Jill pony books Ruby Ferguson

[Blackcats7]

I loved these books as a child and escaped my not very nice reality into Jill’s world long before I ever started working at a stables in exchange for lessons.
I have just seen that the rights have been bought by Jane Badger who sells vintage pony books and she has republished the entire set so I’ve treated myself, sad old woman that I am.

What was the name of the books about a girl who lived in Virginia and tracked down a pony in the blue ridge mountains?
In another book I think they moved to Ireland.
Could have been phantom horse but it’s been years.

This is an account of all the various editions:
https://janebadgerbooks.co.uk/the-jill-opedia/the-jill-books-a-publishing-history/

I read the Green Knight editions for the first books and Jill’s pony was Danny Boy, and a piebald in Jill’s Gymkhana and a couple of subsequent books. I was very confused when suddenly Danny Boy became Black Boy in later books.

jane Badger has a brilliant Facebook feed if you’re on there. She’s also done a new Jill book; based on the language, I suspect that AI trained on the originals has had some part in its writing, but it’s still good fun. She’s reinstated a lot of original language in the books too - the Facebook feed is interesting on that.
the books are absolutely delightful and over the years I’ve re bought on eBay the particular editions that I had (from line drawn covers to photographs)

Could it have been My Friend Flicka?

Oh no, sorry I posted before I googled! You might be right about Phantom Horse.

I absolutely loved My Friend Flicka and its sequels.

Yes, I've been thinking about this overnight (sad, I know 😄) and I think it was Rapide that hadn't been well treated as didn't Jill find him quite a difficult horse when she first got him. Might have been a riding school teacher or someone who told her that.

Also, in the Perfect Pony, Jill called herself Jillamanda?

Crikey, this really is going down Memory Lane isn't it? 😂

In Jill and the Perfect Pony, Amanda suggested to Jill that she take her place riding the ‘perfect pony’ as part of some sort of team effort. Jill went with the impression that the team knew Jill was taking Amanda’s place and were fine with it. However, when she arrived it emerged that they hadn’t been told and since none of them had met Amanda, they just assumed Jill was Amanda. Everyone (including the adults) were hostile towards her because they had heard Amanda was awful and she was only a replacement for a girl who broke her leg.

Jill was most put out and decided to be foul in order to really tarnish Amanda’s reputation. She couldn’t quite keep it up and ended up enjoying herself. Then at the end Amanda showed up, all was revealed and all was well. It’s strange typing that out!

Child me could never decide whether Rapide should be pronounced Rap-EED or Rap-EYED.

And the only other thing I remember is that Jill liked things to be ‘humble’, and their house has a name Jill approves of because it is ‘a plain, true sort of name like Lane End’ (or something) because she disapproves of fancier names like Laburnum Bower…

There was a lot Jill disapproved of. I enjoyed the books but I really disliked the character. Jinny now, I loved Jinny.

Years ago I had a book where a family bought a rural farmhouse with land , and there was a resident ,very lazy , black Shetland pony called Plum, he just came as a fixture & fitting .
Their children learned to ride him, when he got fed up he just laid down .

One morning they found him laid in the paddock ,just died of old age peacefully .

Plum is an amzing name for a lardy pony .

Oh I loved these books! I still remember what I imagined in my head when I was reading them. I'm going to buy these for my daughter😁

Anyone with any questions about pony books should look at Jane Badgers website, it has so much information.
I reluctantly got rid of my collection of Jill Books for a house move and instantly regretted it - I've been slowly replacing them ever since.
I loved Jill's character I think because of her faults - she was human.

Did anyone else also love the Monica Edwards (I think) books? There were two series, Punchbowl Farm, I think, and one set near the coast somewhere - one of the books was all about smugglers?

I much preferred the Romney Marsh books to Punchbowl Farm. Some of them have boats as well as ponies, and an interesting cast of recurring secondary characters, which Punchbowl Farm doesn't really have. (I always used to get the two Monicas, Dickens and Edwards, mixed up, as both wrote pony books.)

Oddly coincidental timing seeing this thread for me....in the last couple of weeks I have just indulged myself and bought ALL the Jill books (second hand copies of the sort of 90s era ones I think) and read them cover to cover....it didn't really take all that long to be honest, but it has made me very happy :)

I don't even think I read them all as a child as we had 3 at home (Gymkhana, Riding Club, and Perfect Pony) and there were about 2 in our local library, but this is the first time I have read the Pony Jobs one and a couple of others.

I don't really care that she's a bit pious about some things, I've had fun reading them, and wish DD would read them and take on board that you really must finish putting your pony to bed properly before sneaking across the road from the yard to get a Starbucks!

Also loved Jinny & Shantih, and Eventer's Dream series.

@Deliaskis I was lucky enough to have a pony on working livery at a local riding school in the late 70s, and I swear I learnt so much more about looking after her from those pony books than I did from anywhere else.
While we're on the subject, I loved the Joyce Stranger books too.
My first forays into adult books were Dick Francis ones.

I recently acquired a new horse and he's an obstinate bugger but to be fair it's hot and we only have desert landscape. So whenever we come across a crop of grass, I slack the reins and let him have a much and every time I am taken back to Jill's Gymkhana when she is on a verge and Susan Pyke trots past laughing at her. Luckily only camels see us.

Oh Joyce Stranger! I love those so much!

I think they slowly led me into reading “older” books.
I only read Jilly Cooper as there were horses in it 😂

Love them. I also bought the entire set of Jinny At Finmory books last year.

I'm loving all the posts! I feel I'm among friends!

Gosh I loved those books and also the PT sisters ones. Does anyone remember the Brumby books ?

I love the Jill series. All mine are second hand apart from Jill's Gymkhana (90s edition, pony is called Black Boy in it). That one is now on my daughter's bookshelf waiting to be read :)
My favourite bits were when they did the bring and buy sale, the chapter about Christmas day when she describes the presents she gets and when her awful cousin Cecelia visits. Always makes me laugh remembering her asking for "just a lightly boiled egg!"

Another book I had that I loved was Ponies in the Park, I think by one of the Pullein-Thompson sisters.

Is it cousin Cecelia who polishes the saddles with shoe polish? For some reason that faux pas has always stuck in my mind (some 55 years since I first read the books!).

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