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for the rest of the critique she knew she would get—and learn from—she glanced toward the driveway and saw a sports car pulling up in front of the barn. It was a black Jaguar.
    “Hey, it’s Mr. Call-me-Paul,” said Stevie.
    They watched as Paul Fredericks stepped out of the car, once again dressed for a country club. They expected to see him head into the stable to meet with Max, but they were wrong. He walked over to them.
    “Hey, look at the three of you,” he said brightly. “On horses!”
    “That’s what we do here,” said Carole. “We ride horses.”
    “That is, we ride them when we’re not looking after them,” Lisa added.
    “Well you seem to be riding them very well,” he said.
    The girls had done nothing but sit in their saddles since the car had come into the driveway. It was hard for Stevie to figure out how he’d decided they were riding well under the circumstances, but there seemed no reason to make an issue of it.
    “Max is in the office,” Carole said.
    “I’ll see him later, but I’d love to watch you all for a while—that is, if you don’t mind.”
    “We don’t mind, Mr. Fredericks,” said Lisa.
    “Please, call me Paul,” he said.
    “Uh, sure, Paul,” said Lisa. She was uncomfortable with that, but she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it was because it seemed too familiar with someone who wasn’t really a friend. She shrugged it off. If he wanted to be called Paul, she’d try to do it.
    Carole began the round of jumps again, this time reining Starlight in as Stevie had done with Belle and getting respectable results.
    “Better,” Stevie said.
    “Better? I thought she was fabulous!” Paul said. “Why, that horse jumped those fences as if they were nothing at all!”
    “Those are only eighteen-inch fences,” Lisa said. “They
are
almost nothing at all.”
    “Well, they sure look scary to me!” Paul said.
    The girls took several more turns over the course, but it wasn’t as much fun with Paul there admiring every single thing they did, error or not. He said “Wow” and applauded after every jump. It almost distracted the horses and certainly distracted Stevie, Lisa, and Carole.
    Finally the horses were ready for a rest, and so were the girls.
    “Would you like to see Honey-Pie?” Lisa suggested. “She’s settled in nicely, and we let her out into her paddock before we came out here to ride.”
    “Sure,” said Paul. “And maybe we can talk a bit about her care.”
    “Absolutely,” Carole said enthusiastically. “We’re working with Max and Red to see that she’s well looked after—like all the horses here. As an older horse, and one that isn’t being ridden, she needs a few special considerations. I spent some time last night researching the care of retired horses. I think we’re all going to learn from Honey-Pie, and if love counts toward care—and I think it does—well, you can count on a healthy horse for a long time to come!”
    Paul smiled weakly.
    “Come on, Carole, I’ll take Starlight to his stall for you,” Stevie offered, thinking that if Paul could hear more about what Carole had learned from her research on Honey-Pie’s behalf, he’d be all the happier that he was boarding the mare at Pine Hollow and might even put in another good word for them with Max.
    It took only a few minutes to untack Belle and Starlight, and when Stevie returned, she found Carole deep into a discussion about feeding schedules. On his previous visit, Paul had noticed that Red was giving some of the other horses a grain ration, and he wondered why Honey-Pie wasn’t getting one.
    “Honey-Pie isn’t as active as the other horses,” Carole said. “She doesn’t need the extra nutrients that are in the afternoon feeding. She’ll get her grain in the morning, after she’s had water and hay. She has access to water at all times and will get three or four feedings of hay every day on a schedule.”
    “I want her to get more grain,” Paul said, sounding a little