Introducing Ossie

Ossie has one characteristic in common with Smirf, he is greedy. In fact he will go to such lengths to grab a bite to eat that he has become quite an acrobat. 

There is no obstacle that Ossie won’t tackle if he thinks that food lurks beyond it.

Ossie is another one with a special link to the unicorn but because the real secret of the unicorn has yet to be revealed, there will be no spoilers in the blog.

Introducing Smirf

A big secret* was mentioned in the blog about Snowy, and this is one of the characters who knows everything about that secret. That means that his blog is one of the ones with a huge secret to keep.

All I will tell you about Smirf is that he’s likes to play games with Starlight Piglet and is an accomplished thief who is known for pinching other people’s food.

If you want to distract Smirf, tell him the kitchen door’s open and no one is guarding the pantry.

*The new book reveals the real secret of the unicorn. Because it’s a big secret, there are no spoilers on this blog.

Introducing Starlight Piglet

Starlight Piglet could have been a horse but he wanted to see further, run faster and climb more gracefully than any horse, so he chose a different career path.

There are several unusual sides to Starlight Piglet. For instance he has an unusual nickname (you can put a guess in the comments below but it will only be revealed in the book).

He is a very keen jumper, but because his favourite sort of jumping is bungee jumping, you can see where he wouldn’t have been happy as an ordinary horse. Bungee jumping is one of those things that horses have no natural talent for. Most of them couldn't even climb to the top of the crane, and even if they could, can you imagine how graceful they would be? Not very! 

Did you know that out of all the horses who enjoy bungee jumping (that’s very few, by the way) hardly any of them are any good at it.

Introducing the new pony, Snowy

Snowy is a wise old pony. She keeps the herd in check, and that includes the unicorn. It’s no joke trying to control a unicorn, but nuff said about that*.

When she’s off duty, Snowy likes to cover herself in mud, but even when she’s sparkly clean she isn’t snowy white so her name is a bit of a mystery.

That bit of a mystery got Snowy interested in horses’ names, especially collective nouns. Although everyone calls them the herd, she sometimes uses a different name in her head, and calls them the haras, which is an old-fashioned name for a group of horses. When they pretend not to have “herd” what she says it “haras”es her quite a lot.

*The new book reveals the real secret of the unicorn. Because it’s a big secret, there are no spoilers on this blog.

Billy and Billy and Jack: horses of note

This is the tale of three remarkable horses, Billy and Billy and Jack - two old boys and one young whipper-snapper. The question is this: in which camp do we put Jack?

I will start with an old boy called Billy. This Billy was a cob/shire type horse, black with a white blaze, born in 1760. He spent his working life pulling barges on canals for the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company. The amazing thing about Billy is that he lived to the age of 62. He died in November 1822. There is said to be a lithograph of Billy in a museum in Warrington with Squire Henry Harrison.

From an old Billy with a single lithograph to a younger and much photographed version. This young Billy is bigger than old Billy but also does a job that needs plenty of muscle power and oats in the tank. Under the jockey-ship of Nick Ireland, this much younger Billy won the Young Event Horse Series in his very first season in 2014.

But which of these amazing equines does Jack take after? Perhaps he has more in common with old Billy than young Billy.

Or does he?

Jack once finished a show-jumping course; ‘finish’ being the word, as the owners of the show-ground said, ‘We won’t have to buy in any firewood for a long time, but we’ll have to shell out for a new set of jumps.’

But Jack only made the effort so as to be obliging and as the mystery man pointed out to Megan, you couldn’t really expect Jack to know how to show-jump; he wouldn't have had much call to do it when he was pulling a cart.

Thinking about it, that mirrors things on the Mersey and Irwell canals back in the 1700s because it would have been a bizarre and traumatic circumstance that required old Billy to leap a fence whilst pulling a barge.

So I think we have to conclude that Jack has more in common with old Billy after all. 

Learn more about Jack and his ventures into new worlds HERE 

Accidental spoilers and I take on the properties of a spaceship

Publication date creeps closer. I'm going to be soft-launched for Christmas (being launched makes me a bit like a spaceship which is pretty cool). 

The thing is that I've had to change the blurb. 

Some indrawn breath from my new publisher, Fantastic Books Publishing. Apparently I'd put a spoiler or two in there. Anyway, I've amended it and I await my launch.