Show Judge by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page B

walk, I may have rushed it asking him to try it at the trot so soon. That’s a lot to learn in one day.”
    Jasmine looked a little disappointed. “Do other ponies learn both in one lesson?”
    Lisa tried to sound very casual. She wanted to take the pressure off both the pony and the rider. “Oh, there may be a few, but not many. Anyway, we’re in no big rush. For Outlaw’s sake, let’s go back to cavalletti at the walk a few more times, then maybe I could saddleup Prancer and we could take a trail ride and talk about what we want to do in the next couple of weeks.”
    Jasmine brightened at the suggestion. “I think that’s a good idea.” The little girl smiled and patted her mount. “For Outlaw’s sake.”
    Lisa smiled back.
    S TEVIE WAS FUMING . Mrs. Reg had reluctantly let her use the phone, but only for one short minute. She’d managed to get Chad on the line, but with Mrs. Reg nearby she’d been unable to bawl him out satisfactorily. He, on the other hand, with no one listening, had started yelling at her. As if this were her fault!
    She had come out of the office looking for someone to air her grievances to when her eyes had fallen on Lisa and Carole. The two of them were in the outside ring, apparently deep in conversation. Carole was obviously passing on some great tip to help Lisa with her Pony Partner’s schooling. Even as she had watched, Carole gave Lisa an encouraging pat on the shoulder before she left. Stevie felt a pang of jealousy.
Leave it to Lisa to appeal to Carole’s soft heart
, she thought sullenly.
    “Stevie?” Corey approached from behind. “I rode Samurai over the cavalletti at least ten times clean, then all of a sudden he started knocking them over. Can you come and tell me what I’m doing wrong?”
    Stevie began to walk back to the indoor ring with her. “If he’s already done it that many times right, then he’s probably getting bored. Most likely we need to give him something harder or new to work on.”
    As the two of them passed by the gate to the outdoor ring, they met up with Lisa. “Have you got a minute, Stevie?” Lisa asked. “I need to talk to you about something.”
    Frustrated with her brothers and feeling resentful toward Lisa for taking advantage of Carole, Stevie failed to notice that her friend was genuinely upset. “Sorry, Lisa, can’t do it right now,” she said, breezing past her. “Why don’t you ask Carole? I’m sure she’d be happy to help you out. Again.” With that, she continued on her way.
    C AROLE WORKED WITH May for fifteen minutes or so, during which she discovered that Veronica had gone for a trail ride. Instead of being resentful about it, as she had every right to be, May seemed quite pleased. Apparently Veronica had put things in such a way that the little girl actually believed being left alone to school herself was a vote of confidence. Carole bit her tongue, took notes, and offered encouragement where she could.
    When she had finished with May, she continued herrounds until she was satisfied she had visited every pair who had been working that morning. She had written down numerous observations in her book, intending to sort through them later.
    Thinking of the notes reminded her about the evening before and her suspicion that someone had been going through her folder. If someone really had seen what she’d written, what good would it do them? Carole knew she couldn’t change what had already happened, but she also knew she could take steps to make sure it would never happen again. From now until the judging was over, she would never leave the folder out of her sight.

S TEVIE WALKED HOME in a bad mood. She couldn’t remember the last time she had left Pine Hollow feeling this low. Usually life didn’t get any better than spending a day in the company of friends and horses. Today, after winding up Corey’s lesson, she had bolted for the door.
    Irritably scuffing a stone from the path, she thought about Carole and Lisa. The