Searching for name of a book

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Jsste4

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Hi everyone,
I’m new here, from Australia and trying to remember the name of a book from my childhood 🙈
I want to say I read it in the 90’s but not sure if it’s an older title or from that era.
This is what I can remember- sorry it’s not much I know.
Set in England
Centered around eventing/ training livery yard.
The main character was a young female with a fairly wild horse who she found difficult to manage/ ride in the beginning.
I can’t remember the whole story, but there was a story line about the horse bolting on a hack, and jumping hedges into someone’s garden. The old man who lived in the cottage was furious, and the girl assisted with repairing the damage. I think he owned a basset hound.
Over time the girl was able to convince the old man, who had been a bit of a recluse, to help train and educate her and the horse.
Eventually making it to a few competitions.
I’m so sorry… it’s not much to go on. But for some reason the book has popped into my head, and I can’t be rid of it.
Thanks so much for any assistance 🙏
 
I suggest you ask Jane Badger.
janebadgerbooks.co.uk

Jane Badger Books

The Encyclopedia Pony book authors, illustrators, magazines and much more Explore Christmas with the Rushbrokes Caroline Akrill's The Last Baronet, with a new title and publisher. Set in the 1980s, this is what I thought when I first read it: "I absolutely loved this book. It made me laugh. It...
janebadgerbooks.co.uk janebadgerbooks.co.uk

She specialises in dealing in and sometimes reprinting children's Pony stories.
 
HJJ said:
Me too, but wondering if it's The No Good Pony? (which I think was a Pullein-Thompson).
Click to expand...

My recollection is that is could be Pullein Thompson-y, but the only thing about the plot of that one I can find doesn't sound familiar.
 

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The first book of the series of was called Will to Win, knew that much, had to google the author - Samantha Alexander.

I think there were 9 books in the series. ETA: Nope, 8!

(Have now looked back and seen that fidleyspromise has already shared a link!)

 
Is it a kid’s book or more a Jilly Cooper ish bonkbuster. If the latter there is a book about an eventer (Tash?) with an unmanageable but talented chestnut horse called Foxy Snob and a love interest called Hugo. I can dig out the title and author if it’s that one.
 
Definitely Riders series by Samantha Alexander as @PurpleSpots has identified.
I loved this series and I ordered all the books before Christmas as a nostalgia kick and I read Will to Win on Boxing Day. You can pick them up second hand
 
Ceifer said:
Definitely Riders series by Samantha Alexander as @PurpleSpots has identified.
I loved this series and I ordered all the books before Christmas as a nostalgia kick and I read Will to Win on Boxing Day. You can pick them up second hand
Click to expand...

I was sure at least one of the books was given away free with a pony magazine when it was first released - according to google it was indeed, with Horse & Pony mag!
 
Ample Prosecco said:
Is it a kid’s book or more a Jilly Cooper ish bonkbuster. If the latter there is a book about an eventer (Tash?) with an unmanageable but talented chestnut horse called Foxy Snob and a love interest called Hugo. I can dig out the title and author if it’s that one.
Click to expand...
That’s a Fiona Walker book!

ETA i really enjoyed the ones about Tash (3 books I think?)
 
Jsste4 said:
Hi everyone,
I’m new here, from Australia and trying to remember the name of a book from my childhood 🙈
I want to say I read it in the 90’s but not sure if it’s an older title or from that era.
This is what I can remember- sorry it’s not much I know.
Set in England
Centered around eventing/ training livery yard.
The main character was a young female with a fairly wild horse who she found difficult to manage/ ride in the beginning.
I can’t remember the whole story, but there was a story line about the horse bolting on a hack, and jumping hedges into someone’s garden. The old man who lived in the cottage was furious, and the girl assisted with repairing the damage. I think he owned a basset hound.
Over time the girl was able to convince the old man, who had been a bit of a recluse, to help train and educate her and the horse.
Eventually making it to a few competitions.
I’m so sorry… it’s not much to go on. But for some reason the book has popped into my head, and I can’t be rid of it.
Thanks so much for any assistance 🙏
Click to expand...
Definitely sounds like Caroline Akrill. I actually read the 4th book in the series recently!
 
JFTDWS said:
My recollection is that is could be Pullein Thompson-y, but the only thing about the plot of that one I can find doesn't sound familiar.
Click to expand...
Oh my gosh, that sounds good. I love a bit of people-stuff in a horse novel, esp if one or more of them are snobs. 😂

I never read any of the Pullein Thompson lot, never even tried them. Hmm🤔

OP, I was going to say that your book reminds me of Jill (Ruby Ferguson). I've only read one Jill book and that was a year or two ago when they were talked about on here and I went searching secondhand bookshops. I wonder if it was the first Jill book when she got her first horse, a black gelding called some unPC (now:rolleyes:) name in the first editions. His name was later changed, I understand. (I've never read that one, though.)
 
Jsste4 said:
Hi everyone,
I’m new here, from Australia and trying to remember the name of a book from my childhood 🙈
I want to say I read it in the 90’s but not sure if it’s an older title or from that era.
This is what I can remember- sorry it’s not much I know.
Set in England
Centered around eventing/ training livery yard.
The main character was a young female with a fairly wild horse who she found difficult to manage/ ride in the beginning.
I can’t remember the whole story, but there was a story line about the horse bolting on a hack, and jumping hedges into someone’s garden. The old man who lived in the cottage was furious, and the girl assisted with repairing the damage. I think he owned a basset hound.
Over time the girl was able to convince the old man, who had been a bit of a recluse, to help train and educate her and the horse.
Eventually making it to a few competitions.
I’m so sorry… it’s not much to go on. But for some reason the book has popped into my head, and I can’t be rid of it.
Thanks so much for any assistance 🙏
Click to expand...
Incidentally on rereading this - I was also under the impression that the trainer who helps out our heroine was an old man. Upon rereading this he’s only 50 🤣.
I guess when you’re 10 years old you think 50 is ancient.
 
Ummhh: "elderly man" helps "young girl" and gives her some private riding lessons. ...... ohh my word, that book was obviously written in the sweet days of innocence when that might well have been perfectly acceptable, and no-one would read any connotations - or anything else - into it! Oh dear!

As a teenage pony-mad kid in the late 1960's/70's, I reckon I knew-by-heart every single Pullein-Thompson, Jill, Pat Smythe (yes I'm that bloomin' old!) and any other pony story book around at that time - I got into trouble at school for reading the darn things enough times - and that storyline doesn't ring any bells with me, I don't remember a bloke with a Basset hound. Sorry.

There are obviously pony-authors who came along later in the day though, who might have written it. Sorry can't help!

I wish I'd kept all my pony books; they are getting to be worth selling now.
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Ummhh: "elderly man" helps "young girl" and gives her some private riding lessons. ...... ohh my word, that book was obviously written in the sweet days of innocence when that might well have been perfectly acceptable, and no-one would read any connotations - or anything else - into it! Oh dear!

As a teenage pony-mad kid in the late 1960's/70's, I reckon I knew-by-heart every single Pullein-Thompson, Jill, Pat Smythe (yes I'm that bloomin' old!) and any other pony story book around at that time - I got into trouble at school for reading the darn things enough times - and that storyline doesn't ring any bells with me, I don't remember a bloke with a Basset hound. Sorry.

There are obviously pony-authors who came along later in the day though, who might have written it. Sorry can't help!

I wish I'd kept all my pony books; they are getting to be worth selling now.
Click to expand...
Is this where I should admit that I STILL read them! Especially now they have started to come onto Kindle.
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Ummhh: "elderly man" helps "young girl" and gives her some private riding lessons. ...... ohh my word, that book was obviously written in the sweet days of innocence when that might well have been perfectly acceptable, and no-one would read any connotations - or anything else - into it! Oh dear!

As a teenage pony-mad kid in the late 1960's/70's, I reckon I knew-by-heart every single Pullein-Thompson, Jill, Pat Smythe (yes I'm that bloomin' old!) and any other pony story book around at that time - I got into trouble at school for reading the darn things enough times - and that storyline doesn't ring any bells with me, I don't remember a bloke with a Basset hound. Sorry.

There are obviously pony-authors who came along later in the day though, who might have written it. Sorry can't help!

I wish I'd kept all my pony books; they are getting to be worth selling now.
Click to expand...
You joke about this but in the book the heroine is 14 and enters a relationship with the 19 year old event rider that owns/runs the livery yard she’s on. Which all seems a bit wrong
 
Littlest Hobo said:
Is this where I should admit that I STILL read them! Especially now they have started to come onto Kindle.
Click to expand...

I still pick up the paperbacks and I've got a collection of them on my kindle too. I love falling into a pony book and recapturing how I felt when I first got into ponies.

Ceifer said:
You joke about this but in the book the heroine is 14 and enters a relationship with the 19 year old event rider that owns/runs the livery yard she’s on. Which all seems a bit wrong
Click to expand...
It is so creepy now but when I read the book I saw nothing wrong with it (of course my head was full of ponies until I was 18 and nothing else mattered so I was all about the horses and not the relationship. I missed so many things because my head was in the clouds such as I had no idea we were moving until 2 weeks before. My sisters were really upset and got angry at me for not being upset too and I was like, wait what?). - When I was 11 I knew someone who was 13 and she was seeing a guy 18 yrs old. It makes me shudder to think of now.
 
Another vote for thinking it's Will to Win from the eventers series. I also saw nothing wrong with any of it when I was obliviously reading it when I was younger but also have to admit that for me the book would have been all about the horses and eventing and the other parts were apparently irrelevant!
 
Aww I loved these books when I was younger. The 19 year old hates the 14 year old until she recuses his cast horse and gets kicked in the face
 
ecb89 said:
Aww I loved these books when I was younger. The 19 year old hates the 14 year old until she recuses his cast horse and gets kicked in the face
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That’s the sign of true love 🤣.

If you’d have given me the choice between being trained to be a good rider and the 19 year old hunky horsey boyfriend I’d have taken the training.
Hell even now I’d go for the training. We all know the horsey male would have bitten the dust a long time ago, training lasts forever 🤣
 
Jsste4 said:
Hi everyone,
I’m new here, from Australia and trying to remember the name of a book from my childhood 🙈
I want to say I read it in the 90’s but not sure if it’s an older title or from that era.
This is what I can remember- sorry it’s not much I know.
Set in England
Centered around eventing/ training livery yard.
The main character was a young female with a fairly wild horse who she found difficult to manage/ ride in the beginning.
I can’t remember the whole story, but there was a story line about the horse bolting on a hack, and jumping hedges into someone’s garden. The old man who lived in the cottage was furious, and the girl assisted with repairing the damage. I think he owned a basset hound.
Over time the girl was able to convince the old man, who had been a bit of a recluse, to help train and educate her and the horse.
Eventually making it to a few competitions.
I’m so sorry… it’s not much to go on. But for some reason the book has popped into my head, and I can’t be rid of it.
Thanks so much for any assistance 🙏
Click to expand...
This was the Riders series by Samantha Alexander. There are 8 books in total, she also had another series called Hollywell stables.
 
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