Spirit Riding Free

by G. M. Berrow

  “I think it’s worth a shot!” Lucky wasn’t about to turn down another work style. She would do anything to get this horse trained. Plus, she knew Mr. Granger would be really impressed if Sandy was able to help around the stables. “Do you think you could help us build something small enough?”

  “I’m on it!” Turo cheered. He put his hands on his hips triumphantly. “I love a challenge.”

  Apparently, Lucky, Abigail, and Pru did, too.

  Chapter 8

  When they arrived back at the barn, the PALs had a surprise guest waiting for them. “Caroline!” Lucky called out and waved. “What are you doing here?”

  “Hey there, everyone!” Caroline lit up when she caught sight of Spirit, Chica Linda, and Boomerang trotting toward her. “I thought I’d get some fresh air in between piano lessons. It’s such a gorgeous day.”

  “You can hang out with us for a while if you’d like.” Pru smiled and dismounted from Chica Linda. “Wait out here for a minute while we brush these guys down. Then you can meet Sandy!”

  Caroline beamed. “I can’t wait!”

  After getting their horses settled in the barn, Lucky and Pru headed back out to Caroline.

  “We should probably warn you that Sandy can be a bit wild,” Lucky advised.

  “Like Spirit?” Caroline asked, confused. But as soon as Abigail released Sandy from her stall, it all made sense. The miniature horse burst out of the barn, full of energy. She kicked out her legs and galloped in circles. She twirled again and again before shaking her mane and giving a high-pitched whinny. The PALs all jumped into the pen to try and wrangle the little horse.

  “She’s so funny!” Caroline clapped her hands together in delight as she watched the horse evade the capture attempts by Abigail, Pru, and Lucky.

  “Maybe you are a performing horse, Sandy!” Abigail called out, trying to corner Sandy near some barrels. “Look at you, entertaining the audience. Now, be a good horsey and—oof!”—Abigail tripped over her shoe and stumbled against a barrel as Sandy went careening toward the other side of the ramada—“hold still.” Abigail sighed, watching her run off again.

  This time, however, was different. Sandy burst through the fence’s wooden gate—and headed right for Caroline! Lucky sprang into action, chasing after her. “Sandy, whoaaa!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. “Whoa!” The voice command hadn’t worked yet, so she wasn’t confident it would this time, either.

  But something miraculous happened. Sandy stopped! Her hooves skidded to a halt just before she reached Caroline. “Easy, girl,” Caroline said softly. Sandy took two steps forward. “That’s it. Easy…” The little horse inched even closer until finally she was near enough to bend her muzzle down to Caroline. Caroline smiled as she petted Sandy’s face and scratched behind her ear. Sandy snorted happily.

  Sandy was listening! Lucky’s jaw dropped. “Are you guys seeing this?!” she whispered to Abigail and Pru, careful not to disturb the moment. When Lucky glanced over at them, expressions of shock registered on their faces, too. Sandy regarded Caroline with a gentle sweetness that she hadn’t displayed all week. She was totally calm and collected.

  “Let’s try something.…” Pru rushed over and picked up Sandy’s rope lead, which was dragging on the ground. Pru then instructed Caroline to wheel forward alongside her and the horse. Sure enough, Sandy walked slowly beside them. When Caroline stopped, she stopped. Then the horse just stared at Pru for the next command.

  “Whoa,” breathed Abigail. “What is happening?”

  They’d tried so many different tactics to train Sandy so far, but none of them had worked. Now she was responding to this new friend as if they’d known each other for years. This was exactly the demeanor Lucky and her friends had been trying to draw out of the wild little horse. The wheels in Lucky’s head were spinning. This was their chance. They wouldn’t have to return Sandy to Mr. Rollins. The PALs could succeed in becoming Trail Trainers!

  “Caroline, I hope you’re not busy after your next piano lesson,” Lucky said, practically bubbling over with joy. “’Cause we have a lot of training to do with Sandy and we could use your help. I can’t believe how much she loves you!”

  “Sign me up!” Caroline replied with the biggest smile. Maybe Miradero wouldn’t be so boring this summer after all.

  Chapter 9

  Over the next few days, the PALs got up early each morning to put in time with Sandy alone while Caroline taught piano lessons. Then in the afternoon, she would come to the ramada to feed Sandy treats and give her encouragement while the PALs taught her new skills. They were making incredible progress so far. It was as if a switch had been flipped once Sandy met the young teacher, and now there was no turning back. Sandy was a star student—and with Caroline’s help, the girls were becoming star trainers!

  Today, Abigail was helping Lucky teach Sandy the voice commands of “walk,” “canter,” and “trot” to medium success. Sandy had definitely perfected “walk” and “whoa,” but more complicated commands still eluded her. Also, their horse treat supply was running dangerously low, much to Boomerang’s and Chica Linda’s dismay.

  By the time Caroline finally arrived, Sandy was refusing to practice any more runs. When she saw Caroline, she went trotting up to the side of the pen to meet her. Sandy gave Caroline her usual greeting of nuzzling Caroline’s neck and sniffing her braids. “Hello to you, too.” Caroline laughed. “Sandy, I’m so proud of you. You’ve come so far in your training.”

  “Not far enough,” Lucky admitted with a sigh. “She can still be so unpredictable.”

  “I think I have a solution to that,” Caroline said. She reached inside her satchel and pulled out a stack of papers. She passed one to Abigail, Pru, and Lucky. At the top, in pretty cursive, it read SANDY LESSON PLAN.

  “What’s this?” Lucky read aloud. “‘Visualization, Learning by Example, Small Steps Equal Great Strides…?’”

  “Well, I can’t help you much in the way of actual horse training,” Caroline explained. “But I am a teacher. And I’ve had lots of students.” She pointed to Lucky’s paper. “These are some of the techniques that work whenever we are trying to prepare for a big piano concert. Maybe Sandy would be more consistent if we treated her more like a student!”

  Pru and Abigail loved the idea. Lucky, however, felt a bit hesitant about it all. If they suddenly changed their methods again just when they were starting to work, wouldn’t it only confuse Sandy? Lucky really liked Caroline and Sandy seemed to like her, too, but she didn’t know very much about horses. A piano lesson with a child was not the same thing as training an animal. But the thought of that shiny Frontier Fillies Trail Trainer emblem popped up in her mind and prompted Lucky to say, “Sure, let’s give it a try.”

  They started with the Visualization section. According to Caroline, if you pictured yourself being successful at the thing you were trying to accomplish in your head, you would actually be able to do it in real life. Pru was familiar with this method. Apparently, she used it herself for dressage competitions all the time. But getting Sandy to picture herself cantering across the pen was a little trickier.

  “Maybe if we all picture Sandy doing the canter at the same time, she will get the message… uhh… telepathically?” Abigail suggested, tilting her head to the side.

  “Or we could just start with an easier one. How about ‘Learning by Example’? Often, one of the best ways to learn is to watch someone else play the song first—oops! I mean, watch another horse do it first.” Caroline pointed to where Chica Linda, Boomerang, and Buster were all hitched up, watching the lesson. “Pru, can Chica Linda do all the commands?”

  “Of course she can!” Pru nodded. She reached over to pet Chica Linda’s soft mane, beaming with pride. “My girl is amazing. Plus, I’ve had her since I was eight. We’ve had time on our side.”

  Pru unhitched Chica Linda and led her inside the pen with Sandy. The two horses greeted each other, ears twitching and rocking their heads back. Lucky ju
mped inside, eager to help. “Let’s start with ‘walk’ and then we’ll do ‘back.’”

  “Walk, Chica Linda!” Pru directed as she herself walked backward in front of the mare. Chica Linda obliged, looking rather bored. Pru gave her a treat. Then it was Lucky and Sandy’s turn. Having just seen Chica Linda do the trick and receive a treat for doing so, Sandy got it on the first try.

  “Bingo!” shouted Abigail, jumping up and down. “Brilliant idea, Caroline!”

  After a few more tests, they all agreed that the strategy was working. Lucky was feeling pretty good. But after watching how Sandy responded to Caroline specifically praising her, Pru suggested they try something new. “I think I’ve finally figured out what kind of horse Sandy is. Our training methods haven’t really been clicking with Sandy. They really only work when Caroline is around. So maybe she’s not a packhorse, a riding horse, a performing horse, or even a draft horse.…” Pru led Sandy over to Caroline. She put her hands out toward them as if they were the main act of a show. “She’s a companion horse!”

  “What’s that?” Abigail asked, skipping over to them. “I’ve never heard of a companion horse before. Do they do chores or something?”

  “Not exactly.” Pru shook her head. “Sandy has such a natural connection with Caroline. She just wants to be with her all the time. Kinda like our horses with us.”

  Lucky couldn’t argue with that one. She often felt as if she and Spirit had a bond that nobody else could truly understand.

  “So I figure—why don’t we train Sandy to be Caroline’s companion? They were clearly meant for each other! She could even help Caroline with everyday tasks instead of all this other stuff.” Pru walked over to the gate on the fence and opened it. “We could start off by teaching her to open gates and doors.” She turned to Caroline. “What do you think?”

  “I think it would be amazing!” Caroline squealed. She reached forward to pet Sandy, who started to whinny from all the excitement. She wriggled to and fro and tugged on the ropes that held her as Abigail and Pru began to brainstorm other things to teach Sandy that would relate to her new role as a companion horse.

  Lucky felt a bit frustrated. Of course, it was a great idea. But they were running out of time and they had just finally started to make progress on some of the traditional training. What if the reason Sandy hadn’t gotten it yet was because they kept switching things on her? And now with only three days left until Mr. Rollins’s arrival Pru had come up with yet another new plan.

  “No!” Lucky found herself saying, interrupting the celebration. “We can’t do that. We don’t have time!” Everyone stopped talking, stunned.

  “Of course we do, Lucky,” Abigail replied gently. “It’ll be okay.”

  Lucky frowned. “But if we don’t prove to Mr. Rollins that Sandy is fully trained, we won’t be able to keep her. Not us, not Caroline—nobody!”

  “Is this about Trail Trainers?” Pru asked.

  “No!” Lucky folded her arms across her chest. “Not at all!” Something tugged at Lucky’s heart. Maybe it was about becoming a Trail Trainer just a little bit, but she didn’t want to admit it. She cared about Caroline, but Lucky was tired of everyone not being on the same page. She knew it would only end in disaster.

  And it did. Just not in the way Lucky was expecting. As the girls got distracted with their conversation, they had failed to notice that Sandy had managed to wriggle free from the rope tied to her harness. Before anyone could grab her, Sandy leaped out of reach and galloped toward the wilderness without looking back.

  The little horse was gone and Lucky had only herself to blame.

  Chapter 10

  Lucky held tightly to Spirit’s mane as she scanned the horizon, heart beating fast. “Sandy!” she shouted. “Where’d you go, girl?” But all that she saw was the same familiar landscape of trees, winding streams, and dusty plains. Not a miniature horse in sight. How could one tiny horse get so far, so quickly? Lucky silently beat herself up for getting so caught up in her goal of becoming a Trail Trainer and pushing Sandy so hard. Everyone learned at their own pace—horses included.

  And now Sandy had run away.

  What would they tell Mr. Rollins once he came to see Sandy’s progress? Lucky cringed at the thought of delivering the news that not only had the three of them failed to train Sandy like they’d claimed they could, but that they were such inexperienced trainers that they’d actually gone and lost the horse!

  Lucky saw Pru and Chica Linda in the distance and steered Spirit in their direction. After Sandy had run off, they’d grabbed some oats and quickly saddled up Boomerang and Chica Linda, but Lucky had been able to hop on Spirit faster. So she’d gone ahead. Caroline had agreed to stay at the ramada in case Sandy made her way back there.

  “Have you seen anything?” Lucky shouted to Pru, any disagreement between them having melted away into panic. “I did a sweep of the east side, but it’s all quiet.”

  Pru shook her head. “Let’s catch up with Abigail.” They took off at a gallop westward, in the direction of the canyons. When they reached her, Abigail confirmed what they already feared. There was no sign of Sandy.

  “What are we going to do?” Lucky called out. “We need a plan.”

  “We should do one more sweep of the immediate area,” Pru directed. “Make sure to look behind bushes and anyplace Sandy could hide.”

  After searching under the brush and inside caves, the girls began to realize that the chances of finding their runaway were not great. As they trotted back to Miradero, they felt beyond dreadful. Everything seemed pretty rotten.

  At least there was one thing Lucky could do to make things right. They were almost to the stables when she blurted out her apology. “I’m sorry for the way I acted earlier! I don’t know what came over me. I guess I just wanted to succeed so badly that I lost sight of what we were trying to do in the first place: help Sandy find her true calling.”

  “I’m sorry, too,” Pru replied. “You were right. We were confusing her with changing everything so often.”

  “And I’m sorry about running out of oat biscuits,” Abigail joked to lighten the mood. “We all make mistakes.”

  The girls agreed to stay on the same page from now on—including doing something they all really didn’t want to do. They had to tell Mr. Granger that Sandy was missing. They were trying their best to muster up the courage as they approached the barn. But as they got closer, they realized they didn’t have to. Caroline met them by the trail, frantically waving.

  “Lucky! Abigail! Pru!” she yelled. “Hurry! Sandy’s been spotted near the Calloway Barn!”

  “We’re on it!” Lucky shouted, steering Spirit back in the other direction.

  Chapter 11

  A wide circle of people had formed around Sandy outside the Calloway Barn, hoping to help wrangle the horse and also protect the floats from destruction. She kicked and whinnied, stomped and snorted. She was scared.

  “Don’t spook her!” Turo said insistently, breaking through the crowd. “I know this horse. Sandy is stronger than she looks! Does anyone have any food?”

  “We do!” shouted the PALs, arriving just in the nick of time. “And she’ll listen to us.”

  Abigail, Lucky, and Pru dismounted from their horses and carefully entered the circle. “It’s okay, Sandy…” Lucky cooed. Sandy started twirling around frantically and shook her mane unhappily. The PALs inched closer, gently trying to calm Sandy down.

  “C’mon, girl,” Abigail said, holding out a treat. “Come here, please?” Sandy just backed up and gave a high-pitched whinny in response.

  “Lucky!” The crowd parted around Caroline as she rolled her wheelchair into the circle. The moment Sandy noticed Caroline, she began to walk around the perimeter of the circle. Then she backed up and began again, this time going into a trot.

  “What’s she doing?” Abigail frowned. “She’s just going in circles.…”

  “Lucky!” Pru exclaimed with a smile. “She’s doing the trainin
g practices! Sandy remembers what we taught her!”

  Though it hardly seemed real, Pru was right. All those lessons and failed attempts at teaching the little horse had soaked in after all, even though she didn’t want to listen to the PALs. Something just clicked when Caroline was there! Lucky felt as if her heart was bursting with pride for Sandy.

  But she was still technically on the loose.

  Like a beautifully choreographed dance, the PALs called out commands to the little horse with Caroline cheering for her on the sidelines. Sandy performed each one with style. As the girls directed her, Sandy cantered, galloped, walked, and stopped. After each move, the crowd became more and more delighted. They cheered and clapped, and the miniature horse wasn’t even scared anymore. Sandy’s capture had turned into an accidental spectacle—a training display showcase.

  As the PALs finished with their commands, Caroline rolled toward them. Immediately, Sandy was alert. She neighed happily and trotted over, meeting Caroline right in the middle. Then the horse leaned forward and licked her cheek. It was then that Lucky understood. This had all been for a reason, and it wasn’t for them to become Trail Trainers.

  “What exactly is going on here?” yelled a voice. Mr. Rollins broke through the crowd, looking stressed. “I heard my Sandy escaped! Where is she? I’m taking her back!”

  “Mr. Rollins!” Pru rushed forward, scrambling to explain. “She did escape, but—uh, we have it totally handled now.” She gestured to Sandy and Caroline. “As you can see.”