Team Play by Bonnie Bryant Page B

horses began prancing, in step with one another.
    “How can they do that with untrained horses? I mean, those guys have never ridden on those horses before!” Carole said, obviously envious.
    “The horses may not be trained to do that, but the riders are,” Max said. “The riders are just talking to their horses with their legs, hands, and seat. Isn’t it wonderful?”
    “Yes,” Kate agreed.
    At the far end of the oval, the formation changed. All four horses returned to the center and then each went to a separate corner, forming a square. At an invisible signal, they began cantering toward the center of the ring, and somehow, miraculously, managed to cross one another without running in to each other. The audience applauded. The horses reversed directions at the corners and repeated the exercise.
    “Amazing,” Christine said.
    “Could we ever do something like that?” Lisa asked Max.
    “Sure,” Max replied, “but first you have to learn to keep your heels down, toes in, hands steady, and—”
    “I know, eyes straight ahead,” Lisa finished for him. “I guess he means first things first,” she said to Kate. Kate nodded.
    By then, the boys had started a zigzag pattern so complicated that Stevie wished she were in a hot air balloon so she could see it more clearly. What was clear from where she was, however, was that they really knew what they were doing. They proceeded flawlessly through the entire exercise.
    “Fabulous!” she exclaimed when they completed the set.
    “Outstanding!” Phil said. They both clapped loudly.
    Then, with the horses once again responding to imperceptible signals, the riders began a snaking pattern that turned out to be a figure eight. They cantered their horses through the figure. The work was so precise that it appeared the riders would run into each other every time they crossed the intersection in the middle of the eight, but no such thing happened. The boys were too good.
    “Boy, and I had them driving pony carts!” Stevie moaned. “They must think I’m a jerk!”
    “Nobody thinks you’re a jerk,” Phil assured her. “In fact, now I think they’re going to do something special here just for you.”
    As Phil spoke, Stevie looked up and saw that all four horses and riders were approaching her straight on. Stevie wondered what was happening. The crowd did, too.
    The horses drew to a halt just a few feet in front of her.
    Then, while Stevie watched breathlessly, all four horses inched their front legs forward, lowering themselves into a bow to her—just her.
    “Oh,” Stevie said.
    “Oooooh,” the crowd agreed.
    And when the horses rose back up again, everybody burst into applause for the Italian equestrian team, and for Stevie.
    What a day it was!

“D ID SOMEBODY PACK up the Nerf balls?” Stevie asked later that afternoon.
    “Better than that,” Phil told her. “After the booth closed, we sold them as souvenirs—and made a wicked profit!”
    Stevie was sitting in the den in her own house, lounging in her father’s recliner. She had a glass of iced tea in one hand and a bowl of popcorn close by the other. But she wasn’t paying much attention to either of these luxuries. Her mind was still racing over potentially unfinished business from the very full day she’d just had on the hospital grounds. She was discovering that, thanks to the friends who surrounded her, there really was no unfinished business.
    “And the games?” she asked.
    “All packed and stored back at Fenton, along with the dismantled booths,” Carole assured her.
    “Did all the horses and their equipment get safely back to Pine Hollow?” Stevie wanted to know.
    “Every bit of it,” Marco promised her. “The horses have been groomed, fed, and watered, and are now enjoying a much-deserved rest. You should learn from them and begin enjoying this party your mother planned for you.”
    Stevie smiled. While she had been working on the final matters of the day, her mother had invited her