Favourite old pony stories, finding a story & nostalgia :)

Have just discovered the Monica Edwards books at the ripe old age of 70 plus love them. Have collected pony/horse books for years. Geoffrey Brookes Horse lovers and B L Kearley so many got a bookcase full.
 
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And what about Smokey. I found a copy somewhere and have it on my shelf. I cried so much over that one it made the pages chrinkly. It is a sort of American Black Beauty story. Also Lucky Purchase, gosh I cried over that one too.
 
Girls Gone By have republished most of the Monica Edwards books - some of the books have a preface/ introduction by Monica s daughter Shelley - she was the model for both Tamzin and Lindsey, plus lots of pictures of real life at Punchbowl farm. I loved those stories!
 
Smokey is one of my all time favourites, still have my paperback copy. Other favourites are Maltese Cat, Fly-By-Night & The Team and all Josephine Pullei-Thompson's books. Some really good riding tips in hers. I have quite a collection of pony books and no intention of ever parting with them:p
 
I can't believe nobody has mentioned the Flambards series by K M Peyton. Such a fantastic series although 1 of the 4 is not horsey. I love the Fly by Night and The Team too.

I love reading and remember as a child checking every second hand bookshop I could find for pony books. I was thrilled when I realized My Friend Flicka was followed by Thunderhead and the Green Grass of Wyoming. I also liked the Jill books, the Saddleclub and read some of the Jinny books.
 
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you bloomin' lot have got me leafing through my bookcase to see which pony books I've still got..........

and it's just cost me money as I've seen for sale a book mentioned on here that I haven't already got ;)
 
catkin said:
you bloomin' lot have got me leafing through my bookcase to see which pony books I've still got..........

and it's just cost me money as I've seen for sale a book mentioned on here that I haven't already got ;)
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Perhaps we should all start swapping? I can't resist pony books in charity shops and definitely have a few doubles as a result.
 
As a child of the 70's I love all these old books and find them very nostalgic. Just hearing the first few bars of the theme music to the TV series white horses makes me want to cry. I recently re-read the Christine Pullein-Thompson hunting trilogy. The original books made me desperate to go hunting as a child but it took me another 30+ years before I could actually do it. I'm going to re-read Prince among Ponies next. I also bought the Flambards TV series from 1979 on DVD. It is very dated but I still enjoyed watching it.
 
Lots of my favourites already mentioned but no mention of Phantom Horse yet? I loved that series.

Lots of others I loved though, I often didn't read whole series or would get them out of sequence because I relied on the library. My mum was a librarian so we didn't really buy fiction because the staff perk was up to 100 books on your card and no fines!

I loved the first Lolly and Knocker book because Knocker was so like the riding school pony I loved!

I did read all of the Jinny books in order as my cousin had the full set!

A book I did own, as it was a present, was an anthology of horse and pony stories. Mainly it was annoying because it was just excerpts, things like the part of Fly by Night where Ruth first sees Toad, but none of the rest of the book. But it also contained an absolutely heartbreaking short story about a pit pony which would make me sob, in fact just thinking about it now has brought a lump to my throat!
 
First one I was given was called Riding with Reka by Heather. She died quite young sadly. My sister got from The Horsemans Bookshop in Victoria I must have been about7 or 8 and still have it. Another one was We Couldn't leave Diana about ponies on Jersey during the wartime occupation.
 
Not a children’s book but the horse dancer by Jojo Moyes is a beautiful book.

It has lots of descriptions of the work of the cadre noir and classical riding and I really enjoyed it.
 
I remember listening to an audio book on tape when I was younger about a young girl who was desperate for a pony, and there was a dusty old shop where there was a rocking horse, her parents bought it and in the night it came alive? Thats all i really remember but i used to love listening to it.
I had nearly a full collection of sheltie books but nearly all of them were lost in multiple house moves. Along with a horse series with a black and gold cover which i cant remember the name of!
ETA I also LOVED the sophie books by DKS
 
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ApolloStorm said:
I remember listening to an audio book on tape when I was younger about a young girl who was desperate for a pony, and there was a dusty old shop where there was a rocking horse, her parents bought it and in the night it came alive? Thats all i really remember but i used to love listening to it.
I had nearly a full collection of sheltie books but nearly all of them were lost in multiple house moves. Along with a horse series with a black and gold cover which i cant remember the name of!
ETA I also LOVED the sophie books by DKS
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The Magic Pony? I had a book by that name but it wasn't a rocking horse, it was a poster of a chestnut called Ned I think. Or Neddie? Began with N I think anyway.

This thread isn't good for me, I should be reading Pride and Prejudice for English coursework not looking for my copies of the Sheltie books damnit 😂.
 
Orangehorse said:
I loved The Black Hunting Whip which I think was the first of the series but there were lots more with them trying to make a living from a small farm and their adventures with the ponies.
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I loved The Black Hunting Whip. I have resisted up to now, but somehow a ‘good condition’ copy is winging its way towards me, bought via Amazon from an Oxfam shop (not sure how I feel about that).

This thread could prove to be expensive for me.
 
Patricia Leitch - A Pony Of Our Own, really resonated with me. The brother and sister had a wonderfully close relationship, had to work bit by bit to get a pony, tack. Nothing came easy.
The Jinny series books by same author are also memorable and the red horse in Night of the Red Horse sticks with me today, echoes of little romano-british bronze horse figurines dug up and all sorts of spiritual and ancient horse ephemera in the spiritual world around us if we let it in.
 
Chinchilla said:
I'm sorry to comment on an old thread but has anyone here read Ponies' Plot and Pony in the Luggage? The latter was a particular favourite of mine. 😍

Will confess I haven't read a lot of the 'classics' - the Jill, Silver Brumby or Flicks books etc. - much to my shame though.
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I remember Pony in the Luggage! It came to me in a boxed set of horsey books from a neighbour who I was tremendously jealous of as a child because she went riding and I didn't!
The box set also included Horse in the House which is still on my book shelf plus the Nipper by Catherine Cookson which I'd love to read again, Cobblers Dream which I never read because it was way too sad at the start. There was an anthology of short stories and extracts and another comedy book but I've forgotten what that one was. I used to read them over and over.

My all time favourite horsey book - and one of my favourite books horsey or non horsey - is still National Velvet.
 
I still have the complete silver brumby and Jinny series in the loft. Also loved the Jill books, but I gave my complete set away to a pony mad teen when I hit my twenties.

My favourite pony book (another which I still have) was A Pony For Sale by one of the Pullein-Thompsons.

Not quite "pony books" but I also loved The Horse and his Boy (Narnia) and Traveller by Richard Adams (author of Watership Down) which tells the story of the American civil war from the viewpoint of General Lee's horse.
 
Errin Paddywack said:
Tamzin and Rissa were in the Romney Marsh series also by Monica Edwards. She combined both series sometimes, all lovely books.

I have read Rosina and Son but haven't got it.
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I googled Lady Kitty Ritson (of the Tessa books). I was amazed at the google pictures of her, her dogs and all of her books. Some lovely pics of a time gone by and a lot of horse books. Well worth a google to see this interesting woman. (sorry, tried to put a link but it didn't work)
 
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