The episode opens with Veronica being stroppy because she’s been assigned Patch for a group lesson when she wanted Prancer instead. I’m not sure what she’s so miserable about, Patch is gorgeous. In fact, I remember going on horse riding camp at thirteen and being super excited that I was assigned the paint horse to ride (his name was Mitch!) because all the other girls (and the one boy who attended) wanted him, too.
Anyway, during class The Saddle Club are delighting in Veronica’s visible misery. Veronica attempts to flounce off in a huff, but while dismounting gets her foot caught in the stirrup and she ends up falling. Carole, Lisa, and Stevie literally point and laugh at her. Veronica yells at Lisa, who was assigned Prancer, ‘You’re not good enough to ride that horse and I'm gonna make sure everyone knows it!’ Geez Louise, kid, calm down!
After class, The Saddle Club and Phil ride out to the local quarry. The girls snicker about Veronica, and Phil says they should give her a break because she’s probably still upset about Cobalt. Points for continuity! Phil tries to make his case and explain his reasoning, but Stevie is pissed off he didn't immediately take their side and glares at him until he shuts up. I imagine, twenty years into the future, this exact dynamic is playing out over and over in their barely functioning marriage.
Veronica is bitching to Kristi about how she totally deserves to ride Prancer, but the two are quickly distracted by the arrival of Jake, Red's bandmate. He’s got an Irish accent and is carrying a guitar case, so naturally they both immediately enamoured with him. Veronica is somehow struck by completely uncharacteristic self-awareness, and wonders aloud if she and Kristi are going to end up fighting over him. The girls (very unconvincingly) agree that they won't.
Jake hassles Red about how he’s not been coming to band rehearsals anymore. Red explains that he’s got more responsibility now that he works at Pine Hollow, and Jake jokingly threatens to replace Red in the band. Red speaks to Max about taking Saturday off. Max is reluctant, but gets distracted by the arrival of his lady love, Deborah. Max tells Red that, if he can find someone to do some part-time work at the stables, he can have Saturday off. (I have two questions. 1) Is Red the only stablehand at Pine Hollow? 2) Shouldn't Max be the one in charge of hiring?) Red is thrilled — he already has someone in mind!
Veronica catches Kristi flirting with Jake, and furiously drags her out of the room. Phil watches all of this, amazed, and tells Jake, ‘Veronica and Kristi were all over you.’ Jake happily agrees with Phil’s assessment of the situation, which, bleugh. Phil asks for romance advice, saying he’s been trying to ask a girl out, but it’s just not happening. Jake tells him to give girls compliments, and that ‘girls aren’t that complicated.’ Double bleugh! I imagine 2024 Jake is trying to self-promote his online pickup artistry course somewhere in worst corners of the internet.
Lisa is about to tack up Prancer when she notices the mare is acting strange. She asks Max to take a look, and he agrees that something’s up. He tells her that Prancer should be fine to ride, and she’ll probably pick up during the morning. However, during class, Prancer refuses a jump. Veronica yells at Lisa to get out of the way, and smirks about how a horse is only as good as its rider. Max tells Lisa to call it a day, because there’s clearly something wrong with Prancer. (Seriously? You’re basing all of this off one jump refusal?) He says he’ll ask Red to check on Prancer’s feed, and tells Lisa not to take Prancer up to the quarry.
In the lounge, Carole compliments Stevie's shirt. She explains that she borrowed it from her brother without asking his permission, and proceeds to spill soft drink down it. Stevie's upset because her brother will be angry with her. It’s at this point that Phil walks in and compliments her t-shirt. Stevie assumes he’s taking the piss and gets angry with him.
Lisa is still worried about Prancer, but Max tells her that she was probably having an off day. Veronica overhears this and tells Max that Prancer was probably slacking off because he put a novice rider on her. Lisa says that Veronica is possibly right, and that she should rider Prancer instead. She says she misses riding Patch, and Max tells Veronica that she can ride Prancer tomorrow, but only for one day. Veronica says she of course agrees with this … unless Prancer dramatically improves with her. ‘And believe me, she will,’ Veronica states, in a tone that is clearly a threat.
Phil tries to compliment Stevie again, but she still doesn't want to hear it. Phil leaves, deflated. Red comes into the lounge, and Lisa asks about Prancer's feed, which he confirms is fine. Red tells the girls that all of the horses have been put on a feed schedule, and they can't give them any treats — not even jelly beans. Red explains that he knew a girl whose horse would jump ‘every fence in sight’ if she fed it extra oats. Cut to a gleeful-looking Veronica, who has clearly begun plotting something.
Red explains to Jake that, if Jake helps around at the stables, Red will be able to go to band practise. Jake says that he doesn’t like horses, and that he's just hanging around. Red points out that he’s been ‘hanging around’ with Kristi and Veronica, and that they’re too young for him. (THANK-YOU!) Jake says it's not his fault if girls ‘dig’ him (TRIPLE bleugh!) and then steps in horse poo. As he deserves!
Phil asks Jake for more romantic advice, because the compliment thing hasn’t been working out. Jake advises Phil to play it cool and ignore her. (This guy is the actual WOOORST.) During this conversation, Veronica’s sneaking around in the background, clearly up to no good. She creeps into Prancer’s stall to feed her a bowl of oats.
Prancer’s performance drastically improves with Veronica riding her. Max tells her she did an excellent job, and Veronica throws it in Lisa’s face by telling her, ‘You’ve either got it or you don’t.’ After the lesson, Veronica oh-so-graciously offers to let Lisa cool Prancer off. The girls decide to ride to the quarry again, and Carole spots Phil and suggests Stevie invite him with them again. Stevie tries to invite him, but Phil’s following Jake’s advice, so he’s acting all distant.
The Saddle Club ride out to the quarry and try to figure out what’s up with Prancer. Carole deduces that Veronica made Prancer sick. Lisa’s all ‘Veronica wouldn’t do that!’ (Since when? Since when??) Carole and Stevie decide to find proof that Veronica’s engaging in horse doping. Lisa decides to stay back at the quarry.
At the lounge, Stevie and Carole search through Veronica’s bag, but Max catches them in the act. Meanwhile, Phil runs into Lisa out on the trail, and they chat about him and Stevie. Phil says that nothing works — when he talks to her she gets mad, but ignoring her doesn’t work either. Lisa sets him straight about ignoring girls, and exercises saintly levels of self-restraint by not smacking him in the head while doing so. Prancer eats some leaves, and Phil recognises the plant as poisonous oleander.
Veronica is slipping another bowl of oats in Prancer’s feed when Max walks by with Stevie and Carole. He wants them to apologise for going through her bag. Veronica hides the bowl behind her back, but her guilty demeanour tips Max off and he gets her to hand it over. Veronica tries to say she was giving Prancer the oats ‘as a treat,’ but Max figures out she was doing it to boost Prancer’s energy. He suspends Veronica from lessons. (So sneaking Prancer extra oats gets a suspension, but not the time she rode dangerously after repeated warnings from Max, ultimately leading to the accident that caused death of her horse? How was that not worth a suspension? Make it make sense!)
Lisa and Phil rush in, saying Prancer’s been poisoned. Dr. Judy pays a visit and tells them Prancer will recover just fine. The Saddle Club figure that Prancer was sluggish during Lisa’s lesson because she had eaten the oleander beforehand. By the time Veronica rode her, it was out of her system, explaining why Prancer ‘improved’ so much. Stevie hugs Phil because he recognised the plant was poisonous. Since they're elven, this is obviously a huge step in their relationship. Carole and Lisa giggle.
Jake and Red are chatting when Jake runs into Deborah. Jake’s enamoured with her, and when Max tells Deborah Jake’s going to start working at the stables, Jake — to Red’s surprise — agrees with him. In the tack room, Veronica and Kristi are arguing about how belongs with Jake. Kristi’s convinced they're in a relationship, which I expect is news to him. They decide to let Jake choose who to be with, but spot him desperately flirting with Deborah. They immediately get the ick. Kristi jumps straight back to flirting with Red, to which Veronica literally facepalms.
The Saddle Club are in a group lesson, and Lisa and Prancer are flying over the jumps together. Max tells them they’ve all done some great riding today. Roll credits!
For some reason, I really struggled getting through this episode. This recap took me ages to write, much longer than all my other ones. I can't figure out why. Technically, there's nothing overtly wrong with it. The Saddle Club are having horsey adventures, Stevie and Phil are bickering in a way that we're supposed to think is cute but really isn't, and Veronica's being her typical bratty self. The only thing that's unusual about this episode is that Max actually suspended her for her behaviour, instead of sighing and shaking his head like normal. I can't quite put my finger on why this one just didn't work for me.
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