Million-Dollar Horse (5 page)

“I
DON
’
T UNDERSTAND
,” Lisa said. “I thought we were doing everything just right for Honey-Pie.”

“Honey-Pie seemed to think so, too,” said Stevie, recalling the sweet way the horse had behaved.

“Well, except for the part about wanting to put a lead on her to take her out to the paddock,” Carole said, smiling at the memory.

“Wasn’t that cute?” Lisa asked, thinking of the surprised look on Carole’s face when the horse nudged her.

“Honey-Pie has got to be the easiest horse I’ve ever looked after,” said Stevie. “Maybe when Max said she was a million-dollar horse, he meant that was how much the owners saved in trouble. Some horses …”

She didn’t have to explain. Her friends knew that many horses had quirks that made them hard to look after. One wanted to be led only from the right-hand side; another would eat only feed without corn in it. Some horses wouldn’t go into a paddock; some seemed at ease only with men or only with women. Prancer, the horse Lisa rode most of the time, was much more comfortable with young riders than with adults. Honey-Pie, on the other hand, seemed to be completely quirkless, unless you counted the fact that she could walk out into the paddock without any help from Carole!

“We can give her the best care,” Lisa said.

“I know it, you know it, and I thought Max knew it,” Stevie said. “So why did he tell Mr. Call-me-Paul different?”

“Beats me,” said Lisa.

“It’s a mystery,” said Stevie. “You know, that’s the second time I’ve said that in the last hour or so about Honey-Pie.”

“I noticed,” Lisa said.

“There’s a lot about that horse that’s mysterious,” Carole confirmed.

“I’m beginning to think we’re going to have to do some sleuthing,” Stevie said.

“Don’t be silly,” Lisa said. “The most important thing
we can do for that horse is look after her. If Max doesn’t think we know what we’re doing, we’re going to have to work extra hard, for her and for ourselves. We have to save our reputations.”

“I can’t disagree,” Stevie said. “Still, I’d like to know what’s going on. Really.”

“Oh, we’ll learn, all in good time,” said Carole. “For now, it’s just going to be fun to take care of Honey-Pie.”

The three girls had arrived at the shopping center. It was just a small strip mall, but it had two attractions that made it extremely important to them. The first was TD’s and the second was the bus stop. Stevie and Lisa each lived a few short blocks from Pine Hollow, and only a few houses from one another, but Carole’s house was several miles away, and when her father couldn’t pick her up, she took the bus home.

The strip mall offered a few other shops. There were a shoe store, an electronics store, a supermarket, and a recently opened jewelry store. When the girls saw Veronica approaching them, they knew there was only one reason she’d be there, and it certainly wasn’t to meet them—let alone catch the bus.

“Have you come to buy a gold trinket to soothe yourself after that trying visit to Pine Hollow?” Stevie taunted. Veronica was such an easy target for her teasing
that it was almost embarrassing, but she was so full of herself that Stevie simply couldn’t resist.

“You can be as snide as you want,” Veronica answered. “But the next time Red neglects Belle or Starlight—well, I just want to hear what you have to say to Max about it!”

“Are you going into Baubles and Bangles?” Lisa asked, hoping to steer the conversation in a more neutral direction. That was the jewelry store behind them.

“Yes,” Veronica said. “I need a new stock pin for the next time Danny and I are in a show. It’s hardly suitable to be in the winner’s circle with that old thing I’ve got now. It got bent when I was thrown—you remember the time Red startled Danny when we were warming up at the show?”

They did remember, but it had hardly been Red’s fault that Danny had been allowed to approach the jump too fast. Veronica had yanked on the reins to slow him just when she should have been letting him jump.

“One certainly can’t show with a bent pin,” Stevie agreed. Then she had another idea. “Say, you know, I was looking through the Cross County catalog last night, and they have some really pretty jewelry, including a great collection of stock pins.…”

“Gold?”

“Of course,” said Stevie.

“Eighteen-karat?”

“No, I think they’re fourteen,” said Stevie.

Veronica’s response was a withering look. “Inferior quality,” she said. “Just like the help at the stable.”

“What do you mean by that?” Carole asked, unable to resist.

“As if you didn’t know, or maybe you don’t because you’ve grown to expect second-rate service.” Veronica paused for effect. “Anyway, just to alert you, once again, Red failed to secure the latch on Danny’s stall.”

“But didn’t you put Danny in there yourself?” Carole asked, recalling specifically that she’d seen Veronica do so.

“Well, yes, but it was certainly Red’s responsibility to check to see that it was latched after I left, and he clearly never got around to it. Do you know what might have happened if I hadn’t gone back to see that he’d done his job?”

“Yes, of course I know,” said Carole, horrified that Veronica would take such a terrible risk with such a valuable horse. “Your horse might have walked right out of his stall and into all kinds of danger. What were you thinking?”

“
Me?
Red is the one who failed here,” said Veronica. “He’s the stable hand, isn’t he?”

“Stable hand yes, personal servant no,” said Stevie.

“Oh, look!” Veronica said. “The store is about to close. I’d better hurry!” With that, she left the three girls standing at the bus stop.

“Only Veronica,” Lisa said.

“Can you imagine intentionally putting your horse at risk in order to test Red’s skills as a stable hand?” Carole asked, still stunned.

“There are two things about Veronica,” Stevie said. “One is that nothing is ever her fault, and the other is that there is no depth to which she will not sink.”

“And all of that makes her a constant source of entertainment for us,” Lisa added.

“And work for Red,” said Carole.

Just then Carole’s bus pulled up to the stop in the parking lot. The girls hastily made arrangements to meet at Pine Hollow after school the next day. They had their work cut out for them if they wanted to convince Max that Paul Fredericks was right and that they’d do a fine job as Honey-Pie’s primary caretakers.

S
TEVIE SPOTTED HER
friends at Honey-Pie’s stall as soon as she entered the stable the next afternoon.

“So, what can we do for her?” she asked eagerly.

“Well—” Carole began.

“Let me put it this way,” Lisa said, cutting off what sounded as if it might be a long, involved answer to a simple horse question—Carole’s specialty. “It’s going to be hard to prove that we’re experts at taking care of a horse that needs as little care as this old gal.”

“I couldn’t have said it better,” Carole agreed, aware of, and amused by, Lisa’s tactic. “Red cleaned out her stall, gave her fresh hay and water, and that’s about it.”

“We could turn her out into her paddock,” Stevie said.

“If she hasn’t already been out too much,” said Carole.

“I’ll check,” said Lisa, and went out in search of Red to make sure it would be okay to give Honey-Pie some fresh air.

Stevie patted the horse and gave her a bit of carrot while they waited.

“Red says okay,” Lisa informed them.

Stevie opened the door to the little paddock while Carole stood aside, allowing the mare to pass her. Honey-Pie glanced at her, apparently assuring herself that Carole wasn’t going to try the lead rope thing again, and trotted out into the paddock.

“Wow, that was a big job,” Stevie teased. There was an edge to her comment, though, because none of them could figure out why Max seemed to doubt their ability to look after this horse.

“Well, if there’s nothing more to do for Honey-Pie, perhaps we can do something for ourselves,” Carole suggested. “Max left the low jumps up in the schooling ring, and that gives us a chance to work on jump form. Why don’t we tack up and go have some fun?”

Lisa glanced across Honey-Pie’s paddock to the schooling ring and saw that Carole was right. The whole ring was set up with eighteen-inch jumps. The jumps themselves would be no challenge for their horses to get over, and that would make it all the more important to work on their jumping style. One thing she’d learned
in her relatively short time as a rider was that if she could do something perfectly when it was made easy for her, she’d be able to do it better when it was harder.

In fifteen minutes, the three girls were ready to begin. Carole went first. Her horse, Starlight, was a natural jumper, and she had learned a lot from him.

But this exercise was difficult for the bay gelding. He loved jumping so much that he tended to overjump—to begin too early or jump too high. In hunter-jumping, form was everything, and a horse that jumped four feet high to clear an eighteen-inch jump didn’t have good form. Carole had to work hard to keep him from taking off too far from the little jumps.

Carole was annoyed with her performance. “Go ahead, Stevie, you show me how to do it.”

“It’s tougher than it looks, isn’t it?” Stevie asked.

“For us, yes, but I bet you’ll do better.”

“Not likely,” Stevie said modestly. It turned out that she was wrong, however. Belle and Stevie often worked together on dressage, a precise form of competitive riding in which every single move made a difference in the score. When Stevie held Belle back from jumping too early, Belle held back from jumping too high.

“Nicely done!” Carole said.

“You kept her on a tight rein, didn’t you?” Lisa asked. “Was that why she did so well?”

“Partly,” said Stevie. “Also, all my aids were given in very small doses—like, I only loosened the reins a little bit, leaned forward a small amount, and held her from her takeoff until the very last minute. Remember, a horse cannot see anything that is immediately in front of him and nearby, so he’s relying on you to tell him about the jump. It becomes invisible at the most critical moment.”

“Okay, I’ll try now,” said Lisa, although she wasn’t confident that she’d have much success.

She nudged Prancer to a trot and then to a slow, even canter. She circled the ring once to be sure she and Prancer were in balance; then she opened her left rein a little bit to bring the mare in line with the first jump. Prancer, seeing the jump ahead, began to speed up. Lisa tightened up on the reins to make Prancer return to their earlier pace. Prancer obeyed. The jump wasn’t high, but Prancer knew she had to get over it. She lunged toward it. Lisa didn’t release the reins and allow her to make the jump until they were very close, less than two feet. Prancer got the message. She pushed off with her hind legs and responded with a gentle upward surge as Lisa leaned forward in the saddle and moved her hands up, relaxing the pull on the bit. Prancer cleared the low jump and landed smoothly.

“I did it!” Lisa said.

“Good form!” Carole complimented her.

“Well done,” Stevie agreed.

The rest of the jumps seemed easy after that. Lisa was glad of the exercise. Sometimes the easiest-looking things were the hardest to do right.

As she drew Prancer over to the fence for the rest of the critique she knew she would get—and learn from—she glanced toward the driveway and saw a sports car pulling up in front of the barn. It was a black Jaguar.

“Hey, it’s Mr. Call-me-Paul,” said Stevie.

They watched as Paul Fredericks stepped out of the car, once again dressed for a country club. They expected to see him head into the stable to meet with Max, but they were wrong. He walked over to them.

“Hey, look at the three of you,” he said brightly. “On horses!”

“That’s what we do here,” said Carole. “We ride horses.”

“That is, we ride them when we’re not looking after them,” Lisa added.

“Well you seem to be riding them very well,” he said.

The girls had done nothing but sit in their saddles since the car had come into the driveway. It was hard for Stevie to figure out how he’d decided they were riding well under the circumstances, but there seemed no reason to make an issue of it.

“Max is in the office,” Carole said.

“I’ll see him later, but I’d love to watch you all for a while—that is, if you don’t mind.”

“We don’t mind, Mr. Fredericks,” said Lisa.

“Please, call me Paul,” he said.

“Uh, sure, Paul,” said Lisa. She was uncomfortable with that, but she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it was because it seemed too familiar with someone who wasn’t really a friend. She shrugged it off. If he wanted to be called Paul, she’d try to do it.

Carole began the round of jumps again, this time reining Starlight in as Stevie had done with Belle and getting respectable results.

“Better,” Stevie said.

“Better? I thought she was fabulous!” Paul said. “Why, that horse jumped those fences as if they were nothing at all!”

“Those are only eighteen-inch fences,” Lisa said. “They
are
almost nothing at all.”

“Well, they sure look scary to me!” Paul said.