Holiday Horse by Bonnie Bryant

setting off on a ride had ever been seriously hurt. The girls hoped its luck would help them tonight. Carole even stretched Maxi’s little arm to brush the horseshoe with the baby’s fingertips.
    “You’re never too young for good luck,” she had told Maxi.
    Now she glanced down at the baby again. Despite all The Saddle Club’s jokes, Carole had been afraid that Maxi wouldn’t like riding. Starlight’s gaits felt very smooth and easy to Carole, but she knew that a tiny baby might have a different opinion.
    Maxi, however, didn’t seem to mind the jostling and bouncing one bit. If anything, she appeared to be enjoying herself.
    “I guess that Superbaby thing was no fluke,” Carole called ahead to Stevie, remembering the swooping and swaying game Stevie had invented earlier. “Maxi likes action and excitement.”
    “Of course she does,” Stevie called back, sounding a bit smug. “I could have told you that. She’s a natural horsewoman, after all.”
    Carole laughed. She took both of Starlight’s reins in one hand so that she could tug the baby’s hat a little lower over her forehead and ears. Fortunately, the wind really had died down for the moment, and the air, while still cold, was no longer as biting as it had been earlier that evening. Still, the girls hadn’t taken any chances. Maxi was bundled up as tight as ever.
    “Snug as a bug in a rug,” Carole murmured, remembering the phrase her father sometimes used when he tucked her in at night.
    The three girls covered the miles to Hedgerow as quickly as possible. Finally the woods started to thin out and lights twinkled at them through the trees.
    “There’s Hedgerow,” Stevie said, urging Belle into a canter. “Let’s go.”
    The others followed. Carole checked on Maxi, who was fine. Then she glanced forward to check on Lisa. She looked as comfortable on Topside as if she’d been riding him for years. Carole looked farther ahead at the buildings that were just becoming visible as the three horses left the tree line behind and cantered side by side across a small pasture.
    What she saw made her gasp in horror. She had seen the big, old-fashioned stable at Hedgerow many times. But she had never seen it looking like this.
    The main length of the building stretched across the flat ground just ahead of them. The left side of the stable looked much the same as always. But the right side, which, as Carole knew from previous visits, held the main stable entrance as well as the tack room, a small indoor exercise ring, and a few big box stalls, looked as though a giant had wandered by and stomped on it. A large section of the roof had ripped free and caved into the stable in huge, jagged chunks. Several pieces stuck up at odd angles, while others had disappeared entirely into the building’s interior.
    “I hope there were no horses in the stalls on that end,” Carole said, staring at the destruction.
    The others just nodded grimly and kept riding.
    When they got closer, Carole spotted Elaine. The woman was hobbling awkwardly out of the smaller back entrance on the far left side of the stable. She had one crutch tucked under her arm, and her other hand was clutching a lead line. A small bay horse was on the other end of the line, dancing nervously and rolling its eyes until the whites showed.
    “Hold this,” Stevie said. In one smooth motion, she leaped out of Belle’s saddle and tossed the reins to Lisa, who caught them expertly.
    Stevie rushed forward to help Elaine. Soon she had taken the bay horse’s lead and was coaxing it toward a small paddock that lay between the back entrance of the stable building and the long, low-slung house whereElaine lived. Carole could see that there were already more than half a dozen horses milling around in the paddock.
    “It looks like you’ve been busy,” Carole called as Elaine approached The Saddle Club’s horses, leaning heavily on her single crutch. When Elaine got closer, Carole noticed that the woman’s