Pony Tails 02- May's Riding Lesson

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Every day I make you work harder than the day before, don’t I?” Max said.

  It was true. He wanted his students to learn more every time they rode than they had the last time. That was just one of the things the Pony Tails loved about Max.

  5 Untacking

  “A scavenger hunt! I knew something good had to happen today!” said Jasmine. She unbuckled the girth of Peso’s saddle to take it off the pony.

  “Isn’t it great?” May agreed.

  “Max told Mom about it. I was going to tell you this morning, but first you were talking about the model horse. Then Wil McNally, well, you know …”

  “Yeah, I know.” Jasmine sighed. “I wish you hadn’t reminded me.” She tugged hard at Peso’s lead rope to take him back into his stall. Then she realized that she’d tugged too hard. “I’m sorry, Peso.” She gave the pony a little hug. “It’s not your fault that Wil McNally is so awful.”

  Peso didn’t seem to care about Wil McNally. He did like the hug, however. He liked the water and fresh hay Jasmine gave him even better.

  In a few minutes the girls were all done with their chores. It was time to go home. Mrs. Grover drove them in the Grovers’ station wagon. All the way home the Pony Tails talked about things they might have to hunt for on the scavenger hunt.

  “If it’s an old coin, my father has a collection,” said May.

  “If we need a parrot, I know where to find one,” said Corey.

  May and Jasmine laughed. Corey’s mother was a veterinarian, whom everyone called Doc Tock. She had a parrot that had been left at her office by its owner. Anybody who spent any time with Bluebeard immediately knew why the owner had never picked him up. All day long he made noises like tires screeching or a witch cackling. When Corey had first moved into the neighborhood, May and Jasmine had a hard time figuring out what was going on inside her house!

  “Sometimes you need old newspapers on scavenger hunts,” said Jasmine. “My parents have lots of those. They save them for recycling.”

  “I doubt that will be on Max’s list,” said May. Jasmine thought she was right. She also didn’t think a parrot would be on the list.

  “If it’s not going to be pennies, parrots, and newspapers, I wonder what it will be,” said Corey.

  “If it were going to be easy, Max wouldn’t do it,” replied May.

  Jasmine and Corey thought about the riding class that had just ended and agreed with May. The scavenger hunt was definitely going to be a challenge. It was also going to be fun. The Pony Tails couldn’t wait.

  6 Samurai Makes Trouble

  “Meet you in the ring in ten minutes!” May called as the three girls climbed out of the Grovers’ station wagon. “Let’s work on some of the skills we practiced in class today.”

  “Okay,” Corey called. She hurried off to her stable.

  Shortly after she’d moved to Willow Creek, Corey had decided that Wednesday was her favorite day. On Wednesdays she had riding class, and then when she got home, she rode Samurai with her friends. Ponies needed to have exercise every day. Riding a pony was the best exercise he could get.

  Corey waved to her mother as she passed by the window of her mother’s office at one side of the house. Her mother was with a patient. She was listening to a cat’s heartbeat. She smiled at Corey. Corey didn’t have to tell her where she was going. Her mother knew Corey was headed straight for Samurai.

  When Corey came into the barn Samurai backed into the corner of his stall. He stomped twice on the floor. He watched her with his big dark eyes.

  “It’s okay, boy,” Corey said. She reached out to pat him. He sniffed toward her hand, but he didn’t walk over to her.

  This wasn’t like Samurai at all. He always greeted Corey with a nod. He came over when she reached out to him. Corey wondered what was on his mind now.

  She got his saddle and bridle and tacked him up. He kept trying to move away from her while she put on his tack. That wasn’t like him, either. Corey was starting to worry.

  She took him to the door of her barn and lifted herself into the saddle. She nudged his belly with her heels. Samurai didn’t move. She did it again, tapping him with the riding crop. Still he didn’t move. It took three more tries to get him to a walk.

  “Oh, Samurai,” Corey sighed. “Something is bothering you and I don’t know what it is. You never behaved like this at our old house. Now you’re more trouble than Wil McNally.”

  Samurai snorted.

  “Well, maybe not that much trouble,” she said.

  As she and Samurai passed by the house again, her mother stepped out the back door.

  “What’s the matter with Samurai?” Doc Tock asked.

  Corey smiled. It was just like her mother to notice right away that something was wrong with an animal!

  “He’s in a bad mood,” said Corey. “At least that’s what I think is wrong.”

  “A visit with Outlaw and Macaroni might cheer him up,” her mother replied.

  “I hope so,” Corey grumbled. She walked Samurai toward Mr. Grover’s schooling ring.

  Mr. Grover’s job was to train horses. The schooling ring was where Mr. Grover worked with them. Today, while the Pony Tails were in the ring, Mr. Grover was in the stable. He was grooming his number-one student, a Thoroughbred stallion named Vanilla.

  The girls began their work in the ring the same way they began their classes. They let the ponies warm up at a walk and then at a trot. Outlaw and Macaroni did just what Jasmine and May told them to do.

  “Come on, Samurai,” Corey pleaded. “It’s time to trot. Don’t you want to trot?”

  Samurai walked.

  Corey knew she couldn’t let him walk when she wanted him to trot. That was letting him be in charge. She nudged his belly. He walked. She tapped him with her riding crop. He walked. She clicked her tongue, kicked at his belly, and tapped him with the riding crop all at once. He got the idea. He got it so well that he started cantering instead of trotting.

  “Rein him in, Corey,” May cried.

  “Sit deep in the saddle, Corey,” Jasmine called.

  “Hold your hands low,” May suggested.

  “Grip with your legs,” added Jasmine.

  Corey did all of those things. Samurai stopped.

  “I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” Corey sighed. “He wants to tell me what to do instead of the other way around!”

  “He’s bullying you,” said Jasmine. “You can’t let him do that. Just like Max said today, you have to remind him that you’re in charge.”

  Corey knew Jasmine was right, but she wasn’t sure what to do about it. She didn’t want to hit Samurai or hurt him. No good ever came from that. But right now there was no question about who was in charge: It was Samurai.

  “I’ve got an idea,” said May.

  “It might sound a little strange. …”

  “Uh-oh.” Jasmine groaned and rolled her eyes. Usually May’s ideas were crazy.

  But Corey listened carefully. After the way Samurai had behaved today, she was ready to try anything. Even one of May’s crazy ideas.

  7 Samurai Goes to School

  “I think Samurai is homesick,” May explained. “Maybe he misses his old stable. Why don’t we show him what a nice place this is.”

  “Ma-ay,” said Jasmine. “That’s the silliest thing I ever heard.”

  But Corey wasn’t so sure. “I don’t know what else to do about Samurai. I think it’s worth a try.”

  “First we can show him my stable,” May told her. “Then Jasmine’s and then yours. We’ll let him look around and sniff all he wants. That way he can get used to his new home. We’ll let him take as long as he wants.”

  “Dinner’s in an hour,” Jasmine reminded her.

  “Well, he can take almost as long as he wants,” May insisted stubbornly. “And best of all, we’re going to bring Outlaw and Macaroni along on the tour. That way the three ponies will have a chance to get to be friends.”

  “Aren’t they f
riends already?” Corey asked.

  “Macaroni and Outlaw are, but they’ve known each other a long time,” said May. “Samurai is like the new kid on the block. Sometimes it takes ponies a little while to make friends.”

  “Like the way it sometimes takes girls a little while?” Jasmine asked.

  The three girls looked at one another and laughed. When May and Jasmine first met Corey, it had taken them two weeks to become friends. Now they were best friends. They didn’t think anything could tear them apart. They definitely wanted their horses to be friends, too.

  The girls led their horses through every inch of the Grovers’ stable. Samurai had a chance to meet all the horses who lived there, including Vanilla, Hank, Rascal, and Dobbin. Samurai got to sniff things and look at them. He was very curious. His ears flicked back and forth; he sniffed and snorted. He nipped and nibbled. He even played with a soccer ball that May’s sister had left in the barn.

  “He’s like a kitten,” said Corey.

  “He’s starting all over,” May explained. “Everything is new to him.”

  “This was a good idea, May,” Jasmine told her. “I think you were right about Samurai.”

  May smiled proudly.

  Next they went to the little stable behind Jasmine’s house. Outlaw was the only pony who lived there. There wasn’t much for Samurai to sniff and explore. He looked at it all.

  Then it was time to go to Samurai’s stable.

  “He knows this place already,” said Corey.

  “But the only part he knows is his stall,” said May. “He’s probably curious about the rest of it.”

  He was. Samurai looked everywhere. He sniffed in the other stalls. They were empty now, but he still wanted to know what was there. He examined the tack room. He checked out the feed storage. He even started to explore his own stall. Then he snorted happily. He recognized it.

  “I think he knows it’s home now,” said Corey.

  “I think he knows more about these stables than we do now,” said Jasmine.

  “I think it’s time to get back to work,” said May.

  With that, the girls returned to the Grovers’ schooling ring.

  “Now comes the second part of my plan,” said May. “It’s called peer pressure.’”

  Both Corey and Jasmine were surprised. Peer pressure meant wanting to do what your friends were doing.

  What does that have to do with Samurai? Corey wondered.

  “The three of us will ride in a row,” May went on. “We’ll put Samurai between Macaroni and Outlaw. If they walk, he’ll want to walk. If they trot, he’ll want to trot. And so on. It’s just got to work.”

  “Are all her ideas this crazy?” Corey asked Jasmine.

  “Most of them are crazier,” Jasmine told her. “But sometimes the craziest ones work.”

  Corey smiled and nodded. So far May had been right. It wouldn’t hurt to listen to her again.

  The girls lined up side by side.

  “First we walk,” said May. They walked. It took only three kicks to get Samurai walking.

  “Now we’ll trot,” May announced. Outlaw and Macaroni trotted right away. Samurai held back. Corey tapped him with her riding crop. He started trotting and soon caught up to his new friends.

  “I think it’s working,” said Corey.

  “Then we’ll keep on doing it every day,” said May.

  “But it’s time to let the ponies rest now,” said Jasmine. “Let’s groom them.”

  The other girls agreed, and the three of them tied their ponies to the fence on the schooling ring.

  The Pony Tails had quickly discovered that it was as much fun to groom their ponies together as it was to ride them together. Their ponies loved the attention, too.

  Each girl had a grooming bucket where she kept tools to clean her pony. First they used their hoofpicks to get any stones out from under the ponies’ shoes. Next came the currycomb to remove dirt from the pony’s body. Then they used their dandy brushes for legs, mane, and tails.

  “Stand still, Outlaw,” Jasmine said. “I can’t brush the dust out of your coat if you keep moving.” Outlaw liked being mischievous.

  “It’s a good thing you stand still, Macaroni,” May remarked. “Your yellow coat acts like a dirt magnet. If you didn’t behave, you’d never look clean!”

  Samurai stood between the two other ponies. He fidgeted when Corey began to groom him. Then he looked at Outlaw. He glanced toward Macaroni. Finally he looked at Corey. He stood still.

  “Good boy, Sam,” Corey said, patting his head. “You’re learning. Until you start acting like yourself again, I think we’ll spend a lot of time with Outlaw and Macaroni. No more bullying me.”

  “Speaking of bullies …,” May began. She looked over at Jasmine. “What are we going to do about Wil McNally?”

  “Nothing.” Jasmine shook her head.

  “For revenge, I mean,” May said.

  “Nothing,” Jasmine repeated.

  “But we can’t let him get away with teasing you like that,” May insisted. “That’s like letting a pony do whatever he wants. Wil will think he’s in charge.”

  “I don’t care about revenge, May,” Jasmine told her friend. She dropped her dandy brush in Outlaw’s grooming bucket. The pony’s coat gleamed in the afternoon sun. “I just want Wil to stop.”

  “The best way is revenge,” May said.

  “I don’t think so,” said Jasmine. She looked up. “I’d better go. It’s almost dinnertime.”

  “Jasmine!” Mrs. James called out the front door a second later. “Time for dinner!”

  Jasmine waved good-bye to her friends. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “How did she do that?” asked Corey as she watched Jasmine lead her pony away. She couldn’t believe that Jasmine had known the exact moment her mother was going to call her.

  May shrugged. She’d never been able to figure it out, either. “So do you think we should plan some revenge on Wil?” she asked Corey, changing the subject back to Wil McNally.

  Corey stopped to think for a minute. May and Jasmine were her best friends, but they had been friends with each other for a lot longer. She didn’t want to get in the middle of their disagreement. And she especially didn’t want either one of them to wind up mad at her.

  “I don’t think we should plan revenge if Jasmine doesn’t want us to,” she told May finally. “It sounded like she wants to ignore Wil.”

  May shook her head. “We’re not letting Samurai bully you,” she said stubbornly. “Why should we let Wil bully Jasmine?”

  Corey looked at her pony. He was standing so politely now that it was hard to imagine how naughty he’d been before. May had been right about Samurai. Maybe she was right about Jasmine and Wil McNally, too.

  “Corey! Come feed the dogs!” her mother called out the back door. The Takamuras had a golden retriever that had a litter of puppies. It was Corey’s job to feed them.

  “If I were Jasmine, I’d have known she was going to say that,” Corey joked.

  May smiled. “See you tomorrow,” she said.

  Corey took Samurai and walked him by his lead rope. This time she only had to tug twice to get him moving.

  Corey didn’t know what to do about Wil McNally, but she was sure about one thing. Thanks to May, Samurai had gotten some of his good manners back.

  8 May Goes to School

  Thursday was a special day at school. It was the day of the book fair. May couldn’t wait to look for books about horses and ponies.

  As soon as May’s teacher, Ms. Steinberg, said it was time to go, May bolted from her chair. She ran to the auditorium, where all the books were laid out on tables in a big circle. The first table was filled with picture books for the young kids. Then there was a table of short chapter books and a table of books for older kids. Beyond those were the sections the librarian called “Special Interests.” Horse and pony books were there.

  May had brought money from her piggy bank at home. She th
ought she had enough to buy two books. It’ll be so hard to choose only two, she thought. She’d probably need the whole forty minutes to do it.

  May looked around for Jasmine. Then she remembered this was Jasmine’s day to feed the gerbils in her classroom. She’d be late to the book fair. But Corey was already there, standing at the horse table.

  Corey showed May a book she’d chosen. It was a photograph book of all the different horse breeds.

  “I have that one,” said May. “If you want to borrow it, you can.”

  Corey put the book back. If she borrowed that one from May, she could spend her money on another book.

  “Look at this one!” May said. It was a book about training ponies.

  “I’ve got that one,” said Corey. “It’s pretty good, too. You can borrow my copy.” May was happy about that. Being able to borrow one book was like being able to buy three instead of two.

  She picked up another book. It had great pictures. She showed them to Corey.

  “Look! Here’s a pony that looks almost like Macaroni!” she said.

  “He’s really pretty,” said Corey. “But I don’t think he’s as well behaved. Look how he’s tugging on the rope.”

  “Maybe you should get Jasmine to train him for you!” a voice said behind them. Then there was an explosion of giggles.

  May didn’t have to turn around. She didn’t have to look. She knew exactly who and what that was. It was Wil McNally and he was making fun of May’s best friend again.

  “Or does Jasmine only ride plastic horses?” Wil went on.

  May felt her face turning red. It was one thing to tease someone in front of them. It was another to make fun of them behind their back.

  Before May could stop to think, she dropped the book on the table and swung around. Her hand was in a fist. With one swift motion it landed exactly where she wanted it to land—right in the middle of Wil McNally’s face!

  “May!” Corey gasped.

  Wil fell backward onto the ground and reached for his nose with both hands.

  May blinked. What had she done? Revenge on Wil was one thing, but punching wasn’t right. She knew better.