Free Horse Wise by Bonnie Bryant Page B

significant markings. For Carole, that would take a little longer. Barq was a bay with Arabian blood, and he had a white blaze on his face that looked like a streak of lightning. That was how he got his name, because
Barq
meant lightning in Arabic. It was a tricky marking to draw. Carole turned over his water bucket, sat on it, and studied the horse so she could draw it properly. Drawing was not one of Carole’s strongest talents. In fact, she doubted that she’d be able to draw it properly no matter how hard she tried.
    “Rats,” she said, breaking the point of her pencil on the point of the lightning streak. She’d have to go to Mrs. Reg’s office to sharpen it. Carefully, she fastened the stall door behind her and walked toward the office.
    The whole stable was bustling with activity as all the Horse Wise members were trying to complete the work in their health-and-maintenance books. Judy was helping one young rider take her horse’s temperature. Stevie was checking to see if Topside had a tattoo. Even Veronica was working. She was sketching in Garnet’s color. Since she was a solid chestnut, it was fairly easy to do, but Carole had to give Veronica some credit. It was work.
    While Carole was sharpening her pencil, her fathercame into the tack room, which adjoined Mrs. Reg’s office.
    “Oh, there you are,” he said. “Listen, Max wants to have a short sponsors’ meeting after Horse Wise is dismissed. Would you mind waiting around for me?”
    “No problem,” she said. She really didn’t mind, and besides, it would give her a chance to talk with Stevie and Lisa alone.
    “Thanks,” he said. “And one other thing—what’s normal temperature for a horse?”
    “Ninety-nine and a half to a hundred and a half,” Carole answered automatically.
    “Oh, good,” he said. “I thought that little fellow out there might be coming down with something and I wasn’t sure what I should do for him. But it’s just a normal temperature.”
    “What were you going to do if he had been sick?” Carole asked out of curiosity. She was sorry the minute she asked.
    “Oh, you know, the usual. Tea and cinnamon toast and he can stay home from school one day, but he’d have to see the doctor to be allowed to stay home any longer than that.”
    Carole knew, beyond any doubt, that he’d used that line on whatever Pony Clubber he was “helping.” It was his rule of thumb whenever Carole got sick at home. It made sense at home and always made her laugh, too. But that was at home. This was at PineHollow. They weren’t the same at all. Carole knew that. Why didn’t her father?
    She didn’t know what to say to him, so she decided not to say anything. “See you later,” she said, escaping to the privacy of Barq’s stall. On her way there, she found Stevie and Lisa and told them they
had
to have a Saddle Club meeting in the tack room after Horse Wise. While her father was busy, she could use the time to apologize to her friends for his dumb behavior. She hoped they would understand.

S TEVIE TOOK T OPSIDE ’ S saddle off its storage rack and rested it on the bench in front of her so she could clean it. She’d finished her Horse Wise work before her friends and was able to get a head start on cleaning tack. She was already working on the stirrup leathers by the time Carole and Lisa arrived.
    “You know, I think I preferred it this summer when we could ride every day, not just twice a week,” Stevie told them.
    “Of course you did!” Lisa said, laughing. “Riding five or six times a week is
much
better than going to school.”
    “For once, that isn’t what I mean,” Stevie said. “It’s that there’s so much to learn about horses. I don’t think you can learn all you need to know twice aweek—even with Horse Wise, which, by the way, I love a lot!”
    “Me, too,” Lisa agreed. “Everybody does. Even Veronica was doing something for Garnet when I passed her stall.”
    “Not something really tricky like untacking