Riding Camp Read Online Free PDF Page A

minimum. So far, Lisa and Major were getting along pretty well. He was cooperative, and she was glad of it.
    There were a couple of stablehands who could have untacked Major, but Lisa wanted the opportunity to work with him and get to know him. And there was no better way to learn about a horse than to take care of him.
    Debbie was untacking her horse next to her. Lisa thought it was a good chance to be friendly.
    “Barry’s really a good teacher, isn’t he?” she remarked while she removed Major’s bridle.
    “He’s tough, if that’s what you mean,” Debbie said. “Sometimes I think he’s too tough. You can only remember so much at one time—”
    “That’s not what Max thinks,” Lisa said, encouraged by the girl’s response. “Our instructor at home thinks you should be able to remember everything. After all,
he
does. Once, he told me eight things I was doing wrong at once!”
    Debbie looked at her strangely. Probably Debbie thought that if Lisa could make so many mistakes all at once, she really wasn’t worthy of riding with Debbie. Lisa decided on the spot that if that was the way Debbie felt, she really didn’t want to have anything to do with her. She turned one hundred percent of her attention to Major, who needed a good brushing.
    Brushing, Lisa found, was the perfect activity to do when you were angry. You grabbed the brush and scraped at the horse’s coat. The angrier you were, the more vigorously you brushed, and the more your horse liked it. She could tell Major was enjoying himself.
    By the time Lisa was finished, Major’s coat was smooth and clean. He was ready for a drink.
    Lisa led the horse to the trough at the paddock end of the barn. Fred, the stablehand, was there, holding on to three horses at once and paying attention tonone of them. It was a warm day and the horses were still hot. They were guzzling water, which was dangerous. Overheated, overwatered horses could get bad stomachaches.
    Lisa wasn’t sure what to do. She knew what Fred was doing was wrong, but how could she tell him? “Haven’t they had enough?” she suggested.
    “I don’t think so,” Fred said. “They’re still drinking.”
    Of course they were, but that wasn’t the point. Lisa didn’t want to get into an argument with Fred, but she would if it meant keeping the horses from illness. Luckily Betty, the head stablehand, arrived and spoke for her.
    “Fred, those horses have had enough water for now! Put them in the paddock and bring down a fresh bale of hay.” Fred yanked the horses back from the trough and took them to the paddock. Lisa didn’t like his yanking, either, but at least it wasn’t dangerous to the animals.
    Betty shook her head. “He’s new,” she confided to Lisa. “He’s the son of some friend of Barry’s and he’s supposed to be this horse genius, but he isn’t. He’s more work than he is help.”
    Still muttering to herself, Betty left to help a camper who was having trouble loosening his horse’s girth.
    One thing was certain: Stevie had been absolutely right about the stablehands—or at least one of them. The best way to make sure their horses were well taken care of was to do it themselves.
    She patted Major’s neck and led him to the paddock, where he would stay until she could give him some fresh hay.
    In a few minutes, Fred reappeared, carrying a bale of hay on a wheelbarrow. He dumped it onto the barn floor, snapped the wire that held it, and began breaking off flakes, which were chunks of the hay, for each horse.
    Lisa took a flake to feed to Major. As far as she was concerned, fresh hay had about the nicest smell in the world. She sniffed deeply.
    Something was wrong. It didn’t smell right. It didn’t smell rotten, but it just didn’t smell like fresh hay. It had an odd odor.
    Carole was just entering the paddock with her horse. “What’s up?” she asked, noticing the funny look on Lisa’s face.
    “I don’t know,” Lisa said. “But the hay smells funny.”