Horse Spy Read Free

miss it when Polaris and Jennie’s Blue arrive.”
    “We don’t have to miss it,” said Carole. “Max said they’d be here sometime this morning. We can just stay in the ring. There are a lot of things we can work on there. Max laid out some cavalletti for yesterday’s class, and they’re still there. It’ll be good for all of our horses.”
    “As soon as we finish the stalls,” Lisa said.
    “Of course,” Carole agreed.
    They were almost done. They brushed out the feed boxes, rinsed out the water buckets, then stepped back to admire their handiwork. The stalls looked cozy and welcoming—just the kind of guest room a visiting horse would be glad to see.
    “Okay, last one in the ring is a rotten egg,” said Stevie.
    It was a challenge her friends were happy to accept.
    Ten minutes later, the girls had tacked up their own horses and met in the schooling ring for a practice session. At theirlast class, Max had had them working on the evenness of their horses’ gaits, and now they used the poles laid out on the ground to help control the horses’ steps.
    The idea was that the placement of the poles would prompt the horses to adjust their strides, making movement smoother for the rider as well as the horse. It was difficult, exacting work, because there was a temptation for both the rider and the horse to speed up or slow down at will. Each girl and her horse took turns sitting out a couple of rounds, so that one rider could watch and comment on the others.
    Stevie was the best at it, and both Carole and Lisa were grateful when she could help them out.
    “Lisa, tighten up on your reins a little bit so Prancer will be sure to notice who’s in charge.”
    Lisa took up some of the slack in her reins. Prancer’s head perked up and her gait smoothed out.
    “Carole, if you anticipate the turn too soon, Starlight’s going to sense it and begin turning before you want him to.”
    Carole adjusted her posture, and Starlight immediately returned to a straightforward trot.
    Both Lisa and Carole thought it was a bit ironic that the wild, scheming, joking Stevie was the one of the three of them who naturally understood the precision required in this kind of training. Carole was the best jumper of the three, Lisa the strongest pleasure rider, and Stevie always took prizes in dressage.
    They were working on lengthening their horses’ strides when the van pulled into Pine Hollow’s driveway. There was no question about who was arriving. In the first place, it was a large luxury van, the kind that only wealthy peoplecould afford to rent. In the second, and more important place, it had LONG ISLAND HORSE TRANSPORT painted on the side. Dorothy DeSoto’s training farm was on Long Island, and that was where Polaris and Jennie’s Blue were coming from.
    “Let’s give them a hand,” Carole said. “Max is teaching a class in the indoor ring and may not even know they’re here.”
    She didn’t have to say it twice. The girls dismounted and secured their horses to the rail before heading toward the truck, from which two people were climbing down.
    At first the girls assumed that the people getting out of the truck were grooms, but when they saw that both were middleaged women and both were well dressed, they began to consider other possibilities.
    “It’s the mothers,” Lisa concluded.
    “A little odd,” said Stevie.
    “What’s odd about it?” Carole asked. “Maybe they love horses as much as their daughters?”
    “Cool,” said Lisa, wishing her mother cared as much about her riding as these women must about their daughters’. She couldn’t imagine her mother riding in a horse van for ten minutes, much less six hours! The smell alone would drive her out.
    Setting that thought aside, Lisa stepped up with her two friends to greet the newcomers.
    “Welcome to Pine Hollow,” Carole said, offering her hand.
    One of the mothers looked at her, smiled coolly, and nodded. The other was too busy waiting at the back of the