sogood at running and swimming,he was stillworried about his riding. "We're all better at some things than others, Nutty said to him.In fact, she thought that she was probably the worst of all of them at most things. True, she was good at riding, but that was only a quarter of the competition. The competition would be at Swallow Hall, a big country house with its own lake and swimming pool. First there was the shooting, then the four-minute swim, the two-mile ru and the riding. In each part, only the best three scores in the team were counted. But Nutty suddenly realized tha they had never tried all four parts ofthe competition on the same day. They continued to work hard, and in the summer Uncle Bean found some farms where they could try some real cross- country riding. Hoomey's horse Bones loved it. He seemed to remember his past as a racehorse, and went over the jumps like an express train, nearly frightening Hoomey to death "You were wonderful, Hoomey, the others told him afterwards. Hoomey's face went bright red, and he forgot that he was afraid. Poor Jazz had problems. When Spot came to a jump, he stopped but Jazz went on, over his head. remembered something. Spot was in a circus. Perhaps he'll do it to music.' So they brought some music and played it, and Spot stood up on his back legs and Jazz fell off again! But, in the end, Spot jumped better to music.