Stable Witch (2 page)

“Oh, no. No
way
are you going to drag me into this one, Stevie,” Alex declared.

“Very funny, Stevie,” Carole commented wryly. “Fake pancakes—ha, ha, ha.”

“Yeah—hysterical,” Lisa added sarcastically.

But Stevie was grinning from ear to ear. “That was so f-funny!” She managed between peals of laughter. “You guys r-r-really thought I made p-pan-pancakes!”

Lisa and Carole exchanged glances, sighing audibly. They were used to Stevie’s finding her own jokes infinitely more funny than they did. They knew the best thing to do was to sit calmly and wait until Stevie had gotten control over herself once again.

Still snorting with laughter, Stevie remembered her hostessing duties, this time for real. She got up and took out bowls and a box of cereal from the pantry. “I wanted to do fake cereal and put it in the real boxes, but I figured it would take too long to color the individual flakes and raisins.”

“Boy, it’s really a shame that you didn’t have time,” Lisa remarked flatly.

After pouring them bowls of cereal, Stevie excused herself to go hunt for her breeches in the laundry room. At the Lakes’ house Stevie and her brothers shared the chores. In the past, that had made for some interestingly colored wash loads. So now Stevie always
washed her riding clothes herself. It was a pretty good system, except for the fact that she never remembered her dirty breeches until the morning of Pony Club.

Today, even the thought of having to do a last-minute spot cleaning didn’t seem to bother her, though. Lisa and Carole could hear her guffawing all the way down the hall. As soon as she was out of earshot, they started giggling, too. They couldn’t decide which was funnier—Stevie’s dumb joke or Stevie’s
reaction
to her dumb joke.

“Well,” said Lisa, between bites, “this is about what you’d expect.”

“What is?” Carole asked curiously.

“This morning. It’s about what you’d expect for the typical beginning of a day with The Saddle Club.”

At the sound of Stevie’s howls drifting through the house, Carole had to agree.

T
HE REST OF
the morning followed a typical Saddle Club routine as well. The girls got dressed in their medium-good riding clothes, walked over to Pine Hollow, groomed and tacked up their horses, and met in the indoor ring for a mounted meeting.

Carole was riding her own horse, Starlight, a bay Thoroughbred gelding, named for the eye-catching white star in the middle of his forehead. The two made a pretty picture: Carole’s jet-black hair and dark eyes matched Starlight’s mane and tail.

Stevie was aboard Belle. She could still hardly believe that the dark bay, half-Arabian, half-Saddlebred mare was hers to keep. Shortly after Stevie’s parents
had bought the horse, they had discovered that Belle was stolen property. Eventually things had gotten straightened out with Belle’s legal owner, and now the mare truly belonged to Stevie. After weeks of deliberations about what to name her, Stevie had recently christened her Belle because of her American Saddlebred breeding and because she was feisty and independent, a lot like a famous Southern belle—Scarlett O’Hara. A lot of the riders at Pine Hollow thought Belle was a lot like Stevie, too—feisty and spirited. Stevie herself absolutely agreed—those traits were part of what she loved about the horse.

By pure coincidence, Lisa’s mount was a bay, too. Lisa didn’t own the mare, but Max let her be Prancer’s usual rider. She loved learning together with Prancer and found the young, inexperienced horse both challenging and very rewarding to ride.

Today as Lisa looked around at the rest of the Horse Wise riders, she realized that she was unusually nervous about keeping up in the lesson. So far, everything had gone fine. They had all warmed up and trotted over low fences to get ready to jump while Max had set up a course of eight jumps.

Normally, Lisa didn’t worry about her ability. Even though she had started riding later than Carole and Stevie, she had learned fast and was constantly improving.
But today’s class was going to focus on jumping, an area where Lisa felt less secure. She gulped a bit as she looked over the course. Unlike her old mount, Barq, who was a seasoned school horse, Prancer was relatively new to jumping. She tended to look twice at anything funny-looking, and she often overjumped by a couple of feet, jarring Lisa’s position in the saddle.

“Boy, I hope Belle behaves herself,” Stevie, who had elected to ride first, murmured as she rode by Lisa. Lisa gave her an encouraging smile. It helped to hear that not everyone knew for sure that they would do the course perfectly. After all, Lisa told herself, Belle was still new to Pine Hollow. Stevie hadn’t jumped her much yet, and there was no telling how they’d do.

Stevie was the first rider to take a turn. She picked up a rhythmic canter and started for the first fence. Belle cleared it easily and, prepared by Stevie in midair, turned immediately for the second jump when they landed.

Lisa’s heart sank as she saw how confident Stevie looked. A split second later, guilt washed over her. How could she have been hoping that Stevie would have problems with Belle?

It’s just that I don’t want to be the only rider to need help from Max, Lisa told herself. Stevie and Carole
could get a donkey over the course if they had to. Even if their mount wasn’t perfect, they were always in control. Lisa, on the other hand, relied more on her horse to carry her than on her own ability to make the horse behave well.

Stevie finished the course and pulled up smartly. She turned to the onlookers and asked innocently, “I guess she’s a real jumper, huh?” Stevie was glowing with pleasure at Belle’s success. Except for Veronica diAngelo, the rest of Horse Wise looked almost as pleased as Stevie. The Pony Club often traveled to compete in regional rallies where the combined score of the team was what mattered. So it was always good news when a good jumper joined the team.

“I guess she’s a real
packer
,” Veronica said, loud enough for Stevie to hear.

Stevie didn’t even bother to retort. “Packer” was slang for a horse who “packed” his or her rider over every fence, without the rider’s having to do anything. Stevie knew that riding her skittish half-Arab was no easy task, and she wasn’t going to waste her breath debating Veronica—at least not right this second when Carole was starting her round.

Starlight was truly in his element over fences. He had wonderful form and happily pricked up his ears at every fence. Carole’s only problem was keeping him
slow and steady enough to make all of the turns. It took her a full circle after the course to get him to slow to a trot. Still, Max seemed pleased with their ride. Like everyone else, he liked watching the beautiful horse do what he did best—and Carole’s skill only enhanced the picture.

Lisa felt a little better when she saw Veronica do the course on Garnet. Every time they went over a jump, the girl ducked down toward Garnet’s shoulder and shoved her hands way up around Garnet’s ears. Max had to speak to her a number of times.

First he told her she was exaggerating her form. “You’re jumping less than three feet, Veronica. Don’t make it look like you’re going over a six-foot wall!”

“It’s not my fault these jumps are so tiny!” Veronica wailed, snatching at the bit in frustration.

“Don’t you dare take it out on your horse!” Max warned. Above all other things, The Saddle Club knew, Max despised it when a rider punished her horse for her own problems. “And prepare for the jumps much earlier!” he added. Too late, Veronica careened toward the final obstacle. She was going so fast that Garnet missed the jump altogether and cantered right by it. Max made her slow to a trot and take the last fence by itself. Never one to withhold criticism
where it was due, he called cheerfully after her, “Lots of work to do, Veronica! Lots and lots!”

Veronica clenched her teeth and jumped off Garnet. “I’ve had just about enough for today,” she muttered. Then, seeing Lisa shorten her reins and prepare to trot off, she added, “At least I’m not on some crazy horse from the track who probably doesn’t even know what a jump is.”

Lisa cringed at Veronica’s words even though she knew they weren’t true. Prancer was no more crazy than Garnet. Her coming from the racetrack just meant she had been trained differently. And Lisa had already jumped her a few times before, so the mare obviously knew how. But then why did Lisa have a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach at the sight of all of those jumps?

Grimly, she gritted her teeth and headed for the first one, an inviting picket fence. The white slats shone brightly in front of her. They looked almost like teeth, ready to bite …

Right before the takeoff, Lisa dropped her hands and fell forward on Prancer’s neck. The mare managed to clear the fence, but she felt unsteady. Prancer got over the next jump, too, and the ones after that. But instead of relaxing, Lisa felt herself tense up on every approach. She felt half frozen in the saddle, and
she couldn’t make herself concentrate. She knew she wasn’t helping Prancer at all. When she finished, Max told her that she was having a little trouble, but nothing he didn’t think she could cure.

Rejoining the others, Lisa felt frustrated and envious. She wanted Prancer to be as good as Starlight and Belle, and she wanted to be as good as Carole and Stevie and the others. It didn’t help that she had already missed two chances to do well with Prancer. Several months ago she had competed in a horse show with Prancer before she or the horse was ready. The day had ended in the embarrassment of being disqualified. Then she had planned to compete in a Pony Club dressage rally but had been forced to quit when the starring role in a local production of
Annie
had left her with insufficient practice time. Now she was eager for some real success on the horse. She didn’t want to have to content herself with just “getting around” the course—she wanted to put in a really great round. Being a practical thinker, she realized that the only thing she could do now was to decide to work very hard on jumping. Silently, she promised herself that she would follow through on her decision.

After class Horse Wise met in the tack room for a talk while they cleaned their bridles and saddles. Calling
the meeting to order, Max complimented them on their jumping. Then he paused to survey the group of riders before him.

“You might as well get it over with and make the big announcement,” Stevie teased. She knew Max well enough to recognize that when he had something special to say, he always got a twinkle in his eye and tried to build up the suspense.

In spite of himself, Max burst out laughing. “All right, all right. So much for surprises. Here’s what gives: I’ve always wanted to open up Pine Hollow to the local riding community and hold a schooling show here. So, guess what? I’ve decided that two weekends from now is the perfect time for the First Annual Pine Hollow Invitational Schooling Show. Does that qualify as a big announcement, Stevie?”

Stevie nodded vigorously. She, Lisa, and Carole glanced at one another with excitement. A schooling show was like the best of both worlds. You got to compete for real, with real judges and real horse show classes, but you didn’t have to go through all the efforts of getting ready for real. You didn’t have to give baths, braid, and polish tack till four in the morning, and, with the show at Pine Hollow, they wouldn’t even have to get up early to trailer over.

When the chatter had died down, Max explained
he was going to be inviting a few other Pony Clubs to send riders although all of the competition would be individual. The show would consist entirely of jumping classes in three divisions—hunters, jumpers, and equitation. “Can anyone explain the difference?” Max asked.

Carole’s hand shot up. She dreamed about riding in horse shows so often, she could have recited the difference in her sleep. “In jumper classes, they judge how fast and clean you jump. In hunter classes, they judge the horse’s form. And in equitation, they judge the rider’s form.”

“Precisely,” Max said. He raised his eyebrows. “Now, can anyone guess which classes I want all of you to ride in?”

“Hmm … let’s see … equitation?” Lisa said, pretending to mull over the choices. She knew as well as anyone that Max was more of a stickler for good equitation than any other aspect of riding.

“Right again. You’re all going in Junior Equitation Over Fences.”

“But—” Stevie began.

“End of discussion,” Max announced. “Except for one last thing. As I have in the past, I’d like you all to write down your goals for the show.” As he handed out pieces of paper, Max reminded each of them that
her most important competitor was herself. “Work on being the best rider you can be. Don’t worry about beating anyone else.” With that, he turned and was out the door.

Stevie sighed. She had been about to explain that she thought it was really much more important for Belle to get an opportunity to show what a great jumper she was than for her to show what a great equitator—if that was a word—she was.

With pencil in hand, she gazed around the room. As she stared at the bent head of Veronica diAngelo, Stevie could feel her jaw set in a determined line. There was no way on earth she was going to let Miss-Snotty-Nose beat her, especially not after her comment today.