Anyone able to recommend horsey novels for boys?

YorksG

YorksG

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Friends two boys have just started riding on a new pony who is living with our mares. Both boys are very keen and the pony is fantastic with them :)
The boys are 11 and 7 and both keen on Harry Potter books etc. has anyone any recommendations for horsey novels suitable for them?
Thankies in advance :)
 
Hmm - difficult one. The only ones that spring to mind are the Black Stallion books but they might be a bit old fashioned. Here's a description -

The Black Stallion, known as "the Black" or "Shêtân", is the title character from author Walter Farley's bestselling series about the stallion and his young owner, Alec Ramsay. The series chronicles the story of an Arab sheikh's prized stallion after it comes into Alec's possession, although later books furnish the Black's back story. The Black Stallion series has been called the best in horse stories.

The first book in the series, published in 1941, is titled The Black Stallion. The subsequent novels are about the stallion's three main offspring - his firstborn colt, Satan; his second colt, Bonfire, and his firstborn filly, Black Minx - as well as about the Black himself. Along with the Black, the series introduces a second stallion that is considered the Black's only equal - The Island Stallion, Flame. This is a separate storyline until Flame and the Black meet in two books - "The Black Stallion and Flame" and "The Black Stallion Challenged".
 
My 13 year old cousin has just finished reading 'the horse boy', but i guess it depends on their maturity
 
I was going to say The Black Stallion books too. I can think of a few others I used to read but can't remember what they're called!

There was a series I quite enjoyed following a pony club through a few years which was fairly gender non-specific, they all get into tetrathlon after having pretty useless ponies. Some creative googling found a review here.

There's My Friend Flicka too. And of course Black Beauty. I was also a massive fan of War Horse as a kid.
 
Seconding the Black Stallion, My Friend Flika and the Pony Club CPT series.

Of the Pullein Thompsons, I found Josephine more fun to read (I think there is some genuine horse knowledge to be gained from it subconciously, rather than just a story involving horses as in most of Christine's work). The Six Ponies series (I remember Six Ponies, Radley Riding Club, One Day Event, but think there were actually 6 books in it) has both male and female characters split relatively evenly.

If you're looking for something a bit more modern, I can't think of anything with a male central character. However, the Horses of Half Moon Ranch series is much less "girly" than anything else I have read.
I have a feeling that there was also a series called Sandy Lane Stables which had a mix of male and female characters, but I only read a couple of them, so am not sure.

I will also add that my favourite horsey author is KM Peyton, particularly Fly By Night and The Team. The central character is Female, but there are boys as other major characters, and I would say they are more about horsey people in general (sort of in line with the Pullein Thompson books) rather than horsey girls like the Jill or Jackie serieses.

Another option is the ones told from a horse point of view rather than people point of view. I think the Silver Brumby is like this, but as I didn't really like books that took a very anthropomorphic view about animals I think I only read these once, and can't remember an awful lot about them.
 
My lad is 10 and is having to put up with all my old horsey reads that I've just dragged out of the loft (flimsy excuse for me to see them again!!). This range includes the Jill books, Jinny books and lots of Pullein Thompson sisters. Sadly, they are all a bit girly, but he doesn't seem to mind too much. I was thinking of the Black stallion series but couldn't remember what sort of age they would be good for!!!

Another flimsy excuse to read theose again! By the way, does anyone remember that the family channel, as it was then, had the Black Stallion as a series? I LOVED that!!!!!!!
 
KM Peytons Flambards series is also good, as altho written a while ago, is set in WW1 anyway, but has very good characterisation of the male characters. On non horsey theme too, her books Prove Yourself a Hero and a Midsummer Nights Death are great.

echo re Black Stallion books, they are really good.

They might like Dick Francis as they get older?

But the Black stallion books are prob the best unisex appeal ones. Will also teach them about swamp fever in one of them, which I never heard of again until it flared up here this year!
 
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