Rodeo Rider Read online

  For more than forty years, Yearling has been the leading name in classic and award-winning literature for young readers.

  Yearling books feature children’s favorite authors and characters, providing dynamic stories of adventure, humor, history, mystery, and fantasy.

  Trust Yearling paperbacks to entertain, inspire, and promote the love of reading in all children.

  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

  Tip of my hat, and a special thank-you to Don Demarzio —B.B.

  Copyright © 1990 by Bonnie Bryant Hiller

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte, 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! randomhouse.com/kids

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

  eISBN: 978-0-307-82489-9

  Originally published by Bantam Skylark in 1990

  First Delacorte eBook Edition 2012

  v3.1

  For Emmons and Andrew

  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

  About the Author

  “TELL ME MORE about Kate,” Carole Hanson said eagerly. She was sitting at the kitchen table with her father, Colonel Hanson, and his best Marine Corps buddy, Frank Devine. Frank was now retired from the Corps and lived with his wife, Phyllis, and their daughter, Kate, on a dude ranch. Carole and her two best friends—who were horse crazy just like Carole—had once visited Kate there. They could hardly wait until they could go again. But that wasn’t going to happen as long as school was going on and until they figured out how they’d pay the airfare from Washington, D.C., near where they lived in Willow Creek, Virginia.

  “Kate’s fine,” Frank told Carole. He handed her an envelope. “I almost forgot to give you this letter she wrote you and Stevie and Lisa.” Carole tucked the envelope in her pocket to read later with her two best friends. Frank continued talking about his daughter, and Carole didn’t want to miss a word. “She’s been working like crazy on her roping. Eli’s got her all excited about rodeo stunts like that. So far, though, all she can rope is a lot of dirt. The stray heifers on our land are safe from her lariat!”

  Eighteen-year-old Eli Grimes was one of the wranglers at the Devines’ ranch, The Bar None. Carole had seen him rope and she could imagine how hard it was to learn to use a rope that well. But she also knew that Kate Devine, former junior champion in English riding, had all the determination necessary to learn anything when it came to horses.

  Carole listened raptly as Frank told them more about The Bar None. The memories of her wonderful visit there came back to her in a flood. She felt almost homesick for it. Frank’s stories were nice, but it wasn’t the same as being on the ranch.

  “So how are things going at the ranch, Frank?” Colonel Hanson asked.

  “Sometimes dude ranching makes the twenty-mile marches in the Marine Corps seem like a Sunday picnic!” Frank joked. But Carole had the feeling that he wasn’t really kidding around. She exchanged a quick glance with her father, who apparently felt the same edge to Frank’s remark.

  “Tough, huh?” the colonel asked sympathetically.

  “Nah, it’s an easy life. Getting up before dawn, taking care of livestock, managing a staff, fixing everything that breaks—and believe me, everything breaks—all that’s easy. The tough part …” Frank paused, reconsidering what he was about to say. “Actually, there isn’t a tough part. Phyllis and Kate and I are having a whale of a time.”

  Carole knew he was trying to be reassuring. Somehow, though, she didn’t feel reassured. Something was wrong, but Frank wasn’t going to tell them what it was.

  Although Frank had retired from piloting in the Marine Corps, he now earned extra money flying a private plane for a wealthy rancher who had business interests in Washington. Carole had seen him twice since she’d last seen Kate.

  “Why don’t you bring Kate with you next time?” she suggested. “Would Mr. Lowell let you?”

  “Sure he would, but I couldn’t do it. There’s a little thing you’ve probably heard of—school?” Frank grinned. “But that gives me an idea. Why don’t you come back with me when I leave tomorrow? There’s going to be a rodeo in Two Mile Creek next weekend. It’s pretty exciting stuff!”

  For a second, just a second, Carole thought her father might let her go. After all, the only thing she’d miss at home would be school.…

  “Don’t tease her, Frank,” Colonel Hanson said. “If I let Carole do whatever she wanted, she’d spend all of her time with horses—all over the world, if she could. It may be possible for her to come out to visit next summer, but, until then, she’s got something much more important to do.…”

  “Yeah, I know: school,” Carole said, completing her father’s boring thought. She didn’t like it, but she knew a fact when she saw one.

  “Well, I’ll make you a promise, Carole,” Frank said. “The next time you and your friends decide to come, I’ll arrange to fly you girls round trip in Mr. Lowell’s plane.”

  “That would be fabulous!” Carole said. She could hardly believe what she’d just heard. “I guess it pays to have friends in high places—like twenty-five thousand feet high!”

  “Oh, Frank, you don’t have to do that,” Colonel Hanson said.

  “Oh, yes he does!” Carole said without thinking. Both her father and Frank gave her surprised looks, and then burst out laughing.

  “It’s no problem,” Frank told Carole and her father. “Besides, I need the flying hours. We could probably coordinate two of Lowell’s trips to Washington with one round trip of yours to Two Mile Creek.”

  “Wait’ll Stevie and Lisa hear about this,” Carole announced excitedly. She stood up. It was almost time to leave for her riding class. She gave her father a hug and then gave one to Frank Devine, too, since he would be leaving the next morning.

  “What a hug!” Frank said.

  “Some of it’s for Kate,” Carole explained.

  “I’ll see to it that she gets it,” Frank promised.

  AT FIRST, CAROLE barely noticed the cold as she waited for the bus to take her to Pine Hollow, the stable where she and Stevie Lake and Lisa Atwood rode horses. It was one of Carole’s favorite places. The girls not only rode there, but they also had all the opportunities they wanted to take care of horses. As a way of keeping expenses down and making riding an activity more people could do, Pine Hollow required its riders to help with the daily chores. Carole could learn everything about horses, from grooming them, cleaning their stables, even training the stable’s youngest tenant, a foal named Samson, to cleaning tack and studying horse care and stable management. Carole wasn’t certain what she wanted to be when she g
rew up, but she knew it would definitely have something to do with horses. Her career possibilities included trainer, owner, breeder, vet, rider, even champion. Maybe all of them, Carole mused.

  Then a gust of wind came and seemed to cut right through her warm jacket, sending a chill down her spine. It was winter, all right, although usually the Virginia winters were relatively mild. The gray afternoon sky seemed unusually menacing. Carole tugged her scarf up over her chin and tried to ignore the weather. She warmed herself with thoughts of The Bar None and The Saddle Club.

  The Saddle Club was a group she had founded with Stevie and Lisa. It had only two rules: All the members had to be horse crazy, and they had to be willing to help one another out of trouble—horse trouble, homework trouble, even boy trouble. So far, the three founders were the main members of The Saddle Club. An official out-of-town member was Kate Devine, who lived a few thousand miles away. On their next trip to The Bar None, the girls planned to invite another girl, Christine Lonetree, to join the club. She was a Native American girl they’d met near the ranch. Christine’s dog, Tomahawk, had been killed saving Stevie from a rattlesnake.

  The bus arrived and Carole shook off her thoughts. This was no time to think of The Bar None. There was no way she’d be going there for at least six months. She had to concentrate on today.

  “MERCURY’S DROPPING SOMETHING awful,” said Red O’Malley, Pine Hollow’s primary stablehand, greeting Carole at the door.

  “Then we’ll have to bed the horses down carefully after class,” Carole said. When it came to horses, Carole was all business and she never shirked her responsibilities. She headed for the tack room to find Stevie and Lisa.

  Both girls were already there, picking up the tack to get their horses ready for class. “I’ve got a letter to us from Kate!” Carole announced happily, waving the envelope in the air.

  “Oh, great!” Stevie exclaimed, her eyes dancing. Stevie, whose real name was Stephanie, was the most animated person Carole knew. The problem was keeping her still sometimes! Stevie had a weird sense of humor and a love of practical jokes that sometimes got her in a lot of trouble. In fact, it often got her friends in trouble right along with her. Carole and Lisa didn’t usually mind, though. Being anywhere with Stevie, even in trouble, was almost always a lot of fun.

  Lisa Atwood seemed to be Stevie’s exact opposite. She was a little older than Stevie and Carole, but she didn’t look it. She had light brown hair and always dressed neatly and fashionably, unlike Stevie, who seemed to own nothing but jeans. Lisa was the newest rider of the three, but was an apt pupil at riding, as she was at everything else, and had quickly become as horse crazy as her friends.

  The three girls thought it would be impossible to find three people more different than they were. But when it came to friendship, their differences weren’t nearly as important as their similarities. They all loved horses, and that was enough to bind them together.

  “So, what did Kate say in her letter?” Lisa asked.

  “I don’t know,” Carole told her. “I haven’t read it yet. I wanted to save it until we could read it together.” She started to open the envelope, then changed her mind and slipped it back in her pocket. “Nah,” she said. “There are just a few minutes until class. We’ll read it while we’re doing chores.”

  “You mean you’ll read while we pitch straw?” Stevie teased.

  “Well, you’re so good at pitching straw …” Carole began.

  “Oh, flattery will get you everywhere!” Stevie said. “Tell you what. I’ll show you my secret to pitching straw and then I can read while you pitch straw.”

  “Max will have us all pitching straw until midnight if we’re late,” Lisa said sensibly.

  On that note, the three girls got their horses’ tack and went to work. Max could be very grumpy when students were late to class.

  “BALANCE MAY BE the single most important factor in successful riding,” Max declared to the class.

  Lisa could believe that. She just hoped she had enough balance to stay on the horse she was riding until the end of the exercise!

  The class was riding at a sitting trot, with no stirrups, holding the reins with one hand. Their left hands were behind their backs.

  “Reach up with those left hands as if you’re trying to scratch!” Max told them.

  Lisa tried to do it. Somehow, reaching with her left hand made her sit straighter. Her legs hung lower and her balance was better. She gripped firmly with her thighs. It was working!

  “Nice, Lisa,” Max said. “Now stay like that. Good job.”

  Lisa beamed to herself. Compliments from Max were rare, indeed. She felt good.

  “Okay, now, down to a walk, let the horses cool down, and then class is over.”

  Isn’t that typical? Lisa thought to herself. The minute she got the hang of something, it was time to stop. She wanted to be able to remember the feeling of doing it right so she could do it the next time she rode.

  “We have extra chores this afternoon,” Max announced as the ten horses in the class circled him at a cool-down walk. A few students groaned in protest. “It’s cold and getting colder, so we have to blanket the horses and bed them down carefully.”

  “IF ONE MORE person tells me the temperature, I think I’m going to scream!” Stevie announced over the stall that separated Topside, the horse she rode, from Pepper, the one Lisa rode.

  “So, what was it last time you heard?” Lisa asked.

  “Twenty-one, down from twenty-eight ten minutes ago.”

  “That is cold.”

  “Did you hear?” Meg Durham asked excitedly, poking her head over the stall on the other side. “It’s only fifteen degrees out—and it’s going down to zero!”

  A muffled scream came from Stevie’s side of the wall.

  Lisa slipped a quilted blanket over Pepper’s back and began tying the strings that would hold it on.

  “Horses don’t mind the cold, you know,” Stevie said, peering over the wall as she put Topside’s blanket on. “They’re outdoor animals. A lot of these guys’ ancestors lived on the plains where it gets a lot colder than this.”

  “But these horses are in stalls and can’t run around to keep warm,” Carole reminded her from across the stable’s hallway. “Also, it was their ancestors running around on the frozen plains. These horses are used to indoor temperatures. So that means, be sure to give them lots and lots of warm straw, and fasten the blankets on snugly.”

  “Enough, enough,” Stevie complained. “We get the picture!”

  She sounded very cranky, and Lisa had the feeling that Stevie was about to go into a major grump. “I’ve got an idea, Carole,” Lisa interrupted, quickly changing the subject. “Isn’t this a good time for you to read Kate’s letter?”

  It turned out that it was. Carole was finished with her grooming and waiting for her friends to finish so they could all do the stable chores together. She pulled the letter out of her pocket and began reading. Kate sounded well. She started by telling the girls about the upcoming rodeo. It was a one-day event, but it was the only rodeo Two Mile Creek had and it sounded like a lot of fun.

  Then Kate described her roping lessons. She made them sound totally hopeless. The girls knew better than that.

  “If I know Kate, she’ll be able to rope a pea at fifty yards within a month,” Stevie remarked. Lisa was inclined to agree with her.

  Kate concluded her letter with a strange statement: “So, as you can tell, we’re all having a lot of fun here. Dude ranching agrees with Mom and Dad and me. I just hope we’ll be able to continue to do it. Cross your fingers for us, okay?”

  “What does that mean?” Stevie asked. Lisa shook her head, concerned.

  “Something is definitely wrong,” Carole said. “Frank hinted at it when he was talking with my dad, but then tried to pretend nothing was the matter.”

  “That’s it, then. Whatever it is, it’s bad,” Stevie said.

  “Okay, so what are we going to do about it?” Lisa
asked, feeling frustrated by the circumstances.

  Both girls looked at Carole for an answer.

  Carole frowned. “I’d like to tell you I think this is a good Saddle Club project, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this one may be too big—even for us—especially when we don’t know what it is that we’re up against.”

  “Since when did that ever stop us before?” Stevie asked.

  “Did you hear?” Red O’Malley said, interrupting their conversation. The girls looked at him. “Temperature’s still dropping. We’ve got one major ice storm on our hands!”

  All thoughts of The Bar None fled their minds. There was suddenly too much work to do at Pine Hollow.

  THE NEXT MORNING when Carole woke up, she ran to the window to look out. When she’d come home the night before, the world had seemed frozen. Tree branches were coated with thick layers of ice, which almost seemed to protect them against the frigid weather that had come so suddenly.

  But now, there was no winter wonderland. As fast as the freeze had come, it had gone. The ground was soggy, strewn with twigs and branches that had snapped off from the weight of the ice the night before. The sun shone brightly. All that was left of the storm was a mess.

  “Rats,” she said out loud. She had been hoping for something serious enough to close school. A day off could be lots of fun …

  Then she heard her clock radio click on. There was an extended news report about the storm’s damage.

  “… the whole area was totally unprepared for the sudden deep freeze. All over the county, telephone and electrical lines are down and pipes have frozen and cracked. The worst hit was Willow Creek, where construction work bared pipes leading to the municipal center, including the town hall and the junior high school, as well as other local buildings. Damage is so severe”—Carole held her breath—“that authorities are telling workers not to come in, except for emergency personnel. Schools will be shut down. The mayor was unable to say when schools would reopen, but said repairs would take at least a week. In a related incident …”

  A week! No school for a week!