Birthday Pony Chapter One Popcorn and Jane were born the same day, many miles apart. Popcorn was a pony foal who belonged to Grandma Aggie. Jane was Grandma Aggie's grandchild. Popcorn grew faster than Jane did. When Jane could walk, Popcorn could gallop. When Jane was playing hopscotch, Popcorn was hopping over Grandma Aggie's pasture fence. Before Jane even started kindergarten, Popcorn went to the pony trainer. The trainer taught Popcorn good manners. She taught him to let himself be ridden. It wasn't always easy. "Popcorn is a great pony," the trainer told Grandma Aggie. "But he does like to get his own way. He'll need a good rider." Ever since they were born, Grandma Aggie wanted Popcorn to be Jane's pony. But Jane was small and far away. She had never ridden a pony. Popcorn needed a rider soon. So Grandma Aggie put an ad in the paper, and a family bought Popcorn for their little girl, Cathleen. Cathleen was a good rider. She sat straight in the saddle. She kept her heels down and her head high. She even won ribbons at shows, riding one of the lesson ponies. Popcorn liked Cathleen. She gave him carrots. She cleaned his stall every day. And with Cathleen, Popcorn always got his own way. Whatever Popcorn wanted to do, Cathleen let him do. She couldn't help it. Cathleen's mother bought her books about training ponies. She sent her for more riding lessons. Still, Cathleen couldn't make Popcorn go where she wanted him to go. She couldn't make him go slow when he wanted to go fast. "They are a little too young for each other," Cathleen's riding teacher said. "Things will get better in a year or two." Then, on Cathleen's birthday, her aunt gave her a mountain bike. The bike went just where Cathleen pointed it. It went as fast as she wanted, and no faster. It didn't jump over anything. Cathleen went biking after school. She went biking on weekends. She went biking all summer, and all the next summer, too. Popcorn stayed in the pasture by himself. He ate grass. He ran races with the birds. When Cathleen biked past with her friends, Popcorn raced them, too. He always won. But the bikes went on beyond the pasture fence. Popcorn jumped the fence a few times. Cathleen's father made it higher. Cathleen still fed Popcorn and watered him and took good care of him. She still rode him once in a while. But each summer she rode him less. Birthday Pony . Copyright © by Jessie Haas. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from Birthday Pony by Jessie Haas All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
