Katy's Wild Foal

Katy's Ponies #1

by Victoria Eveleigh

Katy's birthday doesn't feel very special, until she discovers a tiny newborn foal on the moor. It walks right up to her with wobbly steps, and Katy is spellbound. As she reaches out and touches its forehead, Katy longs for the foal to be hers. But how will she ever persuade her family?

Genres: Childrens

112 pages, Paperback

First published February 20, 2002

About the author

I was brought up in London, but I always longed to live in the country and have lots of animals - especially horses. Well, dreams do come true because I now live on an Exmoor livestock farm with my husband, Chris. Besides dogs, cats and riding horses, we keep Exmoor Horn sheep, North Devon cattle and Exmoor ponies.
Our daughter, Sarah, is now grown up, but when she was a girl she had an Exmoor pony called Tinkerbell. Their eventful partnership inspired me to write my first stories: a trilogy about a girl and an Exmoor pony growing up together on an Exmoor hill farm. The 'Katy's Exmoor' trilogy was illustrated by Chris, and we self-published it under the imprint Tortoise Publishing. We also published a book called Midnight on Lundy.
Publishing my own books was hard work, so I was delighted when Orion Children's Books took me on in 2011. The 'Katy's Ponnies Trilogy' has now been re-written and updated with expert editorial guidance, and it was published by Orion in 2012 as 'Katy's Wild Foal', 'Katy's Champion Pony' and 'Katy's Pony Surprise'. The books have a great deal of new content, including author's notes, new inside illustrations by Chris and beautiful cover illustrations by Angelo Rinaldi. 'Midnight on Lundy' was also republished, as 'A Stallion Called Midnight'.
I have just written three brand new books for Orion: 'Joe and the Hidden Horseshoe', 'Joe and the Lightning Pony' and 'Joe and the Race to Rescue'. Horses and ponies are still at the heart of these stories, and although a boy is the main character the stories haven't been written specifically for boys. I'm a firm believer that stories with horses and ponies in them shouldn't be exclusively for pony-mad girls!
My books are full of the things I love: horses and ponies, the countryside, farming and people. My Facebook Page is Victoria Eveleigh Author. Please 'Like' it and take a look. I post lots of interesting things about horses and books there, as well as news about my books and our animals here on the farm.
I really like hearing from readers, visiting schools and giving talks, so do get in touch!

Reviews

[KSena · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book in this series read for kiddo. And a horsebook. Because of course it is. I'll run out of horsebooks to read for her soon...

Anyway, this book was quite nice! Since it deals with the rare horse breed Exmoorponies from Exmoor in Great Britian. And the people that care for them, protecting them. Since they live as wild ponies on the moor.

Well, Katy, as the main characters name is, stumbles upon one of these wild ponies and her newborn foal. And she and the foal gets a connection right away. The main story after that is how she's going to talk her family into keeping the pony and how she learns how to ride and gets a new friend.

I like the fact that just because the main character is horsecrazy her entire family is not. Her father is afraid of horses! Which was kind of cool. And it is clear that the writer has done her research, knowing how the care for these rare ponies really are. And what the moor Exmoor looks like. It's a nice change from all the other horsebooks I've read with kiddo.

[Tracey Gemmell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful look at life on Exmoor and the human-equine bond. I read every pony story I could get my hands on as a child so was delighted to find Victoria Eveleigh recently. Even as an adult reader, Katy's Foal resonates. It's written with a matter-of-fact touch that adds realism, yet includes all the sentimentality of a child falling in love with ponies and riding. The author doesn't shy away from adult topics, such as branding, animal deaths, working hard to make ends meet and financial concerns. Yet she presents them in a way a young audience will learn from and respect. I learned much about the Exmoor National Park, horse body language, methods of training horses and the life of farmers. A great read. I look forward to reading others in this series.

[Anne Cotton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously this is a childrens story and I’m an adult, but I love pony stories, and I enjoyed it. We went on holiday to Exmoor last summer and visited the Exmoor Pony Centre which is where I bought this book, so I could picture the landscape and the ponies in my mind when reading the book. My only criticism is that it’s not that realistic that Melanie helps Katy buy and keep a pony without asking her parents, that could have done with a bit more to make it believable. But other than that a nice fun interesting story.

[Stephan · Rating 3 out of 5]

En lagom trevlig första del i en serie om Katy som på sin födelsedag finner ett vildhästföl på fälten utanför sin familjs gård, och hennes kamp att både behålla och ta hand om den lille. Inte mycket till spänning. Inte mycket till konfrontationer. Men en hel del kärlek mellan såväl djur som människor. Klart läsvärd för alla hästtokiga barn!

[John Naylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first in a series.

I am obviously not the target audience for this.

I had a hard time deciding exactly what that audience would be in terms of age. I felt that the vocabulary might be a little too difficult for pre-teens in places.

It is a feel-good story based on the author's own experiences. It just fell a little flat with me.

[Amal Alali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice book, the story is lovely for those who are interested in ponies.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

i had read this trilogy before. but then i read them again and now i see why my older sister had to pry them out of my hands when it was time to give them back to the libary. this is a great trilogy. it makes me think about what things i have acomplished even when im still young. katy did what everyone thought was the impossable and proved them all wrong.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great book.

If anyone likes the idea of saving, taming and competing on horses or ponies then this series and book is the right way to go!!!

[Bonita Vear · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written, and enjoyable pony story. This was a good read.