A Blue for Beware Read online

  Lily doesn’t watch the Seniors jump. She and Gramp lead Beware to the cool shade of the truck. Beware walks with her head low. She is tired and relaxed.

  Lily takes off the saddle and bridle. She gives Beware a drink, a juicy carrot, and some hay. She scratches Beware’s belly, and Beware curves herself around to scratch Lily back.

  Gramp brings over a pail of water that has been warming in the sun. He and Lily take big soft sponges, and they sponge Beware all over. Beware sighs because the water feels good. She crunches her hay slowly.

  “Does she know she’s a good horse?” Lily asks.

  “We’re tellin’ her right now,” Gramp says.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  BY THE TIME Gramp and Lily have made Beware comfortable, Barrel Racing has started.

  “Let’s get a lemonade and go watch,” Gramp says. “She’ll be all right by herself.” Beware’s eyes are half-closed now. She has stopped chewing.

  Lily walks with Gramp to get a lemonade. She has a blister on her ankle. Her nice white shirt is smudged with dirt, and it sticks to her back. But she can still feel what it was like, going over the jumps on Beware.

  Mandy waits with the other riders. Shane looks tired and cross. Mandy looks tired and scared. Lily hands up her lemonade, and Mandy takes a long pull through the straw.

  “Why am I doing this?” she asks. “I’m gonna get killed!”

  “No, you won’t,” says Gramp. He takes one of Mandy’s hands, and he slides it way up the rein, closer to the bit. He squeezes his hand around Mandy’s. “Tight, like this,” he says. “Let your hands follow his head, but don’t take ’em off this spot on the reins.” He goes to the other side and moves Mandy’s other hand up, too.

  Lily watches the riders. They are all Western riders, and they look tough in their cowboy hats. Don Rice is here, with a long dark patch of sweat down the back of his purple shirt.

  There are three barrels. The riders go around them in a cloverleaf pattern, as fast as they can, and then gallop out through the gate. Lily has seen pictures of barrel racers going so fast the horses look as if they’ll tip over, so close to the barrels that the riders’ knees almost brush.

  Nobody here goes that fast or that close. The riders can’t turn the horses tight enough. They go wide, sometimes halfway across the ring before the riders can swing them around. Their strides look rough, and their eyes look wild. They look wildest at the end, when they’re galloping toward the gate. The riders yell and kick and flap their elbows. As each horse passes through the gate, the timekeeper clicks his stopwatch and calls out the time.

  When Don Rice goes, his buckskin horse doesn’t seem very fast to Lily. But Don gets closer to the barrels than anybody. Lily sees Gramp laughing with Mr. Rice. Maybe he wasn’t joking. Maybe he did bet.

  When the announcer calls Mandy’s name, Gramp hurries back. Mandy’s hands have slipped down the reins. Gramp puts them up where they belong. “Don’t worry about turning tight,” he says. “This horse is a streak of lightning. Turn anywhere inside of a quarter acre, and you might just win!”

  “Good luck, Mandy!” Lily calls.

  She goes to the fence with Gramp. Mandy looks scared, waiting at the gate. She looks funny, with her white shirt and her black hard hat, and Shane in braids. Lily grips the top of the snow fence as she waits.

  “Go!”

  Mandy thumps Shane with her heels, but she still has tight hold of the reins. Shane leaps. He wants to run away, but Mandy won’t let him. He gallops with his feet rising high in the air and swoops around the first barrel—wide, but not too wide. Now he is galloping straight toward Lily. Mandy has an amazed look on her face.

  They turn around the second barrel, closer. Lily can see how hard Mandy has to pull. The third barrel. Shane looks crazy. All the way around—

  Mandy points Shane straight toward the gate and loosens the reins.

  “Go!” yells Gramp. He waves his hat in the air.

  Lily yells, “Go-go-go!”

  Shane flattens out and streaks like a rocket through the gate. He doesn’t slow down outside the ring. He gallops all the way across the ball field in a perfectly straight line. People yell and dive out of the way.

  The timekeeper says something, but Lily doesn’t hear. She can’t look away until she sees Shane stop at the far edge of the field. Mandy is okay.

  “That’s the best time yet!” Gramp says. He and Lily and Mandy’s mother go out to meet Mandy, coming back. Shane is prancing and trying to run away again, but Mandy won’t let him. Her hands are firm on the reins. She has a great big grin on her face.

  “I did it!” she says. “I turned him! He didn’t run away!

  “What do you call that race across the field?” her mother asks. But she is smiling, too.

  “Well, he did run away then, but that’s because I let him.” Mandy gets off. Shane has white foam on his chest and neck. “I don’t want to go in the Flag Race,” Mandy says. She rubs Shane’s ear. “He needs a rest.”

  “Hey, I think they want you back in the ring,” says Gramp.

  “Did I win a ribbon?” Mandy leads Shane through the crowd of horses into the ring. The judge is waiting, with a blue ribbon in her hand.

  CHAPTER NINE

  WHEN MANDY GETS her blue ribbon, first she cries. Then, with tears on her cheeks, she laughs. She hugs the judge. She hugs Gramp. She hugs Shane. Then she tries to hug Lily, and Lily holds her away.

  “No! You’re covered with horse sweat.”

  Mandy looks down at herself, and she laughs again. “I can’t believe it!” she says. “I can’t believe it!”

  “Course, you need some lessons with this animal,” Gramp tells her. “You shouldn’t have to hold him that hard.”

  “I know,” says Mandy. “But I can hold him. I found out that I can.” She and her mother lead Shane away. The blue ribbon gleams on his bridle.

  Gramp and Lily go to saddle Beware again. Beware has had a nice nap. She nickers at Gramp and Lily.

  “You look all fresh and bright,” Gramp tells her. He brushes Beware with the soft brush and puts more fly spray on. Then Lily puts on the saddle.

  When she turns to get the bridle, Lily sees Mandy and her mother washing Shane. Finally Shane is standing still. The blue ribbon hangs above him on the trailer. Mandy and Shane deserve that ribbon.

  Lily looks at her white ribbon for jumping. Nothing can take the happiness of jumping away from her. She still feels it inside her, like an open window with a breeze blowing through.

  But Beware should have a blue ribbon, too. Beware has been good all day, and the good horses are supposed to win the blue ribbons. That’s what Lily always thought, anyway.

  She puts Beware’s bridle on, and she rides over to the ring again. Gramp walks beside her. Beware will be the last horse. There is plenty of time to sit and watch.

  Mostly these are the same riders who went in Barrel Racing. Their horses are lathered and wild-eyed, hard to stop. They charge past the coffee cans. They turn in circles while the riders are trying to change flags. One rider misses the can and drops the flag on the ground. He has to get off and pick it up and try again. Everyone, Lily thinks, is trying to go too fast.

  Beware is watching, too. Her ears point toward the ring. She is tired and relaxed. But Lily can tell that she is still ready to go.

  “You’re such a good horse, Beware,” Lily whispers. “You’re going to have a blue ribbon, too!”

  Finally the announcer calls Lily’s name. “Remember,” Gramp says, “just trot! I don’t want you running this horse out the gate.”

  Lily nods. She will do just what Gramp says. But maybe Gramp doesn’t know how fast Beware can trot.

  At the gate the timekeeper gives Lily the flag. It is a little triangle of pink cloth, stapled to a stick. “Ready?” the timekeeper asks, and Lily nods.

  “Go,” says the timekeeper, and he clicks his stopwatch.

  Lily trots into the ring, just the way she did in Jumping. Beware’s trot is smo
oth and fast. She points her ears at the first coffee can. It looks like the can Lily brings her grain in.

  Beside the coffee can Lily says, “Whoa.” She sits deep and soft in the saddle, and Beware stops. She is so close to the can that Lily doesn’t even have to stretch to reach it. Beware reaches her nose toward the can, but Lily tightens one rein and turns her head away. She puts the pink flag in, she takes the blue flag out, and she tells Beware, “Trot.” Faster now, because Beware is so easy to stop. “Whoa.” Blue flag in, green flag out. “Trot.”

  There is one can left. Beware trots toward it. It doesn’t seem as if she is going fast because she is so calm and smooth. Lily can’t tell; maybe they won’t get a blue ribbon this time, either. But she knows they’re doing well.…

  “Whoa.” Clunk, the green flag lands in the coffee can. Lily picks out the yellow flag.

  Now! She clucks with her tongue, she presses her legs into Beware’s sides, and she keeps a light feel on the reins, so Beware doesn’t start cantering. Beware trots, straight and swift, toward the gate. Her ears are forward, and her step is light. Through the gate—Lily sits deep, and within two strides Beware stops.

  Lily turns in the saddle as the timekeeper calls out the time. He sounds surprised. After a second she hears a whoop, and Gramp’s green hat goes flying through the air.

  “That was the blue-ribbon ride!” the announcer says, “Lilian Gifford, on Beware!”

  “But it was easy!” Lily says, while the judge pins the ribbon on Beware’s bridle. “It was so easy!”

  “It’s supposed to be easy,” says the judge. She smiles up at Lily. “Everything at a horse show is easy when you’re good enough.”

  Jumping was easy, Lily thinks. And Trail Class was almost easy.

  “Thank you,” she says.

  “Do you think you’ll do more jumping with this horse?”

  “Yes!” says Lily.

  “Then maybe I’ll see you again somewhere,” the judge says, and she turns away to give Don Rice his second-place ribbon.

  CHAPTER TEN

  BREAKAWAY is the last class of the day. Before going into the ring, Lily rides over to the truck. She hangs her blue ribbon beside the white and green ones. It sparkles in the sun, and across the way, Mandy’s blue ribbon sparkles back.

  “Last call for Breakaway!” The announcer’s voice floats across the ball field, and Lily turns to go. For the first time ever, her behind hurts from riding. She will be glad when it’s time to stop.

  Mandy is waiting in the ring, and beside her stands the ringmaster with a strip of blue crepe paper in his hand. He gives one end to Lily and the other end to Mandy. The announcer explains the rules.

  “In this class,” the announcer says, “you’ll ride side by side, holding on to the paper. You’ll walk, trot, canter, and turn around—and any other fiendish thing we can think of! If your paper rips, go into the middle of the ring, and wait. The last pair left wins. Everybody set? All right, then, walk.”

  Lily and Mandy hold their hands out toward each other, so close their knuckles almost touch. When they start walking, their knees brush together. “This isn’t going to work,” Mandy says, and she laughs.

  Breakaway feels different from all the other classes. There are lots of riders in the ring—Juniors and Seniors, English and Western and ponies. But it doesn’t seem crowded because everybody is riding two by two. Everybody is laughing. Nobody cares about winning Breakaway, but nobody’s paper breaks at the walk.

  “Trot!” says the announcer. Lily looks at Mandy, and Mandy looks at Lily. “Trot,” they both say to their horses. Mandy takes tight hold of Shane, and Lily lets the reins float softly between her hand and Beware’s mouth. They trot slowly side by side. Their knees stay close together, and the paper doesn’t even stretch.

  But right in front of them, two people do break their paper. One horse goes fast; one horse goes slow—rip! The riders groan, and laugh, and ride into the middle. There are other groans, and shouts, and whistles. The people watching at the fence are making a lot of noise. Lily sees Mom and Mandy’s mother laughing together.

  There are lots of riders in the middle now, but there are still lots left. “Canter, please,” says the announcer.

  This is where their paper will break, Lily knows. Riding one-handed, Mandy will never be able to keep Shane from running away.

  Mandy thinks the same thing. “Here goes nothing!” she says to Lily, and they both canter.

  Maybe Shane is tired. Maybe he has just learned that Mandy can stop him. Whatever the reason, he canters quietly, right beside Beware. There are more shouts and laughs, more people in the middle when the announcer says, “Walk.

  “And reverse, please.”

  This is harder. Beware has to turn in a tiny circle, and Shane has to walk faster, in a big circle. The crepe paper stretches. “Whoa, Beware,” says Lily. Beware stops, just for a second, and Lily and Mandy lean way out of their saddles, toward each other. Then Shane finishes his big circle. “Walk,” says Lily, and they are going side by side again.

  “There are only five left,” whispers Mandy. “We’ll get ribbons!”

  Don Rice and his girlfriend are one of the pairs. Two little kids on ponies are still going, too—

  “Reverse again,” says the announcer, laughing. This time Shane makes the little circle, and Beware makes the big circle on the outside. The ponies get mixed up. As Lily turns, she sees them standing head to head. The little kids are way up on the ponies’ necks. The crepe paper is stretched tight over the tops of the ponies’ heads. But it isn’t broken. When the little kids get themselves straightened out, everybody cheers.

  “And trot.”

  This time Mandy and Lily forget to look at each other. Shane starts trotting fast, and Beware starts more slowly. The paper stretches, and Lily hears Gramp shouting from the fence. Then it tears. Mandy trots ahead, waving a blue streamer.

  Lily gives Beware a quick squeeze with her legs. She catches up as Mandy is turning toward the middle of the ring, and she reaches for Mandy’s hand. “Hey, Mandy!”

  Mandy looks back. She drops the blue paper ribbon and grabs Lily’s hand. The paper was weak, but Mandy’s and Lily’s hands hold together strongly.

  They look at each other. Lily can’t tell which of them thinks of it first, but all at once they are holding their clasped hands over their heads, just as if they were the winners. They keep on trotting, all the way around the ring until they find a place to stand.

  People laugh and clap. Gramp takes off his hat to them, and Mom gives a double thumbs-up.

  Mandy and Lily’s hands are stuck together with sweat. They make a little sound when they come apart—schwuck! Mandy and Lily laugh, and watch, while the announcer makes it harder and harder. Finally the little kids on the ponies are the only ones left. And then the horse show is over.

  Gran has Band-Aids in her big square purse. She puts them on Lily’s blistered ankles. “Well!” she says. “I’ve had all the horse I can stand for one day!”

  Gramp leads Beware up the ramp. Lily can hear him inside the truck, talking to her. “Good little mare,” he says. “You did a good job today.”

  Mom takes the ribbons down and gives them to Lily. “Did you have a good day?” she asks.

  The big springs creak as Gramp puts the ramp up. Beware’s hooves thud on the truck floor. Across the way Mandy is leading Shane into the trailer. She looks over at Lily and waves.

  “Yes,” says Lily. “I had a good day.” She picks up the two best ribbons: the white one for jumping and the blue. Maybe she will hang these in the barn, where Beware can see them.

  And the yellow one, for Breakaway, will go on her wall, right beside Mandy’s picture.

  Turn the page to continue reading from the Beware the Mare series

  CHAPTER ONE

  THE SCHOOL BUS sounds as if it’s dying by the time it winds up through the hills to Lily’s stop. There are hardly any kids left.

  Lily waves good-bye to Mandy and
jumps down the steps. She runs up the long driveway, swinging her backpack, kicking the crisp, dry leaves. The leaves are like a bowlful of cornflakes before you put the milk in.

  At the top of the drive Lily looks toward the horse pasture. She sees the pony grazing. Beware must be nearby. Lily hurries into the house. It gets dark very early now that fall is here. There is just barely time for a ride.

  The kitchen smells like apple crisp. Gran turns from the stove. “Hello, Lily. Did you have a good—” But Lily is already past her, running up the stairs.

  Quickly, quickly. She pulls off her jeans and her good sweater, pulls on her riding pants and a sweatshirt. Pushes her feet into her riding boots. Down the stairs again.

  “It’s more polite to say hello!” says Gran.

  “Oh, hello, Gran.” There is a plate of apple cores on the table. “Can I have these for Beware?”

  Gran snorts. “May I, please! Yes, you may. Heaven forbid we should deny anything to a horse …” Lily lets the door bang behind her.

  “Sorry, Gran,” she calls.

  The sun has gone down behind the mountain. The air feels cold on Lily’s hands. Two sweatshirts would be better than one, but Lily doesn’t have time to go back upstairs. She gets a halter and walks down to the gate. “Beware!”

  The pony lifts his head and looks at Lily.

  “Beware!” Lily looks toward the trees along the edge of the pasture. In the summer Beware stands there in the shade. Now the trees are bare, and it’s too cold to care about shade.

  “Hey, Beware!” Lily yells. Has something happened? Lily puts the apple cores on the ground beside the gate and ducks under the fence. Then she reaches back and grabs one. “Beware?”

  From the tree line Beware whinnies.

  Now Lily can see her. Beware’s dark red coat blends in with the tree trunks, until you know where to look. Lily stands still and whistles. “Apple core! Come and get it!”