Racehorse

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Oh, yes, there is,” Max said. Then his smile returned. “Definitely, there is. Come on, I’ve got some news for everybody.”

  Carole was doubtful, but Max was her instructor and her friend. She held the leg wrap tightly in her hand and followed him.

  “Don’t stop working,” Max instructed the pony clubbers. “Just work and listen at the same time, because I’ve got some news.”

  Fifteen Pony Club members picked up combs and brushes and pretended to work while Max talked.

  “I’ve just been speaking with a former student of mine. It seems that she’s been spending some time working with a student of hers who is going to be appearing at a horse show in the western part of the state two weeks from today. She suggested that she come over here the following day and have a reunion of sorts—”

  “Dorothy DeSoto?” Stevie blurted out. “She wants to see Topside!”

  “—with the horse she rode in the ring for so many years,” Max continued.

  “Oh, it’s going to be great to see her!” Stevie said.

  Max gave Stevie a dirty look. “Do I get to finish, or do you know the rest of the good news?”

  “There’s more?” she said. Max nodded. “Then it has to be that she wants to actually ride Topside!”

  “Who’s doing the announcing? You or me?” Max asked.

  Stevie thought—or at least hoped—that he was sort of laughing. She blushed and promised herself to keep her mouth closed until Max was done.

  “Ahem,” Max went on. “Miss Dorothy DeSoto will be here on Sunday, two weeks and one day from today. She will be reunited with her championship Thoroughbred, Topside, and she will perform a dressage demonstration for anybody and everybody who wishes to watch. I will be sending invitations to all of my students, present and former, to come see it. This will, of course, include any interested Horse Wise members. Are there any interested Horse Wise members?”

  Fifteen hands shot up. Dorothy DeSoto was the best. There was no way anybody who cared about horseback riding would miss this chance.

  Carole understood then what Max had meant about something to look forward to over the next two weeks. Since Dorothy’s performance was scheduled for that day, two weeks and one day after today, it might be the first day she would be able to ride Starlight. It would, indeed, be a wonderful day. Excited by the thought, she decided to give Stevie an extra hand.

  Stevie gave Topside a final coat of hoof polish while Carole held his lead. He seemed to understand that something special was coming, and Stevie wanted to be sure he would look his absolute best for Dorothy. Of course, he’d have to be groomed several times between now and then, and he’d get an even more special grooming before the performance, but still, Stevie found the whole idea inspirational, and Topside appreciated the attention. His ears perked up. His tail swished regally. He was getting ready, too. The girls were pleased with the results.

  Nearby, Lisa picked up a few strands of Pepper’s tail and began brushing them carefully. Tails worked best if you only brushed a few strands at a time. It took longer, but now that Lisa knew Pepper was in his nineties, she was determined to make him look better than ever.

  THE SADDLE CLUB, new though it was, had already established a few traditions. One of them was that, whenever possible, they had Saddle Club meetings at TD’s after Horse Wise. TD’s was an ice cream parlor at the local shopping center. TD stood for Tastee Delight, but the place was universally known as TD’s.

  The girls slipped into their favorite booth at their favorite hangout and settled down to talk about their favorite subject: horses.

  “I can’t believe Starlight is lame,” Carole said.

  “He isn’t really lame,” Stevie said, trying to console her. “He’s just got a sore knee. You have to take care of him now so he won’t get lame.”

  “I know, I know. Judy isn’t worried and I guess I shouldn’t be, either, but the fact is that I can’t ride him for at least two weeks. What am I going to do?”

  “Well, you’re going to spend a lot of time taking care of him for one thing,” Lisa said reasonably. She was the best of the three at being reasonable. Sometimes her friends wished she weren’t so reasonable, but in the long run, they were usually grateful for it.

  “Of course, you’re right,” Carole agreed, reasonably. “In fact, I’m going to have to run cool water on his knee twice a day for twenty minutes. That’ll keep me busy for forty minutes every day. What am I going to do with the other twenty-three hours and twenty minutes if I still can’t ride? I know Max would let me ride Barq or even Delilah, but the fact is that he has to charge me if I ride a stable horse, and taking care of Starlight is taking up all of the Hanson family budget on horseback riding. What am I going to do?”

  Nobody had to answer that question for a minute because the waitress came to take their order. The waitress made a very impolite face when she saw Stevie. Stevie was famous for odd combinations of ice cream and toppings. They were also often very complicated. This time, however, her order was simple.

  “Pistachio ice cream with caramel topping,” she said.

  The waitress smiled wanly and wrote down the order. Lisa ordered a dish of vanilla frozen yogurt. Carole just wanted some chocolate ice cream.

  Stevie turned back to Carole. “You can help Max organize everything for Dorothy DeSoto’s visit. Isn’t it great she’s coming?” Stevie asked.

  “She’s about the best there is in dressage,” Lisa agreed, “and that’s really good for you.”

  Stevie nodded proudly. Dressage was one of the most precise types of riding there was, and it amused both Lisa and Carole that their friend, Stevie, a very imprecise person in most ways, was the best of the three of them at dressage. Somehow, all the joking, all the wildness, all the vague schemes, disappeared from Stevie the minute she was working on her dressage. Max had bought Topside from Dorothy because she’d never be able to ride him in competition again, but he had also bought him so that Stevie would have a really good horse to work with. The Saddle Club suspected he hoped for great things from Stevie someday.

  “What were you and Judy discussing about Pepper?” Carole asked. She’d been concerned about Starlight, but not so concerned that she hadn’t noticed Lisa working extra hard on the old gray horse.

  “I was just worried that he seemed sort of off his feed. Judy explained that it’s just old age. I figured out that he’s almost twice as old as I am in human years, and in horse years he’s older than my grandmother. Actually, he’s about as old as my great-grandmother would be if she were still alive—and if she were, I don’t think she’d be carrying riders around on her back. Pepper is really something!”

  “Maybe he’s getting too old to be ridden,” Carole said. “It happens, you know.”

  “I know,” Lisa said. “Max and I were talking. He said I should ride Comanche and get used to him because Pepper is coming pretty close to retirement.”

  “Hard to picture Pepper in a rocking chair,” Stevie mused, leaning back so the waitress could give her her sundae. All three girls heard the woman grunt displeasure looking at the green-and-beige concoction. Stevie smiled beatifically.

  The girls dived into their treats as soon as the waitress had gone. There was little talk for a few minutes.

  When they heard a familiar voice at the take-out counter, they all looked up. There was Judy Barker, ordering a pint of ice cream to take home.

  “Hi, girls!” she greeted them and then she joined them. “Great meeting today, wasn’t it?” she asked.

  “It was if you don’t mind news like the horse you love is getting too old to ride,” Lisa said a little more sharply than she had meant to.

  “Or if you like the idea of not being able to ride at all for two weeks,” added Carole. “What am I going to do? And even if we can figure out what I’ll do for two weeks, how on earth am I going to survive if Starlight isn’t better by then?”

  “I’m sorry, girls,” Judy said. “I was so excited about Dorothy’s visit
—remember we were in our beginner riding classes together at Pine Hollow more than twenty years ago—that I wasn’t thinking about your troubles. Anyway, your problems aren’t so impossible.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Carole retorted. Then, realizing how sharp it had sounded, she immediately apologized.

  “That’s okay,” Judy said. “I do understand. And I also have a suggestion. For you, Lisa, it’s easy. Max wants you to ride Comanche, and I think you two will get along well. Comanche is more spirited than Pepper, but you’re ready for a more spirited horse. I think you’ll like him.” She turned to Carole. “For you, it’s a little different. I could say things like you just have to get used to the fact that horses have medical problems and that’s a fact of life.”

  “Oh,” Lisa said. Everybody looked at her.

  “What’s the matter?” Stevie asked.

  “The word ‘life,’ ” she answered. “It just reminded me that I have a paper to write for school. The subject is ‘Life.’ ”

  “Yuck,” Stevie said, and Carole rolled her eyes. But the two of them were more interested in talking about Starlight than Lisa’s paper, so they continued the conversation with Judy.

  “I know what you’re saying is true,” Carole said. “It’s just that I don’t like it. I’d rather ride and tend to a healthy horse than not be able to ride a sick one.”

  “Working with sick horses is what I do for a living,” Judy reminded her. “You always seem to enjoy working with me.”

  “Oh, I do, but you know what I mean.…” Carole let the thought drift.

  “I know what you mean,” Judy said. “And I have a suggestion. Since you can’t ride and you will be tending to one sick horse, why don’t you spend your after-school hours over the next two weeks tending to a lot of sick horses? Why don’t you work with me?”

  “Could I?” Carole asked eagerly.

  “As long as your father agrees,” Judy told her. “I suspect he will, too, because I talked to him about it on the phone about a half an hour ago, and when I suggested that we might swap your assistance for my care for Starlight, he seemed to like the idea a lot. He said something about getting a moping girl out of his hair.…”

  Carole smiled for the first time since she’d found the swelling in Starlight’s knee. That was a real solution. It would give her something concrete to do, and it would also give her a way to allay one of the unspoken problems about Starlight’s knee, and that was the expense of veterinary care. Judy was more than fair with her bills, and her dad would never complain, but the fact was injuries were expensive. Carole was only too happy to be able to help with that. She put out her hand to shake. Judy took it.

  “Deal,” she said.

  “Look, I’ll check Starlight every day around three-fifteen—that’s when you get there after school, right?”

  Carole nodded.

  “Then we’ll leave from there. I promised your father I’d have you home in time for dinner.”

  “Terrific! Now all I have to do is convince Dad to serve dinner at ten-thirty!”

  Judy laughed at Carole’s joke as she stood up from the table and promised to see her on Monday.

  “Well, that takes care of your problem,” Lisa said. “Now what about mine?”

  “Pepper?” Stevie asked. “I thought the solution is that you’re going to ride Comanche.”

  “Not that one,” Lisa said. “Comanche’s a nice horse. I’ll get used to him eventually. No, I mean the problem about my paper. Don’t you think the teacher’s assigned a rather large topic? Life?”

  “It’s one of those topics where it’s sometimes harder to figure out what you’re going to leave out than what you’re going to include, isn’t it?” Carole observed.

  Lisa realized, with a little prick of her conscience, that she might have hit a nerve in Carole. Carole’s mother had died a few years ago, and it was obviously still very vivid. Life and death were issues that Carole had a great deal of reason to understand better than her friends did. Lisa was sorry she’d raised the subject.

  “I don’t think it’s all that complicated,” Stevie said, keeping the topic open. “I think that some of the things that have happened today are issues of life and death. After all, look at how Pepper is getting older, closer to his own death. We’ve been thinking of it from your point of view, but of course, there’s his point of view, too. Wouldn’t that make a nice topic for the paper?”

  Lisa smiled and nodded. “Yes, it would,” she said. “I think you’re really on to something and that makes this a red-letter day.”

  “How’s that?” Stevie asked.

  “I think it’s the first time—and probably the last, too—that you’ve ever actually helped me with my homework. Thanks.”

  She gave Stevie a hug, and then they all set about finishing their ice cream.

  JUDY BARKER’S PICKUP truck bounced along a dirt road that snaked uphill toward a horse farm.

  Carole, sitting in the passenger seat, gripped the armrest on the door to keep from bouncing right out of her seat. “Why on earth is this place so hard to reach?” she asked. Her voice sounded funny to her because she was being jostled so much.

  Judy smiled. “This is nothing,” she said. “In fact, this place is easy to reach, compared to some of my clients’ places. One of the facts about the life of an equine vet is that we do make house calls—no matter where the house is—and in this case, it’s on the top of a mountain!”

  Carole looked out the window and across the Virginia hills at the scenery. The land swept downward, the rich green of the fields in constant motion. A neat white fence enclosed each of the fields, stretched along the contours of the hillside. It was Carole’s favorite kind of view. Knowing that it was all for the benefit of the horses, she didn’t mind the bouncing so much.

  “Who’s our patient here?” she asked.

  “It’s a mare, about to foal,” Judy explained. “She’s had trouble before. She even lost her last foal, but this time everything’s going smoothly. I don’t even really need to be here, but the owner wants to be sure we don’t slip. He loves this mare a lot. He was upset about losing the foal, but he was even more worried that something might happen to the mare. He’s a very cautious man. That’s the kind of owner I like best.”

  Carole agreed with that completely. Working with Judy had taught her that too many owners waited too long to call the vet. Small problems became big ones when they weren’t attended to in a timely manner.

  This was the third day Carole and Judy had been working together. She was having so much fun and learning so much that it almost made up for not being able to ride Starlight. Each day after school, she headed for Pine Hollow, removed Starlight’s bandages and ran water on his leg to stimulate the healing, and then rebandaged it. Carole felt that Starlight missed their daily rides as much as she did, but he also seemed to like the attention he was getting. From a medical point of view, the good news was that the swelling wasn’t getting any worse. Judy felt it would still be a while before they would see any improvement. So far, she was pleased with what wasn’t happening.

  The truck took a final bounce and then the road turned up to the left. There were the barns and stable. Judy drew her traveling hospital to a halt, checked her book, handed the mare’s file to Carole, and the two of them stepped out of the truck.

  As soon as Carole saw the mare, she knew why the owner cared so much about her. She was a chestnut with a pretty face and a sweet disposition. Fortunately she also had a healthy pregnancy going on, and it took Judy only a few minutes to assure the owner there were no problems developing. Judy told the owner that she would be back in a month, and within a matter of minutes they were again bouncing on the dirt road—this time downhill.

  “One of my favorite kind of vet calls,” Judy remarked. “I love to visit a healthy horse.”

  “Particularly one as sweet as that,” Carole echoed. “So what’s next?”

  “A horse of a different color,” Judy said.

 
; That turned out to be an understatement. Their next call was at a breeding stable nearby. The stable’s stallion seemed to be having a problem, and the owner wanted Judy to check him out.

  Carole didn’t get to see too much of stallions. Most male riding horses were gelded, which made them unable to breed but gave them better dispositions and made them calmer and more reliable. Stallions tended to be high-spirited, temperamental, and unpredictable. The stallion they were visiting was all of those things, and then some, because he wasn’t feeling well.

  Judy checked him over, being careful of the horse as well as herself. She had him cross-tied at the back of his stall and never let herself get blocked from the doorway. A high-spirited horse, especially one who wasn’t feeling well, could be very dangerous.

  Judy wouldn’t let Carole into the stall, but she did let her hold the needle and the vials she used to draw blood. Carole wasn’t sorry to be kept out of the stall. Normally she wasn’t at all afraid of any horse, but in this case she made an exception. It made her think about the fact that a vet was often at risk when working with a horse like that stallion. She was still thinking about it when Judy’s visit was all done and they were on their way to the next call.

  “Aren’t you afraid sometimes?” Carole asked as they drove away.

  “All the time,” Judy said. “I wouldn’t still be on my feet if I weren’t. The minute I stop being afraid—well, maybe ‘alert to danger’ is a better term than ‘afraid,’—is the minute I’ll be in real trouble. Horses are big animals. They are bigger than I am, that’s for sure. I have to respect that. Of course, the thing I never do is let the horse know I’m afraid. That’s even more trouble than not being afraid. You know how competitive horses are. They are always trying to get the upper hand.”

  Carole knew that was true. Horses seemed to have a way of sensing people’s fear and taking advantage of it. Their natural competitiveness made them constantly sensitive to vulnerability in others, even people. It was a quality Carole loved and admired in horses. She also respected it.