Riding Class (12 page)

T
HE
S
ADDLE
C
LUB
and Emily sat still on their horses just outside the stable. All around them the other Pony Clubbers laughed and chattered, but the four girls were too happy to talk. Emily stroked P.C.’s neck over and over, her face aglow.

“They’re a long time getting the results together,” Stevie said at last. “I saw Max go out with the hay wagon and pick up all the judges.”

“It probably takes a while to count up everyone’s faults,” Carole suggested. “How many faults do you think we got for jumping the bridge?” She absentmindedly played with Starlight’s mane. She was proud of him—he had tried
hard. She was proud of herself, too, and of her friends. No matter what the official results were, they had all done well. Emily’s ride had been her own, but Carole had helped to teach her.

“All the judges are talking about something,” Stevie said, looking over to where the final station had been. “They’re waving their hands around. It looks interesting.” She clucked to Belle and rode over to eavesdrop. Soon she returned with a grin on her face.

“They’re talking about you,” she said to Emily. “They’re trying to decide if what you did was a legal dismount. The best part is, none of the judges knew you were disabled! The ones at the last station couldn’t figure out why you made your horse lie down, and none of them knew why Lisa wasn’t completing all the stations.”

They laughed. “Max is explaining it to them,” Stevie said.

“I’m glad he didn’t tell them ahead of time,” Emily said. “I wanted them to mark me fairly.”

“Marian—Dr. Dinmore—she’s taking Emily’s side pretty strongly. She said, and I quote, ‘She got on and off her horse, didn’t she? You ought to give her double credit—triple credit—for being able to make it lie down. No other rider here could do that!’ ”

“No other rider here is riding P.C.,” Emily pointed out. “I’m so proud of him. I can’t even tell you how much. I
don’t care if they do disqualify us. Just being able to ride, and everything we did—that was enough. I’ll never forget what this horse did today.”

“We’ll never forget what you did,” Lisa said softly. “P.C. was awesome, but so were you.”

Emily began to respond, but Stevie shushed her. “Here comes Max! He’s announcing the results!”

Max stepped up to the microphone he’d placed near the gate of the outdoor ring. “Horse Wise, come to order,” he said. “Testing—one—two—three …” All around the ring, the riders quieted and stilled their horses.

First Max thanked everyone for riding. He told them how proud he was of all of them. He thanked the judges again, and thanked Red, Mrs. Reg, and Deborah, his wife, for helping him put the competition together.

“And now”—Max ruffled the papers he held in his hand—“the moment you’ve all been waiting for.” He paused and looked around the ring until a few of the riders started to grumble impatiently. “The moment you’re all still waiting for …”

“Great, give him a mike and he becomes a comedian,” Stevie muttered. Her stomach was tied in knots.

“I’m pleased at how well you all did,” Max continued at last. “Many of you encountered trouble at some of the stations, but you persevered and all of you ultimately got your horses through. Well done!”

“He means there were some major refusals, but no one fell off,” Lisa interpreted. The others grinned but didn’t respond. They were too eager to hear what Max had to say next.

“Here are the top six, the ribbon winners, in reverse order of finish. In sixth place, Carole Hanson and Starlight!”

Carole rode Starlight into the ring and gracefully accepted her green ribbon. She was happy to get any color ribbon at all. She halted Starlight at the far end of the ring and waited for the others.

Max announced May in fifth place and Polly in fourth. “Third place—Stevie Lake and Belle!” The Saddle Club cheered. Stevie rode in proudly.

“Cross your fingers,” Lisa whispered to Emily.

“They’ve disqualified me, I know it,” Emily replied. “I’m not even going to think about it.”

“Second place—Veronica diAngelo and Go For Blue!”

“Go for red, more like,” Emily whispered, referring to the color of the second-place ribbon. Lisa was too busy watching Veronica to reply. From the look of utter, devastating astonishment that washed over Veronica’s face, Lisa knew that Veronica had been expecting to win. She and Danny must have had a very good round.

“Veronica?” Max asked. Veronica remained motionless on Danny, gaping. “Would you like to come into the ring?”

Veronica composed her features and rode stone-faced into the ring. She took her ribbon and joined the line of riders. Lisa saw her look searchingly around the ring and was sure that Veronica was wondering who among the remaining riders could possibly have beaten her.

There was a long, tense silence. Then Max announced with a flourish, “And finally, the Champions of the First Annual Max Regnery Junior Handy Hunter Trail Competition, a combination that showed true high-class horsemanship and teamwork throughout every aspect of today’s event, Miss Emily Williams and P.C.!”

The riders burst into applause. Most of Horse Wise remembered Emily from her visit the week before, and many of them had also seen her special dismount with P.C. They cheered her as if they fully understood how much she deserved the victory.

As Emily trotted regally into the ring, Lisa kept her eyes on Veronica. She saw Veronica look at Emily and give a start of recognition. It was clear to Lisa that, until the moment Emily was handed the blue ribbon, Veronica hadn’t recognized her as the girl she’d insulted the week before. Veronica had seen Emily as a disabled person, not as a rider. Now she was having to readjust her opinions, fast. She and superstar Danny had been beaten by the scruffiest—and smartest, most willing, most obedient, and
best
—horse in the class.

Lisa felt she’d never had a sweeter victory, even though it wasn’t exactly her own. The rest of The Saddle Club seemed to agree. As Emily led the riders from the ring, Stevie stood in her stirrups and called out, “P.C. stands for Perfect Champion!”

Emily looked back, laughing. Carole and Stevie cheered. Emily pulled P.C. up to Lisa and leaned forward. “Today,” she said, “
I
buy the ice cream!”

“H
I
, E
MILY
!” C
AROLE
greeted her as she walked through Free Rein’s stable door. It was Monday afternoon, two days after Emily’s triumph in the handy hunter competition.

Emily straightened from brushing P.C.’s leg. “Hi!” she said. “I wondered if you guys were coming today.”

“Of course we were,” Carole said. Stevie and Lisa trailed in after her and greeted Emily. “We want to keep helping here,” Carole continued. “Not just because we’ll get to see you, but because we really like it here.”

“Ms. Payne said that a few of the volunteers want to switch away from Monday nights,” Lisa added. “She says if we come a few more times, we’ll be ready to start working
as side-walkers or leaders, and we can take their places. She said I can keep working with Toby.”

“With me?” Toby came trotting into the stable.

“With you,” Lisa said, smiling. She gave him a quick hug and went with him into the tack room to collect a grooming bucket for his horse.

When she and Toby came out, Stevie was entertaining the other riders, Joshua and Claire, and all the volunteers with an account of Emily’s handy hunter ride. Even Joshua appeared to be paying some attention to Stevie.

“… and after the gate,” Stevie was saying, “came the creek crossing, this dangerous, rushing stream. Did P.C. hesitate? Was he afraid? No! Skillfully he plunged through the icy water, carrying Emily safely to the other side.”

“Which is more than we can say for your horse,” Emily cut in, smiling. “I heard Belle wanted to roll.”

“What happened next, Stevie?” Claire asked.

“Next …” Stevie looked frantically to Carole for help.

“The V-shaped figure,” Carole reminded her. She looked at Joshua standing beside her and sighed. He seemed to have faded into his own world again. He wasn’t listening. Carole wondered if he knew she was there.

“Oh, right!” Stevie said, remembering. “Okay, after Emily and P.C. made it across the stream, they trotted along the trail until they came to a clearing, and right in the
center was this big zigzag shape made out of ground poles—”

“Big, fierce, horse-eating ground poles,” Lisa supplied. “Ready to leap up from the ground and devour P.C.! But did he hesitate? Was he afraid?”

“No!” Claire and some of the volunteers answered, and the group collapsed into laughter.

“This is
my
story,” Stevie told her friend.

“No, it isn’t,” Lisa answered. “In the first place, I was there and you weren’t. In the second place, it’s Emily’s story.”

“I guess you’re right,” Stevie agreed good-naturedly.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Emily said, patting P.C. “I think I prefer your version, Stevie. P.C. as a dragon slayer, a kind of Pony Cavalier. Anyway, I owe it all to the three of you. I couldn’t have done any of it without The Saddle Club.”

“Yes, you could have,” Carole said. “I know we helped, but other people could have helped you.”

“You did it, though.” Emily’s eyes were shining.

“And you had to ride the whole trail yourself. We didn’t do anything to help you there.”

“P.C.,” Emily said. “That was all P.C.”

Carole couldn’t argue. She knew how much Emily had done, but she knew she would have given Starlight the credit, too. “Maybe not
all
P.C.,” she said, and left it at that.

Stevie led Claire to the door of P.C.’s stall. “Look over here,” she said to the little girl. “Emily hung her ribbon right here.”

Claire felt it with both hands. “Oh, it’s smooth!”

“It says First Place, Pine Hollow Stables.” Stevie read the gold lettering on the ribbon. “There’s a picture of a horse head in the middle of the rosette at the top. Emily got a new halter, too, as a prize.”

Claire turned to Emily. “It’s a beautiful ribbon,” she said.

To Carole’s surprise, Joshua moved forward. He touched the ribbon with one long, slender hand. He looked at Carole questioningly.

The others went still. “That’s Emily’s horse’s ribbon,” Carole told him softly. “P.C. won it on Saturday for being a very good horse.”

Joshua studied the ribbon carefully. He turned and looked at P.C. He took two steps forward and bent his head toward P.C.’s. “Good horse,” he said clearly.

Carole felt her eyes fill with tears. She looked at Emily, who was smiling at Joshua as brightly as she had on Saturday when she had won the class.

Emily turned back to Carole, her eyes shining, too. “Another victory,” she said.

Bonnie Bryant is the author of nearly a hundred books about horses, including The Saddle Club series, Saddle Club Super Editions, and the Pony Tails series. She has also written novels and movie novelizations 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.