Horses and Ponies

Usborne Beginners

by Anna Milbourne

Presents interesting facts about horses and ponies, including the different types, and their features, training, and grooming.

Genres: Horses, Childrens, Science, Nonfiction, Animals, Kids

32 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Growing up in North West England and in Germany, Anna wrote plays about talking animals, and stories about naughty children, and drew on every available surface. After school, she did an Art Foundation course, then a degree in German Literature & Philosophy at Oxford University. In 1998 she found her perfect job at Usborne in London, writing about everything from curious penguins to trips to the Moon. Usborne.com

Reviews

[Berengaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

short review for busy readers:
A good and informative "1st book" about horses for children aged 5 to 7 from the Osborne Discovery series.

Covers: horses in the wild, horse farms, horse language and behaviour, training, grooming, shoeing, and a bit about sport vs draft animals. Lots of colour photos and drawings to illustrate information in the text. (Although the photos might seem a bit old-fashioned to kids used to 4K internet pics. )


Read the Welsh edition for the Foreign Language Reading Challenge 2026.

[Hallie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really good book i love horses so this is good book if you like horses!!!!

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

We got this as part of our first package of summer reading books for the kid's. As my daughter loves horses and often comes riding with me, this was an instant hit. It's simple, yet has a lot of good information at the same time. Add to that some beautiful photography of several different horses and you have a winner.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Usbourne Beginners book that contains a lot of facts about horses, many of which I hadn't learned about from other books we read for our unit on horses.

[Deke Moulton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated with just the right amount of information for any kid who is fascinated with horses.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got a chuckle out of some of the explanations like, “One mare is bossier than all the others. She leads the herd.” !!!

[Charity]

Genre- Nonfiction, horses
Target Audience- 2nd to 6th grade girls.
Connections- The above book isn't the exact one that I read, but Goodreads didn't have it... so that is the closest one I could find. I selected this book (Horses and Ponies by Caroline Stamps, 2014) because I know a lot of children love horses, and this book tells a lot about them. If I was in 5th grade I would have read it because my grandma rode horses which made me love them. The book has a lot of variety in the ways information is presented, and it even has games for children to play that have to do with horses. It's nonfiction and the audience is anyone in 2nd-6th grade who loves horses and wants to know more about them.
The sister text I chose is called A Hundred Horses. The book is about an 11-year-old girl with a "strange connection to horses" so I think it would be for the same reading level as the other book. It looks like a nice, small novel that is made for little horse lovers, just like my first book! I definitely would have read it as a kiddo. The genre is fiction/ horses and the audience is probably 4th to 6th grade girls.

[Melissa Namba · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of good information here for kids who like horses. Its a nice mixture of real life pictures with illustrations and the information isn't present in a way that is too complex. It seems dense because there isn't really any fluff, but most horse crazy kids I know won't want the fluff.

[Shelly Koressel · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do horses live in the wild. What kind of pony lives near the North Pole. Tells you why horses wear shoes. I good book to understanding a horse.

[Tommy · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS book will tell you a hole lot about horses!I READ IT and realy likd it.it told me that a farrier is a person who makes and fits horse shoes.and a lot more.

[Zoey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love everything about horses so it wad fun to learn new things about horses.

[Gracie · Rating 5 out of 5]

You should read books right now.