STOLEN! a Pony Called Pebbles by Wendy Orr

Author:Wendy Orr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

“It’s okay, horse,” she said, trying to keep her voice low and comforting. “I’ll help you.”

“I’ll get Dad!” Hannah called. “He can cut the wire!”

“Take the dogs,” Amy said. “They’re scaring it.”

Hannah grabbed both leashes and raced back through the trees.

Amy came closer. None of the horse books she’d read or shows she’d watched had ever told her how to untangle a horse with its halter caught through a wire.

But the horse couldn’t wait for Hannah to come back with her mom and dad. Amy had to do something now.

The wire hook was poking through the side of the noseband. A smear of red blood stained the horse’s silvery muzzle, where the wire and rope had rubbed the skin raw.

Amy tried everything she could think of. She tried to pull the rope band off the wire, tried to straighten out the wire, tried to undo the halter’s rope knot. Nothing worked. The wire was too strong, and the rope was pulled too tight. Her fingers couldn’t even loosen the knot. Amy’s eyes filled with tears as the mare pulled back again, yanking the halter tighter on her head.

“NO!” Amy said desperately. “Bring your head forward!”

The terrified horse rolled her eyes.

Amy put her arms around the big white head and tried to pull it forward. The mare was too frightened now to know that she was being helped. She pulled back harder.

“Come on,” Amy coaxed. She was still trying to sound calm, but her voice was squeaky and her hands were trembling. Angrily, she brushed her tears away. She was never going to be able to help this horse if she kept crying.

But she knew she wasn’t strong enough to pull the terrified horse’s head forward and down, the way it needed to go. Not from the ground.

Amy looked toward the trail. There was no sign of Hannah and her parents.

“You’ve got to trust me, horse!” she said. “Just like I’ve got to trust you.” She knew that it was dangerous to jump onto a horse she didn’t know, with no saddle or bridle or anyone else around. There just wasn’t any other way she could save it.

The horse’s back was higher than Amy’s head, but the ground was steep. Amy stood on a rock and grabbed the silvery mane with both hands.

The first time she tried to jump, she was standing too far away, and she fell off her rock without touching the horse. She tried again, landed against the horse’s back, and slipped straight down.

But I’ve got to do it! she thought. Nothing else is going to work.

She grabbed the mane again, jumped, pulled herself up … and landed across the horse’s back, with her head on one side and her feet on the other.

At the back of her mind, Amy was surprised that she’d actually done it, but she didn’t have time to think. She swung her right leg over the horse’s rump and sat up as if she were ready to ride.

She was so scared and excited she could hardly breathe.

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