Stevie Lake declared, practically screaming even as she said it. “Oh, come on, Stevie,” Carole Hanson, one of her two best friends, responded. “That’s not reasonable. It’s only the middle of December. And remember, we want to have snow for the Starlight Ride on Christmas Eve.” “That’s the point,” Stevie said, fiddling with the napkin dispenser on the table. “We’ve already had three snowstorms. This is just going to be one of those winters, and I don’t like it. Everything gets cold and mucky. We never get enough snow to play in or to close school, just enough to make a mess.” “Hear! Hear!” their friend Lisa Atwood chimed in. “It’s been pretty awful. We’ve been confined to riding in the indoor ring since the beginning of November.” And that, of course, was what really mattered. Although the three girls were very different from one another, their common love of horses drew them together. Once they’d discovered the possibilities of a friendship based on that love, they’d formed The Saddle Club.
