Books on riding from boys

[siscaza]

DS (6) loves riding and everything to do with horses, trying to find pony books that are gender neutral and not just targeted at girls (lots seem to be pink and sparkly!). Any suggestion gratefully received!

[Pixel]

Do you mean pony stories? Plain Jack by K M Peyton is a good one for younger children.
I can think of some others that are 'boy' ones but they tend to be for older children, although if you are reading them to him they might be ok? I was thinking The Black Stallion, My Friend Flicka, stuff like that. I'm afraid I don't really know any modern ones!

[Bonkey]

The silver brumby?
I loved that book as a kid --made me want to be a horse- - maybe a bit old for him to read on his own at the moment but you could read it to him?

No modern ones here either - I always liked the 'old stylee' as a child!

[Pixel]

I've still got my copy of The Silver Brumby .

It's funny how all the 'boy' type stories I can think of seem to be foreign ones. There was another Australian one I vaguely remember, don't know what it was called but I think the horse was called Ajax. Then there are loads of American ones: Thunderhead, Green Grass of Wyoming etc. I really enjoyed one called San Domingo, The Medicine Hat Stallion (by Marguerite Henry) when I was younger. She also wrote Misty of Chincoteague but the only thing I can remember about that was there was a little boy in it, and it made me cry buckets at the end!

For English stuff a lot of the Pullein-Thompson sisters' stuff features boys. There's Show Jumping Secret, First Rosette, Second mount, Three to Ride and the Pony Club Team series has lots of boy characters, only I'm not sure how easy they are to get hold of now. I've got a copy of Pony Club Team that belonged to my mum! (she's 70 on Monday) so they are very dated but still a good read I think.

Having googled a bit I've also found the Billy and Blaze series by C W Anderson which are apparently still in print but I don't know any more than that about them.

[feezap]

Yes, the silver brumby is great. There us also a book called the blind colt by Glen Rounds it is about a boy and his horse. I read it at age 9 so can't remember if it is suitable for younger readers but might be worth a look. War Horse is a bit too grown up at the moment but would be good in the future.

[BlueChampagne]

Ds1 and I read Black Beauty last summer - that's gender-neutral.