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

The Christmas Pony (2001)

The icicles have finally begun melting and falling off the eaves with great exciting cracks. The birds, which appear to share my dislike of the continuing presence of 16" of snow everywhere, responded with great excitement to my offering of moldy bread this morning. The breakfast crowd included the cursed robins, who have quite obviously quit the whole tiresome migration business and elected to remain here year-round as taunting non-harbingers of spring. All of which is to explain the posting of a review about a holiday-themed book which would on the face of it seem to be a bit late in the day. It has snow on the cover, it's going in.

The Christmas Pony

Sylvia Green, il. Sharon Scotland

2001, Scholastic

"Of course you can't have a pony for Christmas, Laura. We couldn't possibly afford one." Dad looked determined.

Poor old Dad. You know his determination is that of the doomed pony parent. The elderly neighbor who owns Mr. Crumbs is moving to Australia, and her aging palomino pony is scheduled to be retired to a horse rescue far away. But Laura doesn't want to lose her equine pal, and has rallied her brother Ben and her friends Emily and Sanjay to raise money to persuade her parents to adopt the pony instead.

Mr. Crumbs tossed his head, shaking his long mane, and blew gently through his nostrils. Laura couldn't imagine life without him.

The writing is very simple, the plot lacks urgency, but children's fundraising efforts are believable and sensible. The book seems aimed at children who are just past the beginner reader stage.

Horses

Mr. Crumbs - 18-year-old palomino pony

Other books

The Best Christmas Ever (cat)

The Best Dog In The World

Christmas Quackers (duck)

The Soft-Hearted Sheepdog

The Lonely Chick

The Christmas Wish (donkey)

Etc.

Green is English, and the while the book is non-specific about exactly where it's taking place, there is a vague, indescribable Englishness about it. This sort of thing always fascinates me about English-language books, even those which aren't deliberately trying to be generic enough to appeal to a wider audience. It's usually possible to realize from the writing alone that a writer is American or English or Canadian or Australian*. The slang, the choice of character names and, of course, the biases and prejudices we all enjoy. My favorite is the phrase "North America," which is almost always a big red (maple leafed) flag that you're currently enjoying the writing of a Canadian author.

* Yes, I realize I left out the Irish and the Scots, but it's a lot harder, generally, to make that distinction so I've lumped them in with the English.

Zara (1970)

As a possible guilty look over the shoulder regarding my shameless obsession with the glory side of racing in recent weeks, an English book which regards horse racing with a more jaundiced eye.

Zara

Joyce Stranger

1970, Harvill Press (UK), The Viking Press (US)

Richard Proud clucked to her as she trotted towards them, and she came to him, treading delicately on deceptively fragile hooves, and dropped her muzzle to his palm, breathing warmly, and huffed to him. He was lost.

The beautiful filly Zara changes hands for the first time for a reason that becomes one of the focal points of the book - the vast costs and fickle sucess of horse racing. New owner Richard Proud brings her home to a farm dominated by unease, where his wife Stella has changed into an angry, dangerously unstable woman. All she seems to care about is a social life Richard can't provide, scorning their teenage daughter Sue as plain and boring. Richard and Sue frequently take refuge in the warm company of their cook and farm manager, leaving the chilly main house to Stella. Also new to the farm is Sam, a poor teenager with a knack for riding, and Chris, a middle-class teen getting over a bout of polio. Zara's beauty and gentleness enthralls them all, but bad luck seems to plague the Proud farm after her purchase, culminating in a terrifying blizzard.

While most of the action comes through the perspectives of Richard Proud, Sam and a few other male characters, the twin centers of action are female: the filly Zara and the woman Stella. Zara is adored for both her beauty and her gentleness. Stella, on the other hand, is described as beautiful but harsh, so vicious and unfeeling toward her family that only the newcomer Sam sees her beauty anymore. When the book reveals Stella's thoughts, she returns again and again to pain, to a pain that drives her in a fury of action and anger, and it's no surprise when we discover her behavior has a physical cause. It does come as a complete surprise to her husband, who's not winning any prizes as most alert husband.

The horsemen in the book are shown to be very caring of their animals, or as caring as they can be while trying to break even or make a profit.

Horses were not fully grown until four, and too many of them, foaling when young, or raced too often when young, ended up ruined for life..

The decision is made to race Zara in a steeplechase, and her race ends on a bittersweet note, as they all realize the toll taken by the race.

The mare that had followed them home lay stretched on the ground. She would never race again.... "Burst her heart, quite literally."

About the Author

Joyce Muriel Wilson died in 2007. Her website was www.k9phoenix.freeserve.co.uk, and can sometimes be viewed via the Internet Archive's waybackmachine.

Books by Author - Joyce Stranger wrote a lot of books, mostly about animals. Other horse book include:

Breed Of Giants (1966)

Khazan: The Horse That Came Out of The Sea (1977)

Paddy Joe And Thompkin's Folly (1979)

The January Queen (1979)

Wild Ponies (1976)

The Stallion (1981)

No More Horses (1982)

Hound Of Darkness (1983)

Stranger Than Fiction (1984)

The Hounds Of Hades (1985)

Midnight Magic (1991)

Georgie's Secret

Links

FantasticFiction, summary with a far more attractive cover

Google shopping, with another cover

The White Colt (aka Run Wild, Run Free)

There is a genre in Brit writing that I do not seem able to find in American writing. The style is slow and deliberate, the setting natural or artistic, the action minimal but vastly important. Rumer Godden, Joyce Stranger and Vian Smith all spring to mind. This book belongs too.

The White Colt (aka Run Wild, Run Free)

David Rook

1967, E.P. Dutton (Scholastic)

When the wind picked them up in its boisterous arms and threw them ahead of it, the colt would gallop like Pegasus, hooves hardly seeming to touch the ground, long mane lashing Philip's face. At such times a horse's body takes on a quality that is almost terrifying... Speed, so remote in a car or an aeroplane, is suddenly an intensely personal reality.

A teenager who shies away from human contact becomes obsessed with a wild pony on the moors. When the pony vanishes, a neighbor helps Philip get over the loss by interesting him in falconry. Through their friendship, the boy begins to lose his fearful, odd ways and drifts closer to human society.

A very patient book that takes its time, returning often to the same problems and story instead of branching off into new ones. Philip's condition, which appears similar to autism, improves with aching, realistic slowness, as do his relationships with falcon and pony.

Practical Information

A lot on falconry, but some on riding a horse, including a wonderful section on learning to ride.

Horses

Philip -grey Dartmoor pony colt

Social

The farmer and the retired military man are heroic, the little gray lawyer is deeply limited, unable to deal with people. The mother is clutching and clinging and someone initially dismisses her as the problem with the boy, but it seems more likely the remote father had something to do with a similarly remote child.

Other Information

Made into a film by Columbia, "Run Wild, Run Free" with John Mills, Sylvia Sims, Bernard Miles and Mark Lester.

IMDB for film

Other Books
The Ballad Of The Belstone Fox - also made into a film, The Belstone Fox
Neeka The Kestrel
Free Spirit
The White Ghost
Birds - Strange And Exotic

About the Author
Rook appears to have been an artist as well as a writer; he's listed as illustrator for several books, including some by Joyce Stranger.

Five O'Clock Charlie

Five O'Clock Charlie
Marguerite Henry, il. Wesley Dennis
1962, Rand McNally

A picture book about a big blonde workhorse who grows tired of retirement and longs for a new duty. Beautiful illustrations and the sort of clear, easy and to-the-point writing that made Marguerite Henry a best-seller.

Horses
Charlie - 28-year-old draft horse (looks Belgian)

Setting
Shropshire, UK

Illustrations
Wesley Dennis's illustrations are almost always welcome, but they really shine here, with the simple story, larger-than-life character and lovely paintings.

About the Author
1902-1997
A Wisconsin native most famous for Misty Of Chincoteague, Henry had two Newberry Honor books (Misty and Justin Morgan Had A Horse) and one Newberry Medal book (King Of The Wind). Her collaboration with Wesley Dennis resulted in some of the most beloved children's book of the 20th century.

More books by the Author
Justin Morgan Had A Horse
The Little Fellow
Misty Of Chincoteague
King Of The Wind
Sea Star
Born To Trot
Album Of Horses
Brighty Of The Grand Canyon
Misty, The Wonder Pony
Black Gold
Gaudenzia
All About Horses
Stormy
White Stallions Of Lipizza
Mustang, Wild Spirit Of The West
Dear Readers And Riders
San Domingo, The Medicine Hat Stallion
A Pictorial Life Story Of Misty
One Man's Horse
Our First Pony
Misty's Twilight
Brown Sunshine Of Sawdust Valley

More about Wesley Dennis
1903-1966
A Massachusetts native who studied in Paris and was apparently an avid horseman who knew from an early age that he wanted to make a living combining his love of art and animals.

Related websites
The National Sporting Library
Children's Literature Research Collection: U. of Minn.
The Art of Wesley Dennis website

The Lord Mayor's Show
Vian Smith, il. Sam Savitt (beautiful cover painting)
1969, Doubleday and Company

All you need is luck, she thought. The luck to have good horses, wealthy owners, honest jockeys, able staff; the luck to train so many winners you become 'fashionable.'

The Duncan family believes in luck, as befits a family whose business is training racehorses. Unfortunately, all their luck has been bad lately. Jennifer Duncan is old enough to realize how near to disaster her beloved, honest father has dragged his family. When the troubled racehorse The Lord Mayor puts Danny Duncan in the hospital for an extended time, Jennny forms an alliance with her estranged older brother Graham, to rescue the farm, Punchards Mill. He's reluctant, but unable to shake his responsibility. Standing firmly in the way is the pain and resentment of the displaced Danny Duncan, torn loyalties of farm hand (and would-be boyfriend to Jenny) Ben, and, most crucially, the distrust of youngest child Andrew, who loves The Lord Mayor and resents his older brother.

The very English style, low on dialogue and rich in shifting points of view and interior monologue, moves the story along at a good clip while keeping the focus on the characters, not the action. Even the animals' perspectives are used:

The gray reached the edge of the ramp and looked up, summoning his courage for an ascent which seemed long and steep. He knew he was leaving Punchards Mill. He looked around at the heads of other horses, his nostrils flaring in the beginning of a nucker. He'd never become one of them, never a bonafide racehorse. A year ago he had come among them nervously and had taken weeks to settle. Now he didn't want to leave. His glance to older horses had appeal in it.

But the central struggle is between Graham, self-exiled from the family farm after a disasterous race, and torn still between his fledgling life in London and his old, complicated family life in the West Country, and the ruined racehorse The Lord Mayor. Years before, Graham was Danny's future champion jockey, but the teenager had been fed up with his father's honest, err-on-the-side-of-the-horse approach to winning and, knowing his family desperately needed a win, rode a race that fried The Lord Mayor's mind. The horse still loathes Graham, who see Andrew's bond with the outlaw as exactly what it is; a statemment of 'forget Graham, I can be the family hero.'

Despite the focus on the male power struggle, it's Jennifer who the book returns to again and again, using her as the central stand-in for the reader. She has her own plots - a love triangle with Ben and a wealthy amateur rider, Miles, who becomes entangled in the redemption of The Lord Mayor.

Horses
The Lord Mayor - bay gelding
Fire Steward - old racehorse
Cavalier Rustic - racehorse
Prudent Polly - racehorse
Galvanic - racehorse
Miscreant - racehorse

Cover
Beautiful painting by Sam Savitt of a bay racehorse being led by a boy.

About the Author
1919-1969
Smith's fondness for Dartmoor shows in most of his books, and more information about his life and non-horsey books can be found on the Widecombe-In-The-Moor website
http://www.widecombe-in-the-moor.com/history/minutes/2004/writer_vian_smith.php

Other Books by Author
Several books were published under different titles in the UK and US

Pride Of The Moor (Question Mark in UK) (1961)
Martin Rides The Moor (1964)
Green Heart (1964)
A Second Chance (The Horses of Petrock in UK) (1965)
Tall And Proud (King Sam in UK) (1965)
Come Down The Mountain (1967)
The Minstrel Boy (1970)

Nonfiction
A Horse Called Freddie (1967)
Point To Point (1968)
The Grand National (1969)
Horses In The Green Valley (Parade Of Horses in UK) (1970)

Some of his non-horsey books
Song Of The Unsung: A Story of the Sappers (1945)
Candles To The Dawn (1946)
Genesis Down (1963)
The First Thunder (1965)
Moon In The River (1969)
The Wind Blows Free
Portrait Of Dartmoor

Martin Rides The Moor
Vian Smith, il. Ray Houlihan
1964, Doubleday

11-year-old Martin Manningham has gone deaf, possibly as a result of a swimming accident. His father, a Dartmoor farmer, tries to restore his resentful and withdrawn son to an active and happy boy by buying him a pony. Martin sees through the ploy and intends to ignore the pony - but circumstances in the form of a blizzard force him to take an interest and soon he's in love with the little mare he names Tuppence. The interest in Tuppence brings Martin out of his shell and he befriends a neighbor, Jane, whose father is a pony dealer and whose mounts are never really safe from being sold. Together they ride the moor, go on a fox hunt, enter gymkhanas, etc. All is well until Tuppence goes missing, following a wild stallion onto the moor.

Well-written, with a nice blend of adventures, horse talk and the advancing plot of Martin's acceptance of his disability.

Rough illustrations are sometimes effective, sometimes weak.

Themes
Abuse
Rescue
My Parents Aren't So Bad, After All

Other Books
Tall And Proud (aka King Sam)
Green Heart
Genesis Down
Pride Of The Moor
Minstrel Boy
Come Down The Mountain
The Horses Of Petrock
The Lord Mayor's Boy
Parade Of Horses
Point To Point

A Horse Called September
Anne Digby
Dobson Books Ltd. (UK)
St. Martin's (US, 1982)

When Anna Dewar is sent away to an exclusive boarding school, her best friend Mary Wilkins believes nothing will change between them. She takes care of Anna's talented horse September, awaiting the end of the school term and their summer vacation. But Anna's father is acting strangely, training September for a big horse show and losing his temper when the horse doesn't perform perfectly. In short order, September's lost his bright interest in jumping and Mr. Dewar is looking for a new horse for his daughter.

After many years of reading Brit books, I can just about decipher the scenario here, with the prosperous farmer being seen as a minor-league lord of the manor, his employees living in cottages for generations, and the idea that a career as a show jumper makes sense to two hard-headed farm workers. If I hadn't put in hard time with too many books good and bad to mention, I'd be at a loss for some of the storyline. But most of it isn't neccessary - it boils down to "Poor girl loses rich best friend to snobbery and helps a discarded horse make good." Frankly, the bit about the horse is all that's important. And September has a truly glorious comeback, despite the author's rush to get it over with. Some of it seems less than informed about horses - September is almost too human to be real. And the riding is rather hurried over, as if the author wasn't that comfortable with it. Her best moment comes not with a riding scene but with a truly horrifying rescue, the knacker leading September away while our heroine screams from behind a locked gate.

It's a brisk book, without a spare bit of writing. The horse is central though not onstage at all times, giving plenty of room for well-rounded human characters. But the horse drives the action, the heroine being consumed by her love for the horse. There is not much description, but what there is is striking, particularly the enormous obstacle Mr. Dewars builds to school September over. The language is plain, the dialogue believable.

Themes
Horse Show
Abuse
Rescue
Bourgie Parents
My Parents Aren't So Bad, After All
I'm a TROUBLED teen (but not like, you know, on heroin)
Where's that footman?

Other Books by the Author
Digby seems to be best-known for her boarding-school series called Trebizon, but she did writer at least one other horse book, The Quicksilver Horse.

And now an English book for a change of pace.



Poor Badger
K.M. Peyton, il. Mary Lonsdale
1990, Doubleday

Ros Palfrey is horse-crazy but lacks opportunity until she spots a handsome pinto pony grazing in a park near her home. Completely around the bend about the pony but suspicious of his careless owners, she makes it her mission in life to look after Mountfitchet Meteor Light or, as she calls him, Badger. But despite her efforts, his owners' sloppy care slowly turns to neglect, and as winter approaches, Ros begins to believe that Badger will die of hunger and cold. So she hatches a plan...

Going home from school, the path led out of Safeway's parking lot and across a wide stretch of rough ground toward the railroad. It was spring, and the ground was greening happily, bright with dandelions and ­-

Ros stopped in her tracks and Leo, trailing, walked into the back of her.

"What?"

"Look!" Her voice quivered with glory. "Look!" It squeaked, out of control.

Leo looked. Usually the field was empty, except perhaps for an old man walking his dog, but today a pony was grazing in it, held by a chain fastened to a tether.

I am so jealous. I always wanted to find a pony tied out in a field by my town's supermarket. All I ever found was a turtle. Damn those English towns with their wacky commons and lack of proper zoning regulations, making Americans drool with envy.

A crisp and energetic book with a dreamy sidekick who comes into his own, a brave heroine, a realistic villain and an adorable pony. I would quibble that the heroine's parents are rather spineless when the pony's owner calls up to complain about their daughter's behavior. Her father's caution about it being chancey to draw the RSPCA's attention to the pony's condition seem more about reluctance to get involved than a real concern about the pony or his daughter. And the insistence on realism at the end was more labored than a traditional perfect ending would have been.

Did I mention the adorable pony? The cover makes that quite clear. The interior illustrations are less charming, being rather rough and doing a better job with the human faces than the pony.

Animals
Mountfitchet Meteor Light/Badger - black and white pinto pony gelding
Ermintrude/Erm - dog

Themes
Horse Show
Abuse
Rescue

Other Books
Flambards
Fly-By-Night
Flambards In Summer
The Team

Author Website