What was your favourite pony book as a child?

[cindars]

Think I was still in primary school, my sister told my mum to get this book Riding with Reka from the Horsemans bookshop near Buckingham Palace,still have it and have collected loads more over the years

 

[Fruitcake]

The Jill books by Ruby Ferguson were (and still are) my absolute favourites! I’ve reread them numerous times and still find them quite comforting to read as an adult if I ever feel a bit down.

I also loved the series by one of the Pullein Thompsons (Christine, I think) that had ‘We Rode to Hounds’ and ‘I Carried the Horn.’

 

[HashRouge]

This is one of my favourite topics and I could bore on about it for ages! I absolutely devoured pony books when I was a kid.

Josephine is my favourite Pullein-Thompson sister and I particularly loved the series she did about the Woodbury Pony Club, it was just so funny and well observed. My sister and I had a big omnibus edition with all three stories in it and it was so well used that the whole cover came off!

KM Peyton is another favourite, especially Fly-by-Night and The Team, and I also loved a newer one she did called Blind Beauty, about a racehorse who wins the Grand National. Such a great read.

I also loved Jinny at Finmory. In fact I wanted to be Jinny and Shantih was my dream horse. I was heart broken when my parents finally agreed to buy me a horse back in 2001 and the only Arabs I could find for sale in the Loot were grey! Though now, of course, I'd say there's nothing better than a grey Arab

There were some less famous ones that I really liked too. Did anyone read the Midnight Dancer series? I think it was published in the 1990s. I re-read those ones a lot and I loved the illustrations, though Dancer always looked like a huge warmblood rather than the Welsh pony I think she was supposed to be. There was another one about a girl who is given (?) a grey Arab called Polly, which I absolutely adored, especially after I got my own grey Arab. I especially loved the book in which Polly is given a starring horsey role in a film, and I used to daydream about a famous film director spotting my own Lulu while we were out hacking!

 

[Fruitcake]

All the Jill books, Joanna Cannan, Pat Smythe, The Pullein-Thompson sisters......my favourite childhood book was about a family of children sent to live with uncle on the edge of the moor, and they met up with a boy and his horse who used to camp out on the moor whenever he felt like it. Can't remember the title, and the author was called Lucy. According to the fly leaf she was sixteen, had done the line drawing illustrations herself and her father had published the book for her. I read it over and over again from the classroom library cupboard. I'd love to find it again, but dare say it's a long shot.

There’s a group on FB - I think it’s called Our Old Pony Books- where people often post descriptions of favourite childhood pony books that they’re looking for. It’s amazing how someone always seems to come up with the title and author and the poster can then find it. It might be worth a shot.

 

[BSL2]

Another for Ruby Ferguson and Christine Pullein-Thompson. Such happy memories curled up in a chair reading these books.

 

[windand rain]

Cobblers dream and black beauty. I did read all the Jill books and a lot of pony books of the era. I enjoyed my friend flicks and the thunderhead sequels too

 

[Mad_Cow347]

I’m in my early 30s so for me it was Sheltie the Shetland pony, Heartland (I love the tv show now too) and the Saddle Club.

 

[millikins]

Flambards. Still read the series from time to time, I replaced mine last year as the first 3 had fallen apart but I have kept them as the new edition isn't illustrated by Victor Ambrus. And why, just why did K.M. Peyton make me wait over a decade for Mark and Christina to get together.
The Little Wooden Horse, again just replaced that. I made my poor mother read that to me over and over again.
Liked The Silver Brumby but "The Brumby" by Mary Elwyn Patchett was better imo.
And The Wild Heart by Helen Griffiths, about an ugly, vicious but incredibly fast part Criollo was a great book.
And Black Beauty.

 

[Petalpoos]

The three I remember most were 'Silver Brumby's Daughter', 'A Stable for Jill' and an older book called 'The Wednesday Pony'

Some of my favourites there. too, and I still have The Wednesday Pony!

 

[Wishfilly]

I was a child in the 90s, so obviously saddle club was big for me!

I also remember a series of books about a traveller boy who's family have settled in a house, and he works for a horse dealer and has various (mis)adventures. It felt more true to life, and less romantic than a lot of "pony" books, but I really enjoyed them as a child. But have no idea who the author was or what the books were called.

 

[HashRouge]

I was a child in the 90s, so obviously saddle club was big for me!

I also remember a series of books about a traveller boy who's family have settled in a house, and he works for a horse dealer and has various (mis)adventures. It felt more true to life, and less romantic than a lot of "pony" books, but I really enjoyed them as a child. But have no idea who the author was or what the books were called.

I think I know what those books are. Was the boy called Nicky?

 

[Wishfilly]

I think I know what those books are. Was the boy called Nicky?

Very possibly, yes!

 

[HashRouge]

Very possibly, yes!

I think it might be the Horse Healer series by Judy Waite. I really enjoyed them as a kid!

 

[Dreamer2020]

The Silver Brumby books are the main ones I remember reading when I was younger. Favourite horse book now is Seabiscuit

 

[Lucky Snowball]

Jill series, and 'I Rode a Winner'
Still have a very old hard copy of Moorland Mousie which was my Mother's.

 

[Wishfilly]

I think it might be the Horse Healer series by Judy Waite. I really enjoyed them as a kid!

Yes, just found them and they are the ones- I recognise the covers on amazon!

 

[HashRouge]

Yes, just found them and they are the ones- I recognise the covers on amazon!

Now I think about it, there were quite a few decent pony books published in the 1990s. I'd forgotten about those ones!

Did anyone read the one about the girl whose family ran a dude ranch in the states? I think every book had the name of one of the horses.

 

[TPO]

I read everything with a horse on the cover or title!

The Saddle Club was my favourite. I bought them all using my pocket money and would make my sister quiz me on the numbers and titles. Geek life!

I had the Jinny series and read Patricia Leitch's other books too. A Horse for the Holidays was my favourite and A Dream of Fair Horses made me bawl my eyes out (Perdita).

I also had the "Riders" series after getting one free with Horse & Pony magazine. They were about her eventing her Dun pony. With hindsight 14yr old her having a 19yr old boyfriend probably wasn't the best message for a young teen book series!

I read all the old Pullen-Thomson sister's books & Jill series too.

They don't make them like they used to!

 

[Mouse19]

Whispers quietly… I never liked the Jinny books ?

Riders by Samantha Alexander (not the pervy Jilly Cooper book?). I was a child in the 90s. Loved the Holywell stables series too.

KM Peyton - The wild boy and queen moon.
tbf any of her books are great including non horsey titles

 

[ElvisandTilly]

Silver Brumby & sequels - I loved those.

I loved these too! I probably still have them all packed in boxes somewhere in the loft!

 

[Lois Lame]

I was already an adult when I read Fly By Night but loved it and still have it and its sequel. Also as many books by Josephine Pullein-Thompson as I could acquire. Favourite horsey book from my youth was Smoky, still have that as well. Mind you, I am now in my 70's and I still have all my horsey books and re read them quite often.

Just this week I re-read Pony Jobs For Jill by Ruby Ferguson (as everybody here on H&H knows). I hadn't heard of this series before reading about them on here a couple of years ago. A very nice book.

By my favourite? That needs some thinking. I really enjoyed Jump to the Stars by Gillian Baxter. And many others. So many.

 

[Lois Lame]

Any other takers for Cobbler's Dream? I still have my copy somewhere and read it to death as a child. It was a bit more "adult" than other pony stories I remember, very strong anti-cruelty themes and mostly about horses that couldn't be ridden, which was unusual. In a more traditional vein, I got a lot of mileage out of Sophie in the Saddle, by Dick King Smith. We had that one on cassette! I also loved I Am the Great Horse which wasn't really a pony book- a child-friendly history of Alexander the Great told from Bucephalus' point of view.

Does anyone remember a story for young children about two trick ponies? They were little palomino ponies that lived in somebody's garden and pulled the carriage in the panto. I seem to recall learning from that book that horses can go up stairs but not down them, which was why the ponies were only allowed in the house via the front door! I think they were called Moonshine and Mystic, or some other 'M' name.

Ah, yes! Cobbler's Dream. And Follyfoot and Dora at Follyfoot. Loved them too.

 

[Lois Lame]

Gillian is still writing and is active on Facebook if you want to drop her a line.

Oh, that's brilliant. I hope she writes another like Jump to the Stars. Bobby was so capable (as a rider) and I love that. Makes me feel that I am capable. Her horrid step-mother - no, I think she was an aunt - was great, and the mare, Shelta, how glamorous.

 

[Lois Lame]

It was called "The adventures of Porridge" and I wrote it between being about 10 and 13. I filled two exercise books. Sadly I lost my bag with it in when I was at school ? so I never found out what happened to him in the end.

Have you tried putting your hand to writing again?

 

[TheHairyOne]

A Dream of Fair Horses was the one thats really stuck with me. Better than the Jinny series.

And the Silver Brumby books.

Really good.

 

[HashRouge]

I also had the "Riders" series after getting one free with Horse & Pony magazine. They were about her eventing her Dun pony. With hindsight 14yr old her having a 19yr old boyfriend probably wasn't the best message for a young teen book series!
!

I liked those books too but the age gap creeps me out now I look back on it! I think she had another series about a family who run a rescue centre and there was a similar age gap between the protagonist and her boyfriend in that one too.

 

[Gloi]

I

Have you tried putting your hand to writing again?

I'm not very good. I don't have the confidence I had when I was twelve, I am far more self critical. ?. I wish I hadn't lost my story though, I was really upset at the time.

 

[Spotherisk]

All the Pullein Thomson books, probably my favorite is Six Ponies which was the start of a series, plus the Jill books were pretty good too. I still have heaps of them and if I see any in charity shops usually pick them up too.

Six Ponies has just been republished by Jane Badger Books!

 

[scats]

The was a series called Hollywell Stables by Samantha Alexander and it had a 12 year old in a relationship with a 17 year old, which was a bit yuk.

I didn’t really get into the saddle club books, although I did read some.

 

[Spotherisk]

I am loving Gillian Baxter’s new Patsy series, bang up to date. I’m awaiting the next instalment!