Pony books - which ones did you read?

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dressedkez

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Last night I was short of a book to read and out of desperation picked up a random paperback from the book case 'Jill and the Perfect Pony' Ruby Ferguson.
I stayed awake for 2 hours reading it (where normally I fall asleep after the first para) and remembered how much I loved these books, and yes they are dated, but still wonderful!
So which are / were your favourites?
Who was the best of Diana, Christina, Josephine Pulien Thompson?
Was Fly By Night and the Team the best books ever?
Who read Flambards? Not quite horsey book genre - but for me an absolute classic, as was Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man (can you beleive that when I was at school it was a set book for O level!!
Have there been any modern (post 1980's - 1990's) that have made a mark as pony books to treasure?
Will be really interested in your responses
 
Boring but true.. Black beauty and the little wooden horse and anything with a unicorn in!I remember my sister reading the Jill books.
 
I used to love the 'Jill' series too, and My friend Flicka and the Thunderhead series? Seem to remember they used to make me cry (not difficult!)

Black Beauty of course.

I remember reading books by the Pullein-Thompson sisters but can't remember which was which.

Follyfoot Farm? I know it was a TV series but seem to remember reading it too, not certain whether the book or TV came first.
 
The Silver Brumby & all others by Elyne Mitchell
jinny at Finmory
War horse
The Red Pony
Black Beauty
Black Stallion/Flame/etc
The Saddle Club
Heartland - though these weren't so good towards the end...
I read one of the Follyfoot ones (and now have it all on DVD, along with Champion the Wonder Horse :o)
Blind Beauty was a favourite...
Race to Glory was one that was newer that I loved at the time too!
And The Horse Whisperer... not a kids book but I first read it when i was about 11 :o Still love it! :p
 
How weird is that! I was tiding my loft the other day(i know how boring!) and came across Jill and the Perfect Pony! The loft didn't get tidied that day! I also remember reading about Jinny and Shantih the chestnut arab - anyone read those? Oh and Caroline Akrill (?) and Elaine with the Fanes??! lol
 
nic0la said:
How weird is that! I was tiding my loft the other day(i know how boring!) and came across Jill and the Perfect Pony! The loft didn't get tidied that day! I also remember reading about Jinny and Shantih the chestnut arab - anyone read those? Oh and Caroline Akrill (?) and Elaine with the Fanes??! lol
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Me me loved the Jinny and Shantih books. And which were the ones with the gilr that had Misty and Whithershins??
 
Pony Tails when I was younger - I loved them!
The saddle club
Midnight Dancer
My favourites of all though was the RIDERS books..the ones for teenagers (not the jilly cooper ones) with Alex and Barney who is wild at the start but then becomes a wonder pony. I would love to find those books again..bit of nostalgia (sp)
 
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Loved loved loved the Jill books:D. Also remember watching "white horses" and I still love the music, and I listen to it occasionally on "you tube".
 
oh how i loved my childhood horsey stories. i'd read all the ones already listed. i was addicted to the jinny and shantih ones. i remember Zara by joyce stranger. she wrote loads of dog books which my sister had. and one i cant remember the name at the mo but it was about a mustang on the plains in america. loved that one. if i can remember it i'd love to find a copy. thinking hat on........
 
Benpony said:
oh how i loved my childhood horsey stories. i'd read all the ones already listed. i was addicted to the jinny and shantih ones. i remember Zara by joyce stranger. she wrote loads of dog books which my sister had. and one i cant remember the name at the mo but it was about a mustang on the plains in america. loved that one. if i can remember it i'd love to find a copy. thinking hat on........
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I remember buying the mustang one too - wasn't it found hiding behind a rock or something?! Or have i made that up?! It was in a double book in the bargain bin in some shop, the other book was about a horse in Spain i think?! It had a yellow and red hardback cover *running upstairs to attic* !!!
 
Ebay and Greenmetropolis.com are good sites to find these books again.

Did Joyce Stranger write Breed of Giants about the Shires? Thats a lovely story, and not horsey but The Incredible Journey makes me cry everytime I read it!
 
But, now I remember, my absolute favourite was: Khazan: The horse that came out of the sea by Joyce Stranger - if you haven't read it, you should, it was great. Also a book called Rosina Copper, by Kitty Barne. That was pretty good too.
 
its really bugging me about that mustang book. i hve a feeling it had a slightly scarey title such as ghost horse. i used to go in my local charity shop and the lady would keep all the horse books for me! it was from there and i didnt read it for ages because of the title. oh please someone remember it!!
 
I used to read all the Jill books, but I have just read the best book, its called Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley. A complex book, but well worth reading. Seems to be a simple storey with a very strong undercurrent.
 
I read the Jinny books, i still blame them for my obsession with chestnut arabians! They were awesome, although the red horse on her wall that seemed to come alive used to scare me.

I also read Khazan: The horse that came out of the sea, that was a cool book. I was too young for it when i first got it, but didn't give up until i could read it all lol.

I read most of the follyfoot farm ones, and another series based around something similar.

I read some saddle club ones but didn't like them.

Of course black beauty! 4 different versions( some were simplified for a younger audience)! still got one my grandma gave me from the 60's/70s.

The silver brumby books, i loved them so much!

And the firebringer books, about unicorns etc. They were wonderful, want to read them again.

Many others, can't remember them. Wish i had kept them. One of my favourites was about a black horse that a girl used to break out and go riding over the moors during the night.

And one about a pocket sized unicorn/ little white horse found on a beach :D

There was also one about a mad horse called 'Jack' or 'Jack the Lad' that i loved. He might have been grey.
 
i loved the saddle club books - still have the whole series in a box somewhere!
winning by ginny elliott was also a fave
international velvet was so good - got it on tape!
 
The one about the Godolphin Arabian was called King of the Wind. I bought it on Amazon last year along with Misty of Chincoteague. I got them as prizes for a youth page in a breed society newsletter but no youths ever entered! So am revisiting my own youth (now nearly 50!). There was also The Silver Brumby series - stallion was called Thowra. I can't remember the name of the books about the palomino mustang that lived in the mountains around Montana I think?? Bugging me now! I remember Zara by Joyce Stranger and other books by her including One For Sorrow which was about foot and mouth - does anyone else remember that? It was pretty sad. I loved the Jill books too, Jill Enjoys Her Ponies, Jill and the Perfect Pony, the ponies were called Blackboy and Rapide. There was The Black Stallion, shipwreck survivor, think I remember seeing the film, a boy catches him and they gallop along the beach together! Visualize slow motion gallop along the sand, boy laughing out loud, no tack. When was the last time I rode bareback!
Oh those memories - no cares, no worries, no horse of my own to break the bank!
 
I too loved all the Jill books by Ruby Ferguson - I still have some of them in hardback!
Like so many others, I also loooved the Pullein-Thompson books. In particular, the one with Monty and his soup-plate feet (which book - anyone know?) - maybe the Trelawny family??

Who remembers The Horse of Hurricane Hill? - had the most beautiful illustrations - I still have that too!

Not horse novels but I have the full set of Prof Wortley-Axe's books of "The Horse, It's Treatment in Health & Disease". They belonged to my Grandad - very pleased that I have them!
 
I pretty much learned to read by reading Black Beauty - had read it about a dozen times by the age of 7. We lived in London at the time, so I longed for the day I could live out in the country, horses frolicking in the fields.

Then read all the Jill books and Jinny books, which I never liked quite as much. I guess I'm too down to earth - the idea of this young inexperienced girl taking on a semi-wild arab always seemed a little far fetched. The stories of a girl and her two gymkhana ponies suited me better :)

And then I got a little older and read all of Jilly Cooper's excellent oeuvre, and thoroughly enjoyed them all. Does that count? ;)

I also love the James Herriot stories. Not horsey exactly, as the horses seemed to be left to Seigfried, but countrysideish (and hilarious) nonetheless.
 
nikicb said:
But, now I remember, my absolute favourite was: Khazan: The horse that came out of the sea by Joyce Stranger - if you haven't read it, you should, it was great. Also a book called Rosina Copper, by Kitty Barne. That was pretty good too.
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I remember the Joyce Stranger book, but was never really a fan of her style TBH...

I still have ALL the Jill books, and read them on Duvet Days, and a Pullein-Thompson trio of books, The First Rosette, Two to Ride and the 3rd in the series...I forget what it's called! Love them all...

:D
 
Another reader of the Jinny and Shantih books! (they seem to be somewhat mandatory!), though I never really got into the 'Jill' books. I loved several of KM Peytons, 'The Wild Boy and Queen Moon' and 'Blind Beauty' stand out. I also had loads of random pony stories, a lot of which were originally my mums or aunts (and posibly even their mums, given the age of some of them!), some of the Pullein-Thompson ones and others from the 50s/60s/70s/80s. A lot of them I only read once, some (Black Beauty and Silver Brumby spring to mind) because I got too upset; I've still only read BB once, when I was 8 and not been able to pick it up again because I was so distraught when Ginger dies :(

Some more modern ones I read were the Follyfoot collection, the Saddleclub (had tonnes of these, back in the day when a new book was £2! Quite cutely it took me a good long while to twig they were set in the states and not the UK!), and all the Samantha Alexander ones, the Riders Series and the Hollywell series.

I can't remember the title or author but the first 'proper' paperback not picture book I read was about two girls who who found/brought/rescued (can't remember which) a pony called Pickles who lived in one of their sheds(?). When one of the girls was involved in a car accident and lost use of her legs Pickles then learnt to be a RDA pony for her. Would love to get hold of a copy, so if anyone can remember an author or title, would be mot greatful!

An thinking about there was another book (think oddly enough was originally my dads :eek:) called something like 'Children of the Vikings' about two saxon children kidnapped by vikings who take them as slaves to Iceland. There the girl befriends an icelandic pony, called Bokki who is due to be sacrificed to Freyr (I think, could have been one of the other norse gods...), so she and the boy run away with the pony. Again, if anyone knows the author of this book, I'd love to get my hands on a copy.

Looking at the last two paragraphs I've noticed for both those books I've remembered the vague plot and the pony's names, none of the other characters. Obviously got my priorities right! :D
 
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