Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Dedication
1 The Horse Wise Meeting
2 Max’s Big Announcement
3 Picking Teams
4 Jasmine’s Celebration
5 Erin’s Revenge
6 Jasmine Hears Something Terrible
7 May and Corey to the Rescue
8 The Equitation Competition
9 The Final Round
10 Jasmine’s Special Dinner
11 Jasmine’s Big News
Jasmine’s Tips on Horses’ Colours
About the Author
Also by Bonnie Bryant
Copyright
Don’t miss all the titles in the PONY TAILS series:
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
I would like to give my special thanks to Catherine Hapka for her help in the writing of this book.
“I wonder what today’s meeting is about,” Jasmine James said.
“I don’t know,” said Corey Takamura. “Max didn’t tell us last week.” It was Saturday morning. Jasmine, Corey, and their other best friend, May Grover, were waiting for their weekly Pony Club meeting to start. Their Pony Club was called Horse Wise. It met at Pine Hollow Stables, where the three girls also took riding lessons. Max Regnery was the owner of Pine Hollow and their riding teacher. He was the head of their Pony Club, too.
This week’s meeting was unmounted, which meant that Jasmine, May, and Corey had left their ponies at home. The three girls were neighbours, and they all kept their ponies in stables behind their houses. When the girls had mounted Horse Wise meetings, May’s father brought their ponies to Pine Hollow in his horsebox.
“I hope this meeting isn’t something boring like rolling bandages,” May said.
Corey shrugged. “I don’t even mind doing that,” she said. “At least it still has something to do with ponies.”
“That reminds me,” Jasmine said, tucking a strand of her long blond hair back into its pony-tail. “I meant to tell you two about the model horse I saw when my mum and I were in the shopping centre yesterday. Or rather, the model pony.” Jasmine loved model horses and had a big collection of them. May and Corey liked them, too, but they didn’t have very many. That didn’t matter, because Jasmine let them play with hers. It was part of being best friends. That was why the three girls called themselves the Pony Tails – they were best friends and they all loved ponies.
“A model pony?” Corey said. “What did it look like?”
“That’s the best part,” Jasmine said. “It looked just like Outlaw. It had the same kind of mask and everything.” Outlaw was Jasmine’s pony. He was dark brown except for a white mask on his face that made him look like an old-fashioned bank robber.
“It sounds perfect,” May said. “You have to get it!”
“I know,” Jasmine said. She sighed. “But it will take me for ever to save up enough from my pocket money. And Christmas is months and months away.”
Just then a girl their age named Erin Mosley leaned over to talk to them. Erin had been taking lessons at Pine Hollow for almost a year, but she had just joined Horse Wise. “Why doesn’t your mother just buy it for you?” Erin asked Jasmine. “My parents buy me anything I want. All I have to do is ask.”
“We weren’t talking to you, Erin,” May said, rolling her eyes. Erin was always bragging. Secretly, the Pony Tails thought Erin’s parents bought her things because Erin whined so much. That was one reason the Pony Tails didn’t like her. Another reason was that Erin was a goody-goody. She always tried to impress teachers and other adults, even if it meant being a tell-tale.
Erin stuck her tongue out at May. “It’s a free country,” she said. “I can talk about anything I want.”
“Just ignore her,” Jasmine whispered to her friends. She didn’t like to make trouble.
“I heard that,” Erin said, glaring at Jasmine. “You think you’re so great. But you’re not. Your parents won’t even buy you a stupid toy horse.”
Jasmine’s face turned red, but she didn’t say anything.
May frowned at Erin. “You’d better shut up,” she warned.
“Don’t tell me what to do, May,” Erin said.
“Why shouldn’t she?” Corey said. “After all, it’s a free country.”
May and Corey laughed at the angry look on Erin’s face, but Jasmine didn’t join in. She hated fighting. She didn’t like Erin any more than her friends did, but she wished they could just be nice to each other.
Erin tossed her head, making her long blond hair bounce around her shoulders.
“You three had better watch out,” she said. “You always act like you’re better than everyone else. Just because you have your own ponies, that doesn’t make you anything special. You’d just better watch out.” Erin didn’t have her own pony the way Jasmine, May, and Corey did. She rode one of Pine Hollow’s schooling ponies, a peppy Appaloosa named Quarter.
“Don’t worry about her,” Corey whispered to Jasmine. “She’s all talk and no action. She wouldn’t dare do anything to us.”
Jasmine wasn’t so sure about that. She had seen the look on Erin’s face – and she was afraid that Erin wanted to make trouble for the Pony Tails.
A few minutes later Max started the Pony Club meeting the way he always did – by saying, “Horse Wise, come to order!”
All the riders stopped talking and turned to listen. Jasmine sat up straight as she waited to hear what Max would say.
“You’re probably wondering what we’ll be doing today,” Max said. “Well, I won’t keep you in suspense. We’re going to talk about equitation. Who knows what that means?”
Several riders raised their hands. Max pointed to an older girl with light brown hair named Lisa Atwood. Lisa was a member of The Saddle Club. That was a group made up of three older riders in Horse Wise. Just like the Pony Tails, the members of The Saddle Club were best friends who loved riding.
“Equitation is another word for riding,” Lisa said. “In equitation classes at horse shows, the judges score a rider’s skills rather than those of her horse.”