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 Three Day Event: The Gift Horse

Three Day Event: The Gift Horse
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 8 to 10
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.04

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    bareback, clip-clop, dressage, halter, disloyal, shank, stabled, Ooops, better, rapped, dreamy, mare, grazing, portion, bucking, glorious
     content words:    Miss Kitty, Three Day Event, Day Event

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Three Day Event: The Gift Horse   
1     Serena stood at the field gate. Miss Kitty, the mare, glanced over at her, shook her head, and went back to grazing. The old, dark bay gelding named Hercules saw her and ambled over to the gate. She fed him a piece of carrot and snapped a lead shank on his halter.
 
2     "Sandy is coming over with Jester," she told the old horse, as she led him to the barn to be groomed. "She just got a copy of the latest dressage magazine. We'll have a look at it, and then we can go for a ride."
 
3     Serena groomed the tall, heavy horse, even taking time to brush the dirt out of the feathers over his feet. Then she put him in his stall with a small portion of oats.
 
4     Moments later, the light clip-clop of hooves warned her of Sandy's approach. Jester nickered to Hercules as the big bay hung his head over the stall door. Sandy stabled him next to Herc, and the two girls sat on hay bales to thumb through the magazine.
 
5     "Can you imagine having a horse like one of these?" asked Serena. "Can you imagine doing the Three Day Event at the Olympics?"
 
6     "I'd probably finish last, because I was too nervous to do well," sighed Sandy. "If I was riding Jester, he would probably shy at the letters around the dressage ring, or else choose that moment for a bucking fit! After all, a dressage horse is highly trained, like a gymnast."
 
7     Serena laughed. "At least the dressage phase is something Herc might have been able to do in his younger days. I know there is no way he could gallop 20 miles on the cross country course, never mind the jumps!"
 
8     "Have you ever tried to do any dressage work with him?" asked Sandy. "You could help him to become more flexible. He's already obedient."

Paragraphs 9 to 16:
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