Horsey Trails Read online

  “These are my prettiest jewels yet!” Brisa said. “Now, just tie them to these sticks with your ribbons and voilà—we’ll have our spoons!”

  Normally, Sumatra would have jumped at this task, choosing her prettiest ribbons and tying them with fluffy bows.

  But with home crowding her head, she couldn’t focus on making the egg spoons. So, she only managed to pull four limp, gray ribbons out of her halo.

  Then she wrapped the ribbons around the jewels and twigs, and tied them in plain old knots.

  “Um, thanks,” Brisa said. “I think.” She gave the sad little spoons, then Sumatra, a curious look.

  Brisa perked up, though, when Sirocco and Kona returned, carrying a leaf full of ripe berries!

  The four horses plopped a berry each into their homemade spoons, grasped the twiggy handles in their teeth, and began flying around the riding ring.

  “Whoops!” Brisa neighed as her berry fell to the ground. She giggled as she swooped back to the starting line to fetch another berry.

  Meanwhile, Sirocco sent his berry flying with an over-eager wave of his wings. The colt guffawed good-naturedly.

  When Kona dropped her berry, Brisa and Sirocco burst out laughing. Kona only looked stern for a moment, before her friends’ infectious laughter had her nickering, too.

  Only Sumatra remained stony-faced.

  If I just think super-hard about this egg-on-the-spoon thing, Sumatra thought, her teeth clamped hard on her spoon’s handle and her eyes squinting at her precarious berry, maybe I won’t think about home.

  Of course, trying not to think about home only made Sumatra think about home! And that caused Sumatra to hang her head sadly, which meant—

  Plop!

  Sumatra’s raspberry fell to the dirt.

  “Ah, ha, ha!” Sirocco crowed. “Try again, Sumatra!”

  But the sad silvery blue filly just shook her head.

  “We never do egg-in-spoon races at home,” she said. “What’s the point?”

  “Fun is the point!” Kona replied, before popping her makeshift spoon back into her mouth to give the game another try. This time, she managed to make it all the way around the riding ring with her berry intact!

  “Go, Kona!” Brisa cheered.

  Never one to be outdone, Sumatra gritted her teeth and tried again. But halfway around the riding ring, she heard a counselor call out, “Leanna? You’re up next!”

  Sumatra’s muscles tensed. Leanna! Leanna was the only one—besides her fellow Wind Dancers—whom Sumatra knew in this faraway place.

  Sumatra shifted her eyes to search for Leanna. But in their round, black helmets and tan breeches, all the campers looked alike! She couldn’t tell which one of them was their friend.

  Frustrated, Sumatra kicked the air with her hoof and—

  Plop!

  There went her raspberry, down in the dirt again.

  “Oh, no!” Sumatra cried, spitting out her spoon and tossing her mane. “How can this be?”

  “You’re just a bit … stiff, that’s all,” Kona assured her filly friend.

  “Well, how can I get loose when … when this riding ring is so big and crowded!” Sumatra blurted. “It’s nothing like the big horses’ cozy paddock at home. And don’t you think these raspberries are a bit heavy? They’re bigger than the ones we have at home.”

  Sumatra had one more complaint, but she couldn’t bear to voice it aloud.

  Clearly, I’m better at home, too! she told herself. Here at horse camp? I’m too homesick to do anything well!

  CHAPTER 4

  The Wind Dancers Settle In

  Later that day, the Wind Dancers flew to the hay pile beneath the low eaves outside the horse stables.

  Sumatra had just pulled her blanket from her backpack when a big horse’s head poked through an open window by the hay pile.

  “Hel-lo,” said a chestnut mare. She had a floppy forelock and big, kind brown eyes. “Who have we here?”

  Her nicker brought more curious heads through the neighboring stall windows—a golden filly and a glossy black gelding.

  “Look at you teeny horses!” said the filly with a whinny. “I’m Misty. My mare friend is Flora. And this gelding is Gumdrop.”

  “Are you fairy-tale horses?” Gumdrop asked.

  “We may be magic, but we’re no fairy tale,” Sirocco said proudly. “We’re real, live Wind Dancers!”

  “We came to horse camp with our friend, who’s a camper here,” Brisa went on.

  “We’ve never been away from home before,” Sumatra added, nuzzling her blanket for comfort.

  “Oh, you’ll love it!” Flora assured her. “And so do we! The girls groom us, feed us, and clean our hooves…”

  “They even clean out our stalls!” Misty pointed out.

  “Then they learn how to saddle us up and ride, ride, ride!” Flora added. “Strolling through the woods with a feather-light child on your back. There’s nothing like it.”

  “Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could carry riders, too?” Sirocco asked.

  “Yeah, right,” Gumdrop teased. “Even the smallest child would squash you flat!”

  “And humans definitely don’t make saddles for tiny flying horses,” Flora added sympathetically.

  “Well, they might not, but we can!” Kona boasted. “Right, Sumatra? You can just whip up some saddles, blankets, and bridles with your magic ribbons.”

  “Huh?” Sumatra said. She’d only half-heard this conversation. She’d been daydreaming about the dandelion meadow back home.

  “Saddles?” Brisa prodded Sumatra. “Trail rides?”

  Sumatra blinked away her daydream—if not her homesickness—and asked, “Who would ride in our saddles?”

  “Hmmm,” Sirocco replied. “I know! Bugs!”

  “Bugs?” Sumatra frowned. “For all we know, the insects at horse camp are twice the size of the ones at home. Just like the raspberries!”

  “The horseflies sure are big!” Gumdrop agreed grouchily, swatting at a few of them with his tail

  “See?!” Sumatra said.

  “I’d be pleased to carry even a big bug,” Brisa said, “as long as it was pretty. I bet a ladybug would match my pink coat nicely!”

  “Well, you can have your chance with riders tomorrow,” Flora replied. “The campers are going on their first trail ride. They’ll have a saddling lesson in the morning, then we’ll all tromp up the low mountain, and then we’ll have a picnic lunch.”

  “Ooh, we just love picnics!” Brisa said, looking to Sumatra encouragingly.

  “Well, at home we do,” Sumatra said, thinking longingly of the apple muffins and oat bars the Wind Dancers often made for their picnics. “I don’t know what we’re going to find to picnic on here!”

  “Hello?” Sirocco said. “A trail ride calls for trail mix, right? We can whip some up!”

  “Out of what?” Sumatra asked.

  “We have some bran and barley,” Misty offered.

  “Too bad horses can’t have nuts in their trail mix,” Gumdrop added with a naughty grin. “but, you guys are already nuts if you think you can get bugs to ride in your saddles!”

  “Hey, that’s not very nice!” Kona said to the sassy gelding. “Right, Sumatra?”

  “What did you say?” Sumatra murmured distractedly. Then she looked away and sighed sadly.

  Her friends sighed, too.

  “What can we do to make Sumatra happy again?” Brisa whispered to Kona and Sirocco. “Maybe a makeover?”

  “Or some super-duper snack!” Sirocco suggested.

  Kona shook her head.

  “I don’t think there’s anything we can do,” she said wisely. “Sumatra’s joy is up to her. Hopefully, she’ll have so much fun on tomorrow’s trail ride that she’ll stop thinking so much about home!”

  CHAPTER 5

  Saddled

  At horse camp the next morning, Kona and Brisa flew off to see if they could rustle up some buggy riders.

  Sirocco and Sumatra pe
rched on a fence rail outside the stables to watch the campers at their lessons. The girls learned to apply halters and bridles to their horses, to lead them on ropes and rein them in, to use the stirrups to hoist themselves into their saddles, and many other horsey skills.

  As Sumatra watched and learned, she weaved her colorful magic ribbons to create the Wind Dancers’ tack.

  She started by making four saddle pads.

  “These remind me of the sleeping blankets we have at home,” Sumatra said to herself.

  Then, while she fashioned ribbons into stirrups, she asked Sirocco, “Remember how I looped ribbons just like this to make a soccer net back home?”

  And as Sumatra crafted bridles, she mused, “I think I’ll make these in yellow and green. Those colors remind me of our meadow filled with dandelions back home.”

  Before Sumatra could reminisce any more, Brisa and Kona returned.

  “Thank goodness you’re back!” Sirocco whispered. “If I have to listen to Sumatra go on about home for one more minute, I’m going to get homesick myself!”

  “No worries,” Kona said smoothly. “Soon, we’re going to be too busy riding the trails to even think about home!”

  Then she turned and said, “Come along, buggies!”

  From behind a rose bush crept three adorable ladybugs and one fuzzy, black-and-yellow caterpillar.

  “You ladybugs are going to look so pretty in our saddles!” Brisa added sweetly.

  “Sure, for you fillies,” Sirocco neighed. “But I’ll take the caterpillar!”

  “Now, as we agreed,” Brisa reminded the insects, “in exchange for coming along for the ride, we’ll give you a steady supply of snacks! Starting with…”

  Brisa nosed around in her backpack and emerged with three bright green blobs.

  “… aphids for the ladybugs,” she said, doling out the delicacies.

  “And for the caterpillar,” Kona added, “I’ve got some tasty leaves for you to munch on!”

  The insects began happily feasting. But Sumatra was less thrilled.

  “You had to pay the bugs with food?” Sumatra balked. “I bet the bugs at home would have gone for the ride just to be nice!”

  The caterpillar undulated its way over to one of the saddles. It plunked itself into its seat, then gave Sirocco an impatient look.

  “Well, you don’t get more nice than that!” Sirocco said with a happy laugh. “Help me saddle up, horses?”

  The fillies nudged Sirocco’s saddle blanket onto his back, followed by his saddle, caterpillar and all!

  After a few more moments of buckling and tightening, the fillies were saddled up as well, each with a ladybug in their seats.

  The Wind Dancers finished just in time. The campers going on the trail ride were ready to go.

  “Okay, campers!” said the head counselor from her own saddle. “Since this is our first trail ride, we’ll be ponying up. That means every two of you will ride with a counselor, who will have you on a lead rope. The horses know this trail, too, so they’ll help you as much as you’ll direct them!”

  A few of the campers laughed good-naturedly at this, while the saddled big horses gazed at them with their bright, mellow eyes.

  “Don’t forget—there are lots of intersecting trails on the ride,” the counselor went on. “We’ll be following the trail marked with orange slashes on the trees. That’ll take us up to the prettiest view on the mountain, where we’ll have a picnic lunch!”

  “Orange slashes,” Kona said with a firm nod. “Got it.”

  “Picnic lunch!” Sirocco added, nodding proudly at the bulging bags he’d attached to either side of his saddle. “Got that!”

  “Giddyup!” Sumatra’s ladybug suddenly ordered.

  Sumatra couldn’t help but laugh. Her little bug may have only been doing this ride for the snacks, but she was still pretty good at playing cowgirl!

  All of a sudden the idea of flying the trails with the campers (especially with a rider as entertaining as her ladybug) did seem fun to Sumatra.

  “You know what?” she told her friends. “I think this trail ride’s going to be great after all!”

  “Yay!” Sirocco whinnied. Then he added, just to Brisa and to Kona, “Let’s get going before Sumatra starts thinking again about ho—”

  “Don’t say it!” Kona interrupted with frantic looks in Sumatra’s direction.

  “Whoops!” Sirocco said. Then he added in a loud voice, “What I meant to say was, let’s get going on our best trail ride ever!”

  “But it’s our only trail ride ever,” Brisa noted, blinking at the colt.

  “Exactly,” Sirocco declared. “So it’ll have to be our best!”

  CHAPTER 6

  Happy Trails?

  Excitedly, the little winged horses flew over the campers making their way up the trail. The young riders were giggling so much, Sumatra almost wondered if the girls could see them. The Wind Dancers were indeed a laughable sight!

  Sirocco’s caterpillar, for instance, accidentally flapped its leaf snack over the colt’s eyes! Unable to see for a moment, Sirocco crashed through some tree limbs and scattered branches everywhere!

  Kona’s ladybug pulled so much on her filly’s reins that Kona found herself doing an involuntary backflip!

  Brisa didn’t have that problem. Her rider was so busy nibbling on her reins, she didn’t bother to pull on them!

  “You’re a very hungry ladybug!” Brisa giggled, twisting her head around to give her pretty, black-spotted rider a nose nuzzle.

  Sumatra’s rider was the most unruly of all. Her ladybug bucked so much that Sumatra’s ribbony saddle began to unravel!

  “Ha!” Sumatra whinnied. She was still feeling cheery, but when her saddle and saddle blanket fell off entirely, she headed down to the trail for a landing!

  “Um, horses?” Sumatra called to her friends, who quickly flew down to join her. “I think I’ve got a problem!”

  “I’ll say!” her ladybug rider said, as they landed in the dirt. “I didn’t sign on to ride bareback. That’s too slippery!”

  “Well, maybe if you hadn’t kicked so hard…,” Sumatra began.

  “Oh, no worries,” the ladybug replied smoothly, popping the last of her aphid into her mouth. “I’m done with my snack, anyway.”

  “Which means…?” Sumatra asked tentatively.

  “Which means our deal is done,” the ladybug said with a shrug. “See ya, horsey!”

  With that, Sumatra’s rider fluttered off!

  Brisa, Kona, and Sirocco gaped as the ladybug flew away.

  “I bet she’s flying home,” Sumatra suddenly lamented. And just like that, she felt her homesickness begin to return.

  Which is why her friends had to act fast.

  “Oh, who needs riders!” Sirocco blurted. “We can have an awesome trail ride all on our own!”

  “Really?” Sumatra asked hopefully.

  “Of course,” Kona was quick to add. She turned to her own ladybug rider.

  “Thanks so much for coming along,” she told the bug. “But we can take it from here.”

  “Good!” the little beetle blurted. She unfurled her stiff wings and buzzed into the air. “Because I was starting to get saddle sores.”

  “See you!” Sirocco’s caterpillar added, plopping to the ground.

  “Wait for me!” Brisa’s ladybug called. In a moment, she was gone, too.

  Sumatra turned to her friends.

  “You didn’t have to send your riders away just because mine didn’t work out,” she protested. “Without them, you’re missing out on one of the joys of horse camp!”

  Kona trotted over to give Sumatra a nose nuzzle.

  “We still have the big horses and campers,” she said. She pointed with her nose down the trail. The last of a long line of riders was just turning a corner, taking them out of the Wind Dancers’ sight. “We also have this beautiful trail, just waiting to be discovered.”

  As Sumatra considered this, Brisa, Kona, and Siro
cco exchanged hopeful glances. Was Sumatra going to hang on to her newfound cheer?

  The Wind Dancers sure hoped so, as they fluttered back into the air and continued down the trail.

  But they moved slowly because Sirocco kept stopping to munch on trail mix.

  “Colts burn a lot of energy on trail rides,” he declared with his mouth full. “I’ve got to snack.”

  And Brisa kept getting distracted by all the pretty things she saw on the side of the trail.

  “Look at those peach roses!” she exclaimed, fluttering over to give the pretty blooms a sniff.

  Meanwhile, Sumatra herself was popping brightly colored ribbons out of her magic halo. She tied these ribbons with big, fluffy bows around tall-flower stems and tree branches, humming a happy tune as she went.

  Suddenly, Kona realized something! “Um,” she gasped, “has anyone seen the trail lately?”

  Sumatra, Sirocco, and Brisa all gasped and looked below them. Sure enough, instead of a neat, horseshoe-tromped pathway through the trees, the Wind Dancers saw nothing but pine straw, ferns, and fallen leaves!

  “We’re lost?!” Sumatra neighed.

  “Of course not!” Sirocco scoffed. “I’m sure the campers are close by. Let’s listen!”

  The Wind Dancers all cocked their ears and held their breath, straining for the sounds of big-horse nickers and campers’ chatter.

  But all they heard was a few birds chirping into an eerily silent forest.

  “Uh-oh,” Brisa murmured.

  “Let’s not worry yet!” Kona declared. “Remember what that counselor said? We’ll just look for orange slashes on the trees.”

  The Wind Dancers looked.

  There were no orange slashes on any of the trees around them.

  All the bark was bare. Which meant …

  “We’re lost!” Brisa neighed.

  CHAPTER 7