A Winning Gift

by Catherine Hapka

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Like I said, I’m just craving some Cloudy time.”

  “Cool. So can I tag along again?” Bridget fell into step beside Maddie as she headed down the hall.

  “Sure, I guess.” Maddie glanced at her. “Today’s my group lesson with Vic and Val, though. So there might not be time for a pony ride.”

  “A group lesson?” Bridget looked intrigued. “Do you have to be, you know, pretty experienced to be in that?”

  “Not really,” Maddie said. “Ms. Emerson believes in mixing different levels together in group lessons whenever she can. That way the less experienced riders can watch the better ones and—wait a minute. Why are you asking?”

  Bridget grinned and shrugged. “My ride on Cloudy was fun yesterday. I was thinking maybe I should learn more about riding.” She poked Maddie in the arm. “Not that you’re not a fabulous teacher. But a real lesson could be cool.”

  “No, it’s okay.” Maddie’s foul mood drifted away, and she started grinning, hardly daring to believe what she was hearing. “Ms. Emerson is a way better teacher than me. So wait, are you serious? You want to join our lesson?”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  “Mind? Are you crazy?” Maddie laughed. “I’ve only been telling you for a year and a half how much fun riding is! Of course I’m psyched that you’re finally catching on!”

  “Cool.” Bridget looked pleased. “And check it out—I even wore boots today.”

  She stopped and waggled one foot, which was encased in a stylish suede calf-high boot. Maddie smiled, though now that the surprise was wearing off, she was starting to feel slightly queasy. It was super-amazing that one of her best friends had discovered the joy of riding—thanks to the most wonderful pony in the world, of course. It would be fun having Bridget around the barn, showing her the ropes and watching her bond with Cloudy and the other ponies.

  At least for the next couple of months. Because according to what Maddie had seen in that desk drawer, they’d have only until January to ride together. After that, who knew if they’d ever see each other again. At least not more than once a year or so when Maddie flew back for a visit . . .

  But Maddie shook her head, suddenly fed up with feeling gloomy all the time. That wasn’t her. If she had only a couple of months to watch Bridget fall for horses and riding, then she wanted to enjoy every second of it while she could.

  She linked her arm through Bridget’s. “Let’s go,” she said with a grin. “This is going to be fun.”

  Ms. Emerson seemed a little surprised to see Bridget again. But after a quick phone call to Bridget’s mother, she agreed that she could ride in the lesson as long as Vic and Val didn’t object.

  “That’s totally fine,” Vic said when Maddie and Bridget found her in the grooming area and asked. “It’ll be fun having someone new in the group.”

  Val nodded, glancing up from brushing her pony’s fetlocks. “Me too,” she said. “It’s fine. Who are you going to ride today, Bridget?”

  “Oh.” Bridget shot Maddie a look. “Uh, Cloudy, I guess?”

  Maddie blinked. Somehow she hadn’t even thought about which pony Bridget would ride. It made sense that she’d expect it to be Cloudy, since Cloudy was the only pony she’d ever ridden. But Maddie hadn’t been on her favorite pony since Sunday, and given what had happened since then, she really needed some Cloudy time herself right now.

  “Um,” she said. “We should probably ask Ms. E. Stay here. I’ll go.”

  She dashed off down the aisle, leaving Bridget chatting with Vic and Val. Ms. Emerson was in the barn office, going over some paperwork.

  “Hey, who should Bridget ride?” Maddie blurted out. “Like, maybe Wizard, right?”

  Ms. Emerson looked up. “Doesn’t she want to stick with Cloudy?”

  “Oh. Um, she thinks she’s too fast, maybe?” Maddie shrugged. “I don’t know. She liked the look of Wiz, though.”

  That wasn’t entirely untrue, she told herself. The two girls had wandered through the barn yesterday, giving treats to all the horses and ponies, and Bridget had commented on Wizard’s sweet brown eyes and silky white mane.

  “All right. In that case, Wizard is fine,” Ms. Emerson said. “You’ll help her groom and tack, yes?”

  “Absolutely.” Maddie grinned and tossed the barn owner a sloppy salute that would have made her mother’s commanding officer swear. “Thanks, Ms. E.”

  She returned to the grooming area. Seth had appeared while Maddie was gone, accompanied by his wheelbarrow and pitchfork.

  Maddie nodded a quick hello at Seth, not even looking directly at him. She figured Bridget was probably distracted by the lesson thing, but you never knew. “Hey, Bridge, Ms. E says you should ride Wizard. He’s the cute little gray pony you met yesterday, remember?”

  “What?” Bridget looked alarmed. “But I thought I’d get to ride Cloudy again. You said she’s the best with beginners.”

  “Wiz is great at that, too,” Vic put in. “He’s super-quiet.”

  “But—” Bridget began.

  “Seriously, Vic’s right,” Maddie said quickly. “Wizard is the calmest horse in the entire barn. He’d sooner fall asleep than run away with you.”

  Val giggled. “I’m not sure he knows how to run.”

  “Aw, don’t be dissing the Wiz-man!” Seth put in with a grin. “He’s the coolest.”

  Bridget blinked, turning toward him. “Really?”

  “Yeah.” Seth leaned on his pitchfork. “He’s my favorite.” Glancing at the two ponies the twins were getting ready, he added, “No offense, other horses.”

  “Hmm.” Bridget looked thoughtful. “I guess if you’re sure Wizard will be okay . . .”

  “I’m sure,” Maddie told her, relieved. Bridget could be stubborn, and when she got stubborn, she also tended to get dramatic. And Maddie didn’t feel like dealing with that today. “Come on. I’ll help you get him ready.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Maddie was slipping the bridle over Cloudy’s ears. “Ready to go, baby girl?” she whispered as she buckled the noseband and throatlatch.

  She’d already helped Bridget get Wizard ready, leaving the two of them standing by the ring with Vic and Val while she raced to get her own mount tacked up. Pulling the reins over Cloudy’s head, she gave a cluck.

  “Let’s go, Cloudy,” she said. “Don’t want to be late.”

  They hurried through the barn and out the back. Vic and Val were already mounted and walking their ponies around on the rail. Ms. Emerson was holding Wizard by the mounting block. Bridget was standing on the block, looking nervous.

  Maddie held her breath, watching as her friend swung aboard the stout gray pony. “Good,” Ms. Emerson said. “Pick up your reins, and I’ll double-check your girth. . . .”

  Maddie let out her breath as Ms. Emerson continued talking to Bridget, explaining the proper way to hold the reins and telling her a little bit about Wizard. Leading Cloudy into the ring, she waited until they’d moved away from the block, then checked her girth and mounted.

  She settled into the saddle, smiling at the familiar feel of Cloudy beneath her. “Let’s go, girl.” She clucked and gave the faintest squeeze with her legs to move the pony away from the mounting block.

  Ms. Emerson was walking beside Wizard. When she saw that Maddie was ready, she stopped the quiet gray pony and called for attention.

  “As you all know, this is Bridget,” she said. “Since she’s new, we’ll take it easy and stick with a lot of walking for our warm-up.”

  “Oh.” Bridget blushed beneath her borrowed helmet. “Are you sure? You don’t have to change everything you usually do just because I’m here.”

  “It’s fine.” Ms. Emerson shot her a quick smile. “It’s good for all riders to revisit the basics now and then. There’s a lot one can do at the walk. For instance, we’ll start by doing windmills. Maddie, can you demonstrate for Bridget, please? Right arm first.”

  Maddie immediately shifted both reins to
her left hand. Then she stuck her right arm up and started swinging it around in a big circle. The twins did the same, keeping their ponies walking along the rail at the same time.

  “Okay, now you try, Bridget,” Ms. Emerson said. “I’ll lead the pony so you don’t have to worry about steering just yet.”

  Bridget imitated what the others were doing. “Like this?” She giggled. “This is fun! It’s sort of like an acting exercise we do to loosen up.”

  “Exactly.” Ms. Emerson smiled. “It does the same thing in this case, plus it helps you find your balance in the saddle. All right, now we’ll switch to the other arm. . . .”

  As the lesson continued, Maddie could tell that Bridget was having fun. She was having fun, too. They stuck to a walk for quite a while, and she could tell that Cloudy was getting a little impatient with the slow pace. But Maddie knew it was good for both of them to do something different, as Ms. Emerson had said.

  They ran through a variety of exercises similar to the windmill one. Then Ms. Emerson started teaching Bridget to steer with her reins and legs by having her follow the other ponies. That went pretty well, and by the end of the last figure eight, Bridget was grinning.

  “This is kind of fun,” she said after bringing Wizard to a halt.

  “You’re a natural,” Maddie told her.

  Bridget smiled. “I don’t know about that. But it’s amazing how my dance training is coming in handy.”

  “Yes, it is,” Ms. Emerson agreed. “You have excellent balance and body awareness, which are both very useful in riding as well as in dance. Do you think you’d like to try a short trot now?”

  Bridget’s smile faded, a nervous expression taking its place. “A trot?”

  “She did great at trotting yesterday,” Maddie told Ms. Emerson. “She just started posting like she’d been doing it forever!”

  “Really?” Vic sounded envious. “It took me about a million years to catch on to posting properly.”

  “Me too,” Val put in. “I still pick up the wrong diagonal sometimes and have to switch.”

  “Diagonal?” Bridget looked mystified.

  “Never mind that right now,” Ms. Emerson said. “Let’s talk about the trot. . . .”

  She went on to describe the gait and give Bridget some tips on riding it. She also had all four girls demonstrate the proper position for a posting trot—also known as a rising trot—at the halt and walk. Then she asked if Bridget was ready to move on to trotting.

  “I’m not sure.” Bridget bit her lip and shot a worried look toward Maddie. “Maddie led Cloudy around yesterday. Can we start out doing it that way?”

  “I suppose so.” Ms. Emerson put her hand on Wizard’s reins. “Go ahead, you three—I want to see you trot halfway around in two point, then go to rising trot.”

  Maddie nodded, nudging Cloudy into a brisk trot. She stood in her stirrups, keeping her weight out of the saddle as the pony settled into the faster gait. At the same time, she glanced back over her shoulder at Bridget.

  Ms. Emerson was urging Wizard into a trot. Unlike Cloudy, the little gray pony preferred to keep things as slow as possible. But after a moment, he let out a groan and broke into a lumbering trot.

  Maddie could see her friend bouncing around in the saddle. “Oh!” Bridget exclaimed. “He feels a lot different from Cloudy.”

  “That’s true,” Maddie murmured under her breath. She’d ridden Wizard herself a number of times. Even though his trot was slower than Cloudy’s, it was a lot bouncier.

  “Up, down, up, down,” Ms. Emerson said. “That’s it—find the rhythm.”

  “This is hard!” Bridget’s face was turning red with effort. But she eventually figured out how to rise and fall with the pony’s gait.

  “Good!” Ms. Emerson said. “Now I’m going to let go, okay? Just close your legs when you sit to keep him moving.”

  “Wait!” Bridget exclaimed.

  But the teacher was already backing away. Wizard’s gait faltered.

  “Squeeze with your legs!” Ms. Emerson called.

  Bridget looked panicky. “He’s going too fast!” she exclaimed, hunching forward and yanking back on the reins.

  That brought Wizard to an abrupt halt. Maddie gasped as she saw Bridget wobble and her foot slip out of the stirrup.

  “Sit up!” she cried. “Hold on!”

  It was too late. With a cry of dismay, Bridget tumbled off over Wizard’s shoulder.

  ♦ CHAPTER ♦

  6

  “HOLD STILL!” MS. EMERSON ORDERED, rushing over. “Don’t try to move yet.”

  “Ow!” Bridget wailed, rolling over and rubbing her hip, which had hit the ground first.

  Ms. Emerson kneeled beside her as Wizard wandered off to nibble at the grass growing under the fence line at the edge of the ring. Maddie jumped off Cloudy and went over to grab Wizard’s dangling reins. Once she had both ponies in hand, she looked over at Bridget again. She wanted to call out to her, ask if she was okay. But she forced herself to stay quiet and let Ms. Emerson handle it.

  When the barn owner was convinced that Bridget wasn’t injured and hadn’t hit her head, she let her climb to her feet. “All right, you got your first fall out of the way early,” she said with a wry smile. “Ready to get back on the horse and try again?”

  “No.” Bridget’s eyes filled with tears. “What if it happens again?”

  Maddie led the ponies closer. “It’ll be okay,” she assured Bridget. “You need to get back on, or you’ll just get more scared.”

  “I don’t know if that’s possible,” Bridget informed her. “Maybe riding isn’t for me after all.”

  Vic and Val had stopped their ponies a short distance away. “I know how you feel,” Vic called out. “I was totally freaked out the first time I fell off.”

  “She was,” Val agreed. “Come to think of it, she fell off Wizard that time, too.”

  “Yeah, but only because I got distracted and tried to turn around to look at something right when he picked up a canter,” Vic said.

  Maddie smiled. “See? It’s no big deal,” she told Bridget. “Everyone falls off sometimes.”

  “Especially if they’re riding Wizard, it sounds like.” Bridget frowned at the gray pony, who appeared to be falling asleep where he was standing. She shifted her gaze to Cloudy. “I knew I should’ve ridden Cloudy today!”

  Ms. Emerson looked confused. Oops. Maddie decided she’d better distract her before she started asking questions.

  “Maybe we should switch,” she suggested. “I could ride Wizard for the rest of the lesson, and Bridge can get on Cloudy.”

  Bridget looked dubious, but then she shrugged. “I guess that would be okay.”

  Ms. Emerson looked dubious, too. “Well, normally I’d want you to get back on the pony you fell from,” she told Bridget. “But since the fall happened during your very first lesson, and since you rode Cloudy successfully yesterday, I suppose we can make an exception.”

  “Really?” Bridget looked happier already, though still anxious as well. “Thanks!”

  Maddie felt a pang of regret as she handed Cloudy’s reins to Ms. Emerson. That was one more ride she’d miss. One more out of how many? She tried not to count the days until the date on those plane tickets. . . .

  Soon she was walking around on Wizard, watching as Ms. Emerson coaxed Bridget into Cloudy’s saddle. Bridget looked nervous, but the barn owner stayed at the pony’s head and talked her through a few circles at the walk and then a brief trot.

  “Okay, that was fine,” Bridget said as Cloudy came to a halt after the trot. “I think it’s enough for me today.”

  “Are you sure?” Ms. Emerson looked surprised. “I was going to set up some poles to help you practice steering.”

  “Maybe next time.” Bridget’s tone was firm. “I don’t want to do any more today.”

  Maddie bit her lip as she watched her friend slide down from the saddle. She was tempted to ask to switch back to Cloudy, but she felt too guilty to
bring it up. After all, if she’d let Bridget ride Cloudy from the start, the fall almost certainly wouldn’t have happened.

  “Maddie! Heads up!” Ms. Emerson said sharply. “I said please pick up a trot—rising on the long side, sitting on the short.”

  “Oops.” Maddie quickly gathered up her reins, realizing the twins’ ponies were already trotting. “Come on, Wiz. Let’s do this.”

  The next morning, Maddie shoveled a spoonful of cereal into her mouth and then pulled out her cell phone.

  “Hey! No texting at the breakfast table!” Tyler said. He and Ryan were sitting across from Maddie, gobbling down blueberry granola bars and chocolate milk. Their father had already left for an early shift at the hospital, which meant all four kids were responsible for finding their own breakfast that day. Tillie had solved the problem by convincing her boyfriend-of-the-week to pick her up early to go out for waffles at the local diner. Normally Maddie would have tried to wheedle her way into tagging along, but today she was just glad to have Tillie out of the house.

  “Says who?” Maddie mumbled in the general direction of her brother, already tapping in Bridget’s name.

  U are still coming to the barn today, right? she texted.

  After yesterday’s lesson, Bridget had seemed a little more cheerful than Maddie had expected. She’d hung out in the grooming area, joking around with the twins and Seth, who’d stopped by to ask how Wizard had done. After the others left, Maddie had made her promise to return the next afternoon for another pony ride on Cloudy. Bridget had hesitated for only a moment before agreeing.

  Maddie just hoped she wouldn’t back out once she thought about it—or once the bruise on her hip started to hurt. But Bridget texted her back a moment later.

  Don’t worry. I won’t chicken out, lol.

  Maddie smiled. OK. See u at school, she texted back.

  As she slipped the phone into her pocket, her mother hurried into the kitchen dressed for work. “You kids almost ready?” she asked, checking her watch. “I’ll drop you off a little early. I need to stop at the bakery on my way to the base and put in the order for your cake.”