Free Gold Medal Rider by Bonnie Bryant Page B

thing—deliberately try to upset Karen right before her competition.
    Kate’s look of satisfaction faded as she saw The Saddle Club’s dismay. She dropped her eyes as if ashamed. “There are no friends in competition,” she said at last.
    “But of course there are!” Carole protested.
    “I never found any,” Kate snapped back. She did feel ashamed. Already her old problems were coming back! Why was it never enough for her to do her best? Why did she have to beat everyone else? She didn’t know. She only knew that something about competition made her heart turn sour. They returned to the stables in silence.
    W HILE THEY WERE still in Southwood’s stall taking off his dressage gear, Dorothy came down the aisle. She had a big smile on her face and a piece of paper in her hands. “They just posted the dressage results,” she said. “Kate, out of thirty-three riders, you’re in eighth place!”
    Kate’s eyes shone bright. “We did better than I thought, then,” she said. She started to bend down to take off one of Southwood’s leg wraps, but Dorothy caught her into a hug.
    “Do you realize how good that is?” Dorothy asked. “You were fantastic! Everyone’s been talking about you.”
    Kate gave Dorothy a small fierce smile. “Great,” she said. She bent down again, finished removing the wrap, and stood back up. “Where did Karen place?” she asked.
    Dorothy checked. “She’s got two horses in your division,” she said. “Her young one must have had a problem—he’s twenty-seventh. Her old veteran, Singalong, is fifth.”
    “What color is her old horse, Singalong?” Carole asked softly.
    “Gray. Her young horse is a bay.”
    Carole nodded, feeling relieved. At least Kate’s comment hadn’t caused Karen to ride poorly.
    Kate nodded, too. “I think I’ll go check out the competition. I won’t be long.” She pushed past the rest of The Saddle Club and left the stabling area.
    “Whoa.” Lisa watched Kate walk away. “That was weird. She didn’t give us a chance to congratulate her. And why would she say those things about Karen’s horse, back when we were by the dressage arena? That was really rude!”
    “What things?” Dorothy asked. With some hesitation, Lisa and Carole described what Kate had said.
    “The horse was doing fine,” Stevie added. “I think Kate just wanted Karen to mess up.”
    Dorothy nodded, looking sad. “It’s a common enoughtechnique—trying to make your opponent nervous. I’m sorry that Kate sank to doing it, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Karen’s far too experienced to be bothered by anything Kate says, and I’m sure Kate only said it because she’s nervous. This is a tough competition for her.”
    “We know that,” Carole said. “It just isn’t like her.”
    “Kate’ll be okay,” Dorothy assured them. “Now, I’m going to go get sandwiches for all of us. If you see Nigel, tell him so, please. You girls should take a few minutes’ rest. You’ve worked hard this morning.”
    The Saddle Club sat down on some hay bales. “What a morning,” Stevie said, shaking her head. “Kate in eighth place! That’s wonderful. After the way she criticized her round, I didn’t expect her to do well at all.”
    “She said she did pretty well,” Lisa said. “She seemed satisfied.”
    “She thought she’d gotten a lot of things wrong, too,” Stevie argued. “She mostly talked about the faults they had.”
    “Well, she’s not in first place,” Carole answered. “I think Kate critiqued her round fairly. Probably even the first place round wasn’t perfect. We’re just not used to the standards of this level of competition. But I want to ask you two …” Carole picked at a piece of baling twine. “Do you agree with Dorothy? Do you think Kate’s attitude is okay, or at least not that big of a deal?”
    Stevie heard the unhappiness in Carole’s voice. “Do youmean the way she wants to win at any cost?” she asked. “I know that