Troy Nesbit Sand Dune Pony, Payrock Canyon, and Indian Mummy

In Sand Dune Pony, Pete spends the summer at Uncle Lem and Aunt Clara's ranch in southern Colorado.  Uncle Lem is short on horses, so Pete has no horse to ride until one gets broken.  When old Hatsy comes along with his wagon, Pete jumps at the chance to spend the summer camping.  Hatsy promises Pete that they will find a pony for him.

On page 86, Hatsy explains how a horse can be used for tracking.  Hatsy and Pete are tracking a man who doesn't know the territory and would surely choose the easiest path.  Hatsy lets his horse choose the path, which ends up being the same path the man took.  

Pete goes skiing on sand dunes.  I had never thought about skiing on sand dunes, so I found this part interesting.

Readers who love horses will love this book.  I found much of it interesting, although the detailed content began to wear on me during the second part of the story.

This book is very good.

In The Jinx of Payrock Canyon, Jay Himrod spends the summer helping his friend, Doc Martin, with his father's cattle.  The boys feel like Payrock Canyon has a jinx on it because of all of the strange events that have occurred.  Beavers have changed their color from black to brown.  The sheep are dying from a disease.  Mr. Martin's cattle are stampeding.  The boys observe a man carrying a box around the countryside.  The boys wonder if the mysterious man is responsible for some of the strange events.

There is too much randomness in this book.  This book began to tire me towards the end, and I became impatient for the book to be over.  The book is good but not as good as Sand Dune Pony.

In The Indian Mummy Mystery, Joe, Denny, and their new friend, Huff, want to locate an old mummy that Joe's grandfather found decades earlier.  The mummy was stolen by outlaws, and the boys believe that the mummy might be located in the ruins of a nearby ghost town.

Denny has an old Confederate half-dollar from 1861.  On page 33, the boys are told that the half-dollar is worthless.  I wasn't fooled for a second.  Common sense told me how rare a Confederate half-dollar would have been even in the 1950s.  Besides, too many series books proclaim that a certain object is worthless when in fact it is valuable.

This book has a number of exciting events.  Joe crawls around by himself in an Indian dwelling on the side of a cliff.  The boys get trapped in a cave during the night, and their search for treasure is fun.   

I like this book the best of the three I have read so far.  It is excellent.