Sidesaddle

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Sorry, Max,” Carole said.

  “The meeting is adjourned, but I do have a treat for you at the class, so hurry up, eat your lunches and get tacked up. We’ll meet in the ring in one hour.”

  That gave the Pony Clubbers just enough time to gobble down sandwiches and tack up. Carole, however, was in no rush to eat. She wanted to talk to Tiffani some more, and she wanted to meet her horse.

  “Why, of course you can meet Diamond,” Tiffani told Carole. “He’s the sweetest old boy in the whole state—at least that was true in Tennessee. I can’t vouch for Virginia yet, but I’m pretty sure—”

  “Don’t say that until you meet Starlight,” Carole said, teasing back.

  “Is that the beautiful part-Thoroughbred bay with that pretty star on his face over there?” she asked.

  “That’s my boy,” said Carole, flattered that Tiffani had noticed her horse in the confusion of her first day at a new stable.

  “And who owns the part Saddlebred that’s in the stall across from Diamond?” Tiffani asked.

  “That would be Belle. She belongs to Stevie Lake. Stevie’s the one who—”

  “I know Stevie,” said Tiffani. “She came to my rescue and did most of the work cleaning out the trough this morning. She’s lucky to have such a nice horse. You know, Saddlebreds and Tennessee walkers have a lot in common. They’re both real American breeds, and they’re practically cousins. I bet Belle and Diamond will get along like a house afire.”

  “Belle’s a great horse,” Carole told her. “She’s kind of mischievous and she’s got a mind of her own—just like Stevie, if you want to know the truth—but she’s a joy to ride and Stevie’s just crazy about her.”

  “No wonder,” said Tiffani.

  As the two of them walked together down the aisle, Carole took the opportunity to introduce Tiffani to all the horses there. Since the other riders were eating lunch, the girls had the stable to themselves, which allowed them to talk about horses without interruption. As they chatted, Carole became more and more aware that Tiffani really knew a great deal about horses. And she was a good listener, too. When they came to Belle’s stall, Carole gave the mare a pat on her pretty face and formally introduced her to Tiffani.

  “We’ve already met,” said Tiffani, reaching to scratch Belle on the cheek just where she liked it best, instinctively knowing where it was. “And now I can introduce you to Diamond.”

  They turned around. Diamond was poking his head over the gate to his stall. In spite of the obvious joke about Tiffani’s horse being named Diamond, it was clear he’d been given his name not for that but for the diamond-shaped star on his forehead.

  The horse was tall, perhaps sixteen hands; his eyes glimmered intelligently in the sunlight that filtered into the stable. He greeted his owner with apparent affection, happily nibbling on the carrot she offered him.

  “I missed him so while he was still at home,” Tiffani said. “And this afternoon will be the first time I get to ride him. I haven’t even unpacked his tack yet.” She gestured toward a trunk outside the stall.

  Carole leaned over and snapped open the latch on the trunk, lifting the lid. The trunk was neatly packed with everything a horse needed to travel. She reached in to pull out the saddle so that she could perch it on the nearby rack until Tiffani was ready to tack up.

  “Huh?” Carole said, surprised, when her arm hit something funny as she tugged at the saddle. “What’s this?”

  When she looked again she knew what Max’s surprise was. Diamond’s saddle had a big padded hook on its left side. That was a rest for the rider’s right leg. Tiffani rode her Tennessee walking horse sidesaddle!

  “NOW, EVERYBODY WATCH how she mounts,” Max said to the class a little later when Tiffani was beginning her demonstration. “In many ways, riding sidesaddle is just like riding astride.…”

  Few people were actually hearing what Max said. Carole, for one, was far too intent on not missing anything about Tiffani’s technique. Her mind was flooded with a hundred questions she hadn’t had time to ask during the lunch break, in addition to the three hundred she had asked during lunch break. Well, maybe not three hundred, she consoled herself, but an awful lot.

  Stevie wasn’t thinking of questions right then. She was thinking about answers. She nudged Lisa. “Well, that explains the pink jodhpurs,” she whispered.

  Lisa didn’t appear to have heard her. “I said, that explains the pink jodhpurs,” Stevie repeated.

  Lisa nodded absently, barely absorbing Stevie’s words, and that annoyed Stevie a little more than she wanted to admit. She and Lisa had missed Carole at lunch. Stevie thought they really needed to get together to talk about the silliness of this new phenomenon that had hit Pine Hollow so hard: the Tiffani phenomenon. Between pink jodhpurs, li’l ole S’uthe’n expressions, and now sidesaddle riding, Stevie had had her fill of Miss Tiffani Thomas and thought it was high time for a Saddle Club meeting to talk about her.

  “How about TD’s after our class?” Stevie whispered, once again trying to get Lisa’s attention. TD’s—short for Tastee Delight—was an ice cream parlor within easy walking distance of the stable. The threesome often gathered there for Saddle Club meetings.

  “Huh?”

  “TD’s?”

  “Oh, sure,” Lisa agreed.

  One down. Now Stevie had to get Carole’s attention. It wasn’t easy. All the riders were on their horses, in a circle, facing the center of the ring where Tiffani was demonstrating sidesaddle technique.

  “It’s not really very different from riding astride in most ways,” she said. “The horse—well, my li’l Diamond, anyway—seems to know to adjust to one-sided leg aids. I sometimes ride him astride just to see if he remembers, and, like an elephant, this ole boy never forgets!”

  There was appreciative laughter from the other students.

  “Well, class, it’s not so different from a horse that can be trained in both English and Western, is it?” Max asked.

  “And like a horse that responds to the different signals he might get from a rider or from a driver of a cart or wagon,” Carole said.

  “Exactly,” Max agreed.

  Stevie knew it wasn’t going to be easy getting Carole’s attention. When she got totally drawn into a subject—any subject, but especially one having to do with horses—it was hard to distract her.

  Stevie raised her hand to wave at Carole. Carole didn’t see her, but Max did.

  “Stevie? You have a question?”

  “Um, nothing,” she said.

  Tiffani continued. “I think the only thing that’s hard at all for my li’l genius here is that I balance differently when I’m riding astride from the way I do when I’m in my sidesaddle. He’s more used to the sidesaddle, so if I change to riding astride, it takes him a few minutes to become accustomed.”

  “Isn’t it kind of dangerous?” Meg asked. “I mean, like, don’t you fall off a lot?”

  “No more than you do,” Tifffani answered. “Actually, maybe less. This here leg rest will really hold you on the saddle tightly, so even at a pretty high jump—”

  “You jump sidesaddle?” April blurted out.

  “Well, sure,” Tiffani told her. “You can do anything in a sidesaddle!”

  “Psssst!” Stevie tried hissing to get Carole’s attention. No luck.

  “Whoooaaa,” Tiffani said when Diamond shied a little. The horse settled immediately. Stevie hadn’t even noticed because she was so intent on getting Carole’s attention.

  If Carole didn’t notice a wave and she didn’t hear a hiss, maybe she’d notice if Stevie did both at once.

  “Psssssssssst!” Stevie hissed loudly, waving at the same time.

  Carole didn’t notice, but everyone else did—especially Diamond, who was more startled this time than he had been the first. He stepped to his left and gave an irritated buck, flicking his tail protectively as if he were moving out of the way of an attacking animal.

  Tiffani, unprepared for that sudden m
ovement, lurched to her left, and then, when Diamond stopped, she totally lost her balance and began to slip off the saddle, almost dangling from the leg rest. In balletic slow motion she recovered, first by grabbing the saddle and then by regaining her footing in the stirrup and pushing herself back up. She seemed to swerve to the right and then corrected her balance, regaining her position.

  “Diamond!” she said, speaking firmly to her misbehaving mount.

  “Stevie!” Max cried, speaking firmly to his misbehaving student once he was sure that Tiffani and Diamond were all right. They were a little shaken but fine.

  “Max?” Stevie responded, as surprised as anyone at Diamond’s reaction.

  “Stevie, you know better than to make rapid, irritating motions and sounds around a horse, especially one in an unfamiliar setting. You owe Tiffani and Diamond an apology.”

  “I’m really sorry,” Stevie said, meaning it. “I had no idea. I just wasn’t thinking.”

  “Well, you should have been,” Max said firmly. “And now you are excused from class. That should give you adequate time to think about the consequences the next time you do something like that, or in case someone else might ever do something that thoughtless to you.”

  She deserved it. She knew it. It had been stupid and thoughtless. Worse, it had been dangerous. It wasn’t as if Carole was going to go anyplace other than TD’s after class. They almost always went to TD’s after class. Stevie didn’t have to tie it down right then and there. What had she been thinking?

  “I’m sorry, Max,” she said, turning Belle to go into the barn. She was embarrassed and ashamed. It wasn’t as if she’d never made a mistake, nor as if she would never make another, but to be punished in front of Miss Pink Jodhpurs …

  “Oh, Max, it wasn’t anything, you know?”

  Stevie looked up to see if she’d heard that right. She had. Tiffani continued.

  “I know she didn’t mean anything by it. And I’m fine, and Diamond is fine. I just never had a chance to tell you all that he’s really afraid of snakes and any hissing sound—Well, who could know that? Stevie’s been so nice to me. She cleaned out that dirty ole trough with me and then she introduced me to everyone. Why, it would practically break my heart, and Diamond’s here, too, I’m sure, if she had to leave?”

  Was Stevie hearing this right? Was Miss Pink Jodhpurs standing up for her when she roundly deserved to be punished?

  “And there she is, riding that beautiful ole half Saddlebred, practically a cousin to Diamond. Why, I know he’d be just heartbroken if they left? Max?”

  Apparently there was something about sentences that ended with questions that appealed to Max. He took a deep breath and then let it out in a sigh.

  “Okay,” he said. “Stevie, you may stay, and I won’t punish you further because I know you know better. Right?”

  “Right,” she murmured, halting Belle and returning to the circle.

  Tiffani went back to her demonstration, showing the students how to signal turns and gait changes in a sidesaddle, Stevie watched, and maybe she absorbed some of the information, but almost all of her mind was concentrated on the fact that she didn’t belong there, She’d done something quite unforgivable and should have been punished for it. Worse than being punished was being forgiven—by Miss Pink Jodhpurs.

  After Tiffani had demonstrated her skills to the class, she offered Diamond to anyone who wanted to try riding sidesaddle. Most of the class eagerly waved their hands and then took turns. The exceptions were Stevie and most of the boys. One boy, Adam Levine, declared his utter curiosity and tried it out. When he was done, he slid down off the saddle, saying that once was enough. That made everybody but Stevie laugh.

  Stevie wasn’t in a laughing mood.

  Carole tried it next, Stevie watched as she mounted Diamond, It was just like Carole to have such an easy time of it. She seemed to have some magical intuition that showed her how to do everything there was to do with horses. As soon as she was settled in the saddle, she looked as if she’d been there all her life.

  Carole took Diamond for a turn around the schooling ring. He responded to her commands almost as smoothly as he had to Tiffani’s. She sat in the saddle without a tilt, a jilt, or a jog.

  “Why, you’re a natural at this, Carole!” Tiffani declared when Carole drew Diamond to a halt.

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” Carole said, dismounting with almost as much grace as she had shown when she mounted. “It’s so different, even when it’s so similar. I liked it all right, and thank you for letting me try it, but I think I’ll stick to Starlight and a regular English saddle.”

  It was a different story when it was Lisa’s turn. She had trouble mounting, trouble balancing herself, and trouble giving appropriate signals to Diamond.

  “What am I doing wrong?” she asked plaintively.

  “Almost everything,” Max answered solemnly. Everybody, including Lisa and Stevie, laughed at that.

  “You should relax a little,” Tiffani suggested. “I think you’re so afraid of making mistakes that you’re just about guaranteeing them.”

  Lisa’s face was set in firm determination. “All right,” she agreed. “I’ll relax.”

  But she didn’t, and Diamond knew it. So did everybody else. Lisa gave Diamond the signal to begin walking, and although he seemed a little confused, confirming to Lisa that she’d done it wrong, he stepped forward, beginning a slow, dignified walk. Lisa responded to the horse’s natural movement. At first she’d been more perched on the saddle than sitting into it, but once Diamond was moving, she slid more comfortably into the leather, allowing the full weight of her right leg to rest on the saddle’s hook.

  “Good,” said Max.

  Lisa knew she was making progress. It took her longer to go around the ring than it had Carole, because she did the whole circle at a walk. Even though what she’d done had been awkward and even klutzy, Lisa knew she’d learned something along the way. It was a familiar and exciting feeling, the same feeling she got when she understood something a teacher said that others found confusing. It was why she liked learning anything so much. As she dismounted, sliding down onto the turf in the schooling ring, she made up her mind to do it again.

  “That was great!” she said. “Can I do it again sometime?”

  “You sure can,” said Max. “In fact, all of you are welcome to try sidesaddle riding at almost any time. As you’ve no doubt noticed when you’ve been cleaning tack, Pine Hollow owns several sidesaddles. If one of them fits you and your pony or horse, you are welcome to try it. I’ll be happy to give you instruction—”

  “I’ll help,” Tiffani offered.

  “And Tiffani will help,” Max said.

  “And I’ll do it,” said Lisa, mostly to herself. She was determined to find a saddle that fit Prancer and her and to work on this new skill a lot more.

  “Now that we’ve tried that, let’s work on our most basic skills,” Max announced. “In every kind of riding, the most important thing is …” He waited for the answer.

  “Balance,” the members of the class answered. Then, knowing what was coming, they all reluctantly took their feet out of their stirrups. Riding without stirrups was Max’s favorite way of teaching balance.

  Stevie crossed her stirrups over Belle’s saddle and followed Max’s instructions. She was used to this exercise, and she was good at it. Belle had such smooth gaits that Stevie didn’t mind being without stirrups even at a trot. She also knew it was an extremely useful and effective exercise. She only wished they had more time to work with it.

  Instead the class had been spent paying a lot of attention to Miss Pink Jodhpurs and her “li’l ole horse.” Sure, she knew what she was doing, but what was the point? Nobody rode sidesaddle anymore. Why would anyone want to?

  Stevie recognized the darkness of her own mood, but there seemed little she could do to lighten it up. The fact that the rest of the class was oohing and aahing at Tiffani’s ability to ride sidesaddle without a stirrup d
idn’t help at all.

  The end of class couldn’t come soon enough. Stevie couldn’t wait to groom and water Belle and then escape to the peace, quiet, and privacy of TD’s to talk with her friends. And when Max finally dismissed the class, Stevie was the first one out of the saddle and into the stable.

  It didn’t help that Diamond’s stall was right across the aisle from Belle’s. It also didn’t help that Tiffani prattled on about how she just knew that Belle and Diamond were going to be best friends because they were practically cousins. She apparently never registered the silence from across the aisle indicating that Stevie didn’t much want to talk to her.

  Stevie finished grooming and watering Belle in record time that afternoon. She eagerly walked down the aisle to help Lisa and then Carole finish their barn chores. Very quickly, all three of them were done, and after a brief stop in the locker area, they were on their way to TD’s.

  The girls found that someone was in their favorite booth. That didn’t help to raise Stevie’s spirits. She was beginning to think that absolutely nothing was going right that day. However, ice cream in a different booth was better than no ice cream. The girls slid into the one opposite their favorite.

  When the waitress stopped by to take their orders, Carole asked for a butterscotch sundae with vanilla ice cream. Lisa just wanted some frozen banana yogurt. Stevie, as usual, was hungry. And she, as usual, ordered a combination that gave her friends the chills.

  “Peppermint stick ice cream with bubble gum bits and marshmallow sauce. Oh, plus three cherries and some strawberry sprinkles.”

  “That’s it?” the waitress asked. Stevie was well known for adding afterthoughts to her sundae orders. This time she refrained from asking for licorice chips or caramel walnuts.

  “Well, some whipped cream, of course.”

  “Of course,” the waitress echoed. She disappeared with no further comment.

  Lisa took a sip of water. “I always hate it when Max makes us ride without stirrups,” she said. “It reminds me of how far I have to go before I’m a really good rider!”