Rodeo Rider (12 page)

Stevie yanked at her elbow. “It doesn’t matter what we wear,” she said firmly. “It matters how we ride.”

“I know,” Lisa said, but she couldn’t help sounding wistful. “Sort of.”

The number one riders from the first two teams told Lisa and the other riders that their biggest competition was going to be from The Dapper Dude. The announcer called their names, and the girls made it through the course all right, but even Lisa knew that they weren’t fast enough to win.

“Bar None Rider Number One!” the announcer said. “Miss Carole Hanson!”

Lisa thought she heard a “Yahooo!” from the stands. It had to be Eli. She grinned.

Carole had a stiff, serious look of concentration on her face. Lisa thought she probably hadn’t heard anything after her own name.

“Go!” the starter yelled.

Carole was out of the gate. She swung her horse, Berry, over to the right. He rounded the first barrel okay, though his feet seemed to slip a little and his balance was off. By the time he got to the second barrel, though, Carole was in trouble. She was going fast all right, but she was in such a hurry and Berry was so eager to please her that there was no way they’d make it!

“Slow down!” Lisa yelled, but it was too late.

Carole made Berry cut the corner too sharply. His
shoulder hit the barrel. The barrel knocked against Carole’s knee, rocked perilously, and then tumbled to the ground.

“Penalty!” the announcer said. That meant that five seconds would be added to Carole’s final time. There was no way that would be a winning round!

Carole completed her turn and brought Berry back to where her friends waited. Her face showed nothing, but Lisa was sure it was taking every bit of Carole’s control to hide her disappointment.

“I guess it’s up to you four now,” Carole said, drawing into the circle her friends made for her.

Lisa didn’t even notice the start of the next racer’s run. Carole’s words kept echoing in her head. Her penalty meant that Lisa’s ride would count, no matter how bad it was. Her score couldn’t be dropped out because Carole’s was so high with the five-second penalty. If anybody else on the team was penalized, it would be virtually impossible for them to win. What Lisa did would matter, really matter.

It was strange and frightening to realize that she would make a difference. She hoped she’d make a difference for the better!

“Oh, that was a good one!” Stevie groaned. Lisa looked up to see a triumphant Dapper Dude rider return to her group. The score on the board indicated that The Bar None Riders really had their work cut out for them.

Now the number two riders took their turns. Once again, the riders from the other two teams didn’t worry
The Bar None Riders. One team had a low score; the other had a default when the rider went the wrong way around the third barrel.

Then it was Lisa’s turn.

She drew up to the starting line. The world was a blur. She was only vaguely aware of the starter. Mostly, her head was full of instructions. Lean into a turn. Don’t lean too far. Go fast. Not too fast. Cut close to the barrel. Not too close. Right, left, left. Gallop. Use your spurs. Hold on. Right, left, left. Don’t fall off. Don’t fall off. Don’t fall …

“Go!”

Lisa touched Chocolate with the spurs and gave her a firm whack to get her started. Chocolate flew out of the starting gate, took a sharp right, and was on her way!

Lisa had never felt anything like it. She gave the horse signals and Chocolate responded instantly, shifting to the right on the straightaway toward the second barrel, turning to the left like a pro. Chocolate got into her gallop on the way out of the turn and was at the third barrel almost before Lisa was ready. Lisa laid the reins on her neck to turn left. Chocolate turned in a flash, almost running into the barrel. Then all Lisa could see was that Chocolate’s shoulder had brushed the barrel and her own foot was going to touch it, too. She squeezed her boot against the horse’s side to get it out of the way, but felt it hit the barrel anyway.

There was no time to think, no time to worry. If the barrel went, it went. She leaned forward in the saddle
and made Chocolate go as fast as she could. Lisa could hear the audience. “Ooooooh!” She knew it was the barrel. She waited for the dreaded word from the announcer, but it didn’t come. As she crossed the finish line, the crowd applauded and her teammates bounced with delight in their saddles. Lisa brought Chocolate to a perfect straight-legged halt—this time staying in the saddle—and turned around to look. At the other end of the arena, the barrel was still rocking slightly, but it was upright!

“Good time, Lisa Atwood!” the announcer said.

Lisa couldn’t help grinning. Carole reached over and squeezed one hand. “Great job. Thanks,” she said.

“My pleasure,” Lisa said. “Really.” She squeezed back.

The second Dapper Dude rider wasn’t as good as the first, but she was good. The race wasn’t over yet, and everybody knew it.

Stevie did well. She didn’t try to do anything too fancy. She just went fast and didn’t knock anything down. Carole and Lisa welcomed her back with a hug. They’d certainly learned a lot about barrel racing in just a few days. But would it be enough?

The third girl from The Dapper Dude seemed the weakest of that group. She had trouble controlling her horse, and her time was quite slow.

“That’s their drop-out score,” Carole said.

“Maybe somebody else will be slower,” Lisa said hopefully.

“I doubt it,” Carole said. “I’ve been watching the
other two girls and you can tell they know what they’re doing.”

“This isn’t good news, is it?” Lisa asked.

“Probably not,” Carole said, “but at least we’ve got two very good scores so far. And we’ll probably get two more.”

Then it was Christine’s turn. Christine didn’t have the show experience that Kate did, but she was an excellent rider. As soon as she left the gate, Lisa knew she’d do fine. And she did. Christine’s horse, Arrow, seemed to be having a lot of fun on the barrel-race course. He came out of the turns and into his straightaway gallops with a real joy in his pounding step. It was clean, it was fast, and it was good.

The team welcomed Christine back with lots of hugs. Things were looking up.

But then the next rider from The Dapper Dude got on the course. She was the best they’d ever seen. She was even better than Jeannie had been. It seemed as if she’d just left the gate when she returned. The crowd applauded for her long and loud.

The Bar None Riders were silent. They hadn’t thought it possible to go through the course as fast as that girl had done it.

“I think we’re looking at second place,” Stevie said glumly.

“I don’t mind taking second,” Kate said, watching the final riders of the first two teams cover the course. “I just mind coming in behind The Dapper Dude. Now, if there’s one thing I learned in all those years of
competition, it’s that it’s not over until it’s over. And so far, teammates, it’s not over.”

“And now the final rider from The Bar None, Miss Kate Devine!” the announcer said.

“Go for it!” Carole encouraged her.

“I will,” Kate said determinedly.

A change had come over her, and Lisa couldn’t help noticing it. She was no longer their friend, Kate Devine. She was Katharine Devine, championship rider—owner of thousands of ribbons, hundreds of trophies, and many memories of tough competitions. What Lisa saw in her face was serious resolve. It wasn’t a vague let’s-do-our-best face. It was more professional than that. It was as if Kate knew, to the millisecond, exactly how fast she would have to go to carry her team. She gazed at the course as if she were figuring out exactly where she could shave that millisecond so she could win.

“Go!” the starter cried and Kate was gone.

Lisa watched, fascinated. She’d never seen anything like it. Kate cut closer, turned faster, leaned farther than Lisa would have thought possible. Spot’s shoulder brushed the top of every single barrel. Each one rocked slightly, but stayed up.

Lisa glanced at the clock while Kate raced down the final straightaway. She couldn’t believe it. Kate was a full two seconds ahead of the other rider from The Dapper Dude!

“Wow, what a ride!” the announcer said. The crowd agreed. This time, too, everybody could hear Eli
shouting “Yahoo!” and Jeannie was right alongside him, cheering almost as loud. Kate’s parents clapped and yelled for their daughter with everybody else. The entire audience was electrified by Kate’s performance.

At last the applause quieted down. It was time for the final rider from The Dapper Dude. Lisa had been doing some calculating and realized that the competition wasn’t over yet. Their scores were very close, and this last rider was going to mean the difference between winning and losing to The Dapper Dude. The Saddle Club sat next to one another on their horses and watched. Lisa didn’t exactly want anything bad to happen to the final rider, but she did hope she’d mess up a bit. Lisa crossed her fingers. Then she looked at her friends’ hands. They’d all crossed their fingers, too!

The final rider began and she was good. She wasn’t as good as Kate, but she was good enough to make her team win. She rounded the barrels rapidly and her horse sprinted on the straightaways at a winning pace.

Lisa crossed the fingers of her other hand. She tried to cross her toes, but her boots were too tight. She concentrated on the rider. The girl rode very close to the barrels as she rounded them. It was the winning way. Each time, the barrel rocked a little bit, then settled back into its upright position. The girl headed for the final barrel. Her horse swept to the right and then turned left, closing in on the barrel as he went. As before, he brushed the barrel with his shoulder. As before, it rocked, ever so slightly. But then, unlike the
first two barrels, the horse struck it with his hoof as he broke into a gallop for the final sprint.

The barrel tipped to the left. The crowd went “Ooooooh!” The barrel lurched to the right. The crowd went “Aaaaaah!” The barrel rolled forward. The crowd went “Uuuuuuuh!” The barrel rocked backward and tumbled onto its side.

The Bar None Riders went “Yippeeeeee!”

T
HE
AWARDS
CEREMONIES
at The Two Mile Creek Rodeo were very different from any awards ceremonies Stevie, Carole, and Lisa had ever seen. In the horse shows they were used to, the judges announced the winners and when the winners stepped forward, somebody clipped a ribbon onto the horse’s bridle. People clapped politely and photographs were taken.

The rodeo was much showier. As winners were announced, the cowboys galloped out of the chute into the center of the ring, waving hats and cheering loudly. A couple of the winners even got their horses
to rear right in front of the judges. Carole loved every minute of it and it gave her an idea.

She told her teammates about it. They agreed it was the perfect finish.

But first, they had all kinds of chances to cheer for Eli. After all, he’d taken two first places and one second place. The crowd remembered him when he came out to accept his check for taking second place in the saddle-bronc riding, and they cheered for him and for The Bar None. Carole noticed Jeannie standing by the fence. Nobody was cheering louder or harder than she was. Eli waved to Jeannie from the center of the ring. The crowd loved that, too.

A few minutes later, Eli came out to accept his first-place prize for calf roping. He was grinning and waving even more proudly than before. But the biggest thrill for The Bar None Riders was when he came to accept his first-place prize for steer wrestling, because he didn’t come out alone. Jeannie was with him! They were riding together on his horse. The crowd roared its approval. Eli seemed to like it, too, since Jeannie was holding on by squeezing him tightly around his waist!

It was nice, really nice, to see Eli and Jeannie so obviously happy. Carole was glad Stevie had done whatever it was she’d done that had made it work out.

There were other things Carole was glad about, too. She was glad that Lisa had ridden so well in the barrel race, because that had saved the team and won the event for them as much as Kate’s outstanding ride. It
made her feel proud to be part of a team that knew that teamwork meant doing your best no matter what happened.

“And now for the award to the winning barrel-race team, The Bar None Riders!”

Kate led them into the ring at a gallop. She circled around the arena and came to a stop in front of the judges. The other four girls kept riding at a lope next to her so that when people in the stands looked down, they saw riders and horses making The Bar None symbol: