Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Dedication
1 What’s Wrong with Macaroni?
2 The Craft Fair
3 The Idea
4 Meeting Zeus
5 Schooling with Dad
6 Zeus the Wonder Pony
7 The Terrible Truth
8 The Gift
9 At the Craft Fair
10 Best Friends For Ever
May’s Pony Schooling Tips
About the Author
Also by Bonnie Bryant
Copyright
I would like to express my special thanks to Helen Geraghty for her help in the writing of this book.
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
It was a perfect summer Monday. The Pony Tails were riding their ponies in long, lazy circles around the Grovers’ paddock.
“Isn’t this great?” said Corey Takamura.
“Great,” said Jasmine James.
“Miserable!” said May Grover.
Jasmine and Corey turned to look at May in wonder.
“What’s wrong?” Corey asked.
May took a deep breath. A week earlier, she’d been given a diary for her birthday. And not a single exciting thing had happened since.
May knew that a diary was just a bunch of blank pages. She knew her diary wasn’t human. But somehow that didn’t matter. She was beginning to get the feeling that her diary thought she was boring.
“What am I going to put in my diary?” she asked the others.
“You could explain about the Pony Tails,” said Corey. “How we’re totally pony-crazy. And how we’re not a club but just good friends.”
“I did that on Friday,” May groaned.
“You could tell how Corey moved into the house between your house and my house,” Jasmine said.
“I did that on Saturday,” May moaned. “I’ve told everything there is to tell.”
From inside the Grovers’ stable block came a thumping sound.
“What’s that?” Jasmine asked. “That could be interesting.”
“Dad’s getting a new horse. He’s mending a stable,” May said. Mr Grover trained and schooled horses for a living, and he was always having horses to stay at the stables.
“Every day doesn’t have to be exciting,” said Jasmine.
“That’s easy for you to say,” May grumbled. “You don’t have a diary.”
Macaroni, May’s pony, snorted and tossed his yellow mane.
“Did you see that?” May wailed. “Even Macaroni thinks I’m boring.”
Corey and Jasmine exchanged worried looks. May was really upset.
Macaroni stumbled.
“Wait a second,” Corey said. “I don’t think Macaroni is bored. I think it’s something else.”
Macaroni moved forward in a slow, lurching walk.
“What’s wrong, Mac?” said May.
“I think it’s his right front foot,” Corey said. Corey’s mum, who was known as Doc Tock, was a veterinarian. She didn’t take care of horses – she took care of small animals. But Corey had learned a lot from her.
Suddenly May was all business. If there was something wrong with Macaroni’s foot, she knew she had to find out what it was right away.
Gently she steered Macaroni over to the fence and got ready to dismount. She kicked both her feet out of the stirrups and put her left hand on Macaroni’s neck and her right hand on the pommel of his saddle. She swung her right leg over the saddle and jumped down.
She went around to his other side to look at his right foot. Macaroni was holding it cocked forward so that only the front rim of his hoof was touching the ground.
Macaroni wouldn’t do that unless his foot hurt.
May led Macaroni to the side of the ring.
Just then Mr Grover appeared at the door of the stables. “What’s up?” he asked when he saw May looking at Macaroni’s hoof.
“Mac has a sore foot.”
Mr Grover nodded. “Do you need help?”
May was glad her father was there in case she needed him. But she wanted to handle this herself. “It’s probably a stone,” she said. “I’ll get the hoofpick and clean out his hoof.”
“Good idea,” Mr Grover said.
May led Macaroni into the stables and put him in his stable. She took off his saddle and bridle and put on his head-collar. Then she clipped a rope to one side of his head-collar and another rope to the other side. She tied each one to loops at the sides of the stable. She was being extra-careful.
She went to the tack room and got the hoofpick.
When she came back, she showed it to Mac. “It’s just a pick,” she said. “I’m going to be super-gentle.”
Macaroni nodded as if he understood.
May put her right hand on Macaroni’s neck and ran it slowly down to his chest, then to his leg, and finally down to his knee. Macaroni raised his foot.
May propped his hoof against her leg and looked at it. The inside of the shoe was caked with dirt.
“This won’t hurt,” she said.
I hope, she thought.
Being very careful, she inserted the hoofpick under the edge of the clod of dirt. She pried, but nothing happened. The dirt was firmly stuck. She pried a little harder. One edge of the clod came away. Gently she lifted it off.
She turned the clod over. All she could see was dirt. But a stone could be hidden inside. She crumbled it.
There was no stone.
She looked at Macaroni’s hoof. Something must be wrong with it. Softly she touched it.
Macaroni jumped. He jerked his foot away. His coat twitched. His ears went back. For a second May was afraid he was going to rear on to his hind legs. But then he sighed, as if he were sighing the pain out of his body. He shook himself, sending his yellow forelock into his eyes.
May knew she needed to tell her father about this.
She walked over to the door of the stable and called, “Dad?”
Mr Grover appeared almost instantly.
“It’s not a stone. It’s something else,” May said. “When I touched the inside of Mac’s hoof, it was really sore.”
Mr Grover nodded. “What do you think you should do?” It was one of the rules of the Grovers’ stables that May was in charge of Macaroni.
“I think I’d better call Judy Barker,” she said. Judy Barker was a horse vet in Willow Creek, the town in Virginia where the Pony Tails lived.
“Good thinking,” Mr Grover said.
An hour later May felt a lot better. Judy Barker had come and examined Macaroni and said that it was nothing serious, just a corn.
“Great,” May said. “Er . . . what’s a corn?”
“A corn is like the calluses that grow on people’s feet,” said Judy. “It has a virus inside.”
To May this sounded totally creepy. “Is there a cure?”
“All you have to do is call the farrier,” Judy said. “He’ll come and take it out.”
“Will it hurt?” May said.
“A little,” Judy nodded. “But Macaroni will be glad to be rid of that corn. And, knowing Macaroni the way I do, I’m sure he’ll handle the whole thing well.”
“That’s Mac,” May said proudly. Macaroni was famous for his calm, friendly nature. At Pine Hollow Stables, where she, Corey, and Jasmine took riding lessons, Macaroni was known as the smartest, sweetest, and friendliest pony. In fact, since Macaroni was the colour of macaroni and cheese, and since he was totally cool, his nickname was Mellow Yellow.
“After the farrier cuts out the corn, he’ll fit Macaroni with a special shoe,” Judy said. “The shoe will protect the sore spot where the corn used to be.”
“So that’s it,” said May happily. “Everything will be fine.”
“Absolutely,” Judy said. “Of course you won’t be able to ride Macaroni for a week or two.”
“A week or two?” May said.
“He’ll sleep a lot,” Judy said. “He won’t even miss riding.”