Free Rodeo Rocky by Jenny Oldfield

again.
    Rocky was falling behind, shaking his head and flattening his ears.
    “He doesn’t like the cliffs,” Kirstie answered. The shadows from the tall rocks had closed in, and by this time the first riders had entered the squeeze. “Tight spaces remind him of the rodeo chutes, I guess!”
    “You want to turn back?”
    “No. Let’s try,” she decided. How would it look if she and Lisa rode back to the ranch early? They would have to give Sandy and Matt the reason and admit that Rocky wasn’t going to make the grade as a working horse after all. Not yet, at any rate, and time was short.
    So they rode on into the gully, Lucky stepping out first as if there was no problem, picking his way over the rocky ground, sure-footed and confident as ever.
    Rocky watched him every inch of the way. Where Lucky went, he could go, too. Though he was tense and tight, he battled with his fear and went on.
    “Easy, boy!” Kirstie soothed him with her voice and helped him along. The track narrowed, the rocks rose high to either side. Inside the squeeze, the light was gloomy, the air damp, all sound deadened.
    But Rocky made it through. Hating every second, flinching as he went, he came out the other side to join the group. Hadley gave Kirstie a keen, questioning look. She nodded, and without a word he carried on.
    “Rocky’s a grade-A student!” Lisa sighed happily as the riders tethered their horses to tree branches on Bear Hunt Overlook. The others went ahead to sit at the edge of the rock and take in the spectacular view down the valley during their ten-minute break. “He just took his first exam and passed!”
    Kirstie slid from the saddle and led Rocky to a vacant tree. The ride had taken more out of her than she was ready to admit. Her mind had been full of questions that she’d had to keep hidden, and the effort of telling Rocky not to worry, of keeping him on the trail with the other horses, had been hard on her. Now she felt pleased but tired, glad of the rest as she unhitched Rocky’s tether rope and began to tie it to a low branch.
    She was hurrying with the slipknot in order to retrace her steps across the flat top of the overlook to rejoin Lisa and Lucky when a sudden noise in a bush on a steep slope to the side of the tree stopped her. Rocky heard it, too, froze, and stared up at the rustling branches.
    “Come on, Kirstie!” Lisa yelled, wanting to climb to the top of the overhang and join the rest of the group.
    Her voice must have alarmed the creature crouched under the bush. The leaves shook, the branches parted, and out crawled a gray, silent shape.
    “Coyote!” Kirstie cried. She recognized the wild dog in an instant, with its thick fur and long, bushy tail, its thin, pointed muzzle and slanting amber eyes that stared down at them from the rocky slope.
    Before she knew it, the startled animal had crept free of the bush and started to advance. It was coming at her, lip curled back to show vicious canine teeth, a low growl deep in its throat.
    “Get out of there!” Lisa yelled. Then she called for Hadley. “Kirstie’s in trouble!” she cried. “Coyote!”
    Shock rooted Kirstie to the spot. She heard her friend’s cries, but the creature’s white fangs seemed to mesmerize her. She couldn’t move, couldn’t defend herself as it crouched above her head, ready to leap.
    It snarled and launched itself, flying through the air in a rush of gray and fawn fur; would have landed on top of her, its teeth snapping and tearing, if it hadn’t been for Rocky. The horse’s head went up, he pulled at the half-tied rope and broke free. Then he whirled around to rear up between the coyote and Kirstie, so that the doglike creature came down on his back, across the saddle. The sudden movement knocked the coyote sideways onto the ground at Rocky’s feet, where it lay winded.

    “Don’t move!” Hadley ordered Kirstie, seeing what had happened and running from the overhang with Lisa. “Let the horse handle