Horse Tale (2 page)

“I know exactly what you mean,” Carole said, and she did. She thought back to when her father had given Starlight to her. It had been one of the most wonderful moments of her entire life—the moment when she knew Starlight would be hers forever, to take care of, train, and ride. More than anything, she wished both her best friends could experience that feeling for themselves someday soon.

“I know what you mean, too, but I kind of like not having my own horse,” said Lisa. “At least for now,” she added quickly. She didn’t want to rule out the possibility forever! “It means I get to try out lots of different horses and learn what makes all of them tick.”

“Lisa’s right,” Carole said. “Riding all kinds of different horses can be a real learning experience. I sometimes miss that.”

“Sometimes?” Stevie cocked an eyebrow at Carole.

Carole smiled. “Well, not that often, I admit it. Having my very own horse is wonderful. But there is something to be said for variety, you know.”

“I know,” Stevie said. “And thanks for trying to make me feel better. But I really just feel like I’m ready to have a horse of my own now.”

“Have you talked to your parents about it?” Lisa asked.

“I’ve hinted a little,” Stevie said. “But I haven’t found quite the right opportunity to really mention it.”

The other girls laughed. They knew what that meant. It sometimes amazed them to see the lengths to which Stevie would go to trick her parents into seeing things her way.

Carole tossed the last of the newly polished bits into the trunk, stood up, and stretched. “Come on. We’d better get this stuff back inside and start on those stalls before it gets any hotter.”

Lisa stood up, too. “It’s amazing how much quicker we worked once we came outside,” she commented. “If only there were some way of bringing the dirty stalls out here!”

Stevie knew Lisa was joking, but she definitely agreed with the sentiment. She leaned back on the grass and groaned. “Don’t tell me we actually have to go back inside now!”

“Come on, Stevie, I thought the stable was one of your favorite places in the world,” Lisa teased.

Stevie didn’t bother to answer. Instead she just groaned again, stood up, and began gathering up the cleaning supplies they had been using. Carole and Lisa exchanged a glance. Obviously Stevie’s bad mood was back.

Soon The Saddle Club was hard at work mucking out stalls. As they worked, Stevie continued to grumble about all the people she knew who had their own horses. She was especially annoyed when she realized that the stall she was about to muck out belonged to Romeo. “Perfect,” she said, shaking her head grimly. “Polly’s out there having the time of her life on her very own horse, and I’m stuck in here being her stable hand.”

The sound of hoofsteps on the wooden floor of the stable interrupted Stevie’s stream of complaints. “That’s a good boy,” someone said, and the horse snorted. Carole and Lisa recognized Polly’s voice.

Then Carole and Lisa recognized Stevie’s voice. “Hello, Polly,” Stevie was saying sweetly. “How’s Romeo doing?”

“Great!” Polly replied enthusiastically.

Carole set down her pitchfork and left the stall she was working in. She was eager to see Romeo again up close.

Polly was patting the gelding’s nose while she talked to Stevie. “He’s really responsive—all I have to do is signal once and he does whatever I’ve asked,” she said cheerfully. “I could never have imagined how rewarding it is to have a horse of my own!”

Carole stepped forward to pat Romeo’s neck. The gelding bent his head to sniff at her, as if looking for treats. “He’s a beauty, Polly,” she commented appreciatively. “I know you’ll love working with him—it really is rewarding to teach and learn from the same horse all the time. Starlight has taught me so much already.” Then Carole’s voice trailed off as she noticed the look on Stevie’s face. It was a look she recognized, and it meant Stevie was hatching one of her schemes.

Carole didn’t have long to wait before she found out what it was all about. “You know, Polly,” Stevie said sweetly. “You’re lucky you came in right now. Otherwise you would have missed out.”

“Missed out on what?” asked the other girl absently. She
was much more engrossed in patting her horse than she was in listening to Stevie.

“Missed out on one of the best parts of having your very own horse!” Stevie announced dramatically.

Stevie had Polly’s attention now. “Oh really? What’s that?”

“The total care experience,” Stevie replied. She clasped her hands together and a blissful look came over her face. Carole and Lisa exchanged a glance. They suspected what was coming. “Isn’t it wonderful to think that Romeo is totally yours now? That he depends on you for every little thing?”

Stevie paused long enough to let Polly nod.

“I mean, if it weren’t for you, Romeo wouldn’t get fed. He wouldn’t get any exercise. His tack would be a mess. His stall wouldn’t be clean. What a tremendous learning experience it must be for you to be involved in every step of his care. You must really be looking forward to all that.”

By this time Polly was nodding enthusiastically. “It’s almost sad,” Carole whispered to Lisa.

Lisa nodded. “The poor girl doesn’t even see it coming,” she whispered back.

Stevie was shaking her head again now. “And to think that I was about to deprive you of a major part of that joy,” she said. Carole could almost swear she saw tears in Stevie’s eyes. “Part of that honor. Part of that valuable learning experience.” Stevie grabbed Polly by the shoulder. “Can you forgive me, Polly?”

“What are you talking about?” Polly asked, looking confused.

“I really want to make it up to you,” Stevie said earnestly, ignoring the question. She picked up the pitchfork that she had leaned against the wall earlier and shoved it into the other girl’s free hand. “Here you go.”

“What …?”

“Get ready to bolt,” Lisa whispered to Carole.

“To show you how sorry I am, not only am I going to insist that you take over mucking out Romeo’s stall,” Stevie told Polly, “but I’m even going to let you do Comanche’s and Barq’s for me, too.”

As the look of dawning comprehension on Polly’s face turned to one of annoyance, The Saddle Club fled, trying hard not to laugh until they were well out of earshot.

A
SHORT WHILE
later the three girls were waiting for their ride in the driveway of Pine Hollow. They were having a sleep-over at Carole’s house that night, and her father, Colonel Hanson, had promised to pick them up.

As usual he was right on time, and The Saddle Club piled into the air-conditioned car with relief.

“Hi, honey,” Colonel Hanson said, giving Carole a kiss on the cheek. He greeted Lisa and Stevie too. “Hot enough for you?” he inquired.

“More than,” Stevie replied. “Hey, that reminds me—why did the vampire go to the tropics?”

Colonel Hanson shook his head. He and Stevie loved to trade old jokes—the older and the cornier, the better. “I give up.”

Stevie grinned. “Because he liked his victims hot-blooded.”

Carole groaned. “This is cruel. We’re a captive audience, you know.”

“We could walk the rest of the way,” Lisa suggested jokingly.

“How about this one,” Colonel Hanson said. “What do you call a beagle in a sauna?”

“That’s easy,” Stevie replied. “A hot dog.”

Stevie and Colonel Hanson had time to trade a few more jokes before they reached the Hansons’ house. “Finally,” Carole said as her father pulled the car to a stop in the driveway. “I couldn’t take much more of those jokes.”

Stevie grinned. “Yeah, they’re pretty good, huh?” she said innocently.

Carole rolled her eyes and pretended to be annoyed, but she was kidding and she knew that Stevie knew it, too. In reality Carole was glad that her friends got along so well with her father. Carole and her father had always been close, and they had grown even closer since Carole’s mother’s death a few years earlier. She would always be grateful to him for being so loving and supportive through that difficult time in both of their lives.

But today Carole was just grateful that her father had managed to joke Stevie out of her bad mood. The trick she had played on Polly had cheered up Stevie for a few minutes, but then she’d gone right back to complaining—about the heat, about not being at riding camp, about not having a
horse—basically about anything she could think of, or so it seemed to Carole.

“Sweetheart, could you run and get the phone?” Colonel Hanson said as he opened the front door, snapping Carole out of her thoughts. “I can hear it ringing.”

Carole obeyed, hurrying into the kitchen and grabbing the receiver off the hook. “Hello?” she said breathlessly.

“I thought you were never going to answer. I was about to hang up,” said a very familiar voice on the other end of the line.

Carole gasped. “Kate!” she exclaimed happily.

“Carole, did I hear you say that’s Kate on the phone?” Stevie demanded, rushing into the kitchen with Lisa and Colonel Hanson right behind her.

“Stevie, Lisa, and Dad say hello, Kate,” Carole said into the phone, waving at Stevie to be quiet. “It’s so good to hear from you!”

On the other end of the line, Kate Devine laughed. “I’m glad to hear that everybody’s there,” she said. “Just wait until you all hear why I’m calling. Then you’ll
really
be glad to have heard from me!”

“H
ONEY, WE
’
RE HOME
!” Stevie shouted as she stepped through the door to the main house at The Bar None Ranch two days later. Carole and Lisa were right behind her.

“Stevie! Carole! Lisa!” two excited voices shrieked. A second later the three girls found themselves smothered with hugs from Kate Devine and Christine Lonetree.

“Howdy, pardners,” Carole said in her best Western accent.

“We thought you’d never get here,” Kate told her.

“I can’t believe we’re really here now,” Lisa said.

“Me, too,” said Carole.

“Me, three,” Stevie agreed wholeheartedly.

“Well, I for one am glad you really are,” Kate assured them.

“I for two am, too,” Christine said with a grin.

Stevie grinned back. “I’m just glad that businessman decided he had to make those two trips to Washington.”

Frank Devine had been a pilot in the Marine Corps. Even though he was retired now, he earned extra cash by flying the private plane of a wealthy businessman named Mr. Lowell who had frequent business in Washington, D.C. Since Willow Creek was only about half an hour’s drive from Washington, Frank was sometimes able to pick up Carole, Lisa, and Stevie and bring them out West for a visit. When Kate had called Carole it had been to tell her that Mr. Lowell was scheduled to make two trips East, one week apart. She wanted to know if The Saddle Club wanted to come for a visit. The Saddle Club did.

“Welcome, girls!” Phyllis Devine, Kate’s mother, bustled into the room with a large plate of homemade cookies. “Come right in and sit down. We’ll be eating dinner in about an hour, but I thought you needed a snack. You must be tired and hungry after your flight.”

“You read my mind,” Stevie told her happily.

Within a matter of minutes the five girls were settled in the comfortable lounge with the cookies and glasses of cold milk.

“Okay,” Carole announced. “Let the Saddle Club meeting begin!”

“We’re ready,” Kate said. “What’s on the agenda?”

“Horses, of course,” Carole exclaimed. “What else?” Everybody laughed. Then Carole turned to Kate. “But seriously, how is Moon Glow’s training going so far?”

Moon Glow was the mare Kate had adopted as part of the Adopt-a-Horse-or-Burro program run by the Bureau of Land Management. The program allowed interested people to adopt horses from the wild herds that roamed the desert. It kept the wild-horse population from getting too large for the land to support.

Kate’s face lit up. “Just great,” she replied. “She has such a wonderful temperament. And she’s been really responsive to the training. Her foal—did I tell you I named him Felix?—is one of the smartest youngsters I’ve ever met. By the time he was six weeks old, he had figured out how to open the latch on the box stall where he was living. I found him wandering around, exploring the barn and making friends with everything in it.”

“Sounds like a foal after my own heart,” Stevie declared.

“That’s right,” Kate said with a grin. “He’s a real troublemaker, just like you!”

Stevie pretended to be hurt, but she couldn’t do it for long. There was just too much to talk about. She turned to
Christine. “Speaking of babies, how’s Dude?” Dude was Christine’s puppy.

“He’s doing great,” Christine assured her. “But he’s hardly a baby anymore. You won’t even recognize him.”

At that moment a group of guests wandered into the lounge, talking and gesturing wildly among themselves. Several of them were wearing brand-new cowboy hats or bolo ties, and others carried shopping bags stamped with the names of stores the girls recognized from Two Mile Creek, the closest town to the ranch.

“I wonder what they’re so excited about,” Stevie said curiously. “Let’s eavesdrop.”

It didn’t take long for them to figure it out. “It sounds like they saw the show in town,” Christine said with a grin. “Don’t you hear that woman talking about the cowboy falling off the roof?”