Horse Games by Bonnie Bryant Page A

okay,” Marie said reassuringly.“They’re good over at that emergency room. They’ll take care of her.”
    “Besides,” Lisa reminded Carole, “just a few weeks ago, Stevie was in charge of a whole day of entertainment for the patients there. They love her and won’t let anything happen to her!”
    Carole tried to smile, but, like Stevie, she felt the pain anyway. Injuries, hospitals, emergencies—no matter what, they always made her think of all the time her mother had spent in the hospital. She suspected that some of the same thoughts were running through Marie’s head. Then she knew it was time to do something more constructive.
    “I think we ought to round up Comanche. Where has he gotten to?”
    She looked around. The horse was at the far end of the playing field, munching on some strands of grass. Carole whistled hopefully. He glanced at her and then apparently decided he wasn’t interested. He continued munching.
    She and Lisa began to walk toward him. He walked away from them. It seemed that he’d been upset by the accident and wasn’t quite ready to return to his stall. Every time they approached him, he moved away, each time getting farther from the corner of the field, farther from the fence, and harder to catch.
    Carole was frustrated. Normally, she had all the time in the world for a horse, no matter what kind of mood hewas in. But Comanche’s misbehaving didn’t suit her at all. Carole wasn’t quite sure what to do. If she’d been on horseback, it just would have been a matter of outsmarting Comanche. On foot, however, they had to outrun
and
outsmart, and Comanche was just plain faster than they were.
    Then, without warning, Marie came to their rescue. She’d circled around behind Comanche when his attention was on Carole and Lisa and, like a cowboy rounding up a stray, she moved him ahead by clapping him on the rump. He was startled and began trotting forward—straight toward Lisa and Carole.
    He tried to dodge, but it didn’t do him any good. He ended up loping between Lisa and Carole, enabling them each to grab onto his reins. His rebellion was over.
    “There boy, there. It’s okay,” Carole said as soothingly as she could. His eyes were opened wide, his ears flattened. She patted him on the neck, speaking in a low, steady voice all the time. “We’re here with you. Nobody’s mad at you. You were doing what Stevie told you. No problem, boy. It’s okay.” Carole rubbed his cheek. He relaxed then, his eyes narrowed, and his ears popped up again. He pranced nervously, but he was under control.
    Carole checked that the tack hadn’t gotten disarrayed in the accident and, finding it secure, she mounted the horse. As soon as she sat in his saddle and took firm control of his reins, he calmed down. It took a few tries to get him walking toward the stable, but by the time hereached the schooling ring, he was his old well-behaved self.
    Carole dismounted, walked Comanche to his stall, removed his tack, and slid the door closed. Then she turned to Marie, who, along with Lisa, had followed her into the stable.
    “Like Stevie said earlier, that was some riding. You are really good! You told me you’d just done a little, but you really know what you’re doing.”
    “No,” Marie protested. “I just saw a chance and thought maybe—”
    “Nonsense,” Lisa said in her matter-of-fact way. “You knew exactly what you were doing, and you were terrific at it. We all owe you thanks.”
    It was so clearly true that Marie didn’t try to deny it. The girl was obviously a good rider with some experience.
    “Come on, let’s finish up and get over to the hospital. I want to see what kind of mischief Stevie is really up to!”
    Lisa and Carole helped Marie dismount and then they untacked and groomed Nickel. Carole saw to it he got an extra-special ration of oats for his good partnership with Marie.
    Since Marie’s legs were still weak, and since they’d been used so much that day, Carole