Horse Capades (4 page)

Reaching up, Stevie tapped the horseshoe with her fingers. “I think we’re going to need all the luck we can get if we want to win anything at that competition,” she told Belle. “And I could use some extra luck for my project, too.”

She turned and began leading Belle toward the indoor ring. The wooden doors were propped open, and Stevie could hear Carole calling instructions to Lisa inside. Stevie and Belle were just outside the entrance when a sudden, shrill noise broke the peaceful quiet of the stable. It sounded like a fire alarm and a car horn all rolled into one. Echoing off the low stable roof, the sound was terrifying.

Stevie gasped, and Belle jumped two feet to one side, rolling her eyes until the whites showed. After a few seconds, the alarm stopped abruptly. Before Stevie’s heartbeat could slow to its normal rate, Veronica stepped forward from the nearest row of stalls.
On her face was a sweet, apologetic smile, and in her hand was a black plastic gadget about the size of a small flashlight.

“I’m
sooo
sorry, Stevie,” Veronica cooed insincerely. “My personal safety alarm just went off by accident. I hope it didn’t startle you.”

“Your what?” Stevie gasped. Beside her, Belle was still tossing her head nervously. But fortunately, the mare wasn’t frightened as easily as some horses. Otherwise, she might have panicked at the sound and reared or raced off, hurting herself, Stevie, or someone else.

Veronica held up the gadget. “My personal safety alarm. It’s the latest thing. I carry it with me in my purse or my pocket, and if someone tries to mug me or something, all I have to do is press this button. Like this, see?”

Her finger moved toward a small gray button, and Stevie tensed, expecting the piercing noise to begin again.

But Veronica’s finger paused a hair’s breadth from the button, and she smiled. “Just kidding,” she said.

Stevie didn’t think it was funny. What’s more, she didn’t think the alarm had gone off by accident the first time. “You idiot,” she said, glaring. “You’re just
lucky Belle isn’t more high-strung, or she might have trampled you.”
Or me
, she thought. “And you’re lucky I wasn’t in the saddle yet.” Stevie remembered the last time Veronica’s thoughtless actions had startled Belle. That time, Veronica had scared Belle by taking a flash photograph of her, and Stevie had taken a spill, ending up with a bad concussion.

Just then Red O’Malley raced around the corner, his freckled face pale and anxious. “What on earth was that?” he asked. “I heard an alarm—”

Veronica gave Red the same explanation she’d given Stevie, but Red barely paused to listen.

“Go check the horses in the aisle behind you,” he ordered Veronica in a no-nonsense voice. “Make sure they didn’t panic and hurt themselves. I’ll check this aisle.” He glanced at Belle. “Stevie, you’d better get Belle away from here. She looks all right, but she needs some calming down.”

Stevie nodded. As a grumpy-looking Veronica began to do as Red said, Stevie and Belle headed into the indoor ring. Stevie moved slowly, talking to the mare soothingly.

But when she entered the ring, she dropped the reins and raced forward as fast as she could, leaving Belle ground-tied near the entrance. She had just seen
that Veronica’s dangerous prank had affected a more high-strung horse than her own. It was Prancer. The mare was dancing nervously at the far end of the ring, her eyes rolling and her mouth flecked with foam.

Lying on the ground beside one of the jumps was the motionless form of Lisa Atwood.

“L
ISA
!” S
TEVIE CRIED
, racing toward her friend. Carole had dismounted and was struggling to control Starlight, who seemed on the verge of racing off to join Prancer in the corner.

Stevie dropped to her knees beside Lisa. “Lisa, can you hear me? Are you okay?” she asked frantically, looking for a sign of movement. She wanted to reach for her friend and try to make her sit up, but she knew that could be dangerous if Lisa was badly injured.

At the sound of Stevie’s voice, Lisa’s eyes fluttered open, and her arms moved. “S-Stevie?” she said. “Is that you? What happened?”

“You fell,” Stevie said. “I guess Prancer threw you.”

Lisa shook her head a little, then sat up. “I know that,” she said, her voice sounding stronger already. She tested her arms, then her legs. All seemed fine. “I meant, what was that horrible noise?”

Stevie breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Lisa seemed to be in one piece. “Who else?” she replied. “It was Veronica.” Quickly she explained what had happened.

“That idiot,” Carole said. She had finally gotten Starlight under control and had joined her friends just in time to hear Stevie’s story. “She just doesn’t think, does she? Who else would bring something like that into a stable at all! She must have known it would freak out the horses if it went off!”

Stevie nodded, giving Lisa her arm to help her clamber to her feet. “I know,” she said. “The worst part is, I think she may have set it off on purpose, because she knew Belle and I were there.”

“I can’t believe even Veronica would pull such a stupid and dangerous stunt,” Lisa said. Now that she was sure she was okay, she was worried about Prancer, who was still working herself into a lather on the far end of the ring.

“Believe it,” Stevie said grimly. “Are you sure
you’re all right, Lisa? You didn’t hit your head, did you?”

“No. I landed smack on my rear end,” Lisa said ruefully, rubbing her backside gingerly. “That thing went off just as we were approaching the fence and Prancer jerked off to the side and sent me flying. It knocked the wind out of me, that’s all.”

“You were lucky,” Carole said. She looked angry. But then she glanced over at Prancer, and her expression changed to one of concern. “Wait here,” she told her friends. “I’ll see what I can do with Prancer.”

As she walked slowly toward the nervous horse, Red O’Malley hurried into the indoor ring. “Everybody okay in here?” he asked anxiously.

Lisa nodded. “Just about,” she said. “Prancer threw me, but I’m okay. I think she is, too, if Carole can calm her down before she hurts herself.”

“I’d better give her a hand,” Red said, heading after Carole.

Before long, the two of them had Prancer back under control. She was breathing hard and still seemed a little jumpy, but she had tired herself out quite a bit and Lisa didn’t think she’d have any trouble controlling her now.

“I guess I’d better get back in that saddle, huh?” she
said, rubbing her backside again. Like all good riders, Lisa knew that it was important to ride again as soon as possible after a fall. That way, both horse and rider were reassured and things could get back to normal.

Red nodded. “And I guess I’d better go up to the house and tell Max what happened,” he said. He rolled his eyes. “I ended up checking on all the horses myself, since Veronica managed to get sidetracked in her own horse’s stall when she was supposed to be helping me. Luckily they all seem fine. But I have a feeling Max will want to have a few words with Veronica about this little incident anyway.”

Carole nodded. She was sure the groom was right.

Red closed the doors behind him as he left. Lisa was glad about that—other than Stevie and Carole, she would rather not have an audience right now. She took a deep breath and remounted. She felt a little nervous, as she always did after a fall, and realized she was clutching the reins too tightly. She forced herself to relax, loosening her grip and reminding herself that she had to stay calm and in charge. She was the only one who could let Prancer know that everything was okay. Within a few minutes, she was able to stop reminding herself to relax and just do it. Prancer was still a little jumpier than usual, but she was obeying her rider as well as she always did. Apparently the
accident hadn’t done her any real harm, Lisa thought with relief.

“Why don’t you try taking her through the course once,” Carole suggested. “Just to make sure she hasn’t been scared off jumping or something. You’d better do it at a slow trot, though—she looks pretty tired.”

Lisa nodded. She touched her foot gently to Prancer’s side behind the girth and the mare moved forward immediately. Lisa guided her around the ring at a smooth trot, then turned her toward the first fence, her heart in her mouth. If they could make it through this course, they could put the whole incident behind them. Prancer seemed a little nervous when she saw the obstacle ahead, but she was obeying Lisa’s instructions just as well as she had on the flat.

Carole and Stevie watched, holding their breath as the mare came to within three strides of the fence, then two, then one.

At that moment there was a sudden loud clatter and crash as Veronica flung open the double wooden doors and hurried into the ring. At the same time, she shouted, “Red! Danny’s okay, but he spilled his water bucket, and …”

Carole and Stevie didn’t hear the rest. They were watching in horror as Prancer skidded to a stop in mid-takeoff, startled by Veronica’s sudden loud entrance.
The mare’s forelegs smashed into the jump, which collapsed with a clatter of rails and posts. Lisa was flung forward onto Prancer’s neck, and the reins were jarred loose from her grip. She managed to stay in the saddle, and as soon as she regained her balance, she began trying to calm her badly spooked horse. Prancer tossed her head and skittered to one side of the toppled jump.

Stevie bit her lip, wanting to yell advice to her friend but knowing that that would probably just upset the horse even more. She could tell Prancer was on the verge of panicking again.

Carole was thinking the same thing. She was also watching Prancer’s forelegs carefully, looking for any sign of lameness or other injury. Fortunately the mare’s legs seemed fine. And Lisa was doing a good job of calming her. Within a few minutes Prancer was still, though her sides were heaving and she continued to toss her head every few moments. Starlight and Belle had been facing the door when Veronica had entered, so they were only slightly startled by the incident. Carole and Stevie kept them facing away from Prancer so that they would be less likely to pick up on the mare’s fright.

The Saddle Club had almost forgotten about Veronica,
who had been the cause of all the trouble in the first place. Then she spoke from behind them.

“Oh,” she said, in a bored, haughty voice. “I guess Red isn’t in here.” Before the astonished Saddle Club girls could say a word, Veronica had turned on her heel and left the ring.

“Can you believe her?” Stevie fumed, clenching her fists. She felt like running after Veronica and giving her a piece of her mind.

But Carole had other ideas. “Never mind,” she said firmly. “We can deal with her later. Right now we’ve got to help Lisa with Prancer.”

Stevie knew she was right. Carole helped Lisa walk Prancer for a few minutes to calm and cool her. They checked her legs carefully but could find no sign of injury. Once she was satisfied that the mare hadn’t been physically hurt, Carole urged Lisa to try jumping again.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Lisa asked, as Stevie hurried to replace the rails on the jump Prancer had knocked over. “After two scares, isn’t she a lot less likely to want to jump?”

“That’s why it’s so important for you to convince her to do it,” Carole said. At least she hoped that was true. She admitted to herself that she’d never seen a
horse in this particular situation before. But she could tell that Lisa was nervous enough already, so she didn’t voice her own doubts. “Get up there and take her through the course once. Then we can put all the horses away and take a well-deserved rest.”

“Right,” Stevie replied, rejoining them. “But I’m sure you meant Max’s version of resting: cleaning tack. Right?”

Even Lisa laughed a little at that. That made it easier for her to remount. She stayed on the flat for a good long time, making sure the mare was giving her full attention to her rider. Meanwhile Carole and Stevie started working with their own horses, staying on the other side of the ring to avoid distracting Prancer. Finally, when Lisa was convinced that she and the mare were communicating well, she turned her once more toward the jumps in the center of the ring. “Here we go,” she called to her friends, who pulled up and turned to watch.

Lisa patted Prancer on the neck and signaled for a canter. She rode the mare in a wide circle before turning her toward the first obstacle, leaving plenty of room for their approach. As soon as Prancer realized where she was being asked to go, her canter became choppy, and she soon slowed to a prancing walk.

Lisa frowned. “Come on, girl,” she said, signaling
firmly for a canter and keeping the mare moving toward the fence. When the mare realized her rider intended to keep her on course no matter what, she seemed to give in. But instead of maintaining an even pace as Lisa was asking her to do, Prancer sped up, her canter turning into what was almost a gallop. Lisa tried desperately to control her horse’s stride, but Prancer wasn’t paying attention anymore. Her courage gave out at the last minute, and she skidded to a stop inches in front of the jump, narrowly avoiding a repeat of her collision.

Lisa bit her lip and did her best to regain the mare’s attention. She finally got her moving again, turning her toward the outside of the ring. Once they were away from the jumps, the mare settled down almost immediately.