Horse Wise

C
AROLE
H
ANSON HUMMED
to herself as she removed her horse’s bridle and hung it on the hook by the stall door. Then she began unbuckling the saddle. The horse, Barq, stood patiently while she worked, as if he knew what was coming. Carole patted him affectionately. She liked what she was doing, as she liked everything there was to do with horses.

Suddenly she heard a grumbling noise. Was it Barq? Carole stopped humming and looked at him with concern. If he’d made that sound, then something was very wrong. She might even have to call the vet. She heard the grumbling sound again.

Carefully, Carole put her ear against the horse’s belly. She didn’t have a stethoscope, and if the horse was really having a stomach problem, she would be
able to hear it better this way. There was no sound, except …

“Hey, Carole, I’ve heard of getting close to your horse, but aren’t you carrying it a little too far?” A familiar voice snickered.

Carole straightened up and glared at Veronica diAngelo. Veronica rode at Pine Hollow Stables with Carole and Carole’s two best friends, Stevie Lake and Lisa Atwood. But Veronica was definitely not one of her best friends. She was a spoiled little rich girl who cared more about her expensive riding clothes than the health of her horse.

“I thought I heard his stomach grumble,” Carole explained. Veronica didn’t deserve an explanation, but Carole couldn’t help herself. She was a natural-born teacher when it came to horses and riding and was always eager to share her knowledge with others—even lost causes like Veronica. “See, if his belly’s grumbling, it could be the start of a colic attack, and that’s serious, because—”

“What you heard grumbling was your friend Stevie,” Veronica rudely informed her before disappearing toward the locker area.

Carole peered over the stall door to see what Veronica was talking about. Stevie was standing in the hallway with her horse, patiently cleaning Topside’s hooves. But the noises she made as she was working weren’t patient at all.

“Grrrr,” Stevie grumbled, unaware that Carole
was watching. “I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.” She swept her dark blond hair back from her face and concentrated on her work.

“You hate cleaning hooves?” Carole asked.

Stevie looked up at her friend. “No, I hate school,” she said. “It’s only three days into the new semester and I already have seven impossible things to do, including one especially horrible science project. If I don’t keep up with school, Max won’t let me ride, and if I can’t ride, what’s the point of school? I just wish they’d teach us about horses in school instead of all this other garbage. Then I’d be a straight-A student.”

“Did somebody mention me?” Lisa asked, joining her two best friends. Stevie and Carole laughed. It was accepted among them that Lisa was the best student, just as Carole was the horse expert and Stevie was the best at jokes, practical and otherwise. But when it came to loving horses, they were all equal.

“Yeah, I did,” Stevie said. She bent her head and resumed cleaning Topside’s hoof. The stone that was wedged under the horse’s shoe came loose and dropped to the wooden floor of the stable with a satisfying thunk. Stevie grinned triumphantly at the sound and looked up at her friends. “It’s this horrible science project. What do you know about osmosis?”

Lisa looked thoughtful. “Well, it’s the tendency
of a substance to pass through a semipermeable membrane from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration.”

Stevie sighed. “Does that mean if I put my science textbook under my pillow, all the knowledge will transfer into my brain overnight?”

“Only if your skull is semipermeable,” Lisa informed her.

“Wait a minute. I’m the one who tells the jokes,” Stevie said, laughing. She unhooked Topside’s cross-ties and led him toward his stall. Her voice turned serious. “But jokes won’t get me out of this one.”

It sounded to Carole like trouble was brewing. She considered the situation as she returned to Barq’s stall to finish grooming him. Max Regnery, who owned the stable, had a strict rule that all the young riders had to maintain a good school average. Stevie had always found a way of just getting by, skirting disaster throughout the school year, but Carole was afraid that sooner or later her friend’s grades would drop just a bit more than Max liked. Then Stevie wouldn’t be allowed to ride until she brought her grades up.

As far as Carole and her friends were concerned, not being able to ride was the worst possible punishment. The three girls loved horses so much that they’d formed The Saddle Club. So far they were the only full-time members, though they had
some friends who lived out of town who were honorary members. The club had only two requirements for membership: the members had to be horse crazy and they had to be willing to help one another out. Since they’d started the club, they’d shared many wonderful riding experiences—and they’d had a lot of opportunities to help each other.

Carole thought that Stevie’s problem might be the beginning of another Saddle Club project. She peered into the stall next door, where Stevie was beginning to groom Topside. “I think we ought to have a Saddle Club meeting after we’re finished,” Carole said.

“Great idea,” Stevie agreed. “But I don’t know about Lisa. Is this piano-lesson day?”

Carole couldn’t see Lisa, but she knew where she was. Pepper’s stall was three down from Barq’s, on the other side of the walkway. “Hey, Lisa, is this piano-lesson day?” she called.

“No, that’s Thursday,” Lisa called back from the stall.

“Then I think we need to have a Saddle Club meeting after we’re done with the grooming.”

“Super,” Lisa said. “Let’s meet at TD’s in about half an hour.” TD’s was their favorite, and most fattening, hangout. It was an ice cream shop, officially named Tastee Delight. The Saddle Club always abbreviated that to TD’s. “Now,” Lisa continued, talking to herself, “if only I could get
this darn saddle off fast so I could
start
the grooming!”

“Saddle Club to the rescue! I’ll be there in a minute,” Carole told her friend. She quickly finished the last of Barq’s grooming and left the stall to help Lisa. Before she could get to Pepper’s stall, however, she found herself once again face-to-face with Veronica diAngelo.

“Saddle Club?” Veronica asked. “What’s a Saddle Club?”

Carole was speechless. It occurred to her for the first time that she didn’t know if The Saddle Club was supposed to be a secret. She hadn’t been thinking about secrecy when she’d yelled to Lisa. She’d only been thinking about Stevie’s science project and Lisa’s saddle.

“I mean, is this some sort of thing the three of you cooked up while you were at that riding camp?”

That was just like Veronica. The little rich girl didn’t know what to do when other people had things she didn’t. Veronica was actually jealous that the three other girls had gone to riding camp. She envied their adventures there.
If only she knew
, Carole thought to herself.