chuckled. “Oh, Veronica,” she said. “You have such an interesting sense of humor!”
Veronica snorted. “Well, you have an interesting taste in friends,” she said sarcastically in a bad imitation of Tessa’s accent.
That was enough for Stevie. “Listen, Veronica,” she said heatedly, stepping forward with her fists clenched at her sides, “that’s enough. How dare you talk to our friend like—”
“Is there a problem here?” said a familiar voice.
Lisa whirled and saw Max standing in the doorway to the indoor ring with his arms folded over his chest. Mrs. Pennington was standing beside him. The old woman had a slightly bemused expression on her face. Max just looked suspicious.
Lisa gulped. “No, no problem at all, Max,” she assured him hastily.
Stevie had clamped her mouth shut as soon as she realized Max was nearby. She nodded. “We’re fine,” she said. “We were just—uh—asking Veronica if she knew what today’s meeting was about.”
Veronica smirked, but she didn’t say anything.
Max still looked suspicious. “Come outside and you’ll find out,” he said dryly. “We’re meeting in the outdoor ring today.” Then he saw Tessa. “Oh, hello there!” he greeted her, smiling for the first time. “Welcome to Pine Hollow.”
As he introduced Tessa to Mrs. Pennington, Lisa leaned toward Carole and Stevie. “That was a close one,” she murmured.
Stevie nodded and cast a glance at Veronica, who was heading outside. “She’s going to be trouble,” she said grimly. “I can smell it.”
I T TURNED OUT that Mrs. Pennington was the guest speaker at the Horse Wise meeting. She was there to talk about her current sport, carriage driving.
“Like so many equine sports, driving began as a very practical pursuit,” the elderly woman explained to the crowd of Pony Clubbers gathered around Pine Hollow’s large outdoor ring. “After all, before the invention of the motor, all transportation depended on animals, especially the horse. Horses pulled fire engines, public carriages, carts that carried coal and wood and other goods, even funeral hearses. They helped with plowing and other farmwork, towed barges and trams, and carried the mail.”
Carole nodded. She had read quite a bit about the hard work horses had done in the service of humankind. While she could hardly imagine a life that didn’t center around horses, she knew that to many other people in the modern world, the noble animals were a novelty. But it wasn’t so long ago that nearly everyone had had daily contact with working horses.
Mrs. Pennington went on to talk more about public and private coaching in the old days, as well as modern driving sports such as international driving trials, driven dressage tests, marathons, and obstacle competitions. It was very interesting, especially since so much of the informationwas new to most of the riders. Carole sometimes thought it was amazing that she could learn so much about horses and still find out there were all sorts of things she didn’t know.
When Mrs. Pennington had finished speaking, Max stepped forward. “And now we have a very special treat,” he said with a smile. “As some of you may already know, Mrs. Pennington will be boarding one of her driving teams here with us while her own stable is being renovated. They just arrived this morning, and Mrs. Pennington has graciously agreed to give us a demonstration.”
“Cool!” Carole whispered.
Lisa nodded, glancing at Tessa to make sure she wasn’t listening to her. “I guess this means we didn’t scare her off from boarding here.”
“Great!” Stevie added. “That means Max has no reason to be mad at us.”
Lisa snorted. “Oh yeah?” she whispered. “Tell that to Max!”
Their conversation ceased when Miles Pennington appeared around the corner of the building. He was leading a pair of burly, glistening, perfectly matched bay horses. They were wearing a plain black leather harness, which was hitched to