Dream Pony

Sandy Lanes Stables #5

by Susannah Leigh

Jess's dream of owning Skylark turns into a nightmare after she find out that he must be kept at rival stable Rychester instead of Sandy Lane..

Genres: Horses, Childrens, Fiction, Animals

100 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1900

Reviews

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not have high expectations for this book. I mean, “Dream Pony”? Come on 🙄

But we were weeding out the book sale room at the local library, and I have never read a horse book before, so I figured this would be a nice milestone for me.

I figured this book was going to be a “so bad it is good” book.

But it was actually just a good book.

The main character goes through all the social shit a girl her age goes through: shifting friend circles, feeling left out on all sides, getting something she wants and losing everything else. My oldest is about the age of this protagonist, and she’s been through all of this before.

I have to say, girls are very good at synthesizing karma and punishing anyone who has a skill or some natural proficiency, or anyone who catches one break in life. One good thing happens, ten go wrong.

I do appreciate that the main character’s true friends don’t crap out on her. They make adjustments that are hurtful, but in the end they talk it out and all goes well.

Communication is tough though, and this book captures that. It captures foolish pride, pettiness, and the silence and miscommunication that comes with it.

It was a nice, short read with focus on interpersonal dynamics. Definitely great for the intended audience, and I thought it was alright too.

[Christine Meunier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to follow!

[Paisley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will answer these questions and say a little something of my own

Who was your favorite character (and why)Jess was, not because she is the main charecter because she is brave. but i dissgree with he likeing how daring the riders ride therer so daring the there dangerous they run straight toward a cliff top
What surprised you? that Jess decided to go to richester.
Would you change the ending? Why/why not? I would not change the ending because it ended up happy.

I do have a little feed back, but this is not me trying to be rude because i love this book i could not stop reading it. some parts i feel like just did not make sense or jumped to the next part and it did not make sense
but over all it is a great book and yall she read it

[Vcmc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in Welsh as language practice more than anything. The story flies along and there is always something to keep the reader’s attention. Aimed mostly at girls aged 8-12, I guess, and is perfect for that audience. I used to read this kind of book as a child and loved them so it was a trip down memory lane for me to read one now and to realise that nothing changes in the world of pony novels

[Madi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the theme of this book is that you should make new friends but keep the old ones. This is my theme because Jess has to move riding stables for her new pony, but she has to leave her old friends at Sandy Lane. She make's new friends at Rychester and still is friends with her other friends at Sandy Lane, but the only problem is that Rychester and Sandy Lane are rival stables.

[Stacey Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book with my 9 year old daughter and we really enjoyed it. Can't wait to read more from this series.

[Cedegray · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was really good

[Maya Kobyletska]

This book, titled Dream Pony, was written by Susannah Leigh. It is part of several separate stories in the same series called Sandy Lane Stables. The books have the same characters, some of the settings change, and the plot is different in every story. I think that the book genre is realistic fiction and adventure because it is like a true story that could happen in real life, and it has some adventures that happen to the characters and the horses. I chose to read the book because I liked the other stories in the series, and I decided that I would enjoy reading the book as much as I did the other ones.

The story takes place in a stable called Sandy Lane Stables. This stable is little and not very clean and elegant, but all people who ride and work there are like a big team, and they never fight for anything. The other setting in this story is another stable, called Rychester. This stable is giant and very neat. When you come to Rychester, everything seems very nice and everyone likes you, but if you make a mistake, everyone starts to hate you. Most of the people there are mean and they don't like working as a team. The main characters are Jess, Nick, Rosie, Camilla, Carlisle and Penny Webster. Jess is a girl that goes to the Sandy Lane Stable everyday to ride horses. Her big dream is to have her own pony. Nick is the owner of Sandy Lane Stables, he is very caring and he teaches horse riding very well. Rosie is a very skilled Sandy Lane rider, and she is Jess’s best friend. Camilla is a girl who rides in Rychester Stable, she is the daughter of Carlisle and she is very selfish. Carlisle is the owner of Rychester, and he is not a nice and caring horse riding teacher. The last main character is Penny Webster who is a newspaper writer and a photographer. Jess really wants to win a competition to get a pony, and several weeks later she gets the results and doesn't win. She is very sad about it, but after a while there is a phone call and a woman on the phone says that the girl that won the competition hadn’t got the permission from her mom so she couldn't have the pony. So Jess was the next person in line to win it. She was so excited about it, but there was a huge problem because the pony had to stay at the Rychester stable. That requirement was written on the paper, and Jess gets disappointed. This means that she needs to move from Sandy Lane to Rychester. At the beginning she quite likes Rychester, but after something awful happens she changes her mind. Then everything ends well and everyone is happy again.

The book made me feel quite sad for Jess in the middle of the story, but also interested in what will happen next. I really believed the story, also it reminded me of my friend when she left the stable where we both went to ride and moved to another beautiful stable. Also the plot was exciting and easy to understand. The characters seemed very real and I could imagine the plot in my mind. The story made me think that people you like and people that like you should stay with you forever and you should remember them, because not everyone is as nice and caring as they are. I loved the plot, and I think it was one of my favorite books from the series, because it was very adventurous and a lot of interesting things happened. It also had a moral that not everyone is kind, and you should love the ones that love you because they will always be by your side. I would recommend the book to people who like animals and stories that inspire you for the rest of your life. I think that the reading age is from 10 till 15. My rating of this book is 10 out of 10.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

So Jess loves Sandy Lane Stables even though it is kinda shabby. She's shabby too. Then along comes a chance to win a pony and Jess fills it out on a whim. She doesn't read the fine print because she's a kid and she doesn't think she'll win.

Surprise! She wins! The bad part is the fine print reads that the pony has to be stabled in snotty Rychester stables for a year.

So Jess is introduced to all the finer things involving horses but also all the snobby things too. She is excited to try all the things she never did before, but she misses all the good people of Sandy Lane.

So obviously some things happen to produce a happy ending. Is it a little simple? Sure. It's for kids. It's mostly credible and it gives you a happy ending. I want to read more stories from the series. I hope Rosie has her own.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned that sometimes you may figure out things even if they're really really really tough. Sometimes you just need a grownup. And the problem was the girl she won a pony and it was at the wrong stable, but they figured it out.

[Kinsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is awesome. this book takes you on the girls journey to find her dream pony and how she gets sucked in to the worst day of her life.





If you have had a day like the worst day of you life you will feel like her.

[Mindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this with my children and we loved learning more about horses and I loved that there were many lessons to be learned from this book. There were several times we were able to stop and talk about what was happening and what we would do if we were in their places. Excellent values taught!

[Jenny]

I really liked this book. I am slowly collecting all of the Sandy Lane Stables books. I used to read them a lot when i was younger. The story was really interesting. I enjoyed the main character a lot.

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a girl who has to make a difficult choice to make with thinking about her and her horses future.

[Caitri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a very good book there was some boreing parts but not much and i love the whole subject of this book its really good its like real.