Riding Class by Bonnie Bryant Page B

reason the whole therapeutic riding movement eventually began.”
    “Olympic dressage?” Carole knew she sounded incredulous, but she couldn’t help it. “Two silver medals and she couldn’t even feel her feet?”
    “Cool, isn’t it?” Emily said. “I read that the gold-medal winner had to help her stand on the podium.”
    “Is that why you like dressage?” Lisa asked.
    “I like it for all sorts of reasons,” Emily answered. “I like the way it looks, and I like the way it feels. I like the way you have to really understand horses in order to do it well. And, yeah, I figure if Lis can do it, so can I.”
    They rode for nearly an hour before turning back. When they reached a wide part on the trail, Emily suggested a canter. The Saddle Club was happy to agree. All of their horses were behaving well and they deserved a little chance to move out.
    When they got back to Pine Hollow, they saw Red lingering near the gate of the outdoor arena. Since he was usually very busy on Saturdays, The Saddle Club guessed that he was waiting to help Emily dismount. They were right. Red carefully lifted her down, helped her fasten her braces, and handed her her crutches before shyly going back to his work.
    “He’s really sweet, isn’t he?” Emily asked them as they watched Red disappear into the stable. “All the same, Iwish I didn’t need his help.” The Saddle Club nodded understandingly.
    They led their horses into the stable. Veronica was grooming Danny in the aisle. It amazed The Saddle Club to think that she had been working on him for as long as they had been riding, because Veronica was better known for neglecting her horses than fussing over them, but apparently that’s just what Veronica had been doing. She’d pulled Danny’s mane and neatened his tail, and she’d cleaned him from the tips of his freshly trimmed ears to the edges of his polished hooves.
    Stevie felt disgusted. How could any of them beat Veronica and her megahorse when Veronica was trying this hard to win? No matter what Max’s competition was going to be like—and Stevie was very eager to hear the details—Veronica looked like a shoo-in. The rest of them might be competing for second place.
    “Pretty is as pretty does,” Carole hissed in Stevie’s ear. Startled, Stevie turned to Carole and smiled at the look of understanding on her friend’s face. She knew Carole was right. But Danny performed well, too.
    Emily politely asked Veronica to move Danny to one side, so that she could get past with P.C. Veronica did so, but grudgingly. “Be careful!” she shrieked, as Emily’s crutch missed Danny’s hoof by an inch. “You’re scaring my horse!”
    Emily pressed her lips together and kept moving. The Saddle Club could see that Emily hadn’t scared Danny at all. In fact, the only thing that appeared to make him nervous was Veronica’s screeching.
    “What are you doing letting someone like that come here?” Veronica said next, talking loudly to The Saddle Club with both hands on her hips. “What’d you do, put her on a pony and walk her around the back paddock? Really! I thought that the whole purpose of that other place was so that people like her wouldn’t have to come here!”
    The Saddle Club was appalled. They had always known Veronica was a jerk, but now she seemed to be taking her jerkiness to a new low. Even discounting what she was saying, she was talking about Emily as if Emily couldn’t hear.
    Emily looked over her shoulder. “Isn’t it amazing,” she said in the same loud, rude tone that Veronica had used, “how some people can have a whole lot of money and still have absolutely no class at all?” Like Veronica, she spoke directly to The Saddle Club, as if Veronica weren’t standing right there. Emily winked.
    Taking their cue from Emily, The Saddle Club marched their horses past Danny without saying a word to Veronica. When they got to the other end of the aisle, Stevie congratulatedEmily. “You knew exactly how