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  Read all the Saddle Club books!

  Horse Crazy

  Horse Shy

  Horse Sense

  Horse Power

  Trail Mates

  Dude Ranch

  Horse Play

  Horse Show

  Hoof Beat

  Riding Camp

  Horse Wise

  Rodeo Rider

  I would like to express my special thanks to Margaret Smith and the U.S. Pony Clubs. I hope I have been able to do justice to this fine organization. —B.B.

  Copyright © 1990 by Bonnie Bryant Hiller

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  “The Saddle Club” is a registered trademark of Bonnie Bryant Hiller.

  “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.

  Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/kids

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  eISBN: 978-0-307-82488-2

  Originally published by Bantam Skylark in 1990

  First Delacorte eBook Edition 2012

  v3.1

  For Judy Boehler and Gwen Schmitt

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books by This Author

  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

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  About the Author

  CAROLE HANSON HUMMED to herself as she removed her horse’s bridle and hung it on the hook by the stall door. Then she began unbuckling the saddle. The horse, Barq, stood patiently while she worked, as if he knew what was coming. Carole patted him affectionately. She liked what she was doing, as she liked everything there was to do with horses.

  Suddenly she heard a grumbling noise. Was it Barq? Carole stopped humming and looked at him with concern. If he’d made that sound, then something was very wrong. She might even have to call the vet. She heard the grumbling sound again.

  Carefully, Carole put her ear against the horse’s belly. She didn’t have a stethoscope, and if the horse was really having a stomach problem, she would be able to hear it better this way. There was no sound, except …

  “Hey, Carole, I’ve heard of getting close to your horse, but aren’t you carrying it a little too far?” A familiar voice snickered.

  Carole straightened up and glared at Veronica diAngelo. Veronica rode at Pine Hollow Stables with Carole and Carole’s two best friends, Stevie Lake and Lisa Atwood. But Veronica was definitely not one of her best friends. She was a spoiled little rich girl who cared more about her expensive riding clothes than the health of her horse.

  “I thought I heard his stomach grumble,” Carole explained. Veronica didn’t deserve an explanation, but Carole couldn’t help herself. She was a natural-born teacher when it came to horses and riding and was always eager to share her knowledge with others—even lost causes like Veronica. “See, if his belly’s grumbling, it could be the start of a colic attack, and that’s serious, because—”

  “What you heard grumbling was your friend Stevie,” Veronica rudely informed her before disappearing toward the locker area.

  Carole peered over the stall door to see what Veronica was talking about. Stevie was standing in the hallway with her horse, patiently cleaning Topside’s hooves. But the noises she made as she was working weren’t patient at all.

  “Grrrr,” Stevie grumbled, unaware that Carole was watching. “I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.” She swept her dark blond hair back from her face and concentrated on her work.

  “You hate cleaning hooves?” Carole asked.

  Stevie looked up at her friend. “No, I hate school,” she said. “It’s only three days into the new semester and I already have seven impossible things to do, including one especially horrible science project. If I don’t keep up with school, Max won’t let me ride, and if I can’t ride, what’s the point of school? I just wish they’d teach us about horses in school instead of all this other garbage. Then I’d be a straight-A student.”

  “Did somebody mention me?” Lisa asked, joining her two best friends. Stevie and Carole laughed. It was accepted among them that Lisa was the best student, just as Carole was the horse expert and Stevie was the best at jokes, practical and otherwise. But when it came to loving horses, they were all equal.

  “Yeah, I did,” Stevie said. She bent her head and resumed cleaning Topside’s hoof. The stone that was wedged under the horse’s shoe came loose and dropped to the wooden floor of the stable with a satisfying thunk. Stevie grinned triumphantly at the sound and looked up at her friends. “It’s this horrible science project. What do you know about osmosis?”

  Lisa looked thoughtful. “Well, it’s the tendency of a substance to pass through a semipermeable membrane from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration.”

  Stevie sighed. “Does that mean if I put my science textbook under my pillow, all the knowledge will transfer into my brain overnight?”

  “Only if your skull is semipermeable,” Lisa informed her.

  “Wait a minute. I’m the one who tells the jokes,” Stevie said, laughing. She unhooked Topside’s cross-ties and led him toward his stall. Her voice turned serious. “But jokes won’t get me out of this one.”

  It sounded to Carole like trouble was brewing. She considered the situation as she returned to Barq’s stall to finish grooming him. Max Regnery, who owned the stable, had a strict rule that all the young riders had to maintain a good school average. Stevie had always found a way of just getting by, skirting disaster throughout the school year, but Carole was afraid that sooner or later her friend’s grades would drop just a bit more than Max liked. Then Stevie wouldn’t be allowed to ride until she brought her grades up.

  As far as Carole and her friends were concerned, not being able to ride was the worst possible punishment. The three girls loved horses so much that they’d formed The Saddle Club. So far they were the only full-time members, though they had some friends who lived out of town who were honorary members. The club had only two requirements for membership: the members had to be horse crazy and they had to be willing to help one another out. Since they’d started the club, they’d shared many wonderful riding experiences—and they’d had a lot of opportunities to help each other.

  Carole thought that Stevie’s problem might be the beginning of another Saddle Club project. She peered into the stall next door, where Stevie was beginning to groom Topside. “I think we ought to have a Saddle Club meeting after we’re finished,” Carole said.

  “Great idea,” Stevie agreed. “But I don’t know about Lisa. Is this piano-lesson day?”

  Carole couldn’t see Lisa, but she knew where she was. Pepper’s stall was three down from Barq’s, on the other side of the walkway. “Hey, Lisa, is this piano-lesson day?” she called.

  “No, that’s Thursday,�
�� Lisa called back from the stall.

  “Then I think we need to have a Saddle Club meeting after we’re done with the grooming.”

  “Super,” Lisa said. “Let’s meet at TD’s in about half an hour.” TD’s was their favorite, and most fattening, hangout. It was an ice cream shop, officially named Tastee Delight. The Saddle Club always abbreviated that to TD’s. “Now,” Lisa continued, talking to herself, “if only I could get this darn saddle off fast so I could start the grooming!”

  “Saddle Club to the rescue! I’ll be there in a minute,” Carole told her friend. She quickly finished the last of Barq’s grooming and left the stall to help Lisa. Before she could get to Pepper’s stall, however, she found herself once again face-to-face with Veronica diAngelo.

  “Saddle Club?” Veronica asked. “What’s a Saddle Club?”

  Carole was speechless. It occurred to her for the first time that she didn’t know if The Saddle Club was supposed to be a secret. She hadn’t been thinking about secrecy when she’d yelled to Lisa. She’d only been thinking about Stevie’s science project and Lisa’s saddle.

  “I mean, is this some sort of thing the three of you cooked up while you were at that riding camp?”

  That was just like Veronica. The little rich girl didn’t know what to do when other people had things she didn’t. Veronica was actually jealous that the three other girls had gone to riding camp. She envied their adventures there. If only she knew, Carole thought to herself.

  Veronica stood squarely in Carole’s path, hands on her hips. She made it impossible for Carole to evade either her or her question.

  Carole put her hands on her own hips, stared Veronica straight in the eyes, and spoke. “Your lipstick is smeared.”

  Involuntarily, Veronica’s hand went to her mouth, and in that instant Veronica lost the standoff. She ducked and slithered past Carole, heading, no doubt, for a mirror. Carole continued on her way to Pepper’s stall.

  “Nice work!” Stevie called after her.

  “Piece of cake,” Carole acknowledged breezily. Then she walked into Pepper’s stall. There was a lot she wanted to tell Lisa about untacking.

  AS IT TURNED out, by the time the girls got to TD’s, there was a lot more than a science project to talk about. They had to consider the meaning of what they’d already come to think of as The Letter. Within a minute and a half of their arrival, they’d ordered their sundaes and solved the problem of Stevie’s science project.

  “Of course I’ll help you,” Lisa said. “Now let’s get to the other thing.”

  “So what do you think this is about?” Stevie said, holding The Letter in her hand. It was a note Max had given to every young rider as she or he had left Pine Hollow after class, announcing a meeting for all riders and their parents the following Tuesday.

  “I hope there isn’t going to be some horrible change at Pine Hollow,” Stevie said.

  Lisa looked upset. “Oh, I hope not,” she said. “I like Pine Hollow just the way it is. I don’t want Max to change anything.”

  “It might be something really great,” Carole said. She was always optimistic when it came to riding.

  “What could be great that has to do with our parents?” Stevie asked. That was a good question.

  “Maybe it’s something simple, like a new schedule,” Lisa suggested.

  “We wouldn’t have to have a meeting for that,” Stevie told her. “But we would have to have a meeting if something drastic was about to happen.”

  “What do you mean by drastic?” Carole asked.

  “Oh, you know, like Max moving to Alaska, or going into the insurance business, or like he’s decided not to teach young riders anymore. Things like that.”

  “That’s not just drastic, that’s drastic,” Carole said.

  The girls sat glumly, pondering all the awful possibilities.

  “Who’s got the peanut-butter crunch with blueberry sauce?” the waitress asked. Carole and Lisa pointed to Stevie. She was always ordering the most outrageous combinations. When people suggested she did it to keep others from nibbling at her sundae, she flatly denied it. But it was a fact that no one ever asked for a taste of her sundaes. Even the waitress made a face as she put the order in front of Stevie. She gave Carole and Lisa their orders and the girls began eating their ice cream in gloomy silence. Just when they thought things couldn’t get any gloomier, Veronica diAngelo and her friends arrived at TD’s. Veronica sauntered over to their table.

  “Well, hello,” she cooed sweetly. “You three together again? It seems like you’re always together. Is this some sort of club or something?”

  Stevie gave her a withering look. It didn’t have any effect. Subtlety was lost on Veronica.

  “What do you want?” Carole asked her, hoping a more direct approach would get her to go away.

  “Oh, I thought you’d want to know my good news,” Veronica said.

  “I’m positively dripping with curiosity,” Stevie drawled sarcastically.

  “Well, you can switch your curiosity to envy because on Monday, my new horse is arriving.”

  Carole couldn’t help it. The envy overwhelmed her. It was all she could do to keep from showing her feelings. “That’s nice,” she said with the utmost control. “What kind of horse is it?”

  “It’s an Arabian. She’s a dark chestnut mare and I’m going to call her Garnet. I’m sure you’ll all have lots of fun watching me ride her.” With those words, Veronica tilted her chin up in her I’m-bettter-than-you—in-fact-I’m-better-than-everybody way and walked off, followed by her cadre of admirers.

  “And I’m sure we’ll enjoy watching you not take care of your horse, too,” Stevie hissed at the departing girl.

  “This is horrible!” Lisa said. “She rode her last horse carelessly and he got killed because of it. How can she be getting another?”

  “Easy,” Stevie said. “All she has to do is to ask Daddy!”

  Carole grabbed her spoon and dug into her sundae, trying to hide her hurt and anger. She thought about Veronica’s earlier horse, a Thoroughbred stallion named Cobalt. Carole had loved and cared for him more than Veronica had. She’d ridden him better, too. He’d been a beautiful and expensive horse, but he wasn’t suitable for Veronica at all, and that had cost him his life. The only good thing that had come out of Cobalt’s life with Veronica was his foal—a coal-black colt named Samson who belonged to Max.

  “Remember after Cobalt died, Veronica decided she wasn’t ready for another horse—actually had to stop her father from buying one for her?”

  Stevie and Lisa nodded.

  “Well, she’s still not ready!”

  “Do you think The Letter could have anything to do with Veronica’s horse?” Lisa asked.

  “I hope not,” Carole said. “We’ll all be better off if we can ignore this whole thing. So, let’s think some more about The Letter. Any other ideas?”

  “Yeah—how about Max has sold Pine Hollow to some developers who are going to make a shopping mall,” Stevie suggested.

  “You’re going from bad to worse,” Carole said.

  “Well, now, wait a minute,” Lisa said. “Do you think the mall would have a Gap?”

  Carole’s jaw dropped.

  “I was joking—I was joking!” Lisa said hastily.

  Carole liked a joke as well as the next person, but she couldn’t find any humor in the idea that something awful was about to happen to Pine Hollow.

  “You know, I just remembered something,” Lisa said. “When Max handed me The Letter, he had this kind of funny grin on his face. Whatever it is, I think he’s happy about it. Maybe we’re going about this all wrong. Maybe it’s really good news. Remember the time we thought the stable was in trouble?”

  “Boy, were we ever wrong!” Stevie grinned at the memory. “We did get a lot of new riders for Max, though, didn’t we? Hey, maybe Max has decided to have more riding classes,” she added thoughtfully.

  “Or maybe more horses!” Carole suggested, brightening
.

  “Or maybe he’s decided to expel Veronica!” Stevie said mischievously.

  “Now, that would be more than good news,” Carole said. “That would be—” She tried to think how to describe it. “Christmas and birthday all rolled into one!”

  “YES, OF COURSE we’ll be there, dear,” Mrs. Atwood told Lisa at dinner that evening. “The library committee can do without me for one meeting.”

  “You will?” Lisa said, sounding more surprised than she thought she ought to sound. “I mean, this is some sort of meeting Max wants us to be at. It has to do with riding,” she added, just to be sure her parents understood. After all, they had never been very enthusiastic about her horseback riding. She couldn’t think of a reason why that could be changing so suddenly. “Horses, I mean,” she said, to further emphasize her point.

  “Is there any other kind of riding?” Her father smiled.

  Lisa thought maybe she’d done some unnecessary explaining. “No—it’s just that, well, you sort of surprised me. I mean, usually you aren’t so—oh, I don’t know.”

  “We’ll be there, Lisa,” her father said. “Seven-thirty on Tuesday.” Her parents exchanged glances.

  Lisa began eating her salad. Something was up. She had a perfectly nice set of parents who were usually very predictable. Their eagerness to come to Max’s meeting puzzled her.

  “I saw Veronica diAngelo’s mother the other day,” Mrs. Atwood said. “Did you know Veronica is getting a new horse?”

  “I heard,” Lisa said.

  “She told me how wonderful it will be for Veronica to have a horse of her own. You know, owning and caring for a pet like that can be so good for somebody like Veronica …”

  “To say nothing of the horse,” Lisa said sarcastically.

  “Oh, yes,” Mrs. Atwood agreed, oblivious to her daughter’s tone.

  Something was definitely up.

  THINGS WEREN’T AS quiet or as mysterious down the street at Stevie’s house.

  “Pass the biscuits,” her older brother, Chad, said.