Lara is a pony-mad 13 year old girl who loves to compete on her almost-perfect pony, Sugarlump. Life is good! Sugarlump was born to win and she and Lara are the perfect pony partnership - until that is, Sugarlump falls seriously ill and Lara can no longer rely on her to bring in the rosettes. Worse still, will Sugarlump survive? Can Lara train Jazzy, her other, naughtier pony, to replace Sugarlump? Can she overcome her desire to win and concentrate on learning more about the equine species and how they communicate? Follow Lara's journey to horse sense through her encounters with natural horsemanship trainers and find out why her recurring dream about the red lead-rope will help to lead her to success, in a slightly different way than she'd imagined.

Lara sat bolt upright in her bed, the sweat trickling down her face, her breathing heavy and erratic. As she took several deep breaths and looked around her bedroom, she reassured herself that it was only a dream and one that she’d had many times over. It was OK, she was at home and there was no panic. What was it about this dream that disturbed her so much? She tried to stay calm as she closed her eyes and re-enacted the dream. The dream always ended with the coloured cob rearing on the end of the red lead-rope and she, Lara, was holding tightly on to the other end of it, desperately looking around for help and trying to stay calm, as the cob snorted and pranced, trying to break free of her hold. She opened her eyes again and thought about how the dream made her feel - helpless and scared and also sorry for the horse, because he was clearly unhappy and trying to tell her something. She wished she could come up with a way to help the horse in her dream and communicate with him. “Well dreams are dreams and I can’t control them” she said to herself, as she threw back the duvet and headed for the shower. “Besides, I need to focus on reality today… I’ve got a competition to WIN!” With these happy thoughts, Lara went through the daily routine of washing, dressing and grooming herself ready for the day ahead.

Enya Broome lives in North Wales with her husband and two children (with a third on the way). She lives on a mountain-side smallholding where she keeps sheep, chickens and of course ponies, which form the inspiration for much of her writing.