Autumn Trail

by Bonnie Bryant

  Looking at Calypso, The Saddle Club could believe that. “Did she win the second race, too?” Lisa asked expectantly.

  “Not exactly,” Max said. “She was in fine form on race day and was the favorite to win, but things went badly for poor Calypso from the start of the race. First she got boxed in behind several other horses. She just couldn’t find a way around them, and she got frustrated. She wanted to be out front where she knew she belonged, I guess. But that wasn’t the worst of it. About halfway through the race, one of the horses in front of Calypso stumbled and went down, taking a couple of other horses with him.”

  “Oh, no!” gasped Carole. It sounded a lot like what had happened to Prancer, although in that case she had been the only one to fall. Even though most races went off without incident, Carole knew that accidents did happen.

  “Yes,” Max said grimly. “It was a pretty bad accident from what I hear. Luckily for Calypso here, she managed to jump over the injured horses in front of her. But there was a lot of bumping going on both before and after the accident, and it must have spooked her pretty badly, because instead of finishing the race, she jumped the rail to the infield. Her jockey had a hard time staying in the saddle and keeping her under control—he was lucky he wasn’t hurt. After that Calypso refused to stay on a track with more than one or two other horses. I guess she just didn’t want to take a chance of going through the same kind of thing again. For more than a year, her trainer tried everything he could to cure her, but nothing helped. It was obvious she was useless as a racehorse.”

  “That’s terrible,” Carole declared. “Poor Calypso. She must have been so scared.” She gave the horse, who looked anything but scared at the moment, a pat on the neck. “But if her bloodlines are as good as you say, wouldn’t she be valuable as a brood mare?”

  Max shrugged. “Maybe, but remember, she was practically untested on the track. Her time in that first race was fast enough to win, obviously, but it wasn’t spectacular. Her jockey thought she could do a lot better, but people aren’t willing to risk the big money involved on what a jockey thinks.”

  Carole knew that that was true. She had been surprised to discover what a big business Thoroughbred racing really was. “Still,” she began carefully, “wouldn’t the owner want to at least try? Before, I mean …” She tried to think of a way to phrase her question that wouldn’t seem to be an insult to Max. After all, Pine Hollow was doing fine financially, but as far as Carole knew, Max wasn’t exactly in a position to pay the tens of thousands of dollars that Calypso was probably worth whether she could race or not.

  Suddenly Mrs. Reg started laughing. “Girls, Max isn’t telling you the whole story,” she said, her eyes twinkling.

  “What do you mean?” Stevie asked, instantly sensing that something interesting was coming. She was even more certain about that when she noticed that Max was beginning to look embarrassed.

  But before he could open his mouth to protest, Mrs. Reg was explaining exactly what she meant. “You see, one of these owners Max keeps referring to is a woman he went to high school with. Her name is Lillian Shepardson. You might say that she and Max were quite an item at the time.”

  “An old sweetheart?” Stevie exclaimed. “How romantic!”

  “So we were partly right, after all,” Carole said. “Max was going to see his old flame, maybe rekindle their love …?”

  “I don’t think so,” Mrs. Reg said drily. “This old flame has been married to someone else for many years and has five children. But she knows Max well enough to know he’ll give Calypso a good home. So when it became clear they weren’t going to get as much as they’d hoped for her anyway, she convinced the other owners to lower the price enough so that we could afford her—on the condition that they can breed her to one of their stallions someday and keep the foal.” She smiled. “It’s really a very generous deal from our point of view. Very generous.” She gave the girls a wink. They realized that she was teasing Max by making it sound as if Lillian Shepardson had lowered the price only because she was still in love with him. Even though that probably wasn’t true at all, The Saddle Club still thought it was awfully romantic that Max’s high-school sweetheart had made it possible for him to buy such a beautiful horse.

  “All right, girls,” Max said suddenly, turning Calypso and starting to lead her in the direction of the stable. “We can’t leave this fine Thoroughbred standing out in the cold all day, can we? Let’s go. Since Red isn’t back yet, you three will have to help get her settled in her new stall.”

  The Saddle Club exchanged glances. They could tell that Max was embarrassed by the story Mrs. Reg had told, and that he had decided to ignore it and pretend it had never happened. The girls smiled. Even though they all—even Stevie— knew better than to ever bring up the subject again, it was fun knowing something so personal about Max.

  “Well, Calypso is lovely. I’m sure Geronimo will just love her,” Stevie said. When Max turned to glare at her, she pasted an innocent smile on her face.

  ONCE INSIDE, MRS. Reg said good-bye to the girls and headed for her office beside the tack room. Max led Calypso through the stable’s entryway toward the U-shaped row of stalls. The Saddle Club was right behind him. “Where are you going to put her?” Carole asked.

  “Well,” Max said thoughtfully, “I was planning to put her in that empty stall next to Comanche’s. But now I have a better idea.” He paused for a moment and glanced past Calypso’s nose at Lisa, who was walking on the mare’s other side. “I’d like to put her in Pepper’s stall.”

  Lisa didn’t say anything at first. Carole and Stevie exchanged a worried glance. Even though their friend seemed to be handling Pepper’s death quite well, they were afraid it was too soon for her to accept another horse taking his stall. Carole, especially, remembered how difficult it had been for her to visit Cobalt’s empty stall after he had died. She couldn’t imagine how she would have felt if Max had moved another horse in there right away, but she was sure it would have been upsetting.

  But Lisa’s response was a big smile. “I think that’s a wonderful idea,” she told Max sincerely.

  At that Carole was reminded once again that the three members of The Saddle Club were very different people. She couldn’t always expect her friends to respond to things the same way she would. But she could count on them always to be her friends, and always to be horse crazy.

  They proved the second point in the next few minutes as they got Calypso settled in her new home. Max handed Carole the mare’s lead line in front of Pepper’s stall and went off to check on the other horses, leaving the girls to be the official welcoming committee.

  Apparently, Red had known Calypso was coming, because the stall, which Stevie had cleaned out thoroughly earlier that morning, had a layer of fresh clean straw on the floor. But there was still a lot to do. Carole removed Calypso’s blanket, folded it, and headed off toward the tack room to put it away. Stevie took the clean water bucket from the stall and went to fill it. Meanwhile, Lisa started giving Calypso a good grooming. Her reddish mane was tangled after her long ride, and as Lisa gently worked through the knots with a wide-toothed comb, she talked to the mare.

  “You know, Calypso,” she began, “if you’re going to be living in this stall, you’ve got a pretty big set of horseshoes to fill. But I think if any horse deserves to be here, you just may be the one.”

  The mare nickered softly. Lisa wasn’t sure if it was in response to her words or if Calypso was just enjoying being fussed over, as many horses did. She suspected it was the latter. But she continued to talk anyway, telling Calypso all about Pepper.

  She was interrupted by her friends, who had returned from their separate errands. Stevie was lugging a full bucket of water in one hand and holding a flake of hay in the other.

  “Get the door for me, will you?” she said breathlessly to Carole, who had just returned from the tack room.

  Carole did better than that. After sliding open the stall door, she relieved Stevie of t
he heavy water bucket and hung it on its place while Stevie put the hay in the hayrack. The mare snuffled at the water, then at the hay. She took a few pieces of hay delicately in her mouth and munched at them slowly.

  “She’s deciding if the food’s good enough to stay here,” Stevie decided. Apparently it was, because Calypso took another mouthful when she’d finished the first.

  Lisa smiled at the horse. “I was just telling her she’s got a lot to live up to, being in this stall,” she told her friends.

  “That’s for sure,” Carole said, leaning against the wall. “Pepper was one in a million. No, make that two million.”

  “Well, I for one am glad that Max decided to put Calypso in Pepper’s stall,” Stevie declared. She grinned. “After all, that means Veronica can’t move Garnet in here.”

  “I’m glad, too, but not just for that reason, although it is a good one,” Lisa said.

  “Really? I was afraid you’d be upset,” Carole admitted. “After all, Pepper has only been gone for a day, and already another horse is here in his place.”

  “I guess you could look at it that way,” Lisa said thoughtfully. “But I think it’s nice that Calypso is here. After all, someday soon she’ll probably have a foal. Since she’s staying in this stall, the foal will almost be part of Pepper, too.” She paused, with the feeling that she wasn’t explaining herself very well. “Do you know what I mean?”

  Carole looked confused, but Stevie nodded. “I think I do,” she said. “None of us will ever forget Pepper, but Calypso is proof that life goes on, and that’s important. Putting her in here is almost a tribute to Pepper, in a way.” She reached up and scratched the mare behind her ears. Calypso lowered her head and half closed her eyes in enjoyment. “Especially since she seems to be just as gentle and friendly as he was.”

  “Thanks,” Lisa said to Stevie with a smile. “That’s just exactly what I was trying to say.”

  Stevie blinked. “Does that mean I’ve finally learned to speak Lisa-ese?” she asked.

  “I think it just means you’re a really good friend,” Lisa replied. She stopped grooming Calypso long enough to give Stevie a hug. “Thanks.”

  “What are friends for?” Stevie replied, hugging her back. Then she noticed that Carole was staring into space, looking distracted. She reached over and poked her. “Carole? What’s on your mind?”

  “Just what you said about Pepper’s stall and everything. I never thought about it like that before,” Carole said slowly. “I guess I see what you guys mean, but I still can’t help thinking that there should be something else we can do to show how important Pepper was to us.”

  “I was thinking about that a lot last night,” Lisa said, a bit shyly. “I had an idea.”

  “What?” Carole and Stevie asked in one voice.

  “Well,” Lisa began, hoping her friends wouldn’t think she was silly, “just before Pepper—well, just before the end, I kept thinking there was something I wanted to say to him, you know, to sort of sum up everything he’s been to me.”

  Carole and Stevie nodded, understanding perfectly.

  “So,” Lisa continued, “I finally realized that the only thing I could think of was to thank him. For all the good times and everything, and for always being such a good friend to me and to everyone else.”

  Carole and Stevie nodded again. “What’s your idea, then?” Carole asked.

  “I want to ask Max if we can put up a plaque by Pepper’s paddock. It could go on the fence, right there in the shade of that big oak tree where he used to stand when it got hot,” Lisa said. “All it would need to say is his name, and ‘thank you.’ It could sort of be from everyone who ever knew him.”

  “What a wonderful idea,” Carole whispered. Even though she and Lisa might have very different ways of looking at things sometimes, she knew that the most important thing was that they had both loved Pepper. So had Stevie, and most of the other riders at Pine Hollow. The plaque sounded like a perfect way to help keep his memory alive for all of them, and Carole was glad that Lisa had thought of it. “It’s especially perfect considering that it’s Thanksgiving time. Whenever we see the plaque, we’ll always remember to be thankful for Pepper—and for all the other horses, too,” she added, thinking of Starlight.

  “Definitely,” Stevie added. “It’s absolutely perfect. Let’s ask Max about it right away.”

  Carole cleared her throat. “Well, actually, if you don’t mind too much, could we wait a couple of hours before we talk to Max?”

  Lisa and Stevie both shrugged. “Sure,” Lisa said. “I’m sure he’ll be busy for a while getting settled in after his trip, anyway. But why? Are you still embarrassed about our mistake?” She grimaced at the memory. She could hardly believe that they had confused Max’s plans to buy a new horse with a romantic rendezvous—although, as it turned out, there really had been more than one “special lady” involved if they counted Calypso and Lillian.

  “No, it’s not that,” Carole said, a smile spreading across her face. “It’s just that I realized we’ve all been breaking one of the cardinal rules of The Saddle Club.”

  “What do you mean?” Stevie demanded. “Just because you two weren’t much help when I was mucking out stalls all week”—she gave a mock groan and grabbed her back, pretending to be in pain from all the work—“doesn’t mean we weren’t all helping each other out in other ways.…”

  “No, no, that’s not what I meant,” Carole interrupted. By now the smile was a full-fledged grin. “I’m talking about the other rule, being horse crazy. I mean, think about it. We’ve been so busy with our various Saddle Club Thanksgiving projects that we haven’t been riding in at least …”

  “Four whole days,” Stevie and Lisa finished the sentence for her, their eyes growing wide as they realized she was right.

  “I think a trail ride is in order, pronto!” Carole said, straightening up and giving her best Marine Corps salute.

  “Aye, aye, sir,” Stevie said, giving a rather sloppy salute in return. “Let’s saddle up and hit the trail!”

  “Sounds good to me,” Lisa said. She gave Calypso’s shiny coat a quick once-over with a cloth. Then, satisfied that the mare was comfortable, she and her two best friends gave her a good-bye pat, left Pepper’s—now Calypso’s—stall, and hurried off to tack up for their favorite activity. And they were all thankful for that.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  BONNIE BRYANT is the author of many books for young readers, including novelizations of movie hits such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ®and Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, written under her married name, B. B. Hiller.

  Ms. Bryant began writing The Saddle Club in 1986. Although she had done some riding before that, she intensified her studies then and found herself learning right along with her characters Stevie, Carole, and Lisa. She claims that they are all much better riders than she is.

  Ms. Bryant was born and raised in New York City. She still lives there, in Greenwich Village, with her two sons.