Stevie announced one morning a couple of weeks later, “but this is the horse-craziest!” Collapsed on trunks in the tack room, Lisa and Carole had to agree. Since Red had been away, they had lived and breathed horses from sunrise to sunset, sometimes staying till after dark to finish the day’s tack. Lisa had arranged a schedule that incorporated Samson’s training (in the early morning when Max was busy in his office), riding their own horses (in the afternoon), helping Max and Denise, who was Red’s girlfriend and a part-time Pine Hollow employee, to exercise school horses and boarders (whenever they could fit it in), and doing a multitude of barn chores (morning, noon, and night). They were all so busy during the day, and exhausted at the end of the day, that none of them had time to think. Lisa was glad. By throwing herself into the work at Pine Hollow, she had managed to forget about the Macrae—or at least her individual role in it. Instead she concentrated on the team effort: Project Secret Horse!
