Six New Forest ponies are given to six children for a year. During that time they have to break them in, and at the end of it there is a competition to see who has done best. But who will win; June Cresswell whose mantelpiece is stacked with silver cups; John, who cannot get any one to help him till his mother comes gallantly forward; the Radcliffes who shout and quarrel and live in the whirl of a big family of all ages; Susan from the ugly red house on the hill; or scruffy, self-conscious Noel?