Horsenapped! (5 page)

“What are you looking for?” Alicia’s voice came from a few feet behind her. She had followed Carole, making sure she’d gone, and now Carole had been caught red-handed snooping around the woman’s barn.

Carole thought fast. “I just thought I could get a little water for Starlight,” she stammered. She didn’t fool Alicia, though.

“There’s a trough in the field, Carole,” Alicia said. “And you know it’s there. You and your horse are welcome to the water. You are not welcome in my barn. I told you this wasn’t a good time for a visit. Now, please, leave.”

Alicia stood and watched while Carole mounted up
and rode away. There would be no doubling back this time, but there was no need to do it, anyway. Alicia hadn’t exactly told her that Bodoni had been horsenapped, but it was clear that something was very wrong and that it had to do with Bodoni. Carole was even more convinced she’d been right.

Carole was pretty sure that if she spoke with Mr. Feeney, she’d get the same reaction she’d had from Alicia. She concluded, then, that there was no point in talking to him. She’d go right to the horse’s mouth.

Mr. Feeney had a small stable to the side of his house. Carole approached it from the side away from the house. The stable was unlocked. She and Starlight stepped in. It was empty—just as she had expected. She had been in enough hot water for one day.

Carole checked her watch. It was time to get back to Pine Hollow. There was a lot of work to be done, not the least of which was the cross-country competition.

As Carole headed back over the fields to Pine Hollow, Max, Red, and Donald were working on the finishing touches for the junior course. The cross-country trail would take the riders in open areas as well as wooded ones. There were a lot of obstacles the riders and horses had to clear. It was a little bit like a hunting trail and Carole suspected it would turn out to be a lot of fun. Max saw her and waved. Red did, too. Donald regarded her
quizzically. Carole thought maybe he was worried that she would overtire Starlight.

She leaned forward and patted Starlight’s neck. He wasn’t tired at all. He loved a brisk ride in the early morning. Just to prove it, he whipped his tail up brightly and lengthened his stride. He was ready.

 

S
TEVIE AIMED THE
hose at Topside for a final rinse. She’d shampooed every inch of him so his coat would gleam for the afternoon competition. Now, satisfied, she turned off the water and tugged gently at his lead rope to move him from the bathing area. It was time to dry him and finish his grooming.

The horse didn’t budge. “Come on, boy,” Stevie said. He still didn’t want to move. Stevie knew what the problem was. He loved being bathed and he didn’t want it to stop. He was just like her little brother Michael. He never wanted to get out of the tub, either. The only way she’d ever been able to get him out was to tell him that Alex or Chad, her two other brothers, were playing with his Nintendo games. She had the funniest feeling that ploy wouldn’t work with Topside.

“Yeah,” she said to him. “You’re always glad to share your Nintendo games, aren’t you?”

Topside didn’t answer. It was as if he had decided he wouldn’t move or react to anything until he got more shower time.

“Okay, that’s it!” she said in her most motherlike voice. “If you don’t get out of the shower right this minute, there will be no dessert for you tonight!” She tugged at the lead rope as she spoke.

For some reason, Topside got the message. He followed Stevie to the area where she could dry him off. Stevie was relieved he’d obeyed, but she did wonder what, exactly, she was going to have to give him for dessert.

“He looks great!” Lisa said. She was in the hallway where her horse, Pepper, was cross-tied for his grooming.

“Thanks,” Stevie said. “And Pepper looks ready for the Embassy Ball!”

Lisa nodded proudly. Pepper was a dappled gray. His coat didn’t shine the way Topside’s deep, rich brown did, but it certainly looked better when he was well curried and brushed.

“I was just wondering why horses are willing to stand still so long to be fussed over with grooming. Do you know?” Lisa asked.

“Sure. They love it,” Stevie said. “They love the attention, and a lot of the stuff, like the bathing, brushing, and combing, just feels good. I don’t think horses are too
enthusiastic about having their feet picked, but a lot of them know that it feels better when it’s done, so they put up with it.”

That sounded reasonable to Lisa. Then something else occurred to her. “Well, if that’s the case, how come we have to be careful on the trail not to let them get near a dirt or mud patch because they’ll roll in it?”

“Hmmm,” Stevie said thoughtfully. “Good question.”

“Two answers,” Carole said, joining her friends. She was leading Starlight back to his stall from her morning adventure. “In the first place, they do it to scratch or cool off. In the second place, they do it so they get very dirty so they have to be groomed all the more.”

“Now, there’s horse logic,” Lisa said.

“And it makes complete sense,” Stevie said.

“If you’re a horse!” Lisa concluded.

“Excuse me! Excuse me, coming through!” It was Donald, pushing a wheelbarrow of fresh hay. The three girls and their horses were blocking the aisle. Donald would have to duck under their cross-ties to make it through the traffic jam. The girls didn’t have a chance to move before he began threading a path around the horses, and he was gone before they could clear a way for him.

“What was that?” Lisa asked.

“A whirling dervish!” Stevie observed.

“Somebody who didn’t know what he was doing,” Carole added. “It was reckless to push that wheelbarrow right
behind Topside. Donald hasn’t been here long enough to know if Topside is a kicker or not.”

Lisa looked down the aisle at the quickly disappearing Donald. Carole was right and it was puzzling. Everybody knew that horses had individual personalities. Some could be quite dangerous if you weren’t careful. Donald hadn’t been careful. He’d been lucky. Topside was a great horse, almost unflappable. But if Donald had pushed the wheelbarrow that close to Starlight’s rear, he’d have stood a good chance of making an aerial exit from the stable!

She shared the thought with Stevie and Carole.

Stevie laughed. “Maybe that’s how he seems to fly around here all the time, doing seventeen chores at once!”

“Then we’re in good shape,” Carole said. “All we have to do is two at a time.”

“How’s that?” Lisa asked.

“Well, first of all, we have to win blue ribbons; and second, we have to find some missing horses—three of them, to be exact!”

Stevie’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Aha, the game’s afoot!” she declared, borrowing a phrase from Sherlock Holmes. “I think we ought to have a Saddle Club meeting.”

“Definitely,” Carole agreed. “Let’s finish our grooming and then get to the hayloft so I can tell you about my
adventures this morning. Something tells me we shouldn’t talk here.”

“Aha,” Stevie said. She spoke conspiratorially. “The stalls have ears!”

A
FEW HOURS
later, Lisa was ready for competition. At least she hoped she was. She’d spent the first part of the morning grooming Pepper, and the last part of it hearing about Carole’s early-morning ride. At a time when she should have been able to focus solely on the competition, her mind was a total jumble of horse-related confusion.

The cross-country ride was a three-mile trail through fields and forest, up and down hills and over obstacles. The idea was to complete the course in a specified amount of time, negotiating all of the obstacles properly. It wasn’t a race. In fact, taking too little time cost points. The rider had to maintain an even pace. Max had given all of the entrants a map of the course the day before and they’d all been allowed to walk it if they wanted. The Saddle Club had been so busy worrying about Garnet that they had only walked the course once.

Lisa was afraid that not covering the course a second time would hurt her chances, but a look at the map told her it probably wouldn’t make any difference. She and Carole and Stevie had spent many hours riding through
the fields and woods and over the hills around Pine Hollow. She knew the land around there pretty well as it was.

“Can everybody hear me?” Max asked. There were fifteen entrants in the junior cross-country. They stood around Max in a circle. “I’m going to go over the rules a final time and then we’ll have the draw for positions.”

Lisa knew that position could be very important in a ride like this. Whether you went first or last or in the middle could make a difference in your performance. What she couldn’t figure out was what position was the best for her. She didn’t have time to think about that now. Max had lots to say.

“The course is three miles long. The trail is marked by red stakes. You should have no trouble following it. There are ten obstacles in it. They include two times across the creek, one low jump over a stone wall, one steep climb up a section of hill, and another steep climb down. In addition to these five natural barriers, there are five artificial jumps. Four of them are in the field. One is in the woods. Red and I have ridden the course several times. It’s safe and, we think, fun. It’s not long. It should take you about fifteen minutes at a steady canter. In fact, it should take you not more than seventeen minutes, nor less than thirteen. Those are your time limits. If you come in either faster or slower, you’ll get penalty points. You also get penalty points if your horse refuses an obstacle or if you fall. If you complete the course without a
mistake, within the time limit, you don’t get any penalty points. Is everything clear?”

The riders nodded and then they all looked around at one another. Lisa had the feeling each of them was wondering if any of them could make it through without a fault. Eventually, it seemed that everybody was looking at Carole.

Max then pulled out a bowl filled with slips of paper containing each rider’s name. He began the draw, explaining that two or three riders would be on the course at once and that they’d start at four-minute intervals.

Max reached into the bowl, picked the first scrap of paper, and announced, “Lisa Atwood.”

Lisa could feel herself get nervous. It started in her stomach and then traveled quickly to her knees.

“Oh, you poor thing. I hate going first!” the girl next to her said.

On her other side, Stevie gave her a squeeze. “You’re so lucky! Just think, you’ll be the first person on the trail and you get to set the standard the rest of us have to come up to.”

Lisa, who was pretty much of an optimist under any circumstances, decided she liked Stevie’s way of looking at the situation. She smiled confidently. The minute she did that, her knees felt better and her stomach steadied.

Then, fifteen minutes later, she was in the starting area.

“Remember,” Carole told her reassuringly. “This is a case where it’s really true that ‘slow and steady wins the race.’ ”

“Good luck!” Stevie said.

“On your mark,” said Mrs. Reg, Max’s mother. She was the starter for this event. She checked her timer. “Get set.” She pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and held it high. “Go!” She brought the handkerchief down quickly. Lisa was off.

The course began in the fields behind the stable. Lisa knew the fields well. She looked at the path as it was laid out. It was very level. This, she decided, would be a good time to set the pace she wanted to keep throughout the course. Pepper was cantering, as he was supposed to be, but, she felt, his canter was a little sluggish. When he broke into a trot, she knew that was the case. She signaled him to canter again, by touching behind his girth with her right heel and this time, she also maintained pressure on his belly with her left calf.

It worked. Pepper’s canter was an even and smooth rocking gait when he did it right, and it was Lisa’s job to make him do it right. She’d accomplished that. She was pleased.

Lisa spotted the first jump. It was only about eighteen inches high. It was eighteen inches across, too. Lisa prepared herself. She shifted her weight a little forward and then, as they approached the jump, she shortened her
reins and rose in the saddle, leaning forward, parallel to Pepper’s neck. At just the right moment, he rose in the air and cleared the fence handily. Lisa straightened up as Pepper neared the ground and felt herself slide right back into the saddle where she belonged.

“Ten!” she told herself proudly, although in this event, there were no points for doing a good or better or even perfect jump. The idea was to get over it and stay on the horse. She’d accomplished that, too.

The next jump was higher, but not as wide. It was a lot lower than many jumps she’d taken, but it was higher than the last one. Because of that, it seemed to loom a lot higher than she knew it was. The rule of thumb in jumping was that the horse should take off about as far from the jump as it was high. This was almost a three-foot jump. Pepper’s front feet should leave the ground about three feet from it. Lisa couldn’t help herself. Because the jump looked so high, she got prepared for it too soon. Pepper, always an obedient horse, did exactly what she asked him to do. He took off almost five feet in front of it. Fortunately, he also did what he knew he was supposed to do. He made it over the fence, but just barely. Lisa listened for the sound of a hoof hitting a wooden bar and sighed with relief when she didn’t hear it.