The Great Pony Hassle by Nancy Springer Read Free Book Online

just like Paisley: tall, stocky, strong. In fact, Aunt Caledonia looked a lot like her brother. And Paisley looked like Mr. McPherson too. But Stirling didn’t look much like any of the McPhersons. Stirling must take after her mother, Staci decided. Her mother, who was stationed in Germany or someplace. Staci wondered when she would meet her. She wondered if it had been hard on Stirling and Paisley when their mother left them with their father. He was nice, but it must have been rough at first. Maybe it was still hard on Stirling, because she was so different.
    â€œAnd this is Noodles!” Paisley shoved all the grooming supplies out of the way and urged Noodles forward by his lead line. “Isn’t he a sweetheart?”
    Aunt Caledonia patted Noodles, but she didn’t seem to be interested in his long mane or adorable forelock or big blinky eyes or pretty markings. She was a horsewoman.
    â€œHe needs to have his hooves trimmed,” was the first thing she said. “Get a farrier out here.”
    Businesslike, she looked Noodles up and down, walking around him to study him from every angle. Then she started running her hands down his legs, then lifting his feet. She glanced at the sores on his belly and at the base of his tail. “You’re doing fine with him, Paisley. You might want to use some baby oil on a soft cloth to clean out his ears. Just be sure you don’t push dirt down into them.” She asked Paisley to lead Noodles around while she watched. “Make him trot for me.” The little pony jogged along gaily beside Paisley. “Now make him stop.” Noodles stopped when Paisley did. Aunt Caledonia walked up to him and pressed her hand against the bony top of his nose. She did not have to press very hard before Noodles took a few steps back.

    â€œGood boy,” Aunt Caledonia told him, and she patted him with more warmth than she had shown before. “Paisley, why don’t you go ahead and find something to throw over him? I want to see you ride him.”
    While Paisley ran to the house to ask Cathy for an old towel or throw rug, Aunt Caledonia looked around. She walked the length of Paisley’s fence. She nodded when she saw how Paisley had wired the water bucket to a fence post so Noodles couldn’t knock it over.
    â€œSee if you can get an old bathtub for a water trough,” she told Paisley when Paisley came running back out. “Even a little pony like this needs a lot of water. Are you going to build him a loafing shed? He’ll need some shelter this winter.”
    â€œThat’s my assignment,” Bruce McPherson called. He stood smiling at everyone with his arm around his new wife. Cathy had come out to watch Paisley ride.
    Paisley, clumsy with excitement, stumbled over every pebble and grass tuft in the paddock trying to get the throw rug and herself on Noodles. Without comment Aunt Caledonia went and helped her. Toni, Staci, and Stirling stood silently watching, not laughing even when Paisley tripped over the hoof dressing and spilled it. Even Staci chose not to make fun.
    â€œHere, let me give you a leg up so the blanket stays put.” Aunt Caledonia boosted Paisley onto Noodles, handed her the rope they had looped to the halter like reins. “Okay, just walk him. I want to see how he behaves.”
    Paisley rode Noodles around the paddock, and a big smile kept widening on her plain, dirty face, and Noodles behaved beautifully. He turned when she asked him to turn, went straight when she wanted to go straight, circled, stopped, walked on, all with just the halter. But Toni (of all people) could not help whispering to her twin, “She looks dumb on him!”
    It was true, and Staci could see it too. Paisley’s feet were hanging down way below Noodles’s belly. Paisley’s head towered above the pony’s. A week before, Staci would have shouted bitterly at Paisley, Hey, you big lunk, you look stupid on that