Jill and Andy Meadows, home from school for the summer, are delighted when their mother finally agrees to allow them to go on an extended trek with their ponies in the New Forest. They are less thrilled when they discover that they are to be accompanied by their annoyingly posh cousin, Nigel Brownlow. Inviting their friends Gay and John Hardy along as well, the children set out on what they think will be a light-hearted adventure. Instead, they find themselves caught up in a mystery involving a pack of playing cards, a cryptic message, and the threatening "gypsy," Black Amos. Can the "Five Proud Riders" solve the mystery, and stay ahead of their enemy...?

Although it was the first pony-book she wrote, Five Proud Riders is the second of Ann Stafford's novels that I have read, and I found that I did not enjoy it as much as her later Pony for Sale. The narrative itself - while not particularly brilliant - was just as engaging, but I found myself distracted and annoyed by the social prejudices highlighted therein. The "gypsies" (Romany) are depicted as dirty, lazy, somewhat stupid, and inherently dishonest. As Nigel comments, towards the beginning of the book, "But all you gypsies are thieves," and this assumption is borne out by the remainder of the story. This is an attitude that may have been socially acceptable when Five Proud Riders was first published in 1937, but it is not (I sincerely hope) acceptable today. Sadly, this is not a book I would recommend to today's young readers. ( )

Five children on their first riding holiday on their own in the New Forest unexpectedly find themselves tangled up with some rather desperate characters. The practical details of the pony trek are rather reminiscent of a Swallows and Amazons story, but for horse-and-pony loving readers. ( )