Free Keeker and the Horse Show Show-Off by Hadley Higginson

Chapter 2
    During the summer, Keeker takes riding lessons. Twice a week a college student named Jane Louise Appelgarden comes to Keeker’s house to help with Plum. Jane Louise is very tidy. She wears riding clothes. She NEVER looks dirty.
    Keeker finds this fascinating because no matter how clean she tries to stay, she always ends up with hay in her hair and slobber on her clothes. (Ponies don’t drool. But they can be slobbery.)

    Jane Louise likes to start every lesson with stretches. “Swing your arms like windmills,” she tells Keeker. “Push your heels down, and stretch your neck up tall!”
    Sometimes while Keeker is windmilling, Plum will stop walking altogether and put her head down to sneak a snack.

    “Silly twirlers,” thinks Plum as she munches. “It’s SO much more fun to eat grass.”

    After stretches, Keeker and Plum practice their gaits, which means going at different speeds. Walking and trotting is easy, but it’s very hard to make Plum pick up her speed to a canter.
    “Give her a kick!” yells Jane Louise. “She’s just being stubborn.”
    Keeker kicks, but Plum just puts her nose in the air and trots faster.
Rat-a-tat-tat.
    One day Keeker and Plum were whizzing in trot circles, when Keeker had a brilliant idea.
    “I know what will get Plum going,” she said. “Let’s try jumping!”
    Jane Louise agreed that this was just the thing to do. She took two hay bales out of the barn and placed them end to end, making a fuzzy-looking horse jump.
    “Okay, Keeker,” said Jane Louise. “Trot once around the jump; then turn toward it, and give her a big kick! Remember to stand up in your stirrups a little and release the reins like I showed you.”

    Keeker and Plum trotted once around then headed toward the jump.
    “Are those for eating?” Plum wondered as they trotted toward the bales. “Surely I’m not supposed to go OVER them?”

    “Yikes!” thought Keeker. She closed her eyes and crossed her fingers and gave Plum a BIG kick. Plum was startled; she snorted and bucked and charged toward the bales. Keeker and Plum flew over them.

Chapter 3
    After that, Keeker and Plum jumped at every single lesson. Jane Louise used all kinds of things to build jumps: tires, fence rails, barrels, hay bales—she even used flowerpots.
    Sometimes in the evening, Plum jumped in and out of her stall just for fun. Sometimes in the morning, Keeker jumped up and down the stairs, even though it drove her mom nuts.

    One day right after Keeker’s riding lesson, something very interesting came in the mail.
    It was a green-and-white flyer announcing the 4-H horse show.
    Keeker was so excited she had to hop around for a minute. If she went to a horse show, she would get to wear fancy riding clothes. She might even win a blue ribbon to hang on her wall.
    Plum thought it was a dumb idea. “Horse shows are for show-offs,” she sniffed.

    The horse show was in three weeks, so there was a lot to do. First, Keeker and her mother went over to Keeker’s cousin’s house to borrow riding pants and a riding coat.
    Then Jane Louise showed Keeker how to polish her boots and clean her saddle so the leather looked shiny.
    “I’m going to look so fancy!” thought Keeker. She was thrilled.
    “What a lot of fuss,” grumped Plum. “I’d rather stay home and eat apples.”

    In between polishings, Keeker practiced her acceptance speech, for when she would be awarded the blue ribbon.
    “I’d like to thank my parents and, especially, my riding teacher, Jane Louise….”
    Plum prepared for the horse show by taking a few extra dirt baths. But secretly, when no one was looking, she practiced flaring her nostrils so that she looked wild, the way a real show jumper would.
    And sometimes she peeked at her reflection to see if she looked like a champion.

Chapter 4
    The night before the horse show, Keeker could barely sleep. She tossed and turned and had crazy dreams.
    In one dream, she was riding Plum while wearing a long pink