A Summer Without Horses by Bonnie Bryant Page B

by Leslie’s crying.”
    “I don’t blame them. Do you?” I asked.
    That made Jessica laugh.
    “Nope,” she agreed. “Dime almost did the same thing, but I held on.”
    “Me, too,” said Mark.
    I could see then that his knuckles were white from holding on to his pony’s mane. He hadn’t relaxed one bit since I’d arrived and the pony, Half Dollar, was looking a little annoyed.
    I checked to see whether his girth was tight enough and found that it only needed tightening two notches. Then I assured him he was safe and could let go.
    “I can?”
    “Try it,” I said. He did and it worked. I was awfully glad to know that a horse’s mane doesn’t have any nerves in it so his tight clutching hadn’t hurt the pony at all. Half Dollar did shake his head, though, relieved to be released. I smiled and gave the good old boy a pat. Mark patted him, too.
    Next I righted Dime’s saddle, adjusted the blanket, and tightened the girth. He was ready to go again and I was pretty sure Jessica would be ready to get on him in just a few minutes.
    By then, Leslie and Natalie were returning from the creek and the next thought occurred to Leslie.
    “But where are
our
ponies?” she wailed. That started another sprouting of tears.
    “Calm down,” I said. “Horses can run off, but they rarely run far. You guys just wait here and I’ll be right back, okay? Actually, I could use a hand. Mark, Jessica, could you come with me?”
    Jessica looked at Dime a little unsurely, but she was tough. She climbed back into the saddle, just the way I’d taught her only a few days before. She looked at me and said, “Ready.”
    It made me very proud of her. It’s not easy to have an uncomfortable experience on a horse (and a sideways saddle is about as uncomfortable as it gets) and then to climb back into the saddle. The girl had guts. Mark, holding just the reins, no mane, said, “Me, too.” Mark had guts, too.
    I climbed back into Topside’s saddle—well, a good three inches above it, but you know what I mean—and we were off.
    It turned out that that was the easiest part of the day. I was right about the ponies not running very far, but the best news was that they were all together. Horses and ponies are social animals with a herding instinct. When they aren’t following a human’s instructions, they’d just as soon be with other horses. All three of them were in a small open area of the forest, nibbling at fresh greens justas if nothing bad had ever happened. We rode up to them.
    “Here’s how you lead a horse while you’re on horseback,” I said, handing Jessica a set of reins to hold. She did it very well. So did Mark. The ponies seemed a little relieved to be told what to do and stopped their nibbling right away. I dismounted and straightened out Nickel’s saddle. He nickered when I got it on right, indicating that it had been as uncomfortable as it looked. Then I got back in (above) Topside’s saddle and we returned to the quarry with the ponies in tow.
    “Oh, Nickel, you’re all right!” said Leslie. She limped over to him and gave him a big hug. I knew I wasn’t going to have any trouble getting her back in the saddle when we were ready to go!
    Natalie and Reuben each took their pony’s reins and then I showed all of the kids how to secure a horse or a pony so they wouldn’t run off.
    “It’s a really bad idea to use the reins,” I explained. “You’re always supposed to use a lead rope so you don’t damage the reins and so the bit won’t move every time the horse moves. Still, it’s a whole lot better to use the reins than to use nothing!”
    “I guess we learned that already,” said Reuben sheepishly.
    “I guess you did,” I agreed. “Now let’s see what else you’ve learned.”
    I had in mind to have a little talk with them to be surethey were all calm before we headed back to Pine Hollow. So, once I was sure all the ponies and Topside were well secured, I perched on the edge of a rock in the