Model Horse

The compulsively readable YA horse books of Jenny Hughes have been published in ten different countries, and routinely sell over twenty thousand copies per title. They had limited US distribution from 2000 to 2010 solely through the American direct-marketing book club arm of a Norwegian publisher (Pony, a division of Stabenfeldt). Breakaway Books will publish Hughes' titles for North American general trade distribution for the first time.

Model Horse is a special case beyond that: it is an original novel, and this is its first publication worldwide.

Casey loves her horse Limelight but he's a challenging horse, and her parents and instructor are pressuring her to sell him. The opportunity of a summer vacation with her friend Hannah and their horses comes not a moment too soon. Hannah's eccentric aunt has opened up her ancestral estate by the sea as an art school for sculptors. Casey and Hannah's expectations of lazy summer riding on the beach come to a halt when a ghostly presence starts threatening the students. Suddenly things are not as they seemed: a dark family secret comes to light, casting an eerie shadow on the present. Between solving the mystery of a haunted past, unraveling the truth behind theft among the students, and mastering her own horsemanship challenges—with the help of a cute local boy with talent for horses—Casey has the most exciting summer of her life.

Jenny Hughes has written twenty-two horse novels for the middle school young adults. She lives in Dorset, England.