Horse Magic

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Do you want me to take Barq for you, Lisa?” asked Phil. He and Dinah had appeared a few minutes earlier to watch the end of the lesson. Lisa figured that meant the two of them were finished with their magic practice—or whatever else they had been doing.

  “That’s okay, Phil,” Red said, overhearing the offer. “I’m going to take care of Starlight, and I can take Barq too. I think Max needs you guys to help out with the treasure hunt.”

  He was right. Max and Mrs. Reg were already breaking the city kids into groups of three. “We’ll have four teams. Each team will have a name and a leader,” Max announced. “You’ll have one hour to find the things Stevie has hidden in the woods. The ‘treasure’ could be candy or anything gold or silver. That means stirrups, coins, whatever. And there are also a few Halloween surprises that I think you’ll recognize. The team that finds and brings back the most treasure will be declared the winners and will have first choice of costumes.”

  The kids cheered. “I’m going to win!” Joe called out excitedly. “I want to be a pirate!” He swung an imaginary sword.

  Max smiled at the little boy’s enthusiasm. Then he turned to the older kids. “I’ll need four leaders,” he said. He looked at Carole first. “Carole, you can be the leader of the first group—the Ghosts. Phil, why don’t you take the Ghouls, there.” He pointed to Meg Durham and Betsy Cavanaugh. “Meg, you can lead the Witches, since you’re already dressed for it, and Betsy can take the Goblins.” He glanced at the sky, which still looked gray and threatening. “It looks as though it could pour at any moment,” he added. “So leaders, be sure to stay close to home, and come straight back if it starts to rain.”

  “Be careful in the woods,” Mrs. Reg warned the kids. “And listen to your leaders.” She turned to Max. “I think it might help to have one or two people out there on horseback, just to keep an eye on things and make sure nobody gets lost. Sort of a horseback lookout.”

  “Good idea,” Max agreed.

  “I’ll do it,” Stevie offered eagerly.

  Max shook his head. “No way, Stevie,” he said with a smile. “You’ve got to stay here and be ready to declare the winner. You’re supposed to be in charge of this thing, after all.” He turned to Lisa, who was leaning on the paddock fence beside Dinah. “Lisa, why don’t you saddle up Prancer and do it?”

  Lisa smiled and nodded. She was happy about the assignment for two reasons. First, it showed that Max thought she was capable and reliable. And second, it meant she would get to ride Prancer today after all.

  But before Lisa could move, Mrs. Reg spoke up again. “Now Max, just because it’s a special day I don’t think we should ignore our rule about riding alone in the woods,” she said. “Maybe Dinah should saddle up, too. She and Lisa can work as a team.”

  Max nodded again. “Dinah, you can take Nero. He’s a good, steady trail horse. He’ll be a good match with Prancer.”

  Dinah and Lisa traded annoyed looks. Lisa could tell that Dinah wasn’t any happier about the pairing than she was. But she knew it was no good arguing with Max once his mind was made up. They would just have to make the best of it.

  “COME ON, EVERYONE!” Carole called out. “Let the treasure hunt begin!”

  “And may the best team win,” added Meg, giving a witchy cackle. With that, the four teams headed off across the fields while Lisa and Dinah hurried inside to tack up.

  “I’ll help you, Dinah,” Stevie offered. “Nero is groomed and everything, so all we have to do is throw some tack on him and you’ll be set.”

  Moments later Prancer and Nero were ready. Lisa could feel her mood darkening to match the cloud-heavy sky. The last thing she wanted to do was go riding through the woods alone with Dinah. They only had to spend one more day together; why couldn’t they spend it at opposite ends of the stable, instead of side by side on the trail?

  The two girls didn’t exchange a single word all the way out of the stable yard and across the pasture. When they reached the trail leading into the woods, they heard excited young voices ahead of them. A moment later they caught up to Phil’s group, which included Joe, the little boy who had been in Lisa’s riding group.

  “Hi, Lisa!” he called as soon as he spotted her, waving frantically and running toward her.

  Lisa tightened her reins as she felt Prancer tense beneath her. “Be careful, Joe,” she called to the little boy, trying to keep her voice calm and steady so that it wouldn’t upset the mare any further. “Walk, don’t run. Remember what Max and I told you during the riding lesson? You don’t want to scare the horses with sudden movements.”

  Joe immediately stopped in his tracks, a contrite look on his face. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I guess I forgot.”

  “Come on, guys,” Phil said to Joe and the other two children in his group. “Let’s stand off the trail and let the horses pass. We don’t want to slow them down.”

  “Can’t they walk with us for a while?” pleaded a little girl named Maria who had been in Carole’s riding group. “The horses are so pretty.”

  Lisa looked at Phil and shrugged. “The trail’s pretty wide here,” she said. “I guess we could stick with you for a few minutes.”

  The little group ambled along through the woods. Lisa and Dinah made sure to keep their horses a safe distance behind Phil and the kids. It wasn’t easy, though; while the other two kids kept themselves busy scanning the trail and nearby woods for the treasure, Joe was more eager to talk to the riders about his own riding experiences with his uncle.

  Lisa was glad of the distraction. It meant that she and Dinah were kept so busy responding to Joe’s endless stream of comments and questions that they barely had to speak to each other. Maybe this ride won’t be so bad after all, Lisa thought.

  And then disaster struck.

  Joe was telling the riders a particularly exciting—though perhaps not entirely true—story about helping his uncle catch some dangerous criminals. “… and then we snuck up on them,” he explained, crouching down and tiptoeing to demonstrate. “When we got close enough to their hiding place, we peeked in the window. And then my uncle jumped up, and bang!” Joe leaped into the air and shouted the last word, pretending to whip out a pistol.

  That was too much for Prancer. At the sudden noise and motion, she stopped short, reared up, and whirled around. Lisa barely managed to stay aboard as Prancer let out a series of wild bucks and kicks, snorting all the time. Lisa did her best to regain control of the horse. Just when she thought she was beginning to get through to Prancer, a loud clanking echoed through the woods. Dinah had been backing Nero away, out of range of Prancer’s flying legs, and one of the gelding’s metal shoes had landed heavily on a large rock beside the trail.

  That was all the panicked Prancer could take. She reared once more, leaped off the trail, and set off through the woods at a dead run.

  Lisa leaned forward, clinging to the mare’s mane for dear life. She kept her head down and her arms in as sharp branches reached out and ripped at her hair, clothes, and skin. It took all the riding skill she had to stay in the saddle at all. If she were to fall now, she could be very seriously injured, but she barely thought about that because she was too busy worrying about Prancer. The mare’s racing career had ended because she had a weak pedal bone, which had been injured in her last race. It had healed perfectly, but Lisa knew that the weakness was still there. If Prancer took a wrong step now and injured the leg more seriously, it could cost the mare her ability to walk—or even her life.

  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Lisa could sense that the mare’s frantic wild pace was slowing. Either Prancer had recovered from her panic or she was tiring—probably both. Lisa sat up a little and looked around. Prancer’s wild ride had taken them straight through a thick, overgrown part of the forest, far from any of the trails Lisa knew.

  “Oh, Prancer,” she said as the mare finally slowed to a canter, then a trot. “Where have you taken us?”

  Finally regaining control, Lisa br
ought Prancer to a stop in the middle of a clearing, then slid off. She calmed Prancer with her hands and voice for a few minutes. When she was sure the mare was perfectly calm, she checked her carefully for injury, paying particular attention to Prancer’s weak leg. Aside from some nicks and scratches from stinging branches, Lisa couldn’t find any problems.

  When she had finally convinced herself that the mare was unhurt, Lisa breathed a sigh of relief. They had been lucky this time. Then she glanced back the way they had come. The underbrush was trampled flat, showing where they had passed.

  “At least you left us a clear trail to follow back,” Lisa commented with relief. Even though she knew they couldn’t be far from Pine Hollow, Lisa also knew that it was all too easy to get lost in these woods if you didn’t know where you were going. Prancer could easily find her own way back, but her instincts would lead her to travel as the crow flies. Anything from perilous rocky areas to impassable thickets to deep sections of Willow Creek might lie between the horse and the stable at this point. There was even a bog somewhere in these woods, Lisa knew. She didn’t want to deal with those sorts of barriers if she didn’t have to. It would be safer simply to follow the trail they’d made, even if it wasn’t the most direct route.

  At that moment Lisa felt a heavy drop of rain hit her arm. She glanced up, and another droplet hit her square on the forehead. The rain that had been threatening all day was finally starting.

  “Uh-oh,” she said.

  The drops started coming harder and faster, beating a steady staccato against the piles of dead autumn leaves that coated the ground. But then another noise became audible—hoofbeats approaching. Seconds later Nero and Dinah emerged from the woods.

  Lisa’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe Dinah had followed Prancer. In her place, Lisa herself would have returned to Pine Hollow for help. That was the most sensible course of action, since there was no way Nero would have been able to catch up to the fleet former racehorse. Luckily, since both Lisa and Prancer were unhurt, there was no harm done. Still, Lisa couldn’t help being more annoyed with Dinah than ever. Didn’t she ever stop to think before she acted?

  “Are you okay?” Dinah called when she spotted Lisa.

  Lisa nodded. “I think so,” she said, trying not to sound as upset as she felt. The wild ride had unnerved her—the last thing she felt like doing right now was chatting with Dinah. “Prancer is, too.”

  “That’s good,” Dinah replied, dismounting and glancing at Prancer. “Boy, can she run. I can’t believe you stayed on her.”

  That was all Lisa could take. “Oh, really?” she cried, her voice uncharacteristically loud and shrill. “Well, believe it, okay? I know I haven’t been riding as long as you have, but you don’t have to act all surprised and make a big deal out of it every time I do something right!”

  Dinah looked surprised for a moment, then angry. “Hey, don’t yell at me,” she said sharply. “I was trying to compliment you. What’s your problem?”

  “What’s my problem?” Lisa shrieked in disbelief. Now that she had started, all her pent-up anger from the past few days came flooding out. She blinked to clear the raindrops from her eyes. The rain was gaining strength and intensity along with her anger. “What’s my problem? You should ask yourself that same question! All you’ve done since you got here is insult me and make fun of me in front of my best friends!”

  “What?” Dinah exclaimed, her face reddening. She took a step forward, slipping and almost falling on the leaves, which were becoming slick and soggy in the rain. “Don’t blame me just because you can’t take a joke!”

  “Oh yeah?” Lisa yelled back. “Well if you ask me, you’re the joke. All you can do is make fun of everything and everybody. You don’t ever stop joking around long enough to notice when people don’t think you’re funny. In fact, you don’t even have enough sense to go for help when somebody’s horse runs away with them.”

  “Well, I guess I’d better take some lessons from you then, O Great Teacher,” Dinah said sarcastically. “After all, you do know everything about everything.” Putting her hands on her hips, she glared at Lisa. “The next thing you know, you’ll be blaming me for Prancer’s running away, too.”

  Lisa pushed a lock of dripping-wet hair out of her eyes and glared back. At that moment she hated everything about Dinah—her perky attitude, her jokes, her face. She hated the fact that Dinah had known Stevie and Carole longer than she had. She especially hated the fact that Stevie and Carole both liked Dinah so much. She hated that Mrs. Reg had forced her to ride with Dinah today, and she hated the fact that Dinah was standing in front of her right now. She even hated that stupid Paul Revere costume Dinah was wearing, which was now plastered to her, thanks to the rain. Lisa thought Dinah looked more like a soggy red, white, and blue drowning victim than like a Revolutionary War hero.

  The costumes, the rain, the runaway horse—everything seemed reduced to little knots of anger and frustration. Nothing was going right, and just then nothing seemed as if it ever would go right.

  The two girls faced one another glumly, separated by a few feet of woodland and a giant chasm of feeling.

  “If Stevie were here, she’d be laughing,” Lisa said. “I mean, you look pretty funny. I bet I do, too.”

  “More like a city slicker than a cowgirl,” Dinah confirmed.

  “More like a drowned rat than Paul Revere,” Lisa informed her.

  “I probably look as if I’d gone by sea instead of the redcoats,” Dinah suggested.

  “Without a boat,” Lisa agreed.

  That made Dinah laugh. She had a nice laugh—warm, hearty, inviting. Lisa began to laugh, too. Maybe they did have something in common after all.

  “WE PROBABLY SHOULDN’T tell anyone that we didn’t even have enough sense to get in out of the rain,” Dinah said a few minutes later. It was still raining, but now the two girls and their horses were drying off beneath a deep rock overhang at the edge of the clearing. It was several dozen yards wide and just high enough to allow the horses to stand upright. Most importantly, it was dry.

  Lisa wrung out her bandanna and tied it back around her neck. She shivered. “You’re right,” she agreed. “Although we’ll both probably end up with pneumonia as a reminder not to do it again.”

  Dinah sat down on a rock near the front of the little cave and stared out at the rain, which was pouring down steadily. “It’s too bad it had to rain on the kids’ treasure hunt,” she commented.

  “Not to mention on us,” Lisa added.

  Dinah laughed. “No kidding.”

  Lisa smiled. She couldn’t believe it. She and Dinah were having a real conversation, just like real friends. Had she misjudged Dinah all along? She was beginning to have the funniest feeling that she might have. She sat down next to the other girl. The rain didn’t show any sign of letting up.

  “If there’s anyone more annoyed than us about this, though, it’s got to be Stevie,” Dinah continued. “She’s probably yelling at the clouds right now for raining on her treasure hunt.”

  Lisa chuckled at the thought. That sounded just like Stevie. “You do know her pretty well,” she told Dinah. She gave her a sidelong glance. “I guess maybe a little better than I was expecting,” she added softly.

  “What do you mean?” Dinah asked, looking puzzled.

  Lisa shrugged. “I don’t know, really,” she said. “It’s just that I’m so used to thinking of Stevie and Carole and me as being each other’s best friends that I sort of forgot for a while that we’re not each other’s only friends.”

  “So when I showed up and you saw how much fun Stevie and I had together—” Dinah began.

  “I guess I got a little jealous,” Lisa admitted. “I mean, part of what makes my friendship with Stevie so great is that we’re so different from one another. But on the other hand, I sometimes feel like she could have more fun with someone more like her—someone like you. I thought she might start to like you better than me. Pretty silly, huh?”


  “Not really,” Dinah said with a wry smile. “I have to admit I was a little jealous of you, too.”

  “For being friends with Stevie?” Lisa said, surprised.

  Dinah shook her head. “I was expecting that,” she said. “Stevie talked about you and Carole the whole time she was visiting me. So I knew about that part. But I also knew that you haven’t been riding as long as I have. So when I got here and all anyone could talk about was what a superstar you are, I got a little annoyed.”

  “I’m not really a superstar, but I guess I can see your point,” Lisa said slowly. “I guess I talked about the riding lesson thing a lot when you first arrived.”

  “It isn’t your fault,” Dinah said. “You were fine. I can see that now. It’s just that even though I love riding, it doesn’t come as naturally to me as it does to some people, like you and Stevie and Carole. I don’t know if I don’t work as hard or if it’s just one of those things you’re either born with or you’re not. But when I got here and kept hearing about what a natural you were, it reminded me of what I’m not. And I took it out on you.”

  Lisa had to think about that for a minute. She never took her riding ability for granted—she had worked too hard at it. But over the years plenty of other people, from teachers to friends to total strangers, had complimented her on her ability to do almost anything she set her mind to. People kept telling her that she was smarter and more talented than average, but this was the first time she had really stopped to think about what that meant. In this case, it meant that she had unintentionally hurt Dinah’s feelings. It wasn’t really her fault and it wasn’t really Dinah’s. It just was.