Stable Manners

by Bonnie Bryant

  She turned on the light and walked over to the colonel’s desk. Colonel Hanson did everything with a military precision. Stevie’s own desk had papers piled high and dripping over the edge onto the floor. Colonel Hanson’s desk was completely clear except for a few papers next to the telephone answering machine. Logic told Stevie that those were the papers he’d carried home from Horse Wise and put down next to the answering machine when he’d gotten his message about the problem at the office. There was a pad there where he’d made a notation about the call he’d gotten that had made him hurry back to his office.

  Stevie made a mental note about the exact way the papers were lying on the colonel’s desk before she touched them. She didn’t think he’d worry about fingerprints, but he might notice if anything was out of place. Stevie picked up the papers and was relieved to recognize words that had been typed on Max’s old typewriter. At the top it said HORSE WISE KNOW-DOWN. It was just what she was looking for. There were seven sheets of paper, chock-full of information about horses, starting with one-point questions and going up to the four-pointers. The girls were in luck. Now all they had to do was to get the sheets copied and return the originals to the colonel’s desk before he got home. She was pretty sure they had time. She hoped she was right. Just to be on the safe side, she turned off the light before returning to the kitchen.

  “Bingo!” she declared loudly, walking into the kitchen and rejoining her friends. “Now let’s get the rest of this done before your dad gets back. Call your neighbor and see if we can come over now to make the copies.”

  “Right after you tell me what my father’s giving me for my birthday,” Carole said.

  A mental image of the colonel’s desktop flashed into Stevie’s mind. It was totally clear. There had been nothing on the desk except the note about the phone call and the Horse Wise papers.

  “Nothing,” she said.

  “I thought I could count on you,” Carole teased her.

  “I really didn’t see anything,” said Stevie. “His desk was clear.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Carole said, nodding. “You’re just turning into a Goody Two-Shoes before my eyes. Well, I’ll tell you. I don’t mind. I honestly do like surprises so I’m not going to nag you and I’m not going to look for myself. I’ve got the best dad in the world and I wouldn’t want to ruin his fun anyway.”

  “Carole—” Stevie began to protest, then she realized that it wouldn’t make any difference. Carole was convinced she’d seen something and Stevie wasn’t going to be able to change her mind. Carole seemed to like that thought anyway.

  Carole hopped down off the kitchen stool and reached for the telephone. In a minute she had Mrs. Jensen on the phone and the girls had permission to come over and use the copying machine. They scurried next door, made their copies, and hurried back. While Carole and Lisa collated the papers, Stevie returned the colonel’s set of Know-Down papers to his desk. Curious, she took another look at his desk. Whether Carole believed her or not, there really was nothing there for her to see. She put the papers back exactly as they had been, turned out the light, and returned to the kitchen.

  “Name the parts of a horse between the shoulder and the dock!” Lisa demanded as she entered the room.

  “Withers, back, loins, croup,” Stevie recited automatically.

  “Four points!” Carole declared. That was just the beginning.

  AFTER THE GIRLS had been working for a half an hour, Colonel Hanson called to say that the problem at his office was a really big one. He was going to have to be there for a couple of hours and did the girls mind foraging for dinner for themselves.

  They didn’t mind at all. They all loved Colonel Hanson, but when there were horses to talk about, they might not even notice whether he was there or not.

  While Carole flipped the pages of the study sheets and began calling out the next set of questions, Stevie started opening cabinets to find something interesting for dinner.

  “What’s the difference between a stable bandage and an exercise bandage?” Carole asked.

  “It’s how high it goes,” Lisa said.

  “Nope,” Carole told her. “Stevie?”

  Stevie scrunched her forehead. “It’s how low it goes,” she said. Carole nodded. “The stable bandage can come down from the hock to the coronet, just above the hoof. The exercise bandage has to stop above the fetlock so the horse can bend his leg.”

  “Very good,” Carole said.

  “I remembered it because you asked me the same question five minutes ago,” said Stevie. “I guess the trick to winning the Know-Down is going to be hearing all the questions just five minutes before Max asks them.”

  “Why didn’t I remember it?” Lisa asked.

  “Well, you sort of remembered it,” Stevie said, trying to comfort her a little. “You had the right idea.”

  “But the wrong answer,” said Lisa.

  “Don’t worry,” Carole assured her. “We’ve just started with these sheets. You’ll know everything by the time of the Know-Down.”

  “I hope so,” Lisa said. Although Lisa didn’t seem sure of it, her friends certainly were. Lisa was an excellent student and seemed to have an unlimited ability to learn. She might be starting a little bit behind them on some of the information in the sheets, but once she got going, she’d have it all at her fingertips.

  “What’s appropriate acreage, in general, for a horse who grazes year round?”

  “One to two acres per horse,” said Lisa.

  “Very good,” said Carole.

  Lisa felt better. She’d been guessing at the amount of land, but it had seemed right and turned out to be. Maybe she would do well at the Know-Down.

  “Name the common hand faults in jumping,” Carole said. “This is a four-pointer.”

  “Well, if it includes all the faults Max saw me commit last time I jumped, it’s probably a six- or eight-pointer,” said Lisa. “But let me try. First I was running my hands up the horse’s mane and holding on to it. Then, I wasn’t moving my hands enough. He said they were fixed. After that I let them drop alongside the horse’s neck and finally he told me I was fiddling. That meant they were moving, but sort of randomly and not with the movement of the horse. I think I made every mistake there is.”

  “Oh, no,” Stevie said to her. “There are a couple of other things you could have done. You could have stuck your elbows out, hiked your hands up as you jumped, lifting them above the horse’s neck as if you’re trying to lift the horse by the reins, and you could have held your arms straight and stiff so the horse wouldn’t get any flex from them at all. You did pretty well without doing those last three.”

  “And together you get four points on that question,” Carole said. “You got every single fault.”

  “It takes a lot of experience to make that many mistakes at once,” Lisa joked.

  The girls went on testing one another that way for a while. When they finished the first page of questions, Carole turned over the sheets to Lisa and let her ask. Carole and Stevie assembled something that was a little bit like a meal while they answered questions. Stevie’s idea of a meal was some spaghetti with a can of mushrooms and some cream of chicken soup on it. The main advantage of it was that it didn’t seem to take very long to cook, once they’d boiled the spaghetti. The disadvantage had to do with the taste because the soup was so thick, but it certainly was filling. They all agreed on that.

  The study sheets were carefully organized by point value and within the point values by areas of questions. They all agreed that Max had done a great job, making it easy to study exactly what was going to be asked. There was a lot of material, but a lot of it was already familiar to the girls. They concentrated on the job, but they also had fun.

  “What are the most important things to look for in a horse when you are considering buying one?” Stevie asked.

  “That’s easy,” said Carole. “Make sure he’s Starlight!”

  “Buzzzzzzz! You try it, Lisa.”

  �
�First, is he healthy?”

  “Right, then next?” Stevie prodded.

  “Conformation, meaning are his physical characteristics generally good. That is, do his feet point straight ahead, does his back sway, stuff like that.”

  “Next?”

  “Personality,” said Lisa. “He’s got to be gentle, friendly, willing, and well-mannered.”

  “Three points,” said Stevie. “Now for the fourth point, what’s the least important thing to look for in a horse?”

  “Color,” said Lisa. “It doesn’t matter what his coat looks like, it’s his heart that counts.”

  “Very good,” said Stevie. “Now you take over the sheets and test us.”

  Lisa did. The girls continued working on the study sheets until Colonel Hanson returned from the base. They felt they’d learned a lot and made a lot of progress. That meant they deserved a break.

  First, they served the colonel some dinner. He tried a few bites of Stevie’s concoction and then explained that he’d actually had something to eat at the base. The girls weren’t convinced that was actually true, but it seemed a very polite way to turn down the coagulated, reheated mass of soup and spaghetti they’d eaten, so they didn’t fuss. They did notice, however, that he seemed to eat a lot of popcorn, so at least his stomach was getting filled.

  The popcorn had been prepared to go with the movie that they all watched together. Since the girls were horse crazy and Colonel Hanson was crazy about old movies, it made a lot of sense that their choice for the night was The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It had horses, good guys, bad guys, and Humphrey Bogart. Everybody enjoyed it thoroughly.

  LISA GOT TO Pine Hollow early on Monday. She dashed over there straight from school without bothering to go home first and change her clothes. She was meeting May so they could work together on their project, but before she did that, she wanted to look in on the mare.

  Lisa had learned a lot about mares and foaling since she’d started riding. She’d read some things; they’d talked about others at Horse Wise; she’d overheard Judy, the vet, discussing it with Max; and she and her friends had even assisted at the birth of the stable’s own colt, Samson. One of the things she knew about foaling was that mares seemed to have a tendency to want to be alone when they delivered their foals. Horse people joked about staying with a mare practically every second and then if they had to go away for a few minutes, to make a phone call or get a cup of coffee, they’d return to the sight of a newborn foal struggling to his or her feet.

  Lisa was half convinced that would be the case with this mare. She was more than a little disappointed to see the mare, still very large and obviously still carrying the foal inside her. Judy was there, checking her out when Lisa arrived.

  “How’s she doing?” Lisa asked.

  “Oh, she’s fine,” Judy said, patting the mare affectionately on her neck. “Just fine.” Judy stood up and put her stethoscope back into her bag. “Everything’s right on schedule.”

  “She’ll be delivering soon, won’t she?” Lisa asked.

  “Ten days, two weeks,” Judy said. “That’s the way I figure it.”

  Lisa recalled that she’d been irritated when her friends hadn’t asked Judy her question. This was her chance to ask Judy herself.

  “Yesterday the mare was acting a little strange. She was kind of edgy. Isn’t that a sign that she’s about to foal?”

  “It can be,” Judy said. Lisa was pleased to hear that. “Often mares do get edgy right before their labor begins. I don’t think that’s the case here, though. I could be wrong, but this lady has another week or two to go.”

  Lisa heard what Judy said, but she just had a strong feeling she knew better. On the other hand, it was becoming very clear that nobody was going to believe her and the only way for her to be proved correct was for the mare to foal soon. That would happen within a day or two and then everybody would know that Lisa had been right. Lisa smiled, thinking about how wonderful it would be. It was going to be a two-part wonderful. First, it would be wonderful to see a foal. Newborns were so cute! Second, it was going to be wonderful to have been right. Lisa relished the thought of saying “I told you so.”

  Judy closed up her instrument case and gave the mare a final pat. “See you tomorrow,” she told the horse. “You, too,” she said to Lisa.

  Lisa waved good-bye as the vet walked off. There was something very right about the fact that the vet would say good-bye to the horse before she said it to the person standing there. Lisa gave the mare a pat as well and then went in search of May.

  She found May in the tack room, studying the harness for the pony cart.

  “Where’s the book?” May asked, looking at Lisa’s empty hands. That was when Lisa realized that she’d forgotten to bring the paperback Max had given her. Not only had she forgotten to bring it but she’d also forgotten to look at it.

  “I left it at Carole’s,” Lisa answered truthfully. “I’m sorry.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” May said. “My mother took me to the tack shop yesterday so I could look at the different kinds of harnesses and they had a copy of the book. I bought it for myself. Isn’t it a great book? I spent most of last night looking at it. It’s really good, but I did have some questions. I bet it was all clear to you, though, wasn’t it?”

  Lisa had an uncomfortable feeling. She’d been a straight-A student from her first day at school and she wasn’t accustomed to not knowing the answer to questions—especially ones she ought to know. She suspected there were a lot of things she ought to know by now about harnesses. She didn’t want to admit her ignorance—or her carelessness.

  “Mostly, it was clear to me,” Lisa said. “And if you try to explain to me everything you learned about harnesses, I’m sure it will all become clear to you, too.”

  That sounded just like something one of Lisa’s teachers might have said to her when they wanted her to work harder. She hoped May wouldn’t realize that it also meant Lisa didn’t know what she was doing.

  “Okay,” May agreed readily. “Well, first of all, this whole thing together is called the harness. And it has a lot of parts. I don’t think I can remember all the names.…”

  “That’s okay,” Lisa said, trying to sound encouraging. “The most important part is knowing what each of the parts does.”

  May looked puzzled. “I thought we were just supposed to know how to put it on, not how it works.”

  “Well, that, too,” Lisa said quickly. “Do you know how to put it on?”

  May studied the mass of leather that hung on the wall of the tack room. “I did read a lot about it,” she said. Her fingers sorted through the leather straps as she considered the situation. “The book made it sound pretty easy. I don’t think it’s all that easy, but I might be able to do it if you help me.” She reached to remove the harness from its hook.

  “Sure I’ll help,” said Lisa.

  “Not too much, though,” May insisted. “I’d like to be able to do it by myself.”

  “I promise,” Lisa said. “Not too much.” She was genuinely relieved. “Tell you what. I’ll start by getting Nickel out of his stall.”

  “Okay,” May agreed.

  Lisa hurried to Nickel’s stall. She had absolutely no idea what to do with any of the parts of the pony’s harness. Not only did she not know what they were called, but she didn’t know where they went or even how they went. She hoped May remembered what she’d learned from the book.

  A few minutes later, she found that May had learned a lot and remembered it well.

  “First comes the collar,” May said, approaching Nickel confidently. She slid the circle of leather over the pony’s head. May lived on a farm outside of Willow Creek and had been around horses since she was born. She was confident and knowledgeable and she had obviously studied hard.

  “You have to be careful of these things, though—traces, I think. That’s what they are called, aren’t they?”

  “Hmm?”

  “These long thing
s—they are the traces?” May repeated. She was pointing to a set of long straps that extended from the collar.

  “Those are reins, aren’t they?” Lisa asked.

  “Very clever!” said May, completely missing the fact that Lisa had no idea what she was talking about. “But you can’t fool me with that. Nope, these are the traces, definitely. The reins have to extend from the bit, not the collar. I bet Max tried that very same question on you and you got it right, too, didn’t you?”

  “Uh, sure,” Lisa said.

  May continued working on the harness and Lisa was pleased to see that the little girl really did know what she was doing. She’d read hard, studied hard, and learned. Max’s idea of a Big Sis/Little Sis project was working, though perhaps not exactly the way Max had had in mind. Still, since the main purpose was for the Little Sis to learn how to do something, it was working. There were times when just the presence of an older and wiser person was enough inspiration for a younger student. This appeared to be one of them. Lisa’s job, then, became to hold the pony still while May did the work. Lisa was mesmerized by the tangle of leather and buckles and rings and watched in fascination while May methodically untangled them and put them where they belonged, talking all the while, and explaining what she was doing.

  “And then here comes the saddle pad—isn’t it funny that it’s called that even though it really isn’t a saddle at all, just this beltlike thing?”

  “Uh-huh,” Lisa mumbled. She’d been patting Nickel and not paying too much attention.

  “Anyway, we don’t fasten the saddle pad until after we’ve got the tail through this thing—I don’t remember what it’s called. What is it?”

  Lisa looked up. There was a leather strap with a loop at the end that apparently reached from the saddle pad to the horse’s tail. She had no idea what it was called and wasn’t sure how to answer May. Then she had a thought.

  “Don’t worry about names,” she assured May. “It’s much more important to know what it does than to know what it’s called.”

  “So what does it do?” May asked.