Chapter 2
A Challenge Is Established
Spreading nail polish, cotton balls, and tiny stickers out on her desk, Kim wondered aloud about 4-H work night. The work nights of the season started in the spring and prepared horses and riders for the upcoming summer competitions. Winter was filled with fundraising events and social activities, but the members and their horses enjoyed the practice sessions the most.
“I am so glad we are back into work nights! Winter lasted way too long, and I swear the horses knew when we go to 4-H without them.”
“Yeah, they know all right! I felt so guilty not bringing the horses to meetings and the winter events. Movie night would have been more fun on horseback, you gotta admit.”
“Ha! They’d eat all the popcorn, so I’m glad they stayed home!” Kim chose a bright pink shade for her toenails, and a clear coat for her fingernails. “My favorite night was the Chili Cook-Off, hands down. The fire extinguisher centerpieces were so fun to make, and that picture of all the cooks with their fireman hats on—that’s a classic!”
Darcy shook the bottle of lavender polish and smiled. “When Mr. Sutton mixed up the ‘Mellow & Mild’ sign with the ‘Viciously Spicy’ sign, I thought smoke was going to actually come out of my dad’s nose!”
“Don’t make me laugh, I’m gonna smudge! How about when everybody found out the secret ingredient in Mrs. Gerlach’s chili was-”
Darcy and Kim squealed together, “Peanut butter!”
“I don’t even care, it was delicious. Mrs. McClain’s did deserve to win, though, because it took her a week to make it.”
“Well, I just want to know what you could possibly do to chili for a week—I think her son made that up.”
“No way, Ian’s too cute to lie.”
Emily interrupted the spa treatment and gossip session when she came tiptoeing into Kim’s room. “Hey, you two. Getting gorgeous for tomorrow’s work night?”
“Maybe. Although natural beauty doesn’t need any help.”
“Yeah, right…in that case, put on two coats,” Emily ducked when Kim tossed a pillow at her head. She plopped onto the bed.
“Were you IM-ing?” Darcy asked.
“Yeah, and listening to some music. The weirdest thing happened though. You are not going to believe it. I tried calling Laura, but she’s on dinner duty,” Emily rolled her eyes. “Her mom makes a two hour extravaganza out of dinner, so her phone’s still off.”
As if on cue, Emily’s cell phone began chirping.
“Oh man, this is gonna be Laura. I’ll put her on speakerphone. Sh-h! And not a word to Mom, under penalty of death.”
Darcy and Kim exchanged wide-eyed looks as Emily set the phone in the middle of the bed and pushed the loudspeaker button.
“Hi Laura! Finally! I have you on speakerphone so Kim and Darcy can hear this.”
“Hey, girls! This must be big.”
“It is, believe me. And it’s about the Iceys, so it affects us all. And Laura, FYI, your mom is a dinnertime drill sergeant! Your phone’s been off for two hours!”
“We’re not pushing away the feed bag around here, not on spaghetti night! I’m totally stuffed. Now what’s so big? I got your message the minute I turned my phone back on!”
“Okay, I cannot believe you were slurping noodles while I was in a major crisis, but I think I’ve been challenged to a duel…well, Skessa was, really. But I accepted on her behalf.”
“Hello? Wait a minute! Did I get a wrong number? Are you sure this is Emily Rose Miller’s phone? Did you just fall down the stairs? Get kicked in the head, maybe?”
“Stop it! This is serious! And it’s totally not my fault. There I was, minding my own business and my IM pops up. It’s Andrea.”
“I thought you were gonna block her?”
“I was, but my mom would give me the whole ‘be the better person’ and ‘4-H is a team, you are a player among players’ lecture.”
“So we’re talking about school or whatever, and I knew she was gonna pull something. And I think the other two Red Carpet Girls were over there.”
“Well, duh! They never go anywhere without all three. Sorry, proceed.”
“Hold it. Laura, this is Darcy. What’s RCG’s? Who are the carpet girls?”
Emily blushed as she explained, “RCG stands for Red Carpet Girls. Andrea and her little groupies always strut around school like they’re on the red carpet at an awards show—posing for their fans and the paparazzi. Madison thought of that at our last sleepover, didn’t she?”
“Yep, it was Madison, definitely. Go on…”
“Okay, so I was playing along all nice…then Andrea asked me if I’d teach her to draw Icelandic horses, since they’re so different from REAL horses. She said she just can’t get them short and chubby enough, they always turn out looking like…get this…pigs.”
“No way! She did not say that! She is gonna drown next time it rains, her nose is so high up in the air--”
“Yeah, she said it—all sweet and sugary and ‘no offense, of course,’ but she knew what she was saying.”
“What did you do? You told her off, right? Blasted her?”
“Yeah, I’m gonna blast her and then have her print it for her mommy…that would be brilliant! No, I just told her I’d see her at work night and I hoped she had a great practice…and then she asked what was that supposed to mean…”
“Come on! This is great!”
“…so I said it wasn’t supposed to mean anything, that she can take it however she wants…and then she said ‘Meet me on the course at practice’…and I was, like, ‘whatever, see you there.’ So I guess we’ll see if she shows up, right?”
“Wait a minute, hold on. She challenged you for tomorrow night?”
“I guess. Sorta weird, right? But I’m ready for her.”
“Of course you’re ready for her! It’s about time you stood up to her. Oh this is too much. Have you told anyone else?”
“No! It’s just you, me, Darcy and Kim that know. Well, and Andrea…and maybe all the RCG’s.”
“Alright, we have got to keep this quiet. If you think your mom would get mad about you blocking Andrea’s IM’s, you do not want her getting the scoop on this. Don’t say a word to anyone, got it?”
Emily signed off with Laura, while the younger girls stared at her in amazement. “No…way,” was all Kim could say.
Darcy had a few questions. “How are you going to keep this quiet? Why did you agree to this? Is Skessa really up for this? What will your mom do if she finds out?”
After a few minutes, Emily headed over to her room and left the other two girls to their nail painting project. Before she left, she warned them both, especially Kim, to keep quiet about the ‘one-on-one’ coming up at work night.
Since it was a school night, Kim’s mom insisted on an early bedtime. That way, she explained, they could still giggle and goof around for a while before conking out. The girls laughed themselves unconscious and hopped up when Kim’s alarm rang in the morning. They headed out to tend to the horses, showered quickly and came down for breakfast.
As the girls entered the sunny yellow kitchen in the beautiful old white farmhouse, their mother moved quickly to get cereal and lunches ready. She was wearing blue pants and a white blouse, looking like any typical mother. Once she got to the clinic, Dr. Karen Miller would don her white lab coat with the stethoscope hanging halfway out the pocket.
“Are you girls all ready for school? Are the horses fed?” She looked past the crisp, yellow-and-white-checked gingham curtains framing the kitchen window to the herd in the pasture and smiled contentedly as her daughters chimed, “Yes, Mother!”
“Don’t forget, tonight is 4-H work night at the Klingshern’s farm. We’ll have to load up Prinsessa and Skessa on the trailer as soon as I get home from the clinic. I have patients until 4:30. Try to get a snack to hold you over until after 4-H.”
Kim picked at her Raisin Bran. “Why do we get teased so much about our horses at work night and on trail rides?” Emily shot her a warning glance, but Kim continued.
Their mother didn’t turn around but answered in a matter-of-fact tone. “People don’t understand Icelandic horses, Kim. They think they’re some kind of expensive, rare, exotic breed. It all comes down to envy. Just ignore it and try to have fun. Someday the other kids will figure out how great these little horses really are.”
“I know, Mom,” Kim lamented, “but it really stinks.”
“Honey, the horses don’t care. Anyone who really meets them falls head over heels in love—you know that.” Dr, Miller ran her fingers through the top of Kim’s hair and looked at her thoughtfully.
“Let me think about it,” she told her younger daughter, pulling her tortoise shell framed glasses off her head, shoving them onto her face, and peering at the front page of the paper. “Maybe I can come up with something. Now, get eating, girls, so you don’t miss your buses.”
Emily’s bus would come first, carrying her off to North Penn High School over in Lansdale, Pennsylvania; Kim and Darcy’s would arrive a few minutes later, taking them about a mile north to Pennfield Middle School in nearby Hatfield.
The girls wolfed down their breakfast, grabbed their loaded backpacks from the mudroom by the backdoor, and then rushed out to kiss Prinsessa and Skessa on their noses.
Hersir stood back a few steps, watching intently. Hela kept her head in the round bale, ignoring the whole scene. Skessa smeared a little muck on Emily’s clean shirt. Emily brushed it off and ran for the school bus as it rumbled toward them down the country lane. Emily hopped off her bus and walked toward the entrance of the high school, alongside her friends Hayley Larson, Laura Westwood, and Madison Jacobs. Everyone chattered at the same time. All were equestrian fanatics and participated in 4-H and the Equestrian Youth Group. Emily and Kim had moved into the new school system when their family purchased what they now called Miller’s Farm out on Schwab Road. Most of their friends had been born and raised in Lansdale, a small town located about twenty-five miles north of Philadelphia. Even though it was difficult to start over in a new school and make new friends, the fact that they shared a passion for horses bonded them quickly and the transition was a lot easier than Emily had expected.
“You don’t really think you’re going to win any ribbons at the fair with your fuzzy little ponies, do you?” Hayley teased, referring to the preparations at work night for the competitions at the fair.
“Hayley!” Emily huffed, exasperated. “You know perfectly well they are not ponies!”
“I know. I’m just teasing, Emily,” Hayley replied, her eyes apologetic behind little round wire framed glasses. She was studious and quiet, but had a good sense of humor under a mop of brown curls that refused to be tamed no matter how many gels, straighteners, and mousses she glopped on it.
“I still don’t get it, Emily.” Laura was the prettiest of the four girls. She was tall and thin with long, thick blond hair and sapphire blue eyes. She carried herself with an air of maturity that made her seem older than fourteen. She leaned in front of Hayley toward Emily, her red backpack whacking Hayley’s shoulder. “My pony, Flash, is almost a hand taller than Kedja, and she’s the tallest horse in your herd.”
“I just think the word ‘pony’ is totally relative. I’ve seen pretty tall POA’s, and even if it means ’Pony of America’, they are horses ’cause they can carry an adult and do what tall horses do. Same for our Iceys,” Emily told her.
Madison appeared as delicate as a piece of fine china, but could dispel that by vigorously mucking out a stall in twenty minutes flat. She had been silent through the conversation, but finally broke in. “Well, I think they’re all totally adorable, even if my Sam could jump over any one of them.”
“Remember,” Emily reminded Madison, “Skessa jumped the same height rail that Sam did and Sam’s almost seventeen hands.”
“Oh that’s right! That was awesome!” Madison laughed and the dimple in her cheek appeared. “That was the highest rail I ever got Sam to jump.”
The girls sat on a wall by the entrance, waiting for the bell to ring and fiddling with their cell phones, eventually turning them off so they wouldn’t forget and have them confiscated in class.
The courtyard outside the school hummed with activity. Students congregated there, waiting until the last minute to enter the confining hallways. Clusters of teens chose their territory on the lawn or the sidewalk. Many of them had one ear bud dangling, one in their ear, so they wouldn’t have to go without music or conversation. Cell phones rang and beeped as friends caught up on the news of the morning. Tough kids tossed their backpacks in a heap and posed, some leaning against the brick wall of the building. Pretty girls complimented each other’s clothes and complained about their hair. A boy tossed his friend’s backpack into a tree and heckled him while he climbed up to retrieve it. Chasing around the shrubs and laughing, a handful of boys flirted with girls who were pretending to ignore them. A group of shaggy-haired boys skateboarded off the steps and rails of the far entrance, their boards rolling and clicking loudly on the cement; scattered couples sat closely together, holding hands, kissing, or just leaning on each other. Car doors slammed as parents pulled in and out, dropping off their children.
Hayley, Laura, and Madison had been best friends since kindergarten and participated in just about any equestrian activity they could. None of them cared about the expensive tack and clothing that other parents bought. Nor did they have access to expensive trainers and instructors. Of the four families, Emily’s was the only one who could afford the fancy paraphernalia, but her mother was vehemently against it. She believed that equestrian competitions and activities were about the rider and the horse, not the accessories.
Jim and Karen Miller had found a great instructor for the whole family. Carolyn Gray had been teaching for thirty years and had the same philosophy as Karen. Her teaching strategy was based on the philosophy that the best foundation, for any equestrian sport or activity was the basic riding skills of balance, posture, and good communication with the horse. Although Carolyn loved the Icelandics, she was very particular about her versatility and client base of many breeds. It was through lessons from Carolyn and research on the Internet that Jim and Karen had realized that the best way to raise Icelandics was to treat them as they did in Iceland. Typical American horses were kept in a stall and barely got fresh air or exercise, except for the hour or so a day when they were allowed to go outside. The Millers’ horses stayed outside all year long, living in a herd, but had open stalls along the sides of the stable that they could use as shelter. Each stall had an automatic waterer, so with the use of round bales, the waterers, and the open shelter, the farm was one of the most efficient to operate in the area.
It was not just the farm that made it possible for the family to keep up their hobby business along with their incredibly busy jobs and schedules – it was the horses themselves. Jim and Karen learned early that with unlimited access to hay and water, continuous freedom of movement and herd life, their horses remained in the best state of health. The foals were born without human assistance, and the herd themselves managed the foals’ education. This was one of the most amazing parts of breeding the Icelandics.
The foals attached themselves to the stallion within a few days of birth. Hersir was the best babysitter and teacher Karen had ever seen. She had never seen a stallion that cared for the babies as Hersir did. The foals stayed with Hersir more than with their mothers. Another amazing thing was the way Hersir’s colts, that the Millers always gelded, became an important part of his herd. Unlike other breeds where a gelding could never be left with a stallion in a herd with mares, Hersir lived happily with his young colts, the mares and foals all year long. Of course, Hersir’s fillies and young mares had to be kept in a separate herd so no inbreeding would occur, but that herd was separated by only ten feet of walkway across the entire length of the pastures and Hersir still felt that both herds belonged to him.
Altogether, the Miller’s farm was very low maintenance and produced some of the best Icelandic horses in the country. It was a lot to be proud of, and the family shared a strong bond with their horses.
“Oh, no! Here come the Red Carpet Girls. Spare me!” Hayley groaned under her breath as three girls slid delicately out of a BMW sedan, looking around to see who was noticing their arrival at school. Madison chortled and made picture-snapping sounds. Dressed in skimpy designer clothes, with a book or two carried nonchalantly in one hand (versus the overloaded backpacks everyone else had), an iPod in the other and their cell phones clipped to their Gucci purses, they tossed their hair back and headed right toward Emily, Laura, Madison, and Hayley. These three girls coming at them, Andrea Norton, Heather Woodbridge and Erica McCarthy, were considered their greatest opponents and the most hostile adversaries in everything they did, especially in equestrian competitions.
They were kids who relied on money rather than skill to win ribbons and fame.
“Hi, girls! See you tonight,” Andrea smirked down at Emily. “I see you’re already dressed for work night—good thinking!” Her entourage waved as they passed, wiggling their fingers and squinting their eyes with exaggerated smiles, as if they were gesturing to a group of adoring fans.
“Yep, see you tonight,” Emily said loftily, refusing to let Andrea provoke her. To her friends, she muttered, “Just because you spend mega-bucks on clothes, trainers and tack, doesn’t mean your horses are as good as ours.” Then she glanced down at her simple cap-sleeve T-shirt, blue jeans and gym shoes.
Madison and Hayley agreed, with comments of “Too bad money can’t buy her a brain!” and “Did you see the way she looked us up and down?” Laura, who had no patience for the Red Carpet Girls’ attitudes and cattiness, stood up, gave Andrea, Heather, and Erica a withering look as she passed them, and went into the school. She refused to waste her time even listening to them.
“Can’t we somehow kick them out of our 4-H chapter? They’re an embarrassment!” Madison argued, her cheeks turning beet red. “How can their riding tack cost more than my horse?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Hayley knew, “Maybe all three of them are going to move away.”
“Really? What do you know that I don’t know?” Madison demanded.
“Ha! Nothing, but I can dream, can’t I?” Hayley shrugged at her pals as the morning bell rang and they headed to their lockers.