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!

So many posts I want to reply to! Such a great thread!

@SilentSarey Mercy Dulbottle! Such a blast from the past. All I can envisage now is Miranda . I also liked Mrs Crosby (NRTB), I didn’t understand that until I was a lot older.

@Flyingarcher I think the horses I most wanted would have been Shantih, Phantom Horse, Cascade or Siani from the Romney Marsh series or Mrs Darcy’s Blue Smoke from the Jill books. I think Daybreak belonged to Augusta, Christina’s friend? Iirc Christina had Symphony, Solo and Serenade.

@Gotthetshirt23 yes I remember Hanif and his tricky pony too. I think that was a P-T sister book that also involved a girl who was orphaned and went to line with her rather austere aunt and uncle. Hanif was Indian but had an English stepfather and a mother who wore pretty saris. It was all a bit excitingly diverse for pony books of that generation. Speaking of diverse, there were also the Mary Gervaise books set in a naice girls’ boarding school. The pony was called Spot but I can’t remember the girl’s name. The headmistress was called Miss Primrose. They had a few girls from overseas at the school.

@PermanentTemporary I recently re read Jump for Joy! I also like Lucinda Green’s Four Squared. I had another one in a similar vein but by a less well known rider that I loved. I’ll have to try and dig it out. So many books in our house.

@OnlyTheTitOfTheLangBerg I liked the Caroline Akrill actress books too but I think I only read a couple of them.

Someone mentioned Easter the Showjumper and Misty of Chincoteague. I’ve got both of them too. They were great. I’ve also read Horse in The House about a horse called Orbit which I always though was such a great name.

Does anyone remember a series about 2 Shetlands called Magic and Moonshine?

I really wanted a horse like Mrs Darcey’s Blue Smoke.

Do you know the story about a girl called Yolanda who loses her nerve after a show jumping accident, then her mother dies and she feels lost and misunderstood in her horsey family? Then there is a fire in the stables and she saves the life of the unmanageable horse and is the only one who can jump on him. Through their bond they get their nerve back. I think the horse might have been called Firebrand.

I'm not sure whether I'd like to read it again, I remember it as a work of unrivalled genius. My dc might like it though.

The two horses called Truant and Tranquil were in Josephine P-T's One Day Event. Noel (not Erica ) is feeling glum because Sonnet was let out of her field by picnickers and sustained some scratches and cuts that left her without anything to ride. Henry knew someone who was desperate for a rider to school her "half-broken" Anglo-Arabs and would give one away to the rider afterwards so Noel took on Truant and Tranquil. She rode Truant at the ODE of the title and lent Tranquil to Dick, whose pony Crispin was too old and unfit to take part. At the end of the book Noel chose to keep Truant and Susan Barrington-Brown's father bought Tranquil for Susan.

I wish I could remember important stuff for work as easily as I can the entire plot and characters from pony books I haven't read for about 10 years+!

I was so into horsey books when younger and I think it was the Jill series (was her surname Trent)? that I had.

Not sure if I'm mis remembering but did Jill have a best friend called Ann Derry (who's pony may have been called Seraphina or something similar)? Also I remember triplets called April, May and June who were chubby and who competed in show jumping competitions. Is that the Jill series?

Really want to get my DD into them so any help would be gratefully received

*whose

@AnneOfCleavage Yes that is Jill. I would go and look it up but books are in DS2's room and he has brought a new girl home. He won't have noticed that I've dusted and tidied 😄😄😄😄😄😄

Anne yes, April, May and June Cholly-Sawcutt were in the Jill books. It was Jill Crewe, and Ann's first pony, later passed to her sister Pam (what happened to the other younger sister Brenda btw - she disappeared in later books!) was Seraphina and her second pony who was in most of the books was George. Jill and Ann taught the, um, rather large C-S triplets to ride after their famous showjumper father had given up on them as hopeless.

Did you know that Ruby Ferguson knew nothing about horses and never had a pony or learnt to ride in real life? It was all just writer research.

(Shannith, you keep writing Shantih's name as Shanith but it was Shantih. It's the Sanskrit word for peace.)

I think Ann’s pony was Seraphine rather than Seraphina?

Ah yes Nation, that was it!

Flying and Only thank you so much. Yay, so glad my brain wasn't muddling to much up. Jill Crewe, of course that was her name - thank you. I just remember snippets of stories. I remember one when Jill had to ride in place of another girl and the girls in the home where the competition was were really mean to her and another memory of Jill and two others in a car playing the car number plate game - we (DH, DD and I) always play the car number plate game probably on the back of reading this book. The number plate was YTF and I can still remember the suggestions 😂🤣

Ah Nation Seraphine. I was practically there. Glad the grey cells are pretty much working It's amazing what we can claw back if we really think hard enough.

NRTFT but it sounds like 'The Eventers Trilogy' by Carolyn Akrill. The 3 books are called 'A hoof in the door' 'Eventers Dream' and 'Ticket to ride'

Henrietta is one of the main characters. Nelson is a one eyed grey horse I think. I looked this book up and found it on Amazon a few years ago as I wanted to replace the copy I had and read to death as a teenager.
Might have to re-read again now!

@NationMcKinley yes , think it was Alice , she had a dun pony that star gazed ? And a James who rode his mums horse .
I think it was David who was recovering from an accident that was the teacher/ instructor, possibly Pony Club Cup / Team / Challenge ?
I'll need to google

@Gotthetshirt23 you have such a good memory!

janebadgerbooks-oldsite.co.uk/pt/jptchlists.html

Ha Anne, I was just thinking of the 'IAF' suggestion for the numberplate game when I was writing about the Cholly-Sawcutt girls!

Mrs Crosby NRTB omg 😂😂😂

I’d forgotten that!! 😂😂😂

I’ve just worked out which book it was I was banging my head against the wall trying to remember yesterday: Dream Pony.

I was just perusing amazon and someone has written some books about a grown up Jill! “Jill Has Two Horses” and a couple of others. Sacrilege surely? 😮🤨

I loved 'Flambards' and have the book.

The TV series was great, I loved the theme tune.

Do you know the story about a girl called Yolanda who loses her nerve after a show jumping accident, then her mother dies and she feels lost and misunderstood in her horsey family?

I remember this story, although I don't know the title or the author. The difficult horse was called Firecat, and Yolanda/Yolande already had another very safe, trustworthy grey pony called Zarak. Remember taking this book out (I think it was bound in a volume with two other horsey tales) from the library over and over. What a blast from the past!

I remember books set in the Blue Ridge mountains as well. A group of children, or maybe just a brother and sister.

My ideal horse would have been Minos the perfect dun that never put a foot wrong, from some books by Gillian Baxter. Main character was called Bobby who had a mare called Shelta

Not exactly the same but reminds me of 'A horse called Wonder' which I read many times as a child!

OMG Silver Snaffles, that's a blast from the past! My nanna had an old hardback copy that had been my mum's when she was small, I used to read it over and over whenever we visited, this was about 35 years ago. Tattles! Merrylegs!

Does anyone remember books about twins and a girl called Peter who rode on the moors?