The Ghost Horse of Snowy River

The Ghost Horse of Snowy River by Stef Gemmill. Wombat Books/Rhiza Press 2026. MG Paperback RRP $18.99. ISBN 9781761113543.

Reviewed by Debra Williams

A year has passed since 12-year-old Georgie Stone had a serious horse-riding accident. Georgie lost three things: an eye, her horse and her country life. All she has left is a horse braid bracelet to remind her of her lost brumby, Magic. 

It’s taken a long time for recovery, and Georgie is not out of the woods. Now that she's back at the cattle station, she tries to overcome her fear of riding and prepare for the two-week cattle muster. There’s a herd of wild brumbies led by the Ghost Horse, being hunted by a local horsewhipper, Goldburn, and Georgie is worried about their safety and future. As the Ghost Horse begins to follow Georgie on the muster, the stallion is in extreme danger. Georgie wonders whether the grey stallion is her old horse, Magic, and seeks a way to prove it before Goldburn captures him.

 

Georgie has a new horse to ride, the mare Faith. The two bond, but there is an ache in Georgie’s heart for Magic. She has never been on a muster before, and some reckless but well-intentioned decisions have proven dangerous.

 

Now she searches online to match DNA from Magic to the Ghost Horse, so-called because of its colour.  Using the horse braid bracelet and a chunk of the Ghost Horse’s mane, plus her own saved money, she sends the samples away. Will they match? And, even if they do, Georgie needs Magic’s original ownership papers to prove the horse is hers.

 

This is an exciting edge-of-the-seat MG adventure story, fraught with much worry and action. There is a strained relationship among Georgie’s divorced parents, her country-dwelling father, and her grandmother. She has a typical sibling-on-again, off-again relationship with her older brother, Finn. Learning to ride again, with the loss of one eye, is a tenuous and difficult step in Georgie’s life. But she shows great inner strength and fights tooth and nail to help save the brumbies and regain her former stallion.

 

A picture book author, this is Stef Gemmill’s first Middle-Grade work. A wonderful story about a girl and her love of horses; recommended for readers ages 8-12.