Errin Paddywack
Well-Known Member
I like the Dick Francis books too and also his son Felix's books. Michael collected all of them in hardback so I have quite a collection. Haven't got the latest Felix book yet though.
What was your favourite pony book as a child?
- Thread starter BelB
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Sleighfarer
Well-Known Member
My sister and I amassed pony books when we were kids, but then gave them all to a jumble sale when we were cool teenagers. We've regretted it ever since.
My favourite was Prince Among Ponies by JPT, about a couple of city children who went to spend the summer in the country and began secretly riding a wayward pony their hosts had given up on, under the pretext of getting up early to pick mushrooms.
Also loved the Jill books.
My favourite was Prince Among Ponies by JPT, about a couple of city children who went to spend the summer in the country and began secretly riding a wayward pony their hosts had given up on, under the pretext of getting up early to pick mushrooms.
Also loved the Jill books.
silv
Well-Known Member
I loved that book too.
HorseMaid
Well-Known Member
The ones that stick in my mind from my childhood were some by KM Peyton, I loved the Flambards series, the Fly By Night books, there was one called Darkling that I remember being good, and the Swallow books.
There was also a book called The Brumby by Mary Elwyn Patchett that I loved.
I probably read my way through every pony book in the school and public library as a child, several times over, but these are the ones that stick! I definitely read all the Pullien Thompson ones too. If it had a pony on the cover I'd read it.
I'd love to have a year off on a desert island so that I could read them all again!
There was also a book called The Brumby by Mary Elwyn Patchett that I loved.
I probably read my way through every pony book in the school and public library as a child, several times over, but these are the ones that stick! I definitely read all the Pullien Thompson ones too. If it had a pony on the cover I'd read it.
I'd love to have a year off on a desert island so that I could read them all again!
rabatsa
Confuddled
Rosina Copper by Kitty Barne.
HorseMaid
Well-Known Member
Also a book called "Black Swift" set against the backdrop of the English Civil War was good, my mum bought it for me when I did well for my school report, and I remember a book called "A Horse By Any Other Name" which was a nice coming of age story. God I used to love reading.
rabatsa
Confuddled
Not forgetting The Maltese Cat by Rudyard Kipling.
millikins
Well-Known Member
I've just spent my afternoon re reading it, a lovely story and better for being true. In her day she sounds almost as famous as Stroller.
welshwizzard
Well-Known Member
I've recently been reading a trilogy by Gillian Baxter, With Vacant possession, Sole possession and Joint possession. They're about an older lady who ups sticks after her husband dies and buys a small holding in Wales. I really enjoyed them, pony books for adults 
AmyMay
Situation normal
I’d forgotten all about that book. I loved it ?
jules9203
Well-Known Member
I still have my Jill books and Silver Brumby series, will neverpart with them. One I inherited from my mum was Red Conker, not sure who wrote it, but it was a lovely book
Burnttoast
Well-Known Member
Another one I remember reading very young then had to spend ages finding it again a few years ago as I couldn't remember the title: The White Stallion of Lipizza, by Marguerite Henry.
HashRouge
Well-Known Member
That rings a bell for me as well, but no idea on the title.
Lois Lame
Well-Known Member
Yes, The Sweet Running Filly is one I really enjoyed too. It was given to me by a Canadian girl (Hi Megan! if you're reading this, which I highly doubt) in my class at school in England, back in 1973/4. She also gave me the sequel, A Horse Called Bonnie.
And I just love the illustrations on the covers back then, when artists did them. I'm not keen on photographs for covers as a general rule.
Errin Paddywack
Well-Known Member
I have all of them, excellent books written from a lifetime of experience.
Errin Paddywack
Well-Known Member
Maltese Cat and Rosina Copper also in my 'library'. I think the Maltese Cat is just about my favourite story.
Penguin_Toes
Well-Known Member
Me too! The main thing I remember from them was that they would always randomly mention that horses had no feeling in their manes, I insisted this was true when I was younger and no doubt made a fool of myself!
Highmileagecob
Well-Known Member
I still have Mayhew's Book of Horse Doctoring that my riding school owner's father gave me. Bit gory for an eight year old, but it was read from cover to cover.
Mouse19
Well-Known Member
I remember reading one of the saddle club books and vividly remembering that one of the girls (were they 12-14 years old?) being tasked with exercising a horse and doing several advanced dressage moves on it and my 12 year old self being hideously jealous of a fictional character riding movements on a fictional horse ???
Penguin_Toes
Well-Known Member
Oh my god, don't talk to me about irrational pony obsessed jealousy. I am 36 and I can't bring myself to like Emily King because I am so jealous that her mum is Mary King.
fidleyspromise
Well-Known Member
Half moon ranch. I've still got them all.
I forgot the age ranges in some of the other books.
lilly1
Well-Known Member
The silver Brumby. I read them all but the first one was my favourite.
black and brown
Well-Known Member
Not quite fiction books but I loved the Thelwell books. I still have mine and they still make me laugh, he was a very talented man!
Umbongo
Well-Known Member
Wild pony by Lucy Rees was a book that I read over and over again. I don't really remember it now but it was about a young girl training a wild pony off the hills.
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Spotherisk
Well-Known Member
You mean the ‘past pluperfect player of the game’!?
Spotherisk
Well-Known Member
This is one of my favourites, I thought I was the only person who’d read it!
Titchy Pony
Well-Known Member
I had quite a collection as a kid (I've just pulled them out of my parents attic again this year, now I finally have a place of my own)
Horses of Half Moon Ranch
Saddle Club (but only in French because I didn't like them in the original english - weird!)
Sheltie the shetland pony
Black Beauty (and the Pullein Thompson sequels)
Random Black Stallion books in French and English
I both loved and hated the Perfect Ponies trilogy by Lucy Daniels, where a girl's parents were closing a riding school and had to sell their ponies.
Horses of Half Moon Ranch
Saddle Club (but only in French because I didn't like them in the original english - weird!)
Sheltie the shetland pony
Black Beauty (and the Pullein Thompson sequels)
Random Black Stallion books in French and English
I both loved and hated the Perfect Ponies trilogy by Lucy Daniels, where a girl's parents were closing a riding school and had to sell their ponies.
The girl got to keep her pony in the end, but I didn't when I moved to uni, so another case of irrational jealousy towards a fictional character.
marmalade76
Well-Known Member
I loved Fly by Night and it's sequel The Team. Loved the Jill books too, but my fave was I Wanted a Pony by which I think was by one of the Pullein-Thompsons. Loved the Flambards books too.
catkin
Well-Known Member
Oh, and the so true-to-life ponies!
My all-time favourite Thelwell cartoon is the jumping wall one - "take off too early (a brick off with a front hoof) ...take off too late (with a hind) ...and take off just right, with bricks flying everywhere and beatific smiles on pony and rider
Landcruiser
Well-Known Member
I was a total bookworm as a kid/teen. I loved the Silver Brumby books. I also loved National Velvet, and Black Beauty, although I found it very sad.
When I was a little older, maybe 11 or 12, I read a book called "Trigger in Europe", written by a guy called William Holt, about how he set out from his home in Yorkshire determined to ride his horse Trigger down through Europe to The Med. I think he was 67 when he set off, and Trigger was no spring chicken either. I remember being utterly awe inspired by it. I re read it again a few years ago (it was out of print for years and is now called "Ride a White Horse" which is a shame.) Still an amazing journey, what a shame road conditions make trips like that pretty much impossible now. I think it was that book above all others that gave me a determination to have a horse of my own one day, (had to wait nearly 40 yrs) and I still haven't given up on the dream of long distance riding...
When I was a little older, maybe 11 or 12, I read a book called "Trigger in Europe", written by a guy called William Holt, about how he set out from his home in Yorkshire determined to ride his horse Trigger down through Europe to The Med. I think he was 67 when he set off, and Trigger was no spring chicken either. I remember being utterly awe inspired by it. I re read it again a few years ago (it was out of print for years and is now called "Ride a White Horse" which is a shame.) Still an amazing journey, what a shame road conditions make trips like that pretty much impossible now. I think it was that book above all others that gave me a determination to have a horse of my own one day, (had to wait nearly 40 yrs
) and I still haven't given up on the dream of long distance riding...