Endurance Ride (8 page)

The soda explosion settled into a foot-high fountain. Lisa looked at the mess splattered across the seat of her saddle. She felt the sticky solution dripping off her bangs. She thought about how thirsty she was. She heard a voice behind her.

“In general,” Chloe said, “carbonated beverages are a bad idea on an endurance ride.”

Lisa couldn’t help herself. She whirled to face Chloe, and somehow—just somehow—the still-spraying soda caught Chloe in the face. “Sorry!” Lisa chirped, holding out the can. Chloe leaped backward, looking stunned. The soda stopped gushing. Lisa looked through her dripping bangs at Chloe’s dripping face and shirt. She snorted, started to giggle, then lost control and laughed and laughed.

For a moment Chloe looked furious; then suddenly she was laughing, too. “I wish that had been a cola,” she said. “I hate the smell of root beer.”

“I’m sure it will wash off,” Lisa said, wiping her eyes.

“Yeah, right. Are you really so thirsty that hot root beer sounded good?” Lisa nodded. “Then here.” Chloe bent forward and offered Lisa the tube of her ridiculous water-filled backpack. Lisa drank gratefully. The water tasted sweet and almost cool.

“Thanks.”

“Why didn’t you say you were thirsty? I’ve had this all along.”

“I don’t know,” Lisa said. Suddenly she felt a little more comfortable around Chloe. The other girl wasn’t actually trying to show off, Lisa realized. She just
did
know a lot about endurance riding, and she was the sort of person who liked to talk. Even if she was driving them all crazy, she really was trying to be nice. “Sorry about the soda. I know root beer explodes when you shake it. I just didn’t realize how much I’d been shaking it.”

“That’s okay,” Chloe said. “I’m just glad you didn’t hit my horse. Whitey might have thought it was a waterfall.” She grinned. Lisa smiled back and went to take care of Prancer. She felt happier somehow.

Lisa soaked Prancer’s legs and used a damp towel to clean the soda off her saddle. She watched Carole take Starlight through the vet check. Carole paused at the end to speak with the officials, and when she came back her face was dark with concern.

“Starlight’s fine,” she said in response to Lisa’s unspoken question. “I just happened to see the checklist of riders, and Stevie, Phil, and Mr. Baker haven’t come through the check yet.”

“They must have,” Lisa said. “Otherwise we would have seen them on the trail. They were really far ahead of us, remember?”

“I know. I asked the organizers, and they said Stevie definitely hadn’t been through. They must be lost.”

Lisa handed Prancer’s reins back to May. “Let’s tell Max,” she said.

Max took Carole’s news very seriously. He immediately went to some of the ride officials. Lisa could see them gathering equipment, getting ready to go back down the trail in search of the missing trio.

“How could we have missed them?” she whispered to Carole.

“I don’t know,” Carole said. “I hope Stevie’s okay.”

Just then Lisa saw a familiar bay mare coming out of the woods. “Carole, it’s Belle! They’re okay!”

T
EDDY WAS ALREADY
starting to improve, thanks to the salts he’d been given on the trail. Phil hovered over him, mixing more salts into a five-gallon bucket of drinking water. Mr. Baker and Stevie took their horses through the check, but Phil didn’t even try. “I’m out,” he said to Stevie. “Absolutely out. You win. I’m done. I wasn’t ready.” For once, Phil didn’t seem upset about losing. He was much more concerned about his horse.

Mr. Baker looked concerned. “I really should pull out, too, and stay with Phil,” he said.

“No problem,” Stevie said cheerfully. “I’ll just go back with Max and The Saddle Club.” Max, Carole, Lisa, and Chloe had all stayed in the check much longer than they needed to, because they wanted to make sure Teddy was okay.

“We’ll wait a little longer so that Belle gets a good rest,” Max said.

“We aren’t in any hurry,” Chloe added, looking at her watch. “It’s one-thirty now, and we’ve only got thirteen miles to go.”

“That’s right,” Stevie said, looking up at Chloe, “you’re not in any hurry, so long as we finish. Right?”

“Right,” Chloe said with a grin. Stevie rolled her eyes. Lisa sighed.

“We’ll be just about last,” Max said. “But we’ll finish in good shape, and that’s all that counts.”

As they got ready to go, Phil came over to say good-bye. He promised to wait at the end and see Stevie finish. “I’m sorry I was such a jerk this morning,” he added.

“That’s okay,” Stevie said magnanimously. “You weren’t really a jerk, you just didn’t know what you were talking about. Teddy’s okay, and that’s the important thing.”

“I’m really proud of you,” Carole told her as they set off
on the final leg of the ride. “That’s the first time I’ve seen you beat Phil at anything and not gloat about it for days. You were really gracious, Stevie.”

“Oh well,” Stevie said modestly. “Why rub it in? It’s enough to know that this time I was absolutely, positively, one hundred percent right.”

Carole and Lisa laughed. They exchanged looks they both understood. Stevie would never, ever change.

A
S THEY RODE
along, Lisa realized that while she might have found peaceful ground with Chloe, Carole and especially Stevie had not. Stevie was giving in to her tendency to brag, and Chloe didn’t seem impressed.

“Yeah, as I told Phil, you’ve really got to get your horse in shape for an endurance ride,” Stevie said. “I’m really glad we learned so much, Carole. It’s helped a lot. Look how fresh Belle looks.”

Lisa had begun to suspect that The Saddle Club still didn’t know that much about endurance riding, even though she felt that she personally knew a whole lot more
now than she had that morning. But she didn’t say anything. She was too tired to speak.

“I think it’s good you guys worked hard to condition your horses before the ride,” Chloe said politely. Since Stevie had started talking, Chloe had become quieter, and her remarks had taken on a slight edge.

“Yes,” Stevie said happily. “I’m sure you must spend some time working with your horse, too.”

“Of course I do,” Chloe replied. “But there is a little more to it than that. Your boyfriend’s horse looked like a quarter horse—”

“Purebred,” Stevie confirmed.

“Well, that’s usually a stocky sort of horse. I was telling Lisa and Carole how conformation can have a real effect on a horse’s endurance capabilities. Quarter horses are sturdy, but sometimes they heat up more quickly than other breeds. Lisa said your mare was a Saddlebred–Arab cross. I’d expect her to be better at endurance riding. It’s more what she’s built for. I don’t think it’s entirely training.”

Stevie took a long, deep breath. She felt sorry for Carole and Lisa, that they’d had to endure the whole ride with Chloe. “Belle’s a pretty special horse,” she began, but then she didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t say that Belle wasn’t built for endurance riding: In the first place, she probably was, and in the second place, Stevie never liked
to admit that Belle wasn’t fabulous at everything. But she certainly didn’t appreciate Chloe’s input. At least her friends let her talk without argument.

“That’s a nature-versus-nurture question, and I don’t think the answer matters,” Max said gently. “As long as Teddy was stopped when he needed to be, and taken care of, and all our horses are still comfortable, that’s what important.”

“You’re right, Max,” Stevie admitted. She was glad that Belle seemed comfortable, because that made one of them. Stevie was incredibly uncomfortable.

“You keep wincing, Stevie. Why?” Lisa looked sympathetic.

“The inside seam of my blue jeans is rubbing holes in the sides of my knees,” Stevie said. “It hurts.”

“My ankles are killing me and Carole’s got blisters on her calves,” Lisa countered. “And Max has discovered that Barq’s saddle doesn’t fit his seat. You’re looking kind of sunburned, too.”

“It’s sunny,” Stevie replied.

“Chloe’s got sunscreen,” Lisa said. “She gave me some.”

“Here,” Chloe offered, taking it out and handing it to Stevie.

“No thanks,” Stevie said. “I’m glad to have the chance to work on my tan.”

“Are you guys really hurting that much?” Chloe asked in amazement. Carole nodded. She was riding with her feet pointed out much more than normal to take the pressure off her blisters. All that seemed to be doing was giving her blisters in new places. “Wow,” Chloe said. “That’s too bad. I guess having the proper gear really is important.”

Up until that moment Carole had not considered any of Chloe’s gear proper. Strange-looking, certainly; acceptable, maybe. But proper? Still, Chloe didn’t have blisters, or sweat pouring down her face because of an unventilated helmet, and she could take a drink of water whenever she wanted one, without taking her hands from her reins. And she was wearing sneakers.

“We’re battered but not broken,” Max said cheerfully. “We’ve got—what? About another seven miles?”

“Yes,” said Chloe, “and the last five are easy. The next two, though—”

“Oh, yuck,” Carole groaned. She stood at the foot of a steep, rocky ridge. It looked like the trail went sideways across a small mountain. On the right side, a thin line of trees grew along the trail, and the mountain rose above them. On the left, a clifflike slope descended into a far-off valley. The riding trail in between was about ten feet wide.

“Double yuck,” Chloe said. She slid off Whitey’s back,
crossed her stirrups over her saddle, and gathered her reins in her right hand.

“What are you doing?” Lisa asked.

“Walking,” Chloe said. “I think it’ll be easier on him. It can’t be much more than half a mile.”

“Good thinking,” Max said, dismounting and giving Barq a pat. With various groans, The Saddle Club did the same.

Lisa never minded thinking of Prancer’s comfort first. That was expected of any rider. But as she climbed the slope, she reflected that tall riding boots were not made for walking. She hadn’t thought her feet could hurt worse, but they did. She was also not all that keen on walking so close to a cliff edge. Riders always walked their horses on the horse’s left side, and Lisa knew Prancer wouldn’t like being led on the right, because it wouldn’t be what she was used to. But Lisa was wary of heights, and seeing the ground fall away so quickly beside her made her feel dizzy. She tried to find something else to look at, and something besides her feet to think about.

Chloe tromped along unfazed. Carole, coming next, struggled to walk as fast as Chloe. At least, walking, her blisters didn’t bother her. Stevie was thinking that her sunburn actually was starting to hurt, and Lisa was staring at
the back of Stevie’s T-shirt and repeating the multiplication tables under her breath to take her mind off her feet and the cliff. So none of them saw what actually happened.

There was a sudden noise that made their horses jump, and then there was a thump and a yell from Max that echoed down the valley.

The girls whirled just in time to see Barq, shying sideways from something on the trail, take another sideways leap. Max was fighting to control him, but Barq’s shoulder slammed into Max’s chest. Both Barq and Max lost their footing and fell over the edge.

“Max!” Lisa screamed. She clutched Prancer’s reins helplessly and heard her friends’ screams echo in her ears. Barq slid down the slope on his side, crushing saplings and brush, his legs thrashing wildly. Max was airborne for a moment. He seemed to move in slow motion, elegantly, like a dancer. His head hit a rock. His body followed with a thump that raised dust from the ground, and he lay perfectly still.

C
AROLE HAD NEVER
seen a true disaster happen right in front of her eyes. Max wasn’t moving. Barq scrambled to get to his feet, fell again, crashed against a boulder, and slid farther down the valley. He quit sliding and staggered to his feet, nearly twenty yards downhill from Max, then hung his head and stood still. He was bleeding.

Carole couldn’t believe it. She was sure Max was going to get up in a moment, shake his head and laugh, and make some joke about looking foolish in front of his three top students. But he didn’t look foolish; he looked dead. For a moment Carole’s feet were frozen in place and her brain
refused to think past the fact that Max wasn’t moving, wasn’t moving at all. She felt tears on her cheeks.