Rough Riders, Rough Riders, yeee-haw, or Pony Pals #22: Western Pony

I remember hating this one. I mean, if I came home and my friends had let someone else ride my pony for 2 weeks, I'd be pretty mad. But, while rereading this, I was kind of annoyed by the way Lulu went about this. Geez, PMS?



Plot: Lulu has been gone on a two week vacation in Virginia, visiting her godparents, and the Pony Pals have been taking care of Snow White for her. But when Lulu gets home, she is shocked to find Snow White missing! She freaks out for a million pages, until she sees Anna and Pam...riding to Anna's house...with Snow White...
...who's being ridden by Charlie Chase, Mr. Olson's nephew, who is visiting town. And he was riding Snow White not only without Lulu's permission, but WESTERN STYLE!!! *gasp* Lulu gets really peeved and acts all mad for another million pages. She doesn't want to hang out with Pony Pals, is mean to Charlie, and doesn't ride Snow White. Then she makes up with them after they apologize to her (yeah...) and instead of running away to Virginia (don't ask), she invites her godsister (is there such a thing?) Alicia to Wiggins to participate in Mr. Olson's hoedown! Oh boy!
But on the day of the hoedown, Charlie's horse Moondance (that's really his name) injures his leg, so Charlie can't trick ride. But Lulu lets him ride Snow White. And they are best friends forever. Yeah. It was pretty boring.

More notes:
Jigsaw. Another adorable pony name.

Why do we need to know the color of the hair Grandmother Sanders is cutting?

Since when does Dr. Crandal have an assistant? His business has expanded quite a bit since #1.

Isn't Pony Pal Trail secret? How does Henry know about it?

Again, Lulu decides not to tell her grandmother that she's going out into the woods because it's too important and her grandma probably wouldn't let her do it. Smart.

Ooh, Charlie is from Wyoming. And Lulu thinks he's irresponsible.

I used to think Moondance was the coolest name EVER. Not so much anymore.

I don't get why Lulu is so freaked that he rode her western. Snow White's stupid, but she's not stupid enough to get confused.

Charlie = no social skills. But at least he's friendly. YES, SOMEONE WHO ISN'T SHY AND SELF-CENTERED! Then again, he's a guy. :P

He's being conscientous, leave him alone.

Why do we need this whole description on the wonder of the Pony Pals IN EVERY BOOK!!! Because it's ALWAYS THE SAME. They could at least shorten it, or spice it up or something. And it totally didn't fit with what Lulu is thinking. She thinks about the Pony Pals origins, way back to Mommy and Daddy in the bedroom, and then after 6 pages is all, "But they didn't even feel like Pony Pals anymore." WHAT??

Charlie can whistle to ponies. Jealous.

Lulu such a loser. She's all whining about everything.

She buys some plastic ponies for Anna and Pam from a museum. Where is this plastic pony museum? I want to go.

Alicia sounds way nice. I wish she and Lulu would switch places. Then maybe Anna could grow a brain and Pam would stop being such a control freak.

Pretty picture of Snow White. Anna is still on the crack corn. And she still wakes up at 5:00 AM. BECAUSE SHE LIKES IT.

Lulu wonders if Pam and Anna have gone boy crazy all of a sudden. Okay, just because you like girls....

Now she's chewing out Anna!

Snow White's all, "Crap, Lulu's back."

Lulu doesn't want Moondance to hurt Snow White, but she willingly puts Snow White in the paddock with Lightning. Um, right.

Moondance sounds adorable, but they never show a picture. Same with Alicia.

This is like #16 all over again. Charlie barrel races with Snow White and Lulu freaks out and is all, "HORSE SAFETY! HORSE SAFETY!"

SHUT UP ABOUT SAFETY!!!

A lame joke about skipping rope. "I'm skipping rope." "We're not skipping rope. This isn't jump rope." I swear, it's as if the author had NEVER HEARD OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!

Charlie should hang out with Tommy and Mike because he's an obnoxious boy. Yeah, that wasn't sexist.

Shut up, Lulu. You're just jealous.

Nice excuse. Liar.

Hm, your friends are finally reaching out to non-Pony Pals, so you decide to go back to Virgina.

Isn't that a rule? No boys at sleepovers???

I love it when Pam acts like Lulu is stupid.

Moondance isn't bad looking. But I pictured him cuter. DISAPPOINTING.

Wth, Snow White isn't wearing a bridle in the picture. And Lulu was all mad that Pam and Anna had supposedly ridden her bareback. Hypocrite much?

Wait, that's ANNA riding Snow White. WHAAAAAAAT?

Uh oh, Pam and Anna want Lulu to conform to their menu choices....

Why would they need to ask you before they planned a hoedown? It's not like they're doing it for you.

The word "stupid" shows up multiple times in this book. *gasp* IT'S A CHILDREN'S STEP-UP BOOK!

I heart Belgians.

Oh, sure, Pam, let's use the ribbons your mother won in her show days to give to all the good little boys and girls!

They think cross-dressing is funny.

Barrel racing on English is way fun.

Charlie always picks the wrong time to say something.

LOL. Pam and Anna are just ignoring Lulu's tantrums.

Ew, a picture of Acorn all sway-backed and teary-eyed.

So Alicia is coming, but we'll never know what she looks like, and then we'll never hear from her again.

OMG! Take that, Lulu!
Anna: You use to say you had fun in Wiggins. (Anna is always mumbling)
Pam: Didn't you even miss us when you were gone? We missed you.
Lulu: You did not. You didn't even care that I came back.
Pam: Well, you didn't act happy to be back. All you did was complain.
LOL!!!!

WTH??? IT HAPPENED AGAIN! In the picture, Anna is saddling up Snow White and Lulu is mounting Acorn. WTH???

Lucky. Alicia has 6 horses. Or 4 horses, 2 ponies. Whatever.

Little Rascal is a dumb name.

Pam is trying to set up Alicia with Charlie!!!!!

Ew, they do the letter from three points of view again, and Lulu talks about how much she hates Charlie for like forever, and Anna talks about how much she loves Charlie.

Totally reminded me of last year when Mr. Caley called Mrs. Schultz-Story and said, "I sent you an e-mail."

Who doesn't love winning? You wouldn't be all, "CRAP! I WON!"

Anna kisses Lulu on the cheek. Holding hands, kissing cheeks...?

Only 6 posters? How small is this town?

Anna is wearing a red strapless gown. I kid you not.

Jigsaw sounds adorable, too! And there's no picture....

Alicia and the Pony Pals get along very well. And Lulu doesn't get all jealous of Alicia.

Alicia likes Charlie, too, and Lulu doesn't get mad at her.

Why does Pam always win first place?

Charlie competes in the adult division. How old is he?

Charlie is a real man.

Why does Dr. Crandal always pop out of nowhere?

Ew. Mr. Olson has a horse named Handsome.

Charlie's a hottie. No lie.

Charlie is responsible on Snow White and wins a prize...and Lulu congratulates Snow White. Loser.

Lulu is way evil. But Anna suddenly hates Charlie all of sudden? It's in #23, which is coming up later.

Oh no you di'n't, girlfriend, or Pony Pals #4: Give Me Back My Pony

Yeah. I've got way too much free time. And these books are crazy short. Seriously, the first one was 103, the second one was under 100, the third one was 96, and the fourth was 82. If these get any shorter, they shall become picture books.
I should probably slow down. But then I would have nothing to do.



Plot: Awwww, Lulu is moving back to...nowhere. Her dad doesn't know yet. But she's bummed because she's not only losing her pony to Rema (who is coming home any time now), but she'll be losing the only friends she ever had (she doesn't say that, but you know it's true). Everyone is sad.
(If you forgot, Rema is Snow White's real owner from whom Lulu is leasing her.)
Rema comes home suddenly, and the Pony Pals go to meet her, only to find out that Anna has been right all along: REMA IS A HUGE SNOB. She's also a _itch (there are so many letters you could use), jerk, and...the list goes on. And she treats Snow White badly.
Maybe that's why Snow White keeps running away to Lulu's house.
A great weight is lifted off Lulu's shoulders when her dad comes home and tells her they're not moving after all, because he wants to study black bears in Wiggins!!! Yaaaay! How...exciting! So now the Pony Pals have to concoct a plan to buy Snow White.
But Rema tricks them and sells Snow White to someone else! OH NO!
But then the Pony Pals, the lil tricksters, convince Anita (Snow White's new owner) to buy the Morgan Mr. Olson tried to sell to Anna in book #2. Yaaay. Then Lulu buys Snow White. Yaaaaay. And there was much rejoicing. Yaaaay.

More notes:
Snow White looks really pretty on the cover. Rema looks at least 15 or 16 and Lulu looks like she's 8 and somewhat Asian???

Lulu called Anna dumb. AGAIN.

"Rema's too old to be a Pony Pal. She's around fourteen." Oh, right, because Pony Pals is only for cool ten-year-olds. The author says at the end of the book that you're never too old to be a Pony Pal. Lies.

There Lulu goes, singing "Jingle Bells" again....

They describe Rema as being older because she wears makeup. Uh, I've seen 10-year-olds wear make-up. And I'm fourteen and I don't wear makeup. Who's older?

Who feeds a pony chocolate? Wouldn't the pony seize up and die?

"If I'd known you were so young I wouldn't have left my horse with you. You sounded older in your letters." Ooooh, BAM.

Rema: Wiggins is sooooo boring. What do you do here?
Lulu: But there's so much to do! There's hiking and fishing and...
Rema: I didn't mean what YOU kids do. I meant what teenagers do. LIKE ME.
Hehehehehe. She's mean but funny.

Lulu lets her grandma curl her hair. Because she just doesn't care anymore. If I were that depressed, I'd let my grandma do something COOL, like dye it pink. But noooo....

Yay, a surprise party. SURPRISE.

Jack and Jill are so dumb and crafty!!

Mrs. Wiggins is so lame. "Here...I bought you a journal!" Right...thanks. A red plaid journal. Yessiree...

Anna gave her a portrait of Snow White. How...wonderful.

"Thank you for the party."
"We thought of inviting Rema."
"But then we met her."
OOOOH, BAM. These girls are so MEAN in this book. But it's funny and refreshing to see them act human. And like girls.

"No place is as good as Wiggins. Because no place will have the Pony Pals."
"I know what you mean. How could it?"
And they think this is hilarious. Uhhh, why? I mean, obviously they couldn't have the Pony Pals.... It just doesn't make sense to me.

Lulu's dad tries to break into the Crandall barn. How creepy... "Awww, Dad, you wanted to surprise me!" Noooo, maybe he's a creepy stalker/robber. He should be arrested.

Lulu's dad totally looks like George Lopez.

"I'm going to study the black bear!" He could do that in Washington...

The description of Rema riding Snow White reminded me of myself....

Heh. Deer shriek.

The Pony Pals have a crazy high five fest. This sounds like a Youtube video. I'd love to make one. In slow-mo.

Anna keeps talking about Pony Power. It gets old fast.

They mention buying a pony once to Mr. Sanders and he's all for the idea. :O How is it THAT EASY?

Aha, it's Winifred Wiggins in this book.

LOL there's a picture where Anna looks like a 3 year old.

Anna's pictures are actually good in this book.

Seriously, if that Morgan is such a great horse, how come no one's bought him? Book #3 takes place in like early March. Book #4 is in early to late June. COME ON!!!

Rema looks like Minnie Driver in one picture.

The Pony Pals are shocked that Snow White could shock $2000 dollars. Why not? Isn't that normal for any horse/pony?

OMG, sexism!!! "Tommy wouldn't want a pony. All he cares about is football and teasing girls!" OMG, THAT IS SO HILARIOUS! I laughed for a long time after reading that. Don't ask why.

Mrs. Rand is a horrible parent. She allows Tommy to bully young children. And people wonder why he keeps getting into jail.

If Snow White is 13.2 hands and a Morgan is 14.1 to 15 hands, that's more than just a "little bigger".

HAHAHAHA! THE MORGAN'S NAME IS MORGAN!!! Aaaagh, that kind of annoys the living daylights out of me.