Silver Stirrups by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page A

Carole’s heart sank as Andrea picked up a confident canter and rode toward the first fence, an inviting low brush. Doc pricked his ears, snapped up his legs, and they were over. They took the next several fences in near-perfect form. Then came the vertical. Carole crossed her fingers. It was an ugly thought, but she couldn’t help herself: She was actually hoping Andrea would make a mistake.
    Doc came out of the turn too fast. Andrea barely had time to steady him. He took off from too far back and made a flat jump, barely clearing the fence. Carole turned for the barn. Now she had the information she needed: Andrea was beatable.
    Carole had to hurry. She led Starlight out from his stall, where she’d left him, fully tacked. She mounted and began a rushed warm-up, walking, trotting, cantering. Starlight felt alert—more than alert. He felt fresh. He wanted to take off after the cross rails Carole used as a warm-up fence.
    Carole barely heard the “Good luck!” Lisa called to her as she headed over to the ring. Waiting on deck, Carole realized she’d forgotten to ask Lisa how her ride had gone. That made Carole feel bad. The Saddle Club always tried to encourage one another at shows. It was sort of an offshoot of one of the rules of the club that they had to be willing to help one another out in any situation. She would make it up to Lisa later. Right now, Carole thought, she had more important things to worry about—like winning the equitation over fences.
    The rider before Carole jumped her last fence and came cantering to the end of the ring. The gate opened, the rider came out, and Carole went in.
    She halted briefly, summoning all her powers of concentration. But she found she couldn’t concentrate. The colors and the noises blurred. The fences seemed almost unreal. Carole jumped the first few of them on autopilot. She felt frozen in the saddle, posed like a doll in two-point position. Starlight saved her atthe next two jumps. Then came an oxer in the middle of the ring. Dimly Carole remembered that the vertical was the fence after the oxer. “Prepare, prepare,” she muttered to herself. There were three strides to the oxer, then two, then one. In the air over the fence, Carole had one thought. She had to beat Andrea. The fear that had been lurking at the back of her mind came rushing forward: She couldn’t let Andrea Barry displace her as the best junior rider at Pine Hollow.
    Starlight touched down after the oxer. He was headed for the barn. The barn was his home. His instinct was to keep going toward it. He felt full of energy. The short warm-up had barely taken the edge off. He lengthened stride, speeding down the straightaway.
    With a shock, Carole came to her senses. The vertical lay directly to her left. Another second and it would be too late to turn. In a flash, Carole sat up as hard as she could. She raised her hands off Starlight’s neck, where she’d allowed them to fall. And she wrenched Starlight around to the next fence. He made an awkward turn, bowing his shoulder out and falling heavily onto his forehand.
    Starlight pulled at the bit. There was a jump ahead, but it wasn’t directly in his path. It would be easy to run around it. But he felt his rider urging him towardthe set of raised poles. He knew what she wanted him to do. And because this was the rider who had trained him, because he trusted her and had learned to do her bidding time and again, he obeyed this time, too. He let her head him toward the fence. In order to clear it, he had to get way underneath it and pop up over it. But he did it. Rather than run out or refuse, he made a difficult, unnatural jump. He did his best.
    M AX HAD GOTTEN Jock Sawyer to judge the schooling show. Jock was an old friend of Max’s. He was known for being both hard and fair. He was also known for making his decisions fast. Today was no different. Ten minutes after Stevie, the last rider, completed her course, Jock handed his judge’s card to Mrs.