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but it’s harder on the animal’s legs and joints.”
    “Not to mention the rider’s butt,” cracked Lisa.
    Carole resisted the urge to collect her horse—to remind Berry who was in charge and to perk up his ambling gait. She understood that the way to ride a Western horse was to keep contact with its mouth to a minimum, but after all her years of English training, it made her feel like she was letting her horse be sloppy.
    “A good trail horse needs to be calm and relaxed, easy to handle,” Kate said.
    Carole noted Stewball’s flopping ears. “If Stewballgets much more relaxed, we’re going to have to call him a cab.”
    “Appearances can be deceiving,” Kate answered. In a flash her horse had spun 180 degrees to face Lisa and Carole with pricked ears and wide-open eyes. Kate smiled at the other girls’ astonished expressions. “Out here we call that a rollback.” Once again Stewball whipped into action, this time making a full 360-degree turn, spinning on his hindquarters. “And that,” she said, sweeping her cowboy hat off and bowing, “was a pirouette.”
    Lisa’s mouth hung open with admiration. “Wow, that was great! I hardly saw you doing anything. It was like Stewball did it all on his own.”
    “He almost did. He’s been doing those moves so long, all I had to do was give him a hint of what I wanted.”
    Carole was also impressed. “And I thought he was about to nod off.”
    “Oh, he was just conserving his energy. A seasoned trail horse will do that so that he has it to use when he really needs it.”
    They were standing on the edge of a meadow carpeted with wildflowers. A sea of snowy white, sunshine yellow, and lipstick red blossoms quivered in thebreeze, attended and nurtured by an army of flitting butterflies, bees, and dragonflies.
    Kate eyed the meadow speculatively. “What do you say to using up some of the horses’ batteries?”
    Carole felt her heart twitch with excitement. “Gallop?”
    “This meadow is nice and level, but let me and Stewball lead the way, okay?”
    Lisa and Carole were only too happy to agree.
    “
Yee haw!
” Kate shouted, urging Stewball into action.
    “
Yee haw!
” Carole and Lisa cried, following.
    In a flash they were tearing across the meadow.
    Carole felt her horse’s powerful hindquarters gathering and releasing, sending the two of them charging forward. She leaned down closer to Berry’s bobbing neck, going with his motion and urging him on. The wind whipped up his mane, and it lashed her cheeks. She relished the feeling.
    All too soon they reached the end of the open area and pulled reluctantly to a halt. The horses snorted and nodded their heads, eyes bright and tails twitching.
    Carole laughed with unabashed delight. “Yesss!”
    “It doesn’t get any better than this,” Lisa declared.
    “Wait until you see what’s coming,” Kate said mysteriously.
    “What could possibly beat galloping a wonderful horse across an amazing field of wildflowers on a gorgeous day with two of your very best friends in the world?” Lisa asked.
    Kate leaned forward. “Show ’em for me, will you, Stewball?”
    With a gentle snort her horse headed off at an eager walk.
    “He knows where we’re going?” Carole asked skeptically.
    “Of course. I told him this morning,” Kate replied lightly.
    Lisa’s eyes met Carole’s. “That’s some horse.”
    Kate called back over her shoulder. “Come on, we’re almost there.”
    As they rode on, Lisa and Carole continued to admire the passing landscape, oohing and ahhing over the exceptional scenery. After a short time Kate disappeared from view over the top of a small rise. When Carole crested the hill, she pulled Berry to a halt, hardly able to believe her eyes.
    Below her, the woods fell away to reveal one of the most beautiful sights she had ever seen—a pond of thedeepest, purest blue fed by a roaring waterfall, which spilled down a sheer rock cliff. The water sparkled in the early afternoon sunshine, and