“Try to walk him,” Lisa suggested once May was finally on her pony’s back. “We’ll try to get some of the pictures of ‘good walking position’ as you go.”
May nudged Macaroni’s belly. He didn’t move. She shook the reins.
Click. Flash. Whir.
“What was that?” asked May.
“ ‘Poor hand position,’” Lisa called out cheerfully.
“Oh,” said May. She kicked Macaroni. He didn’t move. She was frustrated and annoyed. She lifted her legs away from his belly to give him a harder kick.
Click. Flash. Whir.
“ ‘Poor leg position,’” said Lisa. She made another checkmark on the list.
By the time Macaroni did get to a walk, Lisa had made three more checkmarks.
At a trot there were two more. They’d gotten “poor foot position” and “unbalanced seat.”
At a canter two more clicks, flashes, whirs.
“We’ve got ‘poor jump position’ and ‘poor lower leg at the canter,’” said Lisa. “We’re halfway through and we’ve only been working on this for ten minutes.” She glanced uneasily at May. “We need some shots of good positions now.”
May flushed. “Don’t worry,” she said quickly. “Macaroni and I know what we’re doing. This should be easy.”
Lisa gave May an encouraging smile. “I’m sure it will be easy.”
But it didn’t turn out that way at all. By this time Macaroni’s mood was as bad as May’s. Every time she tried to do anything, the pony gave her trouble. When she dismounted and climbed back into the saddle, he took two steps. When she tried to hold her hands correctly, he yanked at the reins. When she tried to keep her legs straight, he bolted forward. Nothing worked right.
Finally tears of frustration welled up in May’s eyes.
“I think you need a rest,” Lisa said.
Lisa was a sensible and logical person. May took her advice. She climbed down out of the saddle and faced her pony. Macaroni stared back at May.
“What is wrong with him today?” May asked.
“I was going to ask the same thing about you,” said Lisa quietly.
That was the last straw. Without another word May handed Lisa the reins and walked away.
12 Time-out
May didn’t know where she was going. She just knew she was going. She saw riders in the paddocks. There were pairs of riders in the outdoor rings. There were pairs of riders in the indoor ring. May went to the tack room. There was nobody there.
The tack room was a small room when it was full of saddles and bridles. There were a lot of horses and ponies at Pine Hollow and they needed a lot of tack. The saddles were stored neatly on racks. The bridles were hung on hooks above them. The reins hung in a tangle. May stared at them. Right now her thoughts were as tangled as the reins.
Nothing seemed to be going right. Everybody was angry with her. Even she was angry with herself. And it was all because of a bully. Wil McNally was the cause of all her troubles!
“May? Is that you?”
May looked up. It was Mrs. Reg. She was Max’s mother and the stable manager at Pine Hollow. Mrs. Reg was always finding things for the riders to do around the stable. For a second May thought she might hand her a can of saddle soap. But she didn’t. Instead Mrs. Reg sat down next to her.
“Having a bad day?” she asked.
“More like a bad week,” May replied.
“Oh, dear,” said Mrs. Reg. She put an arm around May. May wasn’t sure she deserved a hug, but it felt good.
“There was a rider once,” Mrs. Reg said. May knew it was the beginning of a story. Mrs. Reg was famous for telling stories about riders and horses that used to be at Pine Hollow. Her stories almost always had a message. May listened carefully as Mrs. Reg went on. “The rider was working on a course of jumps. The horse was a good jumper, so the rider was surprised when the horse wouldn’t go over the first jump. The boy tried again. The horse refused again. And then the horse refused the jump a third time. The horse had gotten spooked somehow. No matter what the rider did or said, the horse just didn’t want to go over that first jump.”
“What did the boy do?” asked May.
“He took the horse back into the stable, got off him, untacked him, and put him in his stall,” Mrs. Reg replied.
“He just gave up?” May asked. She knew it was a very bad idea to let a horse get away with refusing an order of any kind. It gave the horse the idea he could get away with it whenever he wanted.
Mrs. Reg ignored May’s question. She didn’t like to be interrupted when she was telling a story. Mrs. Reg just went on with her tale.
“A few minutes later the rider put the bridle and saddle back on the horse. He walked him out into the open area of the stable. Then he went right through the course of jumps without a problem.”
At that, Mrs. Reg stood up. “I think Max expects you to be done with the scavenger hunt pictures in about fifteen minutes. Will you be done by then?”
“Huh?” May stared at Mrs. Reg. She couldn’t believe how quickly the story had ended.
“I think Lisa is waiting for you,” Mrs. Reg added. “See you later, May.”
May watched the older woman leave the room. Then she sat alone in the empty tack room for a few more minutes, thinking over Mrs. Reg’s story. Mrs. Reg seemed to be telling her to get back to work with a fresh outlook. But was there another message there, too?
May stood up then, brushing some hay from her breeches. No matter what else Mrs. Reg was trying to say, May understood one thing very clearly. She had to get a fresh start with Macaroni.
She grabbed some treats out of the sack of carrots Max always kept handy and hurried back to the paddock. She was ready to return to work.
13 A Change for the Better
When May got back to the paddock, she found Lisa and Macaroni waiting for her. She began with a carrot for Macaroni. Normally she didn’t give him treats in the middle of a lesson, but in this case he deserved a treat. He munched happily. He then got a hug.
“I’m sorry, Macaroni, old boy. I was in a crummy mood and I took it out on you.” He nuzzled her back. At first she thought he was returning the hug. Then she realized he wanted more carrots. She gave him more.
“And I owe you an apology, too, Lisa. I guess I needed a time-out,” said May.
“So did Macaroni,” Lisa said. She smiled. “Let’s start again.”
May petted Macaroni’s neck. Then she took the reins and the pommel of the saddle in her left hand, put her left foot in the stirrup, and lifted herself into the saddle. It was a smooth move. Macaroni didn’t budge.
Lisa pressed the button on the camera. Click. Flash. Whir.
“Looked good to me,” she said, pulling the photograph out of the front of the camera. “Now let’s try a walk.”
May nudged Macaroni gently. He responded immediately.
Click. Flash. Whir.
“Great walking position. Now the hands,” said Lisa.
Click. Flash. Whir.
It took only fifteen minutes for May and Lisa to complete their set of matched pictures.
“That’s it. We’re done,” Lisa said.
May smiled with relief. She felt much better now than she had earlier in the day. “Let’s go see how everybody else is doing,” she said.
May loosened Macaroni’s girth and led him back toward the stable. They passed by Corey and Samurai. Samurai was behaving very well. May had messed up a lot of things in the last week, but she hadn’t messed up with Samurai. She’d been right about him. He wasn’t homesick anymore.
Then she saw Jasmine. Jasmine was finished with her pictures, too. She was grooming Outlaw.
May took a deep breath. She needed to have a fresh start with Jasmine even more than she’d needed one with Macaroni. She told Lisa she’d meet her in Max’s office. Then she approached her friend.
“Can we talk?” she asked softly.
“What’s there to say?” Jasmine replied. She continued to comb Ou
tlaw without even looking at May.
“I’m sorry,” May whispered.
Jasmine turned around. “Really?”
“Really.” May nodded.
“I know you were trying to help,” said Jasmine. “But—”
“But what I did was the wrong thing,” May finished. “It made everything worse, didn’t it? I wouldn’t hurt you for anything. You’re my best friend.”
Jasmine hesitated for a moment, then finally smiled. “Thanks,” she said. “I accept the apology.”
May sighed with relief. Jasmine and she were friends again. “Now there’s just one thing left to do,” she said.
“What’s that?” asked Jasmine.
“Fix things with Wil,” May answered. “I have this really crazy idea.”
“May!” Jasmine warned her. “No revenge! I mean it. If we ignore him …”
Jasmine stopped talking. Now May was laughing. “I’m only kidding,” she said. “I really don’t have any more ideas.”
Jasmine stared at her friend. Could she trust May this time?
“I promise,” said May. “I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll never try to help you again unless you want me to.” Then May brought Macaroni over to stand next to Outlaw for an extra-special grooming.
14 The Rewards of Hard Work
Max put all the piles of pictures in front of him. There were sixteen riders at Pony Club that day. There were eight piles of pictures. He looked at the first picture.
“Awful!” he said. Then he looked at another. “Dreadful!” Then he looked at the next. “Oh, no!”
“I guess we really blew it,” Jasmine said to Corey.
May was getting the uncomfortable feeling that Jasmine was right.
“How could you! No way! Think of the poor horse!” said Max. Then he looked up at the riders in his office and smiled. “This is exactly what I wanted!”
He stood up and took three boxes of pushpins out of his desk drawer. “There’s a lot of white space on the wall in the locker area,” he said. “I want each team to put up all the pictures there, the good and the bad. Every time you go into the locker area, you’ll have a chance to see what’s right and what’s wrong. Study them and remember to do the dos and not the don’ts!” He handed the pictures back to the teams who had done them.
Everybody wanted to see everybody else’s. Corey had done the worst jump position. Her back was all curved and she practically had her forehead in Samurai’s mane. May thought Jasmine’s foot position was the worst. Her heels were high and her toes were pointed straight into the horse.
But there, right next to every bad picture, May noticed, was a good one. It showed that the riders knew what was right and what was wrong. And even better, May realized, it reminded her of what she had learned today. That there was a wrong way and a right way to treat ponies as well as friends.
A few minutes later Max came to the locker area for inspection. He stood in front of the wall. He nodded happily.
“Very good, riders,” he said.
The members of Horse Wise were pleased. Max didn’t say “very good” often.
“Now I want you to know,” he added, “this is the last time you’ll ever make me happy by riding badly!” The riders laughed. “But because you’ve done such a good job of being bad, come have some fun being good. Who wants to play shadow tag on horseback?”
They all did.
15 Getting Even
May ran out of her house on Monday morning. She didn’t want to miss the bus.
Jasmine skipped out of her house. She was feeling much better now that May had apologized. Sometimes May made mistakes—big ones. But that was over now. They were friends again. They’d even gone on a trail ride yesterday with Corey and had lots of fun.
Corey walked quickly from her house. She waved to her two best friends. Everything seemed wonderful now. May and Jasmine weren’t angry with each other. Samurai was still behaving, too. He’d been perfectly polite for the whole trail ride she’d had yesterday with Jasmine and May.
Wil McNally walked out of his house just then.
“Wow, look at Wil’s eye,” Jasmine said.
“You really pack a punch, May!” Corey whispered.
May turned away. Wil’s bloody nose from Thursday had become an ugly black eye. Looking at the eye only reminded her of what a big mistake she’d made.
All morning long in school May squirmed in her seat. Being angry at Wil was one thing, punching him was something else altogether.
At lunchtime May, Jasmine, and Corey ate together.
“How’s Wil doing?” May asked Jasmine.
“I think his eye hurts him, but he won’t say anything,” said Jasmine. She’d been in class with him all morning.
May hung her head. “I feel terrible about it,” she said. “It looks so awful.”
Corey stared at May. “Did I hear right? You feel sorry for Wil McNally?” she asked.
May nodded. “I mean I think he deserved some kind of revenge for being so mean to Jasmine. What makes me feel bad, though, is that I punched him. I can’t believe I hit someone.”
Corey opened her lunchbox and took out her lunch. So did Jasmine and May. Nobody said a word for a while. They were all thinking.
“There has to be a way to fix this situation,” said Corey finally.
Jasmine scratched her chin. Corey chewed on a piece of celery. May took a drink of her juice.
“That would take real magic,” Jasmine remarked.
“Maybe I should just say ‘Hocus-pocus,’” May agreed glumly. “And then it will all be better.”
Corey took another bite of her celery. Then she stopped chewing.
“That’s it!” she said.
“ ‘Hocus-pocus’?” May asked.
Corey shook her head. Her eyes were lit up. “Not ‘hocus-pocus,’ but some other magic words.”
May scrunched her eyebrows together. She didn’t know what Corey was talking about.
Then Jasmine nodded. “It’s perfect,” she said.
“What’s perfect?” May asked. She was still confused.
“The magic words!” Corey and Jasmine said together. Then they clapped their hands together and said “Jake.” Whenever the best friends said the same thing at the same time, they clapped their hands together and said “Jake.”
May still didn’t get it. “ ‘Abracadabra’? What would that—Oh, wow!” Now she got it. Corey and Jasmine were telling her to say the magic words “I’m sorry.”
She looked from Corey to Jasmine. “You’re right. That’s exactly what I need to do.”
Once May had made up her mind to do something, she always did it right away. She looked around the cafeteria. At Willow Creek Elementary School the students all sat at big, long tables with a teacher at one end. Wil always sat as far from the teacher as he could. Today he was sitting at the end with Josh, Erik, and Mark.
May stood up. Corey and Jasmine stood up, too. They didn’t want to miss this.
May walked over to Wil. Corey and Jasmine walked right behind her.
Everybody at Wil’s end of the table stopped talking when the Pony Tails arrived. Wil’s eyes opened wide—even the black one. He looked surprised to see May there.
“I’m really sorry, Wil,” May began. Wil didn’t move. Josh, Erik, and Mark stared at her.
“I never should have punched you the way I did. You were being mean to Jasmine, but it still wasn’t right for me to do that to you,” May went on.
Wil stared at her. But May didn’t mind. For the first time since Thursday she felt good about herself. She wasn’t quite sure why Josh, Erik, and Mark were staring at her, too, but that didn’t matter. She was doing the right thing.
“I hope you won’t tease Jasmine—or anyone—anymore, but I promise I’ll never punch you again. Will you forgive me?”
Wil gulped. He looked at his friends.
“She did that to you?” Josh asked.
“I thought you said some really big kid did it,” said Ma
rk.
“A girl punched you?” Erik asked.
May felt her face turn red. She’d been so ready to apologize to Wil, she hadn’t even thought about his friends. Of course they had no idea that May was the one who’d punched Wil.
Wil grumbled something into his salami sandwich.
“What?” May asked.
He repeated it. It sounded like “Mfprleffeff.”
“Huh?” May replied.
Wil swallowed. “It’s okay,” he said. Then he slunk low in his seat.
“I think we can go, May,” Corey said. She took May’s hand and led her friend back to their table.
Behind her, May could hear Josh, Erik, and Mark laughing.
Oh no, she thought. Now I’ve made everything with Wil worse.
But Corey was laughing, too. “That was brilliant, May,” she said. “You apologized so you don’t have to feel bad anymore. And now Wil’s friends are teasing him as badly as he teased Jasmine.”
May stopped for a moment. Maybe things had worked out okay, as Corey seemed to think. She glanced at Jasmine. Was she going to be angry at May all over again?
A big smile spread across Jasmine’s face.
“That’s a much better kind of revenge, May,” Jasmine told her.
“You’re not mad?” May asked.
Jasmine shook her head. “Not at all. I have a feeling that Wil McNally is going to leave us alone for a long time!”
16 The Final Lesson
“Watch out for branches!” Jasmine said.
“I will!” said Corey. She ducked under a pine bough that reached across the trail.
Later that afternoon the three girls were riding along a trail in the woods behind their homes. The minute school was over, they’d agreed they had to go on a trail ride. It was a beautiful day, and they had so much to talk about.
The path widened then. The three girls drew their horses in a row and walked together.
“You were great today at lunch,” Jasmine said to May.
“Perfect,” agreed Corey. “You should have seen what happened when I took Dracula for a walk this afternoon.” Her friends looked at her. Then they remembered that Dracula was a dog. “Wil was in his front yard,” she continued. “The minute he saw us, he ran inside!”
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