A Good Horse by Jane Smiley Read Free Book Online Page A

again!”
    Ellen shouted, “It’s okay!” She didn’t move. I had to smile.
    There were only about five jumps in the arena, all standards and poles except for one white panel, but there was a chicken coop along the fence line, and out past that one I could see some jumps in a field. Miss Slater called, “Let’s see his trot!”
    I thought about Jem Jarrow for a moment, then tweaked the inside rein just enough for Black George to lift his inside shoulder and step his inside hind a little in front of his outside hind. His whole body got lighter and more supple, and his chin tucked. We trotted a circle to the right and then a circle to the left, then straight down the long side of the arena, stretching out a bit. At the end of the arena, I just squeezed my fingers and he came right back to me, shortening his step. Then I crossed the arena in front of Miss Slater and Daddy and askedBlack George for a canter. He was happy to oblige. It went like this for maybe ten minutes, me trying to be Jem Jarrow, and Black George just being his perfect self. I was glad that, of all the geldings, he seemed to be Jack’s best friend; I hoped his good nature would rub off a little bit.
    While I rode Black George (and Ellen stood on the fence, staring at me as hard as she could), Daddy and Miss Slater moved the jump standards and paced out the distance between them. I could see that Daddy was watching Miss Slater and asking her a few questions. Pretty soon, they had everything set up.
    There were five jumps in a much simpler pattern than we’d had at home, just two along one long side, and then another two, farther apart, along the other long side. The fifth jump was set diagonally almost but not quite in the middle of the arena. There were two verticals—just poles, like a fence; an oxer, which is two verticals right together, the one in front lower and the one in back higher, really just a wide jump; and the panel hanging between two standards. The jump across the center was a double crossbar—that is, like an oxer but made of two sets of crossed poles.
    Miss Slater told me to circle at one end of the arena, then trot down over the double crossbar, which was very low, about a foot high and a foot wide, and then halt, turn, and canter back over the jump. Black George did this well, took each pair of jumps, vertical to oxer, then took the second pair backward (though Miss Slater adjusted the fence), oxer to vertical. No problem. Black George was ready for the whole course.
    It was easy—eight jumps: down over 1 to 2, through the middle, around 3 and back over it, then a wide turn at the end of the arena, and up over 4 and 5. Short turn back over 3, another short turn over 5, and around the end and down over 1, except that I got confused after 5 the first time, lost my way, and had to stop, because the course went from looking like five jumps set in a pattern to looking like a bowl of spaghetti. I came to a halt.

    Miss Slater said, “You had this problem last spring. Just take your time and look at the turns.” She lifted her hand and made two of her fingers walk. Then she turned toward the jumps and held her hand up and walked her fingers through the air around the course. Then she looked at me and waited. Finally, I did the same thing. As soon as I started to do it, I could see Daddy out of the corner of my eye, nodding his head. But I felt like an idiot.
    It worked, though. I got over the course, and I sat up inthe corners, and when I was finished, Ellen shouted, “Hurray!” and Miss Slater said, “Very good.” Then she and Daddy put the jumps up. When Miss Slater was putting the jump up over by Ellen, she talked to her very strongly. Ellen looked at her and then shook her head. I was walking Black George around, and I couldn’t help smiling. I went over the course again. This time the jumps were higher, but still not terribly high, maybe three feet. Black George couldn’t have been having a better time. When I brought him