I'm picky when it comes to evaluating horse books for children. Check out this article for my evaluation standards.
I ordered used copies of both the Doty books - Summer and Winter Pony. Winter Pony arrived first, so I read the books in reverse order. In a way, that was good. It made me appreciate Summer Pony more, as I found much I didn't like in Winter Pony.
For my Winter Pony review, I had the newer edition, but my review of Summer Pony is for the original 1973 version. For both books, the newer versions simplify the language structure, although I don't think the story line changes much.
It seems writing levels in children's books have been continually "dumbed down" in recent years - vocabulary simplified and sentence structures reduced to the point of choppiness. Fortunately, the 1973 version of Summer Pony missed the modern grammatical surgeons.
It wasn't written at a terribly advanced level in the first place. The text flows smoothly. Here's the opening sentences in the original and the "new and improved" modern version.
1973
It was a miserable gray day in March, with a threat of late snow in the air, when the station wagon bumped to a stop by the shabby barn.
Ginny was shivering as she got out of the car and waited for her mother. Somehow, everything here seemed unpleasant and unreal. This was the day her dreams were supposed to come true. She was to have a pony, a pony of her own, for the whole summer ahead.
Arrangements had already been made with the owner of the Sweetbriar Pony Farm for her to choose any one of all the ponies in his stable. But something was wrong. They must have made a wrong turn off the main road. Nobody could keep ponies in a place like this.
2008
It was a gloomy gray day in March. A threat of late snow was in the air when the station wagon bumped to a stop by the shabby barn.
Ginny was shivering. She got out of the car and waited for her mother. Somehow, everything here seemed awful and unreal. This was the day her dreams were supposed to come true. She was going to have a pony, a pony of her own, for the whole summer ahead.
Plans had already been made with the owner of the Sweetbriar Pony Farm. She could choose any one of all the ponies in his stable. But something was wrong. They must have made a wrong turn off the main road. Nobody could keep ponies in a place like this.
Ginny wants a pony of her own. Her parents have agreed to allow her to lease one for the summer from the nearby Sweetbriar Pony Farm, owned by Mr. Dobbs. Rather than sweet, the farm turns out to be run down and the ponies ill-cared for. This is eerily similar to an experience I had with my daughters in the past. Apparently, we'd both had an encounter with an animal hoarder - someone determined to keep more animals than he could care for.
Summer Pony covers Ginny's experience with the pony from the time they choose her at the stable to the end of that summer.
One thing that puzzled me throughout the book is Ginny's disappointment with the color of her pony. Mokey was a pinto with dark forelock and tail, white mane, and one blue and one brown eye. Ginny would have preferred something like a solid chestnut instead. Maybe things have changed since the 1970s, but today, a beautifully colored pony like Mokey would be quite valuable.
I did not like Ginny's friend, Pam, in Winter Pony. And in that book, the parents are almost entirely absent. In Summer Pony, I was surprised to find Pam likable and the parents more involved with their daughter. I don't know why the author felt the need to change that in her sequel, written just two years after Summer Pony.
Ginny's parents are both more engaged with their daughter in this story. As anyone in the horse world knows, keeping and caring for a horse is not something a child can do alone! Ginny's mother takes her to pick out the pony. Her father builds a stall in the garage and a fenced in pasture/paddock. Apparently, Mr. Anderson is super man, because he seems to dig the post holes manually and construct the fence, all in one afternoon!
Ginny's father ordered what looked to Ginny like a mountain of posts and rails and dug endless deep holes with grim determination until a wide-fenced paddock surrounded the big oak. p. 45
Although Ginny's previous riding experience was limited to brief rides at a summer camp, and she'd never ridden bareback before, she rides Mokey bareback at Mr. Dobbs' stable, even trotting and cantering her.
But supposedly it took Ginny forty-five minutes to figure out how to put the bridle on the pony for their first ride at her home. That seemed a bit excessive to me.
Before long, Ginny is jumping the pony - bareback of course.
It seems the family should have been a little more prepared to host a pony for the summer. When her father suggests that Ginny tie the pony at the edge of the yard where the grass is taller, Mokey becomes entangled in the rope and throws herself, incurring severe burns on her legs.
There is much accurate information about the care of horses. When Mokey arrives, she is thin and malnourished. The manager of the feed store warns Ginny not to feed the pony too much grain at first as it might kill her.
When Mokey escapes from her paddock and gorges on apples at an apple orchard, the pony colics. That condition is explained well and handled accurately.
There's no specifically Christian content in the book and not much of anything offenseive, either. I saw two occurrences of "gosh" and one of "darned" - much less than in Winter Pony. Some uses of "dumb" and "stupid" as well.
"Gosh," said Ginny, furious with herself. "There's so darned much to remember." p. 100
While mostly factually accurate in terms of horse information and interactions, if you're looking for an exciting story, you'll be disappointed. I don't understand Ginny and her relationship to Mokey. It seems to me any horse-crazy girl would have fallen in love with all the bedraggled ponies at the stable and wanted to adopt/rescue them all. Ginny receives the cream of the crop, yet for most of the book, she seems unsatisfied with Mokey.
Of course, I'm not eight years old any longer, so it's possible young girls will enjoy it. On a scale of 1 to 5, I'll give it a 3.5.
The illustrations by Sam Savitt are very good! I know this isn't a glowing review of Summer Pony, but this book is much better than its sequel, Winter Pony. See my review of Winter Pony.
Author: Jean Slaughter Doty
Originally Published: 1973
Publisher: Scholastic
Language: English
Paperback: 121 pages
ISBN: 0590098519
Genre: fiction
Intended Reader: 6-9 years, grades: 1-4
Reviewer: Vicki Watson, Sonrise Stable Books
Review Date: 2024-06-11
