AustLit

'Thirteen year old Erin loves horses and riding. After dreaming of the Bronze Age horses, she is starting to like history. Now curious about Ancient Greek horses, Erin again drifts into an opal dream. Agis, a teenage boy, travels alone from Sparta to Athens where Diodorus gives him work at the stables. Agis earns the trust of a vicious black stallion, but is targeted by the jealous, Tellus. When the stallion escapes, Agis is suspected and threatened with punishment of death or slavery. Will Agis keep his freedom and survive to fulfil his dream of riding a horse?

'When Erin wakes from her dream, she realises she can use what she has learnt about horses from the Ancient Greeks.

The Marble Horses, the second book in the Opal Dreaming series, describes horse riding and care in the Ancient Greek period. Each book in the series highlights the significant changes in horse riding throughout history and provides practical riding and handling techniques.' (Publication summary)

'Thirteen year old Erin loves horses, but thinks history is boring - until her mystical opal helps her drift into a dream to follow the misadventures of Fayina, a girl of similar age from a fierce, nomadic, horse riding tribe from the Bronze Age in 3000BC. Fayina is lost on the Eurasian Steppe. Strangers from another tribe, Arima and his sister Mia find her and take her to their secret village. Their tribe is wary of her and threaten her with banishment, unless she can teach the village people some of her horse and riding knowledge. Can Fayina save herself and return to her own people? The Bronze Horses shows the early relationships people have with horses and that the history of horses and riding is also our history. The Opal Dreaming series will highlight some of the significant changes in horse riding over thousands of years and pass on horse riding and handling techniques.' (Publisher's blurb)