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

JFTD said:
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!
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Awwww so frustrating - I googled the books last night to see if they were still available, they were in print but are not currently available and the website had the first couple of pages of The Far Distant Oxus online. I now really really want to read them again :D

I didnt realise there was a 4th book in the series, I have never read that!
 
Maesfen said:
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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LOL it was such a disappointment to be honest, he was middle aged and didmt look remotely like Meryon :D My mum collected all the books in hard back, they are apparently worth a fortune on eBay now - or they would be if endless puppies hadnt chewed them over the years :rolleyes::D:D
 
I remember a book called Will to Win that I got free with horse and pony mag... There were more in the series and I loved them all. Also I read 'the enchanted horse' more than most... About a little girl who got a dusty old wooden horse from a shop that came to life. Awwww feeling the love now!!
 
I had a huge library which my mother kindly disposed of for me :rolleyes:

Cant think of many of my favourites, Im sure if I read through the thread Id remember loads of them but not got time right now. I was a big fan of the Pullein-Thompson sisters, the Jinny books, and Fly-by-Night and The Team.
 
Picklenash said:
Awwww so frustrating - I googled the books last night to see if they were still available, they were in print but are not currently available and the website had the first couple of pages of The Far Distant Oxus online. I now really really want to read them again :D

I didnt realise there was a 4th book in the series, I have never read that!
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Sorry - ignore me - 4th book is not about the same characters :o:D
 
MiJods, the book you're after is Golden Gorse's The Young Rider (pics here: http://www.janebadgerbooks.co.uk/misc/goldengorse.html)

and yes, there are books being written today. A few I've really enjoyed (all YA - Young Adult):

Meg Rosoff: The Bride's Farewell - historical story of a girl's struggle against other people's ideas of what she should be
Linda Newbery: The Damage Done - fantastic and absorbing study of a girl's struggle with agoraphobia, family and horses. Great book. Can't recommend it highly enough.
Maggie Stiefvater: The Scorpio Races - brilliant, if savage, fantasy about the water horse

There's a sad story behind the inspiration for Monica Edwards' Meryon. As well as her son Sean, he was based on someone she knew as a teenager. He was dark, dashing and brilliant but died of appendicitis when young. There is a picture of him in the biography of ME and he doesn't disappoint.
 
Picklenash said:
Awwww so frustrating - I googled the books last night to see if they were still available, they were in print but are not currently available and the website had the first couple of pages of The Far Distant Oxus online. I now really really want to read them again :D

I didnt realise there was a 4th book in the series, I have never read that!
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I've never managed to find a copy of Crowns either, though it's not about the same characters.

Fidra books allegedly have the far distant oxus in print, but (nikicb says) they were out of stock when she tried to order a copy. Neither of the other two are still in print as far as I've been able to find :(
 
JaneBadger, your username has reminded me of a book and I cant think of the details.

Girl moves to the country with parents, not best pleased about it. Small grey pony came with the cottage, left behind by the previous occupants. Eventually girl takes an interest and starts to ride. Pony outgrown (possibly in second or third book in series) and she buys herself a bay with a white face, which she calls Badger (?).

Not sure how much Im remembering was real and how much Im imagining, does anyone else remember it?
 
Picklenash said:
LOL it was such a disappointment to be honest, he was middle aged and didmt look remotely like Meryon :D My mum collected all the books in hard back, they are apparently worth a fortune on eBay now - or they would be if endless puppies hadnt chewed them over the years :rolleyes::D:D
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LOL, such a disappointment for you but I'm old age so he probably still is a dish for me! I always imagined him as a young Euan McGregor or a Clooney!
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A few years back I decided to sell mine on ebay and made a fortune (which went on a stud bill!) A Wind Is Blowing HB made nearly £300 alone - but since I've been slowly buying some back because I missed them so much! :o
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janebadger said:
There's a sad story behind the inspiration for Monica Edwards' Meryon. As well as her son Sean, he was based on someone she knew as a teenager. He was dark, dashing and brilliant but died of appendicitis when young. There is a picture of him in the biography of ME and he doesn't disappoint.
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What a sad story for them all.

I love your site Jane, brings back many happy memories, thank you. You can tell how popular old books are just by this thread alone.
 
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I'm another one who loved the Jill books and the Jackie books. I still have quite a lot of them.

But my all time favourites were the Monica Edwards books, particularly the Omney Marsh series, so much so in fact that my daughters are called Tamsin and Marissa (Rissa) (they are Tamzin and Clarissa in the books).

I have most of the books, trawled ebay for them. A couple are authorised photocopies though as the actual books are so expensive.
 
LOL Boxers, my sister is Lindsey and I was going to be called Tamzin - which I would have really liked - unfortunately my parents chose a completely naff name not related to the books at all :(

We also had puppies called Dion, Meryon, and Diccon over the years :D

JaneBadger, I hadnt realised that about ME and Meryon, will have to read her biography :) I've only read her own non-fiction books :)

Maesfan - OMG that is incredible :eek: I am off to my parents to see if there are any copies that escaped the puppies :D
 
Was the Little Britches series by Ralph Moody ever published in the UK? Autobiographical, about a kid in Colorado at the turn of the twentieth century, with western ranching and lots of horse stuff. I still have three of them: Little Britches, forget the name of the second, and Home Ranch. There is a children's rodeo program in the US that is named Little Britches after these books.
 
mudmonkey17 said:
Oh and ones about a girl who had a pony called barney? She evented at pony club but can't remember the name of them. Think author wrote another series about a horse sanctuary.
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The Riders series by Samantha Alexander, my copy of it is in such good condition that it didn't even cross my mind of how old it (respectively to my 14 years!) until I looked and saw it was published in 1996! It's older than me and is still in perfect condition!!
 
dressedkez said:
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.....!)
xx
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Oh my gosh this post has brought back so many memories and I do remember Widdershins - I would have loved to have had a horse that did the opposite of what he was asked (that was the way he was trained)
 
Hechorsey said:
Can anyone remember some books it was a series the cover was red and it was about a girl who had a crazy horse who i think was called Barney. She found a trainer who was in a wheelchair...

I can't find them or remember what they were called and it's driving me mad!! They were great books tho
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The Riders series by Samantha Alexander, I never knew so many people remembered them!
 
SadKen said:
One I haven't seen mentioned was the Bobbi and Shelta series (Jump to the Stars by Gillian Baxter being the first one). I really enjoyed reading my tattered jumble sale 60s copy! They were a bit more grown up though, I think Bobbi ended up dating the YO. Well played.
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I REALLY need to read the rest of this series, I think 'Jump to the Stars' is one of my most reread books I have about of about 800, I love it! What are the rest called?
 
Black Hunting Whip by Monica Edwards, and alll her Punchbowl and Romney Marsh books


There was one book about a woman who bought a racehorse, which eventually won a race!
Another story about a pony that was owned by 4 different owners and what happened to it as it went to unsuitable owners.
A book, was it called "Lucky Purchase" about a girl who lost her confidence and then started riding a cob that turned out to be really good. But I think it died in the end and my parents came home from a night out and found me crying my eyes out over the book and I wouldn't tell my mother why!
 
So many of my favourites already mentioned, and I've only read to page seven! I still have all my pony books, shelves of P-T, Jill, Jinny and Shantih, a whole shelf of cherished Monica Edwards (I finally have all of the Punchbowl books, and started The Wild One today).

Hexx mentioned Caroline Silvers book Classic Lines, I have that and it's fascinating, and who remembers her book Summer with Tommy? She bought a small feral pony, and backed and schooled him on, lovely, and always brought a tear to my eye at the end. Dream of Fair Horses definitely makes me cry too!

Going to read the rest of the thread now...
 
Perhaps some of you Monica Edwards fans would be interested to know that GIRLS GONE BY publishers have reissued some of the lesser known Romney Marsh series and are currently doing the Punchbowl series. Only 2 are offered each year, and I ve now a growing shelfful! Each book also has a different intro by Shelley Edwards [ daughter who was model for both Tamzin and Lindsey], plus photos.
I ve found 'Four ride home' Primrose Cummings on Amazon - need to save up to buy these rare copies!
 
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