Horse shy, p.10
Horse Shy,
p.10
“So, why’s everybody telling me about pirates and expeditions and everything?”
“See, now that we know the truth, we don’t have to worry about anybody believing it!” Lisa said. “So, we tell people we’ve done research—and that part’s true—and this is what we found. Only we tell everybody something different and we tell them not to tell anybody else!”
“Somehow this sounds like an idea of Stevie’s,” Carole said, laughing. “You’re really something, you know?”
“I never could have done it without Lisa,” Stevie said. “She had a lot of great research ideas. But if you ever get curious about a certain Mrs. Rappaport, or the town sewer system, just ask me, okay?”
“You’ll be the first person I’ll ask,” Carole assured her. “What I really want to ask, though, is what’s going on with Veronica?” Carole told them about the conversation Veronica had with her father. Stevie and Lisa told her about Veronica’s jumping class—in the library. “Is she changing—or what?” Carole asked.
“I think she is,” Lisa said solemnly. “She really learned something when Cobalt got hurt. You have to respect that, don’t you?”
“I respect it,” Stevie said. “But it doesn’t make me like her much better. She’s still a pain. Now, if she stops being a pain, that’ll be news!” The Saddle Club members laughed together.
“Now, let me tell you my news.” Stevie and Lisa listened eagerly, almost as thrilled as Carole when she told them about Snowball and then, best of all, about Delilah’s foal.
“I can’t wait!” Stevie exclaimed. “The newborns are so cute! Do you think it’ll be black like Cobalt—or a pretty palomino like Delilah?”
They talked animatedly about the foal for a while as they finished their sundaes. Then the talk turned to Carole. She’d known it would come, and she knew that her friends deserved an answer.
“What made you decide to come back?” Lisa asked.
“There were a lot of things. I think that you were right in a way when you said I was horse shy. But not just about any horse—it was Cobalt. It hurt so much when he died that I was afraid I might get hurt again if something like that happened to another horse. But when I saw what Veronica had learned—well, I thought if there’s hope for her, then there’s hope for me. Anyway, the only thing worse than losing something you care about is not having something you care about at all. I learned that when Mom died.”
Stevie and Lisa sat quietly. “There was something else,” Carole continued. “I finally realized that no matter how much I cared about him, Cobalt wasn’t mine. He belonged to somebody else.”
“But you rode him more than Veronica did!” Lisa reminded her.
“I did, that’s right. And I rode him better. But Mrs. Reg had the final lesson for me, though she didn’t say it in so many words. There are lots of horses, some good, some bad, most mixes of good and bad. And I want to ride them all!”
“Uh-oh,” Stevie said. Carole and Lisa turned to her. “With that kind of determination, Carole won’t be horse shy anymore, that’s for sure. But the poor horses—they’ll become Carole shy!”
The three girls laughed together and it felt very, very good. The Saddle Club was now back in full operation.
About the Author
Bonnie Bryant is the author of nearly a hundred books about horses, including the Saddle Club series, the Saddle Club Super Editions, and the Pony Tales series.
Bonnie Bryant, Horse Shy
