Favourite pony books from your childhood???!!!!

Can you imagine if Jill posted on here.... "My mum gave me some money and I bought a pony. What does he eat, how do I look after him and how do I put on the thing on his head?" How irresponsible was the farmer that sold her Black Boy knowing she was totally clueless.
 
Liz4949, The Ten Pound Pony was by Veronica Westlake. I loved that book. It took me years to track it down.

The first Oxus book was reprinted by Fidra. They've been a bit quiet lately, but are planning to get back into re-issuing books, so it might be worth lobbying them to get that one out again!
 
Did no one here read Pat Smythe's Jay series? We didn't have it available here in the United States, and I've wanted to see what they were like. But they must not have been very good or they would have been mentioned already.

If you are able to find them, the absolute best horse books for children/young people ever published in the United States were Pamela and the Blue Mare and The Blue Mare in The Olympic Trials. 1950's books by Alice O'Connell. Never reprinted and now very expensive in part because of the Paul Brown illustrations.

The amount of actual information about riding and training is unbelievable. One could still use the program outlined. Author's technical resource was Vladimir Littauer, so you can imagine how correct all of the horse stuff was.
 
The Three Jays weren't bad; they just weren't terribly good. They had a lot of background info on Pat Smythe herself, and are interesting from that point of view. Read one after the other, they become a bit samey: all the characters do is bicker, bicker, bicker. The stories are pleasant enough, but the characters never really grabbed me and caught my imagination.

I have seen those Blue Mare books when I was buying books from a customer. I just gazed at them on the shelf and tried not to drool.
 
does anyone remember a book about a girl called tamsin who had a grey pony? Think it was set in cornwall and had something to do with smugulars.
cant think what it was called
 
There's a series about a girl called Tamsin Grey who has a grey Arab pony called Cascade. They're set on the Romney Marsh, and some of them involve smugglers. They're by Monica Edwards. Do you think those might be the ones you're thinking of? The other main characters are Rissa, Roger and Meryon.
 
Another I read when I was about 12 - and every year I was at school after that!

The Tale of Two Horses by A.F. Tschiffely and Sheila Elkin (Feb 1989)

The tale of a 10.000 mile ride from the horse's view point. I last read it a couple of years ago. Well recommended
 
I've just been on Amazon buying.
Two Middle Aged Ladies in Andalucia
On the Edge of a Cloud
and Blind Beauty.
great thread this.
 
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janebadger said:
There's a series about a girl called Tamsin Grey who has a grey Arab pony called Cascade. They're set on the Romney Marsh, and some of them involve smugglers. They're by Monica Edwards. Do you think those might be the ones you're thinking of? The other main characters are Rissa, Roger and Meryon.
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Think thats it, Thanks
 
itsmylife said:
does anyone remember a book about a girl called tamsin who had a grey pony? Think it was set in cornwall and had something to do with smugulars.
cant think what it was called
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There were loads of books about Tamzin and Rissa; the pony was called Cascade. All by Monica Edwards and set on the Romney Marsh on the Kent/Sussex borders. The writer lived where it was set so she knew and wrote about the area very well; many of the stories were based on true happenings (with a bit of poetic license!) She also wrote about a series of a family buying a farm in the Devils Punchbowl near Hindhead. As a child I was always asking Dad to take me so I could find them someday! :o
 
My mum gave me a load of her old pony books, one was called "Finding our Stirrups" I think by someone called Kinnaid and another book called "Dream Pony" by Elinore Havers.

Also read a more modern one called "Call me Brave" about a delapidated eventing yard and a girl not really being into eventing but spured on by her mum and a gypsy who came to stay.

As an adult, love Jilly Cooper especially Polo and the lovely Ricky France-Lynch! :p
 
The Jill series by Ruby Ferguson,

Silver Brumby series by Elyne Mitchell,

The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley,

The Flicka series by Maureen O'hara,

Everyhing by Monica Dickens and all of the Pullein-Thompson sisters books,

the Jacky series by Judit Berrisford,

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell,

The Jinny series

Misty of Chincoteague, the Grey Pony, Mayfly and many others the majority of which I still have :D

My absolute favourite were I wanted A Pony with Daybreak & Augusta and one about a wild mongolian stallion and a shetland pony, I can't for the life of me remember what it was called.

Adult horsey fiction it has to be Molly Watson's book In The Pink and the Dressage Chronicles by Karen McGoldrick although I love Jilly Cooper, Tilly Bagshawe, Jo Carnegie and Fiona Walker.
 
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Another vote for the Jinny & Shantih series, I'm sure this is why I ended up with 2 arabs :-)

Also loevd - the Horse from the Black Loch by the same author
 
Flambards, though remember the frustration of waiting years for no. 4 when Christina and Mark get sorted!
The Brumby, Mary Elwyn Patchett, much more serious and dark than the Silver Brumby series
The Wild Heart, Helen Mitchell, about an ugly, vicious Argentinian mare
And anyone recognise this, a cowboy one, a wild stallion who wouldn't be tamed, corralled and scrambled over a 7' fence so hobbled, then he went under instead and drowned in a stream, very sad but the first time I heard the "Four white socks..." thing
And anything with those inky, blotted illustrations by Victor Ambrus,
(There are some cheerful books I like too!)
As an aside, Rosina Copper is a true story.
 
What a fantastic thread! And a real blast from the past.

Am I the only one who wasn't fond of the 'girls with ponies' books? I read them, but I spent most of the time totally green with envy! Never had a pony as a kid, and it was all I wanted. Particularly disliked the Shantih books, mostly because the kid was a brat (a lot like me I expect) and I wanted her horse!! Bitter? Me? :rolleyes:

Best books ever were the Silver Brumby series - I read them all hundreds of times, although Silver Brumby Whirlwind always made me cry. Also loved her related books, such as Moon Filly, and there was a lovely book by her called The Colt at Taparoo.

Also loved the M Henry books, Misty of Chincoteague and in particular King of the Wind.

Black Beauty has no equal, and I also loved the Black Beauty's family books. The Black Stallion books were also pretty good, but Black Stallion's Ghost gave me nightmares! That one really stuck in the memory!

And a HUGE thanks to the person on here who mentioned 'Ponies in Peril'. I really loved that book - one of the few kids with ponies books I really adored, but couldn't remember what it was called or who it was by! I wanted Jigsaw; him and Shantih were my dream ponies. I may pick up that one to read again at some point..... :)

Fab thread - thanks OP!
 
Was it Jackie that a horse called Misty?

Also remember reading about a horse called Freckles, but can't remember who it was by.

Loved the Jill books and the black stallion.
 
Morganlafaye said:
What a fantastic thread! And a real blast from the past.

And a HUGE thanks to the person on here who mentioned 'Ponies in Peril'. I really loved that book - one of the few kids with ponies books I really adored, but couldn't remember what it was called or who it was by! I wanted Jigsaw; him and Shantih were my dream ponies. I may pick up that one to read again at some point..... :)

Fab thread - thanks OP!
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Thanks Morganlafaye! I've loved reading all the posts. Really good trip down memory lane.


However, what happened at the end of "Dream of Fair Horses'? If I remember rightly Perdita was a show pony who had been left in a field and the girl who ended up riding her came to stay in a house nearby with relatives? Were they heading for Horse of the Year Show or something? Why did she not ride him at the show?
 
I'm still addicted to my old horsey books! I've just re-read all the Ruby Ferguson "Jill" books, as well as my Josephine Pullein-Thompson collection (she's my favourite of the sisters, I love the Pony Club trilogy). And I'm still mourning the loss of my Jinny Manders books! I think they must have ended up going to Oxfam by accident. I liked the Silver Brumby books as well, and the Midnight Dancer ones. I used to dream of riding off and finding a den in the woods! I really like all the KM Peyton ones as well - Flambards, Fly-by-Night and The Team, and Blind Beauty.
 
Can anyone remember a US based book about a family doing trick riding displays who help a young girl and her horse escape her abusive uncle? She has to jump a car at one point as part of a display :confused:

I seem to have spent the last few years rebuying the horsey books of my childhood as mum gave them all away :o
 
I liked Jinny because she was more real than the others. Jill was such a goodie good girl!! Despite not having a pony I didn't equate having one with being a perfect model child out of gratitude! (Maybe I was/am more of a brat than I care to admit :)).
 
I had one or two of the jill books, LOVED fly by night! I think I had a brumby book, not sure. I collected a lot of the saddle club books, still have them all somewhere, I will have to dig them out and have a good re-read! I don't think I read black beauty, but I can't bear to watch the film - I cry my eyes out from start to finish! It's not from my childhood but I thought the war horse was a brilliant read, film didn't live up to it though in my opinion.
 
Wow - fantastic post......
I loved all the pony books published in the 60 / 70's.....Jill's Gymkhana - where Danny Boy became Black Boy in the successive books (who has also noticed that?) KM Peyton - Fly By Night and the Team who appealed to all Council house horsey wannabes, of which I was one when I read her books - it could be possible to have a pony (in those days a good pony cost anything between £30 - £100, which if you had non horsey parents in the 1970's - was a vast amount of money - well even if your parents were horsey, it was still substantial) and Flambards pure escapism - and yes Christina and Mark did eventually get together.....but I always thought that there was possibly a book to come where Wolfgang (son of Ruth Hollis and Patrick Pennington (that triology of books) met Isobel Russell's (daughter of Christina & Will) grand daughter and went back to Flambards.......

I loved the Pullein Thompson - especially Josephine and Diana (Christine was a bit bleaker) and Moncia Edwards, and of course Monica Dickens - Follyfoot / Cobblers Dream.

Who remembers Mary Gervaise - and the tales of kids taking their ponies to school? Widdershins - the horse who responded to the opposite commands (I have one of those now, by accident, not design.....!)

Adult horse books - do read Jane Smiley Horse Heaven - epic. And an older book Caroline Silver - forget the name, but she followed a bunch of racehorses born in the 1960's.....got it 'Classic Lives'

Don't forget the classics such as Moorland Mousie and Diana the Dartmoor Pony - and I had a book about an Indian pony - something related to the Khyber.
And of course there is (sp) Tsyhfinneys Ride. I know I have the spelling of that to pot. Kiplings the Maltese Cat. And yes you have all mentioned Black Beauty - but did anyone read Son of Black Beauty?

Lovely odd ball books as well - including the Pony Plot / Ponies in my suitcase (I think, did I just make that up?)

In the Pony Plot - I think that there was a pony called Plum who went to space? Sounds like one of my TB's......

Finally - a book I re-read every few years (apart from Jilly Cooper Riders) is Caroline Ackrill's eventing trilogy - it always cheers me up - the horse characters are wonderful - The Mare who sometimes slips a stifle, the Bolter, the ancient Bay mare with the far away look in her eye, the bad tempered Chestnut and the Black horse with bad feet......then there is Little Legend with the explosive buck.....

Happy days! xx
 
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