Horse Sense Read Online Free PDF Page A

one?” Stevie asked.
    “Well, there’s our new set of rules and regulations,” Lisa said proudly. She waited for Stevie to be impressed, but she was soon disappointed.
    “You mean like rules for the games I’m making up?” Stevie asked.
    “No, rules for the Club,” Lisa went on. “You know how frustrated we always are when we have a meeting and then it’s over and we haven’t really accomplishedanything? Now we can accomplish things. Wait’ll you see—”
    “Rules aren’t my strong point,” Stevie told Lisa.
    “Well, you just don’t like the dumb rules they have at school and the strict ones Max makes up. These are
good
rules. They’re just absolutely going to
make
The Saddle Club. Now, finally, we’re going to be a
real
club.”
    “We weren’t already a
real
club?” Stevie wondered.
    “Not really. At least, not until now. Wait till you see,” Lisa said again.
    “And wait’ll you see what wonderful and outrageous games I come up with!”
    “See you Monday,” Lisa told her.
    “Right,” Stevie said.
    Lisa wasn’t awfully surprised that Stevie was lukewarm about her project. She’d see, though, Lisa was sure, how much better and more fun it would be to have a club that really was a club. It just wasn’t the sort of thing Stevie would be excited about right away. She didn’t think much of rules. But Carole, on the other hand, would be excited about it all.
    “O H , D AD, YOU can’t imagine how wonderful it was!” Carole cooed from the couch in the living room.
    “I think I can, honey,” Colonel Hanson told his daughter. He peered around the corner at her from the kitchen. “Birth is probably the most exciting thing in the world.”
    “I was right next to Judy the whole time, too,” Carole continued. “I watched her examine the mare and the filly. The little baby kept trying to nip at her hands. I think she was looking for more milk!”
    Carole was practically exploding with excitment and wanted to share every detail with her father. Stevie certainly hadn’t been a satisfactory audience—too involved with her games. A gymkhana would be fun, to be sure, but it wasn’t in the same league as a newborn foal.
    The phone rang. Carole dashed into the kitchen. Maybe it was about Delilah, she thought. She picked up the receiver from just beneath her father’s hand. He stepped back, amused.
    “Oh, it’s you, Lisa,” Carole said, disappointment in her voice.
    Of course Carole had been about to call Lisa and tell her about the foal, but before she could even get into it, Lisa began telling her about rules and The Saddle Club. Carole’s mind was so focused on the newborn foal that she really couldn’t make much sense of Lisa’s excitement. It seemed an awful lot like Stevie and the gymkhana. It was clear to Carole that this was no time to try to talk to Lisa about the foal. It would be better to tell her father the rest of the story.
    “Gee, Lisa, that sounds great,” Carole said, mustering all the sincerity she could find for whatever Lisa was talking about. “But I’m kind of busy with my dad now. Mind if we talk about this on Monday?”
    Quickly, the phone conversation ended. For a moment Carole paused to wonder what Lisa had been talking about. Rules? The Club didn’t have any rules. Right then, it didn’t really matter to Carole anyway. All she could think about was the foal.

T HE THING ABOUT being mad at Stevie and Carole was that Lisa couldn’t be mad at them while they were at class. They all had too much fun together when they were riding.
    As soon as the three of them were on their horses on Monday morning, all the irritations from Friday were gone. It was a new week, a fresh start.
    All twelve of the stable’s summer-camp students were in the class, which took place in the outdoor ring. The ring, at the back of the stable, was really a large rectangle, sixty by eighty meters. Max stood in the center and barked orders at his eager students.
    “Today, we’re going to try