Stacy Gregg

Stacy Gregg is a fashion journalist who rode in her youth, and has started riding again now she is writing for the pony market.  She has a bay mare called Luka, and is a keen supporter of the ILPH (International League for the Protection of Horses), which features in her books.  A donation is given to the ILPH when each book is published.  At first I thought they must mean money from the sale of each book, but I don’t think they do.  It sounds like a one-off, but all credit to Stacy Gregg for doing this.

The Pony Club Secrets series is based on the activities of the girls who go to the Chevalier Point Pony Club, in New Zealand.

Stacey Gregg’s website

The Pony Club Secrets Series

Mystic and the Midnight Ride, 2007

Blaze and the Dark Rider, 2007

Destiny and the Wild Horses, 2008

Stardust and the Daredevil Ponies, 2008

Comet and the Champion’s Cup, 2008

Issie and the Christmas Pony, 2008

Storm and the Silver Bridle, 2009

Fortune and the Golden Trophy, 2009

Victory and the All-Stars Academy,2009

Flame and the Rebel Riders, 2010

Mystic and the Midnight Ride
Harper Collins, 2007, £4.99

Rating:  «««

Mystic puzzled me. The cover has been re-done for the UK market, with ponies from South Cambridgeshire Equestrian Centre, and so I was expecting an English read. As I was reading, various things didn't quite chime right: Pony Club grounds? The Paced and Mannered event? I knew I wasn't in England, but I didn't know where I was, and so I was confused. From my point of view, a book being set somewhere that isn't England isn't a problem. I grew up on Rutherford Montgomery's Golden Stallion and Elyne Mitchell's Silver Brumby books. There was never any issue about where the books were set: I was expecting something foreign, got it, and enjoyed it. Be a bit more upfront about the books' New Zealand setting, Harper Collins. It isn't a problem.

That is not to say that I didn't enjoy Mystic: I did. The book is part of what will be an eight part series: Mystic and the Midnight Ride is the first of them.  The book's heroine is Issie, whose pony is the grey Mystic. He is written out of the book pretty early on, but reappears in what seems to be the obligatory nod to the fantasy genre that many pony books now seem to think they need in order to appeal. Issie refuses to ride any more, but then she is asked to take on Blaze, a badly neglected pony, and she does. There is some well-described rehabilitation, a deeply unpleasant and over-indulged rich child, shenanigans with Blaze's former owners and the obligatory competition at the end of the book.

This is a pony book that will give the reader what she is expecting, and it does it well. It's a good, well-paced read, but ultimately I finished the book feeling frustrated.  I get no sense the author is trying to do anything new with the genre, or explore how her characters develop or react with each other.