Free Riding Class by Bonnie Bryant Page B

silence as each girl remembered Red lifting Emily onto P.C. that morning.
    “That’s a stupid test,” Stevie said angrily.
    “No, it isn’t,” Carole replied. “I’m not trying to argue with you, Stevie, but it’s in the horse show rule book as one of the tests judges can ask even very young riders. Every rider ought to know how to get on and off her horse properly. It’s a fair test.”
    “But I can’t do it,” Emily said. “Not without a ramp.”
    The sadness in her voice made Lisa’s heart sink. “Maybe Max won’t ask that one,” she suggested.
    “If he does I’ll be disqualified,” Emily said.
    “Wait!” Stevie cut in suddenly. “I’ve got an idea!”

“I T ’ S THE GIRLS from Pine Hollow!” Ms. Payne sounded delighted to see them. “I talked to Max over the weekend—he told me you call yourselves The Saddle Club. Is that right?”
    “That’s right,” Stevie said, speaking for all of them. “We told Emily we’d help her work on a few things with P.C. But we’d like to help out with the other lesson first, if that’s okay.”
    “Sounds great, girls.” Ms. Payne smiled warmly. “I’m glad you’re here. Why don’t you help the same riders you helped last week?”
    They went into the stable. Emily wasn’t there yet, butCarole paused to pat P.C. before she looked for Joshua and the volunteers helping him. Joshua rode a different horse this week, but he hadn’t changed. He didn’t look at Carole, not even when she spoke to him, and he didn’t make a sound. He did a thorough job of grooming his horse, however, and he put on the saddle without help. Carole watched him a little sadly. She wondered if they would ever know whether he liked riding. She wondered if Joshua even knew.
    T OBY WAS HAVING trouble counting. “How many hocks?” Tom asked him as Lisa joined them in the stall. This was a hard question, Lisa realized, because it meant that Toby had to understand what hocks were as well as be able to count them.
    “Three,” Toby guessed. Lisa knew it was a guess, because horses were symmetrical—all their parts came in pairs. They didn’t have three of anything.
    “Show me a hock, Toby,” Tom suggested. Toby correctly pointed to the bottom part of the horse’s leg, what Lisa might have described as an ankle before she started riding. “Good! How many hocks?”
    “Five,” said Toby.
    “Four,” Lisa stage-whispered.
    “Four,” agreed Tom. “Let’s count them together, Toby: one, two, three, four.”
    “Four.”
    “Okay, Toby, here’s an even harder one. How many hairs on the horse?”
    Toby looked at Lisa, a big grin on his face. “About a bazillion,” Lisa whispered.
    “About a bazillion!”
    “H ELLO , C LAIRE ,” S TEVIE said as she came up to the little girl. “It’s me, Stevie.”
    Claire turned her face in the direction of Stevie’s voice. “Who’s Stevie?” she asked.
    “I helped you last week.” Stevie tried not to feel disappointed. She’d only met Claire once, after all.
    “Stevie’s my friend,” called out a voice Stevie knew.
    “Oh, hi, Emily!” Claire knew Emily’s voice, too. “What’s P.C. stand for today?”
    “Politically Correct,” Emily answered, grinning at Stevie.
    Claire frowned. “What’s that mean?”
    “Never mind,” Emily said.
    C AROLE CONTINUED TO WATCH Joshua throughout the lesson. Once, just once, she thought she saw the expression on his face change—he didn’t smile, but for an instant he looked lighthearted. Carole was glad.
    Claire trotted without being afraid, and Toby correctlycounted the number of strides his horse took on the short side of the arena. It was a very good lesson.
    E MILY HAD FULLY tacked P.C. by the time the lesson was finished. Lisa held P.C. near the ramp while she mounted, and Stevie and Carole pulled some ground poles and used them to outline an L-shaped pattern in the center of the ring. Emily warmed P.C. up at a trot and a canter. Then she asked P.C. to walk through the L. He