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observing how slowly Delilah walked.
    “That’s just because she’s gotten so big now that it’s almost hard for her to walk. But Judy says she’ll be back in good shape within a few weeks after the birth. She’ll be running in the paddock with her foal and that’ll slim her right down again. She’ll be her old self in no time. Isn’t that amazing?”
    For a second, Lisa wondered if she was really talking to Carole—or to Judy. Then she remembered why she particularly wanted to see Carole.
    “I have your set of rules,” Lisa told her. She had spent hours over the weekend working on her mother’s computer, inputting everything in a Word document. Her mother had helped her, and when they’d finally printed it all out, it was beautiful—as pretty as a term paper, Lisa thought.
    “What rules?” Carole asked.
    “The Saddle Club rules,” Lisa said, containing her impatience. “Remember, I told you about them Friday when I called? I know you were busy, but I’m sure Itold you about all this work I’d done so we could have a
real
club. Remember?”
    “Oh, yeah,” Carole said vaguely, taking the papers from Lisa’s hand. “I’ll read them later, okay?”
    “Okay,” Lisa agreed. “And we’ll have a meeting on Thursday afternoon after class, at TD’s, to make any changes you guys want. Then we can ratify them. That means make them official.”
    “Thursday,” Carole echoed. “Okay. Look at the way she’s eating now.” Lisa realized Carole was talking about Delilah again. “It’s like she’s hungry all the time. And Judy says that’s good. She needs fresh hay and fresh water constantly. I’m going to muck out her stall before Judy gets here. Oh, how I love doing things for that horse!”
    Lisa liked to do things for horses too, but mucking out stalls wasn’t high on her list. “I’ve got to find Stevie. Know where she is?”
    “She was in an awful hurry right after class, but I don’t know where she went. Try the indoor ring. She was headed in that direction.”
    “See you,” Lisa said, but she really didn’t think her friend heard her at all. Carole was already headed for Delilah’s stall. Lisa made her way down the knoll and into the stable. It seemed terribly dark inside, in comparison to the bright summer sunshine. They were spending almost all of their riding time outdoors, mostly in the ring, and sometimes on the trails. It was nice to be out in the fresh air. The class only used thecramped indoor ring on rainy days. It seemed a long time since Lisa had taken her first lesson in that ring.
    Lisa passed the tack room and peered into the indoor ring. There was Stevie. She’d borrowed a pony. Lisa knew that any horse less than four feet ten inches tall at the withers was called a pony. A lot of mounted games took place on ponies because the ponies were what the little kids could ride. Stevie, it seemed, was trying to determine whether a pony could do one of the games she was planning.
    While Lisa watched, Stevie climbed onto Nickel, a pretty silver-colored pony. She held a Hula-Hoop in her right hand. She put the hoop around her right arm and began trying to get it to swing around her arm. It did just fine when it was
up
, but as soon as it came
down
, it smacked into the soft dirt and bounced off her arm. It wasn’t working at all. The pony was just too short. She tried swinging it over her head, but right away, it got tangled in her hard hat. Angrily, Stevie threw the thing across the ring.
    Next, Lisa watched her take a spoon with a marshmallow on it, climb on Nickel, and begin galloping across the ring. The marshmallow fell off right away. Stevie dismounted, picked it up, and climbed up again. This time the marshmallow fell off before she even got back in the saddle. She picked it up a third time, mashed it into the spoon so it was more of a glob than a marshmallow, climbed into the saddle, and was off. The only problem was that when she got to the end of the ring, where there was