Thoroughbred: Derby Fever

Derby Fever
#53
by Mary Anderson

Every so often, a book rolls around that reminds me how stunningly ridiculous stories somehow find their way into print. Thoroughbred as a whole is sort of a good example of this, but that's really too easy. Since the past two books in Thoroughbred are Distance Runner and Perfect Challenge, which are two pretty solid books in terms of not feeling the burning need to kick the main characters in the head, the bar was set quite high for Derby Fever. And it crashed right into that bar, stumbled around drunkenly, and then fell down while everyone stared and mocked it.

This is not a high point for the series, is what I'm saying. But who cares! Let's get right back in the saddle.

Can Ashleigh Help Christina?With the Kentucky Derby only a few weeks away, Christina Reese is stressed out. Star is in top form, but Christina is starting to wonder if the colt might be better off with a more experienced jockey in the saddle. Her mother the trainer, the renowned jockey Ashleigh Griffen, knows Christina is the only rider for Star. But she also knows what her daughter is feeling - she's been there herself.

Flash back to the days of old, when Ashleigh raced Wonder in the Triple Crown. Drawing inspiration from the past, Ashleigh dreams up a plan to calm Christina's nerves and prep her for the most exciting race of her life!

Okay, let's stop right here. I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS. First, I don't know what that blurb is even trying to say. I just know that it is 95% wrong. Ashleigh does, indeed, come up with "a plan." That is the only thing that is remotely correct about this whole thing. Also, that cover. I am going to be maybe more lenient about this than Monique and Claire during their attempts to explain how this doesn't make sense, because I actually like the composition. It says to me that Melanie and Christina are on the outs (again...oh, yet again). And there's Ashleigh, which would be way more awesome if she wasn't turned away from us. She's a major character, so she gets to be included again. Although she is old, and therefore cannot grace us with her face. It might be too horrifying, despite the fact that she still looks like she's 14. The rest of it, however... Okay, look. Image looks like a gray, Star looks like some horrible mutt bred in someone's backyard, The Rein Situation confuses and dazzles me, and Ashleigh's left hand. What is she trying to indicate? What does it all mean? And, Chris, we will speak later about that outfit. I know this was like ten years ago, but that is no excuse.

Now to the book, which spends about 65% of its time on Christina's invalid complaints and 35% of its time trying to rewrite Samantha's Pride from Ashleigh's perspective. Why is this happening, you may be asking yourself. This is the Thoroughbred attempt at a mea culpa, in which they attempt to convince us all that they aren't just publishing fan fiction. You see, lots of people were annoyed with the reinvention of the series and over the course of the New Generation TPTB tried several methods to get everyone to like them again. Cue Mary. Mary was the knight in shining armor. She wanted to give the fans some assurances that someone was listening to their wants and needs, championed bringing back old characters and forgotten history. And in true Thoroughbred fashion, this is what happens.

Christina is super worried that they are about a month out from the Kentucky Derby and Ashleigh has yet to schedule Star in one last prep race. In fact, Ashleigh refuses to let Star do anything faster than jogging with the occasional trail ride thrown in for variety. Christina insists that the only way to keep Star in his winning ways is to keep racing him every week with breezes every other day, as this is clearly sensible. Ashleigh, showing a backbone and confidence for the first time possibly ever, tells her daughter no. Christina's reaction to this is to sucker punch Ashleigh with a classic "You're a Star-hater. You hate Star!" And then she flounces off, leaving Ashleigh to gaze at all the win photos that clutter her office and ponder why her daughter is such an irrational bitch.

But, you guys, Ashleigh has her reasons! You see, when Wonder's Pride was racing, Ashleigh actually supported racing him too much. Because when horses are pretty and "spirited" they are clearly ready to race in grueling tests of stamina and strength! Only Charlie was there to set her straight, although Ashleigh persisted in this line of thinking and it was too late. Pride wins the Florida Derby and then the Blue Grass by many lengths and Charlie and Samantha are all DAMN IT, except Clay, Brad and Ashleigh are like yay, let's win the Kentucky Derby! But oh, if only Ashleigh had known then what she knows now and how will she ever get her daughter to understand how psychologically traumatizing it all was for her? Ashleigh is just trying to head Christina off at the pass where she overraces her horse, okay?

Meanwhile, Christina has noticed that Star is too hyper to eat his hay. Proof positive he needs to race! So she gets up super early and takes Star out first thing, only to get caught and told in no uncertain terms that there will be no breezes for Star. In fact, Ashleigh is certain that Christina just wants to race regardless of whether it's on Star of not, so she schedules Chris to ride Raven at Turfway. Naturally, Christina is too busy thinking about Star during the race, makes a dumb move with Raven, and causes a giant wreck. But don't worry, you guys! Christina doesn't get suspended for being a moron, and Raven only severs every tendon and ligament in her leg, but isn't put down on the spot. People have to yell No! And Ashleigh has to tearfully admit that she wants to give Raven a chance. So they pack the filly full of sedatives and string her up in the stall, because that's what's better for the horse.

The only upshot here is that Christina admits that she was in the wrong and she'll pay for all of the vet bills, and then she has the nerve to be stunned that her parents agree with her. Ah, gotta love ya, Chris. Only then Ashleigh insists that it's not Christina's fault, she must ride Star, and now let's flash back to the Derby, when Samantha got all pissy that they were even running in the Derby and Ashleigh can't understand what co-ownership means.

But then Melanie comes home, fresh and super excited to be racing in the Derby. Since Melanie loves all black horses, she immediately shuns Christina for essentially killing Raven and "riding into a wreck." Okay, Melanie, you can be angrier than that. Christina caused the wreck! Go for the throat! Anyway, Melanie glares a lot and proceeds with the silent treatment. Because reporters instantly know when something uncomfortable has happened between Chris and Mel, one of them shows up to ask Christina all about her internal feud. Then they dash off to jog Star some more, while Brad drives up to take a look at the competition and cause conflict, because obviously. He drops a few remarks about how glad he was to offload Star, which I bet he is considering the boatload of drama surrounding him at all times, and then drives off, his work here done. Ashleigh flashes back to the time she told Brad that she wasn't going to bring Pride back to Townsend Acres to train (possibly the one moment she didn't give him whatever he wanted and wasn't forced to give up something big and extraneous in return for her refusal, stunningly). Then we have the Preakness, where everyone freaks out when Pride basically can't lift his head anymore. He's so tired! But he's so pretty! And Triple Crown! Ashleigh literally cannot make sense of any of this.

So anyway, because we only do things in the morning at Whitebrook, Christina is sent to Keeneland to pick up tack before school and happens to see Parker and his "new girlfriend" cozying up with the Townsends. Desperate to get out without anyone seeing her slovenly attire, Christina runs off to Tall Oaks so she can see Champion and talk to Cindy, who tells her to listen to Ashleigh and stop being pitiful. Because this is coming from Cindy, I'm having a hard time accepting it, but accept it Chris does and decides that yes, she will mind her mother, although her mother is only going to lead Star down the path to trail horsedom. That will show her!

At some point Melanie gets in a car wreck, probably because she was overwrought thinking about Raven, who, as it turns out, is perfectly fine! She can even have babies, when previously the vets were all predicting certain doom. So, things are sort of better. Only then Ashleigh has another flashback to the Belmont Stakes, which is pretty inconsequential because it stops right after Pride loses the race and we don't get to see Mary's take on Brad's verbal tirade in public. Oh, how magical that would have been! Only then Samantha shows up and says, "Yeah, I never wanted to run Pride in those races. In fact, I would have just let him graze all day every day if it had been up to me because I am this annoying. Listen to me be uppity and condescending!" Then she tells Ashleigh that she's wrong and Christina is right, overracing a horse is definitely okay? Um. I... Wasn't she just saying that no one listened to her about overracing Pride, but because Pride and Star are different horses...it's okay to overrace Star, haver of the Doom Virus? Where Pride had nothing but...sensitive feelings?

I...

So Ashleigh's irked and confounded. How will she tell Christina she was right all along, and how will they get a race into Star before the Derby? Why, they will just stick Star, Image, and Catwink on the track together and force them to duke it out in a speed duel. I guess that will work okay, too. Everyone comes by to watch, except for Samantha and Tor because they are "busy." Image and Star tie during their makeshift race, and then everyone makes uncomfortable statements about how one of them has to win the race and damn it, it's going to be Image/Star/Gratis. It will!

Interesting Points I Sort of Remember:

• I find it exceedingly strange that Samantha's Pride can be twisted in such a way that you've got Ashleigh's character reduced to "Pride is pretty and spirited, which must mean he wants to run." How does that even happen?
• Brad's quote that they lost Pride's Triple Crown thanks to a geriatric trainer and an inexperienced teen is priceless. 
• Ben shows up wearing slacks, and yet no one castigates him for essentially raiding Brad Townsend's closet. Also, I want Cindy to force him into jeans just once.
• The Triple Crown isn't closed to horses born outside America. That is ridiculous. Shut up, Ben.
• Red-gold and red-brown have names! They do! (I wonder if Joanna Campbell's penchant for "red-gold" rubbed off on Mary?)
• In my mind, Raven died. Okay, I said it. She died and Melanie did her Joanna Campbell-esque run off with the car, and then she got into a wreck, and then she broke her arm, and then she couldn't ride Image and then Chris and Star STILL lost the damn Derby. And then Celtic Mist won. He won ALL THE RACES. Hahahahahaha.
• Oh, yeah, Parker's "new girlfriend" is in fact his cousin, product of the unnamed Brad Townsend's Sister. Apparently she's just as anti-Townsend Acres as Parker. That was disappointing.
• Ashleigh's training is pretty shoddy in this book, too. I mean, honestly. You'd think she had PTSD or something.

Okay, that's it. I can't anymore.

Derby Fever (Rhoda hasn’t Got it!) - Ashleigh #7: Derby Day

Derby Day – Ashleigh #7
Created by Joanna Cambell
Written by Chris Platt
First Printing: November 1999

Ugh, here it is – the saccharine sappiness of Aladdin’s Derby. It’s just so sappy; obviously he’s not going to lose the freaking race, but oh no, we’ve got to throw more obstacles in his path and muck him up even more in the process. After all, god forbid any of Ashleigh’s Special Horses™ have a smooth and easy route to the Triple Crown. That said, I am glad that Chris Platt’s at the helm of this book. She seems to be pretty grounded in the reality of the racing world so to speak, and usually keeps things sane.

The Cover:

It’s hideous. The pinks and purples make me want to puke at the glaring florescence of it. Aladdin looks like a backyard pony with a too long unpulled unruly mane; and I grow continually more convinced that when the Edgardale mares go to other breeding farms, the frikkin teaser stallion jumps the fence and knocks ‘em up (and the other farm owners laugh all the way to the bank: “Hey Frank, that mare from that rinky dink breeding farm just got jumped by the teaser, what’cha say we let it go, and tell them our real stallion did the job. They’ll never know, hahahaha!”) Aladdin looks more like an Appaloosa trail horse than he does a racehorse with that weird pink mottled muzzle, and the mottling around his eyes. Ashleigh looks to be wearing a very unflattering salmon-pink sundress (oh barf) or else she’s committed the grave sin of wearing a hideously bright t-shirt in the winner’s circle of the nation’s biggest race. Also, Aladdin’s bit looks far to large for his mouth, and Ashleigh looks far too tall considering that Aladdin is “almost 17 hands tall” – so either she’s Andre the Giant, or Aladdin isn’t an inch over 15 hands in that picture.

(Note bene: The only picture I could find of the cover is pretty washed out and faded, the actual one is really much more florescent and eye-blinding)

Ye Olde Summary:

Gag! That said, the back cover blurb is pretty much dead on, if rather stupid. I think the less said on this, the better. So I’ll stop here before I start frothing at the mouth (rabid dog, rabid dog!)

The Big Picture Plot:

1) Aladdin’s Treasure: Apparently being sired by a fairly prestigious stallion, and owned by wealthy privileged folk, he’s still viewed as a jumped-up upstart who’s “got no place racing with these upper-class horses.” He was supposed to run dead-last in the Blue Grass considering his past performances, so everyone not connected to him throws a shitfit when he does win. So then during a “Breakfast with the Works” morning gallop, he gets body-slammed by a two-year-old brother of the mean-tempered Derby favorite, Star Gazer. Naturally, this involves him throwing his jockey, and bolts into the machine yard, thereby giving Ashleigh a heart attack that they’d have to put him down. Which of course brings us to …

2) Aladdin can’t settle down! OH NOES!!!! So once again, as soon as Ashleigh the Wondergirl extracts the colt from the machine yard, he’s off to Paradise Edgardale for some peace and quiet. Except he doesn't settle down there either. He still acts a little spooky, and a little jumpy, and freaks his jockey out, and once on a trail ride, he tosses her off -- and then she's forced to bail a second time. Of course, Ashleigh manages to sneak a little ride on him (again!) and finds out he's actually behaving perfectly, and she guesses it's his jockey being nervous which sets him off, and that means...

3) It's all Rhoda Kat's fault! Seriously, I know why... it's her name for christ's sake. Rhoda Kat. Sounds like some cheap 80-1 claimer at Emerald Downs. Hell, I'd be nervous and freaked out too if I was imagining myself in the post parade of the nation's most important horse race and heard my stupid name being called over the loudspeaker. Anyway, Rhoda's got this exclusive contract with the Danworths to ride Aladdin in the Derby, but after she gets thrown, and Aladdin acts up, she has her confidence shaken. So of course, it's up to Ashleigh to get her back in the saddle and confident by ...

4) jumping "Jessica's Jump" which is apparently some made up backstory about some girl who tried jumping a horse over a 10-foot gully and ended up in the hospital. So Ashleigh writes a note to Rhoda saying she's going to go jump the gully, conveniently leaves Aladdin's saddle and bridle in very plain sight in front of his stall in which the horse himself is penned up (yeah, doesn't it just scream set-up?) and gets ready to do the deed, but lo and behold, Rhoda arrives in the nick of time (as if Ashleigh really had the cajones to jump the thing anyway) and rides Aladdin real good. So she's not scared anymore. And so they ride in the Derby. Yay!

Points of Interesting Useless (or not so useless) Facts:

• OK, Chris sorta has it wrong here, since she says the horse has to be nominated to the Derby when it's young (there's the whole issue of supplemental fees, but technically, it's cheaper to nominate horses early on) but y'know, props to her about horses running well and/or winning in the Derby preps. It's a breath of realism in a fantasy world. Sure, you're always gonna see owners who throw a no-chance horse in, but realistically, when they do well in the preps, it's just more evident to run them after all.

• Aladdin's run 7 times as a 3-year-old. Then the Blue Grass and Derby make races #8 and #9. Holy cow, compared to today's modern Thoroughbred, he's a machine.

• Y'know, I'm really happy to read how the Wortons have a 6-furlong training track where Aladdin works. It's cool, see. Way better than some giant one-mile track. I've seen aerial footage of Churchill Downs, and it really makes you realize how big the freaking track is. For any Thoroughbred farm (no matter how prestigious) to have a track of that size, they'd have to have a shitload of land.

• And Caro's gift for Ashleigh's birthday was a peach-colored sundress. That means that the hideous garment Ashleigh is wearing on the cover is a dress. Ugh. It's awful.

• Rhoda comes to stay at Edgardale between the Blue Grass and the Derby. She and Ashleigh go for a ride. Rhoda rides Stardust, and Ashleigh actually rides Moe again. So much for being too "big" for him. Suddenly he has value to her again because he's the only other ridable critter on the place.

• Aladdin runs in the 125th Derby. And gets Gate 8 in a 16 horse field with fairly high odds. Gosh, Derby 125 brings back memories. Come to think of it, that was Charismatic's year, and he went off at high odds too.

And Aladdin wins the Derby. As if he'd lose, judging by the cover. Puh-leeze! So that's over and done with, thank you very much. I need brain bleach or something. And I think I'll try and review another non-Ashleigh series book right now to recover from the torment of Derby Day. I dug around in one of the cardboard boxes that my horse books are temporarily being stored in, and think I found a nice old one that should do nicely.

Got Hope? - TB Super Edition: Ashleigh’s Hope

Ashleigh’s Hope
Thoroughbred Super Edition
Created by Joanna Campbell
Written by Karen Bentley
First Printing: April 1996

Well, I wasn’t going to be doing this one for a while, but I seem to have misplaced my copy of Ashleigh #7. I’m sure it’s in my room somewhere, maybe buried under the laundry pile of washed clothes that I was too lazy to fold. Or maybe somewhere else; but I’m sure I’ll find it eventually. In the meantime, I might as well review something else, right? Because I’m not sure if I’m ready for the saccharine sappiness that is Aladdin’s bid for the Kentucky Derby.

Before I begin, overall, this book was not bad, it had it’s moments so it could never be The Most Awesome Horse Story Evar!™ but it was not too hard to follow.

The Cover:
This is actually quite a lovely cover, the colors are so rich and vibrant, and it’s just really really peaceful with Ashleigh there with her horse. Of course, she does have blonde-ish looking hair and a nose like a pixie, but it’s still a nice cover. Granted, the horse must be one of those giant 17 hand monsters, because the angle of where his (her?) neck is coming down is waaaay up there at the top of the cover, and the halter is bigger than Ashleigh (hahaha). But it’s a lovely cover, you can see the horse has a kind eye, and it’s really very sweet. Probably one of my favorite covers, ever.

The Summary:

A Born champion...

Ashleigh Griffen is thrilled when she gets accepted into the exclusive Chesterton Riding Academy. Now she’ll get the training to accomplish her lifelong dream – to own her own horse. But the other girls at Chesterton are jealous of Ashleigh’s natural talent as a rider. They threaten to destroy everything Ashleigh has worked so hard for.

Nasty Diana Carruthers and her friends try to keep Ashleigh from competing by spreading oil on her horse’s saddle and sabotaging her practices. Ashleigh must find the strength to confront these girls. But will she be able to stop them before they succeed in ruining the only thing she’s ever loved?

I hate this blurb. It’s just so drama llama when it really isn’t. I mean, it’s really not that bad anyway, it’s not like spoiled little princesses do ruin Ashleigh’s life in the end.

Ultimately, this is another one of those “Ashleigh Needs a Big Horse of her Own Real Bad”™ plots. It’s really a recurring theme in the series, Ashleigh already has a pony of her own, but you know she “needs” a big horse to do anything. It doesn’t generate much sympathy on my part (being as I know what it’s like to be horseless, period) but I guess for horse-crazy pre-pubescent girls, it must be a smashing hit.

Also, as a note, it’s really a lot of fun to compare Ashleigh #3: Waiting for Stardust with this book because there are some similarities, and some differences. And it’s fun picking everything out.

The Big Picture Plot:

1) The main and most important plot of the story is Ashleigh’s burning unfulfilled desire for a real live horse of her own; it’s as I’ve said, a recurring theme of the series. Ashleigh needs a horse of course; a pony just isn’t good enough after all. Especially since Moe seems to be confirmed as a purebred Shetland and is 11 hands high. I sort of get Ashleigh’s point here, the smallest pony I ever remember riding was a 13-odd hand POA, so I can see why she’d want something a bit taller – but she’s shooting for the moon here; even a 14-hand horse is too small, she wants a big Thoroughbred racehorse. So this means Ashleigh will constantly sigh and mope and sulk through most of the book until she finally does get a horse. Yay for her! But first, her parents insist that she and Caroline take riding lessons, which brings us to…

2) Said riding lessons at a big-time stable in Lexington. Chesterton Riding Academy is a posh upscale place with two outdoor arenas, an indoor, with “most of the horses on the place over sixteen hands” and probably very expensive lessons. And riding in the lesson group with Ashleigh and Caroline are a “bunch of rich snobby stuck-up kids from school” such as…

3) Diana Carruthers. Who’s apparently the Thoroughbred version of Veronica DiAngelo (or perhaps a younger version of Lavinia Townsend.) She’s snobby, she’s popular, she’s the star center on the school soccer team, and she’s filthy stinkin’ rich, which is everything that Ashleigh is not. But unlike Veronica D, Diana has cronies, and they play tricks on Ashleigh such as putting too much oil on her saddle, or smearing her school horse in horseshit (really, wouldn’t these kids get noticed if they were pushing a wheelbarrow full of manure down the aisle?) Diana is all jealous and bothered by Ashleigh’s “natural talent” and makes life pretty tough for Ashleigh – but I’m sure by normal riding school standards, it’s all a walk in the park.

4) And then we come to how Karen Bentley interpreted Caroline’s accident that was referenced in Wonder’s Promise – only instead of a horse merely spooking at a truck backfiring, this horse freaks out, runs off and gives Ashleigh the chance to save the day – and Caroline gets thrown, breaks her head (was she bloody wearing a helmet?) and goes into a coma for days and days in which her parents hover by her bedside, leaving the day-to-day running of the farm in the hands of their younger daughter (way to go Drama Llama Bentley!)

5) Mona: In both the regular series and the Ashleigh spin-off series, Mona gets her Thoroughbred, Frisky, before Ashleigh gets Stardust (Mona gets Frisky on Thanksgiving in this book, and at Christmas in Ashleigh #3.) This of course means, Mona being a smug little wench calls Ashleigh to brag about her brand new shiny horse, and thus it always leads to a yelling, screaming cat-fight between the two girls. They fight twice in this book, which doesn’t surprise me much, since Mona acts smug and superior, and then worried and possessive. And Ashleigh’s on the defense because poor poor her, she doesn’t have a horse of her very own. Still, they reconcile pretty easily here, and I was a little disappointed because I really sort of liked the long drawn out angst in Ashleigh #3.

6) Stardust finally arrives! Hooray! Ashleigh has a horse at last. Sweet! And it’s instant EXPLODING HEARTS AND STARS for both Ashleigh and Stardust, which is a relief because we’re spared the pseudo-Natural Horsemanship crap from Ashleigh #3. You even get a little sappy suspense going on; with Ashleigh taking Stardust for a ride, and then feeling sorry for herself afterwards until her parents say “You can has horseh!” Everyone lives happily ever after…

7) … except maybe for Diana’s Warmblood gelding, Silverado. Ashleigh got to ride him a few times in her lesson, and got to jump him. And then Diana got careless, pulled a Veronica D. and crashed her horse into a jump, and then they had to put him down. At which point, Ashleigh decides that riding lessons just aren’t for her, and she stays at home to ride Stardust.

Some Key Points of Interest

• Did you know the Griffens bought Zip Away (who is apparently one of their best broodmares) for peanuts? No kidding, and I quote: “Yes-we were very lucky to get Zip Away when we did,” Mr. Griffen answered. “We paid only twenty-five hundred dollars for her at the Ocala Breeders’ Auction a year and a half ago.” Karen, you dolt! $2,500 is pin money. It’s like NOTHING. I bought my Haflinger for “twenty-five hundred dollars” If this mare is really high class, there’s no way she would go through the sale that cheaply. Please, please tell me you meant twenty-five thousand dollars. Please, for all that is holy!

• I can’t help but giggle when Ashleigh thinks that Cheryl Marshall (one of Diana’s friends) says she has a Hanoverian, and Ashleigh’s response is “Big horse” and privately thinks “in her opinon someone as short as Cheryl didn’t belong on a Hanoverian, but it wasn’t worth it to Ashleigh to point this out.” Uh… yeah, this coming from a girl who wants to ride 16 and 17 hand Thoroughbred racehorses? A girl who isn’t exactly Shaquille O’Neill herself?

• I could kick Diana right now. I’ll challenge her to a duel, pistols at dawn. How dare that little fictional figment of Bentley's imagination say that “riding a pony isn’t the same as riding a real horse.” I dare ya, Diana, ride my pony, then we’ll see who’s better, huh. Double dog dare ya! Seriously though, it’s that kind of attitude from the writer that makes people think that only little kids ride ponies, when in fact, grownups ride them too. And have more fun that way!

• Triple Derby who is Zip Away’s “half-brother” won the Breeder’s Cup Classic the year before this book takes place. However, when he races again in the next Classic during the events of the book, Mr. Griffen gets excited and says “he’s setting faster fractions than last year’s winner.” Uh … he IS last year’s winner. Duh.

• Ooooh! Foreshadowing! Wanderer is mentioned in the book, and how she’s expecting a June foal that Ashleigh thinks will be a colt. Why, it’s a perfect lead in for Ashleigh’s Diary.

• pg 141: Cheryl circled Dynasty. He was so big, Ashleigh thought Cheryl was posting in slow motion. Yeah, no kidding. This is why these 10 year old kids should be on fucking ponies for god’s sake.

So there we have it, Ashleigh’s Hope. Not too bad a read all in all, but not the most wonderful of novels either. Guess I’ll have to go dig Ashleigh #7 out of the laundry pile now. Or maybe I’ll put off the sappiness that is Aladdin’s Derby still longer, and review the one book that has the uncanny ability to reduce me to tears even at my age.

Hmmm … Aladdin? Tears? Aladdin … heck with it, I’ll break out the tissues, and cuddle up with The Forgotten Filly, seeing as we’re all taking a bit of a break from Thoroughbred itself. Besides, it’s Thoroughbred-related, being part of “Ashleigh’s Thoroughbred Collection” and written by Karle Dickerson, who has written some of the New Generation books.

Despite nearly dying, it's the best day ever! TB Super: Ashleigh's Christmas Miracle

Ashleigh's Christmas Miracle
Thoroughbred Super Edition
by Joanna Campbell
Original Publication: 1994

Welcome to the book that forever after confuses everything. Or, more specifically, the dream that confuses everything. After reading this thing I can't help but wonder...how the hell did Karen Bentley manage to take the whole thing as canon? How? Just...gah!

Okay, I've got time later to bitch about how this book screws the entire series. On to more pressing matters. Like the cover!


It's a fairly romantic cover, although I could really do without the holly garland. Plus, it just has to keep reminding me of how unthinkable it would be to show up at the hospital to pick up your recently conscious wife and premature infant in a horse drawn sleigh in below freezing temperatures. A horse drawn sleigh is romantic and fun for about five minutes. It is not romantic and fun for a drawn out haul through town and who knows how much country when you have an infant with you. I just...need to stop looking at this.

A baby for Christmas . . .

Ashleigh Griffen and Mike Reese are expecting their first child right after the New Year. But on Christmas Eve, as Ashleigh makes the rounds of the stables at Whitebrook Farm, handing out Christmas treats to all her favorite horses, a stallion's kick puts both her life and the life of her baby in jeopardy.

Ashleigh is rushed to the hospital, where her baby is born premature. As she drifts in and out of consciousness, she dreams about her daughter's life as an Olympic riding champion. Will Ashleigh live to see her daughter become a winner, or will her dreams for her daughter die with her?

It's Christmas Eve and Ashleigh's eight months pregnant. The long and the short of the story that matters is she gets kicked in the stomach by a freaked out gelding, causing premature labor. She gives birth to Christina, a blood vessel bursts in Ashleigh's brain, and she slips into unconsciousness for an unspecified number of days. During this time she dreams about her daughter living without her. Then Ashleigh wakes up and goes home, promising her infant daughter that she'll always be there for her.

The dream is this long affair stretching over six years, wherein Christina attempts to become one of the best three-day eventers in the country and prove that she is her mother's daughter. The first section of the dream involves Christina falling for this filly of Fleet Goddess's (your classic sickly foal situation), the second part involves training the filly as a three-year-old and Christina suffering almost catastrophic injury, and the final part is all about pigheadedly refusing to acknowledge her pain threshold and becoming the great rider she knew she'd be. At the young age of 16. At her rate Christina will be using a walker by the time she's thirty.

Oddities:

• This book jumps forward two years to when Wonder is twelve and Ashleigh is 24. However, Precocious is still described as being a "possible winner" although at this point she'd nearly be four years old.

• You know, I made light of how simple the name Wonder's Pride was before. I'd like to apologize to Wonder's Pride, because the name Jazz Goddess deserves more mocking. Well, her dad is Jazzman and her mom is Fleet Goddess so . . . *light blub on!* Yeah, Christina is ten and all when she comes up with this name, but her friend came up with the name Determined so I'm not accepting that excuse.

• Also, it appears Jazz Goddess (ugh) has tendon laxity. If she can stand up by herself with that condition I don't think corrective booties are necessary.

• The supernatural hearing voices element is a little weird and out of no where. It fits in when Christina is entirely out of it after her fall, but the other time would have me wondering if I wasn't a little insane.

• There's an instance in here where Tor walks in wearing riding breeches and a jacket over a turtleneck and then claps his hands. I just couldn't help laughing at this.
  

• Who is this Whitebrook Lass and why does the whole farm seem to rely on her so much?

• I find it amusing how everyone at Whitebrook has this almost visceral reaction to disliking Lord Townsend, even though by all that we know, Whitebrook Farm should own half of Lord Townsend because he's out of Townsend Princess. Poor Lord Townsend. Such the black sheep of the family.

• Ross. Okay, sure, it makes sense. Brad vs. Ashleigh and Ross vs. Christina. It's natural. Unfortunately the tension there just isn't as, well, palpable? Hysterically time consuming? I kept reading about their competitive need to beat the crap out of each other and thought about how much I might really enjoy the build up to Christina/Parker later on.

• I would have really enjoyed to see an explanation for why Samantha quit Whitebrook after Ashleigh died. That would have been an interesting, sad story. And that's what strikes me about this book. The dream is more or less a waste of time (although entertaining time...I'll give it that) but it skips the more interesting storylines. You know what could have been skipped? Part One. Joanna should have started with Part Two, dedicated a whole section to Christina's rehabilitation and near collapse due to pushing herself too hard, and then Part Three should have been the preparation for the Rolex Kentucky. Why gloss over all that good stuff so we can read about a foal with a not-so-serious problem and a ten-year-old girl with the patience of a gnat?

• Also, a hat? Seriously? The whole plot twist is a hat flying out of nowhere and spoking Jazz, thereby injuring Christina? I was all set to see Jazz doing some typical green horse shenanigans resulting in injury. Instead it's a hat hitting her horse on the nose. I didn't know to be refreshed or annoyed.

• Why do they keep stabbing Christina with needles to get her to sleep? She has an IV. Use it.

• My favorite line: "Yo, crip." I have no idea why Ross says this to Christina. Although it is quickly becoming my favorite quote in the series.

• I really enjoyed Mike's conversation with Christina about competition and not letting it drive her life. I also find it exceedingly ironic because Cindy is next and if anyone was sorely in need of that talk, it's her.

• There's another one of those "I know it sounds crazy..." medical moments brought to us by Joanna Campbell. The nurses, despite it being "strictly against the rules" (although I don't see why, generally speaking, but considering Chris is a month premature I guess it makes some rational sense) brings Christina into Ashleigh's hospital room because they think it will help bring her out of her coma-like whatever. And in true "this only happens in the movies!" Christina accidentally bumps Ashleigh's cheek and she wakes up like she's just woken from a light nap.

• And then they stick both weakened Ashleigh and premature Christina in an open sleigh for a ride that will last who knows how long, despite the nurses twittering stupidly about how the doctors would never allow it. I'm sure there was some pool between the nurses going on by the end of that book on how soon they'd be seeing Ashleigh & Co. back at the hospital after that.

My main problem with this book isn't the book itself. The book is pretty good despite it sort of just ending randomly and skimming over things that would have been more interesting than the things described in detail. My problem is how the dream becomes canon later on. Kevin, Ross, the eventing...they all just step out of this dream and into the canon series, which irks me to no end.

Thus I have to blame this book for all the stupidity later.

Now...now I tackle Tor's rumored infidelity and the complete ridiculousness of Cindy.

Danger, Danger, Ashleigh Griffen – Ashleigh #6: A Dangerous Ride

Ashleigh #6: A Dangerous Ride
Created by Joanna Campbell
Written by Mary Newhall Anderson
First Printing: August 1999

And fast on the heels of forbidden stallions and Ashleigh being grounded from riding, we have a dangerous ride coming up. Presumably, Ashleigh is no longer grounded, unless of course she’s doing something bad and sneaking another ride … but we shall find out in due course. And there’s the simple matter of what kind of ride turns dangerous?

Maybe the cover will tell us!

Ah! Ashleigh is riding Stardust. She must have been allowed to ride again. She also appears to be wearing show clothes, but looks very very unbalanced leaning over the left side of her horse like that. It’s enough to send any riding instructor into screams of outrage. Any more unbalanced, and she’s likely to tip right off Stardust. Or hey, if Stardust screeches to a halt, Ashleigh will find herself doing a faceplant in the dirt. She also looks far too big to be a 10 year old girl, and maybe even too large for that horse. Dramatic cover, maybe, like something out of a Nancy Drew mystery. But dangerous ride? Nah, maybe the summary will help us out.

The Summary:

Is Ashleigh forgetting her dream?

Ashleigh Griffen loves riding with her best friend, Mona Gardener, so when Mona starts jumping and competing in horse shows, Ashleigh wants to give it a try.

But without the right clothes, a fancy horse, or a nasty attitude, Ashleigh feels out of place. Spurred on by a group of snobby horse-show girls, she rises to the challenge, determined to beat them at their own game.

Soon Ashleigh and Stardust are jumping and showing all the time, and winning, too! But no matter how good she gets, Ashleigh still wants to be a jockey. Doesn't she?

Dangerous rides? Nope, nothing there, unless one refers to the “snobby horse-show girls.” The hunter-jumper scene can be incredibly catty most of the time; you have to have that $4,000 Butet saddle, or those $900 Cavallo dress boots -- it’s like swimming in blood-filled waters with man-eating sharks. Hey, maybe that’s it! There’s the danger! The Hunter Bitch Princesses will eat you alive! That said, the plot summary gives nothing important other than Ashleigh’s newfound hobby of horse shows and wondering if she’s giving up her dream of being a jockey. Well, frankly, considering she’s all of 10 years old, I’d say she could stick to the horse shows for a few more years, get some good riding experience under her and then go on to get her jockey license when she’s old enough. Hey, it worked for Christina, didn‘t it?

The Big Picture Plot:
Fresh from her adventures in The Forbidden Stallion, Ashleigh is now able to ride a horse again. Bully for her. Plus, it even sounds like she’s super good friends with Peter Danworth now, considering how catty and angry they were towards each other for two-thirds of Book #5. So off she goes to ride with Mona, and they end up popping over itty-bitty two-foot crossrails and Mona gets all excited about doing a pairs-class with Ashleigh. But Ashleigh turns her down because Aladdin is coming up to Keeneland, and she wants to go see him.

And so they’re off to the track, where they not-so-surprisingly run into a certain dark-haired boy (who just can’t seem to get a break even in a 2 paragraph cameo appearance) before they find that Aladdin has been stuck in the wrong stall (hey, didn’t we already see this in book #10 of the regular series?) and is throwing a temper tantrum. So they whisk him off to the comfort of Edgardale but not before Ashleigh meets a former jockey by the name of Sam Wiggens who was apparently so great he even rode Secretariat and was supposed to ride him in the Bay Shore, but oh, a tragic accident beforehand crushed that chance. Literally.

So Mona finally manages to talk Ashleigh into riding at a show, Caroline shows how talented she is at braiding a horse’s mane (and indirectly hints that while she does like horses, she’s not horse-crazy, so everyone needs to get off her back about it) and Ashleigh runs into two hunter princesses (scratch that, one is a hunter bitch princess, the other just rides really well) who criticize her clothes and her horse and her saddle (clearly Ashleigh does NOT have a $4,000 Butet) but lo and behold, Ashleigh and Mona win the blue ribbon in the pairs class. And then Ashleigh shoots off her mouth at spoiled Miss Debbie, and Ashleigh leaps into showing like there’s no tomorrow.

And at least, we find our ‘dangerous ride’ Ashleigh does something stupid, and races after Frisky who threw Mona at an A-rated show. Whoopie! Ashleigh clearly is the only person capable of catching Frisky. And off she goes to the racetrack to watch Aladdin’s race. And gets a bunch of people talking about how she will be a super jockey someday. Hooray!

Some Key Points of Interest:

• pg. 30: Hey look everyone, it’s Brad! Poor guy can’t get a break even in a cameo. He’s “rude” according to Ashleigh. Instant clash. Yeah!

• pg. 38: Aladdin’s sire, Royal Tee is a “full brother to Secretariat” which makes me giggle madly because he “never got a chance to run many races.” Yeah, which means either The Bride was substituted for Royal Tee or Syrian Sea was. It’s just amusing because it’s an obvious attempt to give Aladdin some kind of family relationship to some famous horse.
  

• pg. 39: Sam Wiggens was supposed to ride Secretariat in the Bay Shore. Hey, did anyone ever tell Ron Turcotte he could have lost the ride that day?

• pg. 106: Peter claims that Aladdin will be the next winner of the Keeneland Mile. Which Keeneland Mile might that be? The one that races on the grass? For horses four and up? In fact, the only spring mile race at Keeneland for males is the Makers Mark for 4-Year-Olds & up. And that is run on the grass. Research, people!

• pg. 125: “Magic is out of Bold Ruler, Ashleigh.” ARGH! Mary, I gotta hand it to you as a writer who can pen a readable story, but for god’s sake, Bold Ruler is a stallion. Stallions do not give birth to foals. Foals come OUT OF mares. Foals are BY stallions. It’s a major pet peeve of mine when people fuck up terminology like that. Also, Bold Ruler died in 1971. For him to have sired Magic, that means Magic is 27 years old. Gee, he’s probably a bit long in the tooth to have been just off the track and doing show jumping, don't you think?

So there you have it, thrills, chills and spills! And the excitement of Ashleigh competing in the backstabbing world of Hunter/Jumper. Next up, Aladdin freaking wins the freaking Kentucky Derby!

She’s a Rebel… A Rebel with a Cause – Ashleigh #5: The Forbidden Stallion

Ashleigh #5: The Forbidden Stallion
Created by Joanna Campbell
Written by Chris Platt
First Printing: August 1999

So here’s another one! This is probably be the last one for the weekend since tomorrow is March 2nd, and that means it’s Mitch’s birthday (Happy Birthday to my pony!) and then my birthday happens to be Monday. So it might be Tuesday before my next review. But that said, here’s book #5, with what I consider to be an incredibly cheesy-ass title … but then, most of the books in this series have the most awful cliché titles in the world. Also, I’d like to know why I seem to be adapting these review titles to quotations from movies lately – maybe it makes it more fun that way. Or something.

The Cover:
Now, aside from the painfully awful title in red and white on the bottom of the cover, we finally get a cover pumped full of action and raging equine testosterone. Why, it seems to leap right out of the Black Stallion movie – except of course that Aladdin’s Treasure is a three-year-old colt, and a Thoroughbred, not an Arabian. It just screams romance though; the wild looking horse running free through the crashing waves at sunset. Which actually doesn’t ever happen in the book. Yes, Aladdin gets loose (way to go Ashleigh) and runs around on the beach, but it was in the morning, and he was fully tacked up. I’d highly doubt that he’d be running around wild and free on a beach otherwise given how supposedly valuable he is. Plus, the water looks very weird; the waves are breaking rather far behind Aladdin, but he’s able to run through deep enough water that he leaves a spray plume behind him. I don’t know if that’s possible; I’ve ridden on the beach, and usually, you have to be right down by the breakers to get a spray plume like that. Still, compared to the bland and boring inaction on the last few covers, this is an eye-catching breath of fresh air.

The Summary:

Ashleigh is torn

Ashleigh Griffen knows it's wrong, but she can't help it-she's jealous. Peter Danworth has everything: a huge Thoroughbred racing farm, money, and one of Ashleigh's favorite stallions, Aladdin.

Then Ashleigh gets amazing news. If the stallion loses his next race, the Danworths will retire him to stud at Edgardale!

Excited, Ashleigh sneaks a ride on Aladdin -- and she accidentally discovers how to run him to win. Will she keep quiet so the magnificent stallion can live on her parents' farm? Or will she give Peter, the boy who has everything, Aladdin's secret?

So where do we start? I know, let’s start by comparing the similarities between Brad Townsend and Peter Danworth. Well, to start off, they’re both filthy rich and live on big old Thoroughbred farms. Plus, from reading the back cover, you kind of get the sense that Ashleigh has a serious case of the green-eyed monster, and that things won’t start off right with old Peter just the way things didn’t go so hot with Brad. But by and large, the summary pretty much remains true to the plot, and it all unfolds pretty much spot-on through the whole book. Which pretty much gives away the entire plot on the back cover. Heck folks, save your $5 and don’t bother to get the book. You got the gist of it right there in those three paragraphs.

So speaking of which…

The Big Picture Plot:
I’m happy to say there’s actually multiple plots within this book. The previous books have been pretty much one-dimensional in that the key point of the story was for Ashleigh to whine and pout and sulk about how she doesn’t have a horse, and we’re supposed to feel sorry for her because of that. Now that she does have that wonderful equine friend that’s taller than 14 hands, then we move to a storyline with a little more substance. The main story plot here is that Aladdin’s Treasure, the big black stallion that Ashleigh just adores, is uber sucktastic on the racetrack. In fact, he’s so sucktastic, he pretty much reeks because he hasn’t even broken his maiden yet (but somehow despite this, the Danworths have entered him in a stakes race that he somehow meets the conditions for.) Ashleigh knows he’s this super horse and all because he’s by the same sire as Wanderer’s Quest, so it’s up to her and her family to figure out why this regally-bred horse is pretty much doing the equivalent to what The Green Monkey did, and hasn’t lifted a hoof. Therefore, our uber-wealthy friends, the Danworths (not to be confused with the other uber-wealthy friends, the Fontaines) fly the whole Griffen clan of five down to Florida on their private jet so they can get to the bottom of this mystery or else Aladdin’s Treasure will be retired at Edgardale to stand at stud (considering that he hasn’t so much as won a race at this point, if I were Derek or Elaine, I’d be insulted that the Danworths wanted to fob off a loser stallion on me considering if he’d won some races, other farms would be clamoring for him.) Which leads us to …

Peter Danworth. The good-looking son of Mr Danworth, and surprise surprise, he’s thirteen, just like Caroline. He just screams Brad-clone, you see. Everything fits, even the way he and Ashleigh clash right from the start. But lo and behold, Aladdin’s Treasure is actually his horse. And he actually cares for the horse, and doesn’t want to see him go to Edgardale. In fact, we even find out that he exercise rides Aladdin (gee, just like Brad – what is it about these rich boys who ride their daddy’s horses?) and wants to be a jockey, but will grow too tall, which leads to another source of contention with Ashleigh because she’s still little. They really butt heads when the Griffen’s return for the week of spring break, and Ashleigh has to spend time with Peter for math tutoring. Which brings us to….

Ashleigh’s not above blackmail, it seems. She really really wants to ride Aladdin even though she flunked a math quiz and has been grounded from riding. She has a few pet theories about why Aladdin is such a sucky racehorse, the chief theory involving a whip (which is as usual evil) and seems convinced the only way she can get to the bottom of the mystery is to actually sit on him herself, conveniently forgetting the fact that he’s almost 17 hands tall, and she’s all of four and a half feet which makes his head just about as big as her torso. In order to ride the horse, she blackmails Peter, and gets to ride. Which brings us to our conclusion…

Ashleigh is a friggin genius. She solved the problem of why Aladdin is such a loser. All he needed was a shadow roll. She also does stupid things like waving a whip around his face to see if he is whip shy. Oh, and falling off. There’s a reason why they call it overmounted. Ashleigh was in way way over her head. But huzzah! She solves the problem that even the super duper new trainer can’t solve. Way to go, Ashleigh. Aladdin’s Treasure finally breaks his maiden.

Some Points of Interest:

• I got a good old-fashioned heart clench reading the description of Hialeah Racetrack being called a “first-rate place.” By the time this book was written, it was just a few short years from being shut down and closed. I’ve seen pictures of the place since then; it’s got that old-fashioned classic beauty, so it’s nice to read about it as actually being alive again. Or at a time when it was alive, or something.
  

• I will never understand why these authors seem to think racehorses are just like regular horses that just run fast. Thoroughbreds don’t get “put in crossties” … that’s why you see them being held while being groomed or tacked up. Too much can go wrong in a crosstie. I was once tacking up the mare I was leasing, and she started bucking around in the crossties, she could have hurt herself. Think about it, you’ve got a possibly multi-million dollar animal, and you’re going to clip two long lines to these rings on its halter – lines that possibly will not break in an emergency – and hope that he doesn’t go bat-shit-crazy and break his neck? I don’t think so. You’re gonna get a groom or two to hold his lead rope.

• Mike Smith? Mike Smith? This just has me convulsed in giggles. Of all the names that could have been picked for the introduction of this character, it just seems so damn amusing that the Danworth’s new trainer has the exact same name as two-time Breeders’ Cup Mile-winning jockey, Mike Smith.

• Aladdin’s Treasure is “almost seventeen hands tall and was jet black with four white socks, a star and a stripe.” And yet, Ashleigh is able to brush his back. Let me show you a horse that is 17.1 hands tall.

See, that’s Bubba. He’s at our barn. There’s only a few inches of difference between him and Aladdin. And yet, I can barely reach this horse’s back. I cannot see over his back. And I am a foot taller than Ashleigh. But hey, maybe she was standing on a stepladder or something. Or has elastic arms like Mr Fantastic, Richard Reed.

• Ashleigh and Peter do not get along at first. In fact, they kind of hate each other. But unlike Brad and Ashleigh, who never seem to really reconcile their animosity, Peter and Ashleigh seem to come to a friendship. Which is weird, because you’d have thought they’d try the same kind of love/hate rivalry plot as they did with the main series.

• I said it before, and I'll say it again. Ashleigh is wasted as a jockey. If she can deliver a foal all by herself in the middle of a blizzard, she's the equine version of Doogie Howser.

So there we have it, The Forbidden Stallion. Why it had such a name like “forbidden” I’ll never know. It’s not like Ashleigh was prevented from seeing the horse, she just couldn’t ride him. But hello, she was grounded from riding horses – any horse. Not just really tall black stallions. And soon, she’ll be back in the saddle, and immersing herself in that catty bitchy world of Hunter Show Princesses. Whoop de doop.

With God as My Witness, I’ll Never Love Horses Again – Ashleigh #4: Goodbye Midnight Wanderer

Ashleigh #4: Goodbye Midnight Wanderer
Created by Joanna Campbell
Written by Olivia Coates
First Printing: April 1999

Churning them out like clockwork, I am, right? I’m actually a couple of books farther in the Ashleigh series, but it involves finding the time to type everything up. Since I’ve got a new hayburner in my life, I tend to think the joy of actually riding a pony takes precedence over reading about selfish, spoiled children complaining they don’t have a “real” horse. But we begin as we always do, with the cover:

It’s unfortunately another one of those very uninspiring and bland covers that were it not for the fact that is it part of a series, people aren’t likely to be very willing to leap at the chance to look inside it. Ashleigh once again has very straight and very light brown hair again, and looks vaguely how we might assume Jessica Alba looked at age 10, only with Botox treatments. The shape of her face changes from cover to cover, only here, she doesn’t seem to have cheekbones, and her skin looks very very shiny. The horse looks far too old to be a yearling and has a mottled muzzle and mottling around its eyes. Now, these are Appaloosa characteristics, and last I checked, Edgardale was a Thoroughbred breeding farm (unless an Appy teaser got to Wanderer while she was visiting another farm to be bred.) Also, the horse doesn’t really look like anything in pain, he looks like he’s zoned out, and probably wondering “Why the heck are you sticking your face that close to my eye?” Lastly, the bedding material in the stall seems to be something weird – is it sawdust or straw? Strawdust -- with all the absorbency of sawdust but with the stick-like pokiness of straw? Can I somehow market that stuff? I have a pony to support after all.

The Summary:

Was it really Ashleigh’s fault?

Tragedy has struck at Edgardale. Ashleigh's favorite yearling has been injured in a terrible accident, and Ashleigh feels responsible., The vet says the colt should be put down. Ashleigh begs for time, and devotes herself to caring for the yearling. But nothing Ashleigh does seems to help. The yearling must be destroyed. Blaming herself for the colt's sad fate, Ashleigh vows never to become attached to a horse again--it can only end in tearful goodbyes. Can any horse mend Ashleigh's broken heart?

Can I be evil, and point a finger at Ashleigh and go: “Yes, yes it is all your fault, wallow in your guilt, girl, for the rest of eternity!” But seriously folks, this summary does seem pretty spot on with the plot in the book. Horse gets hurt, girl blames self, vet wants to put horse down, and Ashleigh begs for extra time, but horse doesn’t recover and thus gets the sleepy shot, and our favorite equine-loving heroine retreats from horses. But of course, her heart is mended, because otherwise, the series would be over right then and there.

The Big Picture Plot:
Obviously, the big plot point to the story is Midnight Wanderer, the farm’s best yearling out of the farm’s best broodmare, breaking his cannon bone in an oh so tragic accident because he was ‘play-fighting’ with some other yearling. Now, the sensible thing to do is be humane to the poor creature and put him down. He’s a yearling, he’s nothing but a money sink at this point, and for a family business that relies on yearling sales to keep afloat, trying to save a colt like that would be insanity. Maybe if the Griffens were independently wealthy like Roy and Gretchen Jackson, maybe saving Midnight Wanderer would have been more feasible, but considering they aren’t, then it would have been a wiser course of action to have put him down from the start.

Which of course would mean that we wouldn’t have any kind of a story past the first two chapters. So naturally, Ashleigh must beg and plead (never caring just how expensive this kind of thing is) for his life. So yay, they slap a cast on and drug him up to high heaven. And now Ashleigh starts blaming herself for not stopping the two horses. But alas, Midnight Wanderer doesn’t heal, and even two weeks later, his leg isn’t even knitting, and the Griffens do the right thing, and let him go.

Which brings us to the semi-plot within a plot. And that’s Ashleigh’s broken hearted pity-fest. Instead of immersing herself in horses to make up for her loss of the well-loved yearling, she abandons them entirely. And it’s not until Caroline tricks her into going out to the barn by hiding her kitten in the tack room, does she realize that Stardust is now cribbing out of boredom (gee, you know, I dealt with that. Bravo, Ashleigh, if you’re lucky, you can catch it in time, if not, hello fence repair!) and she finally decides to love horses again.

Some Key Points of Interest:

• On page 6, we are told that Wanderer’s Quest is prepping for the Florida Derby. Now, if I’m not mistaken, Wanderer’s Quest was introduced as a three-year-old turf filly running in the Providian Mile on Derby Day in Ashleigh #1. Christmas and the New Year have been and gone, Wanderer’s Quest is now officially four. The Florida Derby is on the dirt, and it is age-restricted to three-year-olds because it’s a Kentucky Derby prep race. Therefore, she’d be ineligible to run unless the Fontaines (her owners) have truly found a way to turn back the clock.

• Ashleigh daydreams about riding Wanderer’s Quest in the Preakness. “The barriers went down and they were off, racing down the track.” I don’t know what kind of racing this author watches. The starting gate opens, and even in the old days before the introduction of a mechanized starting gate, the mesh-rope barrier thing went up. Standardbreds have this cool mobile starting gate mounted on the back of a car or truck, maybe that’s it … except even those barriers fold inwards. I don’t know of any barriers that go down.

• Ashleigh almost administers a shot of Bute to Midnight Wanderer. My question is; what kind of parents are Derek and Elaine if they just leave serious drug medicine lying around on a desk where their 10 year old daughter can get to it? Phenylbutazone is dangerous – fatally so in some cases. Far as I’m aware, you can only get it from your vet or from Valley Vet with a prescription, and they rarely dispense it in anything other than paste/tube form. If they do give it in shot-form, I'd imagine the best thing to do is lock that stuff up, ASAP.
  

• Later, Ashleigh does give Midnight Wanderer a shot of Bute. Perfectly done. Holy Jeebsus! The kid’s missed her calling! Forget about being a jockey, if she can administer a shot like that without training based off what she’s seen others do, then she’s a child prodigy veterinarian. Even I can’t do that, and I’ve owned horses for longer than she’s even been alive. Seriously though folks, it’s not just a matter of sticking the needle in the horse’s neck, Bute needs to be administered intravenously. Sticking the needle into muscle tissue can cause tissue damage.

• There’s that mention of the Florida Derby again, and they keep calling Wanderer’s Quest a mare. Mares are age four and over, fillies are age three and under. Therefore, that does indicate that she is over age three. Hello! Age-restricted race calling again.

• Now it’s Caroline and Ashleigh’s turn for the catty screaming. Oh the joys of sisterhood.

Well, that was a sob story (Not!) Wah, dying horse. I don’t think I cried though. We knew it was a lost cause from the beginning, because Nureyev aside, very few horses survive severely broken legs. So we never could expect miracles, and therefore no reason to cry. Now, if I wanted a tearjerker, I’d read The Forgotten Filly. That really tugs my heart strings. But moving on, Ashleigh has boy-trouble of the horse and human kind!

DUDE, Where’s My Horse? - Ashleigh #3: Waiting for Stardust

Ashleigh #3: Waiting for Stardust
by Joanna Campell (with help from Mary Newhall Anderson)
First Printing: February 1999

So I’m actually tackling two books today. You see, Mitch was getting a little lesson in patience in the crossties, so I killed time by reading a book about a girl who gets a horse because she’s too “big” for her pony which is incredibly ironic considering I had a horse and now have a pony because horses are too “big” for me. So, onwards, snark-wards ho!

Can any horse replace Lightning?

Giving up Lightning was the hardest thing Ashleigh Griffen has ever done. Nothing can replace her beloved mare, and nothing anyone can say or do will make Ashleigh fell better. How can Ashleigh ever fulfill her dream of becoming a jockey without a horse to ride?

Even Mona, Ashleigh's best friend, has her own horse now. Ashleigh feels left behind and lonely. Is there a horse out there for Ashleigh -- one she can love as much as Lightning?

The Cover:
It’s a very bland, generic cover really. Firstly, we see a brown-haired girl in front of a stall, it’s Ashleigh of course. She seems to suffer whatever fate Thoroughbred series characters seem to suffer when it comes to their hair. First it was dark brown and kind of wavy, and then it was very dark brown and very straight. And now it’s sort of a chestnut-brown and slightly wavy. What kind of hairdresser does this kid have? Does Caroline secretly practice hairstyles on an unsuspecting victim like her sister? Secondly, that’s a very unflattering-looking horse. FHOTD candidate, anyone? The cats, well, the cats are cute, and obligatory because you know how there has to be cats around a barn to catch mice. In short, it’s a very blah and uninspiring cover with very little action. If it weren’t the fact that it’s a series book, it wouldn’t ever catch my eye.

The Big Picture Plot:
So it’s Christmas, and Lightning has gone, Ashleigh gave her away to the cancer treatment center for those kids to love and adore (horses are healing power!) and thus she only has herself to blame if she feels sorry for the fact that she doesn’t have a horse. Ashleigh and Rory go outside to ride Moe, and Ashleigh still feels sorry for herself because she’s riding a pony. And then, lo and behold, Mona gets a Thoroughbred for Christmas, and can’t help but rub it in. Ashleigh goes to visit the next day, and Moe gets hurt through a careless and selfish act of Ashleigh’s. This of course means that Rory hates her, he said so, and he even hits her (ah, fantastic, domestic violence from a 5 year old) Ashleigh has also lost her allowance because it’s going towards Moe’s vet bills.

And then Mona calls; fur flies and hot tempers boil over. And Ashleigh slams down the telephone (hurrah, ten year old drama, they’re just getting started, give them another 3 years and it’ll be even better) and now they’re both in a snit at each other. And it’s not long before Ashleigh throws herself into working around the barn, mainly because she doesn’t have a best friend to hang out with anymore. And this in turn means that she can now fix up a stall for a new horse. But who is this mystery creature?

Why, it’s a pretty half-Thoroughbred mare that Ashleigh decides she’s going to name Stardust. Except, she doesn’t get along so famously with this horse. Who apparently Does. Not. Like. Her. And Mr. Griffen gets the story; it’s another abusive person, but this time, a girl Ashleigh’s age. Hurrah! And they resort to the tool that every single Natural Horsemanship guru from Pat Parelli to Clinton Anderson endorses – the round pen! Double hurrah!

And then Ashleigh tries to ride Stardust because Mona talks her into it, and she can’t! So she yells and screams at Mona again (way to go Drama Llama!) so they aren’t talking to each other again. But at long last, Ashleigh gets to ride Stardust and together they save Rory from a storm. Hurrah! Stardust can stay! Plus, Kurt is leaving, and they get a new hired hand named Jonas.

Some Key Points of Interest:

• Yet again, we have an example of Whips Are Very Very Bad™ only now, it’s a young girl about Ashleigh’s height and age under the direction of a trainer. Because clearly, everyone else is a lazy villainous slob who prefers to flog their horses to death to make them do what they want, when our heroines win equine hearts and minds through love alone.

• Poor Moe. For the first two books, he was a Welsh/Shetland pony just under 13 hands (so hey, 12.3 hands – medium pony height) and now, he’s been regulated to an ordinary Shetland because everyone knows Shetlands are tiny little ponies, and what better way to make the reader feel sorry for Ashleigh than to put her on a Shetland.

• Once again, we are reminded that ponies are the Evil Kiss of Death™ because Ashleigh is too “big” for her pony, and spends her entire time feeling sorry for herself because she doesn’t have a “real” horse. Off hand, I think this is part of the American culture, why settle for a pony when you should have a horse. In an almost freak contrast, it’s not uncommon in the UK and Europe to see grown women in their 20s and upwards riding the native ponies. Maybe the Brits and Euros are smarter than the Yanks.

• Frisky is about 16 hands. But just for the sake of argument, let’s say she’s 16.1hh and Silver is 13.1hh. That’s a difference of three hands. That means that Frisky is roughly a foot taller than Silver at the withers. To put it all in perspective, a horse that is 16.1hh at the withers is about 64.4 inches at the withers. And their head is probably about another 6 or 12 inches higher. So, essentially, the horse stands 64.4 inches at the withers. I am 5-foot, 6-inches. I am roughly 66 inches tall, at the top of my head. I can barely look over the withers of a 16.1 hand horse. On average, a 10 year old girl is about 10 inches shorter than I am. How the hell can a 10 year old child saddle a 16.1 hand horse. Why is she even riding this animal? Send her back to the ponies post haste!

• Speaking of heights, why are horses “over 15 hands” or “16 hands at least” in this book? I know Thoroughbreds are taller on average, but everything is either 15 hands and up making it a horse or 13 hands and under and is therefore a pony. Where is the 14.3 hand horse? The perfect size? Why do these kids complain about having ponies and wanting a “real” horse? They ought to take my little tank for a spin, he’s small, but mighty and moves like a warmblood. But on that score, who decides the sizes of these horses? Who measures them? Expert Village’s “expert” Sarah Stettner?

• Ashleigh and Mona are extremely catty towards each other in this book. It doesn’t bode well for future installments if they’re already yelling and screaming at each other at this point of the third book in.

All in all, I did not like this book. Ashleigh was incredibly selfish, and needed the Waaaahmbulance far too often for my frame of mind. It just seemed like every single page we're being bombarded with how much Ashleigh's life sucks because she doesn't have a 15+ hand horse. Boo hoo for her. Mona's acting like a smug little 'tard to boot. They're freaking 10 year olds for god's sake, not high school drama queens -- not even middle school yet. They need to chill. Totally. But it is over! Ashleigh has a horse, we can all cheer and make noise now. Rah. And coming up: Death comes to Edgardale.

Dear Santa: I Can Has Horse Now, Plz? – Ashleigh #2

Ashleigh #2: A Horse For Christmas
by Joanna Campell
First Printing: December 1998

Will Ashleigh lose the horse she loves?

When Ashleigh Griffen first found Lightning, the poor mare was thin and sick. But now, because of Ashleigh's loving care, Lightning is a beautiful, healthy horse. Ashleigh dreams of all the wonderful things she will do once her family has officially adopted the mare.

But then the humane society announces that they've found another home for Lightning--and they're going to take her away right before Christmas! Ashleigh is frantic. How can she make them understand that Lightning belongs to her?

The Cover:

Firstly, I really wish I could find a copy of the full image of the cover art. It’s a real doozy considering you only see about half of it. But if you happen to be holding the book in your hands, flip it over, and check out the whole picture on the back cover. Fantastic, isn’t it? So just who is that blond child sitting on the horse? The brown-haired girl is obviously Ashleigh who looks far older than a mere 10 years of age, is child #2 Rory or some random kid that will pop up in the story like Kira, perhaps? Also, that riding helmet looks as if it was added after the fact, did some safety conscientious person scream in horror and flip their lid? (OMG, Teh Safetees!!!!) Never mind that there is no actual chinstrap on that helmet; if Ole Dobbin there (but wait, that’s Lightning, she wouldn’t ever hurt a fly) bucked, that helmet would go flying up and off before the kid did a faceplant into the ground. Secondly, you really ought to see the entire cover art; there is no saddle blanket at all, and from what I see, a cinch would be vitally important to keep that sucker on that pony’s back. Without it, the helmet will go flying, followed by the kid, who would then have the ignoble embarrassment of having a Western saddle dumped on top of them. Isn’t it wonderful?

The Big Picture Plot:
Ashleigh has saved Lightning from the horrible evil bad owner, and she’s been taking a lot of good care of her. Lightning has gained weight, put on muscle, and she’s really really pretty now (because of course, every little girl wants a beautiful white horse) and Ashleigh is already making plans to what she will do when the Humane society lets the Griffens adopt her. We’re told that Lightning is not a pure Thoroughbred, and Ashleigh thinks that just having a dished muzzle means she’s probably got some Arabian in her (but you can bet she’s really probably just a grade mare – nothing wrong with that, but why oh why do people automatically go for the Arabians and Thoroughbreds?) Mona comes over to visit, and of course there’s the usual speculation about how Ashleigh will ride in the Kentucky Derby when she gets older.

But all is not well in future-jockeyland, Ashleigh overhears some Humane Society people talking with her parents about a home for Lightning, and she worries about it while watching a horse race that one of their former horses is running in. Finally, after the race, she confronts her parents, and turns on the hystronics about taking care of Lightning. Kurt hints that there might be other people interested in Lightning, but brushes it off (it really builds the suspense!)

Ashleigh keeps working with Lightning, and they finally get her saddled, and finally ridden. But then some rich Society donors show up, and Ashleigh gets lippy with them, and worries some more. And then it’s off to the Keeneland Yearling Sales for the Edgardale yearlings to be sold. And then Ashleigh’s parents take her over to Hopewell Center, a center for children with cancer, and those people want Lightning too. Ashleigh meets a girl named Kira, and everyone goes crazy over Lightning, not knowing that she might be theirs. The Hopewell kids come to visit Edgardale, and at long last, Ashleigh decides to give Lightning to them. There’s a Christmas party, and she gives Lightning to them, wrapped up with a bow.

Some Key Points of Interest:

• Did you know that Lightning stands just a little over 15 hands? Joanna tells us this multiple times. And yet Ashleigh has to stretch to put the saddle on her back, I think she needs to stay with the ponies for a few more years. Besides, what’s a few inches more or less between horse and pony size anyway?

• Slammer, Wanderer’s black yearling who sells at Keeneland, is sold for (and I quote) “Slammer had gone for more than twice the price the Griffens had expected: two hundred thousand dollars. It was a breathtaking amount of money.” – I gotta ask, was both Coolmore and Godolphin conspicuously absent from Keeneland that year? I mean, $200,000 isn’t exactly pocket change, but it’s small potatoes in a multi-million dollar horse market known for some pretty intense bidding wars.
  

• Once again, Ponies are the Kiss of Death™ because Mona says she "needs" a full-sized horse. Now, this is a 10 year old kid who’s pony isn’t exactly pint-sized. Silver is 2 hands shorter than Lightning. That puts her at 13.1 or 13.2 hands, and therefore in the medium-to-large pony range. If you ask me, Mona’s full of herself. And this is coming from a grown adult to rides a pony. Ponies are fun!

• Go Gen’s filly sold at auction. We know she has a filly because we are told this on page #49. And then again on page #50. And on page #51. C’mon, Joanna, give kids some credit. I know TV and stuff has made it hard for them to remember things sometimes, but surely they can’t have forgotten that Go Gen has a filly so quickly that you need to repeat it three times in as many pages.

• This book ends with a soft whicker and lovey dovey moment as Ashleigh gives up the horse she loves.

And thus ends Ashleigh #2: A Horse for Christmas. Except it was not Ashleigh who got the horse for Christmas, but rather the Hopewell kids. And now, tension shall build as Mona is surely about to get a real live full-sized horse while Ashleigh gave up the horse she could have had, and is stuck with Moe, the pony. Woe and angst full speed ahead in "Waiting for Stardust" which shall be read shortly. But in the mean time, I have a pony to pay attention to. Ponies rule!

The New Kid in Dullsville, TB #5: Ashleigh's Dream

Ashleigh's Dream
Thoroughbred #5
by Joanna Campbell
Original Publication: 1993

Welcome to the first book post-Wonder. The series skips forward more than a year in Ashleigh's Dream, and we've got a new horse to worry about: Fleet Goddess. We've even got a new kid that takes the series for a bit of a test drive in this installment, although for the moment it's still more or less our neurotic Ashleigh holding the reins.

Here's the cover:


Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. The only thing really neat about it is that everyone of much importance (besides Charlie, who is old and therefore not on any book cover) is depicted. Wonder and her foal are in the background, Samantha (the new kid) sits on the fence staring all dreamy eyed at Fleet Goddess and Ashleigh, who inexplicably appears in her racing silks. There is no reason why she'd be wearing racing silks on the farm. Other thoughts: Samantha is wearing cowboy boots, Ashleigh's hair is suddenly dark blond/light brown and very big. Also, when does Samantha's hair become curly?

Anyway, sort of a hodgepodge of stuff going on there.

The Summary:

Can Samantha ride Fleet Goddess to victory?

When Ashleigh's horse, Wonder, gives birth to a beautiful foal, Ashleigh is thrilled. She's raising Wonder's colt, racing as an apprentice jockey, and she's even looking out for young Samantha McLean. Samantha moved to Townsend Acres with her father after her mother died in a riding accident. When Ashleigh buys a filly named Fleet Goddess, Samantha helps train the horse.

Samantha loves horses, but since her mother's death, her father has forbidden her to ride. Then Ashleigh is injured, and Fleet Goddess can't train. Samantha is desperate to take over. Is there any way she can convince her father to let her risk riding again?

Okay, that first question? The answer is no. No, Samantha can't ride Fleet Goddess to victory. Why? Because Samantha is thirteen. The rest of it is remarkably true to the book, which is either because someone actually managed to write a good blurb or because the plot of the book was basically to transition from book four to book six and introduce us to Samantha.

The plots:

#1: Ashleigh and Charlie are bored. Wonder quit racing in the spring of her four-year-old campaign, so given that she just gave birth to her first foal they've had a lot of time to twiddle their thumbs and work with claimers. So Ashleigh has all this money from the two races Wonder won while she co-owned her and decides, hey, she's going to buy a horse with some of this money. So she buys a horse. She and Charlie are no longer bored.

#2: Say hello to our next main character: Samantha McLean. Samantha is thirteen years old, with a mane of fiery red hair (that may or may not be curly). Her father is an assistant trainer, newly relocated from a relatively unsuccessful life in Florida to train at Townsend Acres. Her mother recently died, leaving a gaping void of angst over whether or not Samantha will be able to ride a horse. Because riding is dangerous, you see. Who would have thought running around on the back of a flighty animal might end in tragedy once in a while? So Samantha struggles with her father and wants to help Ashleigh train Fleet Goddess, but can't because she's been forbidden to ride. What's a rebellious teenager to do in this situation? She rebels.

Shockingly, Brad is not a big part of the book. He pops up to harass some grooms and manages to make Ashleigh's life inconvenient for a few minutes, but that's it. Really, it was not satisfying.

Oddities:

• It took Ashleigh "a lot of thought" to come up with the name Wonder's Pride. I certainly hope she didn't strain herself.

• What is it with the anti-whip obsession? You have one horse that's whip shy and I get it...really, I do. It happens. Now Charlie doesn't like to use whips on any of his horses. ANY of them. Apparently there are only two options available to a rider when training/riding a horse in the Thoroughbred series: beat the horse up with a whip or whisper loving speeches in its ear. Of the two, only the loving speeches work.

• More fun with hair styles! Corey has "slicked" her short hair away from her face, and Jennifer has "piled" all of hers on top of her head. At least there are no combs to be found.

• Jennifer is such the typical blond airhead. Currently she's planning on majoring in fashion design, but for some reason hasn't realized that one needs to take science classes to graduate from high school. That's Jennifer for you. A real go getter.

• Some of the grooms don't think Fleet Goddess will do much. I'm all astonishment.

• Brad's home from college for the summer! Brad's home from college for the summer!

• "Frankly, I don't know why any girl would want to go out with him." "Because he's cute and he's loaded. And he's not all bad," Caroline admitted. "Can't convince me." If this conversation exists in different formats in every book for the past five books it isn't reminding people that Ashleigh thinks Brad's good looking but would never date him because he's an asshole. It's bordering on protesting too much.
  

• Charlie is suffering from a mystery illness, one that even Ms. Campbell can't figure out.

• Charlie's "got to be near seventy"? What? I always pictured Charlie being well past seventy.

• Oh, Brad. Yelling at a groom because you don't like the way he's cleaning tack? Isn't there something else Brad could be doing with his time? Micromanaging grooms just doesn't seem evil enough.

• So we finally get our first Brad and Ashleigh angry interaction on page 102 (oh, it's been too long) and while the problem was minor I have to say I agree with Brad. The farm is going to go into financial distress in the next book, something that has been hinted at all over this book, and Ashleigh's over there using the farm's exercise riders for a horse the farm has no interest in. Further, Ashleigh's only paying for Fleet Goddess's feed. And of course Brad is jealous of you, Ashleigh. He got stepped on in all ways possible in the last book and then found out he has to share Wonder and all her foals with you, whom he hates, for the rest of his life. I'd say the poor asshole has a lot on his plate. Hire your own freaking rider if you have enough money for two educations and a racehorse and can pay Samantha to groom said racehorse, then stop bitching! ...oh, that would negate the plot of the book. Oops. *shrugs*

• What happened to Chad?

• Finally, some trouble in paradise for Ashleigh and Mike. All's perfect before you throw in a horse the boy casually doesn't believe in.

• Okay, so first Alydame is in a horse's pedigree and then she's suddenly running in the race. Hum...

• The race calls in this book are just really bad. No one talks like that. No one has the time to talk like that.

• And Fleet Goddess wins! Take that, Mike!

• No whinnies of joy at the end of this book. Instead there's crooning and grinning and the like. I feel a little let down.

First thought: this book was dull.
Second thought: Ashleigh never reconciles with Mike at the end. She gives him the cold shoulder literally three pages before the end of the book and that's that. No one knows how to resolve conflict in this series.
Third thought: whips. They carry one all the time, but they hate them and only use them in case they have to which, for anyone interested, means only flicking the crop next to the horse's eye. In order to, you know, win the race they're riding in. If someone ever used a crop properly everyone would probably fall into hysterics immediately afterward.

So that's Ashleigh's last book, which is basically just a transition into Samantha and Wonder's Pride and more interesting plots. Financial distress, here we come!

Ashleigh the Wonderkid Takes on Horse Abuse: Ashleigh #1

Ashleigh #1: Lightning's Last Hope
by Joanna Campell
First Printing: October 1998

Can Ashleigh protect Lightning?

Ashleigh Griffen thinks horses are the most wonderful animals in the world. She can't imagine why anyone would want to hurt a horse. So when Ashleigh discovers Lighning living in a filthy stall on a neighbor's farm, she can't ignore the horse's suffering.

Ashleigh knows Lighning isn't her responsibility. But Ashleigh is sure that Lighning's life is in danger is she stays with her abusive owner. How far will Ashleigh go to save the beautiful horse?

Hey all! I'm proud to be able to contribute to the project here, and have taken on the task of reviewing the the Ashleigh series. The Ashleigh series was a spin-off of Thoroughbred; of a time before Wonder, and Whitebrook Farm and Townsend Acres, and was something of a time bubble in which Ashleigh never aged past 11. The events that started Thoroughbred are never expected to happen -- and so we can expect our heroine will live in blissful contentment at Edgardale for the rest of eternity.

But first we begin with the story of Ashleigh the Wondergirl taking on horse abuse! Joanna Campbell returns from whatever black hole that life has drawn her into to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard as the case may be these days) and thus the Ashleigh series is born at the whim of the publishers who wish to capitalize off the original series' fame.

But before anything else, we must kick off with a look at the cover. It's a white horse! (After all, the horse hero of the book must surely be white, next to black isn't that color what every little girl dreams of riding when it comes to horses?) Now, one can draw a guess that Lightening (who looks remarkably well cared for considering she's "living in a filthy stall" ) must get her name from her color, and not the fact that she's fast. Also, one wonders at the genius who decides to sit on a horse presumably bareback without reins on the bridle. Not even a lead rope. That horse takes off, girl is toast. I can only draw the conclusion that it is meant to be some kind of romantic image of what owning a horse is really like, but yet fails to touch on why it would be any "last hope."

The Big Picture goes as follows:

After establishing our heroine as a horse-crazy girl with a pony named Moe, and an equally horse-crazy best friend named Mona, we find the two of them on a trail ride, where they discover a deer path in the woods. Exploring it the following Saturday, they come across a dilapilated farmhouse and barn (complete with junked out old cars that just screams Kentucky redneck) and a skin-and-bones horse who despite this still has "excellent conformation." But lo' before our heroines can abscond with the poor creature, the mare's seedy villainous owner arrives, and threatens them with a shotgun. (*gasp!*) and warns them never to come there again.

Later, Ashleigh has a dream about the horse, and it seems Mona does too (as if Lightning were the next Pet Psychic in Horse form), but when our intrepid girls can attempt a return to the farm, they are confronted with the seedy man whipping Lightning! (Oh noes ... whips!) They make several more visits to the horse, sneaking hay and grain to her. And again later, when Ashleigh returns alone, she finds the man beating the horse again. She finally spills the beans to her parents, and Kurt (the hired hand) brings the horse to the farm.

And everyone lives happily ever after, Ashleigh gets to go to the Derby to see a horse the family bred run on the under card, and dreams of owning a chestnut filly that wins the Derby (because we just have to throw in every single reference to the actual series after all!) Everyone is safe and sound and happy ... at least until the next time.

Some Key Points of Interest

• Once again, we confront the fact that Whips are Bad™ -- because after all, everyone who uses them must be an absolutely evil person. Takes a lot, I'd say to flog a horse to the point of injury/breaking skin and bleeding sores. Lightning's owner had gray hair, and it sounded like he wasn't in the best of health. Makes me wonder how he'd manage to whip a horse, except that whips are of course evil, and somehow he manages to do it.
  
  
  
• Ponies are the kiss of death. I mean, these girls have a wonderful home to live at, with horses right at their finger tips (even the townie friends keep their ponies at a stable) -- something your average girl (and most likely the reader of this book) can only dream about, and they spend half the time griping about how they can't wait to get a real horse.
  
  
• Everything of course must be set up for a dramatic finale. Ashleigh won't tell her parents, but Kurt follows them, but doesn't get involved until the very end. Of course, if Ashleigh had told her parents right away, there would have been no story.
  
  
• Lightning's owner was using her to pull a block-and-tackle to lift car parts. Why someone would pick a Thoroughbred/light weight riding horse to do this job rather than a draft or a draft-type pony, I'll never know. He also didn't seem to feed her very well, which meant he wasn't long on brains. By feeding the horse, it meant it has enough strength to do the job. But no .... he has to resort to the Evil Whip™
  
  

I still fail to see how this was Lightning's last hope in any way? It's all too neat and cut and dry to me. Ashleigh doesn't want to admit anything to her parents because she's afraid she'd get in trouble for being a "horse thief" but somehow repeatedly trespassing on someone else's property is A-OK. But hurrah, finally the police get involved, and Kurt just goes and takes the horse. And now she gets to live with Ashleigh. For now. On to book 2!