The Pony Detectives

'Black Beauty serves as a modern day reminder for all horse owners to think of the world from our horse's perspective, rather than our own...' Belinda Rapley'

"I grew up in London and didn't give horses or ponies a thought until I went for a hack on an Easter holiday in Cornwall. After that I became officially pony obsessed, but consistently failed to convince my parents that our back garden was big enough to keep a pony in. They did, however, let me have lessons and so my weekly jaunt to various riding schools began. To fill the time between lessons I pretended my bikes were horses, set up makeshift jump courses in the back garden to gallop over and ran a riding school and a racing yard in my imagination. Horses weren't particularly big in Croydon, so I found my horsey friends in pony books, getting lost in the pages as I gained my first insight into caring for ponies and dreamt of galloping over open moors and boldly flying huge stone walls. The books became well-thumbed, tatty-cornered familiars and it seemed natural after one inspiring riding holiday to pick up my pen and begin to write the horsey adventures accumulating in my own mind. I wrote my first story when I was up in my bedroom, promising that I was revising hard for my French GCSE.

I left school and trained with horses, as a riding instructor, in a show jumping yard then at a racing yard. I returned to London to read English at UCL then stayed, writing for various horsey websites before landing a job in publishing. But the horse bug was in my blood and I missed them tremendously; I spent most of my time daydreaming about them. That's when I found myself ensconced in the cosy yard at Blackberry Farm with four new friends and their ponies. I decided to write the kind of stories I would have loved to have read when I was younger, full of pony detail, adventure, friendship and fun; and so the Pony Detectives were born. I write in my study, cat on my lap, still surrounded by the familiar pony books of my childhood."

Belinda Rapley is the author of the Pony Detectives series. She has been immersed in the world of horses since she was 11. She is a British Horse Society Instructor, has a National Diploma in Horse Studies and has spent time working in show jumping and flat racing. Belinda is currently training to be a social worker in children's and young people services between flying around the Norfolk countryside on a huge piebald horse. Find out more about the Pony Detectives atpony-detectives.co.uk.

1. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley

Without even opening the front cover I can still picture each page of this book, it left such an impression on me. The version I have was based on the film, with photos throughout. After Alec saves the ferociously temperamental but talented black stallion from a shipwreck, the stallion saves the boy's life when Alec grabs the lead rope and is pulled through the sea to a deserted island. The pair strike up a bond as castaways before being rescued and shipped back to America. They finally end up on the racetrack and The Black proves his almighty speed, winning a prestigious race. For me the excitement and romance of the story is all at the start, when Alec forges a bond with such a creature as The Black. It reminds me even now of the privilege we as humans have of sharing time with such magnificent, powerful animals. The trust they place in us and we in them each time we spend time with them in the field, or sit on their backs, is awesome.

2. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

I can't read this book or watch the film without at least one packet of tissues next to me. It's a timeless reminder to me of the fate horses and ponies have – they're the only pet we have which is sold on when they're outgrown, get too old to carry on doing what they were bought to do, or when they're simply no longer wanted. They're likely to experience many different homes and different fortunes through their life. With each move they have to settle into new routines and yards, make new horsey friends and wait while their new owners work out how they tick. Although Black Beauty holds up to the mirror the thoughtless cruelty of the Victorian world she inhabits, I think her voice still serves as a modern day reminder for all horse owners to think of the world from our horse's perspective, rather than our own. My own horse, Zano, will stay in my care forever to avoid any of the fates Black Beauty endured.

3. War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

I read the book by master storyteller, Michael Morpurgo, many years ago and sat next to an unashamedly wailing woman during the awesome National Theatre production. This book is similar to Black Princess, the story of one of Black Beauty's descendents who is shipped off to the first world war before finding peace after its conclusion. Following in the hoof prints of both Black Beauty and Black Princess, this book is written in the first person, with Joey the horse as narrator. It doesn't shy away from the horrors of war for both the humans and horses. I can't read it without wishing that I could change the fate of Topthorn, and in doing so change the fate of some two million other horses who suffered as Topthorn did. Reading War Horse is heart wrenching and exhausting, yet ultimately uplifting and it leaves an echo long, long after the last page is turned. For me it has the most powerful impact of any horse story ever written.

4. Jill's Riding Club by Ruby Ferguson

The Jill books are enjoyable reads, with Jill and her friends getting into all sorts of old fashioned scrapes. Jill herself is great fun and very likeable, along with her two ponies, Black Boy and Rapide. In this story Jill's friend suggests that she starts up a riding club during the summer holidays. It's a bit of a shambles to begin with, but with some outside help in the shape of Major Hooley they begin to get organised and enjoy treasure hunts, gymkhanas and some jumping. There are lots of incidents packed into the pages and rivalries along the way until the end of the summer heralds the end of the club, and it comes to an end as simply and enjoyably as it starts.

5. Dora at Follyfoot by Monica Dickens

Another series and it's again difficult to choose my favourite, but this one just edges it. I love Monica Dickens's style of writing and her descriptions of the various equine rejects which live at Follyfoot Farm, the wonderfully named Home of Rest for Horses. The regular horses, ponies and donkeys which feature are all lovingly familiar and their numbers are always being added to, despite the Captain's express instruction to the contrary. The farm's aim is to stop suffering and save lives and each story is filled with ponies and horses in need of both from their clueless or cruel owners. The farm survives on a shoestring and in this story a midnight chase has to be won to help pay for the most recently saved resident, and another recent addition – Barny – saved from the bullet by Dora, is their only chance of victory. I only have one criticism of this series – there weren't enough books in it!

6. Ticket to Ride by Caroline Akrill

This is the third in the Eventing Trilogy by Caroline Akrill. I hadn't read the first two when I bought this book but I became quite obsessed by it when I was younger. Elaine wins a scholarship to pursue her dream to become an eventer but she struggles to shake off the Fanes, who she previously worked for and who still claim a stake in Elaine's talented bay horse – The Legend. The depiction of the Fanes in their dark, dank ancestral home, with their threadbare livery horses and greasy mutton stew was so vivid, I can still picture it now. Elaine's ambition and determination to fulfil her dream also struck me and it was more adult in that sense than the other pony books I was reading at the time.

7. Flambards by KM Peyton

I first read this when I was quite young, and I can still remember why I fell in love with it. It was all to do with Sweetbriar, the kind, gentle and quiet strawberry roan mare, who Christina learns to ride on when she first arrives at her Uncle Russell's house. She was such a sweet mare and I was desperate when she was to be sent to the hunt kennels at the end of what Christina's Uncle Russell deemed her useful life only to be overjoyed when Christina, stable hand Dick and one of Christina's cousins, William, help rescue her from her grim fate. Sweetbriar faded from the books after this, and although I enjoyed the rest, it was always this first, beautifully written and most horsey of the Flambards series with the presence of Sweetbriar, that I loved most.

8. Pony Club Cup by Josephine Pullein-Thompson

I love the Pullein-Thompson sisters and this book by Josephine was the first in the series about the Woodland Pony Club. The Club's made up of a mishmash of riders who don't take riding too seriously and have disruptive ponies. But a new instructor arrives and stirs the Club into action. The "smashed up" ex-national hunt jockey with a moody temperament isn't exactly a popular choice amongst the riders, but the story charts the transformation of the club under his firm but inspiring leadership. At times it can be a bit too instructive but what made it for me was the feeling of reality the books evoked. There's a list detailing the main characters and their ponies at the start of the book, and the photos on the front and the back cover match them immaculately, all of which convinced me that somewhere in England, the Woodbury Pony Club really did exist. I would have given anything to have joined them.

9. A Pony to School by Diana Pullein-Thompson

Another by a Pullein-Thompson, this time Diana. This offers a window into a world gone by, filled with grooms, afternoon teas, and orchards for the ponies to roam in. It was a world I longed to inhabit. Each character had more than one pony to choose from. The names of the ponies enchanted me – Seaspray, Symphony and Daybreak – it's what inspired me to name all the bikes in my shed at home and go to the "stables" to choose which pony I was going to ride that day. It also has one of the most moving yet unsentimental moments when Seaspray loses her battle against tetanus, which still makes me cry to this day even after reading it a hundred times.

10. The Magic Pony by Patricia Leitch

This book is part of the Jinny series, one of my all time favourites. It was so hard to pick just one because each book is gripping – they have so much gritty detail and Jinny's every thought about her life and her horse is shared with the reader; she was a real heroine to me, she was opinionated and made some bad decisions, as she does in this book, but that makes it even easier to identify with her. I desperately wanted to own Shantih, Jinny's arab mare; she matched Jinny's feistiness and was breathtaking and exotic with her circus background. I chose this book because the version I have has such a captivating, mesmeric pony on the cover, which matches the description of the pony in the book perfectly. Just glancing at it stirs up a memory, not of the detail of the story, but of the emotion captured within it.

The Pony Detectives

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