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

Has to be the Jinny and Shantih books for me, I could feel each and every moment she had with that Arab. I still have them up in the attic. (My daughter read them all too)
 
dressedkez said:
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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YES! I have one of those, I never realised it was a trilogy! But the names ring a bell right away! The one I have is called Eventer's Dream I think? What were the others *prepares to get googling*

I recently gave over 100 Saddle Club books to the charity shop and feel awful about it!
Loved Jinny and Shantih.

Did anyone else read the House at World End's series? I think there was 4 and they were like "summer at world's end... Winter at World's end... etc. And the Blue Ribbon Series about a girl attempting to get on the US 3day team. Can't remember the name but the horse in it was called Night Owl.

I still have my Silver Brumby series and another american series about a girl who had a palomino called Chica?
 
Reading this has made me remember so many books!

Heartland and Sheltie were my favourite :D I always wanted a pony like Sheltie in my garden!!
 
Karran - I loved the blue ribbon series and that was it night owl!!! Glad someone else knows what I was on about :) eyeing them up on eBay now to read again :) x
 
James Aldridge's The Marvellous Mongolian was the one with the Shetland and the Mongolian (long way up the thread - sorry). The American series about Chica (an epic one) was by Ann Sheldon, and was called the Linda Craig series.

I have a book coming out next year about pony books - it should be out in March. Title as yet undecided as I'm still slugging that one out with the publisher, but all the major stuff is in there: Jill, Jinny, Jackie - though not every author that ever there was as there just wasn't space, alas.
 
janebadger said:
James Aldridge's The Marvellous Mongolian was the one with the Shetland and the Mongolian (long way up the thread - sorry). The American series about Chica (an epic one) was by Ann Sheldon, and was called the Linda Craig series.
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Yes! I remember getting really irritated with them though as whenever something bad happened, it was resolved easily.

It was like a bad TV soap.
 
Wow talk about ghosts... remember just about all the books mentioned.. does anyone remember Wandy the Wild Pony ?
 
Jilly Cooper's Riders is fab, brilliant characters. I spend 12 hours a week at least in the car and have it unabridged on audio book, its on repeat, its several hours long so I never get bored of it :)
 
Mrs B said:
'The Godolphin Arabian' by Marguerite Henry.

It must be over 35 years since I read it (I used to take it out of the library week after week!) but when I looked at it on Amazon just now, the words of the pages they let you read were as familiar as if no time had passed at all :o
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All her books were great, also Silver Brumby, Pullein Thompson, etc. i loved Ride a Wild Pony, I actually saw the movie in the UK when I was 10. (My only trip to the UK).

I also recall Fabulous (about an appaloosa), The Red Pony, Lyrico (a pegasus).

Just recently I bought my daughter a book called Pegasus, I recomend it for any of your horse mad daughters, it was a mixture of fantasy and modern day. It is a series.

My daughter loves the Pony Club Rivals series by Stacey Gregg
 
I loved the sliver brumby books,still have some of them now.

Also liked the black stallion series,have several of those still kicking around somewhere as well,rather sad for a woman of nearly 40 I know,but I could never bear to part with them:o
 
devonlass said:
I loved the sliver brumby books,still have some of them now.

Also liked the black stallion series,have several of those still kicking around somewhere as well,rather sad for a woman of nearly 40 I know,but I could never bear to part with them:o
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I actually preferred The Island Stallion series. It got a bit weird with, IIRC, extraterrestrials in one of the books.
 
Black Boy is correct. I fear it may have been censored out in later editions due to political correctness!
My favourite was Wish for a Pony but I loved a book too called the Horse from India to which as an adult I've added Kipling's The Maltese cat.
What a great thread this is.
 
Another vote for Monica Edwards - was thrilled to visit both Rye Harbour and the Punchbowl a few years ago.
Loved the Pullein Thompson books , Silver Brumby ones, Pat Smythe etc.
OH recommends 'Fury, Son the wild'.
Does anyone remeber a book where theres a horse less girl who ends up with a Lippizana after the riding school owner broke some ribs? A Lippy was the height to me, though a horse less child any pony would have done.....
Also a book about some friends riding/camping in the New Forest, and one horse was a 'jibber'. VCant remember much else, but lots of horsey tips and lore , and photographs to illustrate it.
 
Was the New Forest one called Four Rode Home by Primrose Cummings? About 4 children riding from NF to Sussex I think it was; a cracking book, must read it again.

It's weird isn't it walking around her old haunts of Rye and the Punchbowl; oh what the imagination can do lol!
 
JFTD said:
I loved the Oxus series, though I've yet to encounter anyone online who read them. Very much Arthur Ransome with ponies instead of boats :D
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You have just encountered that person lol :D I loved those books - I got one of them from my school library, then ordered the other 2 books through the county library system (useful having a mum who was a librarian sometimes :p) - I just wish I had "forgotten" to return them now :D
 
Maesfen said:
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
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My mum knew Monica Edwards slightly, as she bought a Siamese cat from her - my mum and her brother (my uncle obviously) are mentioned in one of ME's non-fiction books :)

When I was a child I read all the books avidly, and wrote to Monica Edwards - I was so pleased when she replied, I kept her letters for years :D We visited Romney Marsh (stayed in one of the Watch Cottages described in the books) and also the Devil's Punchbowl, where we bumped into ME's son Sean, who was the basis for Meryon in the books :)
 
Millikins said:
The Wild Heart, Helen Mitchell, about an ugly, vicious Argentinian mare
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Oh yes. I remember one of the first lines.

"Her name was Bruja, which means The Witch."

It was a bitter sweet book but with a deeper meaning about man's need to possess and how we crush nature because of it.

It really meant a lot to me.
 
Many thanks to those who answered my queries- may look for those 2 obsure books on amazon!
I think the illustrations were a big part of the pony stories- I loved Anne Bullen in particular, and read anything that she d illustrated.
 
I remember well a very well thumbed book by someone with the pen name of "Golden Gorse". She was very keen on the Exmoor pony I seem to remember, and her book had picture of them in.

The title of the book eludes me though. It was my Bible when I was a child, and yearning for a pony. I've no idea what happened to the book - probably I'd read it so much it very likely just fell to pieces. It was a really charming book, would be considered very old fashioned now, but I just digested every word of it.

Also.... obligatory reading material was the Pony Club Manual of Horsemanship in the old fashioned blue bordered cover, plus Keeping a Pony at Grass. I remember getting a school detention for reading these in a lesson!

I remember the Follyfoot Farm books by Monica Dickens (and the series on TV - oh WHY can't they bring some of these back FFS???).

Also enjoyed the Pullein Thompson books, plus Pat Smythe wrote some nice little pony stories too I seem to recall (gosh am REALLY showing my age here).

Silly question, but is anybody writing pony stories for today's horse-mad teenagers I wonder?
 
Picklenash said:
You have just encountered that person lol :D I loved those books - I got one of them from my school library, then ordered the other 2 books through the county library system (useful having a mum who was a librarian sometimes :p) - I just wish I had "forgotten" to return them now :D
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I am utterly thrilled to have finally encountered someone else :D:D:D

I wish I had mine / could get more copies now, I'd love to read them again. I was transfixed by the Persian theme and desperate to know who Maurice really was!
 
vineyridge said:
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.

I was just going to mention them. inherited a large pony library from my older sister. I thought they were quite entertaining and cosy. More familyish than horsey though
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I loved Monica Edwards and Joanna Canon (mother of the pullein thompson sisters) best, I think.
 
Picklenash said:
My mum knew Monica Edwards slightly, as she bought a Siamese cat from her - my mum and her brother (my uncle obviously) are mentioned in one of ME's non-fiction books :)

When I was a child I read all the books avidly, and wrote to Monica Edwards - I was so pleased when she replied, I kept her letters for years :D We visited Romney Marsh (stayed in one of the Watch Cottages described in the books) and also the Devil's Punchbowl, where we bumped into ME's son Sean, who was the basis for Meryon in the books :)
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You lucky thing; that's given me goose bumps as I always used to imagine meeting one of them when we ever visited either place! She was as much a hero of mine as any of the riders like Pat Smythe; I used to plague the library to get as many of her books as possible and for a town one they did pretty well, I was the first stamp in many of them! :)

Yes, BW, I've still got my copy of Rosina, loved it.
Does anyone remember Prize Pony about a pony won in a raffle?
 
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Many of these authors must be after my time!! I loved the Pullein-Thompsons sisters books, but especially the illustrations by Anne Bullen - Jennie Loriston-Clarks mum!! Also enjoyed Pat Smythe and Monica Edwards books as well as the Mary O'Hara trilogy. When I left home my Mum took them to the school where she was headmistress and put them in the library - I was FURIOUS!! And have since bought copies of some of them!! I wonder if anyone went to Offwell school and enjoyed them as much as I did!!
 
Karran said:
YES! I have one of those, I never realised it was a trilogy! But the names ring a bell right away! The one I have is called Eventer's Dream I think? What were the others *prepares to get googling*

I recently gave over 100 Saddle Club books to the charity shop and feel awful about it!
Loved Jinny and Shantih.

Did anyone else read the House at World End's series? I think there was 4 and they were like "summer at world's end... Winter at World's end... etc. And the Blue Ribbon Series about a girl attempting to get on the US 3day team. Can't remember the name but the horse in it was called Night Owl.

I still have my Silver Brumby series and another american series about a girl who had a palomino called Chica?
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The one after eventers dream was called A Hoof in the door can't remember the name of the third though great books. This really is a trip down memory lane I think I've read about 95% of everything metioned on this thread great to be reminded about the blackbird cottage and phantom horse ones which I have read but had forgotten all about probably because they were library books so only read once whereas I own lots of the Jinny, Jill and Jackie books and have read loads of times:)
 
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