Free Schooling Horse by Bonnie Bryant

back into her box.
    The stables were quiet. Max had only a few students taking private lessons that day. Lisa wished that Carole and Stevie could be there. Their presence would give her confidence, just the way their conversation had the night before.
    But Carole had worked through her French problem, and surely Lisa could work through her difficulties with Milky. Maybe today would be her breakthrough. And at any rate, she was going to take small steps. Today, all she wanted Milky to do was walk and trot calmly around the back field.
    She finished grooming, tacked Milky up, and tightened his girth. She fastened her riding helmet and pulled on her gloves.
Better tell Max where I’m going
, she thought. She opened the door of the office. Max was talking on the phone, but he asked her what she needed and nodded when she told him where she’d be.
    See
, she told herself,
Max thinks I’m perfectly capable of riding Milky all by myself. That must mean I am.
But she still felt nervous. She told herself that Milky would pick up on her nerves. She had to calm down in order to be effective with him. She reminded herself to breathe.
    Milky didn’t stir while she lowered the stirrups and checked the girth one last time.
See
, Lisa told herself,
you’re imagining things. You’re making this into too big of a deal.
But after she mounted she was very careful to touch Pine Hollow’s good-luck horseshoe. No one who touched it before riding had ever been seriously injured. For thefirst time, Lisa felt as if she might need the horseshoe’s protection.
    She walked Milky out to the field and carefully shut the gate behind them. It was a long enclosed meadow, larger than any of the riding rings but not as big as the giant paddock where the horses were sometimes turned loose to play. In good weather Max put fences in the field, but now only a few immovable ones dotted the brown grass. There was nothing there that Milky should find upsetting.
    Lisa started Milky on a circuit of the field. She kept him at a slow walk, and he ambled along as though there was nothing interesting about what they were doing. Lisa could feel how tense her legs were against his sides. She realized that she was clenching her fingers around the reins. She shook her hands and shoulders loose and willed herself to relax.
    They went once around the field, and then Lisa asked Milky to trot. He picked up the gait without fuss and moved at a fairly slow pace, not taking off with her or fighting the bit. Still, Lisa felt as though disaster was imminent. Any moment now, Milky could do something awful.
    Lisa wondered why she was feeling so scared. Even when Prancer was acting her absolute worst, Lisa never felt like that.
I just don’t think Milky likes me,
she thought, and then,
I don’t trust him at all.
When Prancer did something strange, it always seemed as if the cause was excessenergy or Thoroughbred nervousness, but Milky felt completely different.
I don’t think he likes me, and I don’t like him, either.
    That thought startled her. What would she do with a horse she didn’t even like? What could she do?
    They came to the far corner of the field. Milky dragged his hindquarters a bit through the turn, and Lisa used her inside rein to get him straight.
    Without warning, Milky exploded. He leaped into the air and landed bucking. Lisa dug in with her heels and fought to stay on him. She pulled the reins in. Milky came to a standstill. “Walk,” Lisa said. Her mouth was dry. She was terrified. She squeezed him forward anyway. “Walk,” she said.
    Milky squealed, whirled, and bucked again. Lisa fell against his neck but grabbed a big handful of mane and managed to stay on his back. One of her feet came out of its stirrup.
    Milky reared up on his hind legs. Lisa screamed. Max had told them once that rearing was the most dangerous thing a horse could do, because the horse couldn’t balance on two legs. It could fall over backward, crushing its rider.
    Lisa clung to