Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
1 Just for the Animals
2 The Riding Demonstration
3 Where is Corey?
4 Corey’s New Friend
5 Back Home
6 Peace and Quiet
7 Back at School
8 Pony Tails at Home
9 The Truth Comes Out
10 Looking for Alexander
11 Best Friends
Corey’s Tips for a Healthy Pony
About the Author
Also by Bonnie Bryant
Copyright
1. PONY CRAZY
2. MAY’S RIDING LESSON
3. COREY’S PONY IS MISSING
4. JASMINE’S CHRISTMAS RIDE
5. MAY TAKES THE LEAD
6. COREY IN THE SADDLE
7. JASMINE TROTS AHEAD
8. MAY RIDES A NEW PONY
9. COREY AND THE SPOOKY PONY
10. JASMINE HELPS A FOAL
RHCP DIGITAL
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First published Bantam, 1997
This ebook published 2016
Copyright © Bonnie Bryant Hiller, 1996
Illustrations copyright © Kim Harley, 1997
The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978–1–448–19793–4
All correspondence to:
RHCP DIGITAL
Penguin Random House Children’s
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
‘Oh, how sweet!’ Corey Takamura cooed. She was looking at a sleeping kitten, curled up into a tiny ball. He clutched a rubber mouse toy in his paws. ‘Look at him, you two,’ she told her two best friends.
Jasmine James gazed at the kitten. ‘Ahh,’ she said, agreeing with Corey.
‘He’s adorable,’ May Grover said. ‘Look at the puppies.’
Corey and Jasmine looked where May was pointing. Two puppies were play-fighting, rolling around in the newspaper strips in their cage.
‘All the animals are sweet,’ Jasmine said with a sigh.
A smile crept across Corey’s face. May and Jasmine didn’t know it, but her plan was working.
In a few minutes the three girls would be riding their ponies in a demonstration for a huge audience. Their Pony Club, Horse Wise, was trying to raise money for CARL – the County Animal Rescue League.
The girls had been getting ready for the demonstration for a long time. May and Jasmine were very nervous about riding in front of a big crowd. So Corey had decided to show them the animals from CARL. Sure enough, once May and Jasmine saw the pets in the trailer that CARL had set up at Pine Hollow Stables for the day, they forgot all about being nervous.
May crouched down to look at a baby racoon in a cage. ‘Can someone adopt this racoon, too?’ she asked Corey.
Corey shook her head. ‘No. He’s a wild animal. CARL was just taking care of him for a while. I think most of the other animals here can be adopted today, though.’
May stared at the racoon through the bars of the cage. He stared back at her. She made a funny face at him. He stared back at her.
‘No sense of humour,’ she commented.
‘Maybe you just don’t know how to tell a joke in racoon,’ Jasmine said. May giggled. The racoon scooted back in his cage, away from May.
‘I’m not going to hurt you,’ she said.
‘It’s good for him to be scared of you,’ Corey reminded her. ‘He’s going to be released back into the wild soon.’
May thought about that. It made sense. Animals who were going to live in the wild should be afraid of humans. That way they’d be more independent and safe.
Corey knew a lot about animals. Her mother was a veterinarian whom everyone called Doc Tock. Doc Tock had her own practice, but she also did a lot of work at CARL. May thought it was fun living next door to a vet – especially since May, Jasmine, and Corey were all crazy about animals. The girls were really crazy about ponies. That was why they called themselves the Pony Tails.
‘Bleeaaaaaa!’
A sudden noise startled the girls.
‘What was that?’ Jasmine said. They looked around to see where it had come from.
There was a cage in the corner behind the other cages. It had a lot of newspaper torn up in it. Corey peered at the cage – she couldn’t see an animal in there.
‘Bleeaaaaaa!’
The sound was definitely coming from the cage in the corner. Slowly the girls went over to investigate.
The Pony Tails stared at the pile of shredded newsprint. Corey watched in surprise as the paper rustled. Then a tiny black nose popped out from under the papers. It sniffed curiously. Then came a furry mouth. The tiny mouth opened and made a great big noise.
‘Bleeaaaaa!’
‘It’s a goat!’ Corey declared. ‘A baby goat!’
The goat had black-and-white splotched hair and bright black eyes.
The Pony Tails watched as the small creature tried to stand up. First its little rear legs pushed upwards. Then its spindly front legs began working.
‘It’s so sweet,’ breathed Jasmine. ‘I bet it’s only a few weeks old.’
Corey nodded. The creature was tiny. She knew from her mother that CARL rescued and took in all kinds of animals. What had happened to this tiny goat? she wondered. He was definitely too young to be separated from his mother. Maybe he’d been orphaned.
Corey looked at the papers hanging from the goat’s cage. She was right. According to his chart, his mother had died.
‘Poor little guy,’ May said as she read the information. ‘He seems to like our company though, doesn’t he?’
The goat was bleating softly. He ambled over to the front of the cage to get a better look at the girls.
Corey’s heart melted as she looked into his dark eyes. The goat bleated again. The soft, sad sound reminded Corey that it was important to help sick and abandoned animals. She was glad that that was what their Pony Club was doing today.
‘There you are, girls!’ Mrs Reg said as she burst into the trailer. ‘Come on, you three – it’s almost time to mount up!’
‘We’re coming,’ May told the older woman. ‘We’re just talking to the animals.’
Mrs Regnery was the stable manager at Pine Hollow. That was the stables where the Pony Tails took riding lessons and had Pony Club meetings. Everybody called her Mrs Reg.
The girls said goodbye to the tiny goat and the other animals. ‘We have to tack up our ponies now,’ Jasmine told them.
As the girls followed Mrs Reg back to the stable yard, Corey looked up at the people in the stands. What a huge crowd, she thought. All these people had come to see the riding demonstration!
‘Thanks for bringing us to the CARL trailer, Corey,’ Jasmine said. ‘After seeing those animals, I can’t wait to ride.’
‘Me neither,’ added May.
‘Hurry up, girls,’ Mrs Reg urged them again. ‘Thirty minutes till showtime.’
‘The Pony Tails will be ready,’ May promised.
The three girls separated and raced for their ponies’ stalls.
As Corey turned the corner near Samurai’s stall, her heart was thumping. She’d never seen such a big audience at Pine Hollow.
Jasmine and May were much calmer now.
But Corey was a nervous wreck!
