Ruby Ferguson - Jill books

Mare Stare

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Does anyone know what order the books go in?

I want to start buying them for my daughter but not sure which one to buy first.

Pancakes for anyone that can help (forgot to cook any yesterday! :D)
 

NooNoo59

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jills gymkhana, jill has two ponies, jill enjoys her ponies, not sure after that, have you tried google? love these books, can you still get them, i have my very old tattered copies but have not got the whole set
 

jnb

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Ooh! A blast from the past!
Jill's Gymkhana
A Stable for Jill
Jill Has Two Ponies (I thought these two were the other way around??)
Jill Enjoys her Ponies
Jill's Riding Club
Rosettes for Jill
Jill and the Perfect Pony
Pony Jobs for Jill (haha)
Jil's Pony Trek

I read them all in a week I think - Jolly Hockey Sticks! lol
 

AmyMay

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No idea - and have just given a load away.

But I still have three of them

Rosettes for Jill
Jill's Riding Club
Jill has two ponies.

If you want them PM me your address and I'll post them today.

I also have some Jackie books, that you might like and a couple of Patricia Leitch's left.

You're welcome to all / any.
 

Suechoccy

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Aww, Patricia Leitch's A Pony Of Our Own. I read that book from cover to cover several times over when I lived in Dagenham as a child, and I used to wonder around Dagenham Chase among all the tethered ponies (pets and travellers) and wonder what were the chances of ever having one of them as mine own.

(Zero as it turned out!).

Jane Bond Books - google. She has a big stock of all the old paperbacks, also good information pages on all the authors, in what orders each title came out in, synopses, etc.

Enjoy!
 

Oberon

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I read whatever order my mum found them at boot fairs.

They are great books and taught me a lot as a kid.
 

chestnut cob

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Jill's Gymkhana
Jill Has Two Ponies
Jill's Riding Club
Rosettes for Jill
Jill and the Perfect Pony

I had these out of the series, absolutely loved them! I used to dream about being like Jill, having someone give me a pony and it live in the back garden! I also thought that the idea of having crumpets and jam every day for tea was wonderful (or at least that's all they seemed to eat!)!

Somewhere I've also got the Follyfoot books but they always seemed to be quite sad compared to Jill's hi-jinks, jolly hockey sticks, what-ho type adventures :D
 

stencilface

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I used to love these books too, although I admit being a 1981 baby I did always just ignore the bits about money as I never understood the value of anything, other than knowing that £1 was a LOT! :D

She always used to jump so high too, and do half passes :D
 

debsg

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My mum read these books as a kid, then got me into them. I read them so many times I virtually know them by heart :D
My favourite was Jill and the Perfect Pony, where Jill had to pretend to be awful snobby Amanda, so that she could borrow her perfect pony (weirdly called Plum!!) and enter a team competition with some 'jolly sporting' kids called the Lockharts.
Does anyone remember the books about Bobby (Roberta) and her horse Shelta? I can't remember the titles but they were really good.
 

Doogal

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Ahhh I wanted to BE Jill in her wonderful Chatton pony world, despite the fact that she used to get maybe just 2 things for Christmas things like a fountain pen and a hankerchief.

I rebought the series a couple years ago and the following things stuck in my mind although they never seemed weird when i read them as a child!

- Every adult man was a Captain or a Major and carried a shooting stick.
- People could afford a couple of lessons a week at the local riding school.
- Everyone wore hacking jackets to hack in.
- None of the teenage girls seem to care much about make up or clothes.
- In fact there was no real concept of teenagers - you were a child until you were 16 and then basically you were expected to act like an adult.
- 25 was considered pretty darn old.
- None of the horses or ponies seemed to be a particular breed.
- If a pony threw a shoe it was taken to the local blacksmiths.
- Everyone went everywhere in collected walk when they weren't jumping 4'6 and doing flying changes on 13hh ponies they never grew out.
- People seemed able to call the vet out without worrying about the cost or insurance premiums.

I also blame the genre for making me grow up thinking I could buy a top show jumper for £40 - bloody inflation! :mad:

I really do wish people still said things like "Gosh", "golly", and "oh rather" and had dinner at lunch time and supper at dinner time.... alas I was born a few generations too late, I should have been there!!! :(
 
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stencilface

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Ahhh I wanted to BE Jill in her wonderful Chatton pony world, despite the fact that she used to get maybe just 2 things for Christmas things like a fountain pen and a hankerchief.

I rebought the series a couple years ago and the following things stuck in my mind although they never seemed weird when i read them as a child!

- Every adult man was a Captain or a Major and carried a shooting stick.
- People could afford a couple of lessons a week at the local riding school.
- Everyone wore hacking jackets to hack in.
- None of the teenage girls seem to care much about make up or clothes.
- None of the horses or ponies seemed to be a particular breed.
- If a pony threw a shoe it was taken to the local blacksmiths.
- Everyone went everywhere in collected walk when they weren't jumping 4'6 and doing flying changes on 13hh ponies they never grew out.
- People seemed able to call the vet out without worrying about the cost or insurance premiums.

I also blame the genre for making me grow up thinking I could buy a top show jumper for £40 - bloody inflation! :mad:

I really do wish people still said things like "Gosh", "golly", and "oh rather" and had dinner at lunch time and supper at dinner time.... alas I was born a few generations too late :(

To address a couple of your points ;)

My bf still uses the term gosh - she's 30
As a child (under 10) I sued to hack out in a polo neck and hacking jacket - no doubt from Jill's influence :D
I'm sure Jill used to go on about being really poor, as her mum wrote books about 'ghastly' girls if I remember - can't have been too poor to afford all the above as you say, along with a house with land and stables :D
 

SaffronWelshDragon

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Oooh massive fan here as well :) I still read them every now and again and I'm 26 :D I got the first two books as a child, then gradually acquired the rest from a secondhand book shop (where are they these days!) I remember it took me ages to get 'Jill has Two Ponies' so read them out of order wondering where on earth Rapide came from!

Though looking back it's bit depressing as Doogal pointed out that everyone over 25 was positively ancient! Also a big fan of Jinny books :D I'm a big kid I know!
 

Doogal

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To address a couple of your points ;)

My bf still uses the term gosh - she's 30
As a child (under 10) I sued to hack out in a polo neck and hacking jacket - no doubt from Jill's influence :D
I'm sure Jill used to go on about being really poor, as her mum wrote books about 'ghastly' girls if I remember - can't have been too poor to afford all the above as you say, along with a house with land and stables :D


LOl I hope you are not suggesting these books don't offer an incredibly realistic account of the life of a single mother and horsey daughter growing up in semi rural england in the 1950s?! :eek: Although I have to say I used to get a bit upset about my progress reading about how she only started riding at 11 and by 14 could basically school a pony to advanced level dressage!

Hmm you have inspired me to attempt to replace my usually expletives with "gosh"!

I own a hacking jacket and a polo neck - Maybe I could become one of those retro-lifestyle reinactors....
 

ElleSkywalker

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I still say 'gosh' & 'golly' and 'jolly well' :) also am currently sporting a cream polo neck :D

Thing that sicks out for me most about the Ruby Ferguson & PT sisters books is that I have never spotted any mention of laminitis in any of them!

Most likely coz the ponies were hacking 10 miles a day to their mates houses then going round a 4'6 course of jumps, then hacking home in time for tea! :D
 

EllenJay

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- Every adult man was a Captain or a Major and carried a shooting stick.
- People could afford a couple of lessons a week at the local riding school.
- Everyone wore hacking jackets to hack in.
- None of the teenage girls seem to care much about make up or clothes.
- In fact there was no real concept of teenagers - you were a child until you were 16 and then basically you were expected to act like an adult.
- 25 was considered pretty darn old.
- None of the horses or ponies seemed to be a particular breed.
- If a pony threw a shoe it was taken to the local blacksmiths.
- Everyone went everywhere in collected walk when they weren't jumping 4'6 and doing flying changes on 13hh ponies they never grew out.
- People seemed able to call the vet out without worrying about the cost or insurance premiums.

:(

To also address some of these things. I grew up in the "Jill" era and we did all hack out in hacking jackets. They were the most comfortable thing to wear - Puffa's hadn't been invented then!

We were not teenagers - like today's teenagers. I left school at 16 and was earning a living - that was common place, very few people stayed on to 6th form and almost unheard of of going to uni. At 26 you were married (normally with children)

Horses and Ponies were just horses and ponies - very few breed types in the general populus

We didn't have many visiting farriers - most the people who shod horses were blacksmiths, and you had to visit them for a hot shoeing.

Horses were not insured - so you only called out the vet in dire circumstances. There was no investigations - you tried box rest, if that didn't work the vet came out and sometimes they could cure them - sometimes they couldn't.
 

Oberon

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My friend and I often joke.

She WAS Jill in her youth - so she is Jill and I am cousin Cecilia:p

She'd be a lame TB with kissing spines if she were a horse - so every time she goes to the Dr, I ask if she wore her fawn jodhpurs and tie to show she was serious.
lol.gif
.
 

Suziq77

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To address a couple of your points ;)

My bf still uses the term gosh - she's 30
As a child (under 10) I sued to hack out in a polo neck and hacking jacket - no doubt from Jill's influence :D
I'm sure Jill used to go on about being really poor, as her mum wrote books about 'ghastly' girls if I remember - can't have been too poor to afford all the above as you say, along with a house with land and stables :D

I say gosh and goodness and blimey all the time :eek: and I used to hack out in my first hacking jacket (second hand, brown tweed, think it came from a jumble sale) much to the amusement of the older children at the stables. Thirty years on I still always ride in a hairnet and gloves. I think in Jill terms I'd probably be called "priggish" or something :confused:

ps - I don't mind what anyone else wears!
 

numptynoelle

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Does anyone remember the books about Bobby (Roberta) and her horse Shelta? I can't remember the titles but they were really good.

Here you go - Bracken Stables

I loved my Jill books too and anything written by the Pullein-Thompson sisters - have a stack of their old books foraged from car boot sales. Still give them a read if I'm feeling down, although I'm certain I would be pegged as a useless townie cousin if I was a character in any of them! :eek:
 

Laafet

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I liked the Jill books, but preferred the P-T sisters. My favourite was Prince Among Ponies, I read and reread that book so many times and used to pretend my first horse was the grey from the story - sad but true!
 

meandmyself

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My mum read these books as a kid, then got me into them. I read them so many times I virtually know them by heart :D
My favourite was Jill and the Perfect Pony, where Jill had to pretend to be awful snobby Amanda, so that she could borrow her perfect pony (weirdly called Plum!!) and enter a team competition with some 'jolly sporting' kids called the Lockharts.
Does anyone remember the books about Bobby (Roberta) and her horse Shelta? I can't remember the titles but they were really good.

The Perfect Horse is one of them. I've just re-read it. (Bought it in a newsagent in Blackpool years ago!)
 

Mare Stare

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No idea - and have just given a load away.

But I still have three of them

Rosettes for Jill
Jill's Riding Club
Jill has two ponies.

If you want them PM me your address and I'll post them today.

I also have some Jackie books, that you might like and a couple of Patricia Leitch's left.

You're welcome to all / any.

PM sent - thankyou!! :)
 

Oberon

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I liked the Jill books, but preferred the P-T sisters. My favourite was Prince Among Ponies, I read and reread that book so many times and used to pretend my first horse was the grey from the story - sad but true!

That was my favourite book as a kid :)

Adonis :)
 

AmyMay

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Does anyone remember the books about Bobby (Roberta) and her horse Shelta? I can't remember the titles but they were really good.

Yes, loved these. One of them was the Difficult Summer and another was (I think) The Perfect Horse.

Fantastic!!
 

debsg

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Thank you numptynoelle and amymay, as soon as I saw the titles I remembered them! Must see if I can get hold of them. Maybe we should start an HHO lending library!
 

AmyMay

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Thank you numptynoelle and amymay, as soon as I saw the titles I remembered them! Must see if I can get hold of them. Maybe we should start an HHO lending library!

I have the Difficult Summer if you'd like it, and only recently gave away The Perfect Horse.

PM me if you want the book.
 
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