Show Judge (3 page)

Carole also mounted up. “Sooner or later you know it will.”

“Well, I’m hoping for later rather than sooner,” said Lisa. “Hey, Stevie, Corey, let’s go. Max is ready to begin.”

Stevie climbed on Belle and joined them, and they rode over to meet the rest of the class assembled outside the ring.

Max gave all the riders and horses a once-over, making adjustments here and there and handing out occasional words of advice. Finally he came to Veronica’s horse, Danny, and eyed the Thoroughbred’s glossy coat. “I have to say, Danny is looking wonderfully groomed as usual, Veronica, and your tack has obviously been extremely well cleaned and cared for.”

Veronica gave him an ingratiating, self-congratulatory smile. “Thank you.”

“I must remember to commend Red on his good work.”

Veronica’s face fell. Every rider there knew that she made Red do as many of her chores as she possibly could, and Max was letting her know that she was fooling no one, least of all him.

“All right then,” he continued briskly. “I’m going to pair you all up, one senior rider with one beginner rider. When I call out your name, please move over next to your partner. The idea here is for the more knowledgeable students to try their hand at coaching. I think this will be a mutual learning experience for all.”

Stevie was delighted at the possibilities. She had so much good advice to pass on that she hardly knew where to start! She was just as happy when her partner turned out to be Corey, and Corey seemed
equally pleased by the pairing. After all, Corey and two of her friends Jasmine James and May Grover so admired The Saddle Club that they had formed their own version of it, which they called the Pony Tails.

“Lisa,” called Max. “You’ll work with Jasmine.”

Lisa felt her heart sink and her stomach clench at the announcement. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Jasmine; on the contrary, she liked her a lot. Assuming responsibility for her schooling, however, made Lisa shake inside. What if she blew it? What if she didn’t know the answer to Jasmine’s questions, or, even worse, taught her the wrong answers? Lisa knew she had a natural talent for riding, but she also knew she was relatively new to the sport.

Almost as if she sensed her friend’s distress, Carole moved her horse up close to the new pair and smiled. “Jasmine, I hope you realize you’ve got one of the best partners in the group. Years of ballet have given Lisa really good balance, which means she’s got an excellent seat. Maybe she’ll share some of her secrets with you.”

“Would you, Lisa?” Jasmine enthused. “That would be great! I could really use some help on that.”

“I’d be happy to help you,” Lisa said, her confidence
lifted by her friend’s praise. She smiled gratefully at Carole.

Max was finishing up the assignments. “Okay, that should take care of it.”

Carole looked around, confused. Max must have made some kind of mistake: She didn’t have a partner, but everyone else seemed to. Crestfallen, she realized she was the only rider left.

Lisa must have seen the disappointment on her face. “Hey, Max, what about Carole? She didn’t get a partner.”

“Don’t worry, Lisa, I have something special in mind for her.”

That immediately got everyone’s attention. Especially Carole’s.

He walked over and put a hand on Starlight’s neck, stroking the animal gently. The horse turned to snuffle him affectionately. “I want you all to think of the person you’re paired with as your Pony Partner. As our most experienced and accomplished rider, Carole is going to be
everyone’s
Pony Partner. That means as you work with your partners, the two of us will be available to help you with any problems or questions you may have.”

Carole felt herself swell with pride. The fact that Max had such confidence in her skill and knowledge was a real pat on the back.

“Let’s get to work,” he ordered.

With that, the pairs all headed in different directions. Lisa gave Carole a grin and a big thumbs-up. Jasmine mimicked the gesture.

Stevie rode up with Corey in tow. “Poor May,” she said, shaking her head sadly.

Carole had been caught up in her thoughts and didn’t follow. “What’s wrong with May?”

Stevie directed a mournful gaze toward the eight-year-old rider sitting on her shaggy yellow pony, Macaroni. “Notice who she got paired up with?”

“Veronica,” Lisa said with sympathy. “They say if you do a bad thing in a previous life, you have to pay for it in this one.”

“Are you saying that May was a tyrant in her last incarnation?” laughed Carole.

Corey and Jasmine appeared a little confused by the conversation, but the other three girls had to laugh. May, whose father was a professional trainer, was one of the most talented of the young riders. She could be a bit bossy at times, but she definitely didn’t deserve Veronica for a Pony Partner.

“Well, someone had to get Veronica,” said Stevie. “Maybe Carole, our second in command, can keep a special eye on her.”

“I think I might just do that,” said Carole. “Good
luck, you two.” They all parted company to begin their lessons.

The rest of the morning passed in a flurry of activity. Lisa set up a series of evenly spaced ground poles, demonstrating to Jasmine the technique of riding over them without using stirrups. The exercise was designed to enhance balance and encourage an independent seat in the rider. “Remember, Jasmine, stirrups are just an aid,” she tutored. “Useful, absolutely, but a really good rider should be so balanced in the saddle that she can jump a fence without using them.”

Carole strode up to the fence and watched Jasmine work. “How’s she doing?”

Lisa made a so-so motion with her hand, without taking her eyes off her charge. “Try to keep your calves even with the saddle girth,” she shouted to Jasmine.

“This work will really pay off when she starts working over raised cavalletti,” Carole said knowingly. “It was a good choice of exercise for her, Lisa.”

As Carole moved off to help someone else, Lisa smiled with pleasure, then turned her attention back to Jasmine.

I
N ONE OF
the pastures, Stevie was using her knowledge of dressage to help Corey work on her leg cues.
The two girls had just finished doing serpentines in tandem at the trot. Having drawn to a halt, Stevie was trying to explain the next part of the exercise to her Pony Partner. “It’s really easy for a rider to become dependent on the reins for guiding her horse, but in dressage it’s actually the legs that control most of the horse’s movements.” She was gratified to see how focused Corey was on every word she was saying. “When used correctly to apply pressure in different spots, along with little shifts of your body weight, you can tell your horse exactly what you want him to do, while using your reins hardly at all. Now, are you ready to give it a try?”

“I don’t know,” Corey said hesitantly. “What do you want me to do?”

“Exactly what we’ve been doing, but this time I want you to drop your reins and just use your legs to steer Samurai around the turns.”

The young rider looked doubtful and a little scared. “What if he spooks and bolts?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be right beside you the whole time,” Stevie reassured her. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Corey smiled with more confidence, placed her reins carefully on her pony’s neck, and together they broke into a trot.

C
AROLE FOUND HERSELF
almost run off her feet helping the other riders. She couldn’t count on both hands the number of times she had had to call out to the various riders, “Head up and heels down!” She’d spent time explaining why stirrups that were the right length for riding were too long for jumping, how to judge the proper spacing for trotting poles, and that the proper height for cavalletti depended on the exercise they were being used for. At the end of the hour she felt both exhilarated and exhausted.

The only dark cloud in her day had come while she watched May schooling herself. Veronica, who should have been helping the girl, spent most of the time under a shade tree, reapplying her nail polish. Carole made it a point to give May a few bits of advice and encouragement, but it was frustrating to see the girl being ignored by the person who was supposed to be teaching her. She was tempted to tell Veronica off, but she didn’t really want to get in an argument. Besides, May was Veronica’s responsibility, not hers. Fortunately May was a talented rider, and Mac was a steady, hardworking pony. All in all they seemed to be managing fairly well by themselves.

When Max finally called a halt to the lesson, there was a general air of satisfaction and camaraderie about the group.

“Okay, I want you all to see to your horses, then meet me in the office,” he told them. “There’s something important I have to tell you, so don’t chitchat the time away.”

O
NLY WHEN ALL
the horses and ponies had been cooled down and put away and the last of the tack had been cleaned and hung in the tack room did the entire group assemble in Max’s office. There was a good feeling in the air, a sense of satisfaction for work well done.

Max cleared his throat and the room fell silent. “I want you to know that I was very pleased with everyone today. I was especially happy to see all the pairs working so well together.”

Many Pony Partners exchanged smiles.

“It was important for me to see just how well you worked together, because over the next two weeks you are going to spend a lot more time with each other. As some of you may already know, there is an under-twelve
Pony Club rally coming up in four weeks. As always, I want my riders to be as well prepared as possible.”

Carole, Stevie, and Lisa shared looks. They had heard this speech before. Max was known far and wide as a stickler for preparation. Both his riders and other professionals in the industry admired him for this discipline, which he imposed on himself as well as his students.

“Some of you have competed before; for others this will be your first time out. In either case”—he eyed the younger riders sternly—“you have a lot to learn before the meet. There’s a lot more that goes into getting ready for a competition than simply riding skills. Carole, can you tell them what I’m talking about?”

Although startled by the question, Carole knew exactly the kinds of things he was referring to. “There’s the care and preparation that goes into horse and rider to make sure they’re both in peak condition physically and mentally on the day of the competition. The horses will need special diets to compensate for the extra time they’ll have to put in. Of course, the more you ride, the more your tack will need to be carefully maintained, not to mention an extra-special cleaning the day before the show.” She paused to collect her thoughts. “You’ll need to make detailed lists of
necessary items, including spare parts in case of emergencies, grooming kits, and, of course, food for your horses.”

“Very good, Carole. I don’t think I could have said it better myself.”

Carole flushed with pride.

“Each of you deserves my individual attention, but there’s only so much of me to go around, so I’m assigning each of you your own personal coaches. For the next two weeks the Pony Partner you worked with today will be your guide and adviser. At the end of that time you under-twelves will compete in our very own Horse Wise Show Skills Rally.

A murmur of excitement and speculation spread through the room.

Lisa turned to Stevie with dismay. “We’re going to teach them to get ready for a show in only two weeks?”

“Isn’t it great?” enthused Stevie.

“Excuse me, Max!” Veronica diAngelo’s voice cut through the noise of the room. “What about Carole? She doesn’t have a Pony Partner. It hardly seems fair to her; she’ll have nothing to do at all.”

“What she really means,” whispered Stevie, “is that it’s not fair that Carole doesn’t have to work while
she
does.”

“Since I’ve already had a chance to work with May today,” continued Veronica sweetly, “maybe Carole would like to take over. I wouldn’t want her to miss out on such a wonderful experience.”

Max smiled. “That’s very generous of you, Veronica. I know just how much this experience means to you, so I wouldn’t have you miss it for the world.”