“I promise I won’t like it,” Oliver said, but he still took her hand.
“We’ll see.” Lucky whistled for Spirit. He came running and followed her into the riding ring.
Diary Entry
I knew that one hour of O-Mok-See wasn’t going to be enough. There were just so many amazing things that we could do, like riding and games and snacks.… It was frustrating to try to fit in everything we’d planned. We had narrowed the activities down to thirteen great ideas, but had to focus on just a few, because the campers lost time making new warrior designs on the horses. Pru and Abigail and I decided we’d ride along, but wouldn’t be timed. This event was for the campers.
First up, there was an individual time trial in barrel racing. While I helped the campers saddle up, Pru and Abigail rushed to roll out three barrels in this pattern:
The horses had to gallop around the empty wooden rain barrels in a cloverleaf pattern.
Everyone loved it. Especially Lester, who was surprisingly fast on a gentle little horse named Malu. He flew around those barrels and beat even Turo, who’d had the fastest barrel time in town until then.
Next up, we moved those light barrels into a straight row, and everyone got an egg in a spoon. They rode the horses as fast as they could, weaving between the barrels. There’d be prizes for the quickest and then prizes for bravely trying, in case someone (like Stella) wanted to go real slow.
Lilly had a good start until her egg fell and shattered in the dirt. Snips won the timed event. That was, right up until Abigail discovered that he had cheated. Snips had put a drop of honey in the spoon to “glue” down the egg. We never would’ve known, except the blue ribbon for the event stuck to his hand! Stella, to our surprise, had the second-best time, so she won the spoon game. She isn’t so scared anymore… and that girl has such a brave streak, I never would have guessed!
As we set up for the boot relay, Oliver declared that he wasn’t participating. There was nothing I could do. Not as if I could throw him on a horse.
He announced that he was interested in riding only Spirit and no other horse. But that isn’t how Spirit works. I tried to explain that to him. Spirit does what Spirit wants. And I’m the only one who rides him. I told Oliver that he could pick another horse, but he refused and sat back down under that tree, where he’d been sitting every day since the beginning of camp.
Still, for a guy who was protesting everything, I did catch him glancing up to see what was going on. That was encouraging.
“Okay, everyone.” Pru began explaining the boot relay. “Stay on your horse, but slip off your boots and give them to a counselor. We’ll put them all in this wheelbarrow.” She pointed at the red wagon. “Abigail will take them to the end of the arena and dump them in a big pile.”
The kids quickly shed their shoes as we divided them into teams.
“You sure you don’t want to be on a team?” I asked Oliver as a last try before the O-Mok-See had to end.
He looked up at me sitting on Spirit, and shrugged.
So much for my thinking he might be softening.
“That’s not happening,” I said, and Spirit whinnied.
“Fine, then!” Oliver said in a big dramatic huff. “I’ll go make my own fun. I don’t need you.”
The frustration I had with him bubbled up. “Fine,” I countered. “Just sit here, and soon you can go with Julian to do some dangerous thing.” I said, sneering “Try not to get hurt.” He was so stubborn and I’d lost my patience. If he wanted to grow up to be just like his con man brother, then he should do that! I wouldn’t try to stop him.
I turned Spirit around, and we went back to the group.
“Ride on down to the far end of the arena. One at a time, riders from each team will gallop to the boots.” Abigail had spilled their boots and mixed them up in a pile. She was reading off the final rules now. “Jump off your horse, find your own boots, put them on, get back on the horse, and hurry back to your group.”
With a disappointed look at Oliver, I finished it up: “When you reach the group, the next rider goes. The first team to get boots on all the riders wins the day.”
“We’re riding horses without shoes?” Stella glanced down at her fancy riding boots, which she had so far refused to take off. They looked as if they were polished each night after camp. “I’m not wearing socks.”
I shrugged. “You can skip this one.” I didn’t like how I talked to Stella. I was just so frustrated with Oliver!
“I want to ride twice. I’ll go once for me and once for Stella,” Snips offered. “I can take my boots back to the other end of the ring and go again.”
“I guess,” Stella said. She seemed uncomfortable with sitting out, but she didn’t want to be barefoot in the horse ring, either.
“Okay, Snips goes twice,” Abigail said, leading Boomerang to the spot where the boots would go. “Let’s start this Boot Scoot Relay!”
“That’s so cute,” Pru said. “Who called it a ‘Boot Scoot’?”
Abigail smiled. “I just made that up.”
When Pru and I went to help the campers pile their boots, she told me, “You gotta stop worrying about Oliver.”
“I’m trying,” I replied. “It’s hard not to worry.” My anger at him for not even trying was mixed with disappointment that I couldn’t convince him to give the O-Mok-See a go.
Pru nodded.
Abigail called everyone to the side of the ring. She was helping Snips pull off his boots, when she yanked so hard she
