Stable Manners

As the members of The Saddle Club took their seats on the floor of Max’s office, the director of Pine Hollow Stables began his explanation of the upcoming event. “A ‘know-down’ is a little like a spelling bee,” he began. “You’ll get to test your knowledge of horses by answering your questions—from one to four points.”

Max went on to explain that if they wanted to win the Know-Down, they were going to have to learn a lot of information. “Study hard,” he said. “Two weeks from today at our next unmounted meeting, we’ll have the Know-Down.”

Carole and Stevie exchanged glances. Two weeks from now was when their boyfriends, Cam and Phil, were coming to their Pony Club meeting!

“Egad,” Stevie whispered. “What are we going to do?”

Carole leaned over and whispered quietly into Stevie’s ear. “Win,” she said.

“D
ID YOU DO
it?” Stevie asked.

“Hm-hmmm. Did you?” Carole replied.

“Yup,” said Stevie.

“Is he coming?” Stevie asked.

“Hm-hmmm,” Carole replied. “And what about Phil?”

“Yup,” said Stevie.

“Oh, how great!” Lisa said, her eyes sparkling with excitement for her friends.

The threesome, Stevie Lake, Carole Hanson, and Lisa Atwood, were all walking together toward their favorite place in the world, Pine Hollow. That was the riding stable where they all took lessons and belonged
to a Pony Club called Horse Wise together. Now, it seemed, there was going to be something extra special going on.

At the last Horse Wise meeting, the director, a man named Max Regnery who was also the girls’ riding instructor and the owner of Pine Hollow, had reminded the Pony Club members that they could invite friends to any unmounted meeting. An unmounted meeting was one in which the members would not be on horseback. They had unmounted meetings every other week. When Max had said that, Carole had told Stevie she should invite Phil Marsten. Phil was Stevie’s boyfriend and he belonged to the Cross County Pony Club. Stevie had immediately replied that she’d invite Phil if Carole would invite Cam.

Cam Nelson was a boy Carole had met when they competed against one another in a horse show. Actually, Carole had sort of met Cam before then because they both belonged to the same computer bulletin board and they’d been sending notes to one another. The funny thing was, Carole had assumed that Cam was a girl before seeing him in person at the horse show. It turned out that he was a really nice guy and they liked one another a lot. Inviting Cam to the Horse Wise meeting seemed like the perfect way to
see him again, but she was nervous about it. Carole tended to be a little bit shy where boys were concerned and she didn’t want to appear too eager.

“Cam was really nice about it,” Carole said. “He said yes right away. Then he asked his mother and father. The first thing he said, though, was yes.”

Stevie clapped Carole on the back gently. “My dear,” she said. “You have so much to learn.”

“I do?” Carole asked. She thought she’d been learning a lot.

“Number one rule is that when a boy calls you three times a week, he’s going to say yes when you invite him to something.”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Carole said. But she was still thinking about it—and liking what she was thinking—when they walked up the gravel driveway to Pine Hollow.

“Let’s check on the mare before Horse Wise starts,” Lisa suggested. That seemed like a good idea, so the three of them hurried into the locker area, put their sandwiches into their cubbies, and headed for the foaling box.

Max had recently acquired a stallion named Geronimo for Pine Hollow so he could do some breeding. It meant that mares would sometimes now come to the stable to have their foals so they could be bred soon
after they’d given birth. The girls thought that was very exciting and hoped they’d have lots of chances to see births and newborn foals.

Although Stevie, Lisa, and Carole were very different from one another, they shared something so important that it transcended all their differences. They loved horses. They loved them so much that they had formed their very own group called The Saddle Club. There were only two requirements for membership. First of all, members had to be horse crazy. The second was that they had to be willing to help one another out, no matter what the problem. Both of those were easy requirements for the girls. They’d gotten one another out of all kinds of trouble. That had included jams having to do with horses and riding and it had included other things, too—schoolwork, boyfriends, family trouble. Their most recent adventure had even led straight down the aisle—to a wedding! They sometimes got the feeling there wasn’t anything they couldn’t do when they worked together.

The girls greeted the mare with gentle pats. She seemed sort of edgy, not as friendly as she had been the day before.

“Do you think that means something?” Lisa asked.

“It probably means she’s in a bad mood,” Stevie reasoned.

“Isn’t that the sign that the foal is coming? Like really soon?” Lisa asked. This time she looked at Carole, who was bound to give a more detailed answer.

Carole shrugged. “Stevie could be right. Or she might be a little colicky. That’s common in mares who are near term. She could also be about to foal. The vet will be here later. We can mention it to her.”

“We
should
mention it to her, you mean,” Lisa said. She was becoming more and more convinced that she had spotted something that meant the mare was about to have her foal and she wanted her friends to agree.

“Yes, right, we
should,
” Carole said.

“We
should
also be getting into Max’s office now,” Stevie said pointedly. “It’s almost time for the meeting to begin.”

The girls gave the mare a final pat—or tried to. Instead she backed away from their affectionate touches. They left her in peace and headed for Horse Wise.

Most unmounted meetings began in Max’s office where he would explain what the rest of the meeting was going to be about. The girls quickly spotted a large stack of papers on his desk. That meant there was going to be some kind of a handout. Stevie’s eyes were good and, being the kind of girl she was, she was an expert at reading upside down.

“What did it say?” Carole asked, taking a seat cross-legged on the floor among the rest of the Horse Wise members.

“Something about bowing down,” Stevie said, crinkling her forehead because it didn’t make sense even to her.

“Bowing down?”

“Bow-down, how-down—something like that.”

Carole and Lisa shrugged. For once, it appeared that Stevie was wrong and they were just going to have to wait to find out.

As it happened, Stevie wasn’t all that wrong at all. As soon as the meeting began, Max picked up the pile of papers and began handing them out to everyone. At the top of the first page, it said “Know-Down.”

“See?” Stevie said proudly.

“Shhhhhh,” Max said. “No talking, as you know, Ms. Lake.”

She took her papers and glanced at them quickly.

“I don’t want you looking at these now,” Max said. “You have two weeks to look at them. So, for now, just fold them and put them aside.”

“But what are they for?” Stevie asked.

“And while you’re folding them and putting them aside, I’ll tell you what they’re for,” Max said. He glared a little at Stevie. As she well knew, he didn’t
like to be interrupted. He liked to tell things in his own time. Stevie got the hint. She and her friends folded their sheets of paper and held them on their laps.

Then Max began his explanation. “A ‘know-down’ is a little bit like a spelling bee,” he began. “You’ll get the chance to test your knowledge of horses by answering questions. And each of you will be able to choose the difficulty of your questions—from one to four points. A four-point question might have four parts to the answer, like, for instance, ‘Name the parts of a horse’s back between the shoulder and the dock.’ ”

“Withers, back, loins, croup!” Stevie called out excitedly.

“And with that answer, you’d get four points,” Max said. “Except that unless you raise your hand, I’m not going to give you any credit.”

Stevie grimaced.

“And besides, the Know-Down hasn’t started, so you’ve just provided the answer to the first four-point question to everyone else,” he said.

Stevie raised her hand. Max called on her.

“Sorry,” she said. He smiled and accepted her apology. Stevie seemed to have ways of getting out of hot
water that were as smooth as the ways she slipped into it.

Max went on to explain that they would be able to choose easier questions worth fewer points, but if they wanted to win the Know-Down, they were going to have to learn a lot of information.

“It’s all there,” he said. “Study hard. Two weeks from today at our next unmounted meeting, we’ll have the Know-Down.”

Carole and Stevie exchanged glances. Two weeks from now was when Phil and Cam were coming to the meeting! Carole could feel a little knot tying itself in the center of her stomach. She’d been eager to have Cam come to the meeting when she thought it was just going to be a regular meeting, but this wasn’t going to be regular. It was almost like a test. She wouldn’t mind if Cam did a little bit better than she did and she didn’t think Cam would mind if she did a little bit better than he did, but what if she blew it and made a fool of herself? Would Cam ever want to talk to her again? Cam loved horses as much as she did. What would he think of her if she did badly?