Pony books - which ones did you read?

Malibu_Stacy said:
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
Click to expand...

Ah yes, Phantom horse goes to the supermarket; a strange tale of mystery, horsemanship and frozen peas.....

I loved all these books, read the Jinny series and towards the end I must say I got rather irate with bloody Jinny and her bad temper.

Does anyone remember the name of the one where a group of kids steal a load of horses from a boat (maybe lorry?) taking them for meat and then keeps them in a field and rehomes them? Something about lamplight....?
 
I have loads of pony books and not long ago finished reading the Jinny books again. JPT was my favourite of the pullien-Thompsons.
The Jackie series are great as well as a lot of other Judith M Berrisford Books such as the Pony in the family set.
Jill was also a favourite.
A ticket to ride was also a fab set.

I love re reading all those books. I often have a splurge on Amazon and buy a batch. I had hundreds and then when I left home, mum gave them all away. :-( along with all my brittains ponies and farm, my Anna and Champ rider and horse.

I also had a lovely wooden stable for my sindy horses and a horsebox which went too :-( I was gutted.
 
I started off reading my mum's old children's books from 50's things like Horse from Hurricane Hill, Black Beauty, Satin & Silk, anything by Pat Smythe, Smokey Black Stallion books and anything involving cowboys! Justin Morgan Had a Horse inspired us to buy a Morgan :D

I also used to love the books with a horse called Toadhill Flax but I can't for the life of me remember the name of the books and the other usual suspects already mentioned Silver Brumby etc....

I loved Joyce Stranger's books, one of my favourites is Walk a Lonely Road which is a story about a policeman and his dog. Can't find a copy of that anywhere but it's a great book, possibly appealing more because my dad was a police dog handler at the time............

I still read a lot of horse books, my favourite at the moment is Chosen by a Horse.....
 
I rarely read anything that isn't horse related and kept all my books from when I was younger (70's and 80's). I still re-read and love them but it's funny reading them now and seeing how times have changed.
Aahh the good (or bad) old days.
 
missfitz50 said:
I started off reading my mum's old children's books from 50's things like Horse from Hurricane Hill, Black Beauty, Satin & Silk, anything by Pat Smythe, Smokey Black Stallion books and anything involving cowboys! Justin Morgan Had a Horse inspired us to buy a Morgan :D

I also used to love the books with a horse called Toadhill Flax but I can't for the life of me remember the name of the books and the other usual suspects already mentioned Silver Brumby etc....

I loved Joyce Stranger's books, one of my favourites is Walk a Lonely Road which is a story about a policeman and his dog. Can't find a copy of that anywhere but it's a great book, possibly appealing more because my dad was a police dog handler at the time............

I still read a lot of horse books, my favourite at the moment is Chosen by a Horse.....
Click to expand...

hiya

There is a link here for a copy available on amazon now!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Walk-Lonely...r_1_80?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277802597&sr=1-80

:-)
 
OHH Im glad im not the only one who loves pony books and collect them too I have HUNDREDS I think I have all the books mentioned! Nothing like a good pony book... I have always wanted to write my own pony books But never seem to get round to it ... I think I should though LOL.

Who ever asked about a book with the Trelawneys and MOnty with his soup plate hoofs.. this book Is called The Trick Jumpers :)
 
The book Chosen by a Horse is just lovely I have not long finished that one. Bit sad though and I did cry! There is another which I have read recently written by a chap - I can't remember what that one is called but it is very refreshing to read from a blokes point of view and see that they are just as nutty about horses as us girlies! He also made me realise that you don't have to 'do' things with your horses to enjoy them just being with them is magical (and it is!).
Regarding the old pony books we used to read - you can get loads of stuff on Amazon they are amazing for finding old books. I got a book out of the library about Arabian horses and loved it so much (lots of the horses were in my boys pedigree) I mentioned it to my OH and he found a copy for my birthday - mind you it wasn't cheap as it is no longer in print, but although second-hand it was in mint condition.
 
Thank goodness someone else mentioned Monica Edwards before this got to page 3! I adore the Romney Marsh because of her, fabulous writer! Same can be said of KM Peyton too not just for Fly-by-Night and The Team, but her others too. Still have aload of books and like someone else, I'll buy any old pony book that I can find. Could never get into the Jinny books, they seemed so tacky and childish compared to the Pullein-Thompson's, Ferguson's and others but I suppose that is because I was older when I read them for the first time. There's a brilliant book called Fiander's Horses about a girl working in different yards to save up for a horse, well worth a read if you can find it.
 
marmalade76 said:
Toad was in Fly-by-Night and The Team.

It's a great name, isn't it? According to NED someone's used it!
Click to expand...

That's brilliant!! I always wanted a palomino welsh after that...... Ended up with a liver chesnut Welsh instead so halfway there.... :rolleyes:

I also remember reading a book, think it was from the 70's (don't think it was fiction!), about a woman with little experience who bought a pony and broke it in herself using a washing line for a bit/bridle? Again I can't remember what it was called or who it was by, maybe I dreamt it :D
 
I have read all the books mentioned except the Sheltie and saddle club ones as they came out in my 30's!

My all time favourite is Wild Pony by Lucy Rees, I bought my real pony 15 years ago and realised a year or so later when my parents had a clear out and gave me my very dog eared paperback copy of Wild Pony back. that my pony is identical to the one on the cover! I still have the pony and the book.
 
I was a bit of a book worm when I was younger, and my mum was a librarian so I read more than my fair share of horse books a few that I remember were:

The Jinny books - I read all of them but liked the early ones best

The phantom horse books,

Fly by night

I tried Saddle club but found them a bit irritating

I didn't like the black stallion books

I had a collection of all the silver brumby books (Thowra, the wild australian stallion)

I loved black beauty, and I also read the follow ups written by the Pullein Thompson sisters; black ebony, black princess and I can't remember the third.......

There was a series with a girl and a riding school horse called Knocker, which one was that? It remided me of a riding school pony I knew.

The follyfoot series - brilliant, I read them all!

One with a girl called heath and a riding school, I remember a scene when they were coming back from a show and there was a fire at the stables.

Another with several children and one of the friends had a horse called sir gallahad

Misty of Chincoteague, and the follow up Stormy Misty's Foal, and the other one Seashell or something.

National Velvet, and International Velvet that wasn't as good.

There were many others too...... I had a book of horse and pony stories too that contained various other stories and extracts, including one about a pit pony that could reduce me to tears in minutes!

I think I'm going to have to re-read a few, the only trouble is I only own a couple, the rest were from the library!
 
MurphysMinder said:
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
Click to expand...

I too had this in hardback with what looked like water colour illustrations, especially the one at the rodeo.
 
i remember staying at a hotel once which had a bookcase full of them, i read about 5 in a weekend!
there was one about a girl who gets a pony and ends up going to hoys and winning the pony section overall.
one which i think was called " a showjumper in the family".

and i really cant remember any others but i wanted to take them all home with me- i LOVE those type of books :)
 
dressedkez said:
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
Click to expand...

I loved Jill and her Gymkhana, Stable, Ponies etc! My real favourites were K M Peyton's books - Flambards, and Fly by Night and The Team. Interestingly I was on a driving course last week and the lady instructing us did all the carriage driving for the TV series of Flambards - so excited!!
 
pastie2 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear that - I have it on my reading list for my summer holiday - did you read Sea Buscuit? That was wonderful and much, much better, and much, much sadder than the film - no happy endings for any of them....it was tough in the 1930's.....
 
SuenRoux said:
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!
Click to expand...

Well that is a huge coincidence as my new purchase from Ascot (to hopefully go Pointing with) is by Thowra! Did you ever think it strange that in Jills Gymkhana (certainly the older editions - 1960's ish) that Black Boy was Danny Boy! And Pony Jobs for Jill, became Challenges for Jill in the 1970's - a bit geky to know these facts, I know!!
 
somethingorother said:
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 :(
Click to expand...

Did anyone read a Pony in my Luggage (or something similar) it was a strange book, fairly fantastical, I think that there was a pony called Plum in it? Please someone else remember it and prove that I have nt just gone completely mad!
 
The Red Pony
King of the Wind
Flambards (must dust that down and read again)
Riders and Polo (I graduated to!)
Black Beauty - of course
Champions (but even better the film with John Hurt and the most incredibly theme tune and opening credits of Aldaniti galloping in sillouette (sp)

Just reading this thread I have now got to go and bust open all my old boxes to find them and re-read
 
missfitz50 said:
I started off reading my mum's old children's books from 50's things like Horse from Hurricane Hill, Black Beauty, Satin & Silk, anything by Pat Smythe, Smokey Black Stallion books and anything involving cowboys! Justin Morgan Had a Horse inspired us to buy a Morgan :D

I also used to love the books with a horse called Toadhill Flax but I can't for the life of me remember the name of the books and the other usual suspects already mentioned Silver Brumby etc....

I loved Joyce Stranger's books, one of my favourites is Walk a Lonely Road which is a story about a policeman and his dog. Can't find a copy of that anywhere but it's a great book, possibly appealing more because my dad was a police dog handler at the time............

I still read a lot of horse books, my favourite at the moment is Chosen by a Horse.....
Click to expand...
Toadhall Flax - was Peter Naylors horse in Fly By Night - then Ruth Hollis picked him up cheap at a horse sale in the Team - Ruth went on to appear in two more of K M Peyton's books Beethoven Medal, and Pennington's Heir, when she became the girlfriend of the troubled muscian Patrick Pennington.....
 
My favourites were the Jinny books, and Diana Pullein Thompson (at least I think it was Diana!)'s Pony Club trilogy. Also loved the Jill books and the Jackie ones, and I was a huge Saddle Club fan (I will admit to occasionally watching it on PopGirl, too!) Black Stallion was pretty good too, and I enjoyed Flambards.

LOVE The Horse Whisperer, although the film was pants compared to the book.

Never really liked Heartland that much, although I did quite like the Half Moon Ranch books. The Blue Ribbon series was quite good - very American though, which always used to alienate me a bit!

There is a definite lack of modern horsey kid/teen literature...this is something I am aiming to put right :D Novel in progress! :D
 
I was brought up on the Sheltie books too!
And after that the Jackie books, saddle club, pony tails.
Then later on the Heartland series, which were a bit morbid..the girl never seemed to stop crying!
x
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top