Show Judge by Bonnie Bryant Page A

while he’s wearing his bit. Especially when he’s getting ready to enter the ring.”
    Jasmine looked surprised at the harsh tone of Carole’s voice. “I wasn’t—He—” she stammered.
    “It’s not your fault, Jasmine,” Carole said in a gentler tone. “Someone should have taught you better, that’s all.” She moved on without even glancing Lisa’s way.
    Lisa was both furious and humiliated. How could Carole have done something like that? Jasmine hadn’t been letting her pony eat, he had just been playing around with a wisp of hay!
    O UTSIDE THE RING Stevie and Corey sat in companionable silence, waiting for Max to announce the start of class. Their mounts had snuffled each other’s noses by way of greeting and now stood quietly side by side. From the corner of her eye, Stevie caught sight of Carole approaching, clipboard in hand. Her heart began to sink. “Hi, Carole,” Stevie said in what she hoped was a cheerful voice. “Not riding today?”
    Carole strolled up to Samurai and placed a hand on his haunch. “Not today, Stevie. Some of us have to put business before pleasure,” she said pointedly. “Got togo.” She gave Samurai a pat on his flank and a puff of dust rose into the air. A frown crossed her face. “Looks like you were in a hurry grooming Samurai today, Corey.”
    “Not at first,” Corey said, defending herself. “I just had a hard time finding his dandy brush, and by the time I did, I had to hurry.” She looked at the ground, obviously embarrassed by this admission.
    Carole started scribbling on her notepad. “I saw what your grooming kit looked like this morning, Corey, and I have to say I’m surprised that you and Samurai made it out of the stable at all.” She looked directly at Stevie. “Maybe you two need to get a bit more organized.”
    Stevie found herself glaring at Carole’s back as she moved off toward May and Macaroni. What Carole had done was plain mean. So Samurai wasn’t at his absolute best today, so what? It wasn’t like this was a show day! So her Pony Partner wasn’t the most organized one in the group. But Corey had lots of other strengths. Strengths that Carole seemed to be going out of her way to ignore or belittle. Carole had changed so much lately that Stevie could only think that she had let this whole judging thing go to her head. She sighed sadly. Too bad Carole wasn’t going to come to the sleepover with her and Lisa. Maybebetween the two of them they could have brought her back to her senses.
    It didn’t help matters any when, a few minutes later, they overheard Carole praising May and her pony in the most glowing of terms.
    After class, Stevie found Lisa cleaning Prancer’s stall.
    “Stevie, would you mind very much if we postponed the sleepover?” Lisa asked.
    “Is something wrong?”
    “Um, well, you know Carole can’t make it,” Lisa said hesitantly. “It really couldn’t be a Saddle Club meeting without her.”
    “You’re right. We should do it when we can all be there.”
Besides
, Stevie thought,
I could use the time to work on the anniversary party
.
    “We’ll do it another time, then,” Lisa said, looking relieved.
    “Right,” agreed Stevie. “We can do it any old time.”

C AROLE WAS SITTING in the tack room, giving her rider rating cards one final look. She had chosen the tack room because it was the only place in all of Pine Hollow that wasn’t teeming with riders and activity. It was Saturday, the day of the show skills rally, and she had finished the first leg of her judging duties. She had spent the morning going from stall to stall, checking both ponies and riders on their appearance. How clean was the stall? How well groomed was the pony? Was the animal tacked up properly, and was the equipment being maintained properly? The results of her efforts were a small mountain of note cards, all of which she now needed to organize.

    “H OLD STILL , J ASMINE , or I’ll end up sticking you in the throat,” Lisa