Third-Time Lucky Read Free

shaped like a dome. It had brilliant pink paintbrush flowers growing at its base and the trunk of a half-felled tree resting against one side. Kirstie noticed with a faint shiver the exposed roots reaching out of the earth like gnarled witches’ fingers. “Here?” she whispered to Lucky.
    The palomino stood full square, his head turned to the ten-foot-high rock.
    Quietly Kirstie dismounted. She needed to find a way around the back of the rock without breaking her neck on the loose shale slope. Maybe climbing up it would be better. Footholds were hard to find in the pink granite, but she managed it and eased herself up to the top of the dome.
    Lying flat on her stomach, peering down the far side, Kirstie saw the pony.
    The tiny spotted horse had got her wide saddle and bulky stirrups wedged between a tree and the rock. She was six feet away, looking up at Kirstie with wild eyes and flaring nostrils. Her hooves scraped and pawed at the rocky ground, but the more she struggled, the tighter she wedged herself.
    In spite of the little pony’s distress, Kirstie saw right away what she had to do to help. Once she got down there and unbuckled the cinch strap, she could ease the saddle off and set the poor creature free.
    “OK, hang on in there,” she whispered, scrambling over the top of the rock. “I’ll have you out in a couple of minutes, no problem.”

2
    “The strange thing is, you’d expect her to have worked up a sweat, but she feels real cold.” Kirstie ran her hand down the appaloosa’s neck. A nimble scramble down the rock, making sure to keep out of the way of the small but still lethal hooves, had brought her alongside the trapped pony. She’d moved in close, saying soothing words all the while, until the poor thing had calmed down enough to stay quiet as Kirstie unbuckled the cinch. As predicted, once the saddle was loose and she was able to lift it, the pony quickly squirmed free.
    Lisa and Snowflake had decided to follow Kirstie and Lucky after all, and it was at the moment when the pony broke loose that they drew level with the dome-shaped rock. They’d blocked the pony’s escape route as, relieved of her saddle, she’d blundered through the undergrowth and shot out across the track. She’d reared and turned, but had been stopped again by Lucky standing in the way. Meanwhile, Kirstie struggled after her, carrying the battered saddle.
    Really it had been no contest: Lisa and Snowflake, Kirstie and Lucky against an eleven-hands-high pony. Lisa had unhitched a rope from her saddle horn and handed it to Kirstie, who had quickly looped it around the runaway’s neck.
    And now that Kirstie was running a hand down the little appie’s side, she was puzzled. The pony must have been jammed between the tree and the rock for at least five minutes, working hard to break free. Yet she definitely felt cold and clammy.
    “It must be the trauma of being trapped,” Lisa suggested, then went to search in Snowflake’s saddlebag. “What have we got to help keep her warm?” She drew out her waterproof slicker that she wore only when it rained. “Any good?”
    “No thanks.” Kirstie thought that the best thing to do was to get the shocked horse moving. “Let’s lead her back to the ranch, then call around to see if any kid has taken a fall and gone home without her pony.”
    “Can she walk OK?” Lisa pointed to the cuts on her knees and fetlocks, where she’d bashed herself against the rock.
    Kirstie lifted the pony’s dainty feet to check, feeling her sides heave rapidly in and out. Her breath seemed to rasp inside her chest, probably another sign that she was in shock. But as far as the legs went, there seemed to be no reason why she couldn’t make it safely to Half Moon Ranch.
    “She doesn’t care about you messing with her,” Lisa commented, noting how the pretty pony turned her head to follow Kirstie’s every move. The horse let her attach a lead rope securely to the head collar that she wore under