Horse Wise (12 page)

Carole couldn’t think of a reply so she just stared up
at the sky, which was now becoming a deep, rich blue. A few more stars had appeared. There was an autumn chill in the late-afternoon air.

Carole’s mind was a jumble. She tried to sort it all out. She wasn’t quite satisfied that her friends were right about her father, though she accepted the fact that everybody liked him. But was that enough? Not really. In order for him to be a good sponsor, he had to contribute some skills to Horse Wise. No matter what her friends told her, Carole didn’t see what skills her father had contributed.

Nearby, Samson snorted in his sleep. He seemed to be content and worry-free.

“I think he’s dreaming about a palomino filly,” Lisa joked.

“Either that or the world-famous Saddle Club Rescue Team,” Stevie suggested. “A couple more jobs like the one we did this afternoon and we’ll have our own TV show. I can see it now. How about
The Saddle Club Files?
”

“Nah, we need something jazzier.
Saddle Club SWAT
?”

“I’ve got it!
The Saddle Club to the Rescue!
” Stevie suggested.

“It’s not punchy enough,” Lisa said. “It has to fit on one line in bold type in
TV Guide.
How about …”

The conversation went on like that, but Carole dropped out of it. She was thinking about Samson’s rescue. She remembered how worried and scared she
had felt, lodged onto the edge of the gully with a foal just as worried and just as scared as she was. Every time she hadn’t known what to do, Lisa had asked her what came next. Every time she’d thought she’d known what she might do, Lisa had asked why she was doing it. Lisa’s questions had had a good effect. They’d made Carole think about what she was doing. She probably would have figured it out on her own, but having Lisa there to ask had made her consider the problem in a new way and think about the answers.

Maybe, just maybe, that was what her father was doing in Horse Wise. Maybe having one sponsor who didn’t know about horses, but who did know about thinking and learning, wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Only why couldn’t it be someone else’s father?

“Well, I’m going to make a prediction. I predict Max will show up before the temperature drops another ten degrees,” Stevie was saying.

Lisa sat up and looked out across the fields. “Well, if those headlights are any indication, your prediction has just come true!”

“Impressed?” Stevie asked.

“Yeah,” Lisa said. “Very.”

“Don’t be,” Carole said drily. “Remember that Stevie’s taller than you are. She could see those headlights before you could.”

“And I thought Stevie was clairvoyant!” Lisa joked.

The girls stood up to wave at Max. He spotted them right away and within a very short time, they had
loaded the still-sleeping foal into the back of the pickup truck, where Judy was waiting to take care of him. They tied Delilah’s lead rope behind the truck. Max would have to drive slowly, but it made more sense than trying to separate mother and son again.

While the truck lumbered off down the dirt road toward the stable, the girls tightened their horses’ girths, lowered their stirrups, and mounted their animals. It was time for them to ride back as well-checking every fence gate on the way.

S
TEVIE COULD HARDLY
believe it was just a week since The Saddle Club’s dramatic rescue of Samson. Except for one remaining bandage, which covered three stitches in one of his hind legs, there were no signs that anything bad had ever happened to the colt. He was frolicking around his well-closed paddock with his mother, happy as could be.

Stevie wished she could be as calm. She was a nervous wreck. It was Horse Wise Rating Day.

Since this was the first rating, each person had been allowed to choose what rating he or she wanted to be tested for. Stevie had decided, without looking at the test requirements, that she was certainly a D-3. That was what she’d signed up for.
Then
she looked at the requirements. If she failed the test, she’d be unrated until the next rating. That
would be pretty embarrassing. The only rider in the stable who was going to be unrated was seven-year-old Liam, who had just started riding the day of the first Horse Wise meeting.

“Stevie Lake.” The examiner called her name.

Stevie felt a severe twinge in her stomach. She shook it off and tried to concentrate. She stepped forward into the ring, riding Topside. The riding test was the easy part. She wasn’t worried about that, and within fifteen minutes, she’d performed everything the examiner had asked her to do, including mounting and dismounting, adjusting stirrups, walking and trotting in circles, and changing speeds within gaits. The jumps were no problem at all. She knew she’d passed that section.

Then came the unmounted part of the test. The Pony Club called it Horse Management. Stevie called it The Tough Part. Carole and Lisa had been drilling her all week on horse parts, conformation faults, and coat-clipping techniques. Phil had done the same when they talked on the phone. Stevie knew she could name all the major bones of the horse’s legs. She just wasn’t sure she knew which was which.

She hoped the examiner wouldn’t ask her.

“Good, Stevie,” he said, after she told him how to cool down her horse after a ride. “Now, show me the major bones of the legs—fore and hind.”

They were the very words she’d been dreading. “Okay,” Stevie said, thinking it wasn’t okay at all.
Then she looked around and saw that both Lisa and Carole were standing at the edge of the ring watching, with their fingers crossed. What more could a girl want than to have friends like that? She
couldn’t
let them down.

“Top to bottom or bottom to top?” she asked.

“Whichever,” the examiner said.

Stevie squatted and began with Topside’s hoof. “Coffin, navicular, short pastern, long pastern, sesamoid, cannon,” she began, reeling them off like a pro. When she finished, she could see that the examiner was grinning. Maybe it was because her friends were still standing there, but they weren’t standing there quietly. They were clapping like mad.

“Your cheering section seems pleased …” the examiner said.

Stevie held her breath for the rest of the sentence.

“… and so am I.”

“Thanks,” Stevie said. She stood up and reached for Topside’s reins to take him back to his stall.

“Not quite yet,” the examiner said. “There are a few more things …”

“I
CAN
’
T BELIEVE
how much stuff we have to know,” Lisa said, watching the rest of Stevie’s test from the edge of the ring. Stevie was the only rider trying for D-3. Lisa had been among many who had been tested for D-1. She was pretty sure she’d passed. She’d find out later when Max awarded the ratings to all of the
riders. Stevie and Carole had urged her to go for D-2, but that, like earning a horse of her own, would come in time. Lisa was, above all, sensible. She knew it would be a mistake for her to rush herself—even if her parents tried to do it for her!

“Are you nervous?” Lisa asked Carole.

“Of course I am,” Carole said. “Anybody with any sense is nervous before a big test and my C-1 rating is a big test. But you guys helped this week—”

“We helped you?” Lisa asked, surprised. “All we did was to get you to drill us on our test material!”

“That helps me. See, everything you’re being tested on, I’m already expected to know.” It amused Carole to think about how much she actually had learned while teaching her friends. Her father had also drilled her on additional material. She had the feeling he’d picked up a pointer or two along the way.

“Thank you very much, Stevie,” the examiner said. “You can take Topside back to his stall now.” Stevie walked Topside back into the stable. As she passed her friends, she winked and said “Whew!” They both knew exactly what she meant!

“The C-1 candidate,” the examiner announced. “Are you ready?”

“Five minutes!” Carole said. “Just have to tighten my horse’s girth and bring him out.”

“See that you do,” the examiner said. Lisa didn’t like his tone of voice at all, but if it bothered Carole,
her friend didn’t say anything. As Lisa knew, when it came to horses, Carole was ail business. Mostly.

As soon as Carole’s rating test was over, Max called all of the riders into his office. It was time to find out how they’d done. Some, like Lisa, who had chosen a rating they knew they could pass, were feeling confident. Others, like Stevie and Carole, who thought they might have been reaching beyond their grasp, were more than a little nervous. The look on Max’s face told them nothing.

Carole was actually very nervous. Barq had refused a low jump and she was sure that would count against her, even though it was because he’d been startled by a rabbit. It still shouldn’t have happened. Then, Carole was sure she’d gotten confused on the veterinary section when the examiner started asking her about parasites. She couldn’t, for the life of her, remember where botflies laid their eggs. Her answer, “In their botcaves?” got an amused response from nearby listeners. She’d also mixed up poultice bandages and cold-water bandages. She was sure she’d failed.

Carole had enough confidence in herself to know that she would certainly pass the test eventually. She’d try again at the next rating, but until then, if she failed, she’d be unrated. Carole looked at the pile of yellow patches on Max’s desk, ready to be handed out. D-level Pony Clubbers got to wear yellow patches behind their pins. Carole had been trying for a green. There were no green patches on Max’s desk.

“This is going to be fun,” Max said, beginning the awards ceremony at last. “It’s going to be fun because, I’m pleased to say, all those of you who took D-level tests passed!”

Carole was sitting between her two best friends. She reached a hand out to congratulate each of them. It was no surprise that Lisa had passed. It was a bit of a relief that Stevie had. Her friends each grasped her hand in return.

“I’ll be fine,” she whispered to them. “I just attempted too much. No problem. I’ll try again.”

While Carole tried to control the roller-coaster feeling that had just come over her, Max handed out the yellow patches, announcing each Pony Clubber’s name and rating as he did. Most of the Horse Wise members took their pins off and installed their patches right away. Stevie and Lisa didn’t. Carole was touched by their loyalty.

“Now,” Max began again when all the yellow patches had been distributed. “Only one person here felt she was horse wise enough to attempt a C-level rating, and that person, as you know, is Carole Hanson.”

Oh, no!
Carole thought. Everybody else in the room had passed their tests. She hadn’t. And now Max thought he could make it better by giving a talk on noble attempts. She wanted to sink into the floor and reappear in a different county—preferably in a different universe!

“… the C levels are tough tests. The examiners can’t give much leeway. Either the candidate knows her material, or she doesn’t.”

Even worse, he was dragging it out. Carole couldn’t believe Max would do this to her.

“And, in the case of Carole Hanson, I’m pleased to tell you, she
does
know her stuff! Carole, come get your green patch. Congratulations!”

Had she heard right? Her friends nudged her hard. That must mean something, she realized. She stood up and walked toward Max, almost in a trance.

“You mean botflies
do
lay their eggs in botcaves?” Carole asked. Everybody laughed, even Max.

“No, they don’t,” he said. “They actually lay their eggs on the horse’s underside, but you got half credit for creativity on that one!”

He handed her her green patch. Carole accepted it in a happy daze. She wasn’t even sure how she got back to her seat. She was too excited to be aware of mundane things like that.

“Now, there’s one more award,” Max continued. “It’s not exactly covered by the U.S. Pony Club regulations, but there are times when exceptions are called for. Besides, this can be a local award. There’s one more member of our club who has made an exceptional contribution, over the past few weeks, and who has set an example on how to become horse wise. Can you all guess who is going to get the final yellow patch of the day?”

Carole knew a cue when she heard one. She stood up again and turned to all her friends in Horse Wise. “I think the man is talking about my dad, don’t you agree?”

They did. There was a big round of applause, and an embarrassed Colonel Hanson stepped forward.

Max handed Carole the yellow patch. “Will you do the honors?” he asked.

Carole turned to her dad. She’d seen him receive ribbons and pins many times in the Marine Corps. She knew just what to do. As he stood absolutely still, she pinned the patch on his shirt, then saluted him. He returned the salute sharply. Then she hugged him. He returned that, too. That wasn’t exactly part of the Marine Corps procedure, but he deserved it.

Once again, Carole returned to her place with her friends. “Saddle Club meeting at TD’s right after this?” she whispered. Stevie and Lisa nodded. There was a lot to talk about.

“I’m almost done now,” Max said. “There’s one more thing I need to talk about, but I don’t really like talking about it at all. If this were a stable matter, I wouldn’t say anything, but it’s a Horse Wise matter and you all deserve to know.”