Catherine Hapka's "Pony Scouts: The Trail Ride" is a level 2 beginning readers book about three girls learning to ride horses. While in the arena, one of the girls' mothers had to visit the farrier. So the girls left for a trail ride, and almost got lost. However, they used the horses to guide their way back home. They received a lecture about riding unsupervised.
Hapka's story includes a vocabulary list for some horse words. It's a simple and effective story. Good for preschool students, a fun early read. ( )

~ borrowed from the Library

THE TRAIL RIDE is at the beginning 2nd Grade Reading level. This book has 701 words and teachers should note that it is Common Core aligned. There is also an AR test for each of the books in this series to assess how well children are getting along with their reading.

In this story the ponies are smarter than the girls, and for once they (the girls) get into trouble. The adventure begins with the girl doing cone exercises. Basically they are still at the stage where they are learning to steer their mounts. When the farrier arrives, Jill's mom has to go off. She leaves them with the admonishment to not trot, never guessing that they head out to do a little trail riding.

In this story the girls characters are easy to differentiate. Annie is consistently nervous and cautious, while Jill is the follower, who agrees easily to Meg's schemes.

The girls do get back to the corral, but not before getting lost. Jill's mother is angry but the girls assure her that they didn't trot.

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This is actually a good story to share with any miniature lawyers you might know. The girls didn't break Jill's mother's rule to not trot;; but they did in fact do something they probably knew she would not approve of.

The other thing I would point out is that when the girls get into trouble they all accept responsibility and don't throw Meg under the bus -- even though it was all her idea.