KateG

This book was first published in 1949 and it would be easy to think, ‘oh, it’s an old story now’, but it’s still a fantastically engaging and entertaining story.

The Midnight Horse is, and will always be, one of my favourite horse stories of all time. Like most of my favourite horsy reads, there are great horses, but it’s not all about the horses, if that makes sense. The Midnight Horse has wonderful characters, action and adventure, the odd moral dilemma and the mystery of the midnight horse itself to solve!

The Midnight Horse is the third of Monica Edwards’ Romney Marsh books, featuring Tamzin and Rissa who now both have their own ponies – Tamzin’s beautiful grey Anglo-Arab, Cascade, and Rissa’s wilful chestnut filly, Siani (the stories of how they got the ponies were told in Wish for a Pony and The Summer of the Great Secret respectively).

It’s promising to be a fun summer. The girls are looking forward to going camping at Castle Farm near their good friends the Merrows and the sea. Lesley, who once owned Cascade, will be joining them with her new pony. They’re collecting junk to ‘buy’ a little brown colt from a gypsy – the pony will be a gift to Tamzin’s little brother Diccon (who carries precious hordes of snails and slugs around all the time – ick!).

There’s school, of course, until the holidays, and they’re each playing several parts in a massive historic summer carnival, the most exciting part being they get to ride heavy working horses in the great charge as part of the Battle of Hastings. During rehearsals they meet Meryon Fairbrass, who’s descended from a pirate and like no one else they’ve ever met. They hear of a mysterious horse who gallops the seashore at midnight. Tamzin is desperate to see it for herself, despite frightening rumours that those who see the horse will be dead within six months! Together they pursue the mystery of the galloping horse – it can’t be a ghost, because ghosts don’t leave footprints!

I don’t know how many times I’ve read The Midnight Horse. It was the first story in a compilation called Three Great Pony Stories (Collins, 1971) which I took out of the Taupo Public Library every month or so for a good few years. Sadly, the Library’s copy of the book was missing a few pages of The Midnight Horse, so I didn’t ever read the whole story until I discovered I could buy these out-of-print paperbacks on Abebooks.com and similar sites – probably 35 years after I read the story for the first time! (Since then I’ve bought every Monica Edwards book I could find and am just missing two of her 26 Romney Marsh and Punchbowl Farm stories now.)

Does it feel dated, reading a book set in the late 1940s today? I approach it almost as historical fiction and enjoy seeing the very obvious changes in everyday life since that time, such as having to ride for the telephone at the Ship and Anchor pub when there was an accident, because Castle Farm doesn’t have a phone, and driving Cascade in the pony trap (cart) all the way to Hastings where there’s an old-fashioned pub which still has stabling for horses. The time period is all part of the setting, isn’t it?

I adore the girls, Tamzin and Rissa. They’re good friends, who have each other’s back, but that doesn’t mean they don’t disagree. I love their independence – I think they’re about 12 or 13, while Meryon and Rissa’s sort-of cousin Roger are 14 or 15. They all join together for these midnight adventures, looking out for each other and feeling twinges of guilt about what their parents would say, but solving the mystery of the midnight horse anyway.

I loved the idea of camping with the ponies – but never quite got to do it myself despite much planning and asking. I loved the little cloth horses that Lesley bought with her to the camp – those I did make, with Mum’s help, and Dad helped me build them a stable from an apple packing box!

I love the warmth and understanding of the adults who let the teens figure a lot of things out for themselves – except for Tamzin’s old fisherman friend Jim, who tends to create problems that she feels the need to solve in several other Romney Marsh books. Dear old Jim, he is not! But Tamzin loves him anyway and we like Tamzin all the better for her loyalty.

A UK publisher, Girls Gone By Publishing, has reprinted most of Monica Edwards’ stories and provide interesting behind-the-scenes information on the author, the settings, the characters and the books’ publishing history. They’re well worth finding, if you can. I was delighted to hear GGBP reprinted The Midnight Horse in 2018, but I understand copies quickly sold out. It may be possible to buy a copy on eBay or Abebooks. I hope you can find a copy somewhere. It is the most fantastic story.

See http://www.monicaedwards.co.uk/ for more about Monica Edwards.

Review by Kate Gordon.

 

 

 

I’m thankful to fellow Kiwi horse book author Kate Lattey for saying that this was her favourite pony story – as I don’t recall ever hearing of it before. How fabulous to find that British author Jane Badger has republished this story as an eBook, as it’s long out of print.

If the Taupo Public Library had stocked this Patricia Leitch book, I’m sure I would have devoured it as swiftly as I did Ms Leitch’s ‘Jinny of Finmory’ series which was published later and proved to be so popular.

First printed in 1975, Dream of Fair Horses takes us into Gill Caridia’s world as one of seven children where her hopes of riding in the Horse of the Year show seem as impossible as flying to the moon.

I totally lost myself in this story, despairing with Gill that her dream could ever come true when her family moved so often, and my hopes soaring when she meets old Mr Ramsey, the owner of the most beautiful pony in the world, Perdita.

The escapades of Gill’s eclectic, oddball family add a wonderful depth and ‘oh, gee!’ moments to this story. The literary references weave into interesting and engaging titbits, and the challenges Gill faces creates an emotional journey of the highest of highs and plunging into such lows, you wonder how Gill can overcome them.

Yes, it’s set in the 1970s, but honestly, it’s a timeless story about loving a pony.

I agree with Kate Lattey – this may already be one of my favourite pony stories. I’m looking forward to reading it again very soon.

If you haven’t read Dream of Fair Horses, I urge you to try this wonderful book. I’d love to hear what you think of it.

This is the first Amanda Wills book I have read and it certainly won’t be the last. The Thirteenth Horse is everything I wanted in a pony story.

Kristy is just like so many of us – all she wants is a pony to love, but her family simply can’t afford the luxury of buying her one, let alone regular riding lessons. Kristy’s determination to work hard for her dream is what makes this story for me.

She has problems, for sure, after her discovery of Cassius, the Percheron, in the far paddock, and she doesn’t know how she’s going to solve them, but she keeps trying until she succeeds. I really enjoyed the other riding school characters, who were initially so rude, but became good friends – I can relate to it all.

A thoroughly enjoyable story and one I’m sure I’ll read again and again.

Now to go and buy some other Amanda Wills books 🙂

Trophy Horse is the second book in the Mill Farm Stables series by British author Amanda Wills.

I loved going back to Mill Farm Stables with Kristy and Cassius, but oh, how the author throws some challenges at them! Poor Kristy goes through more emotional ups and downs than the Burghley cross-country course. At times I wondered if Norah really was Kristy’s friend, but she is (thankfully). We have to have a few ‘unpleasant’ people in a story to show us how much we like the nice characters, right?

If you loved The Thirteenth Horse (book #1 in this series), you’ll really enjoy this story too. In fact, you might struggle to put it down like I did, because I couldn’t wait to find out how Kristy would solve a huge problem with Cassius.

I can’t wait for the third book in this series. I wonder when it’s coming out????

You can find Trophy Horse on Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats.

You might like to read Amanda’s Riverdale pony series too. Have a look on her website for all the details.