This children’s book is made up of eleven different short stories revolving around horses. Each of the stories features a young horse rider or owner as the main person in the story. This helps to make the stories relatable to young readers.

Keeping things interesting, the stories are varied. They cover boisterous ponies, those who misbehave, searches for the right dressage horse and even a horse rescue. The location of the stories varies too. You’re invited to travel with riders across plains in South Africa where antelope and zebras aren’t uncommon. Then you travel to England where ponies gallop across fields. And on further again to Germany and some beautiful dressage horses. The topics of carriage driving, playing polo and competing horses are all covered, too.

The short stories covered in this book collection include:

• Dangerous Journey
• The Empty Field
• Catch as Catch Can
• Rustlers on the Moor
• Count Your Blessings
• The Lie
• Coming Up Trumps
• A Spectacular Pony
• Circus Tricks
• Champions
• The Search

Rosemary Simmonds does a great job of depicting a variety of horses within each of the short stories. Horse information is correct and written in nicely. One story I struggled to comprehend when a young girl spent all her savings bidding on a pony and then told her parents! Other than this, the stories are quite believable and a great mixture of adventures that can happen when you own and ride horses.

All the stories contained within Dangerous Journey provide great descriptions of the characters and also the places where they feature. The words are followed up nicely with beautiful illustrations by four different illustrators.

Author: Rosemary Simmonds
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2896274.Rosemary_Simmonds
Fiction – children
In my library? Yes!  I picked it up second hand in an op shop 🙂
Want it? Get it now on Amazon.

Triple Bar does a great job of introducing the reader to the other side of the story. Susannah Andrews is portrayed in Double Clear as a spoilt brat. Even worse, she is known to abuse horses and shouldn’t be trusted – ever.

When you’re able to see the story from Susannah’s point of view, things change drastically. Susannah is in a wealthy family and her parents insist on only owning ponies that perform. Likewise, they want to know that their daughter will do everything she can to win.

In spite of this, Susannah isn’t guilty of the abuse to horses that has been pinned on her. When she has a revelation about her harsh riding, she works to change this, too. In time she learns to care for her ponies as one who loves them, rather than one who sees them as winning machines.

Triple Bar explores the dynamics in Susannah’s family – with a stubborn father, an estranged brother and submissive mother. It also shows how the sole focus of winning can alienate the one person who is expected to perform well.

Susannah believed her parents when they indicated that show jumping friends would be a distraction. But as she battles to perform as her parents insist she does, all Susannah needs is a friend – or two. When one comes surprisingly in the form of AJ, Susannah questions if this newcomer to the show jumping world is genuine. Surely AJ wouldn’t want to associate with someone who is hated by the show jumping world, much less be friends with them?

Triple Bar does a great job of introducing the reader to Susannah and her complicated life where ponies are just as important as they are to AJ and Katy. It’s a great read in the series.

Author: Kate Lattey
https://nzponywriter.com/
Fiction – teen
In my library? I was able to download the first four recently, so as an eBook it is!
Want it? Get it now on Amazon.

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A spin off series from the Phantom Stallion series by Terri Farley, is Wild Horse Island. In the second book in this series, The Shining Stallion, young Darby Carter is living in the place of her dreams. She has found herself living in Hawaii with her grandfather Jonah while her mum is on set for a film. Jonah owns 2000 acres in Hawaii known as ‘Iolani Ranch. He breeds working horses and has a beautiful bay stallion.

Aside from her grandfather’s horses, there are wild horses on the island. Darby is in heaven. She loves horses. Her passion for them and her desire to learn as much as possible override her lack of knowledge about horses. Add to this the fact that she has her own filly – Hoku (Hawaiian for star) – and that she can ride daily and Darby knows she will improve in leaps and bounds.

Although Darby loves where she is staying, she is lonely and not sure she’ll make it as a future ranch hand. A girl around her age named Megan is angry with Darby and she doesn’t know how to change this. Also, without meaning to, Darby accidentally endangers one of Jonah’s horses. Suddenly she is questioning if she belongs on the ranch at all.

Then one night she sees a mysterious horse on ‘Iolani Ranch. When she mentions this, Darby learns about the legends surrounding the Shining Stallion of Hawaii. Her grandfather doesn’t want the stallion around. Another man is trying to catch him. Darby is surprised to find a mysterious stallion causing so much trouble. When he comes back to the ranch, she questions if the outcome can be anything other than bad.

The Shining Stallion is an interesting tale about a horse crazy teen in Hawaii. It throws in some interesting tales about legends in Hawaii and the local language. The second book in the Wild Horse Island series, it is another interesting read from Terri Farley.

Author: Terri Farley
http://www.phantomstallion.com
Fiction – teen
In my library? That it is!
Want it? Get it now on Amazon.

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The second book in this series, Double Clear introduces you to Katy as the protagonist, this time. Katy lives and breathes horses and riding. Along with her mum, they buy, retrain and sell horses.

Katy is currently leasing Molly, a beautiful bay mare that proved to be too much of a handful for her owner. Although Katy knows that Steph is an accomplished rider, she has been happily riding and training Molly for three years, having taken her on at the age of 12. Since then, the stubborn and flighty mare has turned into a promising jumper. Katy knows it’s because of her perseverance – and the fact that she clicked with the mare from the start.

Consequently she is devastated to find that Molly is to be sold – to someone Katy loathes. Not only is she going to miss out on riding the promising young mare, she’s going to have to watch her being successfully competed by Susannah – a young rider who is too harsh with horses.

That in it would be enough to upset Katy. Add the unexpected appearance of her father who has been living in Australia and the teen questions just what else can go wrong? Katy’s father seems to want to be a part of her life all of a sudden. She can’t imagine why, when he’s been missing in action for so many years.

As Katy deals with these two major events in her life, she’s thankful for the emotional support of her close friend, AJ. It doesn’t hurt either that AJ’s older brother Anders is suddenly hanging around. Katy knows that she should consider her best friend’s brother off limits, but it can’t hurt to look, can it?

Double Clear does a great job of helping to reader to better get to know Katy. Throw in some interesting events, a lot of great horse scenes and information and you have another great read by New Zealand author, Kate Lattey.

Author: Kate Lattey
https://nzponywriter.com/
Fiction – teen
In my library? I was able to download the first four recently, so as an eBook it is!
Want it? Get it now on Amazon.

In Golden Ghost, Sam and Jen partner up to do a history project together.  They have no idea what awaits them in the ghost town of Nugget, where their project is set. When they discover a beautiful palomino mare, they are more than a little surprised.

Further to this, Sam is amazed that her friend Jen is convinced she knows the mare. She claims she is a mare that her father purchased for his breeding operation that went missing two years ago.

Sam is keen to uncover the mystery of the town Nugget. Why did it close down? What caused the deaths of the animal bones that she and Jen have found within the town? Who has been looking after the mare that has been missing for so long?

As Sam tries to piece things together, she is distraught to find that the Phantom’s new lead mare has been found dead. What’s worse, she could have died from something that could affect the rest of the herd.

Jen is struggling with her parents fighting over money. Her dad is keen to move into town while Jen and her mother want to stay on the farm. Jen is convinced capturing the palomino mare will solve all their problems. Sam is keen to help her, but she questions just how far Jen will go to secure the mare. How far is too far?

As Sam finds herself working on the history project alone, she is not impressed. When Jen isn’t at school the day the project is due, Sam comes to a sickening conclusion. There is only one place her friend could be.

The town of Nugget is unsafe and her best friend might just be there all alone, trying to catch a flighty mare. Can Sam get there in time to help Jen? And can she talk her out of pinning all her hopes on a horse?  Golden Ghost is another great read by Terri Farley.

Author: Terri Farley
http://www.phantomstallion.com
Fiction – teen
In my library? That it is!
Want it? Get it now on Amazon.

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