View source for Jinny at Finmory: The Summer Riders by Patricia Leitch

{{infobox1
|title=Jinny at Finmory: The Summer Riders
|author=Patricia Leitch
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Originally published in the seventies but still fresh and engaging and a treat for a young horse lover.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=208
|publisher=Catnip Publishing
|date=October 2010
|isbn=978-1846471124
|website=http://patricialeitch.ponymadbooklovers.co.uk/
|cover=1846471125
|aznuk=1846471125
|aznus=1846471125
}}

On the first day of the summer holidays Jinny was looking forward to riding her horse, a beautiful Arab mare called Shantih, over the moors for the summer and life seems just about perfect when she meets a girl of her own age who's camping on the beach with her family and her pony.  What could spoil that?  Well, Jinny's father used to be a probation officer and he's agreed to take a boy and a girl from the city to give them a holiday for a couple of weeks.  The boy has been in trouble with the police for stealing and the girl walks with a limp.  Just having them around is going to be bad enough, but there's worse to come.

Marlene wants to ride Shantih – or 'the old horse' as she insists on calling ''him''.

Forget about the fact that no one with any sense would put a non-rider, particularly a child with a disability, up on a flighty Arab who wasn't fully broken.  Get past that and what you have is a good story.  Marlene might barely know one end of a horse from the other and she might feel very responsible for her brother Bill, but she's a lot wiser than Jinny in many ways and has a thing or two she can teach her.

It's always risky to go back and read books which you enjoyed a while ago.  The book might not have changed, but you have, and the world certainly has.  What seemed bright and new them can seem very dated now, but that's not the case with the ''Jinny at Finmory'' books.  Even for someone way above the target age range it was still an exciting and well-paced story.  The pages kept turning themselves and there were occasions when I found myself holding my breath.  There's a moral in the story, but it's delivered with a very light touch and there's no sense that you've just been preached at.

It's a great book (and series) for the older tween or the younger tween and even those who are not horse mad will get a lot out of it.  For those who are still dedicated to horses and ponies I'm afraid that you're likely to end up buying the whole series.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

Slightly younger children will enjoy the Tilly's Pony Tails series by [[:Category:Pippa Funnell|Pippa Funnell]]. If the Jinny at Finmory series appeals to you then you might also enjoy [[Nobody's Horse by Jane Smiley]].

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