Horsenapped! (9 page)

Stevie sailed smoothly over the first three jumps. She grinned as she passed her friends. Carole had the feeling Stevie wanted to wave, but of course she couldn’t do that. That was definitely not good form. Then she approached the triple combination. Topside was in top form. Stevie had him take off at just the right moment and he recovered almost instantly for the second part of it. Again, no problem. The third jump was as good as the first two. Carole and Lisa automatically began applauding and they weren’t alone. Everyone in the audience did, too.

“She seems so relaxed,” Lisa said.

“Too relaxed,” Carole said. “If she’s not careful, she’s going to—”

And then Stevie got into trouble. She let Topside take a slow curve approach to the next jump and instead of aiming straight at it, they came at an angle. Stevie misjudged
her distance and Topside took off too close to the jump. Topside’s hoof caught the top bar on the way over, knocking it to the ground.

“That’s five faults,” Carole said.

“But so far, those are her only faults,” Lisa reminded her.

Carole knew that was true, but she also could tell that Stevie had gotten rattled. She was distracted and it cost her. She got too close to the next jump before signaling Topside for the takeoff and he refused the jump. Stevie knew what to do. She circled around and brought him back through the approach. This time, they went right over it, but the refusal cost another ten faults.

Stevie had learned her lesson about concentration. From there until the end of the competition, she and Topside worked together as if they’d been born together. It was a great finish. It had been a great start, too. It was only the middle that worried Carole.

“You were great!” Lisa said, greeting her back at the fence.

“I wasn’t, but thanks anyway,” Stevie told her.

Carole gave her a hug. “You were great part of the time,” she said truthfully. “You took that triple like a pro and your finale was really grand.”

“And the middle wasn’t so hot,” Stevie said, evaluating herself honestly.

“But you recovered and that’s really important. It may
not get you a blue ribbon, but it certainly does get you respect.”

Stevie dismounted and gave Topside the pat that he deserved. “I don’t want a blue ribbon on this anyway. It’s yours to win,” she told Carole. “Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Carole said.

“I’m going to cool down Topside and put him in his stall. I’ll be back in time for your turn, okay?” Stevie asked. Carole and Lisa nodded and then turned their attention to the next competitor.

“Look at her hands,” Carole said. “They’re all over the place. She’s never going to—” The first jump was down.

Stevie walked Topside back to his stall. She wasn’t thrilled with her performance, but she was proud of the fact that she’d pulled herself back together after a few mistakes. Sometimes that was hard to do. Riding a great horse like Topside made it easier. As she walked, she told him all the wonderful things she’d do for him when she had time. Her promises included carrots and two-hour showers. He followed her willingly.

The stable was quite deserted. Everybody was watching the jumping. So, Stevie was more than a little surprised to hear somebody talking agitatedly. She halted Topside and listened.

There was a phone in the stable. It was only supposed to be used for emergencies, but a lot of people defined
emergencies for their own convenience. From the tone of voice Stevie heard from around the corner, this person had definitely defined his problem as an emergency. He was speaking in a nervous whisper that made it impossible to identify the voice. There was no mistaking the urgency of the tone, though.

“Of course I’ve got to have the money! And I’ve got to have it now …”

Stevie didn’t want to barge in on that. Whoever was talking on the phone obviously had a problem and probably didn’t want anybody else to know about it.

“Look, I’ve done what I had to do … I’ve been busting my gut getting everything—”

Topside whinnied. Since all of the other horses were out, waiting to compete, the person on the phone knew somebody was near and apparently didn’t like the idea.

“Look, I can’t talk now,” he said, and then Stevie heard the phone being cradled.

Stevie was embarrassed to have overheard what she had overheard. She was also dying of curiosity. Anybody who was that desperate for cash could do anything. Was it possible that there was a horsenapper lurking around the corner?

Stevie clucked her tongue to get Topside walking again. They rounded the corner, and although Stevie could see clear to the end of the hallway, there wasn’t a
sign of anybody. The telephone talker had disappeared altogether.

Topside went into his stall willingly. Stevie loosened his girth and brought him a bucket of water and some fresh hay. She cross-tied him.

“See you later, boy,” she said. She fastened the door to his stall behind her.

Then, as she headed back toward the ring, Donald went whizzing past her, carrying clean tack. He nodded a quick greeting. It occurred to her that he might have seen something—or someone.

“Oh, Donald,” she said. “Did you see somebody here just a few minutes ago?”

He paused and looked at her thoughtfully. “Nope,” he said. “The place has been deserted since the junior jumping began.” Then he disappeared as quickly as he’d appeared.

Stevie shrugged. It wasn’t surprising, really, that Donald hadn’t seen the person who’d been talking on the phone. He was always dashing one place or another and didn’t ever seem to see anything!

Stevie looked at the phone as she passed it again, almost hoping that it would tell her something. All it told her, though, was that one of the hundreds of people who’d been tromping through the stable had been careless, for there was a gum wrapper dropped on a bale of hay.

“You’d think people would be more careful,” she said, picking up the scrap of paper automatically and pocketing it until she found a wastebasket. “Goats eat paper,” she said to herself. “But that stuff could make a horse sick!”

“G
OOD LUCK
, C
AROLE
,” Lisa said, and gave her a squeeze. Then she showed her crossed fingers. “We’re rooting for you.”

“Yes, we are,” Stevie said, joining Lisa at the entrance to the ring. She crossed her fingers, too.

Carole thought that, with friends like that, she couldn’t lose.

“You’re on!” Mrs. Reg said, wishing her luck. The gong sounded. It was time to begin.

Carole entered the ring and, as with the dressage, she saluted the judges. She then had a full minute to begin the course and she intended to use it. This was Starlight’s first time jumping in an arena before a crowd. She wanted to accustom him to the atmosphere and the people. They circled the ring at a trot and approached the
long straightaway that ended in the first jump. This was exactly the way Carole had planned her route. At the corner, when Starlight was aimed for the jump, she signaled him to canter. He responded instantly. Starlight’s canter was pure magic as far as Carole was concerned. It could carry her away anywhere, anytime, but not this time. This time, she had to concentrate completely on the task in front of her and Starlight. She was convinced that she had the most wonderful horse in the event and she wanted everybody else to know it, too.

Carole’s work in the ring walking the course paid off right away. She knew just how long the straightaway was and she remembered that she’d decided Starlight should take off for his jump when they reached the slightly crooked pole in the fence. She was ready. So was he. He took off perfectly and sailed right over the jump. When they were above the jump and beginning their descent, Carole straightened up a little and slid back into the saddle, meeting it smoothly as Starlight’s hooves met the ground. He cantered on immediately and she never felt the least bit out of balance. The audience applauded. Carole knew she deserved it. She also knew Starlight deserved it.

“Good boy,” she whispered to him.

The next two jumps were just as smooth and then came the triple combination. Starlight took stock of the three jumps ahead of him as they cantered toward the obstacles. Carole knew what she wanted Starlight to do
and it seemed to her that she almost didn’t have to tell him. He responded instantly to her wishes. Almost before she knew what had happened, she and her horse had cleared them perfectly.

“Ooooh!” the audience said, and then clapped.

For a second, Carole listened to the applause. Then she recalled how distracting that had been for Stevie and how much trouble it had caused her. Carole shut it out of her mind and kept her attention glued to the next jump, and then the one after it and the double combination after that. Before she really knew what was happening, Carole and Starlight cleared the last jump flawlessly and rode smoothly through the finish line. She drew her horse down to a trot and returned to the center of the ring, where she gave a final salute to the judges.

When she lifted her head, she saw that people were standing. They were standing and applauding her and Starlight. Carole was embarrassed. She’d been riding for a long time and it had always been important to her to do it well, but she’d always done it well for herself. Other people’s opinions, except for her instructors’, had never mattered to her. Now, there she was in the middle of the jump course at Pine Hollow and over a hundred people were standing and applauding the way she and Starlight had performed. She didn’t have any idea what to do. She looked over at her friends for help. Her friends were clapping as hard as anyone else. Carole touched the brim of
her hat to salute the audience and then signaled Starlight to trot out of the ring. He just about pranced. Carole thought he deserved the chance to show off.

Lisa and Stevie greeted her at the gate. “You were fabulous!” Stevie shrieked.

Carole dismounted. Lisa gave her a great big hug. “You stopped the whole show!” she said.

“It wasn’t me,” Carole tried to tell them. “It was Starlight. He was just born to jump!” She paused, then continued. “And maybe I was born to make him jump.”

Stevie and Lisa gave her another round of hugs.

“When are you up?” Carole asked, suddenly realizing that the event hadn’t stopped just because she’d finished.

“After this rider,” Lisa said.

“Are you nervous?” Carole asked.

“Not at all,” Lisa said. “I was, up until your turn. But then you did such a wonderful job, I know there’s no way I could possibly do that well, so I don’t have to worry about it. I can just go out and do my best and that’s all that I have to do.”

“That’s all you should ever have to do,” Carole said.

“I know,” Lisa told her. She was going to say something else, but Mrs. Reg called her name. “I guess it’s time to go do it.”

“Good luck,” Carole and Stevie called at the same time. Then they stood together and watched Lisa enter the ring.

“She’ll do fine,” Carole said.

“I know,” Stevie told her. “And we can help her by standing here and crossing our fingers.”

Lisa did do a good job. She was still a novice rider and only had limited experience as a jumper, but she’d learned a lot in the short time she’d been doing it and riding an experienced horse like Pepper helped, too. She worked hard to keep Pepper cantering at a steady pace and she was careful with her own form, holding her hands and elbows close to her body, keeping her back straight, and bending from her hips, not her waist.

She did make some mistakes, though, and they added on a few faults. On one jump, she waited to jump until she and Pepper were too close. Pepper brought down the top bar of the jump with him. Then, on the triple, she got into some real trouble. The problem, for Lisa, was that the jumps were too close together and she didn’t have time to collect herself, or her horse, before she had to jump again. Both she and Pepper seemed to get confused. He knocked over the second jump of the combination and refused the third altogether. Lisa turned him around and made him approach the combination a second time. Then he made it over, but it had cost her lots of faults.

Carole could see the determination on Lisa’s face. She thought she knew what was going through Lisa’s mind. It was easy for a rider who was messing up a performance to
just get worse. That was what Veronica had done in the dressage competition. Lisa didn’t want that to happen. She wanted to get back into the competition and finish up doing her best, the way Stevie had done.

Once Pepper had cleared the third jump in the combination, Lisa used her inside leg to improve Pepper’s impulsion. His back straightened out, giving more power to his hind legs. He was ready to jump again, and he was ready to jump right. Lisa finished up her performance as well as she’d started it. That was something to be proud of.

“Nice recovery!” Carole said. “You did your best and you should be proud.”

“Yeah, it was great,” Stevie added. She held Pepper steady while Lisa dismounted. She began walking him to cool him down. “Now, we have a little break until the awards and parade this afternoon. Let’s find someplace quiet to talk, okay?”

Both Lisa and Carole thought that was a good idea. Stevie led Pepper through the stable to his stall. On her way, she saw a garbage bin and recalled the gum wrapper in her pocket. She paused and fished it out.