Angela Dorsey’s Blog

The next of the stories that we wrote last year will be on the website under OUR STORIES this weekend! Check out Shelby and the Ghost… It’s an awesome story!

And here is our next story, halfway finished. Read the story, and then send in the next paragraph and when this story is done, it will go under OUR STORIES too!

Here is:

THE TROUBLE WITH CHAD

by Tessa, Heather, Sara, Lexi, Shelby, Aubre, Kara, and Nicole… So Far! 

     Hannah stormed into the stable, leading Chad, her bay gelding. “Why do they blame me?” she yelled angrily. She plunked down on a hay bale and put her head in her hands.
     Chad nuzzled her hair as if to say, “It wasn’t your fault. I’m the one who stumbled.”
     “I’m sorry, Chad. I know it’s just a lousy horse show—But I thought the people in my Pony Club were my friends, that’s all. Just because we knocked down a pole, they’re all mad.” Hannah stroked Chad’s black forelock, then growled, “I hate them and I hate competing.”
     “I know it wasn’t you…” A creepy voice whispered from the shadows behind Hannah.
     “W… who are y… you?” Hannah shrieked.
     “Wow, it’s easy to scare you!” Hannah’s friend, Raven, popped into the open, laughing hard.
     “That isn’t funny!”
     “Yeah it is!”  Raven laughed even harder.
     “Hmmf!” Hannah marched out of the stable, dragging Chad by his lead behind her.
     “Look, I know it’s not your fault! Okay?” Raven said, following her out into the warm sunshine. “And I’m really sorry for saying you lost us the competition!”
     “Well, you should’ve said that five minutes ago when everyone freaked out at me!” Hannah replied.  “But it doesn’t matter now—I’m quitting the Pony Club!”
     “But–”
     “But nothing! I’m quitting and that’s final!”  With that Hannah leapt up and stormed away, pulling Chad behind her. She quickly gathered up all of her show supplies and started loading up the trailer.
     “Excuse me,” a soft voice said from behind her. Hannah turned around to see who it was.
     “Hi. I just wanted to say, I thought you did fine. It wasn’t your fault that your horse stumbled,” the girl said apologetically.
     “Thanks. It’s nice to know that not everyone is mad at me,” Hannah said, looking at the girl, trying to figure out where she’d seen her before.
     “I’m Janie Tillson. I just joined Pony Club. I’m not good enough to event yet. I just came to watch,” explained Janie. “You have a beautiful horse.”
     “Thank you!” Hannah said a bit more warmly, giving Chad a good scratch between his ears.  “He means everything to me.” 
     Janie smiled and nodded.  “He’s so sweet—I have a horse too, Minty.  She likes mints, so that’s how she got her name.” Janie paused. “What’s your horse’s name?”
     “This is Chad,” Hannah said.
     “Nice name,” said Janie. She turned as if she wanted to go, then stopped, looking embarrassed. “Do you want to practice for the next show with me tomorrow?”
     “I thought you said you weren’t good enough yet to compete,” Hannah said, puzzled.
     “I’m not, I just want to improve. If I get good enough, Jennifer might choose me to show next time.”
     Hannah agreed and soon she and Janie were meeting almost every day.  After a few weeks of practice, Janie was just as good as the other pony club riders! 
     At next Pony Club meeting Hannah checked the board.  She saw her name and started doing a happy dance all the way to her gelding’s stall.
     “Yes, I’m showing!  I’m showing!”
     Janie looked at the board too and noticed she was in advanced short stirrup. “Omigosh! YIPPEE! I’m in the show too!” She ran up to Hannah to tell her the good news.
     When Hannah heard Janie was in advanced, she was jealous. She’d been riding for a long time and she was the one in novice?  And Janie, a total beginner, was in advanced?  Totally not fair!
     Hannah pushed past Janie and ran towards the hay lift, throwing herself onto the gigantic piles of hay.
     “It’s not fair!  I trained, but I’m in a lower class than her!  Darn you Chad!  Why are you such lousy show horse?” Hannah screamed, pounding the hay with her fists.
     Holly, the barn owner, came around the corner to get hay for her horse, and overheard Hannah’s temper tantrum. It was impossible not to.
     “Why’d you pick that horse to ride?” Holly picked up a bale of hay.
     “Huh?” Hannah raised her head from the hay and looked at Holly.
     “You wanted that horse, so you have to stick with him.”
     “B… b… bu…” Hannah said.
     “No buts. Chad loves you! He tried his best—besides you were leaning too far in the saddle. You made him unbalanced. The only thing he could do was stumble,” Holly explained, wiping some of the sweat off her forehead.
     “No, I wasn’t!” Hannah protested.
     “Yes, you were,” Holly’s voice was firm. “Chad is a fine show horse.  You two just need to practice a little more—and you need to get control of your temper if you’re going to come to my barn.”
      Hannah got up, nodded sullenly and rushed away.
     All everyone does is tell me how wrong I am or how bad I ride, she thought.
     Another thought occurred to her and made her face redden with shame. Maybe, just maybe, Holly was right and she was partially to blame. 
     “I spent too much time with Janie, when I should have practicing more myself,” she muttered under her breath.
     Hannah found herself right outside Chad’s stall. The large bay gelding reached his head out to greet her with a slobbery wet nose, which just came out of the water bucket!
     “You goof!” Hannah giggled at the horse, while pushing him away.
     “Can I come in, please?” Janie’s quiet voice came from outside the stall.
     “No—you’re the absolute last person I want to see right now!”
     “I just wanted to say I’m sorry…” said Janie in small, squeaky voice and then she dashed away crying. Hannah looked up with surprise. She’d never seen anyone get that emotional at the barn before… besides herself anyway.
     “Maybe you should say you’re sorry to her,” said Holly from a nearby stall she was cleaning.
     Hannah jumped; she hadn’t noticed Holly there.
     “Why should I?”
     “Well, maybe she just wants to be your friend.”
     “Right now I don’t want to speak to her, let alone be her friend!” said Hannah, then she stomped out of the barn.
     Leaning against the side of the barn that faced toward the road, away from the riding ring and all the people smiling and chatting and being happy, Hannah scowled.  No one was ever on her side.  Did Holly even stop to think about how it would feel to have the girl she’d trained go ahead of her?  No, of course not!
     She was still complaining in her head, debating quitting the Pony Club for good, when a movement in the bushes near the gate to the farm caught her eye. It looked like—it was—Janie.  That was weird; what was she doing?  She should be riding with everyone else.  Then Hannah realized she wasn’t alone.  There was a van, almost totally hidden by the bushes, and someone dressed completely in black was talking to Janie. 
     Janie shook her head and looked like she was about to turn away, when all of a sudden, the person in black grabbed her and dragged her inside the van. Then the van sped away!  Hannah ran after it, straining to see the license plate.
Hannah didn’t know what to do. She ran to find Holly, but couldn’t find her anywhere. She tried to remember the van and license plate number, but couldn’t because she felt so panicky. Finally, she remembered it was a white astro-van with dark tinted windows and the license plate number was 583-FNE. She got out her cell phone and called the police, rushing her words about what happened, then sat on a bale of hay outside Chad’s stall to wait for the cops to arrive. She was crying and scared.
     They were barely on the scene, when Holly rushed over to Hannah.
     “What’s wrong? And why are the cops here?”
     “I saw people kidnap Janie. I had to call them!” Hannah burst into tears.
     Holly put her hands on her hips and one cop came over to them.
     “Are either of you named Hannah?” asked the cop. 
     Hannah slowly raised her hand.
     “You’re Hannah? Well, we found the van you saw, but it was empty. All that was left was this note.” The police officer handed Hannah a piece of paper:  Give us what we want or she will die.
     Hannah dropped the paper and fell to the ground. Everything went black.
     Hannah awoke moments later to hear Holly ask, “What do you think they want?”
     “Wait, there’s something on the back,” the cop turned the note over. “It says, “We want Chad, the valuable show horse in stall 5.  Give us the horse.’” The cop looked sternly at Hannah. “I’m afraid they mean it. Any suspects?”
     “I… I think so, maybe” Hannah stammered. “I saw Jim, the new stable hand, in the hayloft with a guy dressed all in black. I had to get some more hay for Chad and they were just there, talking. I didn’t think anything of it though….”
     “Wait, this horse is yours?”
     Hannah nodded, unable to speak.
     The cop wrote something on a notepad. “Thanks for the information.”
     “There’s a horse trailer behind the barn,” Holly said, “We can put Chad in there.” She called stable hand over to load Chad up.
     When the cops left to watch the stable hand, Holly and Hannah were alone. “But he’s mine!” Hannah protested.
     “Do you want to get Janie back or not?” Holly’s stern voice made Hannah stop struggling.  “We’ll find a way to bring them both home safely, I promise.” Holly’s voice softened a bit and Hannah nodded.
     Hannah helped load Chad onto the trailer. She gave him a big squeeze.
     “I don’t want to see you go, buddy!” Hannah buried her face into his mane and sobbed.
     “Hey, I have an idea. Maybe he won’t go!” Holly reached for her cell phone.
     “What do you mean?” Hannah pulled her face out of Chad’s mane.  Holly asked the truck’s driver to wait, then started dialing numbers on her hot pink razor cell phone.
     “Do you remember Chad’s sire?”
     “Yes,” Hannah replied hesitantly.
     “Well his sire looks exactly like him. I saw him at a horse fair,” Holly replied.
     “Oh!”
     Holly began to talk to somebody, but Hannah couldn’t understand a word she said.
     “Who’s she talking to? She seems to be talking gibberish to me!” Hannah asked Zack, Holly’s boyfriend, who’d come up from the main house as soon as he’d heard about the kidnapping.
     “Oh, she has a friend who’s Norwegian, and she talks fluent Norwegian with her.
     Hannah shifted from foot to foot nervously. What was Holly up to? She tried to make sense of what the young woman was saying, but it was no use.
     Holly hung up her phone and smiled brightly. “We have ourselves a plan!  My friend owns Gallant Tempest, Chad’s sire. If we can get Tempest here, we can set up the trap with Tempest as the bait—Chad will be perfectly safe, I promise!”
     “Great! But isn’t Tempest like worth a whole lot more than Chad?” asked Hannah.
     “Yes, but you don’t want to lose your horse, do you?” asked Holly, motioning for Chad to be taken out of the trailer.
     Hannah suddenly felt even more awful. It was her fault that all of this was happening. If she hadn’t gotten mad at Janie, Janie wouldn’t have went off on her own and gotten kidnapped. And now to fix the problem she made, Hannah had to put someone else’s horse in danger. Hannah hated herself, but another emotion was mixed with the hate. She was grateful to Holly’s friend for being so kind to them.
     Chad nuzzled Hannah.
     “Hold on.” Hannah pushed Chad’s muzzle aside. Chad nuzzled her again.
     “Hold on I said!” She pushed him away again.  He ignored her; this time he nudged her so hard that she lost her balance.  He lowered his neck, so she could grab him before she fell.  As soon as she was steady on her feet, he nudged her again. She finally got the idea—he was telling her to get on him.  She petted him apologetically. 
     “I get it, I get it—just a minute though, okay, boy?” she said to her horse.
     Holly looked at her questioningly.
     “I’m going to ride Chad to find Janie.  They couldn’t be far from here—look how quickly the police found the van.  I bet the kidnappers took her to the woods. I’ll—”
     “No,” Holly interrupted. “It’s too dangerous out there alone, and with kidnappers on the loose! Do you want to be next?”
     Chad stomped with his front hooves, but Hannah looked down at the ground and mumbled, “No…”
     Holly gave a weak smile. “We’ll get her back; don’t worry. I’m going to pick up Chad’s sire, you just sit tight, okay?” She climbed into the truck along with one of the police officers and drove away.
     Hannah cast a nervous glance towards the cop who had stayed behind to keep an eye on the stables. Maybe, just maybe she could slip away to find Janie without him noticing…
     She walked Chad to the barn door to see where the cop was—he was just turning the corner to the side of the barn.
     She had a moment then, but she’d have to be quick.  There was no time saddle or bridle Chad, so it was a good thing he was trained to take leg cues. Using an overturned bucket, she jumped onto Chad’s bare back.
     “C’mon,” she whispered, nudging him forward.
     Chad galloped into the woods. Hannah looked around. She didn’t want to get whacked in the face by a branch! Chad leaped over a log like he was flying. Suddenly the smell of smoke filled Hannah’s nose. A small log cabin lay ahead.  And it was on fire!
     Red and orange flames danced from the smoking roof, stopping Chad dead in his tracks. Not ready for the sudden halt, Hannah flew over his head. With a loud thump she hit the ground. She didn’t know if it was the pain or the heavy, black smoke that brought tears to her eyes. She slowly stood up and rubbed her back.
     The cabin was ramshackle and looked deserted. That was good, but what if a forest fire started? A sudden cry proved Hannah wrong. There was somebody in there! Knowing Chad wouldn’t come any closer to the fire, she ran to the cabin alone. She got as close as she could and peered through the flames.
     “Hello?”  she called.  “Is there anybody in there?  Can you hear me?”
     “Hannah?” a voice called back. It sounded like Janie!
      “Janie?” Hannah tried to peer through the flames in the doorway.  She thought she saw Janie lying on the floor.  A huge shadow moved in the centre of the fire—suddenly a man burst through the door.
     “Get out of here, Hannah!”  Janie yelled, but Hannah barely heard her over the sound the raging fire burning around her.
     The man charged toward Hannah who felt frozen with shock.  What could she do?  She couldn’t just leave….
     The man was almost upon her, fist raised, when she got an idea.
     “Chad!” she yelled. “CHAD!” she yelled again.
     The horse raised his head and looked at his human with curiosity. Now that Hannah had gotten his attention, she shook her arms at him and hollered, steering him in the opposite direction. She knew he would head for home and when Holly saw him she was sure to know that Hannah was in trouble. Chad was gone in a matter of seconds.    

    

Read the continuation of this story in the comments - and then add a paragraph of your own!

Yesterday, I was sick and tired of sitting behind my computer screen, even though I was writing an exciting adventure story. I thought about strolling about the garden or reading a book or sitting on the deck and having a cup of coffee but none of these things seemed very fun, even though they’re supposed to be relaxing.

Then I realized what I needed - a nice long horseback ride. Wiley, the dogs, and I went out for a good run. It was awesome! Even though I’m stiff and sore today, it was totally worth it!

I have been searching the entries for the Name That Horse Contest for the perfect names for wild horses and have found SIX new winners. Everyone has been emailed with the winner announcement and two people have gotten back to me so far with their parents permission to accept their prize. Their full names should be on the website soon.

The names that Mia and Nicole sent in were Black Wing and Night Hawk. Perfect wild horse names, aren’t they?

I’m sorry to say that #7 in the Trivia Contest is the WRONG QUESTION and I just barely noticed. For those of you who have already sent in answers, can you send them in again or email me the the answer to the question below? I just sent an email to the website company, so hopefully they change it right away.

The right question is: NAME THREE COLOUR BREEDS.

There is a new Question of the Month up - tell me all about the horse breed you would create!

And I sent the new Trivia questions to my website company this morning. They should be on the website very soon.

Good luck everyone!

So the deadline has been reached for the Trivia Contest and the winners selected. We had SIX winners who got all ten questions right, and they’ve all been sent emails of congratulations - so check your email! I’ll have their names up as soon as I can.

New questions will be up soon for April and May and I’ll announce here on the blog when they’re ready.

Congratulations to the SIX WINNERS!

 

Thanks, Sara, for letting me know that Fighting Chance, the eleventh Horse Guardian book, is on the PONY website! Its always a thrill to see a new book for the first time, and that’s the first place that I see them too.

I like the cover art to this one quite a bit. Jennifer Bell does such a wonderful job! I absolutely adore her work! The photo of the book on the website is sort of far away, but if you want to have a look, its at http://www.pony4kids.com/category.php?categoryID=149. The thing I liked the best about it is the foal, Tubby. He’s so coltish and looks like he’d be such fun!

 

Check out the first of OUR STORIES at http://www.angeladorsey.com/ourstories.html!!!!! Zeb the Zony is back! I think you’re going to love this story.

The next story that we finished should be on the site next week, as Ev is editing it this week. And then after that, I’ll put the half finished story on the blog and we can finish it. How fun!

Tell me what you think of Zeb!

Hey Everyone, there is a new Trivia Contest on the website now! Winners will be announced soon for the December/January contest. Good Luck to you all!

Also, theres a new Question of the Month!

I just checked all the submissions and nobody had all ten questions right!

So, this is the last day - January 31st - of the contest. If you want to resend your answers and try to get that perfect 10, do it today!!!!!!!

Otherwise, we’re going to have a TIE!