Read Online Stable Manners by Bonnie Bryant - Free Book Online Page B

do
before
I do it. Isn’t that the way you like to do it?” May asked.
    “Sure,” Lisa said, although she wasn’t completely sure she understood what May was talking about. Nickel was distracting her. He seemed to have developed the idea that there might be something good to eat in her pocket and was nuzzling her affectionately. He was a cute pony that Lisa had always liked. They were sort of giggling together.
    “Good luck,” Stevie said.
    “Thanks, but I don’t need any luck here,” Lisa said. “May is doing all the work. This has been a breeze!”
    “Yeah, but you had to know what to tell her,” Stevie said.
    “I had to know what book to have her study from,” Lisa corrected her. “And she even bought it for herself!”
    “Oh, well, I hope she does a good job.”
    “No sweat. She’s got it cold.”
    Stevie gave Nickel an affectionate pat and sat down on the bench. Carole joined her.
    “Something’s wrong,” Stevie whispered to Carole.
    “I know,” Carole said. “We’ve got to talk.”
    Stevie wasn’t sure what Carole thought was wrong, but she was sure it wasn’t what she thought was wrong.
    “No, I mean about this demonstration thing,” Stevie whispered.
    “Is May going to goof up?” Carole asked, quite concerned.
    “I don’t think so. At least I hope not.”
    Carole got a funny feeling in her stomach. If Stevie wasn’t worried about May, she must mean she was worried about Lisa. If Stevie was worried about Lisa, then Carole needed to be worried, too. The problem was she wasn’t sure what she should be worried about.
    Max walked into the ring and began speaking. “This is the first of what I think of as Big Sis/Little Sis demonstrations, though of course sometimes there will be brothers—bros?” The riders laughed. Lisa realizedlater that that was the last time she laughed that afternoon.
    May began the demonstration. Before she started putting the harness on the pony, she identified all the main parts of the tack, from the blinkers to the crupper. Then, proceeding carefully, she put the collar on, followed by the saddle pad. It was at that point that Nickel changed his mind about standing still. He decided he didn’t really want to have Lisa hold his lead rope. He wanted to walk around a little bit. This was going to take more than two people. Stevie took the lead rope so that Lisa could help May. Lisa hopped down off the fence.
    “Here, you do the crupper,” May suggested.
    Lisa looked at the leathers. She had absolutely no idea what to do. She did know that one of the pieces of leather was supposed to end in a loop and that the pony’s tail was supposed to go through it, but she couldn’t identify which part went where.
    Lisa had a sudden and totally unfamiliar feeling: panic. She didn’t know any of the parts of the harness. She had no idea what she was supposed to do next or what it was supposed to accomplish. These were all things
May
knew. May was the student; Lisa was the teacher. May was
supposed
to learn. Teachers didn’t learn. They taught. May just hadn’t needed any teaching;she’d done it all herself. So Lisa hadn’t done any learning.
    She stammered, more uncomfortable with the situation than she could ever remember being in her life. She looked at her friends. They looked back at her and the only thing their looks told her was that she was in every bit as much trouble as she thought she was. Her friends knew her best. They would know before anybody else. Maybe nobody else knew yet. Lisa looked at the other students. They were figuring it out.
    “Here, Lisa,” Stevie said. “Why don’t you hold Nickel again. He seems calmer with you. I’ll give May a hand. You just let us know if we make any mistakes, okay?”
    “Okay,” Lisa said numbly. She held Nickel’s lead and watched, barely taking in anything that happened.
    “Tell me what I have to do, May,” Stevie said. And May did. While the class watched, and learned, May explained everything Stevie had