Free Show Horse by Bonnie Bryant Page A

then, though he had a nice chestnut horse, whom he called Duffy, the horse wasn’t anything special, and he didn’t have a chance at a ribbon. Maybe he was even trying to distract her so he could get a blue instead of her. No way, she thought, quickly returning her attention to her own quest for blue. Eyes forward, she gripped the reins. Her knuckles were white.
    Lisa felt Prancer tug hard at the reins. She didn’tdare turn around. She was sure that the slightest movement on her part would be an error and cost her a ribbon.
    “Hi there,” the judge said to Lisa.
    Lisa’s eyes flicked toward the woman. “Hello, ma’am,” Lisa said in a military response.
    “Your horse seems uneasy,” the judge commented.
    “She’s fine,” Lisa assured the judge.
    “I don’t know about that. She keeps shifting around. She’s as nervous as you are.”
    “Oh, I’m not nervous,” Lisa said. It was true. She wasn’t nervous. She was doing everything exactly the way she thought she ought to. She was going to get a blue ribbon.
    “Well, I’m going to check out the mare’s conformation. Hold her steady, okay?”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Lisa said. She wrapped the reins around her hand more tightly, completely forgetting how dangerous that could be if the horse took off. She could hurt her arm badly that way.
    Lisa didn’t dare watch while the judge examined Prancer, but then she didn’t need to, either. She was confident that Prancer was the best, most beautiful horse in the ring. If she watched the judge do the examination, it might suggest that she wasn’t confident. She continued to look straight ahead.
    If Lisa was confident, Prancer didn’t seem to be. The horse almost jumped back from the judge. That was when Lisa remembered that Prancer really liked kids and didn’t seem to like adults much. The judgewas definitely an adult, and Prancer was trying to move away from her.
    Lisa didn’t see what happened next. Later people told her about it, though.
    The judge ran her hand along Prancer’s flank and then down the mare’s leg. It was more than the over-excited horse could take. She bucked. She simply lifted her hind quarters off the ground and kicked back. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the judge hadn’t been crouched there, checking out her hind legs at the time. Prancer wound up kicking the judge in the rib cage.
    “Yeouch!” the woman howled.
    Lisa looked around then and saw that half the people were looking at the judge in concern. The other half were scowling at Lisa! Lisa’s jaw dropped in astonishment.
    Another of the judges came running over to help the woman off the ground.
    “Move the horse!” he said sternly to Lisa. That was when Lisa realized what had happened. Her horse, her precious Prancer, had actually knocked the judge onto the ground. The other judge was afraid she was going to do it again, too!
    “I’m sorry,” Lisa said.
    The man looked at her. “You’re excused,” he said.
    She was surprised he accepted her apology so easily. “Can I do something?” she offered.
    “You can leave the ring,” he said.
    Leave the ring? Suddenly Lisa realized that “You’reexcused” didn’t mean he’d accepted her apology. It meant she was excused from the class. She’d flunked. She was out. Done. No blue. No ribbon at all. Just gone.
    And if any doubt remained in her mind, what came over the public-address system cleared it up completely.
    “Competitor number two seventy-three has been disqualified. Lisa Atwood, please remove your horse from the ring.”
    Lisa didn’t see the looks on her friends’ faces. She didn’t hear Carole whisper, “Talk to you later,” or Stevie’s “Tough luck!” All she was aware of was her own humiliation and her own broken dream. She’d been disqualified. The horse show was over for her and for Prancer.

L ISA ’ S FEET MARCHED and her mind raced as she led Prancer out of the show ring. She saw only the dark interior of the stabling area ahead, and she