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  “Too bad the Loftins didn’t volunteer their second horse to be a packhorse,” Carole said wistfully, thinking of how many trips down and up the mountain she was going to have to make.

  “I know,” agreed Colonel Hanson. “But as nuts as they are about their horses, I guess we should consider ourselves honored that they offered to help at all.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” Carole began to make a pile of all the gear she thought she could carry down on her first trip. They were going to have to hurry if they were going to be all packed up by the time the Loftins arrived at ten.

  She carried down all the chairs but one, the refrigerator, and the solar lamp on the first trip. By the time she returned for the second trip, her father had the tent down and all their bedding ready to go. When she returned for the final trip, the kitchen items were packed and her father was standing on his canoe-paddle crutch, frowning.

  “What’s the matter, Dad?” she asked, wiping the sweat from her forehead. Even though the morning was cool, lugging stuff down a hill was hot work.

  “I was just thinking about all this crazy stuff,” Colonel Hanson said. “Here I am, a colonel in the Marine Corps, and I can’t even help my daughter carry a down sleeping bag.”

  “Oh, Dad, don’t feel bad. Accidents can happen to anybody. Even Marines.”

  “Yes, but just look at all this stuff. If I hadn’t been so impressed with all Colonel Cheatham’s gear, you could have been finished in just one trip!”

  Carole flopped down on the ground. “Well, look at it this way. If we hadn’t had all that stuff, we wouldn’t have had the collapsible paddle for you to use right now.” She grinned up at him. “I might have had to carve you a crutch out of green forsythia wood.”

  “I don’t think there’s any green wood left in this part of the forest,” Colonel Hanson said, chuckling. “I think it’s all been clear-cut for hot dog skewers!”

  Carole laughed. She had enjoyed lots of her father’s fancy equipment, but she’d enjoyed her own, simpler stuff, too. “Maybe the key is to take a few neat new things mixed in with our old standbys,” she said.

  “Right,” said Colonel Hanson. “The Greeks had a word for that.”

  “Oh?” Carole looked up. “What?”

  “Moderation.”

  Carole laughed. “Well, I guess I’d better moderate another load down to the car before the Loftins show up.”

  “I wish I could help you, honey.”

  “I know, Dad.” Carole rose to her feet and grabbed the last three boxes. “Back in a flash.”

  By the time she returned from her final trip to the car, the Loftins were arriving with Rambler. The happy little horse now sported a full Western saddle, complete with saddlebags and two water canteens.

  “This is Cisco,” Mrs. Loftin said proudly. “He’s an Appaloosa. It’s a Western breed.”

  Developed by the Nez Percé Indians, Carole almost added, but stopped herself just in time. Instead she just smiled at her old friend Rambler. Though his real name was Cisco, he would always be Rambler to her. He tossed his head up and down as if to say hello.

  Colonel Hanson gave Carole a quick wink, then tried to look afraid. “Gosh, he won’t bite, will he?”

  “Well, he might nip you if you feed him a carrot the wrong way,” Mrs. Loftin said.

  “Come on over here and let’s get you up in the saddle,” Mr. Loftin called. “You should always mount a horse from the left side.” He looked at his wife. “Ethel, you be sure to hold him tight.”

  Mrs. Loftin grabbed the reins while Mr. Loftin helped Colonel Hanson mount the horse. Rambler stood calmly while the new, strange rider settled himself in the saddle.

  “Now what?” asked Colonel Hanson, still playing dumb.

  “Well, I’ll take one side of the bridle and Ethel will take the other, and we’ll get you down to your car. But don’t kick him or try to make him go any faster!”

  “Oh, no,” said Colonel Hanson. “I certainly wouldn’t want to do that.”

  Slowly the Loftins led Rambler and Colonel Hanson down and up the mountain trail. Carole followed, her father’s canoe-paddle crutch and collapsible chair slung over her shoulder. It was funny to watch their parade from behind. There was her father, sitting tall in the saddle, and Rambler walking calmly, and then the Loftins on either side of the bridle, arguing over which side of the trail was safer. Carole shook her head. No wonder Rambler liked to ramble at night. It was probably the only way he got any fun at all!

  Finally they clopped into the parking lot.

  “That your station wagon?” Mr. Loftin asked.

  Colonel Hanson nodded.

  They led Rambler right to the driver’s seat. Mrs. Loftin clutched Rambler’s reins while Mr. Loftin again helped Colonel Hanson off the horse.

  “Thank you so much,” Carole’s father said with a smile. “It was most kind of you to help us out.”

  “Oh, think nothing of it. We’re glad to help, particularly if it lets us show off our horses.” Mrs. Loftin gave Rambler a pat on the neck.

  “Yeah.” Mr. Loftin smiled for the first time since Carole had seen him. “We love our Cisco and Pancho a lot, and we take extra-special care of them.” He rubbed Rambler behind his ears. “We figure they’re pretty lucky horses to have owners like us!”

  The Loftins backed Rambler up so that Colonel Hanson could scoot into the car. Carole gave the horse a final pat good-bye and got into the passenger seat. Colonel Hanson started the car, and with a wave to Rambler and the Loftins, they rolled out of the parking lot.

  “Well, you just never know what kind of people you might run into in the woods,” Colonel Hanson said with a laugh.

  “I’ll say,” agreed Carole.

  Still laughing softly, her father pulled onto the highway that led back to Willow Creek.

  “How does your ankle feel when you drive?” Carole asked worriedly.

  “Oh, it’s a little tender, but I can certainly get us home.” He reached into the glove compartment and fished out the cell phone. “Why don’t you give Colonel Cheatham a call and tell him our situation? He and his sons can meet us at the house and help us unload all this gear.”

  “Okay.” Carole smiled and punched in the number, grateful to be heading home.

  “CAROLE!” STEVIE CRIED as she rounded the turn in the barn. “You’re back!”

  “Hi, Stevie! Hi, Lisa!” Carole turned away from Starlight as Stevie and Lisa ran toward her. They embraced in a three-way hug, happy to see one another after the long weekend.

  “How did you guys do?” Carole asked. “Starlight looks terrific!”

  “We said we’d take good care of him for you,” Stevie said proudly. “And we are women of our words.”

  “How was your campout?” asked Lisa.

  “Unbelievable.” Carole rolled her eyes. “We had all this high-tech equipment and this mushroom-shaped tent and we got caught in a thunderstorm and my dad sprained his ankle and I almost got struck by lightning and—”

  “What?” cried Stevie and Lisa, their eyes wide. “Struck by lightning?”

  “Yeah,” answered Carole. “And then—”

  “Wait,” said Lisa. “Why don’t we go somewhere and sit down so you can tell us all about this slowly?”

  “Okay,” Carole said with a broad smile.

  They got sodas from the refrigerator and walked to their favorite picnic place, the hill overlooking the paddocks. While Belle and Prancer frolicked in the field below, Carole told her friends all about fishing and stargazing and cooking on the solar stove.

  “So your dad’s all right now?” Stevie asked as Carole finished up her story.

  “Yes. I helped him into the emergency room after Colonel Cheatham helped us unpack the car. He’s got a bad sprain, but the intern said what I did had been exactly right. He even admired the way I wrapped Starlight’s leg wrap on my dad’s foot!”

  Lisa giggled. “Did you tell him it was a horse bandage?”

  “I had to,�
� Carole laughed. “It was about a thousand feet too long to be a human bandage.” She took a sip of soda and stretched out in the soft green grass. “So tell me about your weekend.”

  Stevie and Lisa looked at each other, then both began to tell Carole about how busy they’d been and about the CDs falling on Belle and Patch’s nervousness at the thunderstorm and how Starlight hated Stevie’s music so they’d put a babushka on his head, and that there had been a noise they’d thought was a ghost. When they finished talking, they were out of breath.

  “Gosh,” said Carole. “It sounds like you guys had a wild weekend, too.”

  “I don’t think we sat down five minutes the whole time,” Lisa replied. “But we learned an awful lot.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Stevie. “Like sometimes the luckiest horse is the one that gets what they need, instead of a lot of extra stuff they don’t need.”

  “That kind of sounds like our camping equipment,” said Carole. “We had a lot of neat stuff, but we never even used most of it, and then I wound up having to carry all of it down to the car by myself. If those Loftin people had volunteered their other horse, I would have been here hours ago!”

  “Huh?” Stevie and Lisa frowned. “What Loftin people?”

  “Oh, didn’t I tell you that?” said Carole. “The first night there I heard a whinny, and I followed it to a campsite where this really unfriendly couple had two sweet Appaloosas corralled. That night, after we went to bed, one of them broke out of their paddock and came visiting! I took him back, but he came back the next night, too, right after the thunderstorm. I rode him up the mountain and he carried my father back to the camp.”

  “Wow!” exclaimed Lisa. “What a wonderful horse!”

  “He was wonderful,” Carole said. “I named him Rambler because of all his late-night rambles. But his owners were real jerks. They thought he was such a lucky horse to be owned by people like them, but he escaped twice from their camp and they didn’t even know it! Even in a gigantic thunderstorm!” Carole sighed. “Poor guy. That doesn’t sound like a lucky horse to me.”

  “Sure he was,” Lisa said. “He was lucky enough to stumble on you that first night.”

  Carole frowned. “But I was the lucky one when he showed up the second night and carried my dad back to safety.”

  “That wasn’t luck,” Stevie said with a grin. “That was just plain old horse sense. The reason he came back to you was because you had taken such good care of him in the first place.”

  “Oh, Stevie,” Carole laughed. She looked down at the horses playing, then turned and smiled at her friends. “I think we’re all lucky. Let’s go to TD’s and celebrate!”

  “The absolute final end of summer vacation?” Stevie asked.

  “No,” answered Carole. “The first faint beginnings of what I know is going to be a terrific school year!”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  BONNIE BRYANT is the author of more than a hundred books about horses, including The Saddle Club series, Saddle Club Super Editions, the Pony Tails series, and Pine Hollow, which follows the Saddle Club girls into their teens. She has also written novels and movie novelizations under her married name, B. B. Hiller.

  Ms. Bryant began writing The Saddle Club in 1986. Although she had done some riding before that, she intensified her studies then and found herself learning right along with her characters Stevie, Carole, and Lisa. She claims that they are all much better riders than she is.

  Ms. Bryant was born and raised in New York City. She still lives there, in Greenwich Village, with her two sons.

  Don’t miss the next exciting

  Saddle Club adventure …

  DRIVING TEAM

  The Saddle Club #90

  The Saddle Club is gearing up to learn all about driving—not cars, horses. Carole Hanson and Lisa Atwood have to do an oral report on the use of driving teams throughout history. The only problem is that they have too much information! Somehow they have to rein in their enthusiasm, or their ten-minute talk could take a lifetime. Meanwhile, Stevie Lake is facing her worst nightmare. Her riding instructor wants Stevie to work with Veronica DiAngelo on a special driving team project: teaching their horses to work as a team. It’s a great idea, but how are the horses going to work together if their owners can’t? It’ll take more than teamwork to get through this project—it’ll take a miracle!

  Horse lover CAROLE …

  Practical joker STEVIE …

  Straight-A LISA …

  #1 HORSE CRAZY

  #2 HORSE SHY

  #3 HORSE SENSE

  #4 HORSE POWER

  #5 TRAIL MATES

  #6 DUDE RANCH

  #7 HORSE PLAY

  #8 HORSE SHOW

  #9 HOOF BEAT

  #10 RIDING CAMP

  #11 HORSE WISE

  #12 RODEO RIDER

  #13 STARLIGHT CHRISTMAS

  #14 SEA HORSE

  #15 TEAM PLAY

  #16 HORSE GAMES

  #17 HORSENAPPED

  #18 PACK TRIP

  #19 STAR RIDER

  #20 SNOW RIDE

  #21 RACEHORSE

  #22 FOX HUNT

  #23 HORSE TROUBLE

  #24 GHOST RIDER

  #25 SHOW HORSE

  #26 BEACH RIDE

  #27 BRIDLE PATH

  #28 STABLE MANNERS

  #29 RANCH HANDS

  #30 AUTUMN TRAIL

  #31 HAYRIDE

  #32 CHOCOLATE HORSE

  #33 HIGH HORSE

  #34 HAY FEVER

  #35 HORSE TALE

  #36 RIDING LESSON

  #37 STAGE COACH

  #38 HORSE TRADE

  #39 PUREBRED

  #40 GIFT HORSE

  #41 STABLE WITCH

  #42 SADDLEBAGS

  #43 PHOTO FINISH

  #44 HORSESHOE

  #45 STABLE GROOM

  #46 FLYING HORSE

  #47 HORSE MAGIC

  #48 MYSTERY RIDE

  #49 STABLE FAREWELL

  #50 YANKEE SWAP

  #51 PLEASURE HORSE

  #52 RIDING CLASS

  #53 HORSE-SITTERS

  #54 GOLD MEDAL RIDER

  #55 GOLD MEDAL HORSE

  #56 CUTTING HORSE

  #57 TIGHT REIN

  #58 WILD HORSES

  #59 PHANTOM HORSE

  #60 HOBBYHORSE

  #61 BROKEN HORSE

  #62 HORSE BLUES

  #63 STABLE HEARTS

  #64 HORSE CAPADES

  #65 SILVER STIRRUPS

  #66 SADDLE SORE

  #67 SUMMER HORSE

  #68 SUMMER RIDER

  #69 ENDURANCE RIDE

  #70 HORSE RACE

  #71 HORSE TALK

  #72 HOLIDAY HORSE

  #73 HORSE GUEST

  #74 HORSE WHISPERS

  #75 PAINTED HORSE

  #76 HORSE CARE

  #77 ROCKING HORSE

  #78 HORSEFLIES

  #79 ENGLISH HORSE

  #80 ENGLISH RIDER

  #81 WAGON TRAIL

  #82 QUARTER HORSE

  #83 HORSE THIEF

  #84 SCHOOLING HORSE

  #85 HORSE FEVER

  #86 SECRET HORSE

  #87 SHOW JUMPER

  #88 SIDESADDLE

  #89 LUCKY HORSE

  #90 DRIVING TEAM

  THE SADDLE CLUB

  SUPER EDITIONS

  #1 A SUMMER WITHOUT HORSES

  #2 THE SECRET OF THE STALLION

  #3 WESTERN STAR

  #4 DREAM HORSE

  #5 BEFORE THEY RODE HORSES

  #6 NIGHTMARE

  #7 CHRISTMAS TREASURE

  THE SADDLE CLUB

  SPECIAL EDITIONS

  STEVIE: THE INSIDE STORY

  LISA: THE INSIDE STORY

  CAROLE: THE INSIDE STORY