Pony books - which ones did you read?

Loved all the Pullein Thompson books. Black Beauty still makes me cry and I cant read it in public, but I still love it. I read 'jump for joy' by Pat Smythe, and that book was inspiring. Flambards was great, but not strictly horsey. Remember Follyfoot - I used to be glued to that. As a kid I lapped up everything horsey, as parents could not afford a horse, so it had to be books. I even managed to acquire a discarded hoof pick and lead rope, which I proudly displayed on my bedroom shelf.

Remember Pony magazine - have to admit I still love it. Also one called Light Horse and it was a total and utter treat to get my hands on a copy of Horse and Hound.

My current favourite, is International Velvet - I tracked down a copy of this discontinued dvd last christmas for my daughter, who secretly wants to be Velvet Brown and win gold at eventing (she will kill me if she sees this). It makes it me cry as well!!!!!!
 
SuenRoux said:
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!
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Was it 'Phantom Horse'? Think there was a whole series of them, 'Phantom Horse', 'Phantom Horse again', 'Phantom Horse goes to the supermarket' etc etc :D
 
Loved all the ones you mention, my parents got rid of them all when I moved out after uni :-((, and I promptly gradually bought them all back ! My fave when I was smaller was 'A Pony for Sale' and 'I wanted a Pony' (P-Th) and all the 'Jill' books. Esp the Majors daughters 'April May and June Cholly-Sawcutt' :-)))
The Flambards author also wrote a great non- horsey book, 'Prove yourself a hero'; really good.
 
The book about the palomino stallion in the USA was called Phantom Horse - I rediscovered it at my mum's a couple of months ago and stayed up reading it. Made me cry (again) when they found him close to death and nursed him back to health. There were a couple of sequels but not as good as the first one.

Rosina Copper was so beautiful, as was Zara and Khazan, but I loved the Jill books best, especially Jill's gymkhana and also the Jackie books - the first one was "Jackie won a pony" about the grey mare called Misty and Jackie's friend "Babs" - so lovely to read them all again. They are very cheap on Amazon books. K M Peyton was brilliant and reading "the team" was so real at the time. All the Misty of Chincoteague books I remember well but on re-reading them they are not very well written and difficult for younger readers. The little wooden horse was an all time favourite, though not really about horses.

I stole a recent one by K M Peyton off my daughter and it was almost as good as the old ones - Blind beauty -I can recommend it. Horse Heaven is a lovely adult horse book and well worth the effort. Dont bother with "how I lost a husband and found rural bliss" by Liz Jones, it is likely to make you very cross with her! There is still nothing quite so good as a great pony book.
 
Sol said:
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
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Ditto all of these!!!!

Silver Brumby and War Horse were my absolute old favourites. Followed by Heartland.
 
Oh and there's more I've just remembered :

The Chestnut Filly
Fiander's Horses
Janet Must Ride
The Lost Pony
A couple of big illustrated horsey books : Horse Fever & Introducing Horses

I might be able to bore for Britain now......sorry!!
 
Yes - Rosina Copper - loved it!

Black Beauty of course.

Jill books and Jackie books (favourite I think).

Horse in the House? My Friend Flicka? The Silver Brumby series - Thunderhead was one I think?
 
My parents made me ship all my pony books off to my cousin's daughter when I left home at 18. I've bought them back, and more! My best friend and I could quote pages of the Jill books, we often tried to answer in class at school 'in character' using a phrase from one of the books (plenty of 'Gosh' and 'oh crumbs!')
I think Silver Snaffles was my favourite.
 
jodie3 said:
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!
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Yep Joyce wrote Breed of Giants. She was a good friend of my mums, one of her dog books "Never Count Apples" was based on something that happened to our dogs.
Re horsey books, I still have loads of Ruby Ferguson and Pullein Thompson books, dig them out for a dose of nostalgia every so often.
 
I grew up with the Sheltie series, I always wanted a shetland in my back garden.
Also the animal ark horse related books such as Pony in the Porch ( there was a girl called Imogen and a pony called prince in the book so rather fitting! ;) )
I also loved slightly older books such as saddle club and the jinny and shantih series.
I was reading Black Beauty the other day in school library in my free for the millionth time when a friend came over to check if I was ok as I there was a tear in my eye! :o
 
monkeybum13 said:
I grew up with the Sheltie series, I always wanted a shetland in my back garden.
Also the animal ark horse related books such as Pony in the Porch ( there was a girl called Imogen and a pony called prince in the book so rather fitting! ;) )
I also loved slightly older books such as saddle club and the jinny and shantih series.
I was reading Black Beauty the other day in school library in my free for the millionth time when a friend came over to check if I was ok as I there was a tear in my eye! :o
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I loved pony in the porch! :D

And whoever posted about the Jackie books, they were great too, but i can't find any via google :(
 
The only mustang book I can remember is Smoky by Will somebody who was American. I think it was written in the forties or early fifties,it seemed pretty dated when I read it about 1965!
 
I loved the Jill books. Also read Jump for Joy by Pat Smythe and the stoies she wrote about her ficctionary cousins and a guy called (I think) Darcy - unfortunately not Colin Firth!

Also remember Zara, Green Grass of Wymoning and soemthing like "Horses of the Carmargue" where there seemed by lots of sea and beaches (memory gone I'm afraid).
Loved all the Pullein Thompson sisters.

What was the story about a boy who didn't have much money, got a horse and wanted to event. Took it on a train to London, didn't like the smoke noise, etc, took it back home, hacked to an event, won and qualified for the British team?? Anybody help!
 
DipseyDeb said:
And which were the ones with the gilr that had Misty and Whithershins??
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Are they the ones where she won the horse in a compertition or something....cus i've been trying to remember the name of them for ages and it's doin my head in.

I loved the Samantha Alexander (who wrote the riders books too) Hollywell stables series. And the rosettes ones (Battlecry forever makes me cry).

And of course Black Beauty and the Animal ark series (i owned...who am i kidding they're still in my drawer...all of the horse ones :p)
 
Jill, Jinny at Finmory, Fly-by-Night and The Team, Flambards, all the Pullein-Thompson books ('I wanted a Pony' is the one that stands out in my memory), Black Beauty, War Horse, Jilly Cooper's Riders and Polo (not really 'pony books' but I read them as a schoolgirl!) and The King of the Wind.
 
Kittykins said:
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 :)
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Ditto that, I really don't know why I bothered reading all the Jinny books!
 
All of them. I have over 2000 horse/pony books dating from the 20's and I have just moved on to collecting the more modern ones such as Sheltie, Saddle Club, Pony Tails and Heartland in addition. My first pony book was Jill's Gymkhana which was a present to me and started the whole thing off when I was about 7. I have not stopped collecting since and I am considerably older than 7 now. I used to be able to buy hardbacks for 20p or so from charity shops, but that is rare now. I have difficulty finding ones I don't have, bu they do exist. The ones from the 20's, 30's and 40's have beautiful pencil illustrations, but then so do some of the later ones. The Country Life books, such as Moorland Mousie, Jerry the Exmoor Pony etc are lovely. I collect indiscriminately and am not bothered about condition, edition etc. If it's a pony book, I generally buy it. American books are very good for illustrations. Yes, I have read them. Sad, innit? Especially as I now have 5 horses of my own. They are just wonderful evocations of children wandering endlessly and freely with ponies, picnics, dogs, home made gymkhanas, rivalry between the poor vicarage kids and the posh tottie with 3 ponies just moved in to the village etc. Great stuff.

In addition I have a separate collection of sort of horsemanship books, which are terrific. Some of the advice would be well heeded today, whereas some of the others you would just gasp at. I have one where the recommended exercise for young ponies is to be taken out while you ride a bike and there is a photo of a bowler hatted gentleman on a bike leading two youngsters roped together trotting along. Priceless.

If anyone wants a good home for their unwanted books - though why you would not want to keep them escapes me - please PM.
 
Anyone remember 'Moorland Mousie' about an exmoor pony? Loved that!

But - as with others
Rosina Cooper
The Jill books - especially Jill's Gymkhana and Jill Has Two Ponies ( I dreamt of having ONE pony, but two would have been heaven!)
My Friend Flicka - (LOVED palominos when I was young!!)
And anything by Pat Smythe, or the Pullein Thomsons!!:)
 
All the Jill, Silver brumby, & Black Stallion books!
Memoires of a Fox-Hunting Man - S. Sasson, the bit about the war always depresses me!
We Hunted Hounds - C. Pullen-Thompson, love it!
The Great Escape - Monica Edwards
Strange Adventures of a Phaeteon - W.Black
Moorland Mousie
One Jump Ahead - Pat Smythe
Jackie's Pony Patrol
My Freind Fliker
Thunderer (? or something like that?
Misty of Chincotage
The Lone Ranger! Old school library had them as a series of book, and I so wish I'd nicked them! As no one else read them in the 8 yrs I was there!
Anything by D.Francis and Jilly Cooper
Read some of the SaddleClub stuff but they used to annoy me.
Didn't/dont like Black Beauty its too depressing!

Non-fiction:
Tschifferly's Ride
'Xenophon on Horsemanship and War'
Equitation by H.Wynmalen
Dressage Riding by RL Watjen
The A- Z of Horse Health.
The Observer Book of Horses and Ponies.
The Nature of the Horse
The Arab Horse in Europe
Horses Horses Horses
El Caballo Criollo

Growing up in South America finding books about ponies & that were in english was like looking for gold dust! I used to scour book sales at the embassies and school libraries! And found some in the strangest of places...
 
oooh, thank you for reminding me about King of the Wind, off to amazon to try and find it next! I've just been going through all the Jill books from amazon and a load of Pullein thompson ones which I had ordered for my daughter, and I've been re reading them all as well! My favourite P-T was Josephine and especially the Pony Club books, Major Holbrooke has inspired my daughter to do some old fashioned schooling!
 
dressedkez said:
Who was the best of Diana, Christina, Josephine Pulien Thompson?
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Josephine for me - Six Ponies is still my favourite ever book; my dog-eared, stained and battered old hardback copy has pride of place in my bedroom bookshelf!

I read everything - my aunt gave me a load of the older books such as Moorland Mousie, Older Mousie, Bonnie the Pony, Skewbald the New Forest Pony etc. when I was very small and I quickly became hooked on all the P-Ts, Ruby Ferguson etc.
 
Felicity_09 said:
All the Jill, Silver brumby, & Black Stallion books!
Memoires of a Fox-Hunting Man - S. Sasson, the bit about the war always depresses me!
We Hunted Hounds - C. Pullen-Thompson, love it!
The Great Escape - Monica Edwards
Strange Adventures of a Phaeteon - W.Black
Moorland Mousie
One Jump Ahead - Pat Smythe
Jackie's Pony Patrol
My Freind Fliker
Thunderer (? or something like that?
Misty of Chincotage
The Lone Ranger! Old school library had them as a series of book, and I so wish I'd nicked them! As no one else read them in the 8 yrs I was there!
Anything by D.Francis and Jilly Cooper
Read some of the SaddleClub stuff but they used to annoy me.
Didn't/dont like Black Beauty its too depressing!

Non-fiction:
Tschifferly's Ride
'Xenophon on Horsemanship and War'
Equitation by H.Wynmalen
Dressage Riding by RL Watjen
The A- Z of Horse Health.
The Observer Book of Horses and Ponies.
The Nature of the Horse
The Arab Horse in Europe
Horses Horses Horses
El Caballo Criollo

Growing up in South America finding books about ponies & that were in english was like looking for gold dust! I used to scour book sales at the embassies and school libraries! And found some in the strangest of places...
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Used this quote as a starter:
Black Beauty
All of the Jill Books
Cobblers Dream? Follyfoot Monica Dickens
The Black Hunting Whip and the rest of the series Author please?
All of the Pullein Thompsons except Phantom Horse. Radney Riding Club and Pony for Sale were my favorites.
Pat Smythe
Every Showjumping book I could get my hands on.
My Horses My Teachers
My Friend Flicka, The Green Grass of Wyoming, Thunderhead
Misty of Chincoteague
Moorland Mousie
Zara
'Xenophon on Horsemanship and War'
Equitation by H.Wynmalen
The Escape of the White Horses
There were many others and if I see odd ones in second hand book shops I snap them up.
Too many others to mention.
 
Does anyone remember a book called X (can't remember main characters name) and the Star Pony. Or something similar.
It was about a girl whoes pony wanted to pull the suns charriot so she took him through a world of horoscope characters. At the end a scorpion killed it so it could pull the charriot - really sad book (not as gruesome as that sounds).
Also loved Phantom Horse and Jill books
 
Someone mentioned Misty of Chincoteague. I have a hard back copy of this with the most beautiful illustrations. I loved it so much when I started breeding dogs I had Chincoteague as my affix, the down side was nobody could pronounce it, not good, particularly when I was competing in agility competitions with a commentator, they spent my whole round trying to pronounce my dogs name.:p
 
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