Show Horse

Without any signal from Lisa, Prancer flew into the air, soaring over the low jump. Lisa had to grab on to Prancer’s mane just to keep from falling off. While Lisa was startled at first, the feeling of flight was simply exhilarating. The fact that her horse wasn’t doing just what she ought to be doing seemed insignificant compared to Prancer’s incredible strength. Lisa sighed happily after the first jump and couldn’t wait until the second.

“Lisa!” Max cried out.

“Isn’t she something?” Lisa asked, grinning proudly.

“Well, I think she needs a little bit more work,” Max stammered.

Carole and Stevie exchanged glances. They couldn’t believe how oblivious Lisa was.…

C
AROLE
H
ANSON MOVED
the cursor down the computer screen, flipping through the pages of bulletin-board notes before she got to the one she’d been waiting for. It read:

Carole frowned at the computer screen, once again a little irritated that this Cam person seemed to have an answer for everything. Carole didn’t think Cam knew what she was talking about this time, though.
Nobody had said anything about an X ray. Cam had to be wrong and Carole couldn’t wait to tell her so. Carole didn’t have time to answer that note now, though. Her riding class began in less than an hour, and she had to meet Pine Hollow Stables’ vet, Judy Barker, for Prancer’s final checkup before class. She exited from the program and turned off her computer.

Prancer was a Thoroughbred mare who had broken her pedal bone in the middle of a race. Although it was a fracture that would heal—in fact, it had already healed—the fracture had meant the end of Prancer’s racing career. The horse had then been bought by Judy and Max Regnery, who owned the stable where Carole rode and where her own horse, Starlight, was boarded. Carole had helped take care of Prancer ever since the mare had arrived at Pine Hollow. Now Prancer was healed. It was time to get her back under saddle.

As Carole hurried to get ready to go to the stable, she thought about the computer and the modem her father had recently bought and what a change it had made in her life. It allowed her to access an interactive network with a BBS. She smiled to herself, realizing that a month ago she hadn’t even known what any of those terms meant! Now she not only knew that an interactive network meant that she could share information with other members of the network, but she also corresponded with some of them regularly via the BBS—or Bulletin Board Service. Her first bulletin-board note had read:

I love horses. Anybody else do, too?

She’d gotten only a few responses, but it had been enough to get some interesting notes going back and forth. The person who wrote the most was a girl named Cam who seemed to know a lot. She sometimes seemed to know more than Carole did and Carole didn’t always like that.

Carole knew a lot, too. She was crazy about horses. She was so crazy about them that she and her best friends from Pine Hollow, Stevie Lake and Lisa Atwood, had formed a group they called The Saddle Club. They had just two rules. All the members had to be horse crazy, and they all had to be willing to pitch in and help each other whenever help was needed. A lot of girls loved horses, but Carole thought she loved them the most. She wasn’t certain what she was going to be when she grew up, but she was certain it was going to have something to do with horses.

She thought about them all the time. She thought about them as she left the house, as she climbed onto the bus, and as she walked from the bus stop to Pine Hollow. The only time she stopped thinking about them was when she was thinking about Cam Nelson, and that was actually thinking about horses, too. Carole wasn’t sure how she felt about Cam. Carole was accustomed to being the girl who knew the most about horses. Cam apparently knew a lot, too, and Carole found herself wondering which one of them knew more. She never felt competitive with Lisa and
Stevie. She wondered what it was about Cam that made her feel competitive.

“Something’s up, Carole,” Stevie said, greeting her as soon as she arrived at Pine Hollow. “I just know it. I saw Max walking past the locker area a few minutes ago, and he had this big grin on his face.” Her eyes were sparkling with excitement. “Come on, get dressed quickly. We’ve just got to find out what it is!” Stevie took Carole’s arm, hurrying her into the locker area.

Carole let herself be led. The fact that Max, who was very serious around horses, was grinning, was a strong sign of some good news.

“I think it’s just that he knows Prancer is ready for her first ride,” Lisa said, tugging at her boot. Her feet had grown, and it was getting harder to get her boots on. “Oomph, there!” she declared triumphantly and then stood up. “We all know Prancer is this really valuable horse,” Lisa began expanding on her theory. “Max is probably thrilled that he can now claim to have another Thoroughbred in his stable, right? I’m sure that’s what he’s happy about.”

Lisa was a very logical person. She had the ability to analyze anything carefully. It was also an ability that consistently earned her straight A’s on her report card, but it was also an ability that sometimes got her into trouble. She’d been known to get so carried away with her own analysis that she lost track of what was important. Her friends were always there to help her,
though—just the way she helped them. That was one of the nicest things about The Saddle Club.

“Maybe Max is just happy about Prancer,” Stevie said. “But that doesn’t explain the fact that the grin was big enough to show his dimples. Something’s got to be bigger than just Prancer for Max to let his dimples loose!”

Lisa and Carole giggled. Only Stevie would classify Max’s happiness on a scale of whether his smile showed his dimples!

“Laugh if you want, but I’m right,” Stevie assured them, tucking in her shirttail. “You’ll see.”

Lisa and Carole had spent enough time with Stevie to have a great deal of confidence in her hunches. They hoped she was right this time. It sounded like a nice hunch.

J
UDY WAS ALREADY
giving Prancer a final check when the girls arrived at the box stall. Lisa carried a saddle. Stevie had the bridle. Prancer greeted them warmly. The girls had learned long ago that horses’ personalities were as different as people’s. The Saddle Club had discovered that, like many racehorses, Prancer hadn’t been bred for kindness and gentleness. She’d been bred for competitiveness and speed, and she had both those qualities. She tended to be abrupt and almost testy with adults, including Max and Judy. However, when it came to young people, she was as gentle and loving as could be.

The girls had speculated about what might have
caused that, but they knew they’d never know the real reason. Maybe it had to do with the fact that they were smaller than adults; maybe a young person had done her a kindness when Prancer was a filly; maybe an adult had done something cruel to her; or maybe it was none of those things. Whatever the reason was, it was true: One look at Carole, Lisa, and Stevie, and the mare seemed to relax and smile. She nuzzled Carole’s neck. She sniffed at Lisa’s hand—and wasn’t disappointed, because Lisa did have a carrot for her. She nodded cheerfully when Stevie waved at her. Prancer was definitely in a good mood, too, just like Max.

“How does it look?” Carole asked Judy, who was already examining the mare’s foot.

“Looks just fine, and I’d say she’s as ready as can be for her test drive. Who’s going to get the honors?” Judy asked.

“Lisa,” Stevie said, and then explained. “She’s the only one of us who hasn’t had a chance to ride a Thoroughbred before.” That was true. Carole had ridden several—including Prancer—and Stevie regularly rode a Thoroughbred named Topside.

“I agree,” Carole said.

Lisa was thrilled. She didn’t argue at all. She just began tacking up the mare.

As Carole watched Lisa prepare the horse, she was reminded of the note she’d gotten from Cam. It was still irking her. She asked Judy, “How do you know when the pedal bone is all healed?”