Chapter 9

Over the next few days, the PALs got up early each morning to put in time with Sandy alone while Caroline taught piano lessons. Then in the afternoon, she would come to the ramada to feed Sandy treats and give her encouragement while the PALs taught her new skills. They were making incredible progress so far. It was as if a switch had been flipped once Sandy met the young teacher, and now there was no turning back. Sandy was a star student—and with Caroline’s help, the girls were becoming star trainers!

Today, Abigail was helping Lucky teach Sandy the voice commands of “walk,” “canter,” and “trot” to medium success. Sandy had definitely perfected “walk” and “whoa,” but more complicated commands still eluded her. Also, their horse treat supply was running dangerously low, much to Boomerang’s and Chica Linda’s dismay.

By the time Caroline finally arrived, Sandy was refusing to practice any more runs. When she saw Caroline, she went trotting up to the side of the pen to meet her. Sandy gave Caroline her usual greeting of nuzzling Caroline’s neck and sniffing her braids. “Hello to you, too.” Caroline laughed. “Sandy, I’m so proud of you. You’ve come so far in your training.”

“Not far enough,” Lucky admitted with a sigh. “She can still be so unpredictable.”

“I think I have a solution to that,” Caroline said. She reached inside her satchel and pulled out a stack of papers. She passed one to Abigail, Pru, and Lucky. At the top, in pretty cursive, it read SANDY LESSON PLAN.

“What’s this?” Lucky read aloud. “‘Visualization, Learning by Example, Small Steps Equal Great Strides…?’”

“Well, I can’t help you much in the way of actual horse training,” Caroline explained. “But I am a teacher. And I’ve had lots of students.” She pointed to Lucky’s paper. “These are some of the techniques that work whenever we are trying to prepare for a big piano concert. Maybe Sandy would be more consistent if we treated her more like a student!”

Pru and Abigail loved the idea. Lucky, however, felt a bit hesitant about it all. If they suddenly changed their methods again just when they were starting to work, wouldn’t it only confuse Sandy? Lucky really liked Caroline and Sandy seemed to like her, too, but she didn’t know very much about horses. A piano lesson with a child was not the same thing as training an animal. But the thought of that shiny Frontier Fillies Trail Trainer emblem popped up in her mind and prompted Lucky to say, “Sure, let’s give it a try.”

They started with the Visualization section. According to Caroline, if you pictured yourself being successful at the thing you were trying to accomplish in your head, you would actually be able to do it in real life. Pru was familiar with this method. Apparently, she used it herself for dressage competitions all the time. But getting Sandy to picture herself cantering across the pen was a little trickier.

“Maybe if we all picture Sandy doing the canter at the same time, she will get the message… uhh… telepathically?” Abigail suggested, tilting her head to the side.

“Or we could just start with an easier one. How about ‘Learning by Example’? Often, one of the best ways to learn is to watch someone else play the song first—oops! I mean, watch another horse do it first.” Caroline pointed to where Chica Linda, Boomerang, and Buster were all hitched up, watching the lesson. “Pru, can Chica Linda do all the commands?”

“Of course she can!” Pru nodded. She reached over to pet Chica Linda’s soft mane, beaming with pride. “My girl is amazing. Plus, I’ve had her since I was eight. We’ve had time on our side.”

Pru unhitched Chica Linda and led her inside the pen with Sandy. The two horses greeted each other, ears twitching and rocking their heads back. Lucky jumped inside, eager to help. “Let’s start with ‘walk’ and then we’ll do ‘back.’”

“Walk, Chica Linda!” Pru directed as she herself walked backward in front of the mare. Chica Linda obliged, looking rather bored. Pru gave her a treat. Then it was Lucky and Sandy’s turn. Having just seen Chica Linda do the trick and receive a treat for doing so, Sandy got it on the first try.

“Bingo!” shouted Abigail, jumping up and down. “Brilliant idea, Caroline!”

After a few more tests, they all agreed that the strategy was working. Lucky was feeling pretty good. But after watching how Sandy responded to Caroline specifically praising her, Pru suggested they try something new. “I think I’ve finally figured out what kind of horse Sandy is. Our training methods haven’t really been clicking with Sandy. They really only work when Caroline is around. So maybe she’s not a packhorse, a riding horse, a performing horse, or even a draft horse.…” Pru led Sandy over to Caroline. She put her hands out toward them as if they were the main act of a show. “She’s a companion horse!”

“What’s that?” Abigail asked, skipping over to them. “I’ve never heard of a companion horse before. Do they do chores or something?”

“Not exactly.” Pru shook her head. “Sandy has such a natural connection with Caroline. She just wants to be with her all the time. Kinda like our horses with us.”

Lucky couldn’t argue with that one. She often felt as if she and Spirit had a bond that nobody else could truly understand.

“So I figure—why don’t we train Sandy to be Caroline’s companion? They were clearly meant for each other! She could even help Caroline with everyday tasks instead of all this other stuff.” Pru walked over to the gate on the fence and opened it. “We could start off by teaching her to open gates and doors.” She turned to Caroline. “What do you think?”

“I think it would be amazing!” Caroline squealed. She reached forward to pet Sandy, who started to whinny from all the excitement. She wriggled to and fro and tugged on the ropes that held her as Abigail and Pru began to brainstorm other things to teach Sandy that would relate to her new role as a companion horse.

Lucky felt a bit frustrated. Of course, it was a great idea. But they were running out of time and they had just finally started to make progress on some of the traditional training. What if the reason Sandy hadn’t gotten it yet was because they kept switching things on her? And now with only three days left until Mr. Rollins’s arrival Pru had come up with yet another new plan.

“No!” Lucky found herself saying, interrupting the celebration. “We can’t do that. We don’t have time!” Everyone stopped talking, stunned.

“Of course we do, Lucky,” Abigail replied gently. “It’ll be okay.”

Lucky frowned. “But if we don’t prove to Mr. Rollins that Sandy is fully trained, we won’t be able to keep her. Not us, not Caroline—nobody!”

“Is this about Trail Trainers?” Pru asked.

“No!” Lucky folded her arms across her chest. “Not at all!” Something tugged at Lucky’s heart. Maybe it was about becoming a Trail Trainer just a little bit, but she didn’t want to admit it. She cared about Caroline, but Lucky was tired of everyone not being on the same page. She knew it would only end in disaster.

And it did. Just not in the way Lucky was expecting. As the girls got distracted with their conversation, they had failed to notice that Sandy had managed to wriggle free from the rope tied to her harness. Before anyone could grab her, Sandy leaped out of reach and galloped toward the wilderness without looking back.

The little horse was gone and Lucky had only herself to blame.