Saddle Sore by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page A

to substitute for leg signals, but that won’t be too hard,” Emily continued. “I think once she’s on a horse she’ll do okay. It’s getting her on one that might be the problem.”
    Stevie took a roll and tore it into pieces. She spread butter on each piece. “Maybe we could make a plan,” she said excitedly. “We can trick her into riding. Maybe Kate can ride Moonglow over to the Hopkinses’ bunkhouse, and then she can fall off and pretend to be injured. The only way Monica will be able to get help fast enough is to hop on Moonglow and gallop—”
    “Forget it,” Carole said. “That’ll never work. In the first place, the bunkhouse is only fifty yards from here. Kate could yell and someone would hear her. In the second place, Monica’s mom and dad are right there with her, so one of them would do all the rescuing, anyway.”
    “Okay,” said Stevie, undaunted. She stuffedtwo pieces of roll into her mouth and chewed hard, thinking. “Okay, how about this. We lure Monica out—”
    “Forget that, too,” Emily said. “We can’t make her ride. We can’t
make
her do anything. She has to come to terms with being disabled on her own. We can encourage her, but we can’t force her. The last thing she needs, Stevie, is one of your schemes. Monica needs to decide to ride on her own.”
    Stevie sighed. “I guess you’re right.”
    “I know I am,” Emily said.
    Colonel Devine changed the subject, telling Kate and his wife all about that afternoon’s ride. “I think they liked our trails,” he said proudly.
    “Did you?” Kate grinned. “I hope so. I helped lay them out, you know, and John and I hauled brush away until we thought we’d die from over-work and exhaustion.”
    “They’re fantastic,” Emily said. “Everybody at Free Rein would love to ride somewhere this beautiful.”
    “Emily had a few good ideas,” Colonel Devine continued. “She thought we should put benches halfway through the longer trails, so the leaders would have a place to sit down and rest. And shethought we ought to cut down that low branch you warned me about, Kate.”
    “I told you so,” Kate replied.
    “Emily’s been thinking hard all day,” Stevie said with a grin. “The rest of us, we’re not thinking about anything except where to ride next, and what we can eat when we’re finished riding.”
    “Tomorrow we’re going to combine them,” Lisa said, “We’ll take a picnic breakfast, if that’s okay.”
    “Sure,” Mrs. Devine agreed. “I’m already doing that for the honeymooners.”
    Emily dropped her fork with a clatter. “Sorry,” she said with a blush. “I told The Saddle Club in the barn, I’m a little tired tonight.”
    “Hope I didn’t make you think too hard today,” Colonel Devine said, looking at her closely. “Or ride too hard, for that matter.”
    Emily smiled. “No—I would have been happy to ride longer. And I’m not thinking all that hard, either. Plus, this afternoon was a double pleasure for me. I got to ride, and I got to imagine all the people who would be able to ride here in the future. It was wonderful.”
    “I would have liked to have gone with you,” Kate said. “The dog show was fun, though. Dudegot third place in his division, and Christine says hello to all of you. She’ll come over sometime tomorrow.”
    “I can’t believe we forgot to ask you about the dog show!” Carole said. “I guess we were too busy riding.”
    “One-track minds,” Kate teased.
    “You know us too well,” Carole retorted.
    “Carole especially,” Stevie said. “The rest of us do sometimes think about, oh, books or movies or boys once in a while. I believe Lisa sometimes thinks about clothes. But with Carole it’s horses, horses, riding, and then horses.”
    Frank Devine spooned his third helping of chicken and noodles onto his plate. “Well, I’m going to go look at horses tomorrow,” he said. “I’m spending the day at a livestock auction. With luck I’ll get a few more