Bernadette Kelly has two series in print:  Riding High and Pony Patch.  Pony Patch, four books long thus far, is about the greedy pony Norbert, whose owner Molly thinks he is the most perfect pony in the world.  Riding High looks to be aimed at an older readership, and is about Annie Boyd and her local pony club.  Annie is a fashion-loving city girl who moves to the country.  So far there are eight books in the series.  

Bernadette Kelly lives in Victoria with her husband, two children, six horses, two dogs, a cat and three cockatiels.  She has been a District Commissioner for her local pony club, and competes still.   Her favourite writer as a child was Elyne Mitchell, and the character she’d most like to meet from children’s fiction is the Silver Brumby, Thowra.  When she was in grade six at school, she was banned by her teacher from getting any more horse books out of the library (snap) but it didn’t stop her.  Her own books are not particularly similar to  the Silver Brumby books:  the Riding High series is written firmly from a human point of view, but the Mitchell method of writing from the horse’s point of view has I think had an influence on Bernadette Kelly’s Norton:  this series fully recognises ponies’ radically different point of view to their human “masters’”.

Her books are now in print in the UK, but only in a library edition, which makes them pricey.  It’s worth nagging at your local library to get them in.  I did import the first title of both series, and I loved the Pony Patch series.  I’ve reviewed it here.

Sources:
Bernadette Kelly’s website
Black Dog’s section on Bernadette Kelly

Bernadette Kelly

The Riding High Series

If Wishes Were Horses

Making The Grade

Leap of Faith

Team Challenge

Heads or Tails?

Balancing Act

Making Waves

Pony Trek

The Pony Patch Series

Naughty Norton

Losing Norton

Norton Saves the Day

Norton’s Blue Ribbon