PONY Mag

JFTDWS

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Does anyone on here buy this for their children? (or, indeed, read it themselves?! o_O)

Following a discussion with a friend who bought the latest edition for her young son (who loves riding his ponies :)), we're curious to know if all the issues are as lacking in diversity as the current one. There is one article in the current edition about Alan Davies (the groom, not Jonathan Creek :p ), but not a single other picture or reference to boys in horse sports. There is no representation at all for children who are not white girls.

Whilst I'm aware that there are vastly more girls (and women) than boys at grassroots level, and there is a strong bias toward white British participation in horse sports, I'm not sure how this is excusable in a children's magazine. I know - from my own participation in certain sports, competing, helping and coaching, that there are lots of children who are from different backgrounds and ethnicities, as well as plenty of boys who are keen horse riders.

Surely there should be some representation for them in the UK's leading horse magazine aimed at children - and shouldn't we be encouraging participation from all demographics by presenting a good reflection of the all the types of rider out there?

The afore-mentioned friend has commented on this on the official Pony Mag facebook page, attracting some attention from other frustrated parents of boys - but has been ignored by the SM team at the magazine. Since her post, the social media team decided to upload this photo which nicely demonstrates their attitude toward diversity :rolleyes:

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TPO

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I bought a copy last year as part of a birthday present for a young girl and had a sneaky flick through...only white girls.

I have also bought a tonne of pony books for my niece and nephew over the years. My nephew is the meanest and he's asked why there are no boys. Hes not much of a reader so I haven't gone specifically looking for a "boy" book for him.
 

JFTDWS

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I bought a copy last year as part of a birthday present for a young girl and had a sneaky flick through...only white girls.

I have also bought a tonne of pony books for my niece and nephew over the years. My nephew is the meanest and he's asked why there are no boys. Hes not much of a reader so I haven't gone specifically looking for a "boy" book for him.

Which is a depressing state of affairs. I know @Kat has posted before about issues getting gear for boys, and possibly about the pony book issue too (that's pretty well documented in pony book circles). It's daft though as girls will read books about boys (more so than the other way around) so there's no reason not to write pony books about boys too. If only I could cobble plots together I'd try and publish my own!
 

Lady La La

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Can confirm, having looked through last months magazine, every child and model pictured is white, and not a single boy is featured, discussed or pictured (bar the one story on Alan Davies.) It definitely isn’t good enough, our sport should constantly be aiming for better representation from the highest ranks right through to the grassiest roots, and any literature targeting children should take responsibility for its role in encouraging and supporting diversity and gender parity. Children that love horses should be able to read these magazines and identify with the stories and pictures within them. We should be telling young children ‘look, this could be you’ not ‘look people like you don’t do things like this’
 

JFTDWS

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what a retrograde step.
Pony books from the mid-20th century had plenty of boy characters (and male adult characters).

Showjumping Secret was excellent... And all the ex-military male riding instructors in that era of books too!
 

HashRouge

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Which is a depressing state of affairs. I know @Kat has posted before about issues getting gear for boys, and possibly about the pony book issue too (that's pretty well documented in pony book circles). It's daft though as girls will read books about boys (more so than the other way around) so there's no reason not to write pony books about boys too. If only I could cobble plots together I'd try and publish my own!
Though if, as you say, girls will happily read books about boys, shouldn't boys be encouraged to read books about girls? ;)
That said, I can highly recommend Josephine Pullein-Thompson's Pony Club series about the Woodbury Pony Club for anyone looking to find pony stories that also feature boys. The stories have pretty much equal numbers of boys and girls and are told from the viewpoints of multiple characters (of both sexes). They also feature they only non-white character I think I have come across in horse books. Plus they're great stories and have aged well!
 

JFTDWS

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Though if, as you say, girls will happily read books about boys, shouldn't boys be encouraged to read books about girls? ;)

Absolutely - they should, and most good parents I know do encourage it - but for the huge numbers of pony books available, there are very few which have male characters at all, let alone male protagonists. It's as important for boys to be able to identify with male characters in pony books, as for girls to be able to identify with female characters in action / adventure books. Children's fiction has made positive steps in the latter regard, and that's terrific, but I think we should be trying to do the same for boys in pony books too.

Google suggests they're (predictably) out of print. They'll come up on ebay etc from time to time, I'm sure, but doesn't make it easy, does it? :(

(actually, to be fair, Fidra seem to have one of the series in print currently: http://www.fidrabooks.com/publishing/shop.shtml#JPT )
 

JFTDWS

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The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley (I love the 1979 film) has Alec Ramsey as the main human character. The series has non-white characters too.

Absolutely - and that's great.

I don't think that the presence of a few (excellent) 50+ year old books with boys and horses and some racial diversity, excuse Pony Mag's lack of inclusivity though.
 

HashRouge

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Absolutely - they should, and most good parents I know do encourage it - but for the huge numbers of pony books available, there are very few which have male characters at all, let alone male protagonists. It's as important for boys to be able to identify with male characters in pony books, as for girls to be able to identify with female characters in action / adventure books. Children's fiction has made positive steps in the latter regard, and that's terrific, but I think we should be trying to do the same for boys in pony books too.
Oh I do agree completely! There are pony books out there with male protagonists but they are often not recent (although I'd argue the best pony books are the old ones anyway!).
For anyone with a pony mad son looking for some horse books with a male protagonist, see if you can get hold of any of the Horse Healer books by Judy Waite. They had a male protagonist, Nicky, who was from a travelling community. I read them as a kid and really liked them.
 

Tiddlypom

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OH observed last Sunday, after we had spent the whole day at the very well attended Chatsworth Horse trials, that he hadn’t seen a single non white person there amongst the many thousands of spectators. There were other ethnicities there, but they were all working in the food outlets.

We did spot a very cheery black family as we left, but they’d been visiting Chatsworth House, not the Horse Trials.

All rather sobering.
 

HashRouge

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Absolutely - and that's great.

I don't think that the presence of a few (excellent) 50+ year old books with boys and horses and some racial diversity, excuse Pony Mag's lack of inclusivity though.
Oh no, they don't at all. The problem is you've got us reminiscing about pony books now!

There is no excuse in this day and age for a magazine to have such a lack of diversity.
 

JFTDWS

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OH observed last Sunday, after we had spent the whole day at the very well attended Chatsworth Horse trials, that he hadn’t seen a single non white person there amongst the many thousands of spectators. There were other ethnicities there, but they were all working in the food outlets.

We did spot a very cheery black family as we left, but they’d been visiting Chatsworth House, not the Horse Trials.

All rather sobering.

That's quite surprising, really. I don't spend a lot of time at events (don't like crowds!) so can't really comment on that.

I can say that there are definitely children from other ethnicities playing polocrosse, horseball and other alternative sports in the UK, and I've coached children from other backgrounds at grassroots level (PC members). I'm not in London, but I know that the situation there is even more diverse.
 

Meowy Catkin

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Absolutely - and that's great.

I don't think that the presence of a few (excellent) 50+ year old books with boys and horses and some racial diversity, excuse Pony Mag's lack of inclusivity though.

No, not at all. I just thought that I'd mention the series and film just incase they had passed anyone by who had a horsey son. :) The Saddle club also has male and non-white characters, but I personally love the Black Stallion (Cass Ole was so beautiful and I just love the underwater filming of his legs when Alec is learning to ride him on the beach, it's a beautifully shot scene) and can't stand the Saddle Club.

Pony mags have always been narrow, superficial and dreadful IME and a major overhaul would be fantastic idea.
 

JFTDWS

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Oh no, they don't at all. The problem is you've got us reminiscing about pony books now!

There is no excuse in this day and age for a magazine to have such a lack of diversity.

I bloody love a good pony book! I stalk a few pony book publishers / writers on facebook, and I very much enjoy reminiscing about them :D

I'm just busy being annoyed at Pony Mag right now!
 

Tiddlypom

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Tbh the eventing scene isn’t very diverse. I don’t think, though, that there’s any active or even covert racism putting off non white folk white from participating. Or if there is, it’s gone over my head.

It’s good to hear that there are other ethnicities involved in polocrossse, horseball et al :).
 

JFTDWS

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Tbh the eventing scene isn’t very diverse. I don’t think, though, that there’s any active or even covert racism putting off non white folk white from participating. Or if there is, it’s gone over my head.

It’s good to hear that there are other ethnicities involved in polocrossse, horseball et al :).

No - I can imagine eventing is very much less diverse partly because of the hunting connections, the traditional and more rural nature of events, and possibly the money involved. I think showjumping is probably more like the alternative sports I've been involved in - I'm sure I've seen a wider spread of people out and about. Horseball was more diverse partly because there are some London based teams, I guess.
 

JFTDWS

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It would also be good if they included more disabled riders in the magazine too.

An excellent point. I haven't looked wrt disabled riders, perhaps they're doing better on that score given how many excellent para-riders there are in the UK?
 

Lexi_

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Pony On The Twelfth Floor by Polly Faber is a lovely recent book that has some nice representation in terms of ethnicity, class etc. Very fun too!
 

Rosiejazzandpia

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Though if, as you say, girls will happily read books about boys, shouldn't boys be encouraged to read books about girls? ;)
That said, I can highly recommend Josephine Pullein-Thompson's Pony Club series about the Woodbury Pony Club for anyone looking to find pony stories that also feature boys. The stories have pretty much equal numbers of boys and girls and are told from the viewpoints of multiple characters (of both sexes). They also feature they only non-white character I think I have come across in horse books. Plus they're great stories and have aged well!
Oh I love the Woodbury pony club. I can read and re-read those books again and again as an adult. They're very well written, I love how the boys and girls are equals and compete against each other. The horses characters are well written too, I love Hanif and Alice in the series and wished there had been more books as they were all such likelable characters in realistic situations :)
 

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PONY still has my back up from all the overtight badly fitted flashes used in the cover and just about every picture on the inside. Someone complained in fb and it went semi-viral around horsey pages so that got an apology and promise to change out of them.

Does Horse & Pony still print? It was my magazine of choice over PONY when I was wee.

Not great if the boys want to be showjumpers but at the higher levels of western riding and training it's mainly males. Once you look outside of the UK, while still mainly white males, there are rider of different ethnicities. Most of the western training books are by males and feature males in the pictures and illustrations. Matt Mills is a famous black Reiner and Tammy Greaves is a mixed race rider who has been on GBR reining teams.

Still not enough diversity by any stretch but I dont know why that is and if there isnt an actual mix of people out doing things then there isnt a mix to feature in magazines. Adult (horse!) magazines are the same with it being a whitewash.
 
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naomibmck

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This thread is actually so interesting, I grew up reading PONY magazine and adored it. Being a kid, the lack of diversity never really clicked in my head. That makes it all the worse imo because that suggests that for me I just assumed it was the norm
 

dogatemysalad

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I've often wondered why horse riding doesn't attract people from ethnic communities, when it's the most wonderful sport ever, but then, dog ownership, to a lesser degree, is similar.
My grand daughter loves watching Free Rein where the main character is non white and the cast features a healthy mix of boys who ride also. Not quite sure how representative of the UK that is though.
Maybe Pony mag could do a piece on Sam Martin who is an inspiration to kids from all backgrounds. Or perhaps the media could stop seeing horse riding as elitist, which puts kids from non horsey families off.
 

Ceifer

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I was a Horse and Pony reader as a kid. Don’t really remember much diversity.
However the young rider book by Lucinda Green had a black model (albeit she wasn’t used as much as the two white girls) and there was a boy who made a fleeting appearance.
 

Shay

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PONY came to do a photo shoot both with our PC and a photo story with my daughter - we also did stock shots etc some of which still appear over 10 years later! In the PC Camp shots we had two boys and one young lady of colour. In the photo story two of the three were white, the third BAME. The stock shots - which are the only ones that re-appear - my daughter is white... My YO's daughter and her friends did stock shots for PONY about 5 or 6 years earlier (So 15 / 16 years ago now..). Those shots are also still regularly used. One formed the cover of the Annual only a couple of years ago.

Perhaps if they invested in more current images it would help? But I do accept the basic and unsupported premise that the majority of their readership are probably young white female.
 

Ceifer

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I taught in a local riding school for a few years.
Broadly speaking I found that boys tended to get bored with riding in early teens unless they had horsey parents who encouraged them to keep going.

It’s going OT but with many riding schools shutting down - there used to be 6 in my local area, there’s now 1 remaining. Young people are reliant on having parents committed to buying them a pony or looking at loan/ share options.
 

MotherOfChickens

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I've often wondered why horse riding doesn't attract people from ethnic communities, when it's the most wonderful sport ever, but then, dog ownership, to a lesser degree, is similar.
.

There's plenty of diversity in equestrianism in the US ime-or at least much, much more than in the UK. Its a cultural thing, horse riding here is elitist and takes place mostly in the countryside. Other sports are way more accessible.
There were (although I am going back to the early mid-90s) a lot of programs for kids to ride in the US, in cities, summer camps etc.
 
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