Pleasure Horse Read Free Page B

Jersey. Squeezed between Angie and her mother, Stevie resigned herself to listening to more party clothing details. Every few minutes she murmured “Really?” or “Wow” to be polite, although it was hard to feign interest about which shoes would match which dress.
    Stevie was surprised that Angie wasn’t showing. Sparkles was such a good jumper that he belonged in the show ring. Using him as a pleasure horse was a waste of his talent. Stevie decided to ask Angie about it when they went riding. For now, she could hardly get a word in edgewise.
    When they got to the house, Angie showed Stevie to the room she would be staying in. It was a guest room on the second floor, right next to Angie’s. “Oh, good—this means I can sneak into your room so we can talk till all hours,” Stevie said.
    Angie nodded, but she didn’t seem thrilled by the prospect. “We can’t stay up too late, Stevie. I don’t want to look all tired for the party, you know.”
    If her cousin’s face had not been so serious, Stevie would have burst out laughing. That was a new one: Angie Lake needing her beauty rest.
    “This is really a big-deal party, huh?” Stevie asked.
    Angie’s face lit up. “It really is. Mom and I have been planning for months.”
    Stevie dropped her bag, kicked off her shoes, and sprawled on one of the beds. Angie perched carefully on the other one, smoothing her skirt down over her legs. “How’s school, Stevie?” Angie inquired.
    “Boring, dull, boring, and dull,” Stevie replied cheerfully. “How about for you?” One thing she and Angie had always agreed on was that school took way too much time away from riding.
    “It’s great,” Angie said. “All my friends and I have so much fun, you wouldn’t believe it.” With that, the older girl stood up and walked over to check her hair in the bedroom mirror.
    Stevie sighed.
No, I probably wouldn’t
, she thought.

“M EET YOU IN the tack room?” Lisa asked.
    Carole nodded. “Right. I want to oil those bridles we cleaned yesterday,” she said. The two girls had just finished another frustrating training session with Samson. But even though she was dejected, Carole was determined to maintain a positive attitude. One way to do that was to help out at Pine Hollow the way she always did. Right now she felt like crawling home and collapsing on her bed. Instead, she would oil some tack and try to work herself out of her funk.
    Samson was cross tied in the main aisle, and Carolegave him a pat on the neck before leading him back to his stall. By patting him and praising him, Carole made sure that she wasn’t holding a grudge against Samson just because things weren’t going well. “I know it’s not your fault, Samson,” Carole murmured, inside the stall. “But can’t you just tell me why you don’t like stirrups? They’re not that bad, you know. Just a couple of pieces of iron. If you don’t get used to them, how are you going to become a nice pleasure horse like your mother?”
    Samson arched his neck prettily and blew through his nostrils. “All the good looks in the world aren’t going to get you anywhere if nobody can ride you,” Carole informed him. Reluctantly, she gave the colt a final pat and closed and bolted his stall door.
    “I’d say today went a little better,” Lisa said as Carole joined her in the tack room.
    “You really think so?” Carole asked anxiously.
    “Yes. He seemed more under control.”
    Carole smiled. “Spoken like a true friend, Lisa.”
    “No, I mean it. He was wilder yesterday.”
    Carole sat down beside Lisa and picked up a pair of reins to oil. In one sense, Lisa was right. Samson had been calmer today. But Carole thought that that was just a fluke. Maybe he had run around more in the pasture and had less energy. The fact was the colt wasn’tresponding to their training. Every time they put the saddle on him, he acted as if the whole thing was a big game. A couple of times he had practically run right over