Saddle Club Super Edition 2 – The Secret of the Stallion

Bonnie Bryant's The Secret of the Stallion is the second Saddle Club Super Edition, a pony story for 9 year olds about three friends flying to England for a three-day event.

What happens

Stevie, Lisa and Carole have been picked for a Pony Club exchange. That means a plane to Heathrow, a few days in London, then a coach out to Cummington Castle for the mounted games.

The three of them are really the point. Carole knows everything there is to know about horses and will tell you, at length, whether you asked or not. Lisa is the organised one who still has her itinerary, and knows where everybody else's passport is. Stevie is the one who once slid down a tree backside first and started this whole club off.

Veronica diAngelo is on the plane too, up in first class, writing in her diary about her grilled steak and how jammed in the others looked back in coach. Her chapters are laid out as diary entries, which is a nice touch, because she's so pleased with herself in print that you rather enjoy her.

Waiting in England are a girl called Tessa who happens to be a titled lady, a British team rider on a stallion called Pound Sterling, and an old estate with a story attached. A duke and his horse both died there, and people say he buried treasure somewhere on the grounds.

It's an American series, but a good deal of this one happens here, and the jokes about having a spot of tea with the queen are at the Americans' expense rather than ours.

One thing to know before you start. Carole's mother died of cancer a few years before the series begins, and it's stated plainly in the couple of paragraphs that introduce her. It's background rather than anything that happens in this book, but a child who has lost someone may want a word about it first.

There's a lot of real riding here too. Dressage, endurance cross-country, stadium jumping, and why a three-day event was invented in the first place. If your reader wants the horse detail and not only the friendship, they'll be very happy indeed.

What to read next

A Summer Without Horses comes first, and it's waiting for them. Stevie can't ride for three weeks in that one, and the other two make her a promise they very quickly wish they hadn't.