The Fantasy Horse (2005)

The Fantasy Horse

Jenny Hughes, il. M. Stokes

2005, Pony, Stabenfeldt A/S

This next part makes me sound like a real show-off, but I knew everyone loved to see my pony do his act, so as Robert and the team left the ring, I curved Rocco away and cantered in a diagonal line across the grass. Rocco, his ears pricked, kept a smooth pace as I double vaulted from side to side, then he spun in a perfect turn on the forehand as I asked him to rear, lifting his forelegs and pawing the air like a wild stallion. I know it's not part of Pony Club training, but I discovered Rocco loves to learn all sorts of tricks since he came to me as a green young horse four years before.

Yes, Emma, this does make you sound like a real show-off.

Hot on the heels of their triumph in the Pony Club Games Championship, 14-year-old Pony Clubbers Emma Jessop, her best friend Alice and her old friend/maybe boyfriend Robert are invited to take part in a promotion for a new theme park's opening. The festivities at Adventure Land's Fantasy section will include an equine drama, as 'rival tribes' go to war. The kids and their ponies audition for parts as tribesmen and their horses, and make the cut, happily settling into the new, luxe in-park hotel. Also making the cut is a genuine TV actor, Troy Mitchell, who sends the teenage girls' hearts racing. Except Emma, who shrugs off his fame with the comment that she's never seen his show. Except that Troy, who isn't much of a rider, makes a slightly calculating play for Emma, already known as that amazing rider with that amazing pony Rocco. Meanwhile, a mystery breaks out when several hotel rooms are trashed and things are stolen, and then accidents begin happening. Are they aimed at Troy, or at the park?

A modern hothouse of teen lust and jealousy interspersed with straight-from-the-olden-days British gush. I've never seen so many exclamation points in my life!!!!!!

To say the time dragged slowly is like saying double geography is not the favorite period of my timetable. Stating the obvious or what!

Very much a teen story with horsey elements, all intended for a tween audience. When I was a tween (not that we labored under that description then) we all read Sweet Valley High and V.C. Andrews, so clearly, it's an age group with a deeply generous and forgiving heart.

Note:

This is a book from the mail-order series PONY, run by Norwegian publisher Stabenfeldt International. Despite the similar name and the participation of the characters in this book, the series and publisher are not affiliated with the Pony Club organization.

Ponies

Rocco - black

Juniper - grey

Paint - pinto

Other Books

The Dark Horse
A Horse By Any Other Name

The Painted Horse

The Horse From Nowhere

The Mystery of The Golden Horse

A Horse Called Gem

The Chasing Horse

Mystery At Black Horse Farm

The Horse In The Mirror

Legend Of The Island Horse

A Horse Called Trouble

The Horse In The Portrait

Hero Horse

The Iron Horse

The Sea Horse
Milo (dog)

Links

Author website

PONY

Stabenfeldt/PONY

Sweet Valley High at Series-books.com

Cover of Double Love (1983), the book that started it all - OMG, LOOK AT THAT JEAN JACKET...

The VC Andrews website