“May, you have to be the leader,” Corey said.
“Please, May,” Jasmine added. “You have such a great imagination. You always think of fun things to do.”
“Okay,” May agreed cheerfully.
First May led her friends through a snakelike path all around the ring. The riders had to concentrate to follow exactly where May went. Next May did more snakelike riding, but this time she did it at a trot. Jasmine almost got confused and lost track of the trail, but she followed the pony hoofprints in the ring.
“Now canter!” May called out behind her. She began riding in a large circle. That was easy for her friends to follow and fun, too. All three girls loved to canter on their ponies.
“Now walk again,” May said. All three horses began walking.
May slipped her feet out of her stirrups. Corey and Jasmine did the same thing. Corey noticed that when she didn’t use her stirrups, she had to pay more attention to her balance.
May put her feet back in the stirrups. She kept on walking Macaroni, but now she took her left hand and put it on top of her head. Corey and Jasmine did the same thing. May kept Macaroni going in circles.
“Hey,” Jasmine called, “it’s tricky to get Outlaw to turn when I’m holding the reins with only one hand!”
“No kidding,” Corey agreed. “Sam’s a little confused about what’s going on. But he’s paying attention to my leg signals.”
“Try this!” said May. She put down her reins and held her arms out to the side. That meant the only way she could tell Macaroni which way to turn was by using her legs. She put pressure on his right side with her whole leg. He hesitated for a few seconds, but then he did it! He turned to the left.
“Good boy!” May said. She turned to look at her friends. They had figured out the same thing, and so had their ponies.
“This is good practice,” Corey announced.
“You girls are learning a lot,” said Mr. Grover. He was sitting on Double-O-Seven, watching them. “Good job.”
“Thanks, Dad.” May was practically blushing; she was so pleased by her father’s praise. At least someone in the family took her riding seriously!
A few minutes later, the girls stopped their game. They rode in circles together, changing gaits every once in a while.
“I wish everyone in my family had nice things to say about my riding,” May said.
“What do you mean?” Corey asked.
May told them about the teasing she’d gotten from her sisters the day before. “You two don’t know how lucky you are that you don’t have older sisters,” she added.
Corey and Jasmine looked at each other.
“I don’t know about that,” Corey said. “Remember the time Ellie let you wear her new sweater?”
“And when Dottie showed us all how to put on lipstick?” Jasmine said.
“Big deal,” May said. “Most of the time they don’t care about me and Macaroni at all. Right now all they can think about is the parties they’re going to have in the basement. They don’t even care that my birthday is coming up soon.”
“Maybe they do care,” Corey began. “Maybe—”
Jasmine glanced at Corey. “We’ll help you think of something to do for your birthday, May,” Jasmine said quickly. “We can talk about it later. We’d better keep riding now. The demonstration for CARL is coming up soon. I want to be ready.”
The girls practiced their skills for another fifteen minutes. Then it was time to stop. They walked their ponies in circles to cool them down and talked some more.
“Mom says that only a few people have bought tickets for the show we’re putting on,” said Corey.
Corey’s mother, Dr. Takamura, was a veterinarian whom most people called “Doc Tock.” She did some work for CARL, so she knew a lot about the animal shelter.
“Oh, no!” Jasmine said. “We have to make a lot of money for CARL. If only a few people come to our show, the shelter won’t have enough money to stay open.”
Corey nodded. “Mom says CARL really needs the money. There are a lot of animals who don’t have homes or owners to love them. A few of them need special care, too. Medicine for animals can be really expensive.”
Jasmine sighed. “I wish I could think of a way to get more people to buy tickets,” she said. “There’s got to be something the Pony Tails can do.”
Suddenly both girls looked at May.
“Come on, May,” Corey said. “You’ve always got good ideas.”
“What?” May hadn’t been paying attention to her friends’ conversation. She was still thinking about her sisters and the way they’d treated her the day before.
“We need to find a way to tell people about the show for CARL,” Jasmine explained. She knew she sounded impatient, but she couldn’t help it. How could May be daydreaming when they were talking about something as important as saving animals?
“Oh.” May was quiet for a minute. “I can’t think of anything,” she said.
“You can’t?” Corey was amazed. May could always come up with an idea—even if it was a crazy idea.
“I guess my mind is on something else right now,” May said.
“Your birthday party?” Corey asked.
“No.” May shook her head. “Revenge. Against both my sisters.”
Corey and Jasmine didn’t like the sound of this.
“Revenge isn’t usually a good idea,” Jasmine began gently.
“Right,” agreed Corey. “Sometimes it can get you into big trouble. Remember?”
May remembered. Not too long ago, she’d tried to get back at Wil McNally. He was a bully who had been picking on Jasmine. Her plan had backfired, and Jasmine had wound up angry at May.
“This is different, though,” May insisted. “That time I was trying to solve Jasmine’s problem. This time it’s my problem. I get to decide how to fix it.”
Corey and Jasmine looked at one another. They were about to warn May again when they heard the phone in the stable ring once.
“That must be Ellie and Dottie calling me back to work,” May announced. “I don’t want to keep them waiting today.” May dismounted and walked Macaroni back toward the stable. “See you,” she said, waving good-bye to her friends.
Corey and Jasmine walked their ponies back out of the schooling ring and rode toward their own stables.
“What are we going to do about this?” Corey asked Jasmine.
“I don’t know,” Jasmine answered. “But when May gets an idea in her head …”
“It usually stays there,” Corey finished Jasmine’s thought.
The girls reached Corey’s stable. “See you tomorrow,” Corey called.
“Bye,” Jasmine called back.
Corey had a lot of work to do grooming and feeding Samurai. It gave her time to think about May and her sisters. If only May knew …
Buy May Takes the Lead Now!
About the Author
Bonnie Bryant is the author of over one hundred forty books about horses, including the Saddle Club series and its spinoffs, the Pony Tails series and the Pine Hollow series. Bryant did not know very much about horses before writing the first Saddle Club book in 1986, so she found herself learning right along with the characters she created. She has also written novels and movie novelizations under her married name, Bonnie Bryant Hiller. Bryant was born and raised in New York City, where she still lives today.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1995 by Bonnie Bryant Hiller
Cover design by Connie Gabbert
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br /> ISBN: 978-1-4976-5354-2
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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New York, NY 10014
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Table of Contents
Title Page
1 Pony Tails in the Ring
2 Drill Practice
3 Tryouts
4 The Call
5 First Practice
6 Christmas Cookies
7 Saturday at Pine Hollow
8 Waiting for Corey
9 The Pony Tails Have Secrets
10 Preparations
11 In the Lead
12 Christmas in the Stable
Jasmine’s Favorite Mounted Games
Preview: May Takes the Lead
About the Author
Copyright Page
Pony Tails 04- Jasmine's Christmas Ride Page 6