New Rider by Bonnie Bryant Page A

it’s going,” Lisa suggested.
    “Oh, be still my heart,” Carole mumbled, reluctantly trailing behind her friends. For reasons she could not figure out, she still felt distant from Zach. It was not that she didn’t like him, but she definitely didn’t get the same thrill from watching him ride that everybody else seemed to. As they approached, it became more and more obvious that Zach wasn’t a happy camper.
    “It’s just not happening for me, Max,” he complained loudly.
    “You’re going to have to give it time, Zach,” Max counseled. “You’re doing fine, but you can’t expect to master it all in a day. It takes time.”
    Zach was frowning. “How much time?”
    Max put his hands in his pockets. “I know people who have been riding their entire lives and they tell me they still learn something new every day.”
    “Maybe they’re slow studies,” Stevie cracked from her position on the fence.
    Max glanced at her. “I see that knock on the head hasn’t improved your jokes, Stevie.”
    Stevie feigned surprise. “Max, how can you improve on perfection?”
    Zach laughed.
    Max turned back to the boy. “That’s better. You need to relax, be patient.”
    “I don’t think patience is Zach’s strong suit,” Carole murmured to her friends.
    “But I thought you said I was a natural,” Zach complained to Max.
    “You are,” he assured him. “You have a rare gift and you owe it to yourself to nurture it.”
    Zach looked unconvinced. “I guess.”
    “I have to go now, but you can keep practicing if you want,” Max told him. “We’ll arrange for another lesson later in the week.”
    Carole felt a pang of jealousy. More private lessons! Zach sure was getting the golden-boy treatment.
    Zach rode Barq over to the girls and casually slid down from the saddle. “Hi, guys. What’s up?”
    In spite of herself, Carole couldn’t help admiring the unconscious grace of his movements. It took most people months, if not years, to learn to dismount a horse so fluidly.
    “I thought maybe we could get in some practice for the show,” Stevie suggested.
    “Thanks, but Max beat you to it.”
    Lisa reached out to stroke Barq. “Sounded like you were having some problems.”
    “Yeah. It was kind of a drag. I think I’ll call it quits for now.”
    “How long have you been out here?” Lisa asked.
    Zach shrugged. “Almost an hour, I guess.” He scuffed at the dirt. “Max didn’t even let me gallop.”
    Carole was tempted to tell him there was a lot more to riding than galloping, but she held her tongue. She couldn’t understand why he didn’t seem to care about all the hundreds of details that went into making up a polished rider, or the thousands of details that it took to become a responsible horse owner. She’d spent countless hours studying and learning as much as she could about the subject. Zach, on the other hand, had probably spent endless hours playing video games. Instant gratification. Typical boy.
    “An hour’s not much practice time when you think about how close we are to the show,” Lisa said, voicing Carole’s thoughts. “Why don’t you let us work with you for a while?”
    “I don’t know …”
    “Come on, Zach,” Stevie coaxed. “Since I can’t ride for a while, you’d practically be doing me a favor.”
    Listening to Stevie trying to convince the boy into letting her help him really annoyed Carole. He should have been down on his hands and knees begging her, grateful for all the experience she was offering to share.
    Zach relented. “Okay. You talked me in to it. On one condition.”
    “What’s that,” asked Stevie.
    “I get to canter at least a couple of times during the lesson.”
    Stevie and Lisa laughed. “Agreed,” they said in unison.
    Stevie turned to Carole. “How about it, Carole, are you in on this?”
    “Sorry, no can do,” she begged off. “I have to check on Sunset.”
    “We’ll see you later then,” Stevie said. “Come on, Zach, tell us what you