I was so mad when I found out the truth about Misty. I had begged my Mom to stop at Chincoteague on the way home from the summer vacation to Washington DC. It was out of the way and the bargain was I has to pay for the extra gas, the toll to get over the bridge, and admission to the museum.
I remember thinking the ponies were a lot smaller than what I thought they would be. I saw a couple of Misty's decendents. The person running the center offered to let me ride one, but I said no. I had been riding horses for years and I felt I would be too heavy for the pony (I was taller than the pony by several inches).
I devoured the Thoroughbred series (hate horse racing now), one series about a ghost horse in the desert that appears to a girl, and Black Beauty. One year I got four copies of Black Beauty for Christmas from family members- they were all different (like one was the original, another was an extremely watered down version, one was based on the movie, and another Beauty was owned by a young girl for the most of it).