Horse Sense (14 page)

“We’ll make it a Club meeting, then, won’t we?” Lisa suggested.

“Why not?” Stevie agreed. “It’s about time we all went to one together,” she said, joking at her own expense.

A
HALF AN
hour later, tired, but happy, the three girls settled into a booth at TD’s and ordered some ridiculous concoctions. Stevie asked for a pineapple sundae with marshmallow fluff. Carole slapped her hand over her mouth, pretending to gag.

“You should talk,” Stevie teased. “You think I want the hot fudge on pistachio you ordered?”

“I think sundaes are very personal,” Lisa interrupted. “And personally, I want hot fudge too.” The waitress jotted that down. “On bubble gum crunch.”

“I’m not saying a thing,” Stevie announced. “Lisa’s right. Sundaes
are
very personal, and personally, I don’t want what either of you ordered.”

“Agreed,” Carole said sensibly. “Now, to the first piece of business at this official meeting of The Saddle Club …”

“About the rules,” Lisa began.

“Yes, about the rules—” Stevie said.

“No, let me talk,” Lisa interrupted. Carole and Stevie were quiet. Lisa continued, “I had this idea, see, that if we didn’t have rules, and purposes, and dues, that we couldn’t be a real club.”

“How could—” Stevie started to speak, but Carole’s slight frown made her halt.

“But I’ve been thinking about it,” Lisa went on, “and it seems to me that every club should be what all its members want it to be. Rules have a place in the world—we all need them. But we don’t need them all the time, and not everything is ruled by rules. Some things are ruled by—”

She stopped because she was looking for the right word. Stevie supplied it. “Horse sense, you mean?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean,” Lisa said, grinning. “Some people might call it common sense, but in The Saddle Club, it
ought
to be known as horse sense. Okay, so we don’t need a lot of new rules. Mostly, we just need the ones we already had, like we
have to help each other—the way we’ve been helping Stevie with making up gymkhana races.”

“And members have to be horse crazy,” Carole added.

“And they have to have horse sense,” Stevie continued.

“And that’s it,” Carole finished.

“Not quite,” Lisa said. “There’s one thing I did that I didn’t even put in the rules, but I think we should use it anyway.” Lisa could feel her friends shift nervously. They really didn’t want any rules at all. Their friendship and love of horses were enough.

“What’s that?” Stevie asked hesitantly.

“Well, real clubs—and I know now that this is a
real
club—usually have symbols like shirts and ties and banners, stuff like that. The Saddle Club now has an official Club pin—and this is it.”

She pointed to the shiny horse-head pin on her blouse.

“Hey, that’s neat,” Stevie said. “I didn’t notice it before, but I like it.”

“Me too,” Carole added. “Where did you get it? Can we buy them too?”

“You don’t have to,” Lisa said, feeling terribly excited now that her nice secret was going to be shared. “I have one for each of you, too. Here they are.” Proudly, she handed the identical pins to her friends. Proudly, they pinned them on their blouses just as Lisa had.

“That’s cool,” Stevie said. “I never would have thought of something like that, but I like it a lot.”

“Actually,” Lisa confessed, “I bought four of them. So now we have a spare pin, just in case it should ever happen that we find a person who deserves it.”

“I’ve seen lots of horse pins, but this is the prettiest,” Carole told Lisa. “Only you would think of something neat like this, Lisa. You’ve got a special kind of, oh, I don’t know—”

“Horse sense?” Lisa suggested.

“That’s exactly right,” Carole said. “Dare I call it
le mot juste
?”

For a moment, just a moment, Lisa held her breath. Was Carole teasing her about Estelle? Yes, she was, Lisa decided, and moreover, she deserved it! Her solemn face broke into a grin and then she burst into giggles. Stevie and Carole joined in. They were still laughing when their sundaes arrived.

About the Author

Bonnie Bryant is the author of nearly a hundred books about horses, including the Saddle Club series, the Saddle Club Super Editions, and the Pony Tales series.