Sea Horse (9 page)

The horses then descended down into the palm grove, once again passing the shabby little farm. The boy Lisa had seen before was by the side of his house, scattering, grain for the chickens. Lisa waved to him. He waved back.

“Prepare to canter!” Frederica called.

Lisa was prepared. This time, she signaled Jasper to canter the instant the horse in front of her began to move faster. He changed gaits easily. She changed her seat and her hold on the reins, and he responded. She rocked with his motion. Riding was as easy as it had always been.

It had rained hard the night before and the small marsh that had caused Lisa such trouble two days ago was now much more perilous. The water was six inches deeper than it had been. Jasper slowed noticeably as he slogged through the water, but Lisa was prepared. She slowed, too. And she stayed on.

“Nice work,” the rider behind her said. Lisa just nodded at the compliment.

Frederica led the riders through another palm grove,
around a grassy hillock, and back to the beach. Lisa could hardly wait for what she knew would be the final canter of the ride. Jasper seemed to sense her excitement. She certainly sensed his. As soon as they reached the beach, Frederica started the canter. Lisa was completely at ease, completely comfortable, and completely confident. Jasper was completely wonderful. The wind off the sea picked up his mane so that it blew back, accentuating his speed. The same wind brushed Lisa’s hair, even under her helmet, and Lisa felt as if she were flying. She no longer felt any fear or apprehension. She only felt joy.

“Good work!” the rider behind her said. “I don’t know what Jill was so worried about. You’re just fine.”

“I guess I am, now,” Lisa said, smiling to herself at his words. It hadn’t been Frederica who had warned the man behind her; it had been Jill. Frederica really
did
have faith in her.

That thought was confirmed a few minutes later when Frederica rode back along the line, pausing by Lisa.

“I knew you could do it, Lisa. Nice work.”

“Thanks,” Lisa said. “For your confidence in me, I mean.”

“You’re welcome,” Frederica said. “But I’m not sure I ever really doubted you were an intermediate rider. Oh, I might have in the very beginning, when you told me you’d only ridden for six months. But you seemed to doubt yourself more than I did, and that was much more worrisome than if I’d doubted you.”

Lisa knew that was true and she thought about what
she might have missed if she’d kept on doubting herself. It made her lean forward and pat Jasper affectionately on the neck. After all, he deserved thanks, too.

“Jasper helped, you know,” Lisa said.

Frederica nodded. “He loves the ride, especially the beach. Did you notice?”

“I did,” Lisa said. “He’s a real sea horse.” Frederica laughed, patting Jasper herself.

The riders all walked their horses the last quarter mile to the stable. Lisa would have liked to canter again, now that she knew she could really do it, but she also knew that horses had to walk to cool down. As they approached the stable, Jill drew her horse up, and waited for Lisa to catch up. “Stayed on this time, huh?” Jill asked rather snidely.,

Lisa thought she was being unnecessarily nasty, but she wanted to give Jill the benefit of the doubt. “I’d just forgotten some of my basics,” she said.

“Right, like staying on,” Jill snickered.

“Yes, like staying on,” Lisa agreed, trying to make fun of her own shortcoming. Then she realized it wasn’t worth the effort. Jill was enjoying putting her down. That, Lisa decided, was Jill’s problem, not hers.

Jill kicked her horse, urging him forward. He picked up a trot and was soon back at his own place in the line of riders. Lisa wasn’t sorry to see Jill gone.

Although they had walked the horses a full quarter mile, Jasper was still lathered and breathing hard by the time they got into the mounting and dismounting area. He wasn’t ready to stop walking until he was fully cooled
down. His condition concerned Lisa enough that when Frederica came to help her dismount, Lisa pointed it out to her.

“I think I should walk him some more, don’t you?” she asked.

Frederica regarded him carefully. She nodded. “I agree. Why don’t you take him into the ring and circle it for another ten minutes or so.”

Lisa rode Jasper over to the schooling ring, where he could cool down at his own pace. She reached over and unlatched the gate and then latched it behind her. Relatching it was habit more than anything else. Max had drilled the idea into his riders’ heads that any gate that had to be opened also had to be closed.

Jasper was comfortable circling the ring and Lisa was comfortable remaining in the saddle. She decided to ride him at a walk for five minutes and then lead him for the next five. Besides, that method would give her five more minutes of riding time.

She kept Jasper on a loose rein and let her mind wander as they walked gently in large lazy circles.

She was riding again. That was the most important thing. She was good and she felt good. The only thing missing was that her friends weren’t there to enjoy the victory with her. Stevie and Carole would have understood everything. In fact, she was sure that if Stevie and Carole had been there, the whole mess wouldn’t have happened in the first place. They would have known what was wrong before Lisa did and they would have gotten
Lisa to correct it before it had gotten her in so much trouble. One of the nicest things about Stevie and Carole was that they were friends no matter what. It was too bad she couldn’t say the same for Jill.

L
ISA HAD ONLY
gone halfway around the ring before trouble started. This time, it wasn’t trouble for her. It was trouble for Jill.

Lisa heard one rider scream while the man who had been behind her on the trail yelled, “Look out!”

She turned and instantly saw the danger. Jill had been in the process of dismounting from her horse when a breeze had shaken a coconut loose from the palm tree overhead. The large green fruit tumbled down, heading right for Jill’s horse, Tiger!

Jill’s right foot was out of the stirrup and her leg was halfway over to the horse’s left side when the coconut struck Tiger on his rear. He jumped back first, then reared, nearly tossing Jill into the muddy dismounting area. That would have been all right. But, because Jill was a good rider, she somehow managed to get her right
leg back over the horse and then she leaned forward, grasping for the horse’s mane while he reared.

Lisa could see Jill clutching at Tiger’s mane and realized that she’d lost control of the reins. They had slipped over her horse’s head and there was no way Jill could reach them. Without the reins to check him, the terrified horse would run wild!

He took off like a flash, speeding past the schooling ring where Lisa was riding. A horse as scared as that could run for a long time, and on an island formed from volcanoes, there were a lot of places he could get into trouble. Lisa was barely aware of Frederica’s dash for her own horse. The only thing she really knew was that she was the closest person to Jill and she might be the only one who could save her from a real disaster.

Her eyes flashed to the schooling ring gate, now so carefully latched. There was no time for niceties. There was no time for gates.

As quickly as she knew how, Lisa turned Jasper around and aimed him for the fence.

“Hyaa!” she said, slapping him with the end of her reins, since she wasn’t carrying a crop.

Good old Jasper responded instantly. He broke into a spirited canter, dashing toward the fence and then, at just the right moment, Lisa leaned forward, rose in the saddle, gave him rein and let him fly over it! Behind her, she could hear some of her fellow trail riders applauding. It wouldn’t mean anything, though, if something happened to Jill. She pressed on.

Jill and Tiger were about twenty yards ahead of Jasper.
That was a lot of ground for a tired horse to make up, but Jasper didn’t seem tired or winded anymore. Instead, he seemed to understand the stakes and relished the chance to catch up with Tiger.

Lisa had become familiar with most of the riding area around the hotel, but that wasn’t where Tiger wanted to go. He headed almost parallel to the beach, toward the small hilly peninsula that marked the far border of the hotel property. Jasper and Lisa followed. Lisa could see that Jill wasn’t about to fall off. She was gripping tightly with her legs and had even gotten her right foot back into the stirrup. She clutched the horse’s mane with her fingers. She was a good rider and would stay put.

“I’m coming,” Lisa called out to reassure Jill, but Jill just screamed in response. Lisa decided to concentrate on the job in front of her, and reassuring herself instead of Jill.

She had one thing going for her in the rescue effort. Tiger zigged and zagged. It made it harder for Jill to stay on him, but it helped Lisa and Jasper. Every time he double-switched, they could gain a little on him. The problem was that the terrain was rough and rocky. At one point, Jasper stumbled. Lisa held on tight. Jasper righted himself and kept on going.

“Good boy,” Lisa said.

Then, as suddenly as he had bolted, Tiger disappeared from view. At first, Lisa thought he’d just gone around a bend and she’d see him as soon as she turned the corner, too, but when she got there, there was no sign of Tiger or Jill. She pulled Jasper to a halt and stopped to consider
and listen. As she did so, she could see Frederica coming up the hill behind her—on foot! She was leading her horse, who was limping noticeably. Lisa realized that he must have wrenched an ankle galloping over the rough terrain. There was no time to wait for Frederica to catch up. Lisa held her hand up to signal Frederica the direction she was taking so Frederica could follow.

The trouble was, Lisa didn’t really know where to go herself. Jill and Tiger seemed to have disappeared altogether. Lisa hated to think what that might mean, and her worst fears were realized in the next instant when she heard Jill scream, “Help!”

Lisa kicked Jasper and diverted him toward the scream. The first thing she saw was Tiger, but Jill was no longer in the saddle. The horse was munching contentedly at some forest ground cover, apparently unaware of the trouble he’d caused. Lisa leaned over, picked up his reins, and twisted them around a nearby branch to keep him still until they found his rider.

“Jill? Where are you?” Lisa called out.

“Help!” she replied. “I’m here by the cliff, and I’m afraid I’m going over!”

Then Lisa spotted her and she didn’t like what she saw. Lisa had thought they were on a hill on the peninsula, but when she looked more closely, she realized that it really wasn’t a hill, it was a promontory just like the one on the trail. Jill was standing right on the edge, facing away from Lisa and frozen with terror as she stared down, mesmerized by the rocky ocean shore a hundred feet below her. She had obviously been thrown by Tiger and
had ended up at the worst possible place for someone who was afraid of heights—the edge of the cliff. The wind buffeted the frightened girl, brushing her hair straight back, and whipping at her cotton blouse.

“I’m here,” Lisa said. “Stay calm.” She had to speak loudly to make her voice carry in the wind, but it didn’t make much difference whether Jill heard her or not. Staying calm wasn’t something Jill could do right then and Lisa knew it. The girl’s fear of heights was now dangerous! Jill was simply paralyzed. She didn’t appear to be in any immediate peril as long as she didn’t step forward, but she didn’t look capable of stepping backward.

“Can you sit down?” Lisa suggested, hoping that if Jill could at least lower her center of gravity, she’d be less likely to lose her balance.

“I can’t move,” Jill said. “I’ll fall if I move. I know I will.”

“Then stand still,” Lisa advised, knowing it was the only advice Jill could take right then. It didn’t do much to improve the situation, but Lisa hoped it might buy her some time.

What she needed was rope, but there wasn’t any. She glanced wistfully at the pommel on Jasper’s saddle, wishing a lariat would magically appear. As she thought about it, though, she realized she didn’t really need rope. What she needed was something Jill could hold on to that would give her confidene. In reality, there wasn’t a reason in the world that Jill couldn’t step away from the edge of the cliff. In Jill’s mind, there were a hundred reasons
why she couldn’t do it, and all of them were fears leading straight down to the ocean below.

Lisa’s mind raced. She wanted something long and strong. Something familiar and comforting to Jill. Then she got it.

“I’ll be back with help,” she told Jill. “Stay there, okay?”

Jill didn’t even answer. Lisa rode back the few yards to where she’d secured Tiger and, as quickly as she ever had, she removed the horse’s bridle. Tiger, tired out from his uphill gallop, didn’t seem to be inclined to run.

When Lisa and Jasper returned to the crest of the promontory, Jill hadn’t budged. Lisa approached her carefully.

“I’m going to give you something to hold on to,” Lisa called to Jill. “One end is in your hand, the other is on the pommel of Jasper’s saddle. It is strong and absolutely secure. Nothing can go wrong. Do you understand?”