Pony Books in the 1970's

[Jill's Gym Karma]

I was a proper bookworm as a pony-mad but pony-less kid, and have re-read many of them recently as an adult.

Some of them date surprisingly well; the Jill series author did have a very dry sense of humour. My favourite scene is a friend of Jill's declaring that "her only ambition in life was to be about 30 and a famous women MFH, and to order Susan Pyke off the field for unsporting behaviour" (Susan being the spoilt nasty girl).

Another thing I noticed as an adult was how many authors deal with disability; Jill's mentor is in a wheelchair, the coach of the Pony Club in the J P-T Woodbury series is a crippled ex-Jockey, a really good author in Vian Smith wrote about kids with polio and deafness being helped by horses. In the Jinny series mentioned earlier, it's Marlene, a rough inner city girl with a lame leg who Jinny doesn't like (as she's not horsey) who ends up teaching Jinny a lot with her forthright attitude.

I think the best stand alone pony book is Fly-By-Night; the character of the pony (a scruffy, bolshy little hairy roan) really shines through. Ruth gets cheered up by an instructor saying "we've had wilder animals than this in the Pony Club".

 

[Jill's Gym Karma]

Yes I remember the bit about taking the saddles off...

The heroine's pony was called Quest.

Fiona

I think I remember that series, it was definitely from the 90s rather than the golden era of pony books. The first one was called Pony Quest, and Quest was a chestnut mare? If so it's by Elizabeth Wynne, but I don't recall the plotline about the older guy.

 

[HashRouge]

I'm intrigued Snowfilly, do you remember anything else about it? It sounds like brilliant read. (although a complete legal nightmare!)

They were by Samantha Alexander. I think the series Snowfilly describes is her Riders series, where the main character Alex wants to be an eventer and starts dating an older rider. I can't remember what the age difference is but I'm 90% certain they're both teenagers, it's just she's early teens and he's late teens. There's a similar relationship-with-inappropriate-age-difference in her Hollywell Stables series, which is about a girls whose family runs a rescue stables. I remember finding this relationship even weirder as I think the main character is like 13 and in a relationship with an 18 year old (I think, but couldn't guarantee, that the main character in the Riders series is a bit older). They're quite fun reads, apart from the creep relationships!

 

[HashRouge]

I was a proper bookworm as a pony-mad but pony-less kid, and have re-read many of them recently as an adult.

Some of them date surprisingly well; the Jill series author did have a very dry sense of humour. My favourite scene is a friend of Jill's declaring that "her only ambition in life was to be about 30 and a famous women MFH, and to order Susan Pyke off the field for unsporting behaviour" (Susan being the spoilt nasty girl).

Another thing I noticed as an adult was how many authors deal with disability; Jill's mentor is in a wheelchair, the coach of the Pony Club in the J P-T Woodbury series is a crippled ex-Jockey, a really good author in Vian Smith wrote about kids with polio and deafness being helped by horses. In the Jinny series mentioned earlier, it's Marlene, a rough inner city girl with a lame leg who Jinny doesn't like (as she's not horsey) who ends up teaching Jinny a lot with her forthright attitude.

I think the best stand alone pony book is Fly-By-Night; the character of the pony (a scruffy, bolshy little hairy roan) really shines through. Ruth gets cheered up by an instructor saying "we've had wilder animals than this in the Pony Club".

I think I remember Jill's mentor was supposed to have been in the RAF during WW2, and that's why he's in a wheelchair?

I also agree about Fly-By-Night, although actually there is a sequel, The Team, which I like even more. I think KM Peyton is one of the best pony book authors out there. Her, JP-T and Patricia Leitch.

 

[DD]

Fly -By-night and The Team have got to be the best pony books ever written , closely followed by Flambards. Am re reading FBN just now am nearly 60 and know the story well it still has me enthralled.

 

[ElleSkywalker]

I have bit of a problem with how quickly and uncaringly Ruth sells Fly-by-Night to a "grand little rider" but other than that love Fly-by-Night and The Team

Also love the book 'Darkling' by the same author, anyone else read it?

 

[DD]

I have bit of a problem with how quickly and uncaringly Ruth sells Fly-by-Night to a "grand little rider" but other than that love Fly-by-Night and The Team

Also love the book 'Darkling' by the same author, anyone else read it?

yep that upset me she put so much into getting that pony going and then dumped him for Toad. he got a good home in the end via the DC, I think it was fairly common in the '70's though, one was expected to sell and get a bigger model and not a lot of thought went into it. sadly I think of my angel of a first pony. we had no idea how wonderful he was and when I out grew him just put an ad in the paper and sold him on. I saw him a year or so later passed on again with 2 girls riding him bareback. he was a star you could do absolutely anything with him rock solid safe but non horsey parents and a novice 13 yr old ( me) just didn't appreciate this. I wish I could turn the clock back. What is "Darkling" about ?

 

[buffy2]

? I've still got all the Gill books, but my first pony book was ponies plot, 5p from a jumble sale

 

[scats]

They were by Samantha Alexander. I think the series Snowfilly describes is her Riders series, where the main character Alex wants to be an eventer and starts dating an older rider. I can't remember what the age difference is but I'm 90% certain they're both teenagers, it's just she's early teens and he's late teens. There's a similar relationship-with-inappropriate-age-difference in her Hollywell Stables series, which is about a girls whose family runs a rescue stables. I remember finding this relationship even weirder as I think the main character is like 13 and in a relationship with an 18 year old (I think, but couldn't guarantee, that the main character in the Riders series is a bit older). They're quite fun reads, apart from the creep relationships!

I liked the Hollywell stables series, but I know what you mean about the inappropriate relationship! She was 12 at the start of the books and he was 17. Very dodgy!

 

[ElleSkywalker]

DD Darkling is about a girl who buys a young TB colt from an auction with her grandfather and they turn it into a race horse, it's more teenage as has rude bits in it and more believable than my synopsis suggests ?

 

[cauda equina]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned National Velvet

The best bit in that IMO is the little brother (?Donald) - 'I hate food'

 

[Spotherisk]

I think my very favourite pony book is Wild Pony by Lucy Rees, a similar vein to Fly by Night.

 

[stormox]

Does anyone remember a story about a foreign (french?) girl coming to stay with a family in England? They rode on the beach and I remember one of the English kids saying to her ' what would you do if you lost your stirrups' and she replied 'I would pick them oop again quick'? I remember really liking that one but cant remember its name

 

[Fragglerock]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned National Velvet

The best bit in that IMO is the little brother (?Donald) - 'I hate food'

Horrid child and his spit bottle.

I liked Jump to the Stars with Shelta. I seem to remember she ended up winning at HOYS.

 

[gemisastar]

I read most of these books and really enjoyed darkling/fly by night etc. Also really enjoyed the "Swallow Tale" series which I think was also by K M Peyton. Read the Pullien sisters Black Beauty type books also, and also loved Mary Elwyn Patchett's "The Brumby" which was about a boy in Australia and a herd of brumbies.

 

[stormox]

I have just looked through the covers on the pony books site - maybe the girl wasnt french! It was 'stolen holiday' by lorna hill thanks for linking that site

 

[Snowfilly]

They were by Samantha Alexander. I think the series Snowfilly describes is her Riders series, where the main character Alex wants to be an eventer and starts dating an older rider. I can't remember what the age difference is but I'm 90% certain they're both teenagers, it's just she's early teens and he's late teens. There's a similar relationship-with-inappropriate-age-difference in her Hollywell Stables series, which is about a girls whose family runs a rescue stables. I remember finding this relationship even weirder as I think the main character is like 13 and in a relationship with an 18 year old (I think, but couldn't guarantee, that the main character in the Riders series is a bit older). They're quite fun reads, apart from the creep relationships!

Yes! The Riders series! I don't remember Hollywell Stables at all, but def. sounds like she had a theme in her writing.

 

[HashRouge]

What about Blind Beauty, also by KM Peyton? That's an incredible book!

 

[Petalpoos]

My first ever pony book was 'The White Stallion" (original "Crin Blanc") by Rene Guillot. I picked it out at the library when I was about 7 because I liked the picture on the front - very sad as the boy and the pony die at the end. It probably would not be considered suitable for a young child now!

Off subject a bit - but I looked it up again a few years back and found that there was also a film. I can't find the whole film on YouTube any more, but here's a trailer:

 

[Orangehorse]

They were by Samantha Alexander. I think the series Snowfilly describes is her Riders series, where the main character Alex wants to be an eventer and starts dating an older rider. I can't remember what the age difference is but I'm 90% certain they're both teenagers, it's just she's early teens and he's late teens. There's a similar relationship-with-inappropriate-age-difference in her Hollywell Stables series, which is about a girls whose family runs a rescue stables. I remember finding this relationship even weirder as I think the main character is like 13 and in a relationship with an 18 year old (I think, but couldn't guarantee, that the main character in the Riders series is a bit older). They're quite fun reads, apart from the creep relationships!

I doubt if the relationship was physical though. Boyfriend/girlfriend didn't have quite the same meaning as now, where, I understand, it means sleeping together.

 

[Orangehorse]

I was a proper bookworm as a pony-mad but pony-less kid, and have re-read many of them recently as an adult.

Some of them date surprisingly well; the Jill series author did have a very dry sense of humour. My favourite scene is a friend of Jill's declaring that "her only ambition in life was to be about 30 and a famous women MFH, and to order Susan Pyke off the field for unsporting behaviour" (Susan being the spoilt nasty girl).

Another thing I noticed as an adult was how many authors deal with disability; Jill's mentor is in a wheelchair, the coach of the Pony Club in the J P-T Woodbury series is a crippled ex-Jockey, a really good author in Vian Smith wrote about kids with polio and deafness being helped by horses. In the Jinny series mentioned earlier, it's Marlene, a rough inner city girl with a lame leg who Jinny doesn't like (as she's not horsey) who ends up teaching Jinny a lot with her forthright attitude.

I think the best stand alone pony book is Fly-By-Night; the character of the pony (a scruffy, bolshy little hairy roan) really shines through. Ruth gets cheered up by an instructor saying "we've had wilder animals than this in the Pony Club".

I think the horse world as a whole has always been aware and embracing disability and same sex relationships. Regarding disability there was always the old instructor Major in the Pony Club missing a leg, and one lady instructor lost her leg to cancer but still went hunting on her trusty cob. There was a war veteran who rode side saddle through loosing a leg and a peer in the House of Lords who had bicycle handlebars welded to his saddle so he could go hunting and have something secure to hold. Badminton had a special disabled car park years and years ago - all those riding accidents. As for same sex relationships, I was too young to realise, but there two women teachers who lived together and had horses, and there were some men who always went around together, they had a livery and hunting yard but no one seemed to take any notice.

 

[cauda equina]

That reminds me of My Mare Kitty, written by a man who had lost an arm in (I think) WW1
eta it was Ralph Greaves, who also wrote Dainty, the Story of a Foxhound

 

[Elbie]

Jill's mum said she could use the money she got - think it was a tenner- to buy Black Boy and keep him in the orchard. I really wanted to be Jill. Later on she got Rapide as well and I was worried about that, because I didn't know how to pronounce the name!!! ? Loved Ruby Ferguson pony books.

I just remember being miffed when she got Rapide because at first she didn’t like him and I was sitting at home ponyless bring grumpy that she had two ponies and seemed ungrateful ?

 

[Pinkvboots]

I loved the Jill books I reckon I could still read them now.

 

[ZondaR]

I'm amazed no one has mentioned Black Beauty. One of the best horse books ever. I also loved the Jill books, Jill and Anne swooning because of David Broom's autograph!! And I loved the Silver Brumby books. I used to copy the illustrations on the covers.

 

[fredflop]

I think the horse world as a whole has always been aware and embracing disability and same sex relationships. Regarding disability there was always the old instructor Major in the Pony Club missing a leg, and one lady instructor lost her leg to cancer but still went hunting on her trusty cob. There was a war veteran who rode side saddle through loosing a leg and a peer in the House of Lords who had bicycle handlebars welded to his saddle so he could go hunting and have something secure to hold. Badminton had a special disabled car park years and years ago - all those riding accidents. As for same sex relationships, I was too young to realise, but there two women teachers who lived together and had horses, and there were some men who always went around together, they had a livery and hunting yard but no one seemed to take any notice.

I’d imagine that most “old-fashioned” horse people would have been brought up knowing not to be rude to other people, no matter if they didn’t quite approve of the circumstances. I’d certainly think the some of the least racist places you can get today will be at certain types of horse event; although on paper would appear not to be, white, middle class and horses. I’ve seen people with black/Asian backgrounds out eventing and hunting and no-one cares or would dare say anything horrid to them. Put the same two people in one of my grotty local pubs and the comments would be entirely different.

With the disability, as pointed out, there probably used to be lots of riding accidents that couldn’t be fixed. I’d also imagine that people would be surrounded by soldiers that had come back from the war(s) with horrid injuries.

 

[TheOldTrout]

I think I remember that series, it was definitely from the 90s rather than the golden era of pony books. The first one was called Pony Quest, and Quest was a chestnut mare? If so it's by Elizabeth Wynne, but I don't recall the plotline about the older guy.

I remember one with a chestnut mare called Quest - the heroine has her on loan while the owner's pregnant - but no plotlines with older guys. Don't think a human male would have got a look-in when there were ponies about.

 

[Silver Clouds]

I remember one with a chestnut mare called Quest - the heroine has her on loan while the owner's pregnant - but no plotlines with older guys. Don't think a human male would have got a look-in when there were ponies about.

I was disgusted (really!) when I read a new pony book as a child and (only on the odd occasion TBF) found that there was any kind of 'love interest'. Had no problems with boys being in the books (didn't really care whether the protagonist was a boy or a girl) but didn't want valuable space in a pony book wasted talking about relationship stuff!

Nothing much has changed mind you, I still don't want boys (men) butting in on time spent with the horses (or thinking about the horses, or talking about horses...)

 

[criso]

There's a bit here from JPT about the Noel and Henry series and how the publishers didn't really want the characters to grow up and fall in love.


https://booksandmud.blogspot.com/2014/02/pbotd-14th-february-josephine-pullein.html

 

[Fiona]

There's a bit here from JPT about the Noel and Henry series and how the publishers didn't really want the characters to grow up and fall in love.


https://booksandmud.blogspot.com/2014/02/pbotd-14th-february-josephine-pullein.html

How wonderful - so JPT did have them getting married after all, at least in her head

Fiona