Although forbidden to ride since her sister Jess had been paralyzed in a riding accident, Sue Osbourne had been training Star, a pony considered too dangerous to ride. Sue and Jess were secretly working to cure Star of bucking, and taught him to jump. When their parents found out the gave Star to a dealer to sell.
Things had gone badly for Kim Lovell since wealthy Mr Symes bought his spoilt daughter, Sandra, for riding lessons at Mrs Lovell’s livery stable. Sandra’s ambition was to ride at Wembley on Red Sunset, a show jumper kept at the stable. Though the horse’s owner refused to sell, Mr Symes threatened to ruin Mrs Lovell s business unless Sandra got what she wanted.
Cassie and Cindy Bridges live in Parkerville, a small town in Arizona, along with their friend Lori. They all like to ride their horses and also have an understanding with Mystery, leader of a wild herd of horses. Cassie and Cindy’s father is the town sheriff, so would like his daughters to set a good example and stay out of trouble. When new neighbours move into ranch nearby, Cassie is quite taken by the son, Jed. Cindy is of the opinion they don’t need boys in the group, Lori, the more quieter and sensible member of the group, think they should get to know him better first. The next day when the girls are out riding, Jed comes across them as he is riding to get help for a calf stuck down a ravine. Lori always prepared has a rope on hand and together they free the calf. When they question Jed about how he found the calf he says a wild black horse led him there. Knowing this must be Mystery, Cindy and Lori agree that the horse is usually right about people and that it would be okay for Jed to come riding with them.
In the Annual story, the girls are riding with Jed, they are watching out for Mystery and the other wild horses and they see something is wrong. They go closer to investigate. One of the horses collapses and Cassie convinces Mystery to let her have a closer look. Cindy and Jed go to fetch the vet, Mr Ewart, when he arrives he diagnoses the mare with equine flu, not usually fatal but dangerous for wild horses. He take the mare back to town for treatment. Cassie and the others keep an eye on the other wild horses and notice more sick. When they ask if Mr Ewart could vaccinate them, he says it would be impossible to inoculate all of them, even if he could catch them. The best action would be to isolate them but there is nowhere suitable, so likely the flu will spread and it will be survival of the fittest.
The group is horrified to hear this and try to come up with a plan to help Mystery and the other horses. Jed suggests a place in the foothills, known as The Lost Valley, the others say its too far for the horses in their condition. But they agree it might work if they leave the worst affected who can be treated by the vet. It is not an easy journey for the gang as they round up the wild horses, one mare dies along the way and they have a run in with a mountain lion (luckily it’s a young one that doesn’t attack), but eventually they make it. The group set up camp to keep an eye on the horses, a foul dies, but Cassie has idea to pair up that mare, with the motherless foal. Over a week later the herd are doing better, Mystery rears up as if thanking them. Everyone is happy that the herd was saved.
This story only lasted 2 episodes and although it promised “more next week” it did not appear in the next issue, which was actually the last issue of M&J, nor did it continue in Bunty after the merger. It seems the finish of M&J led to its sudden discontinuation. It’s an interesting case as it seemed to be set-up as replacement for the long running Pine Tree Grove another soap story involving horses, so potentially could have continued for quite a while. It had an a more unusual setting in Arizona, the art by Julian Vivas was good and similar to other M&J soaps it had some potentially interesting characters. The appearance of the story in the annual shows they had some story-lines set up. As annuals are made in advance, it’s hard to tell if this story was just made for the annual or potentially it was unused episodes for M&J that they decided to fit in the annual. I can see the story in the annual fitting fine split into the weekly issues. Either way as I had not got the annual until recently, I only thought there were just the 2 episodes, so it was nice to see some sort of conclusion for the story.
(Click on thumbnails for bigger pictures)
When Gina Peterson lost her nerve after she fell off her horse, Starlight, her friend Katie Birch took her place. Katie also rode her own mount, Mr Billy . . . and both horses qualified for the Cup-Winner’s Cup at Barchester. Gina hoped to ride in the Final but again her nerve failed and Katie rode both horses.
Scared to Jump! – Judy: #1624 (23 February 1991) – #1634 (04 May 1991)
Without asking her parents Kelly Barker had taken a pony to save it from slaughter. Knowing that her parents would forbid her to have a pony of her own, she hid it in a disused railway sidings, but then, her parents had discovered her secret. They came to an agreement to give her a month and if she didn’t come to them for money and if the pony wasn’t neglected she could keep him.
Alison Clegg blames her sister Emma for the road accident that left her badly injured, just because Emma had persuaded her to switch places in the car a few minutes beforehand. She starts playing nasty tricks on Emma in revenge.
Revenge!– M&J: #242 (30 December 1995) – #249 (17 February 1996)
Plot:
Problems for Claire Maxwell when her parents split up.
Home, Sweet Home – M&J #139 (8 January 1994) – #145 (19 February 1994)
Plot
Danni Johnson, enjoys bullying and having people scared of her. One thing she doesn’t like is that the teachers’ know she is a troublemaker, so she misses out on trips because she can’t be trusted. When her family move to a new town, she decides to try out a new tactic. She pretends to be sweet and nice, then starts choosing people to bully in secret. Danni is good at sizing up who to target, and soon she has 3 girls, Sharon, Marion and Lorna, under her control.
There is another bully at the school, Carla, but she is considered small time by Dani. Her other new “friends” have had enough of Carla bullying first years and report her. One of the girls brings a tape recorder to school as well so they can catch Carla out if she tries any more bulling. They are surprised to hear Dani is the one threatening Carla, she has decided that she will be her new victim. It is then that the 3 girls admit that they are terrified of Danni. The girls all go to report the bullying to the head. Danni finds things worse than her old school now. The teachers know she is trouble and she has lost power over all the girls
Thoughts
So continuing on with the theme of bullies, this is a more unusual approach, to have the narrator the bully herself. Danni is devious and shows no regret for the things she did. 
Even at the end she isn’t upset that she is left on her own but that she hasn’t power over people. There doesn’t seem to be any particular reason behind her bullying. What little we see of her home life it seems fine, her mother seems pleasant, though we never see her father. Her motive just seems to be down to her own preference of liking to frighten people and being in control.
It is interesting in seeing her thought process of how she picks out her victims. She picks girl’s she perceives as weak, and reinforces the idea that if the tell anyone things will be worse for them . Also by keeping it secret this singles the girls out so they don’t know that anyone else is having a similar experience, and have no support. Of course to Danni’s mind keeping it secret also has the advantage of not being under suspicion from teachers or others.
The ending is quite effective, instead of having her expelled and just move onto a new school, she is left there alone and powerless. The girls that were bullied also wish they’d said something sooner, which reinforces the message of telling someone if you are being bullied.