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memorize all the options on the fences,” Dorothy said quietly. “That way they can change their plan in the middle of the course if they have to, if their horse is going worse than they expected—or better.” She smiled at Nigel and slipped her arm through his. Nigel looked at her affectionately, and The Saddle Club felt relieved. Dorothy and Nigel felt differently about what Southwood could do, but they weren’t quarreling.
    At the end of the course walk, Nigel invited them to lunch. “We’ll go back to the stables and pick up Drew and Eddy,” he said.
    “Thanks, but—” Lisa looked at her friends.
    “—but we’re dying to go on another trail ride,” Carole said firmly. “We had such a wonderful time yesterday. And we ate such big breakfasts that we really aren’t hungry. Do you mind?”
    “Can’t keep you off horses, can we?” Nigel said. “Okay, have fun—but don’t ask those rental horses to jump any of the fences!”
    “I can’t believe you said we weren’t hungry,” Stevie told Carole as they walked across the park. “My stomach’s about to eat my liver for lunch.”
    “What I can’t believe is that you said we wanted another trail ride,” Lisa said. “Yesterday’s was so lame! But thanks, Carole. I don’t think I could have thought of an excuse fast enough.”
    “So far we’re definitely winning the game of Dready Eddy,” Stevie said. “And look! A hot dog cart!”
    After two chili cheese dogs apiece they felt fortified and ready for the trail ride. “Oh, fiery steeds,” murmured Stevie as they approached.
    This time there weren’t any other tourists waiting to ride, and the guide recognized them from the day before. She seemed glad to see them. “Hurry!” she said. “Get on and let’s leave, before some more tourists show up and we have to take them.”
    The girls laughed. “Do you get lots of women in sandals?” Lisa asked.
    The guide rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t believe,” she said. “But I can tell you all know how to ride.”
    They started out. Lisa rode her sad horse from the day before, and Carole rode the same bay. Stevie picked a pinto that reminded her a little of Stewball, the horse she rode at her friend Kate’s ranch. “Only Stewball has an engine,” she said, complaining about the pinto’s poky stride. “This horse feels like a motor scooter.”
    “ ‘A horse is a horse, of course, of course,’ ” sang Lisa.
    “Not when it’s a moped,” Stevie replied darkly.
    Carole used her legs to urge her horse on. “I feel like mine’s a bicycle,” she said. “I’m doing all the work.”
    They followed the level path around the side of thepark. Once they’d given the horses a chance to warm up, the guide said they could trot—and when the three girls all rose smoothly to a trot, the three horses perked up their ears and moved more willingly. “Poor ponies,” Lisa said soothingly, patting her gray horse. “They’re so used to people bouncing on their backs. No wonder they don’t want to move.”
    They turned the corner so that they were now following the fence line along the front of the park. Trucks whooshed down the highway just across the fence, but the trail horses seemed oblivious to them.
    Stevie turned in her saddle to speak to Lisa. “This really is bor—Arrhh!” She shrieked as her horse gave a sideways leap and whirled, then stood with muscles trembling, ears pointing toward the fence. “What was that for?”
    The other horses jumped, too. For a moment Carole felt her balance slipping. She grabbed her horse’s mane and stayed on.
That’s what I get for not paying attention
, she scolded herself. She knew a rider could fall off any horse, anytime.
    “Oh, no!” Lisa’s voice rose high in panic. Suddenly the riders could see what had spooked their horses—a lone horse, a skinny, haggard-looking, almost-white horse, plunging toward them across four lanes of traffic!
    A huge semitruck blared its horn. The horse leaped onto