Horse Games by Bonnie Bryant Page A

decided she’d do her best to see that they might not have as much fun this time!
    “Begin play!” Mr. Baker announced, tossing the ball between the teams.
    Lisa kept her eye on the ball as it came toward her. She reached out and up with her racquet, swiped at it, and was delighted to discover that she had actually caught the ball on the toss-in.
    She heard Stevie cheer from the sidelines. Now, if only she could think what would be the right thing to do with the ball.
    “Throw it here!” Marie called to her.
    That made sense. Marie was down the field toward the goal they were shooting for. Lisa held her racquet firmly, took a swing, and the ball sailed out of her racquet—toward Marie, just like it was supposed to!
    “Yeahhhhh!” Stevie yelled.
    Marie reached out for the ball, but the toss was long and she couldn’t get it. The Cross County Center picked it up. This called for some defense! Marie maneuvered Comanche over to face the Center’s horse so she would pass him on his right side, where he carried his racquet. Marie felt like a jousting knight as she gave Comanche a signal to canter. She took aim when they neared the other rider, and she batted his racquet from below. The ball popped out. Marie caught it in midair.
    “Raaaahhhhh!” Stevie yelled.
    Marie spotted Carole nearby. She bounce-passed the ball over to her. Carole was near the penalty line. She couldn’t carry the ball over it and Marie wasn’t allowed to cross it. Marie rode Comanche right up to the line and waited. As Carole approached the line, she tossed the ball to Marie. Once she was over it, Marie tossed it back. Then, just as they had been practicing, Carole turned toward the goal, took aim, and tossed. The ball passed right between the goalposts.
    “Score!” Mr. Baker called.
    “Yippeeeeee!” yelled Stevie. So did all of the Horse Wise cheering section.
    There wasn’t time for congratulations, though, because play resumed right away. They lined up again. Cross County got the ball on the toss-in. Lisa went down to the goal area right away to protect against a scoring attempt. The Cross County team was good at passing the ball among themselves, but they couldn’t move it down the field fast enough to escape the strong defense of Horse Wise. Carole and Marie worked together, and, when one pass went wild, Carole was the first to get to the loose ball. She scooped it up and headed back up the field toward the goal.
    This time, Cross County stopped her in time. Their Attack hit her stick, and the ball bounced out-of-bounds. That meant another toss-in.
    Nobody caught the ball. It bounced on the ground. There was a free-for-all as the players tried to pick it up. The result was that the ball got knocked out-of-bounds again. Once again, Mr. Baker tossed it in.
    Carole caught it. She tilted her racquet, trying to trap the ball to defend against somebody hitting her racquet. She turned Starlight around and headed for the goal. She found herself being pursued by three players from Cross County—one of whom was their Defense player, who just wanted to beat Carole to the goal. The field was completely open ahead of her.
    Carole saw the penalty line approaching and knew she couldn’t carry the ball over herself. She looked around desperately, hoping to find Marie or Lisa there to help her out. The trouble was that Carole had gotten such a head start on everybody that not even her teammates were in the neighborhood.
Bounce it
, she told herself. It was the only way. She was going to have to bounce it on the ground and then pick it up on the other side of the line. It was sort of like dribbling in basketball, only on a moving horse, using a long-handled racquet, and it wasn’t anywhere near as easy. Nevertheless, she didn’t have a choice.
    Carole adjusted the angle of her racquet, lifted the stick, turned it over, and tossed the ball out onto the ground as hard as she could. It smacked off the turf, sailed over the penalty line, and rose high