Stacy's blog
August 26, 2010
Ash comes home!
My horse is back! OK, so every time I try to ride it pours with rain because it is still winter – but who cares! I am just so super-thrilled to have Ash back again even riding in the rain is good fun.
Ash had been away for five long weeks at Kirstin Kelly’s for schooling and I couldn’t ride at all – but now he is back.
The schooling was a success and he was a good pupil at Kirstin’s but he could be a bit naughty after his workout back in the stables. His favourite trick was rolling in the loose box after he’d been ridden – even when he was still tied up! Ash loves rolling because he enjoys having a really good back scratch – so Kirstin was forced to give him a back scratch herself after she rode him to keep him happy and stop him from rolling!
The reason it’s not good for horses to roll in their stall is because sometimes they can get their legs stuck through the stall railings. Mind you, now that he is home and living with his old friends Migsy and Hokey Pokey once more he sometimes has to be kept in his loose box if they are going out somewhere without him – because otherwise he jumps out of the paddock!
Yesterday, he was nibbling hay one minute and then in one quick trot stride he had completely cleared the fence and was galloping off alone down the road to say hello to Gertie – the cute chestnut mare who lives next door! Sometimes he reminds me of Comet – always leaping out of paddocks the minute my back is turned!
x
Stacy
July 28, 2010
Franklin Riding School
I got an email yesterday from a girl called Sarah who goes to Franklin Riding School in New Zealand asking me why I hadn’t blogged yet about their school dinner that I attended a couple of weeks ago so I thought I should write about it now as it was such a brilliant night out!
My friend Collette and her two daughters Lola Mai and Coralie both ride at Franklin and she organised for me to come along – I’m so glad she did because we had great fun eating loads of yummy Chinese food and all talking endlessly about our horses. Erin Jamieson runs the school is very cool and the students are a real mix of true horsey girls, some who are lucky enough to have their own ponies and also pupils who come along and ride the excellent school horses. The ponies all sound like total characters and I had a good chat to Erin’s mum about the rescue horses they have taken on and brouoght back to health too.
Anyway, after dinner we had a quiz so I could give away some Pony Club Secrets books – including the new Rivals book and also Angel and the Flying Stallions which isn’t even out in the shops in New Zealand yet! I had a huge list of Pony Club Secrets questions prepared and my plan was to eliminate the kids one by one to find a winner. The only problem was that all the kids knew the answers to absolutely everything so I ended up having to ask some super-tough questions just to narrow it down – and even then I ran out of proper questions and had to make some up on the spot!
Thanks again to Franklin Riding Club for having me! It was amazing.
X
Stacy
Picture: Some of the riders from Franklin Riding School
July 20, 2010
Winter Holidays
It is utterly freezing in New Zealand right now. There is frost on the grass in the mornings and I wake up thinking of Ash outside in his paddock and hope that his winter rug is keeping him nice and snug. When I went to visit him at boarding school last week he still hadn’t been clipped – but perhaps that is just as well as his tummy would get awfully chilly in weather like this!
Ash is having a brilliant time at Kirsten Kelly’s where he is being schooled. Kirsten says that when she first got on him he acted like he’d eaten a whole bag of sweets and was fizzing on a sugar-high. But he soon calmed down and now he is being a star. “It’s like he read the manual overnight on how to be a horse and suddenly he knows what to” she told me when I arrived to watch her ride one morning.
Even without Ash around I have been having a horsey time over the holidays. My daughter spent two days at pony camp and finally mastered being able to tack up completely by herself. Plus she practiced her bareback cantering and jumping. There is a new pony at the stables where she rides – a tiny little 11.2 hands high grey mare called Princess who is such a sweetie – but far too little for most of the girls who ride at the stables!
And yesterday I went out horse shopping with my friend Sandra who is looking for a new young horse to ride. She was trying out a young bay gelding by the name of Beau. Here is a picture of them together. Beau is a mixed breed – he’s got a bit of Arab in him, which you can see in his pretty face, and a bit of Thoroughbred and also some Clydesdale which gives him his heavy-boned appearance.
I am going to visit Ash again later this week to see his progress, and in the meantime I am busy writing the second to last book in the Pony Club Secrets series – Liberty and the Dream Ride. I can’t tell you too much about it yet, but I will say that one of my favourite Pony Club Secrets horses makes a comeback in it – guess which one!
x Stacy
June 29, 2010
Ash goes to boarding school
All my school memories came back in a rush yesterday when I took Ash off to boarding school.
Yes – that’s right. My horse has gone to boarding school!
Ash is spending the next five weeks with the super-talented eventing trainer Kirsten Kelly learning how to become a well-schooled horse. Yesterday I packed all his things (bags of hard feed and barley and lucerne chaff) into the back of the Range Rover, and dressed him in his smart school uniform (well, his new navy rug) and with the help of my friend Sandra I loaded Ash into the float and we took him off to school.
Ash was hilarious when he first arrived at Kirsten’s yard. Honestly, he is such a goofball that horse. I was scratching his nose which he really loves and he was pulling silly faces. I’m sure the other horses who will be his boarding school friends thought that he was very uncool as they watched his antics! Well, he certainly showed them a few moments later when I let him loose in his own paddock beside them and he charged up and down the fenceline doing a very high-stepping trot with his tail in the air as if he were a rather show-offy stallion instead of a dozy gelding. He was very funny and it was hard to leave him behind. I kept dawdling but Kirsten was like a firm school matron.
“He’ll be fine,” she said adamantly as she loaded up his evening hard feed into the wheelbarrow. “I’ll ride him a couple of times and then I’ll text you to let you know how he is.”
One of the reasons Ash has gone off to school is because I can’t ride at the moment – I had an operation and it will be a few weeks yet before I can get back on the horse. I miss riding so much! Still, Ash will be coming home again in five weeks time –and by then I will have finished writing the new book – Showjumpers. It’s set at boarding school too – of course. It’s the sequel to Pony Club Rivals : The Auditions – and I’ve been having lots of fun writing it.
One animal exits and another arrives. When I got home from dropping Ash off at school I found a baby hedgehog on the road. He seemed very ill and exhausted so we kept him overnight in a cardboard box in the house and gave him petfood and water and by the next day he was much cheerier – we’re going to let him go tonight in long grass at the bottom of the garden.
Ash in school uniform
Packing for boarding school
June 6, 2010
Ride ‘em kitty!
Can you see the jockey in this photo? He’s actually a pint-sized tortoiseshell kitten! Take a look on the horse’s back and you’ll see the kitten perched there on top of the rug. The horse’s name is Bounce and he’s quite happy to let both the kittens who have the run of the stable stop off for the occasional catnap on his back. Mostly though, the kittens like to curl up nice and cosy on top and have a kip while Bounce gets his mane pulled. Perhaps they think he’s a kitten too because of the tiger stripes on his winter rug?
The other horse that shares a stable with Bounce is this handsome bay gelding called Baz (picture below). Do you think Baz looks familiar? He’s actually the brother of my own horse Ash! Baz is a four year old – which means he’s a whole year younger than Ash, but he has the same mum (his dam) and dad (his sire).
There are loads of differences between Ash and Baz. Ash is a much darker bay and he has no white markings. Baz has a blaze and white socks. Ash is much bigger than his little brother too – he is sixteen hands whereas Baz is only 15.1.
Ash and Baz haven’t seen each other for almost six months now and I am dying to get them together. I wonder if they will recognise each other? Would they be friends? If they were living in the wild together they might form what is known as a herd of ‘bachelor stallions’. Bachelor stallions are the bad boys of the equestrian world and you can read all about them in the new Pony Club Secrets book, Angel and the Flying Stallions, which is out in the UK now!
May 13, 2010
Glorious Mud!
After weeks of drought and wishing it would rain so that the ponies would have some grass winter is here at last and now I spend all my time wishing that it would stop raining!
It turns out Ash loves nothing more than to have a good, grunty roll in the muddiest patch possible in his paddock. Some mornings he looks more like a hippo than a horse, covered all over with thick clumps of mud.
He needs to be clipped too – his belly is all fluffy and I am wondering what the best kind of clip would be? I really like the way horses look when they are clipped all over except for the bit where the saddle goes – that’s called a ‘hunter clip’ but I think it could be a bit too chilly for Ash on a cold winter’s night – so I think maybe a trace clip would do – that means clipping the hair on the horse’s tummy and underneath his neck but still leaving the winter coat on their backs to help them stay warm (see the picture below!).
Ash has a lovely thick winter paddock rug to wear too – it is like a really cosy duvet and it is a lovely greyish purple colour – or at least it was until he rolled in so much mud. Now you can’t tell what colour it is!
Meanwhile, I am so excited that Angel and the Flying Stallions is about to come out in the UK at the end of the month. I had so much fun writing this one – lots of action and loads of surprises for Pony Club Secrets readers who have been following the story so far! And I love the cover too – Angel looks totally gorgeous!
Now I am hard at work on the new Rivals book – Showjumpers – which will be out later this year. If you haven’t read the first Rivals book then you should get a copy of The Auditions – it’s out in the UK now and it should be out in other countries like New Zealand too sometime next month.
X
Stacy
April 24, 2010
Hokey Pokey the Bolting Palomino
Take a good look at this picture and you’ll notice something odd. The girl on the bay horse looks much too little – while the woman on the palomino looks much too big for the pony.
There’s a good reason for that. I’m the one riding the palomino – and my daughter Venetia is riding the big bay – that’s my horse Ash.
It’s a bit of a Freaky Friday switch – when we set off on our forest ride Venetia was the one riding Hokey Pokey. But then when we got into the forest it all went horribly wrong.
Ash and I go hacking in the forest all the time, but Hokey Pokey the palomino doesn’t get out much. So when we decided to take a canter up a steep sandy hill, Hokey Pokey made up his mind to bolt with Venetia onboard!
The naughty pony went at full gallop, tearing through the trees and all we could see was Venetia’s high visibility jacket flitting through the branches in the distance as they galloped away! Venetia was pulling on the reins with all her might but Hokey didn’t care! He galloped over a kilometre before she managed to stop him, pulling him up at last at a fork in the forest path. Hokey Pokey couldn’t decide which direction to take and was fretting and stamping about still making his mind up where to bolt next when we finally caught up with him!
Far from being exhausted by his gallop, he was still pulling and misbehaving. And so, Venetia decided to ride Ash home again and I rode the naughty pony!
We made it back OK after that. Venetia was very brave, Ash was well-behaved the whole ride home and Hokey Pokey? Let’s just say Hokey Pokey won’t be going to the forest again any time soon!
x Stacy
April 11, 2010
A tough day at Woodhill Sands
Ash and I had a tough day competing at Woodhill Sands on Sunday. We didn’t perform anywhere near as well as we did a month ago at our last competition. In fact our dressage tests were a bit of a nightmare, and at one point Ash even cantered on the wrong leg and my position was really wonky and I often felt out of control!
So why did I ride so much worse on Sunday than I did the last time we competed? I think it was my attitude. On the Saturday before we were going to compete a well-meaning friend told me that I had a “problem with my hands” and I became so worried about this that by the next day I was lacking confidence and was convinced that Ash and I were not ready to do our tests.
Negative thoughts can play havoc with your riding. Olympic athletes often have sports psychologists to help them to develop a positive attitude and convince themselves that they can win. It’s been proven that believing in your own abilities is very important. I think it is even more important for horse riders than with any other sport because if we lack confidence then we will communicate this to our horses and they will lose their confidence too and everything will go wrong!
Riders need to be positive and give themselves a pep talk before they go into the ring. On Sunday however, my inner pep talk went horribly wrong and sounded more like this:
“Steady now…Yikes…he’s going too fast…I’m not sure I can remember the test! …Why is he flicking his head? …Is it because of my hands?… Oh no! Ohmygod he’s on the wrong leg! …Quick panic!…disaster!!”
Incredibly, we still managed to get a fourth place rosette for one of our tests. But the rosette didn’t cheer me up much. It just proves that ribbons don’t really matter. The important thing is knowing that you did your best and performed well. And on those days when we don’t get it right? Well, all we can do is learn from our mistakes, put the past behind us and carry on trying to do our best. Remember, a horse gets its confidence from its rider so we owe it to them to stay positive!
x Stacy
March 25, 2010
Ash and I have a riding lesson today with Jonathan Paget. He’s a really good eventing rider who is on the New Zealand Olympic development squad so I am quite nervous about it!
Jonathan is young, talented and rides like a superstar. In fact he’d be perfect as a character in my new series, Pony Club Rivals, which is out in just one week on April 1!
This week I received my advance copy of book one – Pony Club Rivals: The Auditions – in the post from England and it looks great! I am so excited about the new series – I’m already working on book number two, which will be called Showjumpers. I’ve also been putting the finishing touches on Pony Club Secrets: Angel and the Flying Stallions – which is such a fun story. I don’t want to give too much away but I will say that Issie goes back to Spain again for this one and someone is getting married!
In between writing I have been doing loads of riding. Ash and I have been out in the forest lots this week going for big gallops and on Sunday we are competing in another dressage competition (I’ll let you know how we go). Ash is a bit of a legend at the paddock where he grazes at the moment – I put on his summer rug the other day and must have forgotten to cross the back leg straps. Somehow, he managed to wiggle out of the rug completely , including the neck cover bit, without undoing a single strap or even ripping the rug! He is like a horsey Houdini!
March 15, 2010
Introducing… the Pony Club Rivals Horse Float!
This is the new Pony Club Secrets and Pony Club Rivals horse float! Isn’t it fab? It only just arrived today and on Saturday it is getting its first official outing when I take Ash out for a ride at Woodhill Forest. I am so excited about having a brand new horse float! In the UK, of course, they don’t call them horse floats – they call them trailers. Also, we call them horse trucks in New Zealand and in the UK the same thing is called a horse lorry.
Anyway, no matter what it is called, I love my new float. We picked it up from Thoroughbred, who make the floats, and by the afternoon I had already fed Ash a snack onboard the float. I thought it would be good training, so hopefully he will feel comfortable about stepping onboard on Saturday. Honestly though, Ash will do absolutely anything if there is a chance of some feed in it for him – he’d go anywhere for a carrot!
There is absolutely no grass in the paddocks where we graze right now because there has been no rain for months so Ash is surviving on hay and hard feed.
It is amazing how well horses can cope on very little grass. I know a pony called Coffee who is so fat she looks pregnant with twins – and she gets no grass at all! Coffee is only eating is a biscuit of hay each evening and she is still enormous! Some ponies are simply what we call “good doers”. Thank goodness Ash seems to love food but doesn’t get tubby too easily – I might not be able to fit him onto the new horse float otherwise!
March 1, 2010
Ash and the Flying Stallions
It’s been a mad week! I spent the past few days busily finishing the rough draft of the new Pony Club Secrets book, Angel and the Flying Stallions. Plus, Ash and I were practicing in the dressage arena every day, preparing to ride in our first-ever dressage competition together.
Angel and the Flying Stallions has lots of dressage in it – Issie has returned to Spain and is learning how to ride the ‘airs above ground’ the tricky high school manouevres that the horses and riders perform at El Caballo Danza Magnifico.
Ash and I were performing dressage moves too – but nothing anywhere near so complicated! Still, I was very excited about our first outing together and on Saturday night before the show I could hardly sleep and lay in bed memorising the two dressage tests that we were doing the next morning!
When we arrived at the horse paddock on Sunday morning with the float, Ash’s ears pricked forward and he looked excited at the prospect of going somewhere new. When we arrived at the showgrounds he probably got his hopes up because there were loads of showjumps set up (Ash loves showjumping!) and I had my fingers crossed that he wouldn’t mistake the poles that marked out the dressage arenas for low jumps and try and leap out!
He didn’t. In fact, he was an absolute star and performed both his dressage tests completely brilliantly. I was so proud of him – and even more thrilled when we got one of the best scores for one of our tests and took home a yellow rosette for third place!
What a clever boy! Needless to say Ash got an extra helping of hard feed when we got home that evening. Here is a picture of us taken in the dressage arena:
February 22, 2010
Blind wolf
On Wednesday I loaded Ash on the horse float and took him to the dentist. He has been a bit jiggly with his head when I’m riding ever since I bought him and Melissa his old owner said he was due a trip to the dentist so off we went to visit equine dental surgeon Warwick Behrns.
Ash waited patiently for his turn and then Warwick the dentist put the dental headcollar on and stuck his hand way back in Ash’s mouth.
“He’s got a blind wolf tooth,” he said.
“Oh!” I said.
Then, a few moments later I added “so what is a blind wolf tooth, exactly?”
It turns out blind wolf teeth are very small. About the same size as a human tooth. The fact that they are ‘blind’ means that they are hidden underneath the gum and haven’t come through like a normal tooth. They can be very painful for a horse when a bit is in their mouth and so they have to be removed. Poor Ash! He had to have a sedative to make him woozy and then the dentist extracted the tooth with big pliers – not at all like a human dentist!
Ash was all wobbly on his feet and drowsy for the ride home after that. The vet gave him a tetnus shot and the dentist said I couldn’t ride him with a bit in his mouth for another week!
I didn’t want poor Ash to get bored and frisky being stuck in the paddock all this week so I rode him in a hackamore to keep him in work. You can see a picture here of a hackamore – it couldn’t hurt Ash’s sore gum because it’s got no bit. In fact there’s nothing at all in the horse’s mouth. Instead, the hackamore controls the horse by putting pressure on his nose. Issie uses a hackamore in the latest Pony Club Secrets book, Flame and the Rebel Riders.
Ash was very happy wearing one. On our first outing we went for a big hack with my friend Nicky across her farm and Ash cantered up the hills loving every minute of it.
Having a tooth removed hasn’t made Ash any less hungry. On the day we got home from the dentist he got fed twice by mistake! And then the next day he managed to actually escape from his paddock and get inside the feed room which is totally tiny and helped himself to a bucket of carrots before I could manage to get him out again!
Next week should be very exciting. My friend Sam is coming to have a ride on Ash. We’re having a dressage lesson with my instructor Gwen too, and on the weekend Ash and I are entering our first dressage competition together!
The blind wolf tooth (above) and an example of a hackamore (below)
February 15, 2010
Love, Actually
It’s been two weeks since I got Ash and he is proving to be a total superstar! He has the most brilliant personality. He is very smoochy and loves a cuddle and goes all gooey when you brush his face.
He’s so gentle, but when you are actually riding him he is really exciting. And he is totally gorgeous. But then I would think that wouldn’t I, because he is my horse. Everyone is blindly in love and thinks their horse is the best horse in the world.
An example of this love-blindness: I was riding in the forest yesterday with my friend Suzanne, who rides a very chunky appaloosa/percheron cross called Hammer. Suzanne was happily telling me about how Hammer keeps finding new ways to buck her off. “He’s very clever!” she said proudly giving him a pat. You see? Even when they are trying to get rid of us all we can do is sing their praises!
Anyway, I don’t care if I am playing favourites – I think Ash is far more brilliant than all the other horses. He is very funny too. When he first arrived two weeks ago he didn’t like carrots and would positively turn his nose up if you offered him one! Now he has become a total carrot hog and snuffles them up hungrily when they are presented to him. And even though he is 16 hands – the biggest horse by far in his paddock, he still gets bullied by the ponies. Hokey Pokey, the 14 hands high palomino has him on the run! I was worried about this until my friend Frances told me that Dante, her 17 hands high Hanoverian, gets pushed around constantly by the 12 hand Welsh he shares his paddock with too!
February 2, 2010
How to buy a horse
One of my favourite pastimes has always been looking through the ads for horses for sale and dreaming about buying one. Unfortunately, years of experience shopping for horses has taught me that the ads don’t always tell the truth! Here is a list of what the ads might say – and what they really mean!
Perfect lead rein pony = we can’t take him off the lead rein or he bolts!
Good doer = total fatty! Will eat you out of house and hay!
Good to shoe and float = …yes, but a total nightmare to catch and tack up!
Loves to jump = goes berserk at the sight of a coloured rail and is unstoppable!
Been to Pony Club = we took him once and he was so naughty we never went back again!
Not in regular work = I’m too scared to get on him myself so I’m selling him
Can be spooky = goes bonkers at the sight of a plastic bag whilst hacking
Needs confident rider = Completely mental! You will need to be Mark Todd to control this lunatic!
Not a typical thoroughbred = yeah, right!
I’m sure all of you have a few favourites of your own. The sad truth is that when people are selling horses they are not, well…entirely honest about them. There is actually an ad up on a horse sales website at the moment for a horse that I used to ride. It says he’s an experienced all-rounder. It doesn’t mention the fact that he is emotionally disturbed and will attempt to bite and kick you simultaneously every time you try to put on his saddle! So, when you see an ad in the newspaper that says “perfect beginner's pony” – don’t get your hopes up. And don’t forget to read between the lines!
February 2, 2010
This morning I woke up outrageously early and felt totally sick with anticipation.
We hitched up the horse float and drove for an hour to Karaka to the hunt club kennels. There were fox hounds everywhere roaming the grounds. Not that they actually hunt foxes here in New Zealand, the hounds follow lures, which are scent trails laid the day before the hunt.
Anyway, I’m not writing this blog to tell you about hunting. I should have explained that I was at the hunt club because I was picking up my new horse! Yes! This is me and him on our very first ever ride together. His name is Ash and he is super-handsome. He is the Robert Pattinson of ponies. Honestly he is gorgeous – 16 hands high, a dark, dark bay with just one tiny white sock. His dad was a Dutch Warmblood stallion and his mum was a thoroughbred, and he grew up just like the Blackthorn Ponies on the hills of Gisborne. (And just like the Blackthorn Ponies – he is an amazing jumper!).
The other reason I fell for him straight away is because he is super-smoochy. The very first time we met, he gave me and my daughter big snuggles, and he loves having his face brushed and closes his eyes and sighs as if to say “this is heaven!”
As soon as I took him home Ash made friends over the fence with all the other ponies – Hokey Pokey the palomino tried to bite him, and Jasper, who is prone to being grumpy, squealed at him. Dougal, who is also a Gisborne-bred horse, made friends straight away however. By the time I said goodbye to Ash he was busily grooming Dougal, while Dougal was returning the favour, both of them vigorously nibbling on each other’s necks! Awww cute….
January 19, 2010
My literary agent, who lives in Pembrokeshire, wrote to me the other day to say that it is so cold in the UK right now that her arena is frozen over! Brrr – poor chilly ponies! That is certainly not the case here in New Zealand where the summer weather is amazing. I’ve just been on holiday in Gisborne (Gisborne, as keen Pony Club Secrets readers will know, is where Blackthorn Farm is located in books 3 & 5). The weather was ace and we spent lots of time doing horsey stuff. This picture was taken at the Poverty Bay polo club. It wasn’t your usual posh and glamorous polo – there was no champagne tent or anything fancy – only about twenty spectators including us, and instead of champagne there were packets of chippies and cans of coke. I love watching polo – the drama as horses gallop down on the ball. The way the riders rise up and down at the canter looks so cool. There’s a bit of polo action in the first book of the new series, Pony Club Rivals. I’ve been working really hard on the first Rivals book (even while I was on holiday in Gisborne) and it will be out soon! The release date is April in the UK and a couple of months after that in other countries! Now I’m back home in Auckland, working on a new Pony Club Secrets book: Angel and the Flying Stallions!
November 19, 2009
Late but Great!
I was so amazed with all the fantastic entries we had for the drawing competition. These last minute entries didn't make the finalist list - but I thought you might like to see them anyway. I loved the really excellent precise colouring on Caitlin's pic, and the graphic skewbald patches on April's pic of Comet, and the brilliant background that takes up the whole frame of Chloe's picture. Thanks again for sending them in!
I am frantically writing trying to get the first book in the Pony Club Rivals series completed - but I still have time to ride and I'm taking Ace out this afternoon for
a lesson.
Ace is a new horse at the stable where I ride. He doesn't actually belong to me, he belongs to Lucy, but he is young and green and needs more work so I'm riding him too. He's rather odd looking - a very curious coffee-coloured chestnut with a face a bit like a Wellington boot, ears like a donkey and so skinny that I have nowhere to put my lower legs! But he has lovely paces - a free walk and a trot and canter to die for and in time I think we'll learn to get along. With some horses you get an instant bond, and with others you have to really work to get inside their heads. It's early days with Ace but I think he'll be great!
Caitlin's drawing:
April's drawing:
Chloe's drawing:
September 22, 2009
Above: Robert Whitaker in the puissance at HOYS.
I'm beginning to get very, very excited about going to the Horse of the Year Show in Birmingham next month. It is only a few more days until I leave New Zealand for London! While I’m in London I’ll be popping in to see my publishers, HarperCollins, to talk about more details for the new series I am working on at the moment – Pony Club Rivals. Then I will visit a few schools to talk about the books and after that on October 8th I am off to HOYS! I have never been before and can’t wait to see the shows – especially the puissance! Although I suppose I might not see too much as I will be spending most of my time on the Luv Ponies stall on Friday, Saturday and Sunday signing copies of the Pony Club Secrets books! If you can come to HOYS then please, please come along and get your books signed and say hi! It will be so nice to meet some of you at last as many of you have been emailing me for ages!
Meanwhile, while I am away Jasper will be left unridden for a whole month – yikes! He will probably be a bit bonkers when I get back after having no work and lots of spring grass! Perhaps I’d better buy a new crash helmet when I am at HOYS…..
x Stacy
August 20, 2009
I get lots of great emails from Pony Club Secrets readers. I thought you might all like to see this story I was sent by Phoebe. It’s her true story about a pony called Polly. And here’s a pic of Phoebe on Shani too.
I have been really enjoying the photos being sent in of readers with their ponies – but please send me your other pets too. Even if all you have is a goldfish – we’d still love a pic of you and your pet!
x
Stacy
July 30, 2009
It’s been a busy, busy time here at Pony Club Secrets HQ. On the weekend I went up to Whangarei to do a book evening at their Paper Plus bookstore. Thanks to Adam and Kim and all the staff there who were so much fun! A bit too much fun really – we stayed up very late and talked and talked and I was exhausted when I had to drive home the next day. I was driving with another author, Nicky Pellegrino, who is also horsey and we spent the whole trip talking about our horses and which one is more badly behaved. She rides a seventeen hand part-clydesdale called Boxer. I know seventeen hands sounds utterly enormous but Nicky is over six foot tall herself! Anyway, on the way home we saw a field full of bright pink dyed sheep! Honestly, you’d think people had better things to do with their time than dye sheep pink!
I got home and had to get to work straight away on the final version of the manuscript for Victory and the All-Stars Academy. My editor emailed in a panic and told me that they needed it immedaitely as they are releasing it early at WH Smith! So it will now be out in August! Eeek! That’s next month! (I’ll get the actual date put up on the website as soon as I know!) I am now busily at work on Flame and the Rebel Riders. And the new ‘secret series’ is underway too which hopefully I can talk about very soon….
x Stacy
June 29, 2009
There was much excitement at my daughter’s riding lesson this week. The girls were in the dressage arena when suddenly their ponies all began to get a little spooked. It turned out they were startled by the horses grazing on the other side of the fence who had all begun to get paddock fever and were running about the place kicking their heels up. It was a cold winter evening and the ponies were all rugged up in their winter covers and fetlock-deep in the mud as they ran about. They were cantering about, all egging each other on to misbehave, doing little kicks and bucks. Then suddenly, out of the blue, Coco, who is a very cute chocolate dun with a blonde mane, took things one step further. She charged in between the other ponies and in one, two, three neat strides she jumped the fence! The next thing we knew, she was all by herself in the paddock grazing away happily on the lush green grass as if she had been there the whole time!
When she is not jumping fences on her own, Coco is one of the stars of the stable.
She’s very forward and has a really lovely floaty trot. This is Flossie riding Coco at
a lesson – doesn’t she look super?
June 8, 2009
Thursdays are one of my favourite days of the week because I take a break from writing pony books to go and watch my daughter and her friends have riding lessons with a wonderful woman called Sue.
Sue has loads of super horses at her stables and she always gets the girls to ride a different horse every time. It’s good for your skills as a rider to ride lots of different horses – but even though Sue makes them chop and change all the time the girls still have their favourite ponies. This is Amy riding Orlando. There are two things I love about this photo. Firstly, Amy is wearing all the right gear – Sue never lets riders near the horses without hardhats and the girls wear back protectors if they are cantering or jumping. Also, I just love the huge smile on Amy’s face and her position is pretty good too.
Orlando and the other ponies have been clipped out as it is winter in New Zealand right now and they all have their fluffy winter coats. I really should get Jasper clipped as when I ride him at the moment he is so shaggy his hair all curls up like a teddy bear by the end of the ride when he is sweaty! I don’t know if he will cope well with the clippers but he was very well behaved when the dentist came the other day and filed his teeth!
xStacy
May 29, 2009
When I was at school I spent all my time drawing horses. I am not any good at art and cannot draw for toffee, but horses are different. Even now if I try and draw a horse I can still get the proportions exactly right on a fetlock and get just the right amount of slope on the crest of the neck. My horse drawings are nowhere near as good as this though. This pic, based on the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, is by Jordan Ella Jowsey at Auckland Girls' Grammar. I met her when I went to give a talk about careers in writing last week.
Jordan and I quickly got talking about which horse breeds were our favourites. I am quite hung up on Andalusians at the moment, and also Trakehners and Hanoverians. Then again, Arabs are pretty gorgeous too and I quite like a stocky cob….
The horse I’m riding at the moment, Jasper, is an English Riding Pony crossed with a Thoroughbred, so he’s quite fine-boned and only 15.2 hands high. The other day I had a quick ride on one of the ponies, Hokey Pokey, who is only 14.2, which is small for me. It felt so safe being so low to the ground!
Jasper continues to be a problem. He tends to twist his jaw a lot when he’s being ridden so we had the dentist out on Thursday. He checked all the ponies' teeth and gave Jasper a quick rasp and pronounced him fine. I will pop out for a ride on him tomorrow – providing the weather is fine. It has been miserable lately. Wet weather is good for writing though. I am almost done with the final revisions on book 8: Victory and the All-Stars Academy!
x Stacy
May 12, 2009
It is only the start of winter and I am already fed up. I was supposed to be riding this afternoon but my friend Gwen phoned and said it was pouring with rain at the pony paddocks and so I stayed home and walked the dog instead. Now I won’t get a chance to ride again until next Tuesday which is pretty miserable. It feels like I haven’t been on a horse forever. To make things even worse, when I got the dog to the park, he found an old dead hedgehog and before I could stop him he had rolled in it! Ewwww! I am going to give him a bath as soon as I finish writing this blog….I got the new book jacket for Victory and the All-Stars Academy in the post from London yesterday. I love the new cover (here it is – in case you haven’t seen it already). I have already written the book, but it will be ages before it comes out (October!). Victory is set in Melbourne, Australia – which is actually where I was born (I am a secret Australian! Well, not really, I haven’t lived there in a long time). There are two other pony books coming out in the next two months though – Mystic & Blaze comes out this month and then Fortune and the Golden Trophy is out in June. Yay!
May 1, 2009
Isn’t this photo of a newborn foal and his mum so cute? I was sent it today by a friend. It’s so unusual to see a foal ‘having a cuddle’ like this.
I wish I had taken this picture to show Dr Andrew McLean. He’s an expert on horse behaviour and I went to his seminar on Monday. He had the most amazing horses in the arena with him for training. There were two really cute duns – one of them was a Clydesdale/Arab cross with a very pretty face. There was also a huge black warmblood mare, who was utterly gorgeous but had real problems – she had been ‘bucked out’ at one stage and it had taught her that whenever she was in trouble she should panic and start bucking! There was a lovely four year old bay warmblood too, and the best horse colour was definitely a dappled grey pinto who had a white body with grey dapple pinto patches on it. It’s a very unusual colour – the horse is an offspring of the dapple grey stallion Pintado Desperado, which also happens to make him a half-brother to Mark Todd’s new eventing horse, Gandalf.
Anyway, it was lovely to spend the day watching Dr McLean and top dressage riders like Jody Hartstone and see how they managed the horses. One of the key messages is that if the horse is misbehaving, he’s not being ‘naughty’ – it’s usually something we’re doing that is giving him the wrong cues. Worth thinking about the next time your pony stops dead at a jump!
x Stacy
April 23, 2009
I got a complaint in my emails recently from a frustrated PCS fan who said that my blog isn’t updated often enough! I had to admit that they were right – I’ve been so busy writing the books I’ve been super-slack about the blog. But no more I promise! I am going to blog faithfully every week now. I will have more time to write anyway because I won’t be riding – my horse is lame!
I’ve been riding a chestnut gelding called Jasper for a few months now. On Friday I took him up to the dressage arena and as soon as I began to trot I knew that something was wrong. My instructor Marianna saw it too. “He’s tracking up short on his near hind,” she pointed out. Ever since then Jasper has been quite grumpy and I’m not sure if he’s sound or not. It is very depressing.
One thing that did cheer me up this week is this picture. It’s from a totally brilliant book called Equus. All the pics in it are by an incredible photographer named Tim Flack and they are of different breeds and types of horses – and also donkeys like this herd of Poitou donkeys in France. My first thought when I look at this is – aww cute. My second thought is that I would hate to groom these guys!
x Stacy
February 17, 2009
We got a brand new four-legged member of the family at Christmas – and no, it wasn’t
a horse!
Meet Alfie! He’s so cute in this photo isn’t he? He’s a Border Collie crossed with a Labrador. He came from an organic farm where he grew up with eight brothers and sisters.
We all love him – except for our cat Missy, she doesn’t like him at all, even though they are both the same colour – black and white!
Last week Alfie finally had all his vaccinations and now we can take him to the park to play with other dogs. His best friends are Lulu the Miniature Schnauser and Dora & Archie the Cairn Terriers.
You’re probably wondering how Alfie got his name? Well, he is named after a character in Storm and the Silver Bridle – which will be in book stores in April!
Now that you’ve seen a pic of Alfie, it would be great if you could send in photos of your own pets to the website and tell me a bit about your cat/dog etc. Of course you can send in horsey pics too!
xStacy
December 28, 2008
This is Migsy. He’s a fourteen-two hands high flea bitten grey who lives at the same farm where my Luka used to live.
I adore Migsy. He’s one of those really laidback ponies who is too cool for school. Even though he’s quite a big pony, even the younger kids love to ride him because he has the most brilliant canter. It’s a bit like riding a rocking horse – you could drink a cup of tea without spilling a drop while Migsy was cantering underneath you.
He’s a total star Migsy. His trot is dead bouncy so everyone just makes him canter all the time in his lovely long loping canter. Only he’s naturally quite boney so he’s not that comfy for riding bareback.
I was watching a bareback riding lesson the other day and it made me remember how important it is to ride without a saddle. In the Pony club Secrets books of course Issie always rides Mystic without a saddle. It’s a good thing to do in real life too as you need to have good balance to stay on when you are bareback so you don’t slide around. It’s a good idea to do exercises like Round the World when you’re bareback too and practice games like barrel races and bending to get your balance as the horse is turning.
I’ve been thinking about pony safety a lot lately. It’s so easy to get sloppy and risk getting hurt when you’re handling horses. One thing I often forget about myself is paying attention to doing things properly when you let your pony go in the paddock after you’ve been riding.
If you are letting your pony go at the same time as other ponies in the same field, make sure you are all ready to take the halters off together. Check with the others before you all take their halters off at once otherwise it can be really scary if the other riders let their horses go first and the horses all suddenly take off and you’re left holding a wild pony who is desperate to race off to join his mates. Also, if you are alone and you’re letting the pony go, it’s a good idea to turn your pony around to face the gate before you let him go. That way he won’t be tempted to bolt off the minute the halter is slipped off his head. Don’t hang about once you’ve let your pony loose. Always leave the field promptly and hang your halter up neatly in the tack room.
Happy riding!
x Stacy
November 3, 2008 This enormous chestnut stallion is a vaulting horse – the girl in the leotard does acrobatic tricks on his back while he canters around the arena. Vaulting horses must be really well behaved and super bombproof – which means they must not spook at anything no matter what. They need broad backs too because the vaulter has to balance on their back while standing up and doing all sorts of tricks.
I saw this girl and her horse in the park while I was in Spain working on my next book Storm and the Silver Bridle. I didn’t realise there would be so many chestnuts and palominos and bays in Spain. The only strange thing is that there are hardly any black
horses in Spain and one day, when I met a rider from the Royal Equestrian School in Jerez, I asked him why. The answer is really sad. In the olden days in Spain they were very superstitious about black horses. Because black horses were always used to pull the funeral carts people began to associate black horses with bad luck and they decided that black horses were evil – which is of course totally crazy as black horses are totally wonderful.
However, because of this ridiculous superstition, many horse breeders back then began to kill the black foals as soon as they were born. It’s horrible isn’t it? But remember this happened a very, very long time ago. They don’t do this anymore obviously.
So, because all the black foals were killed, there were less and less black horses and they became very rare. Today you hardly ever see a truly black horse in Spain – but many stud farms are trying to breed more black horses again because they realise the great pity of this.
Actually, my second pony was black – she was a mare and her name was Black Jill- and she was quite evil come to think of it. She had a bad habit of biting me and once kicked me when I got between her and her feed bucket – so perhaps there’s some truth to the superstition about black horses after all.
x Stacy
October 20, 2008 Isn’t the grey stallion in this picture gorgeous? He’s a purebred Spanish stallion called a Carthusian – and I met him when I visited a stud farm in Southern Spain a couple of weeks ago.
In New Zealand we think of stallions as being a bit dangerous to handle, so we mostly ride mares or geldings. It’s different in Spain though – the stallions are so sweet-natured and gentle that you’ll see even little kids (honestly, like three or four year olds!) riding around quite happily on great big enormous stallions.
I had the best time in Spain, getting inspired to write the latest book in the Pony Club Secrets series, which will be called Storm and the Silver Bridle. It’s set in Andalucia in Southern Spain, which gave me a great excuse to go there and meet all kinds of horses.
The whole time I was in Andalucia it was like horsey heaven. On the very first morning in the hotel I got the shock of my life when I looked out the window at the park across the road and saw that it was full of horses! It turned out they were having a huge horse fair there, with displays of showjumping, dressage and vaulting (like gymnastics done on horseback). There were also flamenco dancers who actually danced with the horses as their dance partners which was pretty kooky. I really don’t understand why you would dress up in a frilly dress and dance on the ground next to a horse when you could be riding it instead.
We did go riding in Spain too - but I had to borrow a pair of jeans as I didn’t have anything to ride in which was a bit dim of me. As any horsey girl knows, it doesn’t matter where you go on holiday you should always pack your jodhpurs.
October 13, 2008 It’s always exciting when a new Pony Club Secrets hits the book shelves and I was doubly excited last week when TWO books came out at once!
Comet and the Champion’s Cup and an extra-special book, Issie and the Christmas Pony, both came out on the same day. Even more exciting, I was actually in London on the day they came out so I got to see the books on their new special shelf in store at WH Smith which was beyond cool.
On Friday, I tucked a brand new copy of Comet under my arm and went to visit the girls in years 3-6 at Lyonsdown School in New Barnet. Lots of the Lyonsdown girls are already major Pony Club Secrets fans and it was brilliant reading a chapter to them and signing books afterwards. A big thank
you to all the girls I signed copies for including: Lara, Shriya, Alisha, Kaya, Luisa, Elizabeth, Katie, Hannah, Megan, Kypriana, Millie, Gaby, Anjali, Lucy, Caitlin, Hati, Elena, Emily, Maria, Charlotte, Phoebe, Arshiya, Aashni, Adriana, Joanna, Sophie, Sophia, Daniella, Neha, Dawn, Amari, Ria, Georgie, Lucie, Olivia, Anastasia, Michelle, Nectaria, Maya, Alicia, Abby, Faith Harshini and Jessica. If I’ve left anyone’s name off this list please email and tell me! That’s a pic of me with some of the year six girls from the school after the reading. Thanks for having me – it was the perfect end to a great
week in London.
I am now back in New Zealand and busily working on the next book – Storm and the Silver Bridle, which will be out in March/April next year. I don’t want to give away too many clues about what happens but I will tell you that the book is set in Spain. I had to travel to Andalucia earlier this month to do some research on Spanish horses and I had the best time. I spent every day with horses, and we did some brilliant riding across the Spanish countryside. It was the best feeling waking up each morning and looking out the window to see gorgeous Spanish horses grazing just outside my room! Anyway, I’ll tell you more about that in my next blog – and maybe include a pic of one of my favourite horses as well!
x Stacy
