Horse Sense (13 page)

“Here, Estelle, I’ll give you a hand,” Lisa offered.

“Oh, this dumb horse. He just wants to give me trouble.”

“No, I think he’s having too much fun with the game. You can’t let a horse get away with that kind of stuff, you know. Here, you hold him. I’ll put the bridle on. If he keeps backing up, you should just cross-tie him. Otherwise, you’re just teaching him bad habits.”

“This horse already knows bad habits. I never had such trouble with horses before I came here.”

“Perhaps that’s because you never rode before,” Lisa said.

“
Moi
?” Estelle asked. “But I have been riding since I was a little girl—from before my seventh birthday.”

Something about the mention of her seventh birthday rang a bell to Lisa. She began remembering two other stories Estelle had told her, and they didn’t fit at all.

“Was that the seventh birthday you spent in the hospital, or the seventh birthday when you got Napoleon and rode him for hours?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Estelle said.

“Estelle, what I mean is that you’ve been lying to me. You really don’t know the first thing about horses. You’ve hardly ever ridden before and you didn’t want to admit it, so you made up stories. You probably made up all the other stories about yourself, too. Your princess friend and your four languages, and your country estate. As a matter of fact, considering the lies I know you’ve told me, I’ve begun to suspect that you’ve never told me the truth at all, have you?”

Estelle looked so shocked that Lisa knew that finally she had found the absolute truth.

“You know, there’s nothing wrong with being a beginner at riding. I’m a beginner myself. Sometimes I hate how much I don’t know, but I’m not ashamed of it. You can’t learn if you can’t admit what you don’t know.”

“I have studied riding with the finest instructors in Europe!” Estelle proclaimed. “But riding here is very different, and not nearly as good.”

“If you want to be that way, Estelle, okay,” Lisa said. “But I know—”

“What do you know? You and your silly friends and your club! I don’t want to be in your club and I don’t want to wear that cheap pin! Here, take it back!”

Estelle fumbled in the pocket of her breeches and pulled out the silver horse head. Glaring at Lisa, she threw it into the soiled bedding in Patch’s stall. Carefully, Lisa handed Patch’s reins to Estelle. She turned and retrieved the pin from the straw. She wiped it off, opened the clasp, and put it on her blouse. It was just as beautiful to her now as it had been the first time she’d seen it in the jewelry store showcase. She’d wear it with pride.

She turned and walked out of Patch’s stall. It was time for class and it was time to get back to her horse crazy friends, Stevie and Carole.

Lisa didn’t speak to Estelle again that day. The next time she saw her, in fact, Estelle was carrying all her belongings to the car, where her mother was waiting for her. Just at the moment when she might possibly have been ready to be a beginner—an honest beginner—she was quitting. Lisa certainly wouldn’t miss her and neither would her friends. It was just too bad, Lisa thought, that Estelle would never really know how much fun riding could be. That was Estelle’s loss, but for now, it was The Saddle Club’s gain. Lisa could hardly wait to tell Stevie and Carole.

“T
HAT’S GOOD NEWS
,” Stevie agreed as the three of them ate their sandwiches together. They were sitting
on the grass by the paddocks, enjoying the fresh breeze. “But here’s the bad news …”

“What’s the matter?” Carole asked. It was unlike Stevie to be serious, but the look on her face said she was just that.

“The bad news is that Mrs. Reg and Max are going to be furious with me when I tell them that I haven’t come up with one decent game for the gymkhana.”

“But you had such neat ideas,” Lisa said. “There’s something the matter with them all?”

“None of them works, that’s what’s the matter. I really want this gymkhana to be new and different, and unless I get on it right away, it’s not only not going to be new and different, but it’s not going to be—
at all
!”

“Wait a second,” Carole stopped her. “Nobody here has ever been in a gymkhana before, except maybe me. It’s all new and different to all of us!”

“Don’t tell me the one about the eggs,” Stevie groaned.

“What’s the matter with an egg race?” Lisa asked. “Boy, I bet it’s funny if somebody drops an egg and it breaks.”

Stevie tilted her head and looked at Lisa. “Think it would be funny?”

“Yeah, I do,” Lisa said.

“Me too,” Carole told her.

“Okay, I give up. We’ll have an egg race. What else?”

“What about Laser Tag?”

“I can’t borrow it from the Zieglers, so that’s out.”

“If we can’t play Laser Tag, which, by the way, only two people could play at once anyway, how about shadow tag?” Lisa asked.

“Hey, shadow tag? That would be
great
! But what if it rains?”

“Well, then how about some kind of musical chairs? The riders go around a bunch of chairs and when the music stops, they dismount—you get the idea.”

“I like it!” Stevie said.

“You know what makes a neat relay race?” Carole asked. “The one where people put on costumes. Everybody looks so silly.”

“My mother has saved all the Halloween costumes each of us ever wore,” Stevie said, suddenly very excited. “That would be just great—pirates, ghosts, all that stuff.…”

“I was in Mrs. Reg’s office today,” Lisa said. “She has buckets and buckets of hardware, like S-hooks and rings and things like that. There are zillions of things you can do with that sort of stuff. How about stacking rings on a riding crop, or keeping a chain of S-hooks from breaking up while the horse gallops. You know, two riders could be sort of attached to each other with some sort of chain and have to follow a certain course—”

“That’s the old rope race,” Stevie said, disappointed.

“Sounds to me like a new and different version of ‘the old rope race,’ ” Carole said.

“It does, at that,” Stevie agreed. “Listen, I’ve got an idea, if you don’t mind.”

“What’s that?” Lisa asked.

“I know we were going to practice our drill exercises today, to music, but do you think we could put that off a day or two and work out the fine points of some of these races? I could really use some help with it.”

Carole and Lisa exchanged grins. “What else are friends for?” Carole asked.

“What about Simon Says on horseback?” Lisa asked. “And you know what else might be fun? Like maybe as a finale or something, how about a scavenger hunt? Hey, would a horse be spooked by a bouncing ball? I mean we could have a basketball-dribbling race. Imagine how it would look with the balls bouncing all over the place. I think a blind man’s bluff would be dangerous, but how about some kind of, say, Pin the Tail on the Pony? It would have to be a picture of a pony, of course. All this stuff’s old hat when the kids are on the ground, but they’re really different games on horseback, right?” Lisa was about to go on. She hadn’t even gotten to her idea about the tennis ball on the racket, but she noticed that both Stevie and Carole were staring at her. “Is something wrong?” Lisa asked.

“Nothing at all,” Stevie said reassuringly. “I just never had any idea that you were so full of ideas for horseback games.”

“See what I meant?” Carole asked Stevie. “This girl’s got horse sense.”

“I think she just likes to have fun,” Stevie joked.

“With my friends,” Lisa told them. She reached up in the air with her hand. Carole’s and Stevie’s hands met with hers. “High fifteen!” they said together.

“T
HERE YOU GO
!” Carole hollered at Lisa. “You’ve just about got it!”

“I know
she’s
got it, but what about me?” Stevie yelled back. Her question was punctuated by the unmistakable splat of an egg hitting the ground.

“You have to go get another one, Lisa, and give that to Stevie. The important part is handing the spoon over to her while you’re both on moving horses.”

Lisa turned her pony, Quarter, around and signaled him to go fast. He scampered back to the bowl where spare eggs were stored. She took another, placed it in the spoon, made a U-turn, and sprinted back to the starting line, where Stevie was waiting for her.

“Now slow down—” Carole instructed from the sidelines.

Lisa reined Quarter down to a trot, then, just as Nickel began to pick up speed, Stevie took the spoon from Lisa, smooth as could be—until Nickel jerked to a stop at the far line and the egg rolled out of the spoon and onto the ground. Splat!

“Hey, this is great!” Carole said.

“If you like scrambled eggs,” Stevie said, making a wry face.

“Everybody likes scrambled eggs,” Lisa said. “And I never had so much fun on a horse as this. It’s a great race and everybody’s going to love it—except maybe Red if he has to clean the ring afterward.”

“We could use hard-boiled eggs,” Carole suggested.

“No way! These raw ones are much more fun,” Stevie said. “Okay, now we’ve figured out how this one works; we can’t try the costume race until tomorrow. I’ll bring our whole costume box then so we can sort out things that are equally hard. I mean, it’s not fair to have one team just have to slip on a sheet while another has to put on a whole lot of pirate stuff! We’ll just have to see how it goes tomorrow. For now, though, what can we do with all the hardware Lisa borrowed from Mrs. Reg?”

Together, they examined the booty. Within a few minutes, they’d designed a race that involved picking up a double-end snap from one of the pillars on the course and then attaching it to a chain suspended from another pillar. When they tested it, they found it was tricky holding the pony still with one hand and trying to fasten the snap with the other.

“Perfect,” Stevie announced. “It’s good and devious, but it’s not impossible. Just the kind of thing I wanted. Now, what were you suggesting about holding a lot of rings on a riding crop?”

“I think first the rider has to sort of scoop them up from someplace, don’t you?” Lisa asked.

“Yeah, but how?” Stevie asked. It took a little longer to solve that problem, because it took a while to figure out how the rings could be scoopable, but eventually they discovered that the rings stood up nicely in a glob of bubble gum, which could be perched atop the chest-high pillar.

“Great, that’s another. We’ve gotten more done in an hour together than I could accomplish in ten days by myself.”

“It’s too bad you didn’t ask us for help earlier,” Carole said.

“Well, that’s the way Niagara Falls,” Stevie said philosophically. “And speaking of Niagara Falls, how about something with water? Like maybe the riders get a cupful of water and have to race to the end with it and pass it off to a teammate—sort of a variation on the egg race, but the water’s going to splash out!”

“And the winner is the team that finishes with the most water,” Lisa chimed in.

“I like it,” Carole said. “Let’s give it a trial. I’ll get some paper cups.”

Fifteen minutes later, all three girls had been completely sloshed with water. Their breeches were wet,
the ponies’ saddles were wet, and they’d had a wonderful time.

“That was so much fun that I think we’ll have to do something else with water,” Stevie said.

“Water-gun target shooting?”

“Bingo!” Stevie yelled.

W
HEN IT CAME
time to leave, the girls reluctantly untacked the ponies. Even Nickel and Quarter seemed sorry to stop for the night.

“Don’t worry, guys,” Stevie consoled Nickel as she slid his stall door closed. “There’s lots more work to do, and lots more fun to have. We’ll be back tomorrow, okay?”

“Why are all the ponies named after money?” Lisa asked.

“It’s one of those Pine Hollow traditions,” Carole explained. “Max names them after ‘small change,’ because of their small size. Some people think ponies are young horses, but that’s not true. They’re small horses. These guys,” she said, pointing to Nickel, Quarter, and their stablemates, Penny and Tuppence, “are all full grown. Their small size makes them perfect for the kinds of games we’ve been working on. Even the littlest kids can ride them and they’re very agile.”

“Speaking of small horses, let’s go take a look at Samson,” Stevie suggested. The girls stowed the pony tack and then walked softly to Samson and Delilah’s stall.

“He’s grown already, hasn’t he?” Lisa asked.

“Oh, yes. He’s already bigger and stronger,” Carole said excitedly. “Look how he’s sort of frisking around the stall. That’s not going to be big enough for him in a few days. Just wait until the two of them get out in the paddock. Judy said they could go outside in a few days. He’s going to love it. Delilah will too. Horses were born to be outside. Stalls aren’t natural for them. They were invented for people’s convenience. On my farm, horses will spend almost all their time in the paddocks—”

“Stop her, Lisa. If she gets going on ‘her farm,’ we’ll
never
get out of here!” Stevie said in mock alarm.

“I know, I do talk a lot, don’t I?” Carole asked.

“Only about horses,” Lisa said, consolingly.

“Let’s go to TD’s,” Stevie invited her friends. “I think we have some celebrating to do.”