Horse Guest (16 page)

Lisa gasped. She had almost forgotten about Mrs. Reg’s story. “So that’s what she was talking about,” she said. “Your grandma. I thought the story had something to do with Magoo.”

“Maybe it did,” Carole pointed out, “whether she meant it to or not. Stevie may have misjudged her grandmother, but we kind of misjudged Magoo, too.”

“Among other things,” Stevie said, thinking of Britt and Polly.

“Well, I guess things are finally getting back to normal now,” Lisa said. She ducked her head as Prancer walked under a low-hanging branch. “School has started again …”

“We don’t have to take care of Magoo anymore,” Carole added. “But he’s a full-time resident of Pine Hollow now, instead of just a guest.”

“So is Britt,” Lisa said. Until this week, Britt had been coming to Pine Hollow on a trial basis. But now she was a permanent member of Horse Wise and The Saddle Club’s riding class.

“Things are back to normal at my house, too,” Stevie said. “Well, normal for us, anyway.”

Carole grinned. “And Veronica is still mad at us—especially Stevie—about what happened at the gymkhana. That’s normal, too.”

“And here we are, just the three of us, on a trail ride together,” Stevie said, leaning forward to give her horse a pat on the neck. She looked over at the other two founding members of The Saddle Club and smiled. “Totally normal. Maybe it’s not exactly what we would have predicted a week or two ago,” she added contentedly, “but right now, being back to normal feels awfully good to me.”

Bonnie Bryant is the author of nearly a hundred books about horses, including The Saddle Club series, Saddle Club Supers, and the Pony Tails series. She has also written novels and movie novelizations under her married name, B. B. Hiller.

Ms. Bryant began writing The Saddle Club in 1986. Although she had done some riding before that, she intensified her studies then and found herself learning right along with her characters Stevie, Carole, and Lisa. She claims that they are all much better riders than she is.

Ms. Bryant was born and raised in New York City. She still lives there, in Greenwich Village, with her two sons.

Don’t miss Bonnie Bryant’s next exciting
Saddle Club adventure …

HORSE WHISPERS

The Saddle Club #74

The Saddle Club is spending February vacation with the Devines at the Bar None Ranch. Colonel Devine has just bought some new horses, and one of the mares reminds Carole of Cobalt, the first horse she really loved. Carole rides the mare and discovers that although the mare has been trained, there is still something wild in her.

Then the mare disappears, and The Saddle Club and Kate Devine have to find her. When they do, they have a tough decision to make. Will they be able to bring themselves to give her the freedom she wants? Or will they find a way to make her give up the wild life? And what can the mare teach Carole about herself? Is there more than one way for horse and rider to communicate?