Poncho and the Pony Rides

By Julie Boyer and Amelia Emma

“Horse lovers of all ages will fall in love with this book! Its funny, sad and entertaining."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669846413

Julie Boyer

Young Horse lovers will enjoy the adventures of Jesie, Bella, Poncho and the Ponies at the Ponies Rides. “Poncho” a sometimes misbehaving Big Red Pony gets on trouble at the Pony Rides. The boss man decided to sell him. Jesse and Bella begged their fathers to go in halves to purchase Poncho the Big Red Pony.

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PONCHO

AND THE

PONY RIDES

JULIE BOYER

Copyright © 2023 by Julie Boyer.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/13/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

845253

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 The Pony Rides

Chapter 2 Jessie’s First Day

Chapter 3 The Cowgirl

Chapter 4 Bella

Chapter 5 Poncho

Chapter 6 Poncho and the Pony Rides

Chapter 7 Jessie, Poncho, and Bella

Chapter 8 The Water Hole

Chapter 9 The Race

Chapter 10 The Great Pony Escape

Chapter 11 Rocky

Chapter 12 The New Place

CHAPTER

1

The Pony Rides

Once there was a scrawny, scraggly little eleven-year-old mousey-brown-haired freckle-faced girl named Jessie. All Jessie could think about were ponies and other animals! There were horses, ponies, puppies, kittens, goats, ducklings, rabbits, ponies, and more ponies! Jessie begged her parents for years for a pony on her birthday, Christmas, Easter, and even Halloween. She dreamed of dressing up as a cowgirl and riding her pony door to door in the neighborhood to trick or treat. She begged for horseback riding lessons too. She had read every book available in her elementary school library about horses and ponies. All the Marguerite Henry books and other authors, such as Misty of Chincoteague, Stormy Misty’s Foal, Thunderhead, Little Britches, Jeronimo, King of the Wind, and many, many more. The best of all was the book, Album of Horses. That book showed everything about horses and ponies like colors, breeds, body parts, tack, saddles, etc.. Jessie was ready to be a horse owner, or so she thought.

Jessie lived in a small house in California with a large family of eight people. She had four older brothers (yuck!) and a little sister (who was a pain in the butt, a spoiled brat with cute curly brown hair) and Mom and Dad. None of them cared for animals the way Jessie did. Every birthday, Christmas, Halloween, etc. Jessie pleaded for a pony. Her mother said, We just can’t afford it.

One Saturday morning in the summer of 1977, Jessie begged her dad to take her to the pony rides at the park. He said, Go clean the backyard and the shed, and I will take you to the park for a few hours before I have to pick up your brothers. Jessie’s brothers worked at the snack bar, bike, and paddle boat rentals at the park. Jessie ran out to the backyard and worked very hard and fast to clean and organize the backyard shed. She even removed all the weeds around the shed. When she was done, Dad came out to see Jessie’s job. He seemed pleased and said, Let’s go!

When Jessie and Dad arrived at the pony ride, Jessie quickly ran to the ticket booth to buy her pony ride ticket. Jessie had a pocket full of money she had saved from chores and other neighborhood jobs like raking leaves, washing cars, etc. The money she saved was for a pony. Jessie handed $1.25 to the little old lady at the ticket booth for a little red ticket. Next to the ticket booth were four lines separated by wooden rails painted in barn red. Above the line was a long wooden sign painted in barn red and white letters. Jessie scurried to the front of the fast trot line. There was also a trot, slow, and exit line. There was a dusty, dirt-stained, white rope looped around the front of each line except for the exit.

A tall old man in a cowboy hat approached Jessie. She was holding her red ticket up in her hand. The Tall Old Cowboy snagged the ticket from Jessie’s fingers and pulled the rope gate off the wooden post and grabbed Jessie by her hand and pulled her out of the line, and replaced the rope. Jessie followed anxiously and quickly to keep up. The Tall Old Cowboy brought Jessie to the left side where there were five large ponies standing under a shaded shed. The Tall Old Cowboy lifted Jessie up on the saddle of a beautiful large brown and white pony. The Tall Old Cowboy buckled Jessie in with a leather belt attached to the back of the saddle around her waist and the saddle horn in a quick swooping loop firmly and started to walk away. Jessie asked, What’s my pony’s name? Without looking back, the Tall Old Cowboy said in a grumpy voice, Danny. Oh, how beautiful Danny was! His mane was thick and cut short in a Mohawk. It was white toward the bottom and brown at the top toward his head.

Jessie rubbed her hands through his mane while waiting for the Tall Old Cowboy to mount the other children onto their ponies. Soon there were several small ponies and children entering the middle track. It was Jessie and Danny’s turn! Jessie and two other children on the large pony side were unclipped and released to the outside track. The tracks were separated by a low wooden rail of four by four in a post and two by four in railings about two feet high. Off they went, trotting and trotting! Danny and Jessie immediately took the lead, trotting and trotting around the outside track. There were five smaller