Help me find this horsey fiction book - please

[WhoahThereCrazyHorse]

It’s a bit niche. There were 3 young women who were looking after a hunting /eventing yard and I think one of them had to ride in a point to point race to win some money. Possibly on a horse with one eye who may or may not have been a racehorse in his youth.

The name Henrietta rings a bell.

Please help me with my nostalgic hankering for books from my youth!

I loved so many of these as a little girl but I’ve got another one I wonder if anyone can name.

Girl with a pony who lived near the sea and would school on the beach. There was a plot about using old smuggling routes to smuggle something illegal and she found out about it. At one point the pony got colic and her dad sat up all night rubbing its ears....

I loved 'the wild boy and queen moon' which I think was a Km peyton one. Also the jill books and jinny and the silver brumby. Might have to go to my parents tomorrow to see if they still have all my old pony books!!

I've kept all of mine too, I had to buy pony books with my pocket money, which has made them a little bit more personal than the endless Puffin books.
Long shot here, as I can't find it, a thin cheap paperback again, which has a green cover and the pony looking left. Remember it because most look to the right!

I had a trilogy of books I think about a group of horsey kids who got in with the local hunt? I read them several times but got rid of them once I realised what hunting actually involved.

Ah this thread brings back memories! I read all the Jill and Ginny book and also the series which had the hounds in it “We hunted hounds” “We rode with hounds” etc. I’m tempted by a wine-induced spending spree on amazon/ebay but I bet they’re all still in my parents’ attic!!

I never really understood the win a pony competitions. I don't remember them being in WHSmith, I'm sure it was horse & pony magazine. I'd grown up with them at home, so from my perspective it was the time and money to keep them, acquiring them was easy. I used to worry that someone as pony mad as me would win but wouldn't be allowed to keep the prize.

I'm quite sad and still read pony books. K M Peyton wrote some lovely ones. An up to date author I quite like is Natalie Keller Reinart. Main characters make me want to slap them and they're for adults but they are quite engrossing all the same

There was one about a British girl in America, and there was a wild horse that no one could catch. She did, eventually (obvs!) And I think in a later book, brought him back to the UK??

Holdtightnow, that must be the Phantom Horse series, she captures a wild palomino and eventually brings it back to England.

Someone mentioned Three Ponies and Shannon. I loved that book!
I have been trying to remember the title of a book for years. It was set in a yard which I think was some sort of horse riding college/training centre. It followed a group of students learning to race or event? I mainly remember that when they mucked out they didn't use wheelbarrows but opened out empty feed sacks. Then they had to gather up the corners and carry it like a sack to the muck heap. Ring any bells? 🤞

Jill definitely had Black Boy, I was obsessed with horsey books!

Oh my god, I loved Jinny at finmory and Shantih, and the silver brumby series. And the black stallion! I still have these books in a box in my loft somewhere!
Flambards too! ah!

i work for a charity that deals in second hand books and I've found many Pullein-Thompson and K M Peyton books and enjoyed them again.
I've recently been re-reading Enid Blyton and Famous Five series-forgotten how much I loved them as a kid!
apalled at the sexist attitude in them though!! But they're of their time I suppose!
I'll be in my loft tomorrow looking for my old, well-worn horsey books!!

I loved the Jill series.

I also remember reading an American book where a girl wanted to join a group called the Palomino Princesses. She had her own palomino and has various adventures along the way. The group were a kind of synchronised dressage group I think.

No amount of googling has helped and my sister who was also pony mad can’t remember us having these books and says I have made them up!

My people.

I found it!

Gay and the Ponies by Elinor Havers! Thus makes me so happy!! Off to buy it 😊

Loved Fly by Night and think she depicted family life really well as well as the panic of owning a pony when not ready for it.
I loved an American one called 'the horse in the house'.
There was a Monica Edwards one where they were all somehow isolated at a farm and ended up using carb soda for everything.

I love KM Peyton, and the way she wove different series in together (Ruth Hollis, Jonathan Meredith, Pennington.) She's written lots of stand-alone horsey books, too. She's written a handful of adult books, too, which feature horses. (She's still going at 90.)

I also love the Silver Brumby books - when I went to Australia, one of the places I had to see was the Snowy Mountains, because of Elyne Mitchell's books. I did see wild brumbies up the top of Mt Kosciuszko, but I didn't see a silver one.

I've got a lot of the Monica Edwards books, only one Follyfoot, though. A couple of Pat Smythes, a couple of Jills. A handful of PTs. I don't have any of the Jinny books, though, because my friend had all those, so I read hers. I have all the Trebizon books, so she read mine.

Love this thread! All my favourites have been mentioned - i like the Jackie and misty series and i wonder if they are the ones someone asked about re trekking plotlines. I also used to love the hollywell stables series - sort of like an updated follyfoot.

@SilentSary not Gay and the Ponies but your post definitely reminded me of one where a girl rescued a pony and called it Kestrel. A steel grey pony I remember. Maybe a P-T sister one?

I spent so much of my childhood immersed in these pony books, it's very potent to remember them all!

I still have all my old pony books! My favourites are the Jill and Jinny series, particularly Jinny, also the Romney Marsh Monica Edwards books. I loved anything by the P-T's, and have/have read nearly all that have been mentioned. My favourite ever thread! Loved Silver Snaffles, Prince among Ponies, A Pony for Jean and More Ponies for Jean too.

The Jackie Wins a Pony books were great. IIRC she wrote an essay all about how she would keep the pony in the orchard near her house. She won and got Misty (who was the underdog I think, she didn't go for one of the flashier ones on offer). But then there was a problem with using the orchard for some reason, possibly her cousins were came to stay and needed it for their ponies? So she nearly had to give up Misty, but it all came right in the end.

also what was the one about the family that shared a pony amongst the kids? I seem to remember there beinga thing about it being grey and then using blue rinse on it to bring out its coat for the gymkhana. And it had a blue girth I think, which was swanky

Loved most of these, still read some of them. Particularly loved Joanna Callan's style.

I just sent Jump for Joy to the charity shop (Pat Smythe's autobiography) due to the overwhelming guilt of reading it ('at 14 I was hacking two ponies to gymkhanas, camping by the road on the way, and earning my keep with my prize money' OH GOD)

Oooh talking of other worlds - Silver Snaffles!!!

Yes!!!

You’re the only other person who's ever remembered it. My favourite! I still remember her descriptions so clearly.

Through the dark corner and the password is.....