Horse Fever (13 page)

Stevie, Lisa, and Carole sank about a foot in their saddles.

“It was fun!” said Andrea Barry. “Wasn’t it, Simon?”

“Sure was, Andrea,” Simon replied. “Especially when we took apart the old carriage harness and oiled it from top to bottom.”

Stevie, Lisa, and Carole felt their faces turning red.

“And when we cleaned out the hayloft to make room for the new load,” Andrea said.

Just when The Saddle Club thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. The door of the indoor ring slid open
and Veronica walked in. Or rather, she hobbled in, on crutches. “Skiing accident,” she explained. “I twisted my ankle. Luckily I was able to fly home early and help with barn chores while you were gone, Max.”

“So my mother told me,” said Max, his voice appreciative. “She mentioned you’d been cleaning everyone’s tack.”

“Yes, well,” Veronica said modestly, “not everyone’s. Just the tack that wasn’t getting used. Like Stevie’s and Lisa’s, and Carole’s
saddle
—I couldn’t do your bridle, Carole, because Pat used it when she was exercising Starlight.”

The Saddle Club girls felt their blood begin to boil. “How dare she?” Stevie blurted out. “How dare she—”

“Clean your tack for you?” Max asked dryly. “Sounds like a major offense to me.”

“But it’s—it’s not fair!” Stevie wailed.

“What’s not?” asked Max, impatient.

“She can’t get back at us by doing something
nice
. It doesn’t work that way!”

Lisa and Carole didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Veronica smiled sweetly. “It was the least I could do, Max. They’ve done so much for me.”

Before Stevie could grab Veronica’s crutches and whack her over the head with them, Max called the lesson to order. He told everyone to line up against the far
side of the ring, dismount if they wanted, and watch the individual demonstrations.

Andrea went first. She said Doc had gotten lazy about his flying lead changes, so she had worked on those. She demonstrated several. Doc looked like the polished show horse he was.

“A good goal, well met,” Max said. “It’s focused and specific, and obviously your schooling worked.”

Rejoining the group, Andrea looked flushed and happy.

Simon said Barq hadn’t been paying enough attention to his aids. He had worked on transitions, backing up his leg aids with a crop if necessary to sharpen Barq’s responsiveness. Max seemed pleased and told Simon to keep working on it.

“Next!”

“We three are together!” Lisa called.

Max gave them a look as if to say, “Big surprise there.” “All right, get to it!” he ordered.

Stevie held the horses while Lisa and Carole ran out of the ring. A murmur went through the group. It got louder when the two returned wheeling the big-screen TV. Normally the TV was used only for riding clinics and horse shows; individuals would be taped and then could watch themselves and critique their performances.

“Hurry!” Lisa urged as Carole ran to connect the extension cord.

A small group had gathered in the spectator area: The Saddle Club parents plus Stevie’s brothers, Pat Naughton, Red O’Malley, and Mrs. Reg. Deborah, carrying Maxi, joined them.

“Lights!” Lisa called.

Carole hit the lights, Lisa pressed Play, and the video started.

“Hello,” said Lisa’s voice-over. “This is a video that will teach you how to get in shape for riding. Some people think riding is not a real sport, that ‘you just sit there and the horse does all the work.’ Those who ride, however,” she said ominously, “know better.”

One by one, each of The Saddle Club girls appeared, demonstrating stretches, strengtheners, and basic limbering exercises. One exercise—Stevie appeared, hanging her heels off a step—would help you keep your heels down. Another—Carole was shown, picking up her shoulders and dropping them—would help you keep your shoulders down, back, and relaxed.

For the second half of the tape, Carole took over the voice narration as first Lisa, then Stevie, rode Patch while the other held the longe line. As Patch walked, trotted, and cantered, they repeated most of the exercises or variations of them in the saddle.

Watching the tape, the girls felt giddy with relief. The whole project had been so last-minute that anything
could have happened. But except for a few rough transitions, the video looked good. When Carole switched the lights back on, there was a moment of silence. Then Max put his hands together. He clapped slowly three times. That seemed to be the cue for everyone to start clapping and talking.

“I’m throwing out my
Brand New Bod
video and using this one!” Deborah announced.

“Can we get copies?” asked Pat. “I hope we can get copies.”

“What a great idea! I wish I had thought of it!” Andrea exclaimed.

“Too bad you didn’t get really nice riding outfits,” muttered Veronica. “It looks kind of backyard.”

Any insult from Veronica meant one thing: jealousy. The Saddle Club high-fived in the middle of the ring. “We pulled it off!” Lisa whispered. “Somehow we pulled it off at the last minute!”

“Please,” said Stevie, “my whole life is pulling things off at the last minute.”

“Ahem.” Max cleared his throat. “Am I correct in assuming that this takes the place of your mounted demonstrations?”

The Saddle Club nodded.

Max surveyed their horses carefully. Prancer was prancing at the end of her reins. Starlight couldn’t seem to
stand still, either. And Belle was pawing madly at the turf and neighing from time to time. “They look a little high-strung,” Max said finally. “Would you mind explaining that?”

Carole frowned. Lisa bit her lip. What could they say? How could they explain their two-week vacation from schooling their horses? Stevie stepped forward. “Max, remember how, before you left, you told us that horses could get barn fever? When they were cooped up and did too much of the same thing?”

Max nodded. “Ye-es,” he said uncertainly.

“Well, it’s easy,” Stevie said. “We had horse fever!”

“T
HAT
’
S RIGHT
,” C
AROLE
said. “And now we’re cured.”

Max laughed long and heartily. “Fair enough,” he said. “It happens to the best of us. Even,
ahem, I
went away for two weeks, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

When the TV was put away, Max suggested they all mount up and ride, doing whatever they liked. “Only don’t take
too
long. Everyone’s invited back to our house in an hour for doughnuts and cider straight from Vermont.”

The lesson group cheered. “An hour?” Stevie said. “That’s more than enough time. Oh, A-lex!”

In the seating area, Alex groaned. “Ready to ‘just sit there’ for twenty minutes?” Stevie asked gleefully. She
mounted Belle and gave Alex his choice of Starlight or Prancer. He chose Prancer. Privately Carole was glad because it meant she could ride Starlight herself.

As it turned out, she needn’t have worried. Alex lasted all of five minutes at the sitting trot
with
stirrups and two strides without. Stevie, meanwhile, felt she could have gone on forever. She could hardly believe it, but her fitness program had helped her riding. “I was wrong! Belle’s trot isn’t that bouncy at all. Poor thing! I blamed her when it was my fault!”

“Don’t beat yourself up too much,” said Carole. She reached down to give Starlight a pat. “The important thing is that The Saddle Club is back!”

W
HEN EVERYONE HAD
gathered at the Regnerys’, Mr. and Mrs. Lake declared the fitness competition a tie. “Aw, Mom and Dad, you have to say that. You’re our parents!” Stevie complained.

“No kidding!” Alex said. “Pretty lame judges, if you ask me!”

Max came in carrying a pot of hot cider. He set it down on a side table. “Hey, Lisa, I meant to tell you, I really liked that line at the beginning of the video, the one about how some people say ‘you just sit there.’ Whoever thinks that about riding is obviously—”

“Clueless?” Stevie interrupted, grinning at Alex. “I agree.”

The Saddle Club was squeezed onto a small couch in the Regnerys’ living room. On the opposite wall, there were lots of framed pictures—of horses, students, Max when he was little … All three girls happened to catch sight of one particular picture at the same time, and no wonder: It was of them!

“Hey!” said Stevie. “That’s like the one I have, only it’s more recent!”

“Yeah, you can tell by the horses,” Carole said.

“Belle, Prancer, and Starlight,” Lisa mused aloud. “Instead of Topside, Pepper, and Barq. Mrs. Reg?” she inquired. “When was that taken?”

“Not too long ago,” said Mrs. Reg. “A few weeks at most—just using up some old film, you know. I’ve been meaning to give you girls the copies I had made, but it never seemed to be the right time.”

There was a moment of silence as The Saddle Club took this in. “Would now be the right time?” Lisa asked hesitantly.

“Yes,” Mrs. Reg said kindly. “I think it would.”

While Mrs. Reg went to get the copies, the girls sat back against the couch, letting the conversation swirl around them. Each of them was lost in her own thoughts. Carole was thinking about how she couldn’t wait to go
home and write the story. Only now it was going to be about a girl who decided to keep her horse. And Carole knew exactly what she would say. She didn’t care if she won the contest or if her English teacher gave her an A. The important thing was to write it. Maybe she could turn it into a novel and become an author of books about horses. That was one horsey career she’d never considered …

Lisa was thinking about a million things—whether Mrs. Reg would like the needlepoint; whether she’d be able to get her English homework done; whether she had mailed the thank-you note to Mrs. Chambers; how long it would take her mother to start complaining again about the amount of time she spent riding …

Stevie was thinking that technically she
had
beaten Alex because she had done more push-ups than he had done minutes of riding. “Oh, no!” she exclaimed, sitting up suddenly.

“What?” said Lisa and Carole.

“School starts Monday!”

“You’re worried about not having enough time for homework and riding?” Lisa guessed.

“No.” Stevie shook her head. “It’s worse. I just realized I’m going to miss
Priced to Sell
!”

High school. Driver’s licenses. Boyfriends. Jobs
.

A lot of new things are happening, but one thing remains the same: Stevie Lake, Lisa Atwood, and Carole Hanson are still best friends. However, even among best friends some things do change, and problems can strain any friendship … but these three can handle it. Can’t they?

Read an excerpt from Pine Hollow #1:
The Long Ride
.

“D
O YOU THINK
we’ll get there in time?” Stevie Lake asked, looking around for some reassuring sign that the airport was near.

“Since that plane almost landed on us, I think it’s safe to say that we’re close,” Carole Hanson said.

“Turn right here,” said Callie Forester from the backseat.

“And then left up ahead,” Carole advised, picking out directions from the signs that flashed past near the airport entrance. “I think Lisa’s plane is leaving from that terminal there.”

“Which one?”

“The one we just passed,” Callie said.

“Oh,” said Stevie. She gripped the steering wheel tightly and looked for a way to turn around without causing a major traffic tie-up.

“This would be easier if we were on horseback,” said Carole.

“Everything’s easier on horseback,” Stevie agreed.

“Or if we had a police escort,” said Callie.

“Have you done that?” Stevie asked, trying to maneuver the car across three lanes of traffic.

“I have,” said Callie. “It’s kind of fun, but dangerous. It makes you think you’re almost as important as other people tell you you are.”

Stevie rolled her window down and waved wildly at the confused drivers around her. Clearly, her waving confused them more, but it worked. All traffic stopped. She crossed the necessary three lanes and pulled onto the service road.

It took another ten minutes to get back to the right and then ten more to find a parking place. Five minutes into the terminal. And then all that was left was to find Lisa.

“Where do you think she is?” Carole asked.

“I know,” said Stevie. “Follow me.”

“That’s what we’ve been doing all morning,” Callie said dryly. “And look how far it’s gotten us.”

But she followed anyway.

A
LEX
L
AKE REACHED
across the table in the airport cafeteria and took Lisa Atwood’s hand.

“It’s going to be a long summer,” he said.

Lisa nodded. Saying good-bye was one of her least favorite activities. She didn’t want Alex to know how hard it was, though. That would just make it tougher on him. The two of them had known each other for four years—as long as Lisa had been best friends with Alex’s twin sister, Stevie. But they’d only started dating six months earlier. Lisa could hardly believe that. It seemed as if she’d been in love with him forever.