In which Thoroughbred returns to racing, and seems to enjoy random violence.

Cassidy's Secret
by Allison Estes
Thoroughbred #32
Published: 1999

Man, this book is something else. Really, I had no idea all those horrible, completely absurd fan fics over at whitebrookfarm.com actually could be considered based on canon. How wrong I was.

God, I was so right. The most we see of snow in Cassidy's Secret is a really mundane conversation about how it might be a mild winter considering they're currently experiencing an Indian summer. Where this snowy cover comes from...anyone's guess. Actually, I don't understand how this cover applies to anything in the book at all. The girl...clearly Cassidy. The guy...who knows? The horses? Who knows. The western saddles? Who knows? It's essentially one big what the hell?

Will Cassidy tell the truth, even if it means losing her horse?

Cassidy Smith is worried. Her filly, Lady T, is running against a champion racehorse, Pizzazz. Cassidy's family needs the prize money desperately. Without it, they can't afford to keep Lady T.

Then Cassidy discovers that Pizzazz has been injured -- and his owner is planning to run him anyway. If Pizzazz runs on his bad leg, he could be ruined forever! Cassidy knows she should tell her dad to stop the race. But then the Smith's won't win the money they need -- and they'll have to sell Lady T for sure. How can Cassidy protect Pizzazz without losing her beloved filly?

Wow, where do I begin? I have so many questions, first of all. Like, the editors are now forcing racing back into the fold, but instead of taking the obvious path with Melanie they decide to shuffle off this task onto Cassidy. What kind of crazy sense does that make? On top of that, who the hell really cares about Cassidy? I certainly don't care. That said, Cassidy's got a lot of issues. Let me show you them.

First of all, her dad sucks. We've got to slam some backstory into this book to make all of this even remotely plausible, so Cassidy takes care of that in the first few chapters. Essentially, she moved to Kentucky because her father's owners (her dad used to be a wildly successful thoroughbred trainer, and the Kentucky Derby was name dropped a few times, so we know it's an unrealistic sort of successful) went crazy and killed their own horses. I don't remember why, exactly, but they wanted ultimately to claim the insurance and tried to burn down Cassidy's father's stables. Let me tell you now how stupid this evil plot is: a) it was a localized fire right where the targeted horses were, b) the fire didn't even do any damage and c) the owners poisoned the horses also just in case that fire thing didn't turn out. So, they didn't get their insurance money anyway and Cassidy's dad wound up slapped with a six month suspension because someone has to take blame. And the thing is, this isn't even the stupidest plot in this book. No, it gets better.

So, Cassidy is all with the inner turmoil over having to tell her friends this, especially when she has to add on the fact that her parents are now in a financial crisis. Hey, you know, perhaps they shouldn't have moved from Miami in the first place. You know? But this is further improbable considering they own this Lady T horse and he was a wildly successful trainer, so six months shouldn't matter unless they are the stupidest people on earth. Apparently they are extremely stupid, and they also moved on top of it. So they're stupid.

Anyway, Cassidy tells everyone that Lady T is running in the Ruffian Handicap and she wants to see the race live, so they all go to Whitebrook to watch the race. Lady T wins, but the purse is so teeny tiny it doesn't mean much (like, what?). Ashleigh takes some time out to tell them all this absolutely ridiculous story about when she and Brad went to Gulfstream together. (I am envisioning so many fan fic plots for this already that I will tell you now my mind went a little wild...it was good times.) Apparently he only got stalls for his horses, because he likes to see Ashleigh suffer and cry, and so Ashleigh cried and felt sorry for herself until Cassidy's dad showed up and let her use some of his stalls. Seriously, Ashleigh, grow a backbone already. All she had to do was go throw her weight around with admin...it's not like they would have refused her space, for Christ's sake. So, anyway, thus we are reminded how awesome Brad is and I guess Cassidy's dad is great because he's another one of those types that helps without being asked. God, they are so annoying. Then Ashleigh up and goes to the barn for a second...ooh, mysterious. She comes back after Cassidy tells everyone her sob story about how she's really poor and no one really believes her. That's good because I don't either. She's got two classy eventers, competes in these high class shows, and she's not rich? Then Ashleigh comes back with the sudden information that Lady T is coming to Whitebrook (yeah, no kidding) and so is Pizzazz (some other apparently important horse) and they're going to have a match race at Keeneland!

Sigh.

SO. Lady T and Pizzazz are at Whitebrook and Cassidy is all super obsessed with this. Also, apparently Lady T needs her very own armed PI/security official at all times. And I guess so does Pizzazz. I don't know where Allison gets this, but all of a sudden everyone's walking around with guns, and I appreciate this plot point just because it's so damn funny. Charlie is the guy that's guarding Lady T, and he strikes up some conversation with the kids and I guess this means he's the good guy. Pizzazz's owners are then, of course, bad guys. You know this immediately once the guns are brought into it. As it happens, Cassidy sees Pizzazz stumble in a work and after about an eternity of wondering why he stumbled (Cassidy, horses stumble every day...get over it) she starts sneaking around the barns and hears the horse's owners try to talk a vet into drugging the horse so he can run. The vet refuses. Cassidy is suspicious. Cassidy is suspicious some more. She enlists Christina and Melanie to help her figure out how to prove that Pizzazz is on something, and this results in some hilarity involving Cassidy sneaking into the horse's stall to poke at his legs. I am really not kidding. She discovers that Pizzazz's right knee is more or less dead to the world and decides to ring the alarm bells.

Only no one really cares besides Cassidy. So she eventually remembers the license plate of the vet who refused to treat Pizzazz (DRSFINE...yeah, I thought that was hilarious at first, too) and winds up calling information and actually gets this guy on the phone. He tells her Pizzazz has a bone chip and ohmigod he could die if he runs again. Or be seriously injured. Or something. Shocked and appalled, Cassidy tells her dad and he doesn't care. In fact, he wants to continue with the race because win or lose he'll still win upwards of 100 grand. Actually, he bribes her to keep quiet about it. I loved that part. Essentially: shut up or you'll lose your horses. Ha ha! Nice.

So the day of the race comes along and Cassidy, Melanie and Christina haunt the backside. They visit Pizzazz and see that he's being checked by the vet, who gives them an okay to run. But, like, how? He is totally not okay! (Like they x-ray horses before every race or something. Seriously, Cassidy, you can't tell a horse has a bone chip just by casually looking at it.) So they're wandering around and they see a groom lead Pizzazz into a trailer...and then out of it again. But, like, why? (This is all happening in the middle of the day on the backside during races, I might add.) So they start checking out the trailer and of course the evil groom catches them and pulls a gun on them and forces them inside the trailer. So, the stupidity is coming along at a rapid pace here. I guess the groom decides to lock them in the trailer and leave them there, like that won't come back and bite him on the ass or anything. Christina and Cassidy eventually shove Melanie through the skylight and she runs off for help. Charlie, the good guy with the gun, comes along and I guess he shoots the lock off and they run to take the ringer to the paddock so everyone can see that Pizzazz shouldn't run because like parading a horse that looks just like him will somehow communicate this effectively without having to say anything? Well, whatever. Charlie escorts them to the paddock, but then the evil groom and his evil friend come along and Charlie pulls his gun out and the evil groom guy goes for his gun and ohmigod Christina saves the day by throwing herself at the evil guy with the gun so Cassidy can further save the day by dragging the ringer to the paddock where everyone collectively gasps and seems to realize immediately what has happened.

Then we're treated to this movie moment between Cassidy and her dad. Reporters cluster around them, but neither speak, the situation too pressing and heavy for words, apparently, as two perfect tears drip from Cassidy's perfect eyes. Her dad continues to not speak. The movie music swells and then he says, "There will be no match race. You did the right thing, Cassidy." And then they walk off into the sunset. Cassidy has, I guess, lost everything and her family is screwed, but Pizzazz is safe because she did the Right Thing.

• You know what annoys me? When people have more than one child and then grace them with names starting with the same letter. Cassidy has two brothers: Carter and Campbell. It's like their mother always wanted a set of living dolls when she grew up.

• We've got some changes to report: Cassidy's horse, Wellington, went from gray to chestnut, and Ashleigh's hair suddenly became curly. I'm having flashbacks of the poodle hair Caroline inflicted upon her back during Wonder's Promise. Those weren't good times.

• Brad is mentioned specifically for the first time in ages. I don't even care that his name is brought up in the midst of some completely random and totally incomprehensible story Ashleigh's telling Cassidy about her stupid father...Brad is mentioned! And he's busy being a self-centered jerk in Ashleigh's memories. Oh, sweet, sweet memories.

• Also, you know: That was back in the days when I was still in business with Clay Townsend and his son, Brad. You know, considering Ashleigh (probably? probably definitely) still owns Wonder's Pride, Townsend Princess, Honor Bright, and Mr. Wonderful plus whatever other foals Princess and Honor have produced I think that sorta kinda almost definitely means she's still in business with them. Not to even mention Wonder is still alive at this point and still needs to give us Star in all his ethereal light.

• Cassidy's stupid horse, Lady T, runs in the Ruffian Handicap. Now, I'm not going to waste my time figuring out the purse of this race in 1999, but today it's a Grade I race with a purse of $300,000. What does Allison Estes want us to believe? That it's a $20,000 race, and at most Cassidy's dad, as the horse's owner, will see about $5,000 of that money. Like I said, I don't know what was going on in 1999, but considering the race has been around since 1976 I am DAMN SURE it wasn't being run at $20,000 only nine years ago. Clearly Allison has no clue when it comes down to the money involved in Grade I races, especially considering she just made this big deal over Lady T winning the Filly Triple Crown. No clue at all. Just sayin'.

• You know...it's not the 1930s anymore. The last match race was in 2003 and it was a battle of the sexes between jockeys, so I find this whole reconstructing the Ruffian/Foolish Pleasure disaster of 1975 both in poor taste and remarkably dated.

• What is a guy with a gun doing at Whitebrook? Really.

• Apparently they are driving this Pizzazz horse from California to Whitebrook? Has the trainer of the biggest horse on the West Coast not heard of air travel?

• Exactly how long has Pizzazz been running around with a bone chip? Shouldn't this have been removed months before now?

• Wow, is everyone carrying concealed weapons in Thoroughbred these days?

• "Now what makes you think you can order me around?" Jerry said, one hand behind his back. "This," Charlie said drawing his gun. Okay, this is good, but just wait...
  

• Charlie stepped back just as Jerry lunged for him. But to Cassidy's surprise, Christina jumped forward and tackled Jerry. That's right, guys, Christina just tackled a man armed with a gun to the ground. Didn't see that coming, did you?

Needless to say, this was hilarious. I loved it for it's ridiculousness. Although, I could just be giddy because Brad is back in the next book. I've gone far too long without his awesomeness.

Annoying Riding Princess Death Match! or TB #26: Sterling's Second Chance

Sterling's Second Chance
Thoroughbred #26
by Allison Estes
Published: 1998

When Joanna Campbell plunked Moe down in the Thoroughbred Series out of her real life I was okay with that. When Karen Bentley erased Cindy's less annoying personality and replaced it with her own, that really pissed me off. In The Horse of her Dreams, Allison Estes tossed Maureen Mack into the fold, and in this book Cassidy Smith moved from her home in Florida to muck up the lives of our charmingly obtuse characters. I can't help but think that as Allison wrote this book, she was thinking: "Now I will surely be Cassidy's most favorite aunt! Who else would pander to a child's ego so effectively? No one, that's who!"

So I find it curious when the authors stick real people in these books, making it incredibly easy to cyberstalk those they were so eager to please by immortalizing them in print. Although, really, that's not the issue here. It's our wonderful fictional characters and their reaction to our most recent real life implant, Cassidy, that makes the story. To the cover!


Yeah, I don't care. Gray horse, little girl, no chin strap, blah blah blah.

Does Christina have the heart of a champion?

Christina Reese is sure she and her new horse, Sterling Dream, are ready for their first competition. Then Christina is injured in a fall and loses both her nerve and her spot on the team. Someone needs to ride Sterling, or the team will be disqualified.

When beautiful, self-confident Cassidy Smith is picked to ride Sterling in the show, Christina tries to be a good sport. But it's not easy. Cassidy is claiming that both Christina and Sterling are quitters. Will Christina and her horse get the chance to prove just how wrong Cassidy is?

The thing about this blurb is that the whole second half of it never happens. I don't know how exactly this whole blurb process works -- if the blurb is written before the story or the story is written before the blurb, but it is very clear that someone wasn't in line. Cassidy Smith isn't "picked" to ride Sterling and Christina and Sterling don't set out to prove anyone wrong. Basically, the whole book is about Christina acting like a paranoid freak of nature, which brings me to the title. This thing should be called Christina's Second Chance or Sterling Gets Annoyed With Her Bipolar Rider, because Sterling's Second Chance implies that the horse was doing something wrong at the beginning of the story when really she was just behaving as any horse would when a complete lunatic is sitting on its back.

Plot:

Sterling is so great! She's been off the track for weeks and is training fantastically for her super shiny career in (E)venting, so Christina is all besides herself with glee only she is also crippled by a very annoying inability to treat the horse like anything other than Waterford crystal. Picking up on this, Sterling starts to test her limits and Christina isn't prepared for Sterling's moody shenanigans. But why would Sterling decide to test Christina's awesome magical riding ability? Isn't Sterling supposed to be Christina's uber special mare she's waited her whole twelve years for? She just does. not. get it!

So the issue is that Sterling keeps ducking out and refusing to take jumps. Mona's solution to this is relatively simple: a) carry a crop when you ride and b) hit the damn horse with the crop when it does something you don't want it to do. When Christina hears this stunningly realistic logic she immediately does our typical Thoroughbred character whining about abuse and how she promised herself she'd never hit poor Sterling with anything ever because Christina isn't an ugly backside groom with bad teeth, she is a horse riding princess! Hitting her wonder horse is beneath her! Sterling should just magically know what Christina wants, or so she thinks. It doesn't work out that way, so for the first three or four chapters of the book they basically wrestle each other in a truly stunning display of horsemanship antics that can't possibly hope to be followed. Mona gets annoyed with this and tells Christina to get off the horse. She's going to teach the mare something, and Christina's all weepy and tells Mona not to hit Sterling and Mona's all "yeah, whatever."

While Mona's off perfectly riding Sterling, Christina takes some time to feel offended, angry and instantly suspicious of our new character, Cassidy. Cassidy is perfect, and has already won at the National Horse Show, which Christina is instantly jealous of to the point that she decides Cassidy is lying. So Mona shows back up to make Christina ride Sterling again, but Christina is too busy convincing herself that Dylan and Cassidy are holding hands to pay much attention to the water jump she's supposed to be jumping which ends in disaster. Mona tells her to get off the damn horse because Christina is acting like a loon, but Christina ignores her and tries it again and fails even more miserably. She falls off the horse and actually breaks her wrist and boo hoo she's hurt for the first time ever.

Christina has to have a cast for two weeks, which is the end of the world because she can't ride. Since Christina has no other hobbies and is remarkably two-dimensional, you can imagine how awful this is for her. So it comes up that someone has to ride Sterling to keep her in training, and Mona instantly suggests Cassidy because she's just great and everyone loves her, much to Christina's agitation. Like hell that perfect girl is going to ride Christina's supposedly once perfect horse! She essentially tells Mona this and proceeds to ask everyone else she knows, and everyone else tells her they're busy because they all have lives outside of horses, leaving Christina in her two-dimensional world with no horse to ride. Only then she finds out that Dylan and Cassidy are going out to the movies together, and she hates Cassidy even more. That sort-of boyfriend stealing slut!

But never fear, Melanie is to the rescue. Despite Christina's completely annoying insistence that no one knows Sterling like she does and whatever else, she finally relents and lets Melanie groom the mare before she makes Melanie exercise her. Then there's another episode of shrieking and shooting looks at people and Sterling bolts around the paddock with Melanie clinging to her neck as Cassidy steps in to save the day for our two heroic and yet completely clueless main characters. Melanie's had it after Christina's shrieking fit and leaves, so now Christina has no one to ride her super precious persnickety mare...until she comes to the stable the next day to see Cassidy riding Sterling! Holy hell! How dare they, everyone and Sterling for letting that sort-of boyfriend stealing girl get on her back like that! Everyone is at fault except Christina, or so she thinks, as she has visions of dragging Cassidy off the horse. Cassidy, having a heightened sense of self preservation, gets off the horse and lets Christina haul Sterling back to the stable.

So, just as it's become stunningly apparent that Christina has lost it entirely, Melanie rides to the rescue again and tells Christina she has to let Cassidy ride the horse if she's going to enter this Foxwood event thingy when her cast comes off. Christina swallows her pride and calls Cassidy up, apologizes for her insane behavior, and Cassidy tells her she just can't help because she's still unpacking from moving or something incredibly made up. I don't blame her for not wanting to ride...we're dealing with an unbalanced twelve-year-old girl here and there's nothing more frightening. Dejected, Christina goes to mope with Sterling. Then Cassidy has her random change of heart and decides to ride. Just like that, everything is super fantastic again!

Only then Christina's cast comes off and she's paralyzed with fear. She just can't ride Sterling and insists that Cassidy ride in the show instead. Everyone seems to wait for her natural outburst, but when that doesn't come they know something's really up and go about secretly plotting to make Christina ride in the show. Their plot is revealed at the absolute last second, and it all works out because Cassidy wears the same size as Christina. Marvelous! So they force Christina onto the horse at the show, she rides around like she's on acid or something equally hallucinogenic, and finally has to use that crop she's been freaking out about and wins the show because she's a super riding princess and it's a given. Then Dylan kisses her on the cheek and the nervous butterflies in her stomach become joyful butterflies, but no one notices, thank God.

Oddities:

• Melanie actually asks what Cassidy means when she says one of her two horses is still a little green. Sure, Melanie is supposed to be the one who isn't as knowledgeable as everyone else, but really? No. It's not a term that's applied solely to horses. She should know what it means in general.

• The whole hang up in this book is the riding crop. If Christina had just shut up and done as asked from the get go this book wouldn't have been necessary. For as stupid and touchy as Christina assumes Sterling is, she is remarkably not stupid and touchy.

• When Christina goes down to the track to watch Melanie pony with Pirate, Ashleigh actually gets all excited and wonders aloud if Christina has finally decided to take up racing. This is just really pathetic. Yeah, Ashleigh, after she traded Wonder's last foal for a horse she can event with she'll take up racing. That's likely.

• Christina was channeling her inner Cindy in this book to a serious degree. All the hissing and glaring and attempting withering looks...she was on a roll. The only difference was she was trying to be a bitch whereas with Cindy it just came naturally.

That is all here. I'll be back with Christina's Courage next, and a few other books that involve perfect thirteen-year-old girls riding magnificent horses and fixing everyone's lives and whatnot. Good times will be had by all, I'm sure.

Want more? Monique's review of Sterling's Second Chance is here.

Mel and Aynslee would totally tip cars together. TB #25: Melanie's Treasure

Melanie's Treasure
Thoroughbred #25
by Allison Estes
Published: 1998

It took me a while to get to reading this book, for reasons I can't explain. Well, here it is:

Melanie reminds me of someone...I just can't put my finger on it. Anyway, it's a good cover. It even makes sense in a general proportion sort of way, so we'll continue on.

She's his last hope...

Ever since 13-year-old Melanie Graham was sent to live with her aunt Ashleigh and uncle Mike at Whitebrook Farm, she's struggled for a way to fit in. Everything she does is wrong. She doesn't get along with her cousin Christina and riding racehorces is nothing like riding back in New York.

Then she sees Pirate's Treasure. The powerful black stallion has incredible potential. But he's also unpredictable--and dangerous. Then he's retired from his racing career and turned out to pasture. Soon he begins to lose his will to live. Can Melanie break through Pirate's distrust and prove to everyone he has the heart of a champion?

The beginning of this book is basically witnessing Melanie dabble with her budding life of crime as she's quickly led onto a path that will most certainly land her in juvy. It all starts innocently enough...Melanie wants to go on a romantic moonlit ride with her best friend, Aynslee. For some reason this is just going to be beyond fun, because they can go off the bridle paths at night and no one can stop them! Except for, you know, the police. Best to just not think about that, and Melanie certainly doesn't.

Fresh from dying her hair with Kool-Aid (probably just like this), she clues Aynslee in on her plan. Aynslee is the type that tends to take other people's ideas and exaggerates them to beyond manageable proportions, so by the time Melanie gets rid of her father and gets to the stable, Aynslee has already thought of a) to bribe the night watchman with pizza, b) to drug the night watchman's dog so they can more easily get in and out of the stable and c) that if Melanie tries to back out of their plan she will tell everyone and get Melanie in so much trouble she will have wished she'd never met Aynslee to begin with. Basically, Melanie is screwed. She just doesn't know it yet.

They go out on their ride, which was just begging to end in disaster. This comes to fruition when the police find them trying to run the bases with their horses at one of the park's baseball diamonds. Aynslee's first reaction? Run. Melanie's first reaction? Stare, before casually letting her horse bolt off after Aynslee. Melanie clearly isn't a natural at this juvenile delinquent thing, but she does manage to outrun the police three wheelers before both horses walk onto a metal plate, which is their undoing. Milky Way starts to slip and thrash around, tosses Melanie, who dislocates her shoulder, and then one of those typical rabid cab drivers flies around the corner of the street and careens straight into Milky Way. You can imagine the trauma that caused, not to mention that Aynslee decides to pin the entire thing on Melanie, which is okay because it's all mainly Melanie's fault anyway.

Instead of facing legal ramifications, Melanie is sent off to live with Ashleigh and Mike at Whitebrook, because Will Graham decides that Melanie just hasn't been happy living in New York, thereby leading her to her hardened life of coloring her hair with Kool-Aid and stealing all the chalk in her teacher's class room. Melanie, just in case we weren't aware, is a NEW YORKER, and thus does not understand how anyone can live in areas with vast tracts of vegetation. So she decides to be as surly and ungrateful as possible when she lands in Louisville. She does take some time to nurse her remarkably low self-esteem by wishing she'd been able to dye her hair green, because she is oh-so-sure that these Louisville hicks would be so shocked and bothered by green hair. She also decides not to get involved with another horse, or ride another horse, as part of her guilt over accidentally squishing Milky Way with a cab.

The next morning she meets our dashing main horse, Pirate's Treasure. The horse gets away from Ian and does a bee line straight to Melanie, who won't get out of the way no matter how often Kevin tells her to move. Instead she just does her staring thing and the horse comes to a natural stop in front of her, which Melanie totally expected because she's so cool.

Unfortunately, she is just so not cooler than Christina, and Melanie's envy of her cousin is pretty obvious because Christina has a horse and actually knows what she's talking about and Melanie killed the horse she was going to lease and hardly comprehends eventing. Therefore, in the riding school hierarchy, Christina is on top and can afford to push Melanie, who is lowest on the totem pole, all over the place without caring about her feelings. This also means that Melanie can't touch Sterling Dream, which results in a screaming fit because Christina is absolutely certain her horse doesn't like strangers touching her. AT ALL. You'd think all that shrieking and flailing would upset the mare more than Melanie touching her nose, but Christina is on the top of the hierarchy, and therefore it doesn't. Plus, Sterling would never bite Christina. Because she is a horse riding goddess.

However! Melanie is not to be discounted! After nearly being trampled by The Terminator, she pulls herself together and stomps back to the training oval, where Ian has been trying to get Pirate to load into the training gate. She offers to lead the horse in, and it all clicks into place. Melanie has potential to be a horse riding goddess also when Pirate inexplicably follows Melanie right into the gate. So Melanie is now Pirate's special person, and they have a bond that can never be broken. Christina is not so sure of this, especially after Pirate breaks free of his cross ties and is practically magnetically attracted to Sterling. Sterling must be pretty sexy, because Pirate goes through quite a lot trying to get to her so he can superficially injure the mare's shoulder. Sterling gets a little cut on her shoulder and Ian remarks that it will need a stitch or two, which Christina practically starts to weep over like the horse riding goddess she is. Sterling's superficial pain is Christina's superficial pain! Or something.

Horrified, Melanie runs up to the house and calls her father, who tells her to basically grow up and no, she will not be coming to Europe with him, and then Aynslee, who tells her that their relationship is basically over. Shocked and appalled, Melanie decides she'll never get out of this summer alive! Or, she will have to spend the entire summer being everyone else's scapegoat as she complains and whines about everything.

Ian seems to know Melanie is out of sorts, so he tells her he needs her to act as Pirate's groom for a while. During this time Pirate freaks out during a work out and nearly kills Anna Simms when he bucks across the finish line at Whitebrook's training oval. Then Melanie has her great Cindyesque moment of enlightenment! Pirate is afraid of shadows. Yay. Congrats, Mel. Score one for your fragile self-esteem and let's move on, because Ashleigh's feeling all soft-hearted again and before we know it she's offering Mel one of their yearlings. Which Melanie is totally not happy about because she's not riding horses anymore. Doesn't anyone ever listen to her crazy ranting?

Then the real reason comes out. Ashleigh thinks Pirate is too much horse for her to handle, which now Mike totally agrees with despite them both saying it was a fantastically great idea practically three days ago. My how we change our minds in this series. So Melanie is all offended and insists on working with only Pirate while Christina accuses her of being a horse killer, while Melanie takes some time to realize that ohmigod, that's actually true!

So she's all depressed and Mike tricks her into going to Keeneland to watch Pirate race, where he wins and then crashes into another horse and creates another opportunity for Melanie to cry. Pirate is gelded and stitched up and tossed in a paddock, where he grows increasingly depressed. Mel and Chris bond a little bit in the attic as Chris convinces Melanie she is not bad luck for horses, and Melanie decides to ride Pirate around for a while because that's when he perks up. Then they stumble over a log while she's riding him and Melanie discovers that he's blind. Which would explain why he's been acting all batty for the majority of the book. Why no one else figured that out...well, you know. This is Thoroughbred. We know how this works by now.

We end with Melanie finally feeling like part of the family, and Pirate is now basically hers.

Oddities:

• Melanie and Aynslee glue shut the outside doors of their private school. I don't know what kind of glue they're using here, but it must be super industrial strength.

• Compared to Whitebrook's sleek thoroughbreds, all of the stable horses in New York are basically grotesque horse-like mutants.

• You would think Melanie wouldn't need someone to tell her that Pirate's Treasure is a thoroughbred, since she knew in advance that Whitebrook was a thoroughbred training farm. Kevin clearly thinks she's an idiot and says very clearly (and probably slowly, so as she can understand his big, technical words): "Whitebrook is a thoroughbred training facility."

• Naomi informs us all that she is an apprentice jockey, which lasts until she gets her first win. Which is so glaringly wrong.

The Rule (because I know this pops up again, and it's wrong every other time as well): An apprentice jockey shall be allowed the following weight allowances in all Thoroughbred, Appaloosa, Arabian and Paint races: (a) Ten pound allowance beginning with the first mount and continuing until the apprentice has ridden five winners. (b) A seven pound allowance until the apprentice has ridden an additional 35 winners; and (c) If an apprentice has ridden a total of 40 winners prior to the end of a period of one year from the date of riding their fifth winner, they shall have an allowance of five pounds until the end of that year. (d) If after one year from the date of his or her fifth winning mount the apprentice has not ridden 40 winners, the applicable weight allowance shall continue for one more year or until the date of the 40th winner, whichever comes first.

• Christina tells Melanie not to go to the stallion barn, since the horses are aggressive and Mr. Ballard hates people. Melanie goes there anyway, gets to know Blues King, and then stupidly walks into The Terminator's stall. When the horse tries to trample her she escapes easily enough, only to run into Mike. So she whips up some tears because "she's from New York City. They wouldn't expect her to know much about horses." Clearly, she doesn't know much about horses. This is blatantly obvious. She could just own up to this fact and save me some eye rolling.

• Is the horse called Pirate Treasure or Pirate's Treasure?

• Pirate wins two races with only a week in between, so I am now convinced that Allison really doesn't understand that racehorses are not, in fact, (E)venters.

• Keeneland Race Track is actually Keeneland Race Course. Because they're all stuffy and inclined to pretend they're European there.

So. Yeah. That is Melanie's Treasure. Want some more? Monique's review is here.

TB #24: The Horse of Her Dreams...is ugly. Let's just face facts.

The Horse of Her Dreams
Thoroughbred #24
by Allison Estes
Published: 1998

It's time to come clean. I have not previously read Thoroughbred books 24-46, 49-50, 56, 62, 64-66 and 68. I could throw in #61, Parker's Passion for good measure, because it bored me enough to give up on it about three chapters in, and I never bothered to pick it back up again.

These are the facts as I present them to you. The reviews I post for the next very long stretch of books are my first impressions, and they will also be my last. Probably. Unless I have some unadvised change of heart in another ten to twenty years and start to read these books over again. Since I can't see myself doing that when I'm 46, we'll just focus on the present. This is the Whitebrook Farm Blog's second review of The Horse of Her Dreams (and my first read!). Yes, I am pathetically excited about this.

Based on this cover, Sterling is one of the ugliest horses on the face of the earth. If this is what Christina desperately wanted to replace Wonder's Legacy with, the girl must have been at her last resort. Christina also has this odd, vacant expression that's just a tad creepy. Add to that the glazed eyes and she looks like a blind person trying to decipher things by touch. I'm also enjoying the late '90s fashion in the Doc Martens and baggy clothing. It's like high school all over again.

Will Christina risk it all to save Sterling Dream?

Twelve-year-old Christina Reese is the luckiest girl in the world. She lives at the Whitebrook Farm with her dad, Mike, and her mother, Ashleigh Griffen, one of the most famous jockeys ever. And when Christina asked for a horse for her birthday she got Wonder's Legacy, the last foal of her mom's famous racehorse, Wonder.

But Christina doesn't feel so lucky. Everyone expects her to become a jockey, but Christina wants to be an Event rider. All she needs is the perfect horse. Then she sees Sterling Dream, a beautiful gray mare who's being forced to race against her will. Will Christina risk everything she has to take a chance on a Dream?

Plot:
Well, the great nine year gap has come and gone, dropping us off in Christina's incredibly awkward tween years. She's recently turned 12, and the absolutely most horrible thing has happened to her. She's been given a horse for her birthday. Damn it! Yes, somehow the wires get crossed and instead of listening to their daughter, Mike and Ashleigh bequeath upon Christina the last known foal of Wonder: Wonder's Legacy. This is like Christina's nightmare, because two months later she still thinks back on this wretched event and starts crying. Admittedly, I can understand her frustration. Instead of being given a horse she can actually ride, she's given a yearling racehorse she has no connection to. It's kinda what my father did to me on my sixteenth birthday when he gave me a newly cut key to the car we already owned and was not intended for my sole use. You know...it's just not exactly what anyone wants as a gift. I'm not even sure we need to mention the weirdness in handing a horse to your 12-year-old daughter and then telling her that she can't ride it. Not to mention this horse is co-owned by Brad Townsend. Isn't that just saddling your pre-teen daughter with more angst and responsibility than she needs EVER?

There is, of course, more to the story. It's not only that Christina has been forbidden to ride Legacy, it's that she wants a horse she can train to jump (and she ain't doing that with a two-year-old racehorse). Because, gasps all abound, she doesn't like horse racing. This seems a little like sacrilege for a main character to say such things in a series previously all about horse racing, but apparently with the ousting of Cindy and Karen Bentley, Harper Collins got rid of horse racing also. Granted, I'll be the first to stand up and say the plotlines were getting old by Cindy's Honor (we can only run in the Breeders' Cup so many times before it starts to wear thin), so I'm actually enjoying the change right now. We'll see how long that lasts.

Anyway, Christina goes to her riding lesson at Mona's stable, which is a quick jaunt by horseback away from Whitebrook. Mona sees that Christina has rapidly outgrown her pony, Tribulation, and reassures Christina that her mother did put lots of thought into giving her Legacy and that she just doesn't understand Christina's devotion to eventing. I find all of this pretty unlikely considering Mona is apparently Ashleigh's best friend, and you'd think the two of them might actually discuss Christina's lessons, but it looks like the two never talk because Ashleigh seems to be in a serious state of ignorance. So the two of them decide that Christina will enter Mona's gelding, Foster, in an upcoming event so Christina can show her stuff and Ashleigh will come to understand by simply watching her daughter's unspoken desire to have a horse she can ride and actually enjoy it. Because no one ever sits anyone down and has a serious discussion in this series.

Before we know it, Mona is instructing Christina to go get Foster and we'll see how they do. Christina scampers off to do just that, but runs into Dylan, our resident twelve-year-old heartthrob who has an affinity for chaps with fringe. Christina is all flustered because prepubescent boys wearing fringed chaps are just so hot, and naturally she can't think straight as her blood starts rushing to inappropriate places. This doesn't distract her too much, because she manages to ride Foster and wins the admiration of Dylan in the process. In the face of this new Foster development, Ashleigh relents and lets Christina start having a hand in Legacy's training, which means she finally gets to learn how to exercise ride.

So Christina does start to get closer to Legacy, just as Dylan asks her to the upcoming school dance, which is like the best thing that's happened to Christina since being allowed to ride Foster and learn how to exercise, which was, like, yesterday. Wow, Chris is on a roll. Anyway, riding on her high from Dylan's invite to the dance, Christina pretty much dreamwalks down to the stable and decides to ride Legacy. They gallop around in the hills and just as she's decided that she's proven to herself she can gallop Legacy (I guess that was the point?), the horse bolts and jumps over the fallen tree. Thrilled by this development, Chris jumps him over the tree again and again and discovered he's diving over the jumps. Which is supposedly dangerous? Chris files him into her "lost cause" folder and thinks nothing more of it.

Until Ashleigh informs her she saw all of it (with her super jockey gaze, or did she have a telephoto lens on her person so she could view everything from her house?) and says jumping Legacy at two is the stupidest thing Christina could have done. Which you'd figure someone who's spent their entire life around horses would know already, given that you don't start racing any horse until they're at least halfway through their two-year-old year, if they race at all at two. Christina claims ignorance and starts sobbing, stating that she just wanted to ride him. Granted, I feel her pain. She's twelve, she wants a horse she can ride, and Ashleigh finally figures it out. So she promises she'll try to let Christina in on the training and Christina promises not to ride without Ashleigh's permission. Seems to be sorted. But then everything falls apart when her parents insist she go to New York with them the weekend of the dance and the (E)vent! Well, now we've got to sob and proclaim that life is not fair.

However, soon Christina is all dazzled by the city, and who wouldn't be when you're staying at The Plaza and eat dinner at Tavern-on-the-Green. These were places I, like, stared at longingly when I was Christina's age and in New York for the first time, so she'd damn well better be dazzled. She forgets that she was pissed off and gets all swept up in New York, but then Melanie comes along. Melanie is thoroughly intimidating to Christina, as Melanie makes it known she's not too impressed with her. Plus, Melanie has piercings and Kool-Aid colored hair and bright, apparently fashionable, clothes. If Melanie and Cindy had ever met under the same circumstances Cindy would be remarking to herself that Melanie's a stuck up bitch within ten seconds, I am sure. Christina, being an entirely different creature, struggles to please her demanding cousin by changing her order to a vegetarian meal and noting what Melanie approves of or not so she can rush to gain Melanie's good opinion.

Fortunately that all goes to hell pretty quickly when the two go riding in Central Park. Melanie picks out Milky Way, a horse for beginners, and sticks Christina with Kenwood, a horse who is, to say the least, easily crazed. Christina picks up on the nefariousness of Melanie's plan when she listens in on two people talking near her who happen to be talking about the horses Mel and Chris will be riding. How lucky for her. Anyway, Kenwood does his antics and Christina rides it out because she's just awesome, I guess, and then she turns on Melanie and calls her out. Melanie doesn't like this, especially when Christina insults her "beginner" status as a rider. And the second curse word is uttered in the series (I somehow missed "damn" back in Ashleigh's Farewell) when Melanie yells at Christina about how she's not impressed by any of her "crap." Because Christina has a mommy and a daddy and Melanie only has a father who fell face first into some horrible fashion faux pas. Christina yells back at her that she's just jealous, and apparently she hit the mark because Melanie just starts laughing and lets it all slide. I don't see this happening realistically between tween girls, because as anyone who has ever been a twelve-year-old female will tell you, there's the obligatory period of silence after a fight, the chance to stab your opponent in the back, another blow up to go through, yet another obligatory period of silence, and then, in fifteen years, if you still know each other, you might make up and become friends again.

Anyway. Enter Sterling. Christina stumbles across the mare's groom hauling the horse around and basically discovers that this poor, mistreated animal is her dream horse. Because it's gray. As if there aren't tons of other gray horses out there, or anything. Because the groom creeps Christina out, and by all rights he really should, she decides to become like every Disney heroine of yore and climbs up into the rafters of the barn to stare down into the mare's stall so she can witness the abuse up close and personal. This doesn't work out too well because the groom sees her and does this comical and yet creepy pointing at her silently as he beats the horse some more. And Cindy wanted to sleep at the racetrack with characters like this roaming around. How Cindy survived at night is anyone's guess.

Sterling runs in her race, but instead of winning she does the absolute opposite and jumps the inside rail and lands in the turf course. Then she heads for the outside rail of the turf course and jumps back into the dirt course. Then, just for good measure, she jumps the outside rail of the dirt course and presumably trots off into the backside with her jockey, who has foolishly stayed on this whole time. I'm sure his fellow jockeys are going to tear into him later, but that's his own stupid fault. Anyway, Christina is thrilled by this development and decides that Sterling is the one.

Finally, Ashleigh pulls her head out of the sand and realizes that her daughter wants not only a horse she can event with...she wants Sterling. During Legacy's race, Christina runs into Sterling's owner, who informs her that he's put Sterling in a claiming race only a day or so after she already ran. Seems unlikely, but whatever. So they rush to put a claim on her, assume they won the horse, and then discover that this other woman also put a claim in on it. So they draw numbers and the other woman gets the draw and Christina loses the horse.

Then the most ridiculous thing happens: Christina offers to trade Legacy for Sterling. Which you'd think would be impossible because of several factors, one among them being that the woman expressly turned down the claim tag plus the $2,500 Mike offers her for Sterling because she specifically wants the mare. Why she'd trade is beyond me, but she does and Christina is immediately given one out of five stars by every Thoroughbred fan on the face of the earth, despite the fact that this book is probably the most well written of the twenty-four books I've read so far. Yes, better than the Joanna books.

Oddities:

• Ian's attitude at the beginning of this book is just so freakishly upbeat I am a little taken aback. Legacy is the greatest Wonder baby that has ever lived and we are so super excited about all his championship potential! Yay! Yay! YAY! *grabs Christina's arm and starts shaking it hysterically* Ian needs to lay off the coffee, methinks.

• Why is The Terminator at stud when he was nothing but a claimer that should have been gelded?

• Yeah, it's not common practice to just change a racehorse's name. If Leap of Faith was racing before Whitebrook purchased her and Mike then renamed her Leap of Faith he'd need a damn good reason, and I don't think whimsy counts as a reason.

• I'm trying to figure out why the word "event" is constantly capitalized. If Allison thinks it's a proper noun, all the nouns in this book would be capitalized and we'd have even more confusion than normal.

• "You're light as a feather." says Dylan, and Christina can't help blushing furiously again and wonders if he's kidding. Personally, I'm always convinced men of all ages say crap like this to exhibit their strength in a masculine attempt at preening, but then I could always be wrong.

• Kevin says something about "the parents" and Chris echoes about how she doesn't want "the parents" to find out she'd fallen off the horse. This reminds me a little of some girl who called her parents "the parental units" before she had her boyfriend kill them. It's creeping me out a little.
  

• Anna and Naomi are both sixteen-year-old girls acting like twentysomethings with permanent jobs as Whitebrook exercise riders. Where do these girls live and what the hell is going on with them?

• Christina is twelve and she claims to not know where Belmont Park is when she lives at a well-known horse racing/breeding farm? Has she never been forced to watch a Triple Crown race before or heard anything about Wonder's races? The mare she claims to be in love with at the beginning of the book?

• Chris, Ashleigh and Mike stay in the Plaza Hotel. I've done the whole Manhattan to Belmont Park adventure that is public transportation, and I've got to say that's one hell of a long ride every day. However, at least they're not staying in a "fancy motel" as it was in Joanna Campbell's golden days.

• Interesting Factoid: Clarebrook, where Melanie rides, is actually Claremont, which closed permanently on April 29th, 2007. I always wanted to see how that worked, and now I can't. Thank you New York, for failing to maintain your bridle paths.

• Sterling rears before the gate and the jockey comes off, so he takes out his anger on her by smacking her across her hindquarters with his crop. Uh, no. This is Belmont, not a bush track.
  
  
• I just love Sterling's owner's reaction to discovering that his trainer and groom were just assholes the whole ten years he was a thoroughbred owner. He states that he's done with horses, seems to have sold them all off, and then blows up at the groom and yells repeatedly that he's done with horses and that the groom is fired and he can leave. Oh, and so can the trainer. Um...if he's done with horses and therefore does not own horses anymore, why is he bothering? The last I checked you can't fire someone who doesn't work for you.
  

Allison Estes does a good job with the plotline that she's given, but it's no wonder everyone had a fit when this book was published. Eventing and trading Wonder's last super special offspring for a claimer-turned-eventer? This book could have been published on gold plates and it still would have received one star. So I feel for Allison. I do. Because otherwise she's good at her job and makes the Karen Bentley era look like Harper Collins put an evil toddler in charge of the Cindy books.

Plus, how much do I love that Cindy isn't even referenced in this book? Seriously, it's like sweet justice.

(Also, double and triple reviews for books will start popping up as, crazy as it seems, there are four of us blogging away here. Just to inform all you gentle readers out there. Want a second opinion? Read Monique's The Horse of Her Dreams review here.)

Oh, the drama! TB #26 Sterling's Second Chance

Sterling's Second Chance
Thoroughbred #26
by Allison Estes
Original Publication: 1998

I actually read this book a few weeks ago and then promptly forgot I had. Clearly, that is indicative of my feeling toward it.

The Cover



We have cheesy scene with Chris and Sterling. The poor mare has been given the neck of a Trakhener stallion. Or one of the dressage Lipizzaners. Christina's helmet has no strap and makes me wonder how she ever passed those strict eventing regulations or if her hat stays on her head when she goes over those 'scary' fences. (However, that would imply that she would be staying on Sterling, which she hardly does in this book...)

The Blurb

Does Christina have the heart of a champion?

Christina Reese is sure she and her new horse, Sterling Dream, are ready for their first competition. Then Christina is injured in a fall and loses both her nerve and her spot on the team. Someone needs to ride Sterling, or the team will be disqualified. When beautiful, self-confident Cassidy Smith is picked to ride Sterling in the show, Christina tries to be a good sport. But it's not easy. Cassidy is claiming that both Christina and Sterling are quitters. Will Christina and her horse get the chance to prove just how wrong Cassidy is?

You know, I think the person who actually writes these things is some high school student who is a daughter of the person who really has this job. Enough said.

It does sort of sum up the book, but what they skipped out is that Christina is a delusional, self-absorbed brat who only thinks that Cassidy is some uber-bitch. Meanwhile, Cassidy really does want to help out and she clearly knows more than Christina, which is not hard to do.

Allow me to elaborate. We have four whole chapters where Chris tries to get Sterling to behave. She refuses to hit the horse, which is, like, so cruel. It is so bad, that the thought of hitting the precious animal drives her to tears. I kid you not. Eventually, Chris gets distracted by the delusion that Cassidy and Dylan are holding hands (le gasp!) and she pushes Sterling to jump some nasty water fence, beating her with her whip as she does so.

To my unbridled joy, she falls off and breaks her arm. Yay!

We now have to find a rider for Sterling. It soon becomes clear that she is too much horse for Melanie. I mean, we know how sensitive she is, right?

The only one left to ride her is Cassidy. She does. Cassidly feels bad about riding her in the event, so there is a miraculous last-minute rider switcheroo and Christina comes second! Or something. Who cares?

Interesting Points

• Faith is still a chestnut!

• People seem to have really intense eyes in this book. I think the author has some latent issue about eye descriptions.

• Dear Lord, when I was twelve, I hope I never behaved like this. And I hope that no other child thinks it's ok to act like a spoiled bitch when they read this book, either. Seriously, Christina needs a hiding.

• This book only had three interesting points. I hope someone else can delve more meaning from it than I could.

I suppose Sterling got her Second Chance... although I still wonder what that was. It is the stupidest title ever... perhaps next to Great Expectations. Or Cindy's Last Hope...

Now, we will find out how Corageous Christina is! And how much she hates dressage! I can hardly breathe for excitement.

TB Gets a Brief Injection of Personality! #25 Melanie's Treasure

Melanie's Treasure
Thoroughbred #25
by Allison Estes
Original Publication: 1998

Yes, indeed. Here we are. I know I have been slacking and I personally find it bordering on tragic that it took me a whole week to read this book. It's sad when life gets in the way of my TB time...


Onward to the review!

She's his last hope...

Ever since 13-year-old Melanie Graham was sent to live with her aunt Ashleigh and uncle Mike at Whitebrook Farm, she's struggled for a way to fit in. Everything she does is wrong. She doesn't get along with her cousin Christina and riding racehorces is nothing like riding back in New York. Then she sees Pirate's Treasure. The powerful black stallion has incredible potential. But he's also unpredictable--and dangerous. Then he's retired from his racing career and turned out to pasture. Soon he begins to lose his will to live. Can Melanie break through Pirate's distrust and prove to everyone he has the heart of a champion?

Mmmkay. This is one of the poorest blurbs ever written. There was a bit more to the book than this, like... Milky Way? And Melanie never really did much riding in the book, but anyway. I can't be too fussy. At least the animal depicted on the cover really does look like Pirate. It's the right colouring! And it even looks like a Thoroughbred too, not some Quarter Horse posing as a stand in.

Plot Outline

Melanie is a horse-crazy New York girl with a slightly bitchy best friend, Aynslee. She has a rebellious streak and the two girls decide to sneak out one night and go for a moonlit ride in central park. Things go awry, however, when Melanie and her favorite horse, Milky Way, are involved in an accident. Milky Way gets killed and Melanie has a dislocated shoulder. It's bad enough her mother is dead, now her father sends her off to Whitebrook Farm, the worst place on earth with her hick cousin, Christina.

We have the typical TB scenario where Mel swears she will never ride or get attached to another horse again. However, this is slightly different as she feels that she's just plain old bad luck. So, of course being on a Thoroughbred farm is pure hell for our young heroine.

There is instant friction between her and other characters and she just refuses to cooperate in case they actually think she likes it there. But, her father is occupied with his girlfriend and work and her best friend wants nothing to do with her.

Melanie then starts working with Pirate, but he is erratic for reasons that no one can figure out. After several bad accidents, Pirate ends up wounded and they decide the best thing to do is to geld him. So, poor Pirate sinks into equine depression while he recovers. I wonder if he was aware that his whole reproductive future is now nullified.

Taking pity on him, Melanie starts sneaking visits to his paddock. She slowly starts riding him and one day, tries to jump him over a log. (Christina should have told her beforehand that jumping a green racehorse over a log is never a smart idea.) As it turns out, this works out as Mel discovers that Pirate is blind!

Melanie then gets Pirate as he is useless as a racehorse and they become the new pony girl/horse team at Whitebrook! Yay!

Interesting Points

• As a character, Mel is the most spunky, different girl in the entire series. I felt sad that the authors couldn't keep up her interesting traits. Like her interest in art.

• Faith is still a chestnut.

• Aynslee is a bitch. If I had a friend like that, I would really question why.

• Christina acts like a total, immature little girl in this book, just enhancing my overall liking of Melanie. "Don't touch her!!!" Why oh why would Melanie not be able to touch Sterling? The horse is fine. Let her be exposed to other people, you stupid 12-year-old.

• Kevin is also characterized nicely. Shame. It seems that all the fun Estes injected into the dynamic between the Whitebrook kids died a horrible, painful death come book #36.

• Both Anna Simms and Naomi get injured in this book due to Pirate. I guess they are pretty screwed for jockeys for a few months.

• Estes is damned good at conversation.

• It's nice to see that some research was actually done into the racing world. I have to commend Estes for that too. And for not giving the horses Pirate raced against names of any kind, let alone stupid ones.

• We got a description of Melanie's room, complete with quilt! Wow!

And I am done. On to the pain that is Sterling's Second Chance, in which we learn that, sometimes, it's better to just hit the horse, rather than have our arm broken and deal with our mare's issues with water.

TB #24: The Horse of Her Dreams

While Mara works her way through the earlier books, I thought I'd take a crack at the first official New Generation book.

The Horse of Her Dreams
Thoroughbred #24
by Allison Estes
Original Publication: 1998

Will Christina take a chance on Sterling Dream?

Twelve-year-old Christina Reese is the luckiest girl in the world.She lives at the Whitebrook Farm with her dad, Mike, and her mother, Ashleigh Griffen, one of the most famous jockeys ever. And when Christina asked for a horse for her birthday she got Wonder's Legacy, the last foal of her mom's famous racehorse, Wonder.

But Christina doesn't feel so lucky. Everyone expects her to become a jockey, but Christina wants to be an Event rider. All she needs is the perfect horse. Then she sees Sterling Dream, a beautiful gray mare who's being forced to race against her will. Will Christina risk everything she has to take a chance on a Dream?

Ok, um... is it a traditional thing for whoever writes these things to kind of gloss over the whole plot? I mean, really.

Summary

Basically, poor little Christina has outgrown her pony, Trib. She really wants to event, but as far as she is concerned, she will not get another horse due to the fact that she has ownership of Ashleigh's Wonder's very last (for now) colt. Christina's instructor, Mona (of the pre-TB fame), decided to let Chris ride her super event horse, Foster. During this time, we also meet Dylan, the 12-year-old love interest with a strange fetish for chaps. Christina also has the token best friend, Katie, who's only real purpose in this book is a reason for Christina to go on about Dylan and how, like, amazing he is.

Christina gets invited to some dance with Dylan and she also has her very first event coming up. But then, she decides on a whim to take her racehorse, Legacy, for a ride to see what it would be like to ride her very own horse. Legacy bolts with her (is anyone surprised?) and jumps over a fallen tree. Christina decides to jump him again and decides that he will never be a jumper, which is pretty silly, given the fact that any horse can be taught to jump. Anyway.

Her parents find out, get mad, but she goes unpunished. But then! She HAS to go to New York to watch Legacy race! And she will miss her event and the dance with Beau Dylan! Woe!

In New York, she hangs with her cousin, Melanie, who at this stage has more personality than any other TB character to date. Mel, the feisty girl, puts her country cousin on a wild horse called Kenwood and they go for a hack in Central Park. Kenwood tries to buck Chris off, Chris wins as she has riding skills worthy of the best Olympic medalist.

Then, at the track, she finds poor abused Sterling Dream, who hates racing and only wants to jump the railing, which she does in her race. Christina then finds that the horse is being treated unfairly and begs for her mom and dad to claim poor Sterling, as she is the horse from the dream she had! Which, in TB world, is as good a reason as any.

Sterling was, however, claimed by someone else! But Chris trades her highly valuable racehorse, the last foal of Wonder, for her without hesitation.

We end with a romantic gallop.

Yes, the plot sucks. Yes, Christina is a brat. But credit must be given to Ms. Estes, who actually can write a ton better than most TB authors. I loved Melanie so much and I was thrilled she would become a permanant fixture in the series.

Points of Interest

• Christina seems to have little regard for the horses she rides in this book. She beats the daylights out of Trib and tries to make him jump something unsafe to beat Kevin in a race. She then forces Legacy out on the trails, even though the poor horse is terrified. She then hits him to force him to run. But she loves horses, yessir.

• Dylan is an event rider who wears full western chaps. Am I the only one who sees something wrong here?

• I was highly amused by the whole "Chrissy" nickname thing and how much Chris hates it.

• Kevin is a friend Christina so does not deserve. He patched up her wounds and even put cream on it. How sweet, for a preteenaged boy.

• The Terminator. The horse and his name were just plain funny.

• Maureen Algretti was named after someone called Maureen Mack, who received a dedication in this book. Later, Maureen's surname changes to Mack in some kind of typical TB writers' confusion.

• Gardener Farm is the most pathetic name ever. If they had to bring Mona 'back'(as she was never a part of the actual series), they could have at least thought of a nice name for her conveniently close farm.
  

• Leap of Faith is a chestnut in this book. (she is just like Joseph with her technicolored coat!)

• At least we could tell that Ms. Estes has actually been to NYC, bless her.