Holiday Horse Read online

  THE PERFECT NEW YEAR’S EVE

  “We have something for you two,” Stevie said. “It’s sort of a Christmas present. Well, more of a New Year’s Eve present, really. Let’s just call it a holiday present.”

  “For us?” Max took the envelope, looking mystified. He slit it open with his thumb and pulled out the card.

  “What is it, Max?” Deborah asked curiously.

  “Look at this,” he told her. “The girls want to baby-sit for us on New Year’s Eve while we go out.”

  “We made reservations for you and everything,” Lisa said in a rush. “And we’ll come to your house and watch Maxi the whole time you’re gone.”

  Carole bit her lip. She couldn’t stand the suspense. After all The Saddle Club had done, were Max and Deborah going to say no?

  Stevie obviously thought so. “Listen,” she said, “I don’t care what arguments you have against this. We think—”

  Max and Deborah didn’t let her finish. They both spoke up at once. “We’ll take it!” they said quickly.

  RL 6, 009–012

  HOLIDAY HORSE

  A Bantam Skylark Book / December 1997

  Skylark Books is a registered trademark of Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and elsewhere.

  “The Saddle Club” is a registered trademark of Bonnie Bryant Hiller. The Saddle Club design/logo, which consists of a riding crop and a riding hat, is a trademark of Bantam Books.

  “USPC” and “Pony Club” are registered trademarks of The United States Pony Clubs, Inc., at The Kentucky Horse Park, 4071 Iron Works Pike, Lexington, KY 40511-8462.

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 1997 by Bonnie Bryant Hiller.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  For information address: Bantam Books.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-82572-8

  Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada.

  Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.

  v3.1

  I would like to express my special thanks

  to Catherine Hapka for her help

  in the writing of this book.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  About the Author

  “WHAT ABOUT AN egg-and-spoon race?” Carole Hanson suggested.

  Lisa Atwood wrinkled her nose. “Too boring. We’ve done it a thousand times already.”

  Carole gave a gentle tug on the lead line she was holding. Her horse, Starlight, had stopped to examine a clod of dirt lying on the floor of the indoor ring of Pine Hollow Stables. He wasn’t supposed to be stopping. He was supposed to be walking. Carole was cooling him down after a strenuous hour of exercise.

  “True,” Carole said once Starlight was moving again. “But it’s always fun.”

  Lisa grinned. “Remember the last gymkhana, when Stevie slipped a raw egg in with the hard-boiled ones?”

  “How could I forget?” Carole said with a laugh. “Veronica diAngelo complained about the stains on her expensive new boots for a month. Right, Stevie?”

  There was no answer.

  “Stevie?” Lisa prompted. She glanced over the back of her horse, a pretty Thoroughbred mare named Prancer, at the third human member of their group. “Earth to Stevie!”

  Stevie Lake was walking her horse along with her friends, but she wasn’t paying attention to the conversation. Lisa had to call her name several more times before Stevie finally looked up blankly. “What?” she asked, pushing a stray lock of dark blond hair out of her eyes. “Were you talking to me?”

  Carole and Lisa exchanged a look and a sigh.

  “Don’t tell me you’re still thinking about Phil,” Carole said.

  Lisa switched Prancer’s lead line to her other hand. “You’ve been brooding about it all week,” she added.

  Stevie’s boyfriend, Phil Marsten, was leaving on a family vacation the next morning. Normally that wouldn’t have bothered Stevie very much, since Phil lived in another town and she only saw him once or twice a month. But New Year’s Eve was a few days away, and Stevie had been hoping that she and Phil would be able to spend the holiday together.

  “Can you blame me for being upset about it?” she asked her friends. “The Marstens invited me to come to Disney World with them, you know. I could be ringing in the new year in the Magic Kingdom. Instead, I’m stuck here in the frozen kingdom.”

  Willow Creek, Virginia, where Stevie, Carole, and Lisa lived, was experiencing a severe cold snap. The three girls hadn’t been able to ride outdoors that day because of the frigid weather. Instead, they had spent an hour riding in Pine Hollow’s indoor ring. Their regular riding lessons were on hiatus during the holidays, but the girls still made sure to ride regularly—for at least three good reasons.

  The first reason was to keep their horses in shape. Carole and Stevie owned their horses, and Lisa was almost as attached to Prancer, a stable horse, as if the mare belonged to her. It was important for the horses to get out of their stalls and stretch their legs. The exercise kept them fit, and it kept them happy.

  The second reason was Pine Hollow’s upcoming gymkhana. A gymkhana was a kind of informal horse show in which teams of young riders competed in riding games and races. Max Regnery, Pine Hollow’s owner and the girls’ riding instructor, had announced the event at their last lesson before Christmas. It was now less than three weeks away. Max had also asked all the young riders to come up with ideas for gymkhana events. The girls knew that in addition to being fun, the games would test the riding skills they had been learning and practicing in their lessons, and they wanted to be ready.

  The third reason for riding was the best and simplest one of all. Stevie, Carole, and Lisa loved to ride. In fact, they loved horses and riding so much that they had formed The Saddle Club. The group had only two rules: Members had to be horse-crazy, and they had to be willing to help each other out whenever help was needed. With three horse-crazy best friends as club members, both rules were easy to keep. The girls had even added a few out-of-town members to The Saddle Club, including Phil Marsten.

  “It was nice of Phil’s parents to invite you,” Lisa said, brushing a fly off Prancer’s withers. “But I’m not surprised your parents said you couldn’t go.”

  Carole rolled her eyes. “Me neither,” she said. “Your folks weren’t exactly amused by that Christmas gift you gave Chad.”

  “Oh, that,” Stevie said, waving one hand dismissively. Chad was one of her three brothers. “It was only what he deserved.”

  “Maybe so,” Lisa said dryly. “But how many parents want their son unwrapping a big package of horse manure in the middle of the living room floor on Christmas morning?”

  “It was very nicely wrapped,” Stevie said with a grin. “And by the way, it was Veronica’s own fault she got egg on her boots. I didn’t make her drop it, did I?”

  Her frie
nds looked blank for a moment. Then they laughed. Although they had been best friends for quite a while, sometimes the way Stevie’s mind worked still amazed them.

  Carole and Lisa were also often astounded at the various ways Stevie managed to get into trouble. If she wasn’t fighting with her brothers, she was teasing Veronica diAngelo, the snobbiest girl at Pine Hollow, or playing pranks at school.

  Lisa, especially, was very studious and responsible. She couldn’t imagine how Stevie got away with half the things she did. “It’s too bad you pulled that prank on Chad so recently,” she said. “Otherwise you might be flying off to sunny Florida tomorrow.”

  Stevie shrugged. “I didn’t have a choice,” she said. “I had to pay Chad back for taping my phone conversation with Phil and playing it over the school PA system.”

  Lisa still looked unconvinced, but Carole smiled and said, “True. Besides, didn’t you say yesterday that the main reason you can’t go to Florida is because your grandmother is coming to visit?”

  “Well, maybe,” Stevie admitted. “She’s coming in two weeks. And for some reason my parents seem to think it will take me that long to clean up my room.”

  Her friends laughed. They had seen Stevie’s room many times. They had even helped to clean it up on more than one occasion. And they couldn’t help agreeing with Mr. and Mrs. Lake—it was always a big job.

  “Think of it this way, Stevie,” Carole said in a comforting tone. She reached over to pat Stevie’s horse, a spirited bay mare named Belle. “You may miss going to Disney World with Phil, but at least this way you’ll get to spend part of New Year’s Eve with Belle.”

  Carole looked surprised when Stevie and Lisa both started to laugh. Then she laughed, too. Of the three horse-crazy girls, Carole was famous for being the horse-craziest. Her first priority was always horses, which some people found strange. But not Stevie and Lisa. It was one of the things they loved most about their friend.

  “Carole’s right,” Lisa said. “Even if you don’t get to celebrate the New Year with Phil, at least you have Belle—and us. Maybe it’s not Disney World, but I’m sure we’ll still manage to have fun.”

  Stevie nodded. “We always do,” she said, smiling at her two best friends. “I’d rather talk to you guys than to Mickey Mouse, anyway.” The three girls had already decided to have a Saddle Club sleepover on New Year’s Eve. “And there’s lots to do. We can play games—”

  “Talk about the gymkhana—” Carole added.

  “Come up with New Year’s resolutions—” Lisa continued.

  “—and make prank phone calls to my brothers,” Stevie finished with satisfaction. “A perfect way to end any year.”

  “Oops,” Carole said, suddenly looking worried.

  “What’s the matter?” Stevie asked, peering around Belle at her friend.

  “I forgot to tell you,” Carole said. “I was so busy thinking about the gymkhana that it slipped my mind. I have some bad news.” She shook her head. “Well, not really bad news—I mean, it’s kind of bad for us—well, inconvenient more than bad, really—it’s actually kind of good news for my dad. But—”

  “Carole!” Lisa said sharply. “Just tell us already. What is it?” On any topic but horses, Carole could be a little absentminded. Sometimes she’d start a sentence and forget to end it.

  Carole looked sheepish. “Sorry. What I’m trying to say is, we can’t have the sleepover at my house after all. My dad has a date. He’s got reservations at this really fancy restaurant in the city.”

  Stevie shrugged. “So? We’re old enough. We don’t need a baby-sitter.”

  “I know,” Carole said. “And my dad knows that, too. It’s not that he wouldn’t trust us to stay alone. But I’m afraid that if he knew we were going to be at my house, he’d feel like he had to cancel his plans and hang out with us. And I know that we’d all have fun, but …”

  Lisa nodded sympathetically. She and Stevie both knew that Carole’s father, Colonel Hanson, had casually dated a few different women since Carole’s mother had died a couple of years earlier. But he hadn’t been on any New Year’s Eve dates at fancy city restaurants. That sounded really romantic to Lisa. “He’s skittish, huh?” she asked.

  “A little,” Carole said. “I don’t want to give him an excuse to back out. I think he should go out and have a good time—you know, with other grown-ups.”

  “Got it,” Lisa said briskly. “So your place is out. No problem—we’ll go to Stevie’s.”

  Stevie was already shaking her head. “More bad news,” she said grimly. “And this time there’s no two ways about it. It’s really bad. My parents told me this morning.” She paused dramatically. “They gave Chad permission to have a New Year’s Eve party for all his creepy friends.”

  “Ugh,” Carole said. “So much for that idea. We don’t want to be anywhere near that party.”

  Lisa laughed. “Right. Not unless we want to spend the whole night watching Stevie and Chad sneaking live toads into each other’s beds.”

  “Oh, please,” Stevie said with a sniff. “Toads, indeed. I think I can be a little more creative than that.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” Lisa said. “Anyway, I wish we could stay at my house. But my parents are going to a party on New Year’s Eve. And you know how my mother is.”

  The other two girls just nodded. Mrs. Atwood was a worrier, and she tended to be overprotective of Lisa.

  “Even though she lets me baby-sit for other people all the time, she’d probably insist on calling a nanny service to come and stay with us,” Lisa said with a sigh. She knew that didn’t sound very logical, but her mother wasn’t always the most logical person in the world.

  “Too bad it’s so cold,” Stevie said. “Otherwise we could ask Max to let us sleep in the loft.” The hayloft at Pine Hollow was one of the girls’ favorite spots for a sleepover—but only in warm weather. The stable itself was well heated, but the loft was drafty and could be chilly when a winter wind was blowing.

  “Well, we’ll have to come up with something,” Carole said. “I guess if we have to, we can still have the sleepover at my house.”

  Stevie could tell that Carole wasn’t thrilled about that option. She decided it was time to change the subject. “Hey, I want to try something,” she said. “I had an idea for a gymkhana event, but I’m not sure it will work.”

  “What is it?” Carole asked, immediately looking interested.

  “It’s sort of a leading race,” Stevie said. “The teams would have to see how many horses they could lead in a row from one lead horse and rider.”

  “You mean like packhorses on a trail?” Carole asked.

  Stevie nodded. “What do you think? Can we try doing it right now?”

  Carole looked at the three horses doubtfully. “To be honest, I’m not sure it will work. Those packhorses get special training to learn to follow the lead horse. These guys might not even understand what we’re trying to get them to do.”

  “Especially Prancer,” Lisa said, sounding a little anxious. Prancer had originally been trained as a racehorse. She had started her new career as a school horse fairly recently, and although she had taken to it quickly, she wasn’t as steady and experienced as many of the other horses at Pine Hollow. And as a typically hot-blooded Thoroughbred, she sometimes got nervous and skittish when asked to do something new.

  “Well, maybe experimenting with Prancer isn’t such a good idea,” Stevie agreed. “But we could try it with Belle and Starlight, right?”

  Carole brought Starlight to a halt. She felt the skin on the gelding’s chest, right between his front legs. That was the easiest way she knew to tell whether his body temperature had returned to normal. “Okay,” she said. “He’s cool. I guess we can try it.”

  Lisa led Prancer a short distance away to watch. “Do you want me to get a longer lead line from the tack room?” she asked.

  Carole shook her head. “I think I remember how to do a tail hitch,” she said. “This line should
be long enough if we do it that way. And Starlight almost never kicks, so it shouldn’t be dangerous for Belle. Should I try it?” All three girls had learned about tail hitches in their Pony Club meetings. Max had explained that a tail hitch was a common method of hitching packhorses together on the trail. The girls had also seen the method used at the Bar None Ranch out West.

  “Go for it,” Stevie said. She handed Belle’s lead line to Carole.

  Carole took the line and, while Stevie took Starlight’s line, walked to her horse’s hindquarters, running one hand along his side to let him know where she was. Then she picked up his tail.

  Starlight swung his head around and peered at her over his shoulder. He seemed curious but trusting. After handling the horse’s tail for another few moments, Carole carefully gathered the strands together and looped Belle’s lead line around them. Before long she had the line firmly knotted around Starlight’s tail, which was folded back on itself to make a neat, compact package.

  Belle had her ears pricked forward. When Carole stepped back a little, the mare stretched her head toward Starlight’s tail and snorted. Starlight turned around again and gazed at Belle with what Carole would have sworn was a look of mild surprise.

  “What do you think, boy?” she asked, giving her horse a pat on the hindquarters. “Do you like being in the lead?”

  “Try walking him around,” Stevie suggested. “See if Belle will follow him.”

  Carole went to Starlight’s head and led him forward a few steps. Belle snorted again as her lead line tightened. To decrease the chance of injury, Carole had been careful to leave the rope short enough so that the mare couldn’t possibly get her leg over it. That meant that Belle didn’t have much choice about what to do. She took a few jerky steps after Starlight, but she didn’t seem happy about it.

  Stevie hurried to her horse’s head. “Don’t worry, Belle,” she soothed her. “It’s okay. We’re just playing a little game of follow the leader, all right?”

  She stood by Belle’s head and kept her hand on the halter as Carole led Starlight forward again. This time, with Stevie to guide her, Belle seemed much more comfortable. After a few turns around the ring, Stevie stepped back.