AN author has visited the pony who beat of competition from hundreds of others to appear on the cover of her next book.

Helen Haraldsen’s first book, Little Pearl, was published in March and is based on her own first pony focusing on the adventures they had together and is the lead title in the Amber’s Pony Tales series.

The second book in the series is due for release at the end of August.

This book is also about Helen’s childhood ponies – a registered fell pony called Townend Honeysuckle.

“I wanted to find a way to get a great image of a Fell pony to use on the cover of book two, while at the same time promoting book one, so I decided to run a photography competition through my website to find a cover star,” said Helen, who lives at Great Clifton.

“Images which met the terms and conditions of the competition were posted on the website with visitors invited to vote for their favourite.

“Almost 1,500 votes were logged and the clear winner was Greenholme Clyde who belonged to 13-year-old Katie Trotter.”

Helen, originally from Whitehaven, travelled to visit the Trotter family, who live at West Kilbride in Scotland, to meet them – as well as their pony.

Owner Katie, a pupil at Largs Academy, had seen the competition advertised in a Fell Pony group on Facebook and decided to enter a picture of her pony and best friend, Clyde.

“When we found out that Clyde had won, my entire family were over the moon, especially me!” she said.

“It has always been my dream to have Clyde on the cover of a book so I couldn’t believe it when it became a reality,” said Katie, upon receiving the news that Clyde would be the cover star.

With the book featuring Clyde, The Second Best Pony, currently at the printers being prepared for publication, Helen asked Katie’s family if it would possible to travel up their home to meet Clyde and Katie.

Helen said: “I’ve seen plenty of pictures and videos of Clyde on Katie’s Instagram page, but meeting him ‘in person’ felt very special.

“Not only is he very handsome but his personality also matches that of my pony, Honey, who the story is about.

“I feel very lucky to have him as my cover star and I’m so pleased I was able to meet him in the flesh and give him a kiss!”

The Second Best Pony is available to pre-order from the author directly at www.helenharaldsen.co.uk (signed and with a personal dedication) and will be in paperback and e book from Amazon in early September.