Read Online Cutting Horse by Bonnie Bryant - Free Book Online

stalls, as she always did. What she saw at the end of the aisle made her start. The others followed her glance. There was a strange man nosing around the stalls. He was tall and blond. He looked a lot like Skye—same build, same hairstyle.
    “Boy,” Lisa murmured, “he could almost be Skye’s”—she caught her breath—“Skye’s double!”

B EFORE S KYE ’ S LESSON , Stevie, Lisa, and Carole made a pact not to mention the double. Knowing that the man was actually on the premises would only worry Skye and make it hard for him to perform. With heavy hearts, they took Stewball to the corral to meet Skye. What chance did they have now that the stuntman had arrived? The director had clearly made up his mind that he didn’t want Skye to ride. Still, they couldn’t give up until the decision had been made. With Stevie setting the example, Carole and Lisa put on optimistic faces and went forward to greet Skye.
    As it turned out, they needn’t have bothered. The badnews was written all over Skye’s face. “Blake came clean to me after the shoot,” he said. “He called the double last night. He said it makes him feel better knowing we have a sub. The guy is here right now, ready to take over whenever I give the word.”
    Stevie, Lisa, and Carole didn’t know what to say. The situation had gone from bad to worse, and none of them could see how to change it. Now there was no reason to hide the fact that they had seen the stuntman on the property.
    Skye barely reacted when they told him. “I figured we’d run into him soon,” he said. “With the shoot scheduled for tomorrow, he’s got nothing to do today but hang around and wait.”
    The girls nodded, trying to think of some comforting or encouraging words.
    Often, when the chips were down, Stevie would give a rousing pep talk that would cheer everyone up. She had done it many times before. Usually she believed what she said. But sometimes, when The Saddle Club was in desperate straits, she would give the pep talk anyway—whether or not she believed in it. This was one of those times. Summoning all her creative powers, she started to speak.
    “All right. Enough of this bad attitude! We can’t throwin the towel yet! It’s three o’clock Tuesday. The tape rolls at three o’clock Wednesday. We all know what that means: We have twenty-four hours to figure something out. Twenty-four big, long hours. Right now we’re going to give Skye his lesson on Stewball. We’ll make it brief and then he’ll switch to Sir Prize. Who knows, Skye, you might be right about Prize. He could surprise us all. But we can’t quit now. You’ll ride hard today, and we’ll brainstorm hard tonight.”
    After a few more encouraging words, Stevie finished her speech. She surveyed the faces. Her friends didn’t look completely convinced, but they did look a tiny bit more hopeful—especially Skye, who had thought all along that he could get Prize up to par for the scene. Enthusiasm, like pessimism, could be catching.
    Carole volunteered to go saddle Prize. Stevie and Lisa gave Skye a leg up on Stewball and set to work. Their plan was to work on Skye’s cutting skills some more. This time they had chosen a corral with several cows and older calves in it. Warming up outside the fence, Skye looked nervous and distracted. Like any horse, Stewball could tell, and he took advantage of Skye. He pretended to spook at leaves on the ground; he chucked his head up and down, playing with the bit; he broke from a jog to a lope and back to a jog.
    His antics were just what Skye needed to make him concentrate. In a matter of minutes, Stevie and Lisa could tell that he had forgotten the next day’s shoot, the movie, and his career and was thinking only about the horse underneath him.
    “All right, let’s get to it,” Stevie ordered. “Why don’t you try cutting that calf down there.” She pointed to a large one in the middle of the group.
    Skye entered the corral and shut the gate behind him.