Free Horse Wise by Bonnie Bryant Page A

a folder with individual record sheets in it.
    “You’ll need to fill these out and bring them to every rating and, even more important, you’ll need to keep them up to date. As you’ll see, the sheets require certain specific information. Judy is here today to help you all learn how to check on your horse’s health and fill out these sheets …”
    As Max continued talking, Carole looked at her booklet. It was designed to be a year-long log of everything from the horse’s basic health, like his normal pulse rate and temperature, to the veterinary visits, cost of horse care, and income of the rider. Carole knew about the care book from the last time she’d been in a Pony Club.
    “The first thing we need to do is to learn how to check a horse’s pulse,” Judy said. “Colonel Hanson, can you show us how to do this?”
    Carole felt a nervous twinge in her stomach. If her father had read one of the three books she’d left on his bedside table last week, he might, just might, have learned what to do. Otherwise, it was going to be anotherembarrassing moment for her. She held her breath.
    The colonel stepped forward to where Judy held Patch, a black-and-white pinto, by his lead rope. To Carole’s dismay, he grinned and reached down and put his hand against Patch’s foreleg, as if it were the horse’s wrist.
    Carole groaned out loud. Nobody heard it, though. Everybody was laughing too loud. Carole hung back in a corner, hoping that nobody could see her, hoping, in fact, that nobody would know she existed.
    “Nice try, Colonel,” Judy said. “But you flunk.” More giggles. “Anybody want to show this man what to do?”
    A few hands went up. Judy called on Stevie. Stevie showed Colonel Hanson and everybody else the two easiest places to check a horse’s pulse. The first was in between the animal’s jawbones, at the curve of the cheek. The second was on the horse’s belly, right behind his elbow.
    Stevie put her hand under Patch’s jaw, checked Judy’s watch, which had a sweep-second hand, and counted the beats for fifteen seconds.
    “Twelve,” she announced. “Multiply it by four and get, uh—” She looked at Lisa, frantically. Lisa just gave her a dirty look. “Oh, yeah, forty-eight,” Stevie concluded sheepishly.
    Judy and everybody else laughed. Then Judy had everybody come and check Patch’s pulse rate. When allthe Pony Clubbers had done it, she turned back to Colonel Hanson. “Think you can do it now?” she asked.
    “I’ll try,” he said, and then, to Carole’s relief, did it correctly.
    Judy then proceeded to demonstrate how to check the horse’s respiration or breathing rate. This is important for a rider to know, because the respiration rate, among other things, is an indication of whether a horse is overheated or not. After Judy had completed her instruction, each rider was told to fill in the record book for his own horse.
    Carole picked up a pencil and headed for Barq’s stall. Barq wasn’t her very own horse, of course, but he was the horse she had been riding most recently at Pine Hollow. The horse she had ridden before Barq was Delilah, a palomino mare who was a wonderful horse to ride. But she had just foaled a few months earlier and was spending her days with her colt, Samson. Samson’s sire, or father, had been Veronica’s stallion, Cobalt. Carole had to pass their little stall and paddock on her way to Barq’s. She noticed Samson frolicking around the paddock, obviously in a good and playful mood. Delilah stood serenely nearby, watching him with one eye, and nibbling at grass sprouts. Sometimes horses seemed very human to Carole, and this was one of those times. Samson was like a rambunctious toddler, and Delilah his overtired mother. The sight made Carole smile for the first timesince the Horse Wise meeting had been called to order.
    She continued to Barq’s stall. It took her only a few minutes to check his condition and jot down the figures. Then she had to draw his