Stable Manners (8 page)

A secret from her father, forever? The very thought was overwhelming to Carole. How could she not tell her father something important like that? She felt a swelling rise up in her throat. Tears welled in her eyes.

Her father looked at her, alarmed.

“It’s the onions,” she said, wiping away a tear that rolled down her cheek.

L
ISA LOOKED HARD
at the page, as if staring could make the words more sensible—or memorable. Then she closed the book and looked up at the ceiling, attempting to recite what she’d just been attempting to read.

“First comes the collar, then the saddle pad, and you tighten the girth, then you do the thing that goes around the horse’s tail—” She’d already forgotten the word. She looked at the book. She found that she hadn’t just forgotten the word. She’d also forgotten what she’d read.

“All right,” she said aloud. “It’s called the crupper—that’s the thing that goes around the tail—and you
don’t
do it then. You do it
before
you tighten the girth. Then next comes …”

Once again she couldn’t remember. She was very frustrated with herself. She usually was good at learning, particularly memorizing and reciting, but this wasn’t sinking in at all. The problem was the Know-Down. Actually there were two problems to do with the Know-Down. The first one was that there was an awful lot about the Know-Down that she and her friends still had to work on. Once Lisa and May did their demonstration at Horse Wise, which was scheduled for tomorrow, Lisa would have more time to concentrate on learning. Luckily, Lisa reminded herself, Stevie and Carole have been riding for a long time. They’ll see to it that I learn everything I need to know. And, of course, the three of them had an advantage.

Lisa felt a twinge of conscience. That was the second
problem with the Know-Down. If the mix-up with the questions had happened at school, it would be wrong. But Pine Hollow wasn’t school and the Know-Down wasn’t a test. It was a game and the idea was to show how much you had learned and how much you understood. For the past two weeks The Saddle Club had been working hard on accomplishing that very goal.

Lisa dismissed her uncomfortable feelings and looked again at the book about harnesses. The next thing it talked about was breeching. What was that? She studied the chart and couldn’t find it at all. It probably didn’t matter. May almost certainly knew exactly what breeching was.

T
UESDAY WASN
’
T AN
official Pony Club day, but since almost all the kids in Horse Wise also took riding class on Tuesday afternoons, Max sometimes used the class time as if it were a meeting. Sometimes it seemed that the main difference was that on Tuesdays he’d start the class by saying “Riders, come to order!” On Saturdays, it was “Horse Wise, come to order!”

Max had arranged it so that after the formal riding class, May and Lisa would do their demonstration and explanation.

While they were tacking up for class, Lisa asked May if she was nervous.

“I don’t think so,” May said. “We really worked
very hard on this and I’m pretty sure we can do it. Besides, I know that if I goof up on something, you’ll be able to help me.” May gave a final tug to her horse’s girth, checked the stirrup length, and prepared to mount.

Lisa watched the younger girl as she did these things, admiring the way she did them. When Lisa had been May’s age, she’d never ridden a horse at all. And now there was May, just about half as old as Lisa was and very good at everything she did with horses. Lisa wondered briefly who was actually the Big Sis and who was the Little Sis in this project. Smiling to herself with the thought, she turned her attention to Barq’s girth and the length of the stirrups on his saddle. She wouldn’t want her saddle to slip off in the middle of class—especially in front of her Little Sis!

Class was, as usual, quite wonderful, though, as usual, Max made them work very hard. Max was working on gait changes, and at first Lisa thought he was doing it primarily for the newer riders. Changing gaits was something a rider learned in the second or third class. She found, however, that he was being a lot tougher on the more experienced riders than he was on the newer riders.

“You don’t have to tell the whole world you want your horse to slow down, just tell your horse,” he told
them all. Then he explained that a well-trained rider could give all kinds of instructions to his or her horse without making any of it obvious. A small amount of pressure on the reins was as informative to the horse as a big yank, and much less painful. Sitting into the saddle was just as effective as—and much more proper than—a rider straightening his or her legs as if digging heels into the sand.

They tried it again and again. Max had them walk, trot, and then stop. Finally, when he wasn’t frowning so much—meaning he thought they were doing pretty well—he let them trot for a while and then canter. Lisa wasn’t sure if she liked cantering or trotting better. Barq had a wonderful smooth canter, but his trot was so brisk that sometimes it felt as if he moved more quickly trotting than cantering.

By the end of class, Lisa thought she’d learned a lot and it seemed a little odd because it was all about a subject she already thought she knew a lot about! That was one of the things she liked best about horseback riding. There was
always
something to learn.

She’d been concentrating so hard on everything Max said that she was almost surprised when he excused her and May from class early so they could get ready for their demonstration.
Their
demonstration? Lisa asked silently. It was really
May’s
demonstration.
Lisa was just there to hold Nickel so he wouldn’t bolt the way he had when Veronica had left the gate open.

Lisa untacked their horses while May brought the harness to the indoor ring where they were doing the demonstration. Then the two girls pulled the pony cart into the ring and brought Nickel in together. Lisa perched on the fence that surrounded the ring so she could hold Nickel’s lead rope while May set all the equipment out just the way she wanted it.

“I like it when all the leathers are kind of laid out the way they will be when the harness is on Nickel. That way, I can point to all the parts for the other riders and explain what I’m going to do
before
I do it. Isn’t that the way you like to do it?” May asked.

“Sure,” Lisa said, although she wasn’t completely sure she understood what May was talking about. Nickel was distracting her. He seemed to have developed the idea that there might be something good to eat in her pocket and was nuzzling her affectionately. He was a cute pony that Lisa had always liked. They were sort of giggling together.

“Good luck,” Stevie said.

“Thanks, but I don’t need any luck here,” Lisa said. “May is doing all the work. This has been a breeze!”

“Yeah, but you had to know what to tell her,” Stevie said.

“I had to know what book to have her study from,” Lisa corrected her. “And she even bought it for herself!”

“Oh, well, I hope she does a good job.”

“No sweat. She’s got it cold.”

Stevie gave Nickel an affectionate pat and sat down on the bench. Carole joined her.

“Something’s wrong,” Stevie whispered to Carole.

“I know,” Carole said. “We’ve got to talk.”

Stevie wasn’t sure what Carole thought was wrong, but she was sure it wasn’t what she thought was wrong.

“No, I mean about this demonstration thing,” Stevie whispered.

“Is May going to goof up?” Carole asked, quite concerned.

“I don’t think so. At least I hope not.”

Carole got a funny feeling in her stomach. If Stevie wasn’t worried about May, she must mean she was worried about Lisa. If Stevie was worried about Lisa, then Carole needed to be worried, too. The problem was she wasn’t sure what she should be worried about.

Max walked into the ring and began speaking. “This is the first of what I think of as Big Sis/Little Sis demonstrations, though of course sometimes there will be brothers—bros?” The riders laughed. Lisa realized
later that that was the last time she laughed that afternoon.

May began the demonstration. Before she started putting the harness on the pony, she identified all the main parts of the tack, from the blinkers to the crupper. Then, proceeding carefully, she put the collar on, followed by the saddle pad. It was at that point that Nickel changed his mind about standing still. He decided he didn’t really want to have Lisa hold his lead rope. He wanted to walk around a little bit. This was going to take more than two people. Stevie took the lead rope so that Lisa could help May. Lisa hopped down off the fence.

“Here, you do the crupper,” May suggested.

Lisa looked at the leathers. She had absolutely no idea what to do. She did know that one of the pieces of leather was supposed to end in a loop and that the pony’s tail was supposed to go through it, but she couldn’t identify which part went where.

Lisa had a sudden and totally unfamiliar feeling: panic. She didn’t know any of the parts of the harness. She had no idea what she was supposed to do next or what it was supposed to accomplish. These were all things
May
knew. May was the student; Lisa was the teacher. May was
supposed
to learn. Teachers didn’t learn. They taught. May just hadn’t needed any teaching;
she’d done it all herself. So Lisa hadn’t done any learning.

She stammered, more uncomfortable with the situation than she could ever remember being in her life. She looked at her friends. They looked back at her and the only thing their looks told her was that she was in every bit as much trouble as she thought she was. Her friends knew her best. They would know before anybody else. Maybe nobody else knew yet. Lisa looked at the other students. They were figuring it out.

“Here, Lisa,” Stevie said. “Why don’t you hold Nickel again. He seems calmer with you. I’ll give May a hand. You just let us know if we make any mistakes, okay?”

“Okay,” Lisa said numbly. She held Nickel’s lead and watched, barely taking in anything that happened.

“Tell me what I have to do, May,” Stevie said. And May did. While the class watched, and learned, May explained everything Stevie had to do in order to hitch the pony to the wagon. May talked constantly, naming each piece of the harness, explaining where it would go, how to put it there, and what it would do. Stevie followed her directions to the letter and within ten minutes, Nickel was completely hitched to the
wagon. During the entire process, Lisa hardly moved at all. She pasted a smile on her face that nobody believed.

Stevie and May invited her into the cart for a ride. Lisa climbed in back while May and Stevie sat in the driver’s seat and drove Lisa around the ring once. It reminded Lisa of the very first time she’d ever touched a pony. She’d been four years old and her parents had let her have a pony-cart ride at a local park. She remembered that, at that time, she hadn’t known anything at all about horses and had dreamed of a day when she might know a lot. Lisa wondered now when that day might come.

Once the cart had circled the ring, Max dismissed the class. Carole and Stevie helped Lisa and May, but mostly May, remove the cart and the harness from the pony.

Max came over. Lisa dreaded hearing what he had to say. She had totally failed and she knew it. She’d been under the mistaken impression that the only person who had had anything to learn was May. The fact that May
had
learned was good, but May hadn’t learned the way Max had wanted her to learn. Max had wanted Lisa to
teach.
However, a teacher who was unwilling to learn could never teach. Lisa had let May down, she’d let Max down, and worst of all, she’d let
herself down. She’d totally blown an opportunity to learn and to help. Max was certainly furious with her and he was right to be. Lisa braced herself for the worst.

To her surprise, Max put his arm around Lisa’s shoulder while he spoke to May.

“May, you’ve done a lot of work,” he said. That, at least was true. “I’m really impressed.” Then he spoke more slowly. “I think we’ve all learned a lot from this first attempt at Big Sis/Little Sis projects, haven’t we?”

“I sure have,” May said. Everyone knew that was true.

“Me, too,” Lisa mumbled. That was true, too, but Lisa had done all her learning in the last five minutes. Max gave her shoulders a warm squeeze. Somehow he just knew.