Saddle up and hang on for a ride you won't soon forget! Having just read Pony Confidential on Kentucky Derby Day, I must say that those thoroughbreds have nothing on Pony when it comes to stamina and going the distance for the one you love. Pony is a fierce, yet comical character who knows how to get what he wants. Having been separated from his girl, Penny, 25 years ago, Pony is at first determined to find Penny so he can take out his anger at being sold so many years ago. As he travels across the country, sold from owner to owner, Pony learns some great life wisdom from the other animals he encounters and realizes that no matter what situation tore Penny away from him, that it was ultimately his fault that they ended up parted. When Penny is tried for murder, it is up to Pony to solve the murder and finally confess to himself that this feeling he's harbored for 25 years is indeed his love for Penny.

Riders up, the gates are about to open; make sure you don't miss this ride!

I absolutely adored this book. It's so original, and hilarious, but also touches some deep emotional points. So enjoyable!

As a former horse girl, I loved this book. It felt like a modern day retelling of Black Beauty, but with more humor. I will be definitely be purchasing this for the library.

I give this book an A-
Think Homeward Bound meets a Crime Procedural.

This book is so much more than you think it's going to be, peppered in-between the farfetched high jinx are heartwarming and thoughtful moments.

Thank you netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC

A story about a pony helping to clear the name of the only human he's ever loved sounds like it would be a fun, if not slightly strange, cozy mystery. Unfortunately, it was more strange than fun.

My biggest issue with this book was that I assumed the two point of views (Pony's and Penny's) were parallel timelines but they were not and it took until almost the 70% mark for that to be made clear. The timelines not being aligned left me feeling confused about how long Penny was incarcerated and all of Pony's travelling around the country. It also seemed as though Penny had not seen Pony since she was forced to leave him at age 12 but you find out she had found him again prior to going to prison but at the beginning of the book she was talking about wanting to find him? It was overall very confusing.

There were so many twists and turns throughout the book that it started to feel more ridiculous than a fun ride with a pony's point of view. There were far too many topics from the faults in the US justice system to the mistreatment of animals to mental health for any topic to feel like it was given enough attention.

The ending was unsatisfying. The whole court could be taken out to the woods to a recreated crime scene but there wasn't enough time or resources to look into other possible suspects?

I do see that complaining about a book with a pony as a main character being unrealistic is a bit silly but there was simply too much grasping at straws to make the whole story work.

I was intrigued by the premise... but ultimately I wasn't sure who the target audience for this book was supposed to be. I thought it was going to be a kind of tongue in cheek, humorous murder mystery, but so much of it reads very earnestly like literary for animal lovers. Even as a horse girl myself, I think it was missing a classic mystery structure that might've helped hold the overall story up in the long run. I felt the pacing was a little off and the writing voice was occasionally juvenile. The Pony's POV chapters felt cheeky but somewhat hardboiled; I think it might have worked even better if that was the full POV for the whole storyline. Ultimately this one just did not work as well for me as I hoped it would but I applaud the concept and the attempt at genre-bending.

I don't think I can do better than the publisher in describing this wonderful novel:
"In this one-of-a-kind mystery with heart and humor, a hilariously grumpy pony must save the only human he’s ever loved after discovering she stands accused of a murder he knows she didn’t commit."

It's been 20 years since the pony was abandoned by his beloved girl Penny. Bitter years knowing that every new owner is going to be just that little bit worse, that human betrayal is inevitable. But when he discovers the truth about why Penny abandoned him, it's Pony to the rescue!

Pony is an escape artist, greedy and stubborn and shaggy enough to double for a bear on Ring camera -- which is to say a typical pony. Penny grew up to be a beleaguered kindergarten teacher, mom to a difficult child and wife to an estranged husband who wakes to a nightmare: she's in handcuffs, heading to prison to await trial for a murder that happened when she was 12.

The story is a real delight: Pony is grumpy-wonderful, his emotional trauma perfect excuse for such pony-esque behavior as stepping on party-goers toes and bucking randomly at horse shows. When Pony takes to the road, asking birds for directions, hitching a ride as a race-horse companion animal, avoiding densely populated areas and following his nose, it's madcap but not entirely implausible.

In one scene, Pony makes his way into an apartment buildings' freight elevator, which opens on a floor where a child spots him and announces that there's a pony in the elevator to her unbelieving parents -- and later, after learning that he has just missed finding Penny and hearing some hard truths about his behavior from an owl ("you've been mean and selfish. Transactional."), Pony exits the elevator to the world-weary surprise of a furniture mover who comments, "Rich people and their weird pets."

The story progresses with alternating narration: Penny behind bars, thinking about her failings and about the only time she was genuinely happy (as a girl with a pony, naturally), and Pony on the move. It works surprisingly well to get the sprawling plot out and sorted, with the murder at the center of the story revealed layer by layer of twist and surprise.

Genuinely moving (oh the scene in the kill car! and the goodbyes in the stable! tissues please!) and laugh-out-loud funny, this book was a delight from start to finish. The story has hints of <I>Black Beauty</I>, <I>The Little Prince</I> and <I>The Art of Racing in the Rain</I>, but Pony has a unique and charming storytelling voice. I will be demanding that my horsey friends (and horsey-adjacent readers) read this one.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishers for the eARC in exchange for my unbridled opinion.