Sonrise Stable

by Vicki Watson

  How was that possible? Hadn’t the judge seen Billy cut her off? Why would he give him first place?

  Billy smiled broadly and tipped his cowboy hat toward the judge as he rode Bandit over to collect his trophy and ribbon.

  Rosie’s eyes burned, and the tears started to fall. She would have been okay with not winning; after all, it was Scamper’s first show—but not to place at all? Suddenly she realized the other contestants were leaving the arena. Numbly she signaled Scamper to walk and followed them out the exit gate.

  She spotted her family at the practice arena and turned Scamper in that direction, wiping the tears away with her shirt sleeve. She hated to cry, and it was even worse when others saw her crying.

  Jared was the first to reach her. “You were the best! You would have won if it weren’t for Billy’s dirty trick.”

  “I hate him!” Rosie burst out.

  “Now, Rosie—” Kristy began.

  “I do, Mom. He’s mean and nasty. I can’t stand him. He hurt Bandit yesterday, and he ran into Scamper on purpose so we wouldn’t win the class.”

  “We’ll talk about that later.” Eric reached up over Scamper’s back and put his arm around Rosie’s waist. He hugged her, then started walking away. “I believe I’ll go have a few words with that boy.”

  Kristy’s eyes grew wide. “Eric, promise me you won’t do anything crazy!”

  “No one messes with my daughter,” Eric frowned. “Excuse me… pardon me…” He made his way through a group of people and was soon out of sight.

  “Oh, my. I hope he doesn’t hurt Billy.” Kristy patted Rosie’s leg. “You two looked great out there. That was very impressive for his first show.”

  Grandma agreed. “You were fantastic!” She helped Rosie down and gave her a hug. “Scamper deserves a treat. Why don’t you and Carrie grab some carrots from the camper while we unsaddle him for you?”

  Carrie walked quietly alongside Rosie for a few moments. “I’m sorry. I thought we would both win. It’s not as much fun for me now, after what happened to you.”

  “I really wanted to win a trophy—or at least a ribbon.” Rosie stared at the ground and scuffed her boot in the dust. “I had a spot picked out for it, right beside the last one my mom won.”

  “You can have my ribbon,” Carrie offered, “and I’ll keep the trophy. That way we’ll both have something.”

  “Thanks, but no.” Rosie shook her head. “You keep it. I need to earn my own.”

  “I know you’ll win sometime. Scamper did really well, except for right at the end.”

  Rosie brightened. “Yeah. I guess he did.”

  By the time the girls returned to the horse tent with the carrots, Rosie felt better. Scamper and Kezzie snatched the carrots and crunched them loudly. “He’s ready for some fair fries now.”

  “Oh no, you don’t!” Kristy said. “It sounds like Grandma’s been telling you stories again.”

  Rosie nodded.

  “All right, everyone. I have to leave to get ready for tonight.” Grandma gave the girls a hug. “I’ll see both of you later at Carrie’s house.”

  “What?” Carrie had a blank look on her face. “You’re coming to my house?”

  Rosie saw her mother glance at Grandma, and the two smiled. “What’s going on? Do you guys have a secret or something?”

  “You’ll find out,” Kristy replied mysteriously.

  Chapter 22

  Carrie’s Surprise

  That evening, Kristy, Eric, Grandma, and the girls joined Carrie’s foster parents for dinner. After the meal, they watched the video of the horse show.

  “Carrie, you look so serious,” Judy said. “I thought you loved to ride.”

  Carrie smiled. “I do. I was a little nervous.” She had never seen video of herself riding. She actually didn’t look too bad. Maybe someday she would be able to ride as well as Rosie.

  Judy gave Carrie a hug when her class on the video ended. “I don’t know much about horses, but you looked great. It’s no wonder you won first place. I’m so proud of you.”

  Both Judy and Ross were upset when they watched the part of Rosie’s class where Billy cut her off and bumped Scamper.

  “Can’t something be done about that?” Ross asked. “You have proof of it right here.”

  Grandma shook her head. “No. It’s not worth making a fuss about. Rosie learned a valuable lesson today. It’s fun to win horse shows, but it’s not the end of the world when you lose.”

  Grandma patted Rosie’s leg and smiled. “Life goes on, and your family still loves you.”

  “I know,” Rosie said. “But I still wish I had won!”

  “I’ve always told the girls,” Grandma continued, “that what’s more important than a trophy, is receiving the ultimate prize—when we stand before Christ and hear Him say, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’” (1)

  Judy smiled. “I’m always amazed at how you’re able to tie everything back to your faith. Who would have thought there were so many spiritual lessons from horses.”

  Carrie looked around the room as everyone grew quiet. She saw Judy glance at Kristy, who gave a quick, nervous nod. Something seemed to be going on. Apparently, this evening had been planned, but she hadn’t been told anything about it.

  Judy patted the couch, inviting Carrie to come and sit beside her. She sat down slowly, growing a little worried. Was she in trouble? She tried to remember if there was something she had done wrong—or was it something she’d forgotten to do?

  “Carrie,” Judy started to speak, hesitated, then started again. “I don’t think there’s any way to ask this, other than to just come right out and say it. Would you like to live with Rosie and her family?”

  Carrie stared at her. “What? I don’t understand. You’re my foster mom.”

  “Yes, but I’ve been sick so much lately. I haven’t been able to be the kind of mother you deserve.” Tears pooled in Judy’s eyes. “You wouldn’t be far away, and of course, you could come and visit as often as you wanted.”

  “Eric and I would like to adopt you,” Kristy explained. “I mean—if you want us to. You and Rosie would be sisters.”

  Carrie was silent for a moment, trying to take it all in. “Rosie would be my sister? My real sister? And you would be my mom?”

  Kristy nodded. “And Eric would be your dad.”

  Rosie’s wide eyes indicated that she hadn’t known anything about this either.

  Judy put her arm around Carrie. “It’s all right with us. As much as we’d love for you to stay here, we want what’s best for you.”

  Becoming part of Rosie’s family was more than Carrie had ever hoped for, but she also loved her foster parents. She would miss them and didn’t want to hurt their feelings. “Are you sure it’s okay?”

  Judy and Ross both nodded.

  “Yes. I’d like to live with Rosie.” That was as far as Carrie’s thoughts could go—having Rosie as her sister. She couldn’t imagine having her own mom and dad—without the “foster” part in front of it.

  Rosie let out a whoop and nearly tackled Carrie. Kristy and Eric surrounded both girls and hugged them.

  Judy and Ross extended their arms to Carrie. “We’re so happy for you.”

  Carrie gave her foster parents a hug and kiss. “I’ll never forget you two. You’ve been so kind to me.”

  “Carrie, we have one more surprise for you,” Eric said.

  Carrie clapped both hands onto the top of her head and dropped to the floor. She was beginning to feel a little faint. What else could there be?

  “You girls know how Billy King mistreated Bandit yesterday. After what I saw him do in Rosie’s class today, I knew it was time for that boy to learn a lesson. To make a long story short, he won’t abuse that pony ever again!”

  “Oh no, Dad!” Rosie gasped. “What did you do to Billy?”

  A slow grin spread across Eric’s face. “I didn’t do anything to Billy, but I did buy his pony.”

  “What?” Ros
ie and Carrie both exclaimed.

  “You bought Bandit?” Rosie said.

  Eric nodded. “For you, Carrie.”

  “For me?” Carrie stared at Eric.

  “I think it’s some kind of a requirement that all the girls in this family grow up riding horses,” Eric said.

  Family? As much as Carrie loved the idea of having a horse, that word—family—sounded even better. She was going to have her own family and her own horse. It seemed like a dream.

  “After the fair, you’ll bring Bandit home to Sonrise Stable, where he can get used to his new family,” Grandma said.

  “This was Billy’s last year in 4H, so maybe his riding days are over,” Eric said. “At least he won’t be able to hurt Bandit any more.”

  Grandma smiled, brushing tears from her eyes. “God has truly blessed this family. Life has its difficulties, but God has a way of working all things together for good.” (2)

  Carrie couldn’t find the words to express all the feelings swirling around inside her. Her world had been turned upside down in a matter of minutes. “You’ll be my sister?” she repeated to Rosie. “And Bandit is mine?”

  Rosie sat beside her without answering.

  Carrie had never known a time when Rosie couldn’t think of anything to say. The girls sat on the floor, grinning at each other.

  “You know what this means, Rosie?” Carrie asked.

  “No, what?”

  “You’ll never win the pony classes at the fair now, because Bandit and I will be in them!”

  The adults laughed heartily at Carrie’s challenge.

  Rosie joined in the laughter. “Oh yeah? We’ll see about that!”

  Matthew 25:23

  Romans 8:28

  Draw Scamper with Janet Griffin-Scott

  Would you like to learn how to draw horses? I’m Janet Griffin-Scott, illustrator of the Sonrise Stable series. I love drawing horses of all kinds - ponies, foals, drafts, donkeys, or mules - it doesn’t matter, I love them all! In fact, when I was in ninth grade, I nearly failed art class, because my teacher was frustrated with me for turning every assignment into a horse project!

  Later, I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, but it wasn’t until I had worked for ten years as a freelance artist in Canada that I was able to pursue my first love - equine art. My work can be found in over 650 stores.

  In this first lesson, we’ll draw Rosie’s pony, Scamper. Here is the original photo I worked from.

  With a dark horse, the challenge for the artist is to provide muscle definition so that you don’t end up with a flat, black blob. Decide what your focus will be, and eliminate any unnecessary background details.

  If you know how to use graphics software and have a digital version of the photo, lightening the image will show more muscle definition in the dark areas.

  The first step is to break your subject down into its basic shapes: circles, squares, triangles, and ovals. For instance, we see the kite shape in his head, lining up his eyes. His jowl and muzzle are ovals, as are the joints in his legs.

  His hooves are triangles with the ends cut off. Even his tail and ears can be seen as stretched-out ovals. His barrel looks like a banana shape, but is actually a sagging oval with pointed ends.

  Making sure the outline shape matches the photo of the horse is the hardest part, because all horses are put together in a slightly different way. Spend lots of time on this first step.

  ***

  Next, outline the shapes while carefully studying the photo. Sketch in the paint markings on his shoulder, using the underlying circles as a guide. It’s important to study the photo as you work in order to get a good likeness.

  ***

  Then erase the underlying shapes. If some of the outline disappears in the erasing process, gently draw it back in. Do a rough sketch of the markings on his legs.

  Begin adding details of his mane, halter, and eyes. Add a few strokes of long lines for his tail hair.

  ***

  Add small strokes with a sharp pencil to suggest blades of grass. To make it look realistic, aim the strokes in the directions grass grows, from the bottom up. Begin to add rough shading on his barrel, neck, and along the lower part of his neck (the Brachiocephalicus muscle). This muscle is usually in shadow due to its large size and shape under the shiny hide.

  ***

  Next add large areas of shading to darken him. There are several different ways you can do this—by using long thin parallel strokes or circular strokes, then smudging and blending the areas with a cotton swab, tissue, or dry paintbrush. Crosshatching, where the pencil strokes go in different directions to darken the color, may also be used. Adding realistic shading and blending is the second hardest part for beginning artists.

  Create darker areas by making several passes of the pencil over the same area. His rump, stifle area, neck, and barrel all get extra strokes with more pressure on the pencil. When shading, use the pencil at a lower angle to the paper to get a softer, wider stroke. Hold the pencil more upright to create narrower lines and tighter detail.

  ***

  In this next step I gradually darken the whole drawing, building up the darker areas with repeated strokes and blending. You can use a kneaded eraser with a point pulled up to remove areas that get too dark. Drawing is messier than painting, so my hand smudges areas, and I have to keep erasing outside the drawing to keep the surface clean. Fixatives can be sprayed on the finished drawing to set the graphite. Also, there are workable fixatives that fix layers of graphite in between darkening layers, but I do not like to use them.

  ***

  Notice the small dark strokes in Scamper’s white markings. Look at the original photo again, and you’ll notice this halo effect where dark skin appears under the light-colored hair. Some horses have markings with a straight edge, and others have this transitional area. I have darkened his belly and tail again with additional alternating strokes and blending.

  From the photo, you can see that the light was overhead, making his topline lighter, with a very light area on his back and rump. Early in the morning or later in the day, the shadows are longer and at different angles. When drawing, always ask yourself what direction the main light is coming from. That way you’ll get the light and shadowy areas correct. This is critical to making the drawing look realistic.

  Scamper is a black horse, but you can still use darker areas to suggest the curves and angles on his body. I mainly use kneaded erasers for creating highlight areas and to clean up smudges. Vinyl erasers, when they are new, have sharp edges that can be used in small areas.

  ***

  Here I continued to add graphite all over, stopping in between layers to blend with my fingers, tissue, cotton swab, and paintbrush. This is a flexible process that goes differently for each drawing. I erase small areas to add highlights, allowing the white paper to show through.

  As a last step, for my professional work, I scan the image and open it in the graphics program, Photoshop. Of course, you should make the drawing the best it can possibly be before using software to manipulate it.

  In Photoshop, I: remove smudged areas, change uneven lead areas with the healing brush, use the burn and dodge tools to lighten or darken selective areas, and adjust the levels to darken the entire drawing so it more closely matches the photo. As a beginning artist, you should focus on improving your drawing skills. However if you want to experiment with graphics software, programs like GIMP or Paint.net offer many of the same tools for free.

  ***

  Blending Techniques

  Cotton swabs have a soft, smooth surface that is wonderful for moving areas of graphite around and making the darker areas blend nicely into lighter ones.

  Paintbrush – If the drawn lines show up too contrasty, they can be blended with a clean, dry paintbrush. Wash the paintbrush carefully after this to avoid damaging it or contaminating your paint.

  Eraser – Normally the kneaded eraser is used to remove areas, but if a flat part of the eraser is gently
rubbed on the surface, it can blend and blur the strokes.

  Some artists use their fingers, but I only do that in larger drawings. In a small drawing, it’s hard to control where the smudging goes when using your fingers.

  Finally, you could use a drawing stump. This is is a tightly wound pencil-shaped instrument made of paper that can be applied to pencil media to blend areas. I have never liked them, however other artists swear by them. It’s a matter of personal preference.

  ***

  Crosshatching and circles -To get realistic blended areas, I make soft circles of graphite, or make alternating strokes going in different directions. If bits of lead come off the pencil tip and leave dark dots, they can be removed easily with a kneaded eraser. Remove larger blobs with the tip of an exacto knife. These are caused by irregularities in the pencil lead, especially with cheaper pencils.

  Sand Paper – A fine grit sandpaper can be used to sand a flat area on the pencil lead in order to touch more of the paper. Most of the time you want to keep the pencil tip sharp, but for larger areas, this sandpaper trick works well. It also removes any grit in the graphite.

  Pencil Pressure — By applying more weight or pressure with the pencil, it’s possible to darken areas quite easily. You can tone them back with an eraser if they get too dark.

  Highlights can be added by removing graphite with the kneaded eraser. The kneaded eraser is the most flexible of all erasers and can be formed into a larger shape to cover wide areas or into a point for more precise work. There are harder erasers and softer ones. Experiment until you find one that works well for you.

  Feel free to turn the drawing sideways to make the shading easier.

  ***

  To develop an eye for horses, it’s important to observe them in a variety of settings—at work, rest, and play. This is a good excuse for attending as many horse events as possible!