What is your favourite pony book?

[Saggyoldclothcatpuss]

Jills Gymkhana is mine, first I ever read, and the one that made me pony mad!

Saggy - I ready that too - it was one of the Pullein-Thompson sisters I believe. In fact, their books were filled with hunting were they not - all Tally Ho and being blooded?

And there are some wonderful horsy bits in Antonia Forest.

Have ordered We Hunted Hounds off Ebay!

Mirage our dd is 8 and she loves watching Saddle Club (and Sleepover Club!) on the Pop Girl channel on TV.

ooo agree about the horsey bits in Antonia Forest books, the hunting sequence in Peter's Room is brilliant.
I love Mr Buster and am so glad that she rewrote Run Away Home so that he didn't die at the end.

Thank you Butkin,I've just instructed DH to locate Pop Girl channel,and he has found it.

All this talk of hunting has reminded me of being at primary school.We are in Friday country day and a lot of children were allowed to have the day off to go hunting.My cousins were,but I wasn't,despite my mum being a big hunt supporter.The day one of my schoolmates came into school after a morning's hunting,and was still wearing the evidence of being blooded nearly made me explode with jealousy.

My dds now go to the same school,and I can't imagine what would happen if the same thing went on now,although there is huge excitement among the majority of the children if the hunt go past the school.

Jill was fabulous what amazing characterization! Remember Mrs Crosby, their NRTB? No relation to Bing? And poor Dinah who couldn't afford proper riding clothes.
My first pony book was Phantom Horse when the family moved to America. I read it over and over.
And The Impossible Horse, another Pullein Thompson. I adored stories of 17 year olds setting up their own yards. So exciting and frankly, still a bit of a dream of mine!

Oooh who has read the Caroline Akrill trilogy? Eventer's Dream, Hoof in the Door etc...I just bought the 3 as one book from ebay and it was as good as I remembered!

Annie yes, I remember those.

My god, eBay's going to take a battering this month.

It was Flambards for me too. Tempted by the eBay idea but don't want to shatter my illusions as to how bl**dy fantastic those books were.

War Horse too - first book I've ever read that had me in tears. Proper crying. Would love to see it at the theatre but DH has been ignoring my not very subtle hints

I have read and loved most of the ones mentioned here, but I am absolutely crazy about the Jinny and Shantih series, I rebought them all from amazon as a Christmas present for myself last year, And it was bliss

I had War Horse for Christmas and haven't had the nerve to read it yet. The 5 min scene at Olympia had me blubbing.

I can't even read the reviews of War Horse in the newspapers. . Dreading seeing trailers for the film when it finally comes out. I will have to shut my eyes and stick my fingers in my ears going "la la la".

I've just started re-buying the Jill books and have been reading them. They are so familiar, like finding a suitcase of childhood clothes :) I've been trying to get the older ones as they haven't been re worded (Black boy is still himself)

Also bought The Impossible Horse, and Trick Jumpers (or something like that)

I had that Saddle Club book too Cavemum. I think it was the only one I read, and it was so depressing I didn't get anymore.

I loved the Jinny and Shantih books by Patricia Leitch. I can remember writing to the BBC asking them to televise it and being very miffed to get a letter back saying they had many such requests and couldn't fulfil them all!

I have just finished Fly By Night I bought it for 1p from amazon! I like K M Peytons style of writing, theres plenty of angst and worry in there along with the nice horsey stuff. Im off to buy the next installment now.

'My Friend Flicka' by Mary O'Hara - an absolutely magical book that goes on and on. Perfect to grow up with.

Fly by Night was also very special!

Oooh, just remembered "The Black Stallion" and "The Island Stallion" too.

saggy Didn't the Fly By Night saga end up with teenage pregnancy, alcoholism and him jumping in to the sea and breaking his legs? Fewer ponies involved as I recall...

alps I don't remember the details but I do recall that my non-ponyish friends read Fly by Night etc before I did, and they then told me about it. On that basis I never considered them to be 'true' pony books!

Jill's Gymkhana is of course the most perfect pony book ever written. My heartless mother lost / disposed of my entire Jill collection. So years later I tracked them all down on Abe books. They had to have the exact same 1970s cover illustrations as my originals. I have now rebuilt a full set. (Plus shelves and shelves of Pullein Thompsons.)

I tell myself it's an investment that my children will enjoy in the future, but I think we all know this is nonsense. When I am feeling particularly sorry for myself there is nothing like picking up an old pony book and secretly reading it again.

I don't think I got that far, I must have missed something . I remember 'The Team' where Ruth found Toadhill Flax at a sale and bought him but she couldn't afford to keep him and Fly so she sold Fly to the first people to come and look at him and they ill-treated him. I don't recall her ever getting him back. I'll have to rummage in my secret dust-covered hoard under the bed and find out now!

Just be warned, I have spent years, collecting books for my DCs, and the ungrateful little buggers arent interested! Buy them for yourselves instead!

Oh I know, mine lurked on dd's bookcase for years on the pretext that I'd 'saved them for her' but she never even looked at one of them. Eventually during a clear-out I had to spirit them away to their current hiding place before they got put in the box for the jumble!

Oh god, I can't believe I stumbled pon this thread - talk about a trip down memory lane! Loved all the Pullein-Thompson sister books (especially teh series set in Virginia?), really enjoyed Fly-by-Night etc (as it was a girl who really didn't realistically have a chance of getting a pony, but got one anyway- kept my dreams alive!).

I have an original edition (with colour plates) of The Silver Eagle Riding School (Primrose Cummings) - a family of girls setting up their own riding school when 'papa' died (another fantasy of mine - well, not the death obviously!).

But my all-time favourite (and again, I have the original well-thumbed 1930's version) is A Pony for Jean, by Joanna Cannan.

I love this thread. So many happy memories. Fly By Night and the Patricia Leith, Leich? can't remember which books (about chestnut Arab) where my hands down favourites. There was a follow up book to Fly by Night, too.