Lucky Horse

by Bonnie Bryant

  Stevie and Lisa turned and looked at Carole.

  “Right.” Carole swallowed her bagel and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry I’m late.”

  “Don’t worry.” Max leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “I’m sure we haven’t even come close to the good parts yet.”

  Stevie cleared her throat and began. “Max, what we want to propose is this: Since we’ve spent most of our time this summer here at the stable, and since we’ve learned how to do all the chores so much better than we ever did before, and since now all the horses practically regard us as … as blood sisters, we were wondering if we could spend our entire last weekend of freedom here at Pine Hollow.”

  “Your last weekend of freedom?” Max frowned. “You’re not going to jail, are you?”

  “No, we’re going back to school Wednesday,” Stevie explained. “We’d never do anything that would land us in jail.”

  “But it might as well be jail,” Lisa said.

  “Yeah, Max.” Stevie took over again. “It might as well be jail. We have to sit still for hours at a time and we have to eat this terrible food in the cafeteria and all these dorky teachers make us do stuff like algebra problems and science projects. In fact, it’s worse than jail. It’s torture.”

  “Oh, the horror,” Max replied softly. He didn’t crack a smile, but his blue eyes were twinkling. He looked at Stevie. “And you want to postpone this prearranged torture somehow?”

  Stevie shook her head. “We can’t postpone it. But we want to squeeze every little drop of fun out of our last days of summer vacation. And if you’ll let us stay here for the weekend, we can.”

  “But we’d work,” added Lisa. “We wouldn’t just stay up in the hayloft and goof off.”

  “Oh?” Max’s mouth curled up with interest.

  “Absolutely,” said Stevie. “Lisa would muck out all the stalls every day and I could help Red tack up the horses for the riding lessons and Carole could paint some of the jumps and of course all the horses would be fed and watered and groomed twice a day. And, and …” Stevie desperately looked around Max’s office. “And we’ll sweep out your office and we could even try to shovel up that big pile of manure …”

  Max held up one hand. “Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. In exchange for bunking down in the hayloft for three nights, you’d be willing to do all those chores?”

  “Oh, yes!” cried Lisa and Stevie together.

  “Well, I’ll tell you something. Mom, Deborah, and I were just trying to figure out who we could get to watch the stable if we took a weekend trip up to Dorothy DeSoto’s training farm on Long Island. We’d almost given up on the idea, but if you three are willing to do all that, then this is a deal I can hardly pass up.”

  “Oh, Max!” Stevie cried.

  “But you won’t have to start moving the manure pile. I’ve hired some guys with backhoes to come and do that next week. Everything else, though, is perfectly acceptable.”

  Lisa and Stevie grabbed Carole and began to jump up and down.

  “Wait, you guys,” Carole said as her friends bounced in the air beside her. “I’ve got some bad news.”

  “Oh no,” said Lisa. “Won’t your father let you come? My mother let me, and she never lets me do anything unless it’s approved by every adult within a ten-mile radius.”

  “No, it’s not that. My dad’s big project at work has just ended and he got a four-day weekend as a reward. He’s planned this father-daughter camping trip for the two of us.” She smiled regretfully at her friends. “As much as I’d love to be with you guys, I don’t often get a chance to spend time like this with my dad.”

  “That’s okay, Carole,” Stevie said. “We understand.” She turned to Max. “Is it still okay if it’s just Lisa and me?”

  “You don’t think just the two of you will get spooked here in the middle of the night? Stables are full of scary noises at two in the morning.”

  “Of course not, Max,” Stevie assured him. “That’s kid stuff.”

  Max smiled. “Okay, then. It’s fine with me. Just to prove how good a sport I am, you don’t have to paint all the jumps. But everything else on your list remains.”

  “Great,” said Stevie, extending her hand. “It’s a deal.”

  As Max shook hands with Stevie and Lisa, his phone rang. With a wave he shooed them out of his office and turned to talk to the caller about dressage lessons.

  “Oh, wow,” said Stevie as the three girls walked toward their horses’ stalls. “I can’t believe we’re going to do this. A weekend sleepover at Pine Hollow!”

  “I’m just sorry you won’t be here, Carole,” Lisa said.

  “Right,” grumbled Stevie. “It’ll be fun, but it won’t be perfect.”

  Carole sighed. “I know. I really wanted to come, but I haven’t had a chance to be with my dad in a long time, and he’s so excited about this trip.” She looked at her friends. “He’s borrowed some really fancy camping equipment that’s all run by solar energy.”

  “Wow,” said Stevie. “That’s really state-of-the-art stuff. I’ve seen my brother Chad drool over that kind of gear in his camping magazines.”

  “I can’t wait to see how it all works.” Carole giggled. “I think Dad’s almost as excited about taking all this equipment up into the wilderness as he is about taking me.”

  “It’ll be a great trip for both of you, though,” said Lisa.

  “I know.” Carole smiled. “I’ll just miss you guys a lot.”

  “Here are some other guys who’ve been missing us a lot,” Stevie said as they turned the corner. All along both sides of the passageway, the horses poked their heads out from their stalls. Their ears stood erect, and their eyes sparkled. Starlight’s and Belle’s stalls were together, and Prancer’s was a little farther down the aisle.

  “Looks like some friends of ours want to go for a ride,” Carole laughed as Starlight nickered at her.

  “Me too,” said Stevie. “It seems like years since we’ve been on a horse.”

  “Stevie, we rode yesterday,” Lisa reminded her.

  “I know.” Stevie frowned. “I just keep thinking about school and how much time that’s going to take away from riding.”

  “My mother would say you need to get your priorities in order,” Lisa said with a laugh.

  “Oh, they’ll be in order by Wednesday. Right now, I just want to have fun. Last one tacked up’s a rotten egg!”

  The girls raced to the tack room and got their equipment. In a few minutes all three riders stood at the entrance to Pine Hollow with their horses brushed and their saddles tight, ready to mount up.

  “Whew,” Stevie said as she pulled Belle up last. “I think that was a record!”

  “I do, too,” agreed Lisa. “It’s one of the few times you’ve had to be the rotten egg.”

  “It’s just my school-a-phobia kicking in,” said Stevie as she touched the good-luck horseshoe tacked to the wall and hopped up on Belle’s back. “And the only cure is a nice long ride in the country.”

  One of Pine Hollow’s traditions was that riders all touched the good-luck horseshoe before riding. So far, no one who had done that had ever been seriously injured.

  Carole and Lisa each buckled on their helmets and touched the horseshoe, then mounted up and followed Stevie.

  Stevie began leading them to the back of the stable property, where all the trails began. On their way they saw Danny out in the paddock, grazing uninterestedly, his right foreleg wrapped in a red bandage. When The Saddle Club rode by, the big gray gelding pricked his ears and whinnied as if he wished he could come along, too.

  “Look at Danny,” Carole said as they trotted past. “He looks so sad. I feel sorry for him.”

  “Me too,” said Lisa. “He’s such a beautiful horse.”

  “I said it before: He’s unlucky,” Stevie called over her shoulder. “He’s got creepy old Veronica for an owner.”

  “Hey, could you guys add one more thing to your list of c
hores this weekend?” Carole gave Starlight a pat on his neck.

  “Anything,” Stevie said. “Now that we don’t have to shovel that big pile of manure.”

  “Could you take care of Starlight for me?”

  “Sure,” answered Lisa. “We’ll take extra-special care of him, just for you.”

  “Thanks.” Carole smiled. She knew she could depend on her friends.

  As they reached the end of the paddock, Stevie and Belle picked up a trot and headed toward the creek trail. The day was tailor-made for a horseback ride. Puffy white clouds floated through a deep blue sky, and late-summer cicadas rasped in the underbrush along the creek.

  “Anybody want to canter to our favorite spot?” Stevie asked, grinning over her shoulder.

  “Absolutely!” said Carole, and Lisa nodded.

  Stevie only had to touch Belle with her right heel and the pretty bay mare moved into an easy canter. Starlight followed, and Prancer stretched her long legs out as well. Soon all three girls were flying along the wide trail in the deep green forest, the warm wind blowing in their faces. They cantered, trotted, and walked until they reached a wide spot by the creek where the horses could graze and the girls could dip their toes in the water.

  “Wow.” Lisa slid off Prancer. “That was great.”

  “It was even better than yesterday,” Carole said as she led Starlight over to a patch of tender clover. “Starlight just gets stronger and stronger.”

  “So do we,” added Stevie. “I bet we’re all much better riders than we were at the beginning of the summer.” She sighed. “Now it will all go to waste, though, because of dumb old school. Our skills and muscles will atrophy—that’s a vocabulary word from last year—from lack of use.”

  “Oh, Stevie, quit thinking about it,” Lisa said. “School isn’t that bad, and you can’t do anything about it anyway.”

  “I suppose,” replied Stevie, plopping down beside the creek and removing her boots.

  The girls wiggled their toes in the water until the sun grew hot in the sky. Carole and Lisa wondered what their new classes would be like, and finally even Stevie admitted that she was a little curious about who her math teacher was going to be. Too soon it was time to go, so they put their boots back on and pulled their horses away from their happy munching.

  They knew better than to race back to the barn, so they took the rest of the trail at an easy trot and the last quarter mile at a walk. When the Pine Hollow paddocks came into view, Carole stood up in her saddle.

  “Look,” she called. “Danny’s in practically the same spot we left him in. Isn’t Red supposed to be longeing him?”

  Lisa nodded. “He is, but maybe he got busy with a class or a delivery of hay.”

  Carole frowned as they rode closer to the paddock. As much as she disliked Veronica, she liked Danny a lot, and the idea of a talented, intelligent animal being ignored made her uncomfortable. She wondered if Stevie and Lisa wouldn’t start on their promise to her just a little early.

  “Hey, you guys,” she said, pulling Starlight to a halt right beside Danny’s paddock. “Since the longe line’s right here and Red seems to be busy, if you two will take care of Starlight now, I’ll go ahead and longe Danny. He didn’t do anything to deserve this.”

  “Go ahead.” Lisa took Starlight’s reins. “We’ll look after Starlight for you.”

  “Thanks.” Carole smiled as she grabbed the longe line and crawled through the fence.

  The big gray nickered, then trotted up to Carole. She noticed he favored his right leg just a little bit.

  “Hey, boy,” she said softly as she clipped the line on his halter. “Looks like you’re doing okay. We’re going to do a little work now—just what the doctor ordered.”

  She led Danny to the center of the ring and walked him in a circle, letting the longe out slowly. As the circle grew larger, Danny’s pace grew faster. Carole knew from her work with the vet, Judy Barker, that it was important to keep a horse moving while he was on the mend or his muscle tone would suffer. She worked Danny for fifteen minutes clockwise, then another fifteen minutes counterclockwise. At the end of the half hour, he was warm but not sweaty, and he looked pleased when they stopped, as if he knew he’d done something that would help him heal.

  “Good boy,” she said, rubbing him between his eyes. She unsnapped the longe line and dug in her pocket for one of the carrots her father had forgotten to eat the night before. She’d planned on giving them to Starlight, but Danny had worked so hard, he deserved at least one. “Stevie and Lisa will take good care of you this weekend,” she promised him as she coiled up the longe line and walked to the stable.

  By the time she got to Starlight’s stall, Lisa and Stevie were just finishing up.

  “Starlight’s all tucked away,” Stevie reported. “He’s got fresh water and hay, and Lisa gave him a nice brushing.”

  “Thanks, you guys,” Carole said as she gave Starlight a farewell scratch behind his ears. “You be a good boy, Starlight. Mind Stevie and Lisa—do exactly as they say. I’ll see you Monday.”

  Starlight twitched his nose at Carole for a moment, then turned his attention to his new hay.

  “That must be horse for okay,” Lisa said with a laugh.

  “I guess that’s it for me,” Carole said. The girls began walking toward the stable entrance. “I’ve got to go home and do a few chores before we leave tomorrow. How about you guys?”

  “We need to figure out what we’re going to bring tomorrow night,” said Stevie. “I’ve never camped for a whole weekend with twenty-five horses before.”

  They walked to the end of Pine Hollow’s long drive, then joined in a three-way hug.

  “I hope you have a great time with your dad, Carole,” Lisa said. “We’ll miss you.”

  “Thanks.” Carole smiled. “I’ll miss you guys, too. I’ll think of you when I’m out in the woods, cooking brownies in my solar-powered oven.”

  “Have a great time,” added Stevie. “And don’t worry about Starlight. He’ll be number one on our list.”

  “Thanks,” Carole called as she hurried to the bus stop. “I know you guys’ll have fun. I can’t wait to hear all about it.”

  “Call us as soon as you get back.”

  “Right,” Carole said with a bright farewell wave. “I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about!”

  “HEY, CAROLE! CAN you lend me a hand for a second?” Colonel Hanson’s voice boomed from the kitchen.

  “Sure.” Carole opened her bedroom door. “I’ll be right there.” She tossed a pair of clean socks on her bed and hurried through the house. Her father stood at the kitchen door, his eyes shining with excitement.

  “I want you to see all this neat stuff we’re taking with us,” he said.

  Carole followed him out into the driveway and gasped. Tents and sleeping bags and backpacks spilled from the back of their station wagon like a Thanks-giving cornucopia. Carole blinked. All this was supposed to be for a four-day trip to a national park in Virginia. The only place she’d ever seen this much equipment was when she saw her father’s battalion going on maneuvers.

  “Gosh, Dad,” she breathed. “Your buddy Colonel Cheatham must really love to camp.”

  “He does. Last year he went up to Mount Rainier in Washington State. Almost made it to the top, too.” Colonel Hanson smiled at Carole. “Come, let me show you some of these things.”

  She walked over to where her father stood. Two down sleeping bags were rolled up on the ground, along with a couple of blow-up mattresses. A telescope stood next to two camping chairs, which sat next to two camping armchairs, and two camping stools rested nearby. A special bag for water hung from the door of the station wagon, just touching the top of a thing that looked like a miniature blackboard.

  “What’s that?” Carole pointed to the blackboard-looking thing. “We’re not going to practice for school, are we?”

  “Oh, no.” Her father laughed. “That’s a solar energy collector. You point that black panel
toward the sun and it charges a battery inside.”

  Carole frowned. She couldn’t imagine Colonel Cheatham climbing Mount Rainier with a solar energy collector strapped to his back. “And then what does it do?”

  “Well, after it charges up, it can run all this other equipment.”

  “What other equipment?”

  Colonel Hanson grinned and held up a big lantern. “This solar-powered light bank so that we can read in our tent at night.” He turned around, searched through the rest of the equipment, and finally held up a thing with spindly metallic legs that looked like a space satellite. “And this, which is a solar-powered stove, where we’ll cook things that we’ve kept in our”—he pointed at a shiny aluminum box and grinned—“refrigerator.” He put the stove down and knelt in front of the refrigerator. “It runs on batteries, but they can be recharged by—”

  “Solar power?” Carole finished his sentence for him.

  “Right!” He looked up at her. “Isn’t this great?” He leaned over and opened the refrigerator. “And look what we’ve got to eat—spaghetti and fried chicken and brownies. How’s that for roughing it with your old man?”

  “Great,” Carole said, hoping she sounded more enthusiastic than she felt. Her favorite camp food was a simple hot dog sizzled over an open fire. It looked like her dad was trying to see how many gourmet meals he could cook with solar power.

  “And,” Colonel Hanson continued, “we’ve got collapsible bowls for mixing up the pancakes, collapsible cups, and a collapsible clothes-drying rack, in case either of us falls into the creek.”

  Carole blinked in amazement. “What are all those shoes over there?”

  “The tall boots are hiking boots. The shorter ones are walking boots. The soft-soled shoes are for sitting around camp, and the things that look like slippers are for keeping your feet warm when you don’t want to wear boots at all.” Colonel Hanson reached into the back of the station wagon. “And look at these.” He pulled out a pair of khaki trousers. “These look like pants, right?”