He was holding Baldy close to the bit as he helped her and explained. He saw that her right foot found the stirrup, and that she had the reins properly gathered, and then he released the animal. Immediately Baldy began to curvet, raising both fore feet simultaneously, and, as they were coming down, raising his hind feet together, so that all four were off the ground at once.
Shannon was terrified. Why had they put her on a bucking horse? They knew she couldn’t ride. It was cruel!
But she sat there with tight-pressed lips and uttered no sound. She recalled every word that Custer had said to her, and she did not jerk, though some almost irresistible power urged her to. She just pulled, and as she pulled she glanced about to see if they were rushing to her rescue. Great was her surprise when she discovered that no one was paying much attention to her or to the mad actions of her terrifying mount.
Suddenly it dawned upon her that she had neither fallen off nor come near falling off. She had not even lost a stirrup. As a matter of fact, the motion was not even uncomfortable. It was enjoyable, and she was in about as much danger of being thrown as she would have been from a rocking chair as violently self-agitated. She laughed then, and in the instant all fear left her.
She saw Eva mount from the ground, and noted that the stableman was not even permitted to hold her restive horse, much less to assist her in any other way. Custer swung to the saddle with the ease of long habitude. The colonel reined to her side.
“We’ll let them go ahead,” he said, “and I’ll give you your first lesson. Then I’ll turn you over to Custer—he and Eva can put on the finishing touches.”
“He wants to see that you’re started right,” called the younger man, laughing.
“Popsy just wants to add another feather to his cap,” said Eva. “Some day he’ll ‘point with pride’ and say, ‘Look at her ride! I gave her her first lesson.’”
“Here come Mrs. Evans and Guy!”
As Mrs. Pennington spoke, they saw two horses rounding the foot of the hill at a brisk canter, their riders waving a cheery long-distance greeting.