Stable Manners (2 page)

Maybe she could call Cam and cancel. She could say that the meeting had been postponed or was going to be a mounted meeting, or she’d gotten the date wrong, or she was going to have to be away that weekend,
or anything at all. Then, as Carole thought about that for a minute, trying to decide which excuse she’d use, she realized she wasn’t being fair. Cam would probably love participating in a Know-Down. It was totally out of the question to uninvite him, no matter what reason she came up with or how good it sounded or how nervous she might be. And since he would be there, there was only one thing to do: study. She clutched the folded sheets tightly.

“Egad,” Stevie whispered. “What are we going to do?”

Carole leaned over and whispered quietly into her ear. “Win,” she said.

Stevie grinned. This was something she could understand. From the very beginning of her friendship with Phil, they’d been in competition on the subject of horses and riding. It seemed that whenever they were together, one was trying to prove better than the other. For a while, Stevie had taken it very seriously. That had almost been the end of her friendship with Phil. Then she’d learned that, most of the time, the two of them could compete and have fun and in the end that was what was most important. Of course Stevie would certainly try to win. And so would Phil. That was a nice part about their friendship: It brought out the best in each of them. That was the way Stevie
felt most of the time. Other times, however, she just couldn’t help herself and it seemed like being better than Phil was the most important thing in the world.

“Definitely,” Stevie agreed.

“Ahem, did you say something?” Max asked, glaring at Stevie.

“No, it was me,” Lisa said, saving both of her whispering friends. “Sorry, but I should have raised my hand.” She raised her hand and Max called on her.

“We checked the mare before we came in here and she seems edgy. Doesn’t that mean she’s about to foal?” Lisa asked.

“Maybe,” Max said. “It could also mean nothing. Judy made her daily vet check yesterday and didn’t seem concerned. She’ll be back this afternoon and will check again.”

“But I know that when a mare gets edgy, it’s a sign that she’s about to foal,” Lisa persisted.

“It can be,” Max agreed. “There are other signs, too. Does anybody know what they are?”

Hands started going up. Max got a lot of answers to the question and he told the pony clubbers that they were all right. Different mares apparently had a lot of different indicators that they were near term.

“So, it seems that the only way to be sure that a mare is about to begin serious labor is when serious
labor begins,” Max said. “It’s just not a simple question.”

Lisa found herself a little annoyed, as she had been with her friends. She was used to being right. She was an excellent student who got straight A’s. She didn’t think Max or her friends were paying enough attention to this strong indicator that the mare was about to foal and she was confident that the mare would soon prove her right.
That’ll show everyone I know what I’m talking about,
she thought smugly.

Soon the meeting broke for lunch, scheduled to reconvene in the feed room, where they’d get a lesson on blending feed grains.

Lisa was heading for the door when she heard Max call her name. He also called another rider, a much younger girl named May Grover. Lisa thought he probably wanted to apologize to her for correcting her about the mare, but she found that he had something else on his mind.

“I want you two to work together on something,” Max said. “I’m going to start a Big Sister/Little Sister learning program and you’re my test case.”

For a moment Lisa forgot about the mare. This sounded interesting.

“One of the things we rarely have time for here,” Max went on, “is working with hitching horses and
ponies to carts and wagons. It’s just something we don’t do much and that’s too bad because it’s fun. Lisa, I want you to take this book”—he handed Lisa a small paperback—“and learn how to do it yourself and teach May to do it. Then in ten days, after the Tuesday class, I’d like the two of you to do a demonstration for the rest of Horse Wise. Will you have time to work on this together? You can use Nickel and hitch him to the cart we use for pony rides sometimes. Then, if you’d like, you can take the Horse Wise members for rides.”

Lisa looked at May. The young girl’s eyes were as big as saucers. Lisa herself wasn’t so excited. For one thing, preparing for the Know-Down was going to be a lot of work. For another thing, rides in pony carts seemed very tame compared to all the other wonderful things you could do with a horse. And then there was the mare. She was about to foal and Lisa seemed to be the only one who knew it. That was a big responsibility in itself.

“Lisa?” Max asked. He seemed a little surprised by her hesitation.

Lisa gulped. Even if she wanted to, how could she say no?

“Sure,” she agreed finally, looking lamely at the book in her hand. She flipped through it. It wasn’t
very long. She’d be able to get through it. What could possibly be involved in hitching a pony to a wagon? The pictures in the book showed a very little girl doing the work. May could probably do most of this all by herself. Lisa would just be there to help. “No problem,” Lisa said.

“I
WONDER WHAT
Max wanted to talk to Lisa about,” Carole said to Stevie.

“Me, too, but whatever it is, I’m glad he’s got her for a few minutes.”

“Why?” Carole asked.

“We have to talk,” Stevie said, pulling her sandwich out of her cubby. She signaled Carole to join her and the two of them found a clean empty stall where they could talk privately for a few minutes.

“What’s up?” Carole was really curious. It wasn’t like Stevie to have something to talk about that didn’t include Lisa.

“It has to do with the Know-Down,” said Stevie.

“Oh, sure. We’re going to have to work like crazy and we’ll need Lisa’s help, won’t we?”

“We will,” Stevie agreed. “But that’s not what I mean. The problem is that we each have a boyfriend coming to it and Lisa doesn’t. She’s kind of left out on that.”

“She doesn’t seem to mind,” Carole said.

“Of course she doesn’t
seem
to mind,” said Stevie. “We’re best friends. She’s not going to make us feel uncomfortable by letting us know that she minds, because we’re such good friends. But I’m sure she does mind. Even if it’s only a little.”

Carole thought about it for a minute. The truth was, she didn’t quite think of Cam as a boyfriend. He was a really nice guy she’d met once and talked to a lot, but they hadn’t had a date or anything. He’d held her hand for a few minutes when they took a walk after the horse show. That had been nice, but did it mean he was a boyfriend? Carole finally decided that even if she wasn’t ready to call Cam her boyfriend, Lisa probably would see him that way.

“Okay,” Carole agreed.

The girls bit into their sandwiches and were silent for a few minutes as they contemplated the Know-Down that was coming up.

“I’m really nervous about having Cam there,” Carole
admitted. “What if he knows more than me?” She paused. “Or what if
I
know more than him?” She threw up her hands.

Stevie grinned at her friend’s distress. “I know what you mean. But I’ve decided that it doesn’t matter if we beat them or not. The only thing that matters is learning more about horses. That’s the whole purpose of the thing.”

Carole raised her eyebrows. That didn’t sound like competitive Stevie.

“I’m serious,” Stevie reassured her.

“I totally agree,” Carole said. “So we should send these study sheets to Phil and Cam so we don’t have an unfair advantage.”

“Of course,” said Stevie. “Let’s borrow envelopes and stamps from Mrs. Reg right now and put these in the mail. We can make copies of Lisa’s study sheets at your house tonight.”

“Sure. Our next-door neighbor has a copying machine and she’s always telling Dad and me we can use it.”

The girls wrapped up their half-eaten sandwiches and headed for Mrs. Reg’s office. Mrs. Reg was Max’s mother and the stable manager. Her desk was a confusion of organization. There were papers everywhere, but they were carefully organized. That was like Mrs.
Reg. Everything seemed out of place, but when it was examined, there was always an underlying logic.

“Envelopes here,” Stevie said, reaching into the lowest drawer.

“And stamps here,” Carole said, locating a roll of stamps in the corner of the top drawer.

“And a pen?” Stevie searched the top of the desk and found Mrs. Reg’s pen on top of some order forms she was probably about to take care of.

It only took a minute for each girl to scribble a note and address the envelope to her friend. There was a mailbox out in front of the stable. Stevie took their letters, walked them out to the street, and dropped them in the mailbox while Carole went in search of Lisa.

L
ISA WAS TRYING
to be patient, but it wasn’t easy. Where she wanted to be was checking on the mare again. She thought she’d heard Judy Barker’s truck pull into the stable driveway and she wanted to be there when Judy confirmed to Max that the mare was about to foal. Instead Lisa was stuck tromping across a small paddock with May Grover. May had insisted on examining the pony cart and that was kept in a little shed along with a buckboard and a sleigh that Max also had for horses to pull. May had never seen any of
them and was excited at the prospect of learning something totally new about Pine Hollow. Lisa had tried to talk her into checking on the mare first, but when May wanted to do something, she could be extremely stubborn. She wanted to see the pony cart.

“This way,” Lisa said, leading May to the shed. She was grumbling to herself about it when she felt May take her hand. Suddenly she remembered that May was just a little girl, small enough so that when she crossed streets she still took her mother’s hand. It was a simple gesture and it made Lisa feel a certain responsibility to the little girl who was entrusting her hand to Lisa’s. Lisa gripped the small hand affectionately.

“Are you excited about the Know-Down?” Lisa asked.

“Am I ever!” said May. “The trouble is, I won’t know which to work on harder—the Know-Down or our project.”

“You’ll find time for it all,” Lisa said assuringly. “All you have to do is study your sheets for the Know-Down.”

“I know,” May said. “I put them in my pocket so I wouldn’t lose them …” Her voice trailed off.

Then she let go of Lisa’s hand and patted her pocket. She patted her other pocket.

“Oh, no!” she said, and the tone of her voice was clear, “I’ve lost them already!”

“Don’t worry,” Lisa said. “Max will give you another set. Just ask him when we get back.”

“I don’t want him to know I lost them,” May said. She was clearly distressed and Lisa wanted to comfort her.

“Here, take mine.” Lisa pulled the folded papers out of her pocket. “I can borrow one of my friends’ and copy them so Max will never know that either of us lost a set, okay?”

“Okay,” May said happily. She took Lisa’s study sheets and tucked them carefully into her pocket. Lisa hoped May wouldn’t lose those, too, but her concern faded when she saw how deeply May pushed them into her pocket.

When they reached the shed, Lisa opened the door and flipped on the light. There, in one corner, was the little pony cart they would be using to hitch Nickel. It was very small compared to the buckboard, which was a full-sized flatbed wagon, and very plain compared to the elaborate, old-fashioned one-horse open sleigh. Although Lisa usually thought that everything that had to do with horses was important, she was struck only by how plain and how small and how totally insignificant the pony cart appeared.

“Wow!” said May. “Look at these things!”

“Come on, let’s get back to the stable,” said Lisa. “I think I heard Judy’s truck arrive.”

“Can I sit in the cart, please?” May asked. “Just for a minute?”

Lisa was discovering that it was very hard to say no to May. She gave the little girl a boost into the back of the cart and watched as she sat as proudly as if she were the Queen of the World on her own throne.

“Come on,” Lisa urged her. “Let’s go.”

They couldn’t go right then, though, because May just had to try out the buckboard and the sleigh as well. She thought maybe the sleigh was the best of them, but she wasn’t sure. She wanted to try the pony cart again.

When the two of them finally headed back to the stable, Lisa watched Judy’s truck pull out of the driveway. She’d been there, examined the mare, and moved on before Lisa even had a chance to ask her about the mare’s moodiness.

Lisa rushed to the mare’s stall and found Carole and Stevie there.

“Where have you been?” Carole asked.

“I’ve been with May Grover—oh, it’s a long story,” she said. She didn’t want to take the time to explain
about their Big Sis/Little Sis project right then. She wanted to know about the mare.

“What did Judy say?” she asked. “Didn’t she say that the mare’s moodiness meant she’s about to foal?”

“Oh, I forgot to ask,” Stevie said. “Judy was just here for a minute.”