A Star Discovered Read online

  “Ponies? I love ponies. Can I see ‘em?” the girl asked, walking right past Mary and Jody and over to Lady’s stall. The two surprised girls stood with their hands on their hips and watched as the girl reached up and patted Lady’s nose.

  “She’s pretty,” she said.

  “What’s your name?” asked Mary.

  “My name is Annie. Annie Mooney. I live here now.”

  Mary and Jody responded to this matter-of-fact statement with silence. They watched as Annie Mooney went to Gypsy’s stall. “Come here, girl. Are you a girl? Come on over here so I can pet you,” she demanded. And Gypsy did come over, much to Mary’s surprise. Usually, when there was hay in her stall, nothing distracted Gypsy from eating. But there she stood, hanging her head over the stall door and letting this stranger scratch behind her ears.

  “What’s her name?” Annie asked.

  “Gypsy Amber. Gypsy for short,” Mary replied, becoming a little annoyed at the obvious enjoyment Gypsy was displaying at the scratching of her ears. “Don’t you want to know our names?”

  “Oh, OK, sure I do,” Annie replied, turning to Mary expectantly. “What are they?”

  “I’m Mary, and this is Jody.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” Annie said, shaking Mary’s hand first, and then Jody’s. “Do you live here?” she asked.

  “My name is Annie. Annie Mooney. I live here now.”

  “No,” Jody replied. “We live down the road. My house is in one direction, and Mary’s is in the other. But we’re here every day after school, and the whole weekend,” she added quickly, lest this new girl think she had the upper hand.

  “Oh. Well, I guess I’ll see you around, then.” And with that, Annie Mooney turned on her heel and walked out of Lucky Foot Stable.

  Mary and Jody said not a word, only stared at the open doorway. Finally, Jody picked up her broom and Mary slowly gathered up the brushes she had dropped in the aisle. Mary deposited the grooming tools in her tack trunk and then turned to face Jody.

  “Well,” she said.

  “Hmphh,” sniffed Jody.

  Nothing more was said as Mary picked up the bridles and Jody finished sweeping the aisle. But in each of the girl’s minds were troubling thoughts of the changes that would take place as these new people “invaded” the farm. Mary and Jody began to understand Willie’s feelings on the matter. But for now, they kept their thoughts to themselves.

  “Do you still feel like riding?” Jody asked Mary.

  “Mmm, not really,” Mary said. “I think we just found out at least part of what we wanted to know. Maybe we should try and work with Star some more.”

  Bridles were put back where they belonged in the tack trunks and Star was led in from the paddock. Mary sat on a bale of hay and watched while Jody crosstied him and groomed him half-heartedly. Then they led him back out to the paddock and went to work using the training methods Willie had shown them to get Star ready for the in-hand yearling class at the county horse show.

  Jody led Star in a circle around the paddock while Mary acted as announcer.

  “Walk, please, all walk. Please use half the ring only,” Mary intoned solemnly. Star walked nicely around the “ring,” only once pushing Jody on the back with his muzzle.

  “Now trot, please, all trot,” Mary continued. Jody slid her hand down the lead rope, giving Star a little more of his head, and quickened her own pace to a trot, hoping Star would follow. But as soon as he felt the tug on his halter, he planted his feet and pulled back, stomping his foot and snorting stubbornly.

  “Come on, Star!” Jody cried, and pulled again. But Star was having none of it. This time he reared halfway up and came down with both front hooves planted even more firmly than before. Jody turned to face him and with both hands pulled on the lead rope with all her might. But the harder she pulled toward her, the harder Star pulled away.

  “What is goin’ on here?” A familiar voice asked from the open Dutch door of the stable. “Is that what I taught you to do?”

  “Willie!” Jody exclaimed, happy to see the old cowhand, even if he was in a bad mood. “Star won’t trot, no matter what I do!”

  “Well, he ain’t trottin’ because of what you’re doin’!” Willie said. “How many times do I have to tell you—you don’t turn and face him like that and pull with both hands. The more you do that, the more he’ll pull back.”

  “Well, what should we do, Willie?” Mary asked, almost forgetting not to use her announcer voice. “He has to be able to trot nicely around the ring for the show, and he just won’t do it.”

  “Well, you shoulda waited for me to help you. Now he’s in an ornery mood, and he won’t want to do nothin’ right. We’ll have to try somethin’ new today. Let me get my rope.”

  Mary and Jody looked at each other fearfully when Willie walked away to get “his rope.” Although the cowhand had been nothing but gentle and patient with Star up until this point, the girls were afraid of what he might do considering the mood he was in, and he had never mentioned a rope before. Jody patted Star nervously on the neck until Willie came back with a long section of soft thick rope in his hands.

  “Um, Willie,” Mary said hesitantly, “you’re . . . you’re not going to hurt him, are you?”

  Willie stopped in his tracks and furrowed his brow, giving Mary the sternest look she had ever seen on his face. “Hurt him? Have I ever hurt him before?” he asked, raising one eyebrow and waiting for a reply.

  “Um, no,” said Mary meekly, blushing and looking at her toes.

  “Then I guess that means I ain’t gonna hurt him now,” Willie said. “But I might feel like hurtin’ somebody if any more stupid questions get asked. Now, Jody, bring him over here.”

  Jody quickly did as she was told, knowing it wouldn’t be a good idea to argue with Willie today. The girls watched silently as Willie expertly handled the rope, making a large loop in one end. The loop was gently placed around Star’s rump. His tail was in the middle, and the long section of the rope was brought up over his back. Then Willie threaded the end of the rope through Star’s halter ring. Star calmed down and stood still in response to Willie’s gentle hand. Mary and Jody stood hypnotized, watching him.

  “Now I’m goin’ to lead him by this rope, and when I lead him forward, the loop around his rump will push him a little at the same time.”

  Willie held the rope in his right hand and stood on Star’s left, then he walked forward a step. Star started to follow as normal, but when he felt the unfamiliar rope pushing on his rump; he lurched forward in surprise, stopping to look at Willie as if to say, “What’s all this?”

  “That’s all right, boy, you’ll get used to it. Come on now.” Willie took another step, and another and after the first few hops and starts, Star became accustomed to the rope and walked along as he always did.

  “Now call for the trot, Mary. Use your best voice,” Willie instructed.

  “Trot, please, all trot,” Mary announced grandly. Willie pulled a little more strongly on the front end of the rope and began to trot himself, and Star had no choice but to go along, as the rope pulled him in the front and pushed him from behind. In no time Star was trotting easily around the paddock, lifting his head prettily and almost looking like a show horse. After three turns around, Willie slowed him to a halt and patted him on the neck.

  “Willie! He did it!” Jody exclaimed. “He almost looked like he was having a good time!”

  Willie removed the rope from Star’s hindquarters and wound it carefully in his hands. “That’s enough for today,” he said quietly. “Once they do what you want them to, you don’t want to overdo it and make them tired of it. We’ll work on it again this week.”

  Mary took this opportunity to bring up the subject Mrs. McMurray had impressed upon the girls concerning Willie. “Willie, speaking of working with Star—now that the new people are here, you’ll have more time, right?”

  Jody held her breath waiting for Willie’s reply, but no reply came.

&nbs
p; Mary continued, “We saw one of them, Willie. We met a girl. I don’t think we like her.”

  Willie turned sharply to Mary and took off his hat. Then he looked at Jody and paused before he spoke, as if trying to find the right words.

  “I met one of them too,” he said quietly. “I met that girl’s daddy on the way over here. He told me that her mama, his wife, passed away, and then he took sick and lost his farm. He’s raisin’ three kids on his own, and now he’s got no choice but to work on somebody else’s farm just to make ends meet.”

  Mary and Jody lowered their gaze to the ground, red-faced and ashamed of themselves for not giving Annie Mooney a chance.

  “So don’t be sayin’ you don’t like somebody before you know anything about them,” Willie continued. “If you do, you’ll be just the same as me.” And without another word, he turned and walked out the gate of the paddock.

  3

  Loading Star

  THE NEXT TWO months passed quickly. Mary and Jody (and sometimes Willie) worked with Star every day, and soon the horse show was only a week away. The girls were a little nervous because, even though Star behaved himself most of the time, there were days when he just wouldn’t do a thing they asked of him, even with Willie helping them.

  “That’s partly because he’s just got a bad ornery streak and partly because you girls spoiled him to death when he was little,” Willie explained. “There’s nothin’ to be done about it now, except to keep on with his trainin’ and hope he grows out of it.”

  But Mary and Jody worried that Star would choose the day of the show as one of his bad days. He had never been off the farm before, and they had no idea what he would do once he arrived at the show-grounds. But the one thing they did have control over was teaching him to load onto the bed of Willie’s pickup truck. And that was the training they focused on the Saturday afternoon exactly one week before the show.

  “Jody, remember when we took Lady to that other horse show in Willie’s truck and you were so embarrassed because we didn’t have a trailer like everybody else?” Mary asked while Jody brought Star in from the paddock to get him ready for his loading lesson.

  “Yes, I remember, and it’s not going to be any better this time. I bet we’ll still be the only ones there with a pony riding in the back of a pickup truck.”

  “Well, what are we going to do about it? We don’t have a trailer, and the sides are already on the truck, ready to go. I just hope there will be a place to unload him at this show. We’ve never been there before.”

  Jody, busy picking Star’s hooves, didn’t reply. She finished that job and began combing his tail as Mary lazily sat on a bale of hay and leaned back against the front boards of Lady’s stall, almost falling asleep as she watched Jody work. Just as Mary’s eyes were about to close, she was jolted awake by the sudden landing of a bird on her head.

  “Walter!” she giggled. “I wondered where you’d been lately. Colonel Sanders has been missing you!” Mary and Jody’s pet pigeon, Walter, had joined forces with the barn pigeons and only occasionally visited Lucky Foot Stable. As if on cue, Colonel Sanders, the old white rooster, chose just that moment to come strutting into the stable, shaking his floppy red comb. When he spotted Walter perched on Mary’s head, he clucked indignantly and flapped his wings right under Star’s nose. Star responded by striking out with his front hoof, almost knocking the Colonel across the aisle.

  “Star! Where are your manners?!” Jody exclaimed, slapping him lightly on the shoulder.

  “Oh, Colonel, are you OK?” Mary tried to sound sorry, but she couldn’t help laughing at the surprised look on the rooster’s face as he ruffled his feathers and tried to regain his dignity by perching on the top board of Lady’s stall. “Jode, we better get Star out of here. I think he’s getting impatient. And Willie said he would meet us on the barn hill by the pickup. He’s probably waiting right now, and you know he doesn’t like to wait.”

  Just as Mary’s eyes were about to close, she was jolted awake by a bird landing on her head.

  Since Mr. Mooney had moved onto the farm, Willie had been free to spend more time training Star, but he still never missed a milking. And now it was only an hour until milking time. Jody unclipped Star from the crossties and fastened the lead rope onto his halter while Mary shook her head to dislodge Walter, who sailed across the stable to keep Colonel Sanders company on his perch.

  Just as Mary predicted, Willie was waiting at the truck when the girls arrived at the barn hill, and he didn’t look happy about it.

  “What in the devil took you two so long?” he asked grumpily. “If it takes more than an hour to get that ornery bugger onto the truck, you’re outta luck, because it’ll be milkin’ time before you know it.”

  “Oh, Willie, I don’t think it will take that long,” Jody said. “I think Star will be much easier to load than Lady, because he’s just naturally curious, and I think he’ll want to get on the truck just to see what it’s like. Remember when he got into the truck with the calves?”

  Before Willie could reply, Mary went on, “And, Willie, I read in a book that inquisitiveness—that means curiosity, I looked it up—is a sign of intelligence in the colt.”

  “That’s the trouble—he’s too smart for his own good,” Willie admitted. “Now, quit yer yappin’ and get him lined up on the hill there.”

  Willie had backed the pickup to the barn hill with the tailgate down, so that it made a kind of loading ramp straight into the truck. A thick bed of straw and a mound of green hay with a little grain on top had been placed in the front of the truck bed to tempt Star.

  “Now remember how we loaded Lady last time and just do the same thing,” Willie instructed.

  Jody led Star firmly to the lowered tailgate and walked him straight onto it. When Star’s hooves hit the hard surface hidden under the straw, rather than pulling back as Lady had done, he jumped nimbly over the tailgate and landed in the center of the truck bed. Then he lowered his head and began eating the grain as if he had done this every day of his life. Willie quickly raised the tailgate and fastened the homemade rear wood panel first to the tailgate and then to the side panels, and Star’s makeshift trailer was secure.

  “See, I knew he wouldn’t mind,” Jody said proudly.

  “Still, we need to load him every day until the show, just to be sure,” Willie replied wisely. “Now, let him finish that grain and you girls can unload him when he’s done. I’ve got to get to the milk stable and give Roy a hand, and then I’m goin’ to town.”

  Willie and Roy Mooney had become fast friends since the day the dented old pickup truck had arrived at the McMurray farm. And although Willie would never admit it, it was a relief to have some time away from the cows. Annie had also been accepted as a rather mysterious addition to the farm, as Mary and Jody hadn’t seen much of her since that first day in the stable. Annie had to spend most of her time watching her little brother, Heath. The two-year-old was a handful, and Annie’s older brother Jimmy couldn’t help her because he was needed in the barn.

  Star finished his grain, and Mary and Jody removed the back panel from the tailgate and propped it gently against the truck. Then they lowered the tailgate and rested it on the barn hill. The instant Star saw from the corner of his eye that there was nothing between him and the hill, he raised his head, turned completely around, jumped out of the truck, and galloped off down the barn hill toward Mr. McMurray’s big stone house!

  Jody stood with Star’s lead rope still in her hand and her mouth open in shock. Mary found her voice first as she flew down the barn hill in pursuit.

  “Jody, come on! He’s heading toward the road!”

  4

  Runaway Colt

  MARY AND JODY flew as fast as their legs would carry them up the long gravel drive to Mr. McMurray’s house. Once in the back yard, they looked in all directions for some sign of Star. But Star was nowhere to be seen.

  “I know he ran up this way!” Mary cried. “Oh, I hope he didn’t go around the
other side of the house and across the road!”

  “Mare, don’t say that!” Jody said, choking back tears. “Maybe he went over to Willie’s house!”

  “But we would have seen him run over there. I think we need to check out by the road. Even if he did cross it, he’s probably fine. There’s not that much traffic.”

  So the girls galloped to the front yard of the McMurray house and down the bank to the two-lane country road. They stopped at the bottom of the bank where a narrow ditch lay between the yard and the wide shoulder and, shading their eyes from the sun, gazed hopefully at the wheat field across the road—still no sign of the runaway colt.

  “I don’t think he ran over there, Jode. If he ran into the wheat field, we’d see a path where he knocked the wheat down.”

  “Well, where could he be then?” Jody asked desperately.

  “I don’t know. Maybe we should get Mr. McMurray.”

  So off they ran again to the back of the house. Jody was just about to knock when Mary grabbed her arm and pointed up the lane.

  “Jody, look!” she cried.

  Jody turned and her mouth flew open in shock for the second time that day. Calmly walking away from the girls and up the lane toward Lucky Foot Stable was Annie Mooney with a dog leash in her hand. And on the end of the dog leash was Star of Wonder, following easily behind and pushing Annie along with his muzzle only once in a while.

  “What in the . . .” Mary began, and then she linked her arm through Jody’s and the girls trotted up behind the duo, slowing to a walk as they drew near so as not to spook Star.

  “Annie,” Jody said quietly as they reached Star’s side, “what are you doing?”

  “I’m taking Star back to the stable,” Annie said matter-of-factly. “He was loose.”

  “We know he was loose!” Mary yelled. “Didn’t you see us looking for him?”

  “No, I didn’t see you. I was in the trailer and I saw him go flying by the window.”

  “And then what happened?” Mary asked patiently. Talking to Annie was sometimes like “pulling hen’s teeth,” as Willie would say.