Horse Sense by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page B

can find her.”
    “Yeah, let’s.”
    “Oh, Stevie!” It was Mrs. Reg, calling from her office off the tack room. “Come in here a moment, will you?”
    “Sure, just a sec,” Stevie called back. Then she turned to Carole. “Listen, you find Lisa and tell her how sorry we are. We can have a meeting at my house after drill practice this afternoon, okay? I’ve got to talk to Mrs. Reg. I’ll see you both in class.”
    “I’ll tell her, but I still feel like a worm.”
    “Well, she knows how busy we’ve both been—”
    “Yeah, but still …”
    “Stevie!” Mrs. Reg called.
    “Coming.”
    Carole went in search of Lisa. Stevie stepped into Mrs. Reg’s office and sat down on the tack box in frontof her desk. “So, now, tell me,” Mrs. Reg began. “How’re you doing in making up games and races?”
    That was another thing Stevie wasn’t feeling too good about at the moment. So far, this day hadn’t been exactly terrific. “To tell you the truth, Mrs. Reg, not so well. I’ve been trying to come up with some really original ideas. I spent a lot of time trying to make up a game with a Hula-Hoop, but that just spooked Nickel, and if he spooks, most of the other ponies will too. Then I tried a marshmallow game. No luck. I was sure I could get something going by riding on the saddle backward, but that only got Nickel confused—and me bruised! Finally, I’ve been working on something to do with Laser Tag. It’s going to be wonderful, I’m sure, but the trouble is, I don’t have a Laser Tag set to use yet. So, all in all, not so hot.”
    “How about an egg-and-spoon race?” Mrs. Reg asked brightly.
    Stevie couldn’t believe it. Every time she talked to someone about the gymkhana, all anybody ever suggested was an egg-and-spoon race. “Everybody already knows about egg-and-spoon races. I want to do something different, something interesting, something
fun
! Isn’t that what Max wants, too?”
    “Max wants a good set of games,” Mrs. Reg said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be so unusual that nobody can do them! Use your horse sense, Stevie,” Mrs. Reg urged.
    “Don’t worry, Mrs. Reg,” Stevie said. “I’m working on something with a baton that will be lots of fun. You’ll see.”
    “Yes, I’m sure I will,” Mrs. Reg said. “And I put a dozen eggs in the fridge if you want to give that a try, okay?”
    Just then, the bell sounded. “Hey, class is about to start and I’ve still got to tack up Comanche. I’ll talk to you next week again, Mrs. Reg.”
    “Okay,” Mrs. Reg agreed. “By then, you should have a pretty good idea of the games you want to include, and you and I can start to plan a schedule and figure out how much time to allow and how to award points for prizes.”
    Schedule? Points? Prizes? How could they possibly do all that? Stevie had a growing awareness that she was going to have to move faster and work harder to make up the games if Mrs. Reg expected to plan a schedule and point system next week. That would mean another couple of hours on Nickel over the weekend. But how could she work harder than she was already working? It seemed impossible, for her and for Nickel.
    Poor pony
, she thought, sighing, as she headed for Comanche’s stall with his tack.
Poor me
.
    L ISA ALMOST ALWAYS felt happy when she was riding. She’d gotten to like just about everything to do with it. She loved her clothes, the sleek breeches, the tall boots with the rich shine. She’d even gotten over being self-conscious about the hard hat they had to wear. She had only had to fall off once to appreciate how it could really be a lifesaver. When she’d first gottenher brand-new riding outfit, she’d thought it was silly and noticed how other people, even riders, stared at her. She knew now that was because everything had been so new that it sort of stuck out. Now her riding clothes showed wear—marks on her boots, smudges on her hat.
That
showed she was a real rider and she was