Horse Wise by Bonnie Bryant Page B

wasn’t quite satisfied that her friends were right about her father, though she accepted the fact that everybody liked him. But was that enough? Not really. In order for him to be a good sponsor, he had to contribute some skills to Horse Wise. No matter what her friends told her, Carole didn’t see what skills her father had contributed.
    Nearby, Samson snorted in his sleep. He seemed to be content and worry-free.
    “I think he’s dreaming about a palomino filly,” Lisa joked.
    “Either that or the world-famous Saddle Club Rescue Team,” Stevie suggested. “A couple more jobs like the one we did this afternoon and we’ll have our own TV show. I can see it now. How about
The Saddle Club Files?
”
    “Nah, we need something jazzier.
Saddle Club SWAT
?”
    “I’ve got it!
The Saddle Club to the Rescue!
” Stevie suggested.
    “It’s not punchy enough,” Lisa said. “It has to fit on one line in bold type in
TV Guide.
How about …”
    The conversation went on like that, but Carole dropped out of it. She was thinking about Samson’s rescue. She remembered how worried and scared shehad felt, lodged onto the edge of the gully with a foal just as worried and just as scared as she was. Every time she hadn’t known what to do, Lisa had asked her what came next. Every time she’d thought she’d known what she might do, Lisa had asked why she was doing it. Lisa’s questions had had a good effect. They’d made Carole think about what she was doing. She probably would have figured it out on her own, but having Lisa there to ask had made her consider the problem in a new way and think about the answers.
    Maybe, just maybe, that was what her father was doing in Horse Wise. Maybe having one sponsor who didn’t know about horses, but who did know about thinking and learning, wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
    Only why couldn’t it be someone else’s father?
    “Well, I’m going to make a prediction. I predict Max will show up before the temperature drops another ten degrees,” Stevie was saying.
    Lisa sat up and looked out across the fields. “Well, if those headlights are any indication, your prediction has just come true!”
    “Impressed?” Stevie asked.
    “Yeah,” Lisa said. “Very.”
    “Don’t be,” Carole said drily. “Remember that Stevie’s taller than you are. She could see those headlights before you could.”
    “And I thought Stevie was clairvoyant!” Lisa joked.
    The girls stood up to wave at Max. He spotted them right away and within a very short time, they hadloaded the still-sleeping foal into the back of the pickup truck, where Judy was waiting to take care of him. They tied Delilah’s lead rope behind the truck. Max would have to drive slowly, but it made more sense than trying to separate mother and son again.
    While the truck lumbered off down the dirt road toward the stable, the girls tightened their horses’ girths, lowered their stirrups, and mounted their animals. It was time for them to ride back as well-checking every fence gate on the way.

S TEVIE COULD HARDLY believe it was just a week since The Saddle Club’s dramatic rescue of Samson. Except for one remaining bandage, which covered three stitches in one of his hind legs, there were no signs that anything bad had ever happened to the colt. He was frolicking around his well-closed paddock with his mother, happy as could be.
    Stevie wished she could be as calm. She was a nervous wreck. It was Horse Wise Rating Day.
    Since this was the first rating, each person had been allowed to choose what rating he or she wanted to be tested for. Stevie had decided, without looking at the test requirements, that she was certainly a D-3. That was what she’d signed up for.
Then
she looked at the requirements. If she failed the test, she’d be unrated until the next rating. Thatwould be pretty embarrassing. The only rider in the stable who was going to be unrated was seven-year-old Liam, who had just started riding the day of the