Gold Medal Rider Read Online Free

that she’d lost sight of what was important—having fun. For a while, whenever Kate was in the saddle, all she could think about was winning—and not even winning, really, as much as beating everyone else. The problem was, beating everyone else wasn’t much fun. After a while nothing about riding had been fun. The Saddle Club had helped her learn to enjoy horses again. Kate was very grateful to her friends. She gave a small sigh. She was much happier now.
    Carole and Stevie heard the sigh and exchanged glances. They’d never heard Kate talk so much about competitions as she had in the past hour. Stevie thought Kate’s sigh sounded like regret. That made perfect sense to Stevie—she loved to win, and she found Kate’s decisionnot to compete hard to understand. Maybe this weekend would rekindle Kate’s competitive fire. After all, why should Kate let her talents go to waste?
    “Pound Sterling,” Carole said out of nowhere, interrupting Stevie’s thoughts. “Lord Yawelkesleigh’s horse. He was an advanced horse, wasn’t he, Nigel? Are you still riding him?” Carole would never forget the silver stallion she’d seen Nigel ride in an event in England.
    Nigel sighed. “No and no,” he answered. “Lord Yawelkesleigh’s in jail, as you know. I don’t ride for him at all now, and I heard that Lady Yawelkesleigh sold all the Yawelkesleigh horses to the New Zealand event team. Pound Sterling had a lot of heart and talent, and I think he’ll make it to the advanced level, but he wasn’t there yet. You saw him in a preliminary-level event.”
    “Preliminary! That means beginner,” Lisa objected. “Those jumps were huge! They can’t have been for beginners.”
    Dorothy rejoined them after filling a horse’s water bucket. “In eventing, ‘preliminary’ doesn’t mean beginner,” she explained. “There are six levels of eventing. Preliminary is in the middle, and advanced is the highest.”
    “You can’t skip levels,” Kate added. “You’ve got to start your horse at the bottom and earn the right to move up. You aren’t allowed to rush your horse.”
    Beatrice had gotten off Southwood and was walking to the gate. She overheard Kate. “We don’t have to worryabout that around here,” she said in a loud, rude voice. “The one thing I’ve learned for sure is that Nigel Hawthorne would never, ever, rush a horse.” She unlatched the gate and pulled Southwood through. “It’s too bad you aren’t more worried about winning,” she said directly to Nigel. “Then maybe there’d be a few more advanced horses in this barn.”
    Lisa thought she could hear a thud as all The Saddle Club’s chins dropped to the floor. Never, ever, could they imagine talking to a riding instructor like that, especially one as good as Nigel. Dorothy looked unhappy.
    Nigel, however, didn’t appear even to notice Beatrice’s remark. He stood back to give Southwood plenty of room and patted the steaming horse on the hip as he passed. Lisa couldn’t believe it. How could Nigel stand someone so obnoxious? Carole bit her lip. She remembered Beatrice’s unpleasant personality from before. Apparently Beatrice hadn’t improved with age.
    Beatrice tugged on Southwood’s reins and began to move him past them. Then she stopped. Turning back to Nigel, she said in the same haughty, challenging voice, “You
will
ride him this weekend, won’t you?”
    Now Nigel did look unhappy. Slowly, unwillingly, he nodded. “Good,” Beatrice snapped, with a humorless smile. Halfway down the aisle, she dropped Southwood’s reins to the ground. “Drew!” Beatrice shouted. “Where are you?”
    The girls saw a tall, gawky young man come out of thetack room. He stumbled over a bale of hay. “Golly, Beatrice, I was just cleaning your cross-country saddle,” he said. “I didn’t realize you were done.”
    “Well, pay attention next time,” Beatrice snapped. She stood with her hands on her hips as the young man loosened Southwood’s girth