Horse Wise (13 page)

The Saddle Club looked at one another. What was
this
about?

“Last week, one of our members did something very careless—something no Horse Wise person should ever do. She took a horse into the fields and failed to
close gates behind her. As a result, Samson, the colt, got into a treacherous situation, saved only by the quick thinking and able attention of three of our members. The Pony Club regulations allow me some latitude oh membership requirements. One of them is horse safety. The member who failed to close the gates has been suspended from Horse Wise for a month. The same would happen to anyone who did something so careless, whether it resulted in damage or not.”

Carole looked around the room. She could see that everybody was doing the same thing. She heard one Pony Club member ask another, “Who’s missing?” Carole grinned. She and her friends didn’t have to ask. It was Veronica. For once in her life—in
their
lives—Veronica was getting properly rewarded for her behavior!

Stevie leaned over to whisper to Carole. “This won’t be an ordinary Saddle Club meeting,” she said. “This will be a Saddle Club quadruple celebration!”

“Quadruple?” Carole asked.

“Sure. One for each of our patches. And one for Veronica!”

“N
OW
,
LET ME
see if I’ve got this straight,” the waitress at TD’s said. Lisa tried to suppress a smile. Eating ice cream with Stevie had its moments.

“You want hot fudge on vanilla,” she said to Lisa. Lisa nodded. She turned to Carole. “And you’re having a dish of maple walnut?”

“Yes, please,” Carole said.

“And yours,” she looked at Stevie over her glasses, “is pineapple chunk on bubble-gum-baby ice cream.”

“That’s right, and could you put some of that marshmallow goo and a cherry on top?”

A look of terror crossed the woman’s face. “I don’t know,” she said, paling. “I’ll ask the chef.” She fled from their table, but Lisa didn’t think she was out of earshot when they all burst into giggles.

“New woman,” Carole said.

“But not for long, I fear.” Stevie sighed dramatically. They laughed again.

“Oh, I feel so good,” Carole said. “It’s a kind of all-over wonderful feeling.”

“I know just what you mean,” Stevie agreed.

“Me, too,” Lisa added. “I’m really glad for both of you, passing your advanced ratings. For me and for now, D-1 is enough.”

“Actually, although I’m really glad about my D-3, I think I’m really happier about Veronica getting her just desserts.”

“Think she’ll learn anything from it?” Lisa asked.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Carole said. “She’s not a fast learner when it comes to her own faults.”

“We, on the other hand, are very fast learners, especially when it comes to horses,” Lisa said.

“And science projects,” Stevie added. “I handed mine in this week, you know, the radish one. I think the teacher liked it, except for the part where I started watering the pots that weren’t supposed to get water because I felt so sorry for those poor seeds. They needed water just like I need my—”

“Here you go, girls.” The waitress had come back with their orders.

“—sundae,” Stevie finished her sentence.

The dishes were on the table and the waitress disappeared before the girls could thank her.

“I think she wanted to get away from Stevie’s order,” Lisa said.

“She’ll learn,” Stevie said, taking her first bite. “It’s positively delicious.”

Her friends didn’t believe her, either.

“What were we talking about?” Stevie asked.

“Veronica, of course,” Lisa reminded her. “And whether she would ever learn anything.”

“The answer to that is probably no,” Carole said. “But who cares about her? We’re learning and that’s the important thing.”

“Boy, are we ever!” Stevie said. “I mean, I learned all about horses’ leg bones this week. Didn’t think I’d ever know that stuff—didn’t think I’d ever need to.”

“Leg bones are easy,” Carole teased. “Wait until you study up on botflies!”

“Oh, yeah, laying their eggs in botcaves. I loved that,” Stevie said, giggling. Carole and Lisa laughed as well.

“You’re not the only one who’s learning,” Lisa said, a little bit more seriously. “I learned that I should trust my friends. When I’ve got trouble, they won’t waste time on dumb things like envy. My friends get right down to the important thing—being friends.”

The girls looked at one another, feeling the warmth of the moment and the importance of their friendship.

“Looks like there’s been a lot of learning going on,” Stevie said, scraping the last of the marshmallow
goo from the side of her dish. “What I figure it amounts to is that we’re all becoming horse wise!”

Lisa laughed. “You can say that again,” she said.

Stevie didn’t hesitate. “What I figure it amounts to is that—”

Lisa turned to Carole. “Good,” she said. “We’ve found a way to keep her busy, repeating herself. It’s the opportunity we’ve been waiting for to get a taste of her delicious sundae!”

Stevie parried their advances on her sundae with her spoon. “Horse wise, we can do together,” she said. “Sundae wise you can do on your own allowances!”

They all laughed together. It felt very good.

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.