Disclaimer: I do not own any of Bonnie Bryant's characters. But I do, how ever, own my OCs.
Author's Note: The stories that I am writing are based on both the Saddle Club TV show (up to the 2nd series, because I don't really like the 3rd)and the Saddle Club books. The PVs will change.
Lisa walked up to the stables she walked in. The sweet smell of hay, horses and leather struck her immediately. She walked past the stalls of horses and into the tack room. There she met her friend Stevie. Stevie was a year younger than Lisa, but she knew much more about riding. Stevie was cleaning saddles; this was one of Lisa's least favorite barn chores, next to mucking out stalls. Stevie's long blonde hair was pulled back into a quite messy pony-tail and her eyes where fixed on the saddle that she was scrubbing. Lisa took a bridle off one of the hooks and sat down by her friend.
Every so often Lisa would look at the door expecting her other best friend Carole to walk through them. Carole was the best rider out of the three of them and she was completely devoted to horses. She was always at the stables early. But Carole didn't come.
After the pair of them cleaned about five saddles, they left the tack room.
"Stevie, where's Carole?" Lisa asked as the made their way out to the riding ring.
"Oh, she called me earlier today, her and her dad visiting her aunt." Stevie said.
At first Lisa was a bit irritated that Carole hadn't called her. But she quickly forgot about it as the reached the ring.
There where two people in the ring. One Lisa recognized as Veronica DiAgilo a very rich, snobby girl. The other girl on the other hand she didn't know.
Veronica and the girl where just riding around, warming up their horses as Lisa guessed.
Veronica was riding her beautiful liver chestnut Arabian mare, Garnet. She pranced around the ring as if she where at a horse show. She kept taping Garnet with a long riding crop.
The other girl was riding a tall dapple grey mare. She and her horse worked together with perfect unity. Their trot was smooth, but fast paced. Lisa could tell right away that this horse was an expensive, blue-blooded equine.
The girl drew her horse to a stop.
"Veronica," she called, "let's cool them out and give them a rest before the lesson."
Veronica pulled Garnet's reins and stopped the beautiful horse immediately. "Why?"
"We don't want them to have no energy during jumping. Do we?" The girl said as she dismounted.
Veronica gave a hardly audible snort, "Well I'm going to keep going. You can stop if you want." She said with a mocking taunt in her voice.
The girl sighed, "Okay, see you in the lesson." She walked her horse out of the ring, leaving a very surprised Veronica.
Stevie looked at Lisa, her eye brows raised.
Lisa smiled at Stevie, "Come on let's get tacked up."
Stevie laughed as the girls walked to the tack room, "Did you see Veronica's face? I don't think anyone's ever disobeyed her like that before."
Lisa shrugged, "I guess not."
Lisa grabbed her tack and went over to Prancer's stall. She slipped into the chestnut Thoroughbred's stall. She quickly tacked up and led her horse to the ring. Before she mounted she brushed her hand along the old horse shoe hanging up on the wall.
Stevie, Veronica, Sam, Kristi, Betsy, and the new girl where already in the ring waiting for her.
Max looked around "Alright walk your horses five times around the ring and then we will start."
Everyone started walking around, the large outside ring.
Max took this time to make introductions. "Everybody this is Abigail, she rides Bubbles. Abigail, this is Sam on Comanche, Betsey on Diablo, Kristi on Bauq, Stevie on Belle, Lisa on Prancer, and you know Veronica."
He pointed to each of the students as he named them.
Abigail nodded and smiled.
Each student finished his of her lap and then they lined up on the edge of the ring.
Max walked over to a jump in the middle of the ring. "This is the double oxer. For many students it is a challenge to get the right number paces and timing for the take off, so don't be too hard on yourselves if you don't make it the first time."
Lisa looked around, many of the students looked nervous actually the only two students who didn't look skeptical at all where Abigail and Veronica.
"Kristi, why don't you start us off." Max said walking to the edge of the ring to stand next to the riders.
Kristi urged Bauq into a trot; she went to the other end of the ring and then started cantering. She approached the jump. She pulled Bauq out of the jump. "Sorry Max." She said apologetically.
Max sighed, "You had him lined up right Kristi, but it's alright if you can't do it yet. Stevie."
Stevie trotted over to the end of the ring and canter toward the jump, she jumped it, but knocked down a couple of bars.
Stevie brought Belle down to a trot, looking very discouraged.
Next went Betsy, Pepper shied away from the fence.
Then it was Lisa's turn. Heart thumping, she urged Prancer into the trot. Then she faced the jump. It looked a lot bigger when you looked at it from the front. Lisa nudged Prancer into a rocking canter, she approached the jump. But she pulled her horse out of line before she reached the jump. It was just too big for her.
Veronica went next, she cantered Garnet straight towards the fence and jumped. Everyone thought she was going to clear it, where Garnet's back hooves clipped one of the bars. It fell.
Veronica pulled Garnet to a walk, and went back in line. It was clear that she was very upset about not making it over.
The last person was Abigail; she trotted Bubbles over to the end of the ring and started cantering. She quickly extended her horses canter. Bubbles jumped, Abigail leaned forward ever so slightly to match Bubble's neck, it was like they where flying for a moment. They hit the ground.
Abigail and Bubbles had cleared the double oxer and had made it look very graceful and easy.
They each tried the jump a few more times before class ended and Lisa had still not even gotten off the ground.
"Nice round Stevie."
Stevie looked up; Lisa was standing at her door with two sodas in her hands.
"Thanks," Stevie sighed, taking a soda from her friend's hand, "But did you see Abigail? She cleared the double oxer every time and even made it look easy." Stevie's voice was full of awe.
Lisa smiled, "She looks so natural on horseback. But why is she hanging out with Veronica?"
"Beats me. Hey, after we're done do you think we should call Carole and have a meeting a TDs?" Stevie asked taking off Belle's saddle.
Okay, look Sam is un-tacking Prancer for me, so I'll call Carole now." Lisa said.
"Okay, I'll meet you in the lounge in fifteen minutes." Stevie's voice was muffled because she was on the other side of Belle grooming her.
"Alright see you." Lisa said.
Stevie heard Lisa's foot steps walking down the isle.
The blonde twelve year old picked up her bridle and grooming bucket and walked to the tack room, she made another trip for her saddle.
As she walked back to Belle's stall she heard talking. Stevie, being a very curious person, walked toward the sound. She found Abigail talking to Comanche.
"Hey, pretty boy." She murmured softly.
The bay horse nickered.
Stevie felt a pang of jealousy. She used to ride Comanche.
Abigail patted the big horse's neck, "I missed you."
Stevie frowned. She missed him?
"Have you been good?" She smiled when he shook his head, fighting away a pesky fly.
Stevie walked up to Abigail and Comanche, "Actually, Comanche's a very good horse."
Abigail jumped in surprise at the sound of Stevie's voice.
"Oh. Hello there." She said.
"My name is-"
"I know your name, but I've got to go now. My mum's here." Abigail cut Stevie off.
The dark brown haired girl walked off.
Stevie stood there kind of staring at her. She couldn't believe that Abigail had been so abrupt.
Lisa ran up to Stevie, "Carole is going to meet us at TDs in ten minutes. I've been looking for you every where." Then Lisa saw the look on her friend's face. "What's up?"
"Nothing, well, I'll tell you when we get to TDs." Stevie said frowning.
When the two girls walked into TDs, Carole was waiting for them. They slid into a booth with her.
Carole was a tall, bright African American girl, with shoulder length black hair and big brown eyes.
"So, Lisa tells me that there is a new girl at Pine Hollow." Carole smiled, her eyes shining brightly.
"Yeah, her name is Abigail and she rides an expensive looking horse named Bubbles." Stevie said, very coldly.
"What's wrong Stevie?" Lisa asked.
Stevie sighed, she launched into a slightly exaggerated story about how the girl acted.
Carole frowned thoughtfully, "She was talking to Comanche you say. What did she say to him?"
"Well she was all like, 'Hey pretty boy', 'I missed you', and 'Have you been good?"
"Oh," Carole said.
"Carole, what's on your mind?" Lisa asked.
"It's nothing." Carole reassured her.
"But you should have seen this girl jump! She and Bubbles where amazing!" Lisa exclaimed.
"I'll admit she was a really good rider. But I still don't like her. She's another Veronica" Stevie growled.
The girls completely abandoned the subject of Abigail and started talking about horses.
Carole waved goodbye to her dad, and walked up to Pine Hollow Stables. She entered barn and went directly to the tack room to drop off her things. She walked to the back of the stables. There was movement in one of the riding rings.
Carole walked over to the ring. In it was a girl riding a dapple grey mare. She leaned on the fence and watched the team warm up. The girl's chocolate brown hair was in two tightly woven braids. Her horse's tail was braided and tied up so that she would not trip on it.
The girl seemed to notice that Carole was standing there so she brought her horse to a halt. "I'm sorry, but Bubbles doesn't seem to like you standing there, so if you want to watch you'll have to stand a bit more far back." The girl said. She urged her horse into a smooth slow canter.
Carole stood back. Bubbles, this was the new girl. Carole recognized the girl's face, but she couldn't remember where. She shrugged it off deciding that she had probably seen the girl at some horse show.
She went to the tack room to clean. She sat down and began absent-mindedly scrubbing the martingale. She suddenly remembered where she had seen the girl before. Before she knew it her thoughts had galloped into her memories.
Three girls on horse back trotted down a trail, kicking up dust. One girl had black hair, and had on very expensive riding clothes. She was riding a beautiful black thoroughbred stallion.
The next girl also had black hair, but hers was curly and it was braided up in a bun, she had dark skin. She was riding a palomino mare.
The last girl had dark brown hair in a messy pony tail; she was riding a large bay.
Carole recognized these horses as Cobalt, Delilah, and Comanche.
The girl with brown hair, suddenly smiled "I'll race you too the river." She nudged Comanche into a gallop. Soon Cobalt and his rider had caught up. Not far behind was Delilah. The three girls all reached the river bed at the same moment. The girl riding Delilah dismounted and put Delilah's halter and lead rope on. She let her horse gat a quick drink before tying her up to a tree branch a few feet away. The other two did the same. All three girls took off their helmets and sat by the horses talking…
Carole remembered clearly now. She was the girl riding Delilah, Veronica of course rode Cobalt, and Abigail or Abbey, as she knew her back then, was riding Comanche.
"Hey, Mrs. Reg?" Carole said looking up.
"Yes?" The woman at the desk responded.
"Were, Abigail and I good friends?" Carole wondered.
"Well, yes. Yes, Abigail, Veronica, and you where the closest of friends, truly inseparable. Not unlike you Stevie and Lisa are." Mrs. Reg smiled. "Her family
moved three years ago if I remember correctly, some place like England or some where."
"Yeah, England." Carole echoed, "Thanks, Mrs. Reg." She smiled putting away the clean saddle.
Carole ran out to Abigail.
The girl was leading her horse into its stall.
"Hey, Abigail." Carole said walking up.
"Hello?" Abigail said looking up from her cross-tied horse.
"Um, remember me?"
"Oh. Sorry. No."
"Carole, I rode Delilah."
"Carole? Wow, I can't believe I didn't recognize you! I knew Veronica right away." Abigail walked out of the stall and hug up her bridle.
"How is Veronica?" Carole asked, trying to get her perspective on the snotty girl.
"Well, she's changed. She seems more, controlling, more, mid' me saying this, rich."
Carole nodded, "She's changed a lot, but maybe we could talk in the lounge and catch up. Besides, the lesson doesn't start for another hour."
Abigail smiled, "Okay, sounds good."
Carole started to walk away, "See you in a bit Abigail."
"Oh, and one thing, please call me Abbey. Abigail sounds too formal." The brown haired girl laughed.
Carole smiled, "Alright."
Abbey walked into the lounge Carole was already there. She sat down, "You first, tell me everything big that happened while I was gone."
"Okay. First, my mum died. Then I bought my horse Starlight with the money she left me. Then I met a new friend, Stevie. Then Veronica went rotten. Then Lisa came to Pine Hollow. Then we became the Saddle Club. Then the Max bought an ex-racehorse Prancer. Then we met Phil, Stevie's boyfriend, then-" Carole swallowed, "-then Cobalt had to be put down. Then Delilah had Cobalt's foal Sampson. Then, well, oh yeah, Max got married to Deborah. Lots of other things happened but those are the highlights."
Abbey stared at Carole, "Your mum… and Cobalt!" A tear ran down the girl's face, she had loved Cobalt, if possible, even more than Carole did.
"What happened to you?" Carole prompted.
"Well, we moved to England, we bought a small country house with a stable. Then we bought a Morgan named Clifton. Then I met my first friend Megan. Then I bought Bubbles, as a seven week old foal. (His mother died and the breeder was out of money). Then my dad and I trained Bubbles, in dressage, train, cross country, and show jumping. Then we had to move to Bulgaria. Then I won the regional championships on Bubbles. Then a few months later my dad quit his job when they where going to send him to Siberia and we moved back here."
"What breed is Bubbles?" Carole asked, "She's beautiful."
"She's an Andalusian, and thanks." Abbey blushed.
The girls kept talking until it was time for them to get ready for the classes.
