Pony Tails 02- May's Riding Lesson

by Bonnie Bryant

  May’s Riding Lesson

  Pony Tails, Book Two

  Bonnie Bryant

  1 May’s News

  May Grover couldn’t wait to get to the school-bus stop. She had something really good to tell her best friends, Jasmine James and Corey Takamura. The three girls lived next door to one another, and they all went to the same school, though they were each in a different third-grade class. They were such good friends, they did everything together—especially ride their ponies.

  Corey was at the bus stop when May arrived. So was Wil McNally.

  “Oh, no,” muttered May. Wil was the biggest tease and bully in school. He never missed a chance to tease May and her friends.

  May decided to ignore Wil. Instead she talked to Corey.

  “Max called my mom last night,” May began. “And wait till you hear this!”

  “I bet this has to do with your ponies.” Wil smirked as he interrupted their conversation.

  “Yes, it does have something to do with our ponies,” May replied. “Not that it’s any of your business. …”

  That made Wil step back a little. But it didn’t make him stop listening.

  “Anyway,” May went on, turning her back on Wil, “Max called.” Max Regnery was the owner of Pine Hollow Stables, where the girls’ Pony Club had its meetings. “He wanted to borrow our instant camera. He told Mom we’re going to have a special kind of scavenger hunt at the next Pony Club meeting. Doesn’t that sound neat?”

  “It sure does,” Corey said. “But what’s a scavenger hunt?”

  Wil snorted.

  May turned around to glare at him before she answered Corey’s question. “It’s a game. The leader—that’ll be Max—gives us each a list of things we have to find. And the team that gets the most things from the list wins a prize. Best of all, we’ll get to do the whole thing on our ponies.”

  “So what will we have to look for?” asked Corey.

  “A scavenger hunt can be for anything,” May replied. “Mom said she was on a scavenger hunt once, and she had to get an eagle feather and a 1958 penny. I don’t know what Max will put on the list.” May glanced at Wil. “But if he asks us to find an obnoxious boy, I know just where to look.”

  Wil glared at May. She decided not to talk about the scavenger hunt in front of him anymore. That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to talk about ponies, though.

  She and Corey began talking about the riding class they would take that afternoon with Jasmine. The three girls were so pony crazy, they called themselves the Pony Tails. They each had their own pony, and they took classes on Wednesdays at Pine Hollow. Then, on Saturdays, they had Pony Club. The name of their Pony Club was Horse Wise because that was what the members wanted to become—wise about horses.

  Even though they all loved ponies, the three girls were very different from one another. May could be stubborn. She usually said exactly what was on her mind. Not everybody liked that, and it sometimes got her into trouble.

  Jasmine was almost a complete opposite of that. She was gentle and a little shy. She had a lot of model horses that she let her friends play with.

  Not long ago Corey had moved into the house between May and Jasmine’s. Corey was very logical and reasonable. When May and Jasmine couldn’t find a way to agree on something, Corey could usually find the way for them. Not only that, she loved ponies and riding as much as the other girls did.

  Each of the girls had her own pony. May had a golden-colored pony named Macaroni. Macaroni was as sweet and gentle as May was strong-willed. Jasmine’s pony was named Outlaw, because he had a white face that looked like a mask. He was sometimes hard to control. Corey’s pony was named Sam, for Samurai. He was a dark bay with a blaze on his face that looked like a Samurai sword.

  “I wish Jasmine would get here,” May said, glancing over at Jasmine’s house. “I want to tell her about the scavenger hunt, too.”

  “I hope Max puts brains on the list,” Wil said. “You girls could really use them.”

  “Is he always like this?” Corey whispered to May. She was still getting to know Wil.

  “Always,” May sighed.

  2 Jasmine’s Model Horse

  A few minutes later May and Corey heard Jasmine’s front door bang shut. Jasmine waved to her friends and skipped down the walk.

  May could see that Jasmine was carrying something. It was one of her model horses. Jasmine had eighteen model horses and ponies. May and Corey had some, too. The girls often brought their horses over to one another’s house and played with them. Jasmine liked to make saddles, bridles, and all kinds of equipment for her horses. Today she was carrying a model of an Arabian.

  “Look what I did!” Jasmine said proudly. She held up the horse to show her friends the Arabian-style outfit she’d made for it. The outfit even had golden tassels.

  “That’s neat,” said Corey. “Did you do all the sewing yourself?”

  Jasmine nodded. “We’re studying the Arabian Peninsula in class. I thought everyone would like to see a real Arabian horse. Mom let me use these scraps to make a costume for him.”

  Jasmine’s mother had a big loom that she used to make fabrics from natural fibers. She even made clothes for their family from them. Sometimes Jasmine helped her. She liked to make her own clothes, especially if she could put lace and ribbons on her outfit. Pretty dresses were very important to Jasmine.

  Pretty clothes didn’t matter at all to May. She didn’t care how she looked as long as her clothes were right for riding. Today she was wearing jeans.

  May looked at the model horse. As usual Jasmine had done a wonderful job. It looked as if an Arabian king could mount this horse and ride it across the desert.

  The bus arrived. The three girls and Wil climbed into it. May and Jasmine sat together. Corey sat behind them. Wil sat across the aisle from Jasmine next to his best friend, Mark Engstrom.

  Jasmine was still talking about her model horse.

  “I named him Barq after the Arabian horse at Pine Hollow,” she went on. “I even put a streak on his face to look like the real Barq. Did you know that barq means ‘lightning’ in Arabian?”

  Corey hadn’t known that. She had begun riding at Pine Hollow when she and her mother moved to Willow Creek. And there were still some things she didn’t know about Pine Hollow and the horses there.

  “I knew that,” May said, sounding a little impatient. She was trying to tell Jasmine about the scavenger hunt. But she couldn’t get in a word.

  “I pretended Barq was a real horse while I was making his costume,” Jasmine bubbled on. “He loved it. As soon as I put part of his outfit on, he wanted to prance about and show it off. I finally got him to stand still by telling him he could have some carrots. After that he behaved.”

  Across the aisle Wil McNally snorted. “Of course he did, he’s plastic!” he said loudly. Mark Engstrom stood up to look at the model horse Jasmine was holding. Then he snorted with laughter, too. All over the bus, kids looked around to see what was going on.

  Jasmine turned so that her back was to Wil. She jutted out her jaw and kept talking as if Wil weren’t even there.

  But that didn’t keep Wil and Mark from saying things. When the bus stopped to pick up Josh Heffernon, Wil and Mark pointed to the horse in Jasmine’s hand.

  “Jasmine’s a great horsewoman, Josh,” Mark said. “She got that wild steed to stand still while she made the costume.”

  Josh laughed. Jasmine hunched her shoulders.

  Wil, Mark, and Josh told Erik Schneider about the horse when he got on the bus. Erik tried to grab the horse from Jasmine. She pulled it away from him and tucked it in her jacket.

  “Be careful,” Erik said. “He might
kick you!”

  Wil, Mark, Josh, and Erik all thought that was very funny. They laughed loudly and slapped their knees.

  May couldn’t believe that Jasmine didn’t say anything to them. She must be waiting to get revenge until we get off the bus, May thought.

  The bus came to a stop in front of Willow Creek Elementary School. The door opened. Wil, Mark, Josh, and Erik all stood up to be the first off the bus. May couldn’t help herself. As each boy passed her, she stuck out her tongue at him.

  That made them laugh, too. But it made May feel better.

  At least until she looked over at Jasmine. Her friend had tears in her eyes.

  How could those boys tease Jasmine like that? May thought angrily. Wil McNally isn’t going to get away with this.

  The three girls climbed off the bus and went into the school building. Just before they each headed for their separate classrooms, Corey took Jasmine’s arm.

  “You did a really nice job on Barq’s outfit,” she said. “I wish I could sew the way you do.”

  “Me too,” chimed in May.

  Jasmine smiled at them. “Thanks, you guys.”

  The bell rang, and the girls ran to their classrooms.

  Whoops, thought May. I never did get a chance to tell Jasmine about the scavenger hunt.

  The news would have to wait until later that day.

  3 A Very Bad Day

  Jasmine clutched her model horse. She kept her eyes on the floor straight ahead of her, and she walked very fast to her classroom. She didn’t want to see anybody. She especially didn’t want to see the boys from the bus. But Wil and Mark were in her class. She’d be stuck with them all day long.

  Ms. Elder was about to close the classroom door. Jasmine made a dash and got there just as the second bell rang. She went straight to her desk and shoved her books inside. She wanted to put Barq there, too, but there wasn’t room. Instead she put the model on her desk.

  First she heard the sound of a horse’s whinny. Then she heard a snort of laughter. She didn’t have to look. She knew who had made the noises. Wil had whinnied. Mark Engstrom had snorted. Then a couple of other boys snorted, too.

  Jasmine didn’t look at them. She stared straight ahead.

  “Why, Jasmine, look at what you’ve got!” Ms. Elder said. “That’s beautiful. Did you make the costume yourself?”

  Jasmine nodded. She usually liked it when her teacher complimented her. She didn’t like it today. She put the horse on the floor by her feet. She hoped everybody would forget about it. Today was not her lucky day, though.

  “That’s an Arabian horse, isn’t it, Jasmine?” Ms. Elder asked.

  “Yes,” Jasmine mumbled.

  “Well, then, it fits right in with something I want to talk about today,” the teacher said. “Why don’t you bring it up here and show it to the class. What makes Arabian horses different from other breeds?”

  Jasmine knew the answer. Arabians were known for their beauty. They were also known for their endurance. That was what gave them strength to go for long rides in the desert without water or food. They were very valuable horses.

  Jasmine knew all this, but she didn’t want to say it. She stayed at her desk, while Wil answered the teacher’s question.

  “Arabians are very different from other breeds,” he began. “Even the plastic ones stand still while you put tassels on their costumes!”

  Mark thought that was very funny. So did a couple of other boys. Pretty soon all the boys were laughing.

  Ms. Elder told them to be quiet. They stopped laughing, but they didn’t stop looking at Jasmine. She could feel her face turning red. She didn’t say anything about what wonderful horses Arabians were. She didn’t say anything at all.

  At lunchtime things got worse. Erik came up to her and pretended to be a rearing horse.

  “You couldn’t sew a costume on me, that’s for sure!” he said.

  Then Josh called out, “What’s for lunch, Jasmine? Oats?”

  “Clip-clop, clip-clop,” chimed in Wil McNally.

  “What dorks,” May said. She put her arm around Jasmine’s shoulder.

  “They don’t know anything about horses or ponies,” added Corey.

  That made Jasmine feel a little better. She smiled at her friends. “Why are the most obnoxious boys in my class?”

  Corey and May didn’t know the answer.

  “It’s not fair, is it?” Corey asked.

  “No, it’s not,” Jasmine agreed.

  When the bell rang Jasmine took a deep breath.

  “Wish me luck for the rest of the day,” she said.

  Her friends wished her luck.

  4 Riding Class

  May and Corey knew right away that Jasmine’s day hadn’t gotten any better. Jasmine didn’t say a word while the three of them waited for the bus that afternoon. She wouldn’t even talk during the ride. She was completely silent until the Pony Tails got off the bus at Pine Hollow. Then she started talking.

  “It was awful!” She blinked to hold back tears.

  “The boys didn’t stop teasing you all day long?” Corey asked.

  “Not for a minute,” said Jasmine.

  “Well, they’re not here,” May reminded Jasmine. She gave Jasmine a hug.

  “You girls don’t have all day to dawdle and talk!” said Max. He hurried past them and went into the stable. The girls rushed in after him. Max didn’t like it when students were late for riding class. And today they had only fifteen minutes until their class began.

  Corey thought it would be good for Jasmine to be very busy for a while and she was right. Fifteen minutes wasn’t much time to change clothes and tack up a pony by putting on the bridle and saddle.

  When they had mounted meetings of Horse Wise, the girls brought their own ponies. When they had a half-hour class after school on Wednesdays, they rode the ponies at Pine Hollow. That was because their parents were usually too busy during the week to bring the girls’ own ponies to the stable.

  Today Max had told Corey to ride Nickel. She was glad about that. Nickel was an easygoing, obedient pony. He always did everything his rider wanted him to do. Sometimes he did it even before the rider told him! He was smart.

  Corey loved Samurai more than anything. She thought he was the most wonderful pony in the world. But lately, he’d been giving her trouble. He wouldn’t stand still when she was putting on his saddle and he didn’t follow her instructions when she was riding him. Last week he’d even nipped her when she gave him a carrot!

  Corey didn’t know what was wrong with Sam, but she hoped he’d start acting better very soon. For right now she was relieved to be riding Nickel.

  She put the bridle and saddle on Nickel. Red O’Malley, Pine Hollow’s stablehand, helped her tighten the girth. That was the strap that held the saddle in place. Then Corey got into the saddle. She was almost ready for class. First she had to touch the good-luck horseshoe. It was a tradition at Pine Hollow. The horseshoe was by the door that led to the schooling ring. No rider who’d touched the horseshoe before riding had ever gotten hurt.

  May and Jasmine were waiting for Corey at the horseshoe.

  “Ready?” May asked.

  “You bet!” said Corey. “How about you, Jasmine? Feeling better?”

  “Riding always makes me feel better,” said Jasmine. She had a smile on her face. Corey was glad to see that.

  The first thing Max wanted the riders to do was get their ponies warmed up. They circled the ring four times, walking.

  “Now take up a trot,” Max said.

  Nickel was trotting before Max finished his instruction. And Max wasn’t very happy about it.

  “You’re supposed to be in charge,” he told Corey. “Don’t let your pony do your thinking for you.”

  Corey knew Max was right. She had to remind Nickel that she was the boss. Corey pulled gently on the reins. Nickel slowed to a walk. He looked around at the other ponies, which were trotting. His ears flicked eagerly. He shook out his mane. He wante
d to trot, too. Corey knew better than to let him do it, though. Instead she made him walk a full circle. Then she loosened on the reins and nudged his belly with her feet. He started to trot. Corey felt good. She’d done it right.

  Max raised his hand. Corey knew he was about to tell the riders to circle at a canter. She gripped Nickel’s reins. That was a way of telling him he was about to get an instruction. She wanted him to know the instruction was coming from her, not Max.

  “Canter!” Max said.

  Nickel’s head bobbed down and then up. He was starting to canter. But Corey hadn’t told him to do it yet. She held the reins tightly. She made him trot halfway around the ring. Then she touched his belly behind the girth on his outside—the side to the wall. It was what Nickel had been waiting for. He began cantering.

  “Nice job, Corey,” said Max. Corey was pleased that he’d noticed. Max never missed a chance to point out a mistake. His compliments were rarer.

  Once the horses were warmed up, Max had the class work on a lot of skills. They worked on riding positions and on starting and stopping. He tested them on hand positions and leg positions. He checked each rider’s stirrups to make sure they were the right length. Then Max made everybody show him exactly how they gripped their reins. The class worked hard. Max didn’t miss any mistakes!

  “Wow, he was tough today,” May whispered to Corey while they walked their ponies to cool them down.

  “No talking!” Max said before Corey could agree. “Now, everybody, line up in the center of the ring.”

  Max often had the riders line up when he wanted to talk to them. May hoped he didn’t want to complain about how she and Corey were talking.

  Luckily he didn’t. He wanted to tell them about the scavenger hunt.

  “On Saturday we’re having a mounted meeting at Horse Wise. We have a very special activity planned. It’s going to be a scavenger hunt, but it’s going to be a very different kind of scavenger hunt. Be on time and be prepared to work hard!”

  May groaned. “Harder than today?”