Stable Manners Read online

  They were quiet then for a few minutes, watching the sun settle into the clouds above the hills to the west. Then there was a sharp thumping sound down by the stable. The girls looked. The paddock door was opened by Judy Barker. She stood aside and waited. The girls waited, too. Then, while they watched, the filly, now officially dubbed Promise, took her first steps into the fresh air of Virginia. She paused, put her nose up to the breeze, sniffed, and nodded. Then, delicate and prancing, she seemed to dance across the paddock. She stopped and turned. The mare stepped toward her protectively. The filly responded immediately by returning to her mother’s side and nuzzled at the mare’s belly for a snack.

  Judy invited the mare and her baby to return to the stable then. The door closed and the magical moment was over.

  “The perfect end to a perfect day,” said Carole, sighing happily.

  “Any day in which we find a way to let Veronica make a public fool of herself is a perfect day,” Stevie agreed.

  “I just thought of something,” Lisa said.

  “What?” asked Carole.

  “Which team won the Know-Down?”

  The girls looked at one another. They had no idea what the answer was. They’d all enjoyed competing so much that they hadn’t paid any attention to the score at the end.

  “I think I know, though,” Stevie said. Her friends looked at her and she continued. “Personally, I think The Saddle Club won it.”

  “I agree,” Carole said.

  “See, that’s the thing I love about The Saddle Club,” Lisa said. “When we put our minds to it, we can solve any problem at all.”

  “Even ones we create ourselves,” said Carole.

  They gave one another high fives and then sat back to watch the rest of the sunset.

  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.