Free Bridle Path by Bonnie Bryant

she would be able to. Nigel Hawthorne was the most impressive person she’d ever seen. He was very tall and slender. He had strong features, wide-set dark brown eyes, a fine nose, an even mouth, and impeccably combed hair. In fact, she would have been downright scared of him if it weren’t for his wonderful, warm smile. He shook Carole’s hand and then Stevie’s and Lisa’s in turn. Lisa found herself relaxing a little just because of his smile.
    “I suppose it wasn’t really me you wanted to meet, though, was it? It was my horse, right?”
    “Well, we do love horses,” Stevie said.
    “Then come right this way.”
    Dorothy excused herself to go be with the horse she’d been training, saying she’d meet them all back at the seats. The girls followed Nigel.
    The British Equestrian Team had four members at the horse show. They were competing in a number of events, including the Gambler’s Choice, which would be this evening. Nigel explained that the team had more members, it was just that the alternates weren’t needed now for this show.
    The horses were all stabled in stalls next to one another, and two of the other riders were there as well. Nigel introduced the girls to his teammates, Camilla Wentworth and Alastair Brown. Then they met their horses.
    The horses that Max kept at Pine Hollow were pretty good animals. Some of them were even quite valuable. But the girls didn’t think they had ever seen such beautiful and valuable horses all in one place as they were looking at right then and there.
    Camilla Wentworth was having a problem with her horse, Elementary, and she wanted Nigel’s help.
    “He’s been acting up, very frisky,” she said.
    “Isn’t that good?” Carole asked. It had always been her impression that when a horse was lively and fresh—frisky—that was a good sign and boded well for a top performance.
    “Not necessarily,” Nigel said. “And not in this horse. Elementary is a very staid and steady performer. What’s significant here is that his behavior is
different
.”
    That made sense. Carole and her friends watched while Nigel and Camilla examined Elementary carefully. They checked his basic health, temperature, pulse, and rate of breathing. Everything seemed normal. He wasn’t showing any signs of lameness or swelling in his legs, and there were no tender areas on him that they could detect. They couldn’t find any reason for a change in behavior patterns.
    “I don’t know,” Nigel said, shrugging. “Carole could be right. Whatever it is, if it’s anything at all, it could just help his performance.”
    “I hope you’re right,” Camilla said, but she eyed her horse doubtfully. She gave him a couple of pats on his neck and rubbed his cheek. He nuzzled her neck. “I guess he does seem fine,” she said. Nobody could not think her horse was fine when he was in the process of tickling her neck! Camilla decided to walk Elementary around one of the warm-up rings, just to be sure. She snapped a lead on him and took him out of his stall. His motion seemed totally fluid and flawless.Carole and her friends couldn’t imagine that there was actually anything wrong with him.
    Nearby, a groom was working to make Nigel’s horse’s coat shiny and perfect. The Saddle Club always prided themselves on being able to groom a horse well, but they were definitely getting a lesson from the man Nigel introduced as Mark. Majesty, Nigel’s horse, didn’t just look good. He looked perfect! And then Mark worked some more.
    “This isn’t an event where the grooming matters much to the judges,” Nigel explained. “But the audience expects the horses to look good, and careful grooming matters to the horses as well. They simply perform better when they know they look good. Horses can be quite vain, you know.”
    “I’ve always thought it was just that they liked all the attention they get with a careful grooming,” Carole said.
    “Definitely part of it,” Nigel agreed. “Whatever it is,