Horse Shy (5 page)

He’d sounded so serious that, for a moment, Stevie had believed him.

Later on, tucked into sleeping bags, safe in their tent, Lisa and Stevie giggled about the silly stories. Carole, tired and happy, plopped a pillow over her ears and went to sleep immediately.

“You know, there is a true answer to the question about Max the First,” Lisa whispered to Stevie so she wouldn’t wake Carole up.

“Sure, I know that, but there have been so many outrageous rumors that there’s no way to tell the truth anymore!”

“Well, we could go back to the beginning,” Lisa suggested.

“You mean travel through time?”

“No, I mean go to the library and look through the town records. The man lived in Willow Creek. He bought land, he had children. We ought to be able to find out
something
about him with a little research.”

Lisa, the straight-A student, was coming through again. “That’s a great idea!” Stevie said. “And I bet when we find out the truth, nobody will believe us.”

“Sure, everybody knows that truth is stranger than fiction.”

What a delicious idea that was. Stevie snuggled down and closed her eyes. She went to sleep dreaming of Max the First, tied to the mast of a pirate ship.

T
HE NEXT MORNING
, Lisa sat on Pepper next to Max and Diablo. They were both watching the other students doing a combination jump—first over a brook, and then, a few yards farther on, over a log that lay across the forest path.

“These aren’t hard jumps,” Max told Lisa when Betsy Cavanaugh had cleared the log on Patch. “But you’re not ready to start jumping classes. You may begin jump classes twelve months after you start your regular riding classes. Perhaps next year you could try a jump like this.”

Lisa just nodded. There was no
way
she was going to tell Max she’d already jumped a four-foot fence! Max was very strict about what his students learned and when they learned it. Nobody, but nobody, began
jumping until she’d been riding for at least a year. For now, Lisa had to be satisfied to watch the others.

She didn’t mind a bit. Nothing could bother Lisa today. She was having such a wonderful time on the trip that even a thunderstorm wouldn’t dampen her spirits. She was loving every minute. Take this morning, for instance. Lisa had awakened early. She’d crawled out of her sleeping bag and, curious to watch the horses at play, she’d walked down to the paddock near the campsite.

The sight that had greeted her was beautiful almost beyond her own imagination. In the pasture, hazy with morning mists, were eleven horses and seven deer! The deer had obviously jumped the fences, probably to eat some of the oats the horses might have missed. Lisa had held her breath. She’d been afraid that if she breathed, it would all go away, as if it were a dream.

In a moment it had gone away. From the campsite, Lisa heard a bloodcurdling shriek—unmistakably Veronica diAngelo. The second her voice pierced the silence, the deer fled, soaring over the fences. When Lisa had returned to the campsite, she learned that Veronica had discovered a daddy longlegs spider near her sleeping bag. Lisa knew they were completely harmless and was annoyed with Veronica. She had wanted to share the beautiful sight with The Saddle Club—and Veronica, true to form, had ruined it.

“Lean forward, Joe! Rise in the saddle … NOW!” Max called. Lisa turned her attention back to the jumping. At that instant, Dusty flew into the air over
the creek. He landed smoothly, took another three strides, and then rose over the log. It was great to watch, and Lisa could really learn while she did it.

“He’s got a good jump position,” Max confided to her. “Keep a mental picture of it for yourself. For when the time comes, I mean.”

“Okay,” she assured him. “He was holding Dusty’s mane. Is that a good idea?” she asked.

“Can’t talk now,” Max shushed her. “Here comes Veronica.”

Veronica and Cobalt came galloping down the path toward the creek.

“Slow down to a canter!” Max yelled.

But Veronica didn’t pull Cobalt back at all. In fact, to Lisa’s eye, she seemed to rush her horse even more. Cobalt was going very fast as he neared the creek. Veronica rose in the saddle and nudged him to jump. His sleek body lifted into the air and landed on the far side of the creek. But he was off-balance. Cobalt stumbled. Veronica whacked him with her riding crop. He righted himself and took another two strides before jumping the small log. His next landing was smoother, but only a little bit.

“Veronica, come over here!” Max commanded.

Veronica’s face was set with a look that said “you can’t tell me anything.” But she waited impatiently while Max spoke to her.

“You
are
aware that you cannot gallop a horse up to a jump like that? You
must
slow down before you jump! The horse’s body has far too much weight in the front
to be able to fling himself over a jump the way you expect Cobalt to be able to do it. If you care for your horse, you will not do that again.”

“Yes, Max,” she said, without the slightest tinge of regret in her voice. She signaled Cobalt into motion and turned him around to join the advancing riders.

Max shook his head slightly, angrily. Then, when he realized that Stevie was about to jump, he turned all his attention to her.

Lisa watched Stevie as well, but her thoughts were on Veronica. She thought Max must have enjoyed giving Veronica a lecture. After all, she was the daughter of the richest man in town—a banker who held the mortgage on Pine Hollow Stables. Veronica was a total pain, but Lisa and everybody else knew that Max had to put up with her.

“W
HERE DID YOU
disappear to so early this morning?” Carole asked Lisa later. The three girls were helping Red water the horses and give them lunch before their own picnic.

“It was the deer!” Lisa said, almost breathlessly. This was the first chance there had been all day for The Saddle Club members to talk. Carole and Stevie listened intently as Lisa described the scene in the pasture at dawn.

“I thought I saw some deer along the trail yesterday afternoon. But to see them grazing with the horses! That must have been outstanding!” Stevie said.

“It was,” Lisa said. “Want to get up early tomorrow and see if it happens again?”

“You bet!” Carole and Stevie agreed.

“Just hope Miss Perfect diAngelo doesn’t scare them away again,” Stevie said.

“Oh, I don’t think she’ll be scaring anything,” Lisa said. “Not after the bawling out Max gave her.”

“About what?” Stevie asked, wickedly interested.

“About galloping Cobalt down to the jump,” Lisa explained. “I think he was just having a good time because he had a good excuse to yell at her. I mean, nothing happened to her or Cobalt.”

“You’re kidding!” Stevie said.

“No, he really told her off,” Lisa said.

“I’m sure he did!” Carole said. “Did she really gallop down that hill to the jump?”

“Uh-huh,” Lisa said. “What’s the big deal?”

“You’re such a good rider that sometimes I forget you don’t know much,” Stevie said.

“Thanks,” Lisa said stiffly.

“I’m sorry—that came out the wrong way,” Stevie said, realizing she’d hurt Lisa’s feelings. “That’s a compliment.” Lisa looked at her sideways. “What I meant,” Stevie went on, “was that you’re really a good rider, even though you’re so new at it!”

Lisa nodded. “That’s okay,” she said.

“Well, you know the old joke about how a camel is supposed to be a horse—designed by a committee?”

Lisa smiled. Stevie was famous for telling “old” jokes. She’d heard that one. It meant that when a lot
of people get together to accomplish something one person
should
do alone, the results are often goofed-up.

“See,” Stevie continued seriously, “in some ways, a horse
is
a horse designed by a committee.” Lisa cocked her head to listen carefully. Stevie and Carole knew so much about horses!

“A horse has two sets of legs: the big, strong ones in the back where most of the power comes from—that’s the good part of the design—and then there are the weaker legs in the front. The problem is that almost two thirds of a horse’s weight is carried by his front legs. Now, when the back legs push off
really
hard like they do when the horse is galloping—
especially
downhill—then when the horse lands out of a jump, his weaker front legs take one heck of a beating. And sometimes they don’t make it. The horse can stumble and fall, he can throw the rider—all kinds of things can happen. Veronica should know better.”

“I didn’t realize it was that serious,” Lisa said.

“It is,” Carole told her. “Poor baby.”

Carole turned to Cobalt, and gave the big black horse a hug. He nodded, as if to hug her back, and then nickered gently, nuzzling her ear.

“I think they’re in love,” Stevie told Lisa, joking. But as both girls watched, each knew that it wasn’t really a joking matter.

“N
OW
,
WE
’
RE GOING
to canter in jump position,” Max announced to the group. “One at a time. Carole, you begin.”

One by one, the students rose out of their saddles, putting all their weight on their stirrups. Lisa lifted herself up and leaned forward the way Carole had done. Max had had her practice this position since her second lesson. It was important for learning balance, and balance was important for riding.

Pepper picked up a trot, and when his gait was rhythmic and steady, she touched his belly behind the girth with her left heel. He immediately began shifting into a canter. Twenty yards ahead of her, Stevie was doing the same thing. Almost as soon as she began cantering, Lisa got the feeling that something was wrong. First, Pepper’s ears began twitching every which way, then they laid back, almost flat to his head—a very bad sign. He was listening for trouble.

Then Lisa could hear it, too. Another horse was coming up close behind her. Pepper was usually even-tempered, except when there was a horse right at his flank. If Lisa tried to slow him down, the other horse would get closer. If she tried to speed him up, she’d be in worse trouble!

“Pepper,” she whispered. “It’s okay—just keep going. There, there, boy.” The words sounded calming to her, but Pepper wasn’t in the mood for them. His ears twitched some more. Although the path was nice and wide, Pepper shifted over to the extreme right side, perhaps trying to cut off the horse behind him. Lisa glanced over her right shoulder to see who was there. Just at that moment, Pepper shifted over to the left side of the trail. If she’d been seated and balanced,
it would have been no trouble, but Lisa was too far out of her saddle and her balance had been upset when she looked over her shoulder. Pepper went over to the left, all right, but Lisa stayed on the right side of the path—in the weeds!

As she tumbled off Pepper, she rolled forward, landing harmlessly on her shoulder. As soon as she landed, Pepper drew to a halt across the path. He looked at her, seeming surprised to find her on the ground. That’s just the way Lisa felt, too!

Lorraine flew past her on Barq.

“Come here, boy!” Lisa said to Pepper, pulling herself to her feet.

“You okay, Lisa?” Max called along the trail.

“Oh, sure. Pepper and I just had a disagreement about which way he was going to go!”

She waited a second to be sure nothing hurt and then rambled across the trail to the waiting Pepper.

“Silly boy,” she said, patting his neck, and lifting the reins back over his head. “Silly me, too, I guess, huh?” She lifted her left leg up to the stirrup.

Just then, Max arrived by her side. “Will you be able to ride now?” he asked. “I mean, are you hurt anywhere?”

Lisa paused for just a second before she mounted Pepper. She looked at Max. There was something in the way he asked the question—was he worried about her? No, that wasn’t it. Lisa was almost certain he was trying to control a smile—or maybe a laugh.

“I looked pretty silly, didn’t I?” she asked, suddenly getting the full impact of what a funny picture she must have made.

“Well, perhaps a little bit undigni-ni-ni—” And then, there was an unmistakable snort of Max’s laughter.

Lisa lifted herself up into the saddle and burst into giggles herself. She didn’t hurt anyplace. “I guess both getting back on the horse
and
laughing about it are the best cures,” she said when she stopped giggling.

“Only when it’s funny,” he said. And then Lisa realized how fortunate she was!