Show Horse by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online

write it down on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope—one for each class. Then you are going to seal the envelopes and give them to me. After the show we’ll meet again. I’ll return the envelopes to you, and you can open them to remind yourself of what you thought was important before the competition. You then get to grade yourself. I am not going to ask you what your goals were; I’m simply going to ask you if, in your opinion, you met them. I will then give you whatever ribbon you tell me you deserve.”
    “You mean if I tell you it’s straight blue across the board, you’ll give me blue ribbons?” Stevie asked.
    “The purpose here is to learn, Stevie,” Max said. “If you have learned, you have succeeded.”
    “And how are you going to break the ties if theseother girls think they’ve won blue ribbons at the same time I have?” Veronica asked.
    Lisa noticed the way Veronica phrased the question. She made it sound as if she, Veronica, would be winning blue ribbons while The Saddle Club girls would only
think
they had. Max noticed it, too.
    “Whatever anybody
thinks
is what they are going to get, Veronica,” he said patiently. “Now, all of you, go get ready for class. Think about what I’ve said and think about your personal goals. We’ll have a special session to practice for the show after class today. Can everybody stay?”
    Stevie, Lisa, and Carole all nodded. Veronica mumbled something about having to reach her mother on the mobile phone. The Saddle Club wasn’t interested in her excuses. There was plenty of work to do before class. They dashed for the tack room.
    Lisa’s mind was in a haze while she tacked up Prancer. All she could think of was how wonderful Briarwood was going to be and how she and Prancer were going to do so well. She thought about what her goals were going to be. There were hundreds of things, she realized. She still sometimes had trouble keeping her legs perpendicular to the ground and her heels down. Sometimes her hands slipped on the reins and gave too much slack. Occasionally she lost track of which diagonal she was supposed to be posting on, and she still wasn’t always sure she got her horse to jump at the right distance from the jump. She thought about these things, but she also thought about thehorse she was tacking up. Prancer. The horse’s name alone was enough to make her dream of blue ribbons. After all, it was the name of one of Santa Claus’s reindeer, and it was a good name, because this horse could really fly! She could even soar. And that made Lisa’s thoughts soar. With Prancer on her side, she was going to win. There just wasn’t any doubt about it.
    “That’s a pretty horse,” her mother remarked, bringing Lisa back to the present.
    “She’s the greatest,” Lisa agreed. “I’ll give her a careful grooming after I ride her today, Mom, and if you want to wait around, you’ll see how gorgeous she is when her coat is sleek and clean, but even now you can see what a champ she is.”
    “I guess I can,” Mrs. Atwood said. She stepped back a little, though, because Prancer was shifting back and forth uneasily. The mare was much more comfortable and relaxed around young riders than adults, and Mrs. Atwood seemed to be making her a little nervous.
    “She won’t hurt you, Mom,” Lisa promised. “She’s just trying to figure out if she trusts you.”
    “Maybe, but I’m more interested in whether or not she trusts you,” Mrs. Atwood said. “Which horse is Veronica diAngelo’s?”
    “Two stalls down,” Lisa said. “Her name is Garnet.”
    “But that’s not Veronica who’s putting on her saddle and bridle, is it?” Lisa’s mother asked.
    “No. Veronica usually gets somebody else to do the work for her.” She stood on tiptoe to see who Veronica’s victims were this time. They were two youngergirls in the class who were apparently trying to ingratiate themselves with Veronica. They weren’t doing a very good job of it, since they