Sophie the Zillionaire Read Online Free

his neck. It looked strong andsmooth. “Have you ridden before?” she asked Sophie.
    Sophie shook her head. “But it is my lifelong dream!” she said.
    Tallulah smiled. “Mine, too. But Prince here is a handful. I have some ponies who would be much better for you,” she said.
    Ponies?
Sophie was not sure she liked the sound of that. Her dream was to ride big beautiful horses. Not little ponies.
    Then Tallulah turned to the other girls. “Has anyone ridden before?” she asked.
    Sophie looked around. She really hoped not! Sophie the Zillionaire should not be riding a little pony when everyone else had a big horse.
    Luckily, the girls all said no.
    Phew.
    Tallulah led them to another row of stalls. Over the doors, Sophie saw signs with the horses’ names painted on them.
    There were Sinbad … and Ringo … andJoker … and Daisy … and Penny … and Duchess …
    Duchess!
That would work! A duchess was kind of like a prince — or a princess. Sophie was pretty sure, anyway.
    She almost said, “I’ll take that one!”
    Only, before she could, Mrs. Belle’s daughter gave Duchess to Grace!
    “Here, Sophie. You take Penny,” Tallulah said. “She’ll be perfect for you.”
    Penny? Perfect?
Sophie the Zillionaire did not think so.
    She cleared her throat. “Um, do you think I could have Duchess instead? You might not know this,” she said softly — she did not want the other girls to feel bad — “but I have a fifty-dollar bill at home. I’m almost the richest kid in my class. So a horse named Penny doesn’t seem right.”
    “I see,” said Tallulah. She turned to Penny’s stall. A reddish brown face was peeking out. It nodded two times. Then it blew and made a soft, shivery horse sound.
    “Too bad,” Tallulah went on. “I think Penny really likes you.”
    Really?
Penny liked her?
    The pony nodded again.
    “Do you still want to switch?” Tallulah asked her.
    “No, that’s okay.” Sophie shook her head. Tallulah was right. Penny did like her. And she liked Penny, too, now.
    Plus Penny was not a small pony at all. She was big. Much bigger than Sophie. So big, Sophie wondered how she would ever get up on her back.
    “Is there a ladder?” she asked Tallulah. “I’m ready to go!”
    “Yeah!” cheered the other girls. They were ready, too!
    But they learned that this was not how it worked.
    They learned that before you rode a horse or a pony, you had to groom it. And that meant lots of brushing — which was fun.
    It also meant cleaning the pony’s feet — which was hard if he didn’t want to pick them up (like Kate’s pony, Joker).

    Joker whinnied as Kate kept trying.
    “He’s laughing at me,” Kate groaned.
    They also learned that before you rode, you and your pony both had to dress up. The pony had to put on a bridle and a blanket. Oh, and a saddle. Of course. The riders had to put on hard hats. They were a lot like helmets, but very plain. (Sophie decided when she was a zillionaire, she would buy a fancy one.)
    Then the riding part came. Finally! That was when the girls learned other things.
    Things like:
    You didn’t use a ladder to get on the pony. You used a big box called a mounting block, instead. And you always got on from the pony’s left side. And you had to be fast, or he would walk off.
    Also, the ground looked really far away from the top of a pony! Sophie was glad to be wearing her hard hat then. She did not care at all that it was plain.
    Once the girls were on their ponies, they rode around a ring. Kate got to be first. Sophie was in the middle, as usual. But that was fine with her. Steering a pony was not easy.
    “Just follow Ringo,” Sophie whispered in Penny’s tall ear.
    And she did. The whole time. Penny was such a smart pony!
    Then they learned that an hour of riding went fast. Even when you were just riding around … and around … and around.
    And all that grooming you did before you rode? You had to do it all over again after.
    And they also learned that there