Carole, Stevie and Lisa are totally devoted to horses - and to each other. But for Carole, it seems there's not much she can count on except for riding and the friendship of the Saddle Club. Ever since her mother died, Carole has urged her dad to go on dates. But now she's afraid that he's getting serious with a woman whom she isn't ready to think of as a stepmother. Meanwhile, Carole's getting the last thing she needs: unwanted attention from a boy. Scott will do anything - even muck out the stables - to get near her. And Stevie and Lisa aren't much help. They're busy modelling for a riding catalogue - and finding out that modelling's not all it's cracked up to be!Stevie, Carole and Lisa gear up for the adventure of their lives when their friend Kate Devine invites them to her family's dude ranch. They will have a whole week of cowboy-style riding, plus the fun of making Kate a club member.But when the girls arrive, they soon realize there's more to the West than Hollywood shootouts and colourful costumes. To show a cowhand that they're not just "dumb dudes", they pitch in with chores and help on a cattle roundup, where Stevie has a run-in with a rattlesnake. Another sour note for Stevie: her brithday is coming up, and no one seems to care. Little does she know that her Saddle Club buddies have a top-secret surprise in the works for her!ABOUT THE AUTHORBonnie Bryant is the author of nearly a hundred books about horses, including The Saddle Club series, Saddle Club Super Editions, and the Pony Tails series. She has also written novels and movie novelisations under her married name, B.B. Hiller.Ms Bryant began writing The Saddle Club in 1986. Although she had done some riding before that, she intensified her studies then and found herself learning right along with her characters Stevie, Carole, and Lisa. She claims that they are all much better riders than she is.Ms Bryant was born and raised in New York City. She still lives there, in Greenwich Village, with her two sons.