Jasmine was thinking so hard about Christmas and the Starlight Ride, she didn’t hear Max tell everyone to begin a trot. Then Outlaw began trotting. At least he was listening!
Once the ponies and horses were all warmed up, Max started working on the big drill exercise. Max worked the riders hard. There was no time to think about the Starlight Ride or anything else.
“To the right, Jackie!” Max yelled when Jackie Rogers turned the wrong way.
“Hey, Amie, not so fast!” he called out when Amie Connor’s pony started catching up to the pony in front of her.
“Veronica! Pay attention!” he said to Veronica diAngelo.
Jasmine was glad that Max didn’t yell at her.
Corey was relieved not to hear her own name called out.
May was glad that all the Pony Tails seemed to be doing a good job.
Finally, at the end of the Horse Wise meeting, Max had the riders line up one more time.
“You’ve done a lot of good work,” he said. “You’re almost ready to perform with Cross County. Now I’m going to dismiss everybody except the six riders in the small group. We’ll have one more mounted meeting next Saturday, and then we’ll be at Cross County the following Saturday. Next week is our dress rehearsal. Are we ready?”
“Yes sir!” May said. She saluted him. Some of the riders laughed.
Max grinned. “Okay, then Horse Wise dismissed!”
May and Jasmine rode Macaroni and Outlaw back into the stall area, where they would untack and groom their ponies.
Jasmine tried not to look at or listen to Max as he went on talking to the group that was left behind.
But she couldn’t help it.
“Now, what were we working on when we stopped yesterday?” Max asked the small group.
Corey’s hand went up.
Jasmine sighed. If only she were with them!
8 Waiting for Corey
Jasmine removed Outlaw’s saddle and bridle and cross-tied him so that she could groom him while they waited for Mr. Grover. Since Mr. Grover was going to take all their ponies home at once, he wasn’t coming until after Corey’s practice.
Outlaw stood absolutely still while Jasmine groomed him. As she worked, she could still hear Max talking to the small group.
“All together now! … Better … Come on, catch up there … No! Not that way! Turn left! Heels down. Look where you’re going! Sit into the saddle! Tell your pony what you want him to do, don’t just let him follow! … Use your crop if you need to. Your aids! Your aids! That’s how you tell your pony what to do! … Okay, let’s begin again! And do it right this time. You know what you’re supposed to do.”
Max was working the riders very hard. He was being fussier with the small group than he had been with the whole of Horse Wise. Jasmine thought again about what it would be like to be there. Would she remember to turn the right way? Could she keep her heels down? Would she use her crop correctly? Max sometimes had to remind her about those things in class. It would be even harder to be reminded in a small group.
“Corey!” Max said sharply. Then he said something else. Jasmine couldn’t hear what it was, but he didn’t sound happy. She cringed for Corey.
Jasmine tried to think about something else. She thought about Christmas instead. It was only a few days away and she still had a lot to do—like make presents for May and Corey. Then there was the Starlight Ride. Maybe, just maybe, it would snow this year. That would make it just about perfect.
But the way things are going this year, Jasmine thought a second later, the Starlight Ride will get rained out. And then both May and Corey are going to hate the presents I’m making for them, and …
Within a very few minutes, Jasmine had convinced herself that this was going to be the worst Christmas ever—worse even than the year her grandmother gave her the blue dress with purple flowers and made her wear it all Christmas day.
From the other side of the stable, May could just barely see Jasmine over the heads of Barq and Nero. Part of her was sorry to be so far from both of her friends. Another part of her was very glad. It wasn’t easy being in the middle. It seemed that every time she said something to comfort Jasmine, it was the wrong thing. And everytime she brought up the small drill team to Corey, Corey just changed the subject.
May took off Macaroni’s saddle and put it on a sawhorse. She reached into her pony’s grooming bucket. She always started by picking Macaroni’s hooves. He sometimes fussed when she did that, so she liked to get it over with first.
She looked for her hoof pick. She didn’t see it. She dumped the entire contents of her grooming bucket on the ground. All her other grooming tools were there, plus two pencils and part of last week’s sandwich, but no hoof pick.
May tossed the sandwich crusts into the garbage and went to ask Mrs. Reg if she could borrow a hoof pick. May was pretty sure Mrs. Reg would be willing to lend her one.
Mrs. Reg was Max’s mother and the manager of the stables. She had a way of telling long stories to the young riders at the most unexpected times. Her stories were always about horses and were always interesting. It just wasn’t always clear why she was telling them. Still, May needed a hoof pick, so she had to take a chance. She went into Mrs. Reg’s office.
Mrs. Reg was at her desk, sorting out Christmas decorations. A mess of tinsel garland was spread across the floor. Mrs. Reg was trying to untangle it. She seemed glad to have an interruption.
“Sure,” she said in answer to May’s request. She dropped the tinsel on the floor and went to her desk drawer. She took out a hoof pick and looked at it before handing it to May.
“This is a well-designed tool,” said Mrs. Reg.
Uh-oh, May thought. Is this the beginning of a story?
But it wasn’t.
“It’s good for only one thing,” Mrs. Reg went on.
“Yes it is,” said May. She didn’t think Mrs. Reg would want to know about the time Corey used a hoof pick to fix one of Jasmine’s dolls.
“It’s good only for picking hooves. It won’t do at all to bang in a nail or open a can. There are much better tools for that,” said Mrs. Reg.
“Definitely,” May agreed. Mrs. Reg handed her the hoof pick.
A few minutes later May returned the hoof pick to Mrs. Reg’s office. Mrs. Reg wasn’t there; neither was the tinsel garland. May was a little relieved Mrs. Reg was gone. She put the hoof pick on her desk. She’d been worried she might hear more about how wonderful a hoof pick is. Sometimes, May thought, Mrs. Reg doesn’t make much sense.
By the time May had finished grooming Macaroni, her father had arrived. She and Jasmine loaded Macaroni and Outlaw into the trailer. Then Corey’s practice was over. She led Samurai out to the driveway where the van was parked.
Jasmine loosened Sam’s girth. May led him up the ramp of the trailer. Corey put Sam’s grooming bucket in the storage area and climbed into the car. May and Jasmine climbed in with her. Mr. Grover started the engine and pulled out onto the road.
“Say, if you girls want to practice some more this afternoon, you can use our ring,” said Mr. Grover. “Max told me that there’s a lot of work yet to do on the drill exercise.”
“No thanks.”
“No thanks.”
“No thanks.”
All three girls spoke at almost the same second. Usually when the Pony Tails did that—said the same thing at the same time—they’d give one another high and low fives and then say “Jake.” This time, though, they didn’t even look at each other. They just made excuses.
“I think Macaroni’s a little tired,” said May.
“I promised my mother I’d help her with some of the pets she’s boarding now,” said Corey. “I said I’d feed them.”
“I have to wash my hair,” said Jasmine.
Then each member of the Pony Tails hurried away to her own house.
9 The Pony Tails Have Secrets
“Here you go, Outlaw.” Jasmine gave her pony a fresh bucket of water and hurried back
to her house. She ran her fingers through her hair. It didn’t need to be washed at all. She had something much more important to do that she couldn’t tell Corey and May about. It was a secret.
She walked through the living room and looked at the Christmas cards her mother had put on display. They were so festive that just looking at them made her feel a little better. She hummed “Jingle Bells” as she ran upstairs.
In her room she changed out of her riding clothes and into her jeans and a big T-shirt so that she wouldn’t mess up her good clothes while she worked. She took out her materials: scissors, glue, magazines, posters, and all the pictures she’d already found. She also had two plain loose-leaf binders. They weren’t going to be plain for long!
This was her Christmas present for May and for Corey. She knew May would love hers. She wasn’t so sure about Corey. They had said so little to each other lately, Jasmine wasn’t sure about a lot of things that had to do with her friend.
The big question was, which pictures should go on each notebook? Samurai was a dark-colored pony. She could find a lot of pictures of dark ponies and cover Corey’s binder with them, but then she might have trouble with May’s. Macaroni’s coat was light. Jasmine didn’t have very many pictures of macaroni-colored ponies.
But she did have one big picture of a yellow pony that looked a lot like Macaroni. And she did have one big picture of a pony with a curved blaze almost like Samurai’s. That was the answer, then. She’d put the pony that looked most like Macaroni on the middle of May’s binder. The one that looked like Sam would go on Corey’s binder. Then she’d mix up all the other pictures.
Jasmine smiled. For the first time since Thursday, she felt really happy. Her friends were going to love their Christmas presents. Even Corey. Maybe especially Corey.
Next door Corey was also hard at work. She hadn’t exactly been lying when she’d said she had to look after some of the animals her mother was boarding. She’d just been stretching the truth. This weekend they had only one cat staying with them. It took Corey about twenty-three seconds to fill the cat’s food and water bowls. It took her another seven seconds to pat her gently. Then she hurried up to her room. There was a lot of work to do and very little time to do it. Christmas was just a few days away. She would have to spend some of each of those days at Pine Hollow practicing for the small drill team program. And then there would be the Starlight Ride. She wondered what that was going to be like. Riding at night sounded like so much fun!
On top of everything else, Corey needed time to make her friends’ presents. She wanted to do something very special—especially for Jasmine. The two of them still weren’t speaking very much. Corey wanted Jasmine to know how sad she was that Jasmine hadn’t made the small drill team.
She rolled up her sleeves. She was wearing the beaded bracelet she’d made for herself. She remembered how her friends had admired it the week before. Now they were going to get ones just like it!
She took out the small loom she’d used to make her own bracelet, beads, thread, and a needle. She had a dish for each color of beads. She also got out her graph paper. She’d made a special pattern for each of her friends. May’s bracelet would say “May” on it when it was done, but it would also have a picture of some macaroni. Jasmine’s bracelet would have her name plus a mask—the kind an outlaw would wear.
She checked her chart. “First row all blue,” she said. She fished seven blue beads from the blue-bead bowl and put them on the needle.
She couldn’t wait to give the bracelets to her friends!
In the house next door May was very busy. The first part of her job was in the kitchen. She filled two boxes with cookies for her friends. It didn’t seem right to give Jasmine the cookies Jasmine had made herself. So May carefully chose the best ones she’d made and put them in a box for Jasmine. When she started filling Corey’s box, it didn’t seem right for May to give Corey the cookies Jasmine had made. So she gave her the rest of the good ones May had done. While she was working, May ate a few of the cookies Jasmine had made. That did seem fair. They were delicious, too.
When the boxes were full, she went up to her bedroom. She had more work to do there. She took out a big carton from her closet and opened it up. Inside was a large scrapbook. It was her big present for her friends and it was a present for herself, too. She’d thought it would be fun if the Pony Tails kept a scrapbook of everything they did. It would help them remember the things they were learning about ponies, but it would also help them remember the fun times they were having.
That is, if Jasmine and Corey ever started talking to each other again, May thought.
On the cover of the scrapbook, May had written “Pony Tails” in large letters. She’d made the y in the word pony from the tail of a picture of a pony. May thought it was really cute, and she was sure her friends would, too.
Soon they’d have lots of pictures for the scrapbook. May’s mother had promised to take instant photos of all of them at the Starlight Ride. That was only four days away, and May couldn’t wait. Those pictures could go in the scrapbook on Christmas morning.
And in front of her she had pictures her father had taken of the three of them one day in their practice ring. They were all on their ponies and all smiling.
As she gazed at the pictures, May felt a little sad. Everything had seemed so simple then. Corey hadn’t been in the small group. Jasmine hadn’t thought she was a terrible rider. And May hadn’t been in the middle. All three Pony Tails had been exactly equal.
Then May thought some more. No, that wasn’t quite true. They hadn’t all been equal. They had all been themselves, and each of them was very different from the others. That meant they were each good at different things, too. If only Jasmine could see it that way.
May knew that Jasmine was good at a lot of things. She was very good with cookies. She could also sew and draw well. In fact, she was much better than May or Corey at all of those things. And Jasmine was very good at taking care of Outlaw and riding him. She was a careful, deliberate rider. She followed Max’s directions and remembered them. She wasn’t afraid to try new things. Jasmine was a good rider.
May reached for her scissors to trim one of the pictures. When she looked in her hand, though, she wasn’t holding the scissors. She’d picked up her hoof pick. This was where she’d left it! It wouldn’t do at all for trimming a picture. She stood up to search for the scissors.
While she did that, she remembered what Mrs. Reg had said earlier about the hoof pick. It was a good tool because it was designed to do one thing better than anything else. Sometimes people were a little like that—not that they were good for just one thing, but they were sometimes better at one thing than another.
Slowly a little smile broke out on May’s face. Had Mrs. Reg been trying to tell her something after all?
10 Preparations
On Wednesday evening the three girls piled into the backseat of Mr. Grover’s van. They were all in their very best riding clothes, and their ponies were in the trailer behind the van. They were on their way to Pine Hollow. It was Christmas Eve and time for the Starlight Ride.
The Pony Tails were sitting in the same seats they’d been in on Saturday: May in the middle and Corey and Jasmine far apart. They looked at one another. There was an awkward moment of silence.
Outside the car, the town of Willow Creek seemed to be dressed up for Christmas Eve, too. Houses sparkled with colored lights. Trees draped with garlands stood in front windows. A house on one side of the road had a manger scene in its front yard. Across the street a bright Santa Claus was headed for a chimney. His reindeer waited impatiently on the roof.
Mr. Grover turned onto Main Street and drove past the center of town, where, later, the riders would meet up with the singers and the snacks. There, on the town green, was a traditional crèche with the newborn baby and his parents in a stable. Next to the creche was a very tall evergreen tree. Eleven and a half months of the year, it was a plain evergreen. Tonight it was ablaze w
ith holiday cheer.
The tree had strings of golden lights all over it that seemed to make it glow. At its top there was an angel. Her wings were open wide, welcoming and warm. And the whole tree seemed to dance with decorations, paper chains, origami animals, and aluminum-foil cutouts. They were the decorations Willow Creek’s schoolchildren made every year for the tree. The Starlight Ride, and the party that followed, brought the whole town together.
It took May’s breath away. She glanced at her friends on either side of her and knew they were thinking exactly what she was thinking.
“Jake,” May whispered. She held up her hands for high fives.
“Jake?” Jasmine echoed softly.
“But we didn’t say anything,” said Corey.
“Well, we were all thinking the same thing, weren’t we?” asked May.
Silence followed.
Then Corey spoke up. She stared straight at Jasmine. “I was thinking about how much I love Christmas. And about how much I love being part of Pony Tails.”
May held up her hands again. “Exactly.”
This time her friends slapped her hands high and then low.
“Jake!” they all said together.
Jasmine glanced at Corey. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know I haven’t been the nicest friend in the world.” She stopped, trying to think of a way to say what she felt.
“It’s okay,” Corey said quickly. “I’m sorry, too. Being on the small team isn’t much fun without you.”
May sat between her two friends, listening to them talk. Finally! she thought. She’d tried to stay quiet while they patched things up, but suddenly she couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“It’s about time,” she burst out. She let out a deep breath. “I was worried you two wouldn’t talk to each other again until next year!”
Pony Tails 04- Jasmine's Christmas Ride Page 3