Horseshoe Read Free Page B

completely cooled from her ride, Stevie gave her a bucket of grain. Then, sure there was nothing more she could do for her horse, Stevie headed toward Max’s office for the Horse Wise meeting.
    Halfway there, she stopped and spun on her heel. That Veronica! Stevie wouldn’t have believed her eyes, except that it had happened so many times before. Garnet stood in her stall, steaming, sweating, and fully tacked. Her water bucket was empty and she hadn’t been given any dinner. Her hayrack was empty too.
    “You poor horse,” Stevie muttered. “You don’t deserve her—she doesn’t deserve you. One of these days you’ll get tangled up in the reins, the way she just dumps you in your stall.”
    While she talked, Stevie had been rapidly untacking the mare. Garnet sighed in relief when Stevie undid the tight girth, and nosed Stevie’s arm while Stevie unbuckled the bridle.
    “You sweet mare,” Stevie said. She gave Garnet a vigorous if quick grooming, and refilled her water and hay. Lastly, she gave Garnet the same amount of grain she had just given Belle.
    Garnet drank some water and slobbered on Stevie, as if in appreciation. “I get so mad at her when she does this to you,” Stevie told her. “Honestly, I wish I knew a way to pay her back.”

A FEW MINUTES later, the last members of Horse Wise were crowding into Max’s office. Standing at the front with Max was a tall, dark-haired woman they’d never seen before. Max smiled as Stevie, the last rider inside, shut the door and squeezed herself onto a space on the floor in between Carole and Lisa.
    “I had to take care of her horse for her!” Stevie hissed indignantly. Her friends nodded sympathetically. They knew without asking who Stevie meant.
    “Come to order,” Max said, and the riders quieted. “Today I thought we should see firsthand why we’re performing this drill. We’ve all worked hard for the past few weeks, and now here’s our chance to see whatit’s really about. It’s my pleasure to introduce to you Dr. Takamura, from the County Animal Rescue League.”
    The woman smiled and stepped forward. “Most people just call me Doc Tock,” she said, smiling at her own funny nickname. “It’s really a pleasure for me to come here today. I always enjoy getting a chance to tell people about the work we do at CARL, but I enjoy it even more when I’m talking to a group of young people who love animals as much as I know all of you do.
    “I’m a veterinarian—a small-animal veterinarian. That means that I limit my practice to animals like dogs, cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs. Because of CARL, I also work with quite a lot of small wildlife, such as raccoons, squirrels, and foxes. I do some work with birds, but I’m not qualified to take care of protected species like eagles or falcons. We have another vet who does that at CARL. I also don’t do exotics like zoo animals, nor do I treat large animals like horses or cows.”
    May Grover raised her hand. “Do you know Judy Barker? She’s our vet.” Judy took care of all the Pine Hollow horses.
    Doc Tock laughed. “Yes, Judy is a friend of mine. Like me, she has her own practice, but volunteersonce a week at CARL. Judy’s our equine expert. We always call her whenever we get a horse in—which isn’t often. Let me tell you about the sort of animals we usually see. Could somebody please turn off the lights?”
    Lisa jumped up to hit the switch, and Max pulled down the window shades. Doc Tock turned on a slide projector. The first picture was one of a small redbrick building. “This is the home of the County Animal Rescue League—better known as CARL. We’re fortunate to have our own site, with two acres of outdoor cages, dog runs, and a small paddock. Inside the building”—she switched to a slide of a young woman holding a cat outside a row of cages—“we have a reception room, several treatment and holding rooms, and a full small-animal surgery. The whole facility was funded by donations