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stupid thing!” Zara cried, struggling to pull Ellie into a circle.
    The mare fought her hands and legs, skittering sidewayswith her head cranked to the side. She almost crashed into the other horse before giving in and circling away. Mrs. Walsh’s gray gelding actually woke up long enough to lift his head, swish his tail, and take a lazy step sideways.
    â€œWhoa, whoa!” Mrs. Walsh exclaimed, sounding terrified. “Easy, boy.”
    Meanwhile Summer and Margie were both watching from nearby. Summer just sat there staring. But Margie kicked her horse forward.
    â€œGet a grip!” she yelled at Zara. “If you can’t control your horse, you shouldn’t be riding in a ring with other people!” She turned toward Mrs. Walsh. “You okay, Elaine?” she asked in a quieter tone.
    Zara didn’t stick around to hear any more. Ellie had finally slowed to a walk, and Zara aimed her toward the gate.
    â€œWhere are you going?” Summer called, pushing her own horse to follow.
    Zara leaned down to swing open the gate from the saddle, just the way she’d learned from an old cowboy on one of her mother’s movie sets. “Out,” she said. “I’m not in the mood for this. I’m going on a trail ride.”
    Summer’s eyes widened. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” she said. “Ellie seems kind of worked up, and she probably hasn’t ridden out much. If it were me, I’d be kind of nervous, you know?”
    â€œGood thing it’s not you, then,” Zara snapped. She nudged Ellie through the gate, then swung it closed behind her, not wanting Summer to get any bright ideas about tagging along.
    In her current mood, she might have almost enjoyedcontinuing the battle with her horse in the great wide open. But to her surprise, Ellie seemed to relax as soon as they were away from the ring. She stopped fighting Zara’s aids and settled into a loose, swinging walk, pricking her ears at everything they passed—a couple of barn dogs wrestling in the grass, a bird perched on a fence, a stall cleaner dumping his wheelbarrow in the manure pit.
    â€œWell, what do you know,” Zara murmured, turning the mare down the grassy lane between two turnout fields. “So Miss Fancypants really wants to be a trail horse. Who knew?”
    Just then Ellie snorted and spooked at a squirrel, and Zara laughed. Okay, so the mare still had some spunk. But that was okay. It was one of the things Zara liked about her.
    She ended up spending more than an hour exploring the sprawling property with Ellie. They trotted through an empty pasture and jumped the coop set in the fence line for the local foxhunters; they galloped up the steep hill near the creek, then wandered along a couple of wooded trails to cool down. By the time Zara reluctantly headed back in, her mood had turned around completely.
    â€œI’m glad I came to ride today, girlie,” she told Ellie, reaching forward to give her a pat. “Sorry about earlier. But this was fun.”
    Yeah, there was still the thing with her dad to worry about. Not to mention the knowledge that if anyone told Jamie what had really happened that night at the showgrounds, she was toast. But it wasn’t like she could do much about either of those things. So why stress?
    As she led Ellie into the barn a few minutes later, she sawTommi coming out of the tack room. “Hi,” Tommi said. “Summer said you were here somewhere.”
    Her tone was friendly, so Zara cautiously returned her smile. Tommi was hard to figure sometimes. Okay, make that most of the time. It seemed like the two of them had butted heads pretty much since Zara had arrived at Pelham Lane, though things had been better since the Hounds Hollow show.
    â€œYeah, figured I’d get some saddle time in before the horses leave for the show tomorrow,” Zara said. “You?”
    â€œSame, pretty much.” Tommi shrugged.