Horse Care (4 page)

“ ‘We’?” Carole repeated in amazement. “Since when has Veronica ever turned out Danny herself? Usually she commands Red to take him out to the paddock for her.”

“I’m surprised she even knows we have paddocks,” Stevie said.

Veronica was too far away to hear them. But she
had
spotted them, and she didn’t look happy about it.

“Oh,” she said. “Never mind, Tate. It’s kind of crowded out here. Maybe we should go look at the tack room instead.”

“Don’t be silly, Veronica,” Stevie sang out. She dropped her sandwich and jumped to her feet, hurrying down the hill toward the newcomers. “There’s plenty of
room out here for all of us. And it’s such a beautiful day. Who wants to be stuck in the tack room?”

Tate grinned at her. “My sentiments exactly,” he said, allowing Stevie to drag him toward the others.

But Veronica wasn’t giving up that easily. “No, really, Tate,” she whined. She hurried after him. “Um, I need to go to the tack room for a few minutes. You see, I promised Max I’d—um—clean some bridles before our jump lesson this afternoon. And I’d hate to disappoint him.”

Stevie started to laugh, but she managed to turn it into a cough. As far as she knew, the only time Veronica had been near the tack room all month was when Stevie had squirted her brand-new designer hunt vest with disappearing ink. That had sent Veronica running for the tack room sink. Stevie was pretty sure that Veronica hadn’t stopped to clean any bridles while she was there.

“In that case, Veronica,” Stevie said, trying to sound earnest, “we don’t want to keep you. Why don’t you go ahead and clean those bridles right now? We’ll keep Tate company for you.”

“What?” Veronica glared at Stevie. “Uh, I mean, that’s okay. I’m sure the bridles can wait.”

Carole smiled. “I don’t know about that, Veronica,” she said warningly. “You know how Max can be about stable chores. You don’t want to make him mad, do you?”

Stevie almost laughed again. In one way, what Carole
had said was perfectly true. Max did expect all his riders to pitch in. It was the only way he could keep expenses down, and besides that, he believed that riders should learn about
all
aspects of horse care—even the ones that weren’t much fun. Veronica couldn’t care less about any of that, or even about making Max mad. But she obviously
did
care about impressing Tate.

“Oh,” Veronica said helplessly. She shot Stevie one last dirty look, then turned to Tate with a flirtatious smile. “Well, maybe I should go take care of that,” she said. “I want to do my part, after all. How about coming along and keeping me company, Tate?”

Tate had taken a seat on the sun-warmed grass beside Carole. He looked very comfortable. “Actually, Veronica,” he said, squinting up at her, “if you don’t mind, maybe I’ll hang out here for a few minutes. It’s such a nice day and everything.”

Veronica scowled. “Fine,” she snapped. “But if you ask me, it looks like it’s going to rain any minute.” She whirled and stomped away toward the stable building.

I’ll eat my hard hat if she goes anywhere near the tack room
, Stevie thought with satisfaction. She plopped down on the grass again and picked up her sandwich. A couple of ants had already climbed onto it, but she didn’t care. She flicked them off and took a bite. She couldn’t wait to start figuring out the best way to turn Carole and Tate into a couple.

She didn’t need to bother. Tate and Carole were already
smiling at each other. Lisa had returned to her previous activity—leaning back and gazing into the bright blue sky.

“You did really well in the game back there,” Carole told the new boy admiringly.

“Thanks,” Tate said, smiling wider and revealing a perfect set of teeth. Carole couldn’t help noticing that he was even better-looking up close than he had been from a distance. “You did great, too, Carole. That question about the farrier’s tools was pretty tough.”

Carole nodded ruefully. “Not that tough, though,” she said. “I remembered the word I was trying to think of as soon as the meeting was over.
Pritchel
.”

“I hate when that happens,” Tate said cheerfully. “When I can’t think of a word, I usually try to think of something else. The word I’m trying to think of comes to me eventually. For instance, instead of trying to come up with
pritchel
, you could have named some other farrier’s tools, like pincers or hoof nippers or nail pullers.”

Carole just nodded. She didn’t want to admit it, but she wasn’t sure she ever would have remembered all those tools, although she did now that Tate had listed them. She knew what they all were. She knew what they were used for. But she didn’t have all the correct names on the tip of her tongue the way Tate obviously did. Was there no end to this boy’s knowledge about horses?

She decided to find out. “So, Tate,” she said, trying to sound casual, “before you got here, we were talking
about Calypso.” She gestured to the mare down in the paddock.

Lisa sat up and shot her a curious look. They hadn’t been talking about Calypso before Tate arrived. They had been talking about Tate. She gave Stevie an amused glance.

Carole didn’t notice. She was trying to remember some of what Judy had told them that day during Horse Wise. Since Tate hadn’t arrived until after Judy had left, he wouldn’t have heard any of it.

Carole decided to start with something fairly easy. “Um, we’re helping Max take care of Calypso while she’s pregnant,” she went on.

Tate nodded, looking interested. “Really?” he said. “It’s nice of you to do all that extra work.”

“Oh, we don’t mind,” Carole assured him. “It’s just that we were talking a minute ago, and we couldn’t remember what Calypso should be eating at this stage of her pregnancy. Do you know if broodmares need a special diet?”

Stevie snorted. She knew that Carole didn’t need any help with that question. For one thing, Judy had just gone over it in Horse Wise. But even if she hadn’t, Carole had probably known all about the proper diet for broodmares before she was out of diapers herself.

Tate didn’t seem to think the question was strange at all. He glanced down at Calypso. “Well, let’s see,” he said. “How far along is she?” When Carole told him, he
nodded thoughtfully. “I see,” he said. “So she’s well past the first eight months. During that time, pregnant mares can get the same food as all the other horses. But now that she’s into her last three months, she should be eating an increasing ration of grain. Also, you could give her a vitamin-mineral supplement.”

Carole nodded. “That sounds good.” She opened her mouth to ask a slightly more difficult question about show tack.

But Tate wasn’t finished. “There’s one very important thing to keep in mind, though.” He held up one finger like a schoolteacher. “You shouldn’t allow her to eat
too
much and get overweight. That can cause complications. And broodmares should be properly vaccinated to protect them and their foals—you know, equine influenza, strangles, tetanus, viral rhinopneumonitis. In this part of the country you’d probably need to vaccinate for Potomac horse fever as well, preferably about a month or so before you think she’s most likely to foal, and …”

He went on, but Carole wasn’t listening anymore. Neither were her friends. They were exchanging amazed glances. It sounded as if Tate were just warming up, as if he could go on about this topic for hours—maybe days. Just like Carole herself!

After he finally wound down, Carole asked Tate a few more questions. But she hardly needed to listen to his lengthy, precise, and enthusiastic replies. She already
had the only answer she really wanted: This boy knew his stuff.

Finally, after discoursing for about ten minutes on the benefits of the straight bit versus the eggbutt snaffle in training young horses, Tate glanced at his watch. Then he stood up and brushed a few blades of new spring grass off his pants. “Well, I guess I’d better get going,” he said. “It was really nice to meet you all. I’m sure I’ll see you around real soon.”

“Aren’t you staying for the jump class?” Stevie asked.

Tate shook his head. “I wasn’t sure I’d make it to the stable at all today,” he said. “I should be at home helping my parents unpack right now. But Max is going to give me a few private lessons this week after school. I’m sure I’ll be ready to join your riding class in no time at all.”

Carole was sure of that, too. “That’s great,” she told Tate. “It’s always fun to get a new student in class.”

“Cool,” Tate said. He gave The Saddle Club a wave and headed down the hill.

“See you soon,” Stevie called after him cheerfully. “Real soon, we hope!” Then she turned and gave Carole a broad wink. “Definite boyfriend material,” she said under her breath.

Carole ignored her, hoping that her words hadn’t been loud enough for Tate to hear. Whether he had heard or not, she could still feel herself blushing. All this talk about boyfriends was ridiculous. Her friends knew
how she felt about that topic. She wasn’t ready to start seriously dating yet, let alone getting involved in a real one-on-one relationship.

Still, she couldn’t help watching Tate as he strolled down the hill toward the stable. Maybe, just maybe, this was the boy who could change her mind about all that.

C
AROLE BIT HER LIP
and squinted as Stevie rode Belle in front of her. It was the following Wednesday afternoon. It had rained hard for most of the day while the girls had been in school, but now the sun had come out and was shining brightly over Pine Hollow’s outdoor ring. Stevie and Carole were putting in some extra dressage practice with their horses. They wanted to be prepared for Saturday’s Horse Wise meeting.

Carole gathered her reins and moved Starlight a step forward as Stevie brought Belle to a halt.

“Wait,” she called to Stevie. “Try that half-pass again.”

Stevie shrugged and started Belle trotting again. As Carole watched carefully, Stevie gave the signal for the
half-pass, a common dressage move in which the horse moved diagonally forward and sideways.

“Well?” Stevie said after a moment. “How was that?”

“It was better that time,” Carole said, trotting forward to join her friend.

Stevie frowned a little. “Better?” she said. “What do you mean? Did Belle mess up the first time? I didn’t catch it.”

Carole shook her head and smiled. “Belle didn’t mess up,” she said. “You did. You were leaning to the side.”

“Really?” Stevie looked annoyed. But Carole could tell that Stevie’s annoyance was with herself rather than with Carole. “That’s funny. I haven’t done that for ages. It’s a beginner’s mistake.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Carole grinned. “Or as Max would say, don’t worry about it, just fix it.”

Stevie chuckled. “You’re right. He
would
say that.” She leaned forward to give Belle a pat on the withers. “He’d also say that it takes two to do dressage right—a well-trained horse
and
a well-trained rider. We’re a team, right, girl? I shouldn’t just let you do all the work to make us both look good.”

“Speaking of teamwork, maybe we should take a break now and take care of our Saddle Club project,” Carole suggested. She and Stevie had been working hard for almost an hour, and the horses were getting tired.

“You mean Calypso?” Stevie said. “Good idea. I
looked in on her when I got here and she seemed fine. But maybe we should take her out for a walk.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking.” Carole slid off Starlight’s back and headed toward the gate. “Judy says it’s good for pregnant mares to get regular exercise, even if it’s just walking.”

“In that case, maybe Lisa should have taken her to the mall,” Stevie joked as she dismounted and followed Carole through the gate. “She’s probably doing plenty of walking there. You know—from the clothing store to the shoe store, from the shoe store to the jewelry store, from the jewelry store to the department store, then back to the shoe store again—”

“Okay, okay,” Carole interrupted. “I get the point.” She giggled. “But somehow I don’t think Calypso would fit in with Lisa and her mother. Mrs. Atwood would probably want her to get a makeover or something.” Lisa’s mother had dragged Lisa to the mall that afternoon to shop for new outfits to wear on Saturday. Once again, Lisa had tried to protest—she had been planning to practice dressage with her friends—but Mrs. Atwood wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Stevie gave a mock shudder. “That would be horrible,” she declared. “Can you just see poor Calypso with blue eye shadow and a curly perm?”

F
IFTEEN MINUTES LATER
, after putting their horses away and giving their tack a quick cleaning—what Carole’s father
would have called a lick and a promise—Stevie and Carole met up again in front of Calypso’s stall. Max hadn’t wanted to move her, so she was still in the corner stall. But he had promised that if The Saddle Club saw any signs of stress, he would consider moving the mare someplace quieter.

The girls found someone else already at the stall. “Hello, Stephanie. Greetings, Carole,” Simon said. He was leaning on the half door of Calypso’s stall, watching the mare as she munched on a mouthful of hay. “Coming to observe the condition of the mommy-to-be?”