A Good Horse by Jane Smiley Read Free Book Online

wouldn’t encourage him to come by for a meal, would we? Wild was wild, and there was no use pretending it wasn’t. And a stray dog could have distemper or even rabies. Mom and I knew all of these things. But it was a nice dog. Running, you could even say it was a beautiful dog that could use a bath and a brushing. But we didn’t say anything. Daddy checked over Lester and I checked over Jack, and then we went in the house and finished our supper.

Water Jump

    Coop in Fence Line

    Double Crossbar Jump

Chapter 4
    O N S ATURDAY, WE LOADED B LACK G EORGE INTO THE (NEWLY washed) trailer and drove him, with the (newly washed) truck, out to the stable where Miss Slater worked. It was sunny when we left home, a bright, warmish day, perfect for riding, but as soon as we turned toward the coast, we could see a bank of fog lying like a gray pillow over exactly the spot we were headed toward. It made me shiver just to look at it. But Mom had sent along an extra sweater, so I knew I would be fine. Miss Slater had never seen Black George before, so we gave him a bath, pulled his mane, and combed out his tail, which was long and luxurious. I had also cleaned the saddle and bridle. We had not clipped the insides of his ears or his whiskers. Daddy said that a horse living out needed the hair in his ears to keep flies awayand the whiskers to find the grass. He kept a straight face as he said this, but I laughed, anyway.
    On the way over, I did some homework. We had lots more homework in eighth grade than seventh, and sometimes, it was hard to fit it in. I had a book report due Monday about
Great Expectations
. I had not been able to make head or tail of
Great Expectations
, partly because I kept dozing off when I was trying to read it. I thought if I read while we were driving, I might stay awake. Our next book after
Great Expectations
was going to be a play,
Julius Caesar
. Alexis and Barbara Goldman had decided that in order to get through it, some of us were going to come over to their house and read it out loud, but I had to make something of
Great Expectations
first. As we were driving through the damp pines, I could just get glimpses of the ocean from time to time, and I tried to imagine a big old boat sitting out there, with a family living in it like a cabin, which is something that happens in
Great Expectations
. I couldn’t.
    Miss Slater was finishing up with a lesson—a girl on a chestnut pony cantering around the ring with a determined look on her face. At one point, the pony slowed down, and the girl smacked him a good one with the whip. The pony sped up, with his ears pinned, but the girl stayed on, and the pony kept going. When they were finished, Miss Slater said, “That child is only seven, and I think this is her sixth lesson, but she keeps her heels down, and she
is
determined. So, let’s see the young man.”
    She was referring to Black George. Daddy backed him out of the trailer and took off his lightweight blanket (which we had also washed). Miss Slater went, “Hmmmm.” But it was a long
hmm
, which went from well-I-wonder-what-they’ve-come-up-with-now to my-goodness!
    Black George hadn’t been away from our place in months—not since Daddy brought him in from Oklahoma—so you would expect him to look bright, and maybe be a little nervous, but he stood quietly and evenly on all four legs, his neck arched and his ears pricked. When Miss Slater stepped up to him and began to run her hands over him, he sniffed her curiously but not impolitely (a curious horse is always better than a nervous horse) and then gave a sigh. She said, “How does he jump?”
    “I guess we’ll see,” said Daddy.
    We saddled him up and led him to one of the back rings, not one of the show rings, but nice, on the edge of the forest. I noticed that the little girl came along and climbed on the railings to watch. She still had that serious look on her face. Miss Slater called out to her, “Ellen! Don’t make your mom look for you