Who wants a FREE pony?!

Hello!

Now I've got your attention – because who doesn't want a free pony, right?! – I do have a confession to make.

I'm not offering a real-life pony for free. But I am offering hours in the company of a dreamy, 14.2hh Connemara gelding and it won't cost you a penny.

Yep - you guessed it, The Lost Pony of Riverdale, the first book in The Riverdale Pony Stories, is completely free to download from now until Monday, 2 February 2026!

You can check it out here.

It seemed like the perfect way to celebrate the fact that the whole series now has beautiful new covers, thanks to my talented husband, Adrian.

Talking about covers, I thought you might like to see the three iterations of the covers since Lost Pony was first published back in September 2013.

[I've just realised that's nearly 13 years ago - yikes!]

Anyway, the first cover was an original illustration by Kent artist Dick Barton. I gave him the brief that I wanted a dappled grey Connemara pony on Dartmoor and this is what he came up with. Gorgeous, isn't it? Top fan points if you remember it!

Unfortunately, being a penniless author, I couldn't afford to commission original artwork for every book in what I hoped even then would become a long-running series, so a year or so later Adrian designed the black-and-white cover that soon became synonymous with the Riverdale books...

I loved this cover too, and it served the book very well for nearly a decade, but eventually I decided the book needed a refresh, so I commissioned a professional cover designer to come up with something bright, bold and fresh while keeping the sense of freedom and adventure I have tried to capture in all the Riverdale books.

So there you have it: the three very different iterations of The Lost Pony of Riverdale!

In the almost 13 years since The Lost Pony of Riverdale came out, it has amassed a tidy 1,960 five-star ratings on Amazon here in the UK, and nearly 1,000 five-star reviews on Goodreads.

If you haven't read it yet, what's stopping you?! And if you're one of the many who have, please share the love and tell a horse-loving friend about the free download.

But it finishes on Monday, so you need to be quick. Here's that all-important link again.

That's all from me for now. Have a great weekend and speak soon.

Lots of love,

Amanda x