a pretty exciting story. It was about a magical horse. She got an A for it.
But it wasn’t nearly as exciting and magical as the adventure that lay ahead.
Ms. Toni’s Riding School and Stable had two parts: the school and the stable.
The school was a big, roomy building. Outside, the floor of the riding ring was covered with sawdust. It had a stand where parents sat on show days.
The school had been a barn. The stable had been a chicken house. Ms. Toni’s office was in the back.
When Farmer Ben built new ones, he sold the old ones to Ms. Toni.
Ms. Toni made them into Ms. Toni’s Riding School and Stable.
She and her groom, Saddle Sam, worked hard to fix the place up.
They put in the riding ring.
They built the stand.
They put in the office.
The hardest part was fixing up the chicken house.
But they did it. They turned it into a good clean stable with ten stalls for ten horses.
Seven of the horses belonged to Ms. Toni. They were an important part of her business. She rented them to weekend riders. The other three horses belonged to Sister’s classmates.
Sally had a black horse named Midnight.
Jill had a brown horse named Gravy.
Gwen had a gray horse named Silver.
Old Bess was the oldest and biggest horse in the stable. The other horses trusted her. They often nuzzled and rubbed against her to show their respect. But there was trouble in the stable.
The trouble came from Midnight.
Sister didn’t own a horse. Her classmates were a little snooty about it. Especially Sally.
Sister rode Old Bess. She loved her and took care of her. But it wasn’t the same as having her own horse.
Sister’s classmates had fancy riding clothes. They were snooty about that, too. Sally was the snootiest.
Sally seemed to have it in for Sister.
Why was that?
Maybe it was because Sister took such good care of her horse. Sally, Jill, and Gwen didn’t always do their chores.
Or maybe it was because Sister was the best rider.
She got the best marks.
She got the best mark for the trot.
She got the best mark for the canter.
She got the best mark for the gallop.
And she was going to go for the best mark in jumping. Not that she wasn’t a little scared. Ms. Toni said that was okay. All good riders were a little scared.
But there was a problem: Old Bess was slow.
She was the slowest horse in the stable.
Ms. Toni had the run of Farmer Ben’s woods. She and Saddle Sam had cleared a racetrack through the woods. It was about a mile long.
Sister and Old Bess lost every race. Sally always came in first. After every race, Sally turned to Sister and shouted, “Get a horse!” It must have been a joke because everybody laughed. But Sister didn’t get it. She had a horse. It was Old Bess.
She asked Brother about it at supper. He knew Sally. She was in his class.
He said, “When cars were first invented, they broke down a lot. When people on horses rode past a broken-down car, they shouted, ‘Get a horse!’ Now do you get it?”
Sister got it. But she didn’t like it.
The jumping lesson was about to begin.
Sister, Sally, Jill, and Gwen were in the stand.
Ms. Toni was in the riding ring.
Things were set around the riding ring.
One was a white fence.
One was a big log. It was real wood. But it was hollow.
One was a bit of stone wall. But it wasn’t really stone. It was plastic.
“Some folks say horses are stupid,” said Ms. Toni. “But they are wrong. It’s true that horses aren’t smart about reading, spelling, and long division.”
That’s okay, thought Sister. I’m not so smart about long division either.
“But horses are very smart about one thing,” said Ms. Toni. “They are smart about being horses. They are very good at doing what they like to do.”
Sister could understand that. She liked to jump rope. She was good at it. She jumped to a thousand once.
“That’s how you train horses,” said Ms. Toni. “They love to run. So it’s easy to train them to race. It’s very hard to get them to do what they don’t like to do. Horses don’t like to go backward. They hate it. You can train them to do it. But it’s very hard.”
Sister could understand that, too. Number work wasn’t easy for Sister. So she had to work hard to do it.
“Which brings us to jumping,” said Ms. Toni. “Sam! Bring in the horses!”
Sam came in the big open door. He was riding Old Bess and leading Midnight, Gravy, and Silver.
Midnight tried to pull away from the other horses. Then he bumped against Old Bess.
“My horse doesn’t like being led,” said snooty Sally. “And he doesn’t like that bossy Old Bess either.”
Saddle Sam snapped the reins against Midnight’s nose. Not hard, but hard enough to make him stop bumping Old Bess.
Sally leaped up.
“Don’t you dare hit my horse!” she shouted.
“Please sit down, Sally,” said Ms. Toni. “You should teach your horse better manners.”
“He’s just frisky,” said Sally.
“Yes,” said Ms. Toni. “But where does frisky stop and mean begin?”
Sister didn’t say anything. But she smiled inside.
“All right now,” said Ms. Toni. “Another thing horses like to do is jump. Some horses are better at it than others. But they all can do it. What we’re going to do is jump over the fence, the log, and the wall. They’re far enough apart to get up speed. Here’s what you do. Bring your horse to a canter. When you come to the jump, crouch down a little. Then as your horse jumps, you lean forward. The horse will do the rest. Sally, you’re first. Mount up and let’s see what you can do.”
But Sally didn’t put Midnight into a canter.
She put him into a gallop.
That was too fast.
Midnight knocked over all the jumps.
“Set them up again, Sam,” said Ms. Toni. She turned to Sally. “We know how fast Midnight is, Sally.”
Do we ever, thought Sister.
“But jumping isn’t about fast,” said Ms. Toni. “Do it again, Sally, only this time at a canter.”
Sally put Midnight into a canter. They cleared all the jumps.
Now it was Jill’s turn. She and Gravy cleared all the jumps, too.
Gwen was next. She and Silver cleared the white fence and log with room to spare. But when they came to the wall, Silver stopped short. Gwen was almost thrown off. She was shaken up. It could have been a bad fall.
Ms. Toni took the reins. She patted Silver on the neck.
“It’s okay, Gwen,” said Ms. Toni. “Your horse may have had trouble with a wall once. But not to worry. You just never know with horses. And that’s what makes horses so interesting.”
She turned to Sam. “Sam, turn that jump around. The back doesn’t look like stone. Try it again, Gwen.”
Gwen put Silver into a canter. They cleared the jump easily.
“All right, Sister,” said Ms. Toni. “It’s your turn to jump.”
“Okay, Bess,” said Sister. “Let’s go get ’em!”
But what happened next was a little too interesting.
Sister put Old Bess into a canter. Midnight snorted and came after Bess.
He reared up and kicked out at her. Old Bess turned and met Midnight’s attack. She reared up and kicked back.
It was all so sudden that Sister slipped off. She fell to the sawdust with a thump.
Old Bess was angry. She bit Midnight on the ear. Midnight whinnied and bolted for the open door.
Sister couldn’t believe what Ms. Toni did next. She ran after Midnight. She grabbed the saddle and leaped onto Midnight like a trick circus rider. She grabbed the reins from the screaming Sa
lly. She pulled Midnight to a stop.
Sister was still on the ground.
She was shaken up. It had been a pretty bad fall.
“All right,” said Ms. Toni. “That’s enough excitement for one day. Everybody back to the stable. See to it, Sam. Except for Bess. Tie her to the rail.”
Ms. Toni came over to Sister.
Sister’s backside hurt.
She was trying not to cry.
Ms. Toni knelt beside her.
“Where does it hurt?” she asked.
“My hip…er, my backside really,” said Sister.
“Good,” said Ms. Toni. “That’s the best thing to fall on. It’s padded.”
Ms. Toni felt Sister’s legs.
“Let’s see you work your knees,” she said.
Sister worked her knees.
“Ms. Toni, why did Midnight go after Old Bess?” asked Sister.
“I think he’s jealous,” said Ms. Toni. She helped Sister to her feet.
“Jealous?” said Sister. “Why would Midnight be jealous of Old Bess? He can run rings around her.”
“True,” said Ms. Toni. “But Old Bess is big and powerful. She’s the leader of the pack. So Midnight’s jealous. Horses are like us. Sometimes they just don’t like each other.”
Just like Sally doesn’t like me, thought Sister.
They went into Ms. Toni’s office.
“Sister, how do you feel about riding?” asked Ms. Toni.
There were pictures on the walls.
They showed Ms. Toni riding.
They showed her holding cups and ribbons.
There was one picture showing her standing on a galloping horse.
“Sister?”
“Huh?” said Sister.
“I asked you how you feel about riding,” Ms. Toni said again.
“Well, not so good right now,” said Sister. “Falling off a horse is pretty scary. So I was thinking…maybe I should forget about riding for a while.”
“That would be up to you, Sister,” said Ms. Toni.
It was very quiet in the little office.
“But there’s a saying,” said Ms. Toni. “When you fall off a horse, you should get right back on.”
“There’s all kinds of sayings, Ms. Toni,” said Sister. She looked at the pictures again. “Did you ever fall off a horse?”