Rocking Horse

Rocking Horse Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: Rocking Horse Read Online Free PDF
Author: Bonnie Bryant
cross-country, but at this rally, they were all doing cross-country first. Dressage would be held in late afternoon, and show jumping on Sunday morning. In addition, all the competitors had to take a written test on horse care after the show jumping.
    Lisa scuffed her feet through the wet grass. “I wish I were riding earlier. All this rain is going to make the ground in front of the fences muddy, and it’s just going to get worse throughout the day.”
    “Unless the sun comes out,” Carole said. “The rain’s stopped, anyway. That’s something.”
    Lisa shook her head, and Carole looked at her sympathetically. Mud bothered Prancer; she didn’t like to get her feet dirty.
    “Maybe Max will have some suggestions,” Carole said. The riders had a few hours to walk the course on foot with their instructors, who could give them suggestions on how to ride it with their horses. The course walk was the only time all weekend that they were allowed adult assistance. Carole vowed to learnas much as possible during it. Starlight would be counting on her.
    “Too bad we have to share Max with Team Veronica,” Stevie muttered. “She’ll probably spend her time making mud balls. It’s not as if she’ll be listening to Max.”
    The Saddle Club ducked into the stabling tent to check on their horses, then joined Max, who was standing just outside with Team Veronica.
    “No new sabotage,” Stevie reported to Lisa in an undertone. “But Belle’s tail still looks awful. It’s going to take me days to get it really clean.”
    Veronica had a map in her hand and was showing it to Max. “See?” she said in a sweet voice. “This is our official course. It says exactly which jumps we should take. There are a lot of jumps on this property, so we’ll have to be careful.”
    Max folded the map and put it in his pocket. “Thank you. That’ll be helpful.” He rubbed his hands and looked at the six riders. “Ready to go?” They started walking across the wet field.
    “Like we need a map,” Stevie whispered. “The fences are numbered, and the ones for our course have green flags.” She gave Veronica a venomous look and said more loudly, “My, Veronica, your hair looks lovely today. However do you keep it so clean?”
    Veronica flipped her hair back and gave Stevie awide smile. “Regular salon treatment does help, of course. But
you
might see a difference if you simply used shampoo.”
    Stevie started to say more, but Carole gave her a swift poke. They had reached the first fence, a simple log jump. The first fences on cross-country courses were usually straightforward to encourage the horses to go on. Max didn’t have much to say about this fence, except to remind them all to establish an even pace early. Lisa stomped around the approach to the jump. The ground there was already very soft. The hooves from the first few horses would chum it into mud.
    “Oh no,” Stevie groaned. The second jump was less than a hundred yards after the first—and it was a coop. Stevie had expected coop jumps, but she had hoped not to have any until at least the middle of the course, when Belle would be fully warmed up.
    Carole frowned. The approach to the coop was tricky; the course curved in front of it to avoid some large trees, and woods started just after the fence, so that the horses would feel as if they were jumping into the woods. She would have to ride a careful line and give Starlight plenty of encouragement.
    “It’s going to be very important that we not overshoot the turn, isn’t it, Max?” Veronica asked. “I mean, if we don’t straighten the horses out after we go around the trees, they might keep turning and runpast the side of the fence, the way Barq tried to with Meg during our last lesson.”
    Max smiled. “That’s exactly right. All of you should find something to aim at—a tree or fence post—so that you know you’ve got your horse steered correctly. Run-outs will be common here.”
    “Just what I need,”
Read Online Free Pdf

Similar Books

The Alliance

David Andrews

Liar

Francine Pascal

A Simple Soul

Gustave Flaubert

Holidays in Heck

P. J. O’Rourke

The Candidate

Lis Wiehl, Sebastian Stuart

Troubled Treats

Jessica Beck

The Return

Sean M. Campbell

The Daylight Gate

Jeanette Winterson