Full disclosure: I know nothing about horseback riding. I’ve
never even ridden a horse, aside from pony rides, which don’t count. However, I
always felt that The Saddle Club gave a pretty good understanding of what
horseback riding lessons are like. Feel free to correct me if I’m completely
wrong, though. Like I said, I know nothing.
The Saddle Club centers around three girls. Flaky but loyal
Carole, practical joker Stevie, and smart and preppy Lisa. All three are (or
soon will be) horse crazy.
The book opens with Stevie freaking the fuck out. Her
parents say they won’t pay for the upcoming Mountain Overnight trip unless she
brings her grades up. She has an upcoming math project on decimals and
percentages due, but doesn’t really want to do it. However, she realizes
there’s a loophole. Her parents only said they wouldn’t pay for the trip, which costs fifty dollars. She gets very excited
by the prospect of earning her own money by doing odd jobs.
At Pine Hollow Stables. Carole is there early, because her
father had to drop her off. We learn
Carole’s mother died from cancer six months earlier. Carole is cleaning tack
when a new girl, Lisa walks by with her mother, Max the owner, and a horse,
Patch. Max asks Carole to join them in the ring.
Lisa’s mom is talking up Lisa’s mad riding skills, which she
doesn’t actually possess. It’s cool, though, because Max doesn’t believe her
anyway. Lisa says she can walk and stop, and is able to prove that. However,
while she’s still on Patch, a door slams, and the noise scares Patch, who
bolts. This is more than Lisa can handle; however, she realizes that the gallop
feels like a waltz, with a one-two-three beat to it. Lisa does know how to waltz, and so adjusts herself to sway accordingly,
and is able to regain control of Patch. Everyone is suitably impressed.
Max asks Carole to show Lisa around, so they take Patch back
to his stall and loosen his gear. They meet the very rich and very snobby
Veronica, and she seems impressed by Lisa’s fancy riding clothes. Carole just
cares about Veronica’s Thoroughbred, Cobalt, whom she loves, and Veronica
doesn’t really care about. This is Very Important in later books.
They also run into Stevie, who is all a-flutter with her
plans to make money. Lisa thinks maybe Stevie, as hyper as she is, is the one
who slammed the door. Carole asks Stevie to make sure Patch is ready for class
for Lisa. When Lisa goes to get on Patch however, she can’t, because the
stirrups are missing, and Stevie is laughing. In retaliation, after class, Lisa
ties Stevie’s shoe laces in a bunch of knots.
Stevie ends up with more jobs than she can handle, so she winds
up doling the jobs out to her brothers and friends, taking a small commission
on each job for herself.
Lisa goes over to Veronica’s house, where she finds out
she’s not only very rich, but very bratty as well. But she’s the only friend
she has at the stables, so she invites Veronica to her house. There, Veronica
is rude to her and to her mother. So now Lisa has zero friends at the stables.
One day, Lisa overhears Carole and Veronica in the next
stall. Veronica says she and Lisa don’t have much in common, that Lisa isn’t a
very good rider, and also that Veronica was the one who slammed the door on her
first day. Lisa starts to cry, and Carole finds her. They make nice, and make
plans to hang out after class.
Stevie has quite a nice little fund stored up, sixty-five
dollars, when she finds out she’s won third place in a contest, winning a
cassette player! But –oh noes!- she only has records. 1988, y’all. Crazy times.
But she has more than enough money saved up, so she can spend some of it on
tapes, right?
Stevie invites Carole over to listen to her tapes, and
Carole gets her to invite Lisa as well. Things are going okay, when Carole asks
just how many tapes she bought. Oh, ya know, like, ten. So how much money does
she have left? $4.18. Whoops. Stevie’s pretty pissed off at herself, and throws
a notebook. Lisa retrieves it, and looks at all the work Stevie put into
organizing all her jobs. She points out this would make an excellent math
project. Stevie agrees, and they get to work.
Of course, they become friends while working on the project.
So the only question is, will she make a good enough grade? Of course she does.
She gets an A+ on the project, bringing her grade up to a B+. Yay! Everyone
gets to go on the Mountain Overnight! While celebrating, the girls officially
form The Saddle Club. The only rules are that you have to be a friend to the
other members, and to be horse crazy, of course.
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