Debbie's life has been turned upsidedown. Her parents are divorcing: her father has already left to live with his new girlfriend, and Debbie is being sent to stay with her much older brother, Simon, while her mother moves.

Simon runs a stable with his wife, Tina, and at first Debbie is appalled by just how much she does not know. She needs to be taught how to do everything: ride, muck out, groom ...

Then Debbie finds she has a bond with Cleo, a grey mare no one else can ride. Slowly, Debbie and Cleo get better and better. To Debbie, Cleo becomes the one constant in a life that has nothing fixed about it at all. She is desperate to keep the mare, but after Simon has an accident the stables are in trouble, and Debbie finds herself, again, in a situation she cannot control.

Originally printed in the 1970s, I Rode a Winner is Christine Pullein-Thompson at her best, writing about a teenage girl trying to make her own way.