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.

I had such nostalgia for Silver Snaffles that I bought myself another copy! I used to borrow it and borrow it from the library when I was a pony mad child - now I actually own it!

I'm now contemplating buying the set of Jill books that Jane Badger has reissued (I follow her on Facebook and she's selling the entire set at a discount from buying each individually. I just need to find the cash...)

I got re-into pony books about 15 years ago, with Jane Badger's site being very helpful. It was good to fill in the gaps; like other posters I only had what was in my small school library, and yokel village library. So you never read all the books in a series, or in the right order.

One book I missed out on my youth, which hasn't been mentioned and I highly recommend is Patricia Leitch's Dream Of Fair Horses. It's quite outstanding and unique. I also enjoyed one of KM Peyton's later works, Blind Beauty.

Back to Jill; I remember a scene in Jill's Gymkhana (on a hack, a dobbin gets stuck in a ditch) and one of the characters is described as "given to making pointless remarks". That's stuck with me, as I've met SO MANY of these people over the years.....

I also love the line where Ann states that her "only ambition is to be about 30, and a famous woman MFH, and to order Susan Pyke off the field for unsporting behaviour."

I enjoyed the bit where Jill goes to visit Cecilia and is confident she looks "at least fifteen" with a bit of lipstick and differently-combed hair, and her aunt completely ruins it by rushing up and shouting "Darling, were you all right on the train without Mummy??!!" . Also the mad landlady person in Pony Jobs for Jill who ends up dropping Pride and Prejudice into the stew!

I did enjoy your Jill and the Lost Ponies - much more true to the original books than some other sequels :) I hear you have written a second sequel. Do you plan to make it available in the online store?

It was I Had Two Ponies :)

I loved the Jill books so much as a child. I desperately wanted my own brick stables that I could whitewash! Also great to read this thread and remember the PT books and KM Peyton. Read all the silver Brumby books many times aswell. Happy memories of summer holidays lounging in the garden buried in these books as I didn't have my own pony

I credit the Jill books with starting me on my writing career. I used to read them and discuss them with a friend and we agreed that they were realistic (as in the characters and behaviours), but it would be even better if they occasionally had to stop rides to go and find a bush to pee behind (as was our reality). So I started trying to write books that had sufficient amounts of realism in (ie how NORMAL people would behave, not perfect book people).

I have a lot to thank those books for.

I have two sequels on the go - a longer version of Jill and the Unexpected Horses, where I'm adding a lot more of April, May and June, and then Jill and the Highlands, when Jill experiences the matchless joy that is Cecilia's wedding. They will both be available, but I need to finish them, get them beta-read, then proofread, so I hope they will be available some time this year. That's the plan, anyway.

And I'm very glad you liked my sequel!

Oh and her horse was called legend?! Loved these so much. And Jill - my husband got me some off e/bay when I was feeling down

His full name was Another Legend. I loved the bit where the vet told her that he felt obliged to say that during vetting Legend had put in a buck the strength of which almost launched the stable lad riding him into outer space.

Blue shadow was the pony that Melly and Lindo got bought for them. Sisters who stayed with them for the summer…maybe daughters of Jill’s mum’s friend.

And he broke the leg of the owner of the pickle empire who she asked to buy him for her? Yes! I always wanted to see how beautiful the ‘mare who sometimes slips a stifle’ really was 😂

So many happy memories. Am also going. To rewatch international velvet.

Foes anyone remember ‘there’s no mistaking corker’ and also ‘Rennie goes riding?’

I used to utterly love the saddle club as well.

My dog used to be a lhasa apso called Dolly. It was only years later, when randomly googling the saddle club that I realised Lisa also had a lhasa apso called Dolly! haha

I still have my copy of No Mistaking Corker. One of my favourite books.

I am absolutely here for Cecilia's wedding, and have my fingers crossed that Auntie Primrose and Mummy strongarm Jill into being the world's most unwilling bridesmaid Bonus points for Susan Pyke spotting her in full pink frilly glory!

Reading this brought back lots of happy memories - but I also loved the send up of pony books by C Northcote Parkinson - Ponies Plot - when the ponies in a riding stable (owned by Daisy Dedleigh-Sirkett) hear they are going to be sold and plot their own happy endings.

Thank you!!! I have been trying to remember the name of this book. I felt sorry for Prune.

I loved these books so much, my mother actually hid them as I would read them on loop instead of picking up what she considered 'worthwhile' books.

I introduced them to DD a few years ago and was a little shocked (but unsurprised) at how badly they've aged . . . Jill isn't terribly kind to a lot of people (does anyone remember the 'Fats'???) But they will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Didn't one of them end up going to space?

Oh don’t put that image into my head! One of my most hated things is animals sent into space.
Actually it is good that you warned me, I hadn’t remembered that and was just about to buy a copy.
Will stick to Jill instead.

I read most of the Jill books to my daughter a couple of years ago, thinking that I'd quite like to live in Jill-land. Ponies in your own orchard, riding all morning, hardly any traffic on the roads, and then huge teas with crumpets late afternoon.

There's one book when someone comments that Jill "has been working like a black" - I presume that's been changed in any new issues.

That's not sad!! I loved those books too.

But Prune never gets into space - he deliberately crashes the capsule and becomes a circus clown re enacting the crash! I think the replacement gets to Pegasus and becomes a flying horse? Must go and find my copy!

I have just put my Jill books (and many other pony books, mainly Pullein-Thompsons') into storage under a bed. They were out on a bookshelf we are replacing and we won't have as much shelf space now. I toyed with passing them on, but couldn't do it.