Read Online Gold Medal Horse by Bonnie Bryant - Free Book Online Page A

you.”
    Dorothy rolled her eyes and laughed as they walked away, Lisa and Carole clutching a staggering Stevie. “I think she’s on to us,” Lisa said. “She knows we’re avoiding Eddy.”
    “Well, we haven’t exactly been subtle about it, have we?” Carole asked. “Stevie, I think you can walk normally now. Dorothy isn’t looking.”
    “Good,” Stevie said. She walked faster. “I do want acandied apple, and maybe some onion rings to go with it.” She glanced at her friends. “We’re being as subtle as we can,” she said at last.
    “Which means not very subtle,” said Lisa. “It’s hard to be subtle and stay away from Eddy.”
    Stevie grinned. “You want to bring him along to the fair?”
    “No. I really don’t. Every time Dorothy calls him sweet, I remember my mother telling me how much I’d love my ‘really sweet’ cousin Larry. He came to spend a week with us when I was seven.” Lisa shuddered. “He had a rock collection! All week long he dug around the sidewalk, looking for ‘specimens.’ Weird!”
    “Rocks don’t make me think about Eddy,” Carole said. “They make me think of Simon Atherton.” This time they all shuddered.
    “Doesn’t Simon collect stamps?” Stevie asked.
    Simon was a geeky boy who rode at Pine Hollow. Lisa knew she didn’t want to spend time around him. She was glad they’d stayed away from Eddy.
    The fair was terrific. Stevie got her candied apple and onion rings, Lisa had pork barbecue, and Carole ate an Italian sausage. They all had lemonade. Then they wandered through the tents, admiring breeches, horse books, new types of horse fencing, boots, brushes, show halters, and more.
    “You could buy everything for a horse here except the horse,” Carole said admiringly. After some thought, she picked out a new soft face brush for Starlight. Lisa bought a hot pink nylon halter with green hearts on it, and Stevie tried on a pair of riding tights that had neon horses galloping down the seams. They walked through the display of new horse trailers and sat on some new saddles. Finally they all bought matching “Kentucky Rolex Three-Day Event” sweatshirts.
    When they walked back to the stables wearing their new sweatshirts, Drew said, “Here comes the terrible trio,” and gave them a grin. Nigel had just dismounted and was loosening the girth on Southwood’s saddle. Nigel’s hair was wet with sweat beneath his hard hat, and he looked a little ruffled. Southwood had his ears back.
    “Eddy’s just gone off to the trailer,” Drew said. “He’ll be back in a minute if you girls—” He broke off when Nigel motioned for his help. Southwood didn’t seem to want his saddle removed. Nigel lifted it from his back while Drew held Southwood steady, murmuring, “Easy, boy, easy.”
    “Whew!” Nigel slicked his damp hair back from his forehead as Drew led Southwood into the barn. “That was a bit of an invigorating ride.” He dropped onto a straw bale that was sitting outside the stables. Earlier Carolehad seen a woman use it as a mounting block to get onto her very tall horse.
    “Perhaps we’ll just go back to the fair,” Stevie said, making vague motions to Carole with her hands.
    “You
know
,” Lisa said, adding emphasis to Stevie’s motions. Eddy was on his way!
    “Just a minute,” Carole said. “I wanted to ask Nigel something.”
    “Shoot,” Nigel said, looking up from his seat on the bale.
    “Is Southwood a good show jumper? And what makes a good show jumper, anyway?” Carole, who loved show jumping, had been wondering about this ever since she’d seen Southwood’s elegant dressage test and his enthusiasm for cross-country.
    “The answer to your first question is yes,” Nigel said. “As for your second, a good show jumper needs to be able to shorten and lengthen his strides so that he can take off from a good spot in front of the fence. He needs to be agile so that he can land, turn, and jump quickly.” Nigel smiled. “Most importantly,