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.

The only thing that saddens me is when Captain Wotshisname (with the fat daughters) tells them they should do what their mothers want them to do after leaving school: become secretaries and just have riding as their hobby. I suppose it's sensible, but at one stage Jill wanted to run an orphanage. I just have this sinking image of them marrying company directors and spending their time planning dinner parties when they should be doing fun things with their beloved horses.

Jane Badger is an absolute expert on the Jill books and on so many other pony books. I really enjoyed the two extra Jill books she wrote, and I really don't think that AI had anything to do with it as a previous poster suggested.

About 10 or 12 years ago she wrote a wonderful book called Heroines on Horseback which is basically a book about pony books and the illustrations, the authors etc.

You can buy here: https://janebadgerbooks.co.uk/

I loved the Jill books and re-read occasionally when I need a bit of a comfort read. They are so funny!

Also loved the Ginny books, I think the first one was called For The Love of a Horse.

I’m really glad I found this thread. My daughter is a bit of a reluctant reader but she loves horses so I got her the Pony Club Secrets books by Stacy Gregg - total success! They were such a success that I ended up buying everything that Stacy Gregg had written.

At some point, she’ll run out and have to read something else so I’ve ordered her Jill’s Gymkhana (plus Black Beauty and National Velvet).

I think I have Ponies Plot; will read and report back re space trip!

I've just ordered a paperback copy. These threads are not good for my bank balance! 😂

Just I case this interests anyone - if appears Josephine Pullin Thompson wrote some adult crime books. Very different from her kids ones! I'm about half way through this one and the jury is out but it's currently free on kindle. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B074WY3SJ7?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Ponies Plot; this book is quite weird! It starts off completely normally (albeit from the ponies points of views) and then gets towards the end and yes; a pony does get sent to space and learns to operate the rocket. Bizarre!

It’s a sweet read though. Very jolly hockeysticks of course and the character names are hilarious! Quite nice to have it written from the animal point of view- similar to Black Beauty I suppose. I’m very much a ‘keep your horse forever’ person and this theme was well written about- I feel sorry for ponies who get shoved from home to home as they get outgrown.

@theimposter my copy arrived yesterday. I just have a 'proper grown up novel' to finish and it will be next on my list! Thank you for the update.

Also thank you @Binglebong I might have downloaded that too 😳

Enjoy! I read the whole thing in one night. I think I might start re-reading all of my old books. Escapism from the nastiness of the modern horse world and social media…

I've just started reading it and loving the pompous style of writing. I think I might have said that pony books, which were all fairly dated even in the 70s, informed my writing style as a 9 -13 year old.
I haven't got to the space bit yet, but I must have read it as the pony names are so familiar. I'm not sure I ever came across an 'Unbeatable' as a name anywhere else!
Very literal child me may very well have decided that a pony in space was nonsense and stopped reading at that point.
Thank you so much @Blackcats7 for this lovely thread and imposter for reminding me of this book. It's my afternoon off sorted!

Loved these x Also Jinny of Finmory

It does get a bit ludicrous with the Astro pony 😆

Lovely thread. I grew up overseas in a very out of the way place (80s-90s, barely any western TV) but a high turnover of expats. Every so often a little bookstore in the market would have a consignment of very well read books in English and among them would sometimes be Pullein Thompson and Patricia Leitch books! I’d read them till they fell apart. Often they’d have ‘Lagos yacht club’ or something stamped inside so decades earlier they’d been in the library of some exotic location. Anyway years later as a teenager I came to the UK and worked for a summer on a stud farm. I was gazing at one of the horses there who was the foundation stallion for the stud, by that point very elderly. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be Jinny’s Shantih! From one edition of the collection. He was a chestnut with very unique face markings and his real name was Prince of Orange. A very gentle horse .

How lovely @Mishmashs

@MrMrsMoon it really was :) I got to ride him bareback and he barely even needed to have a head collar on. He’d go out to a field with some older mares (maybe he was past breeding, I’m not sure) and had a lovely retirement. I remember the owner saying he’d always been a gentle horse despite being a stallion!

The name thing always got me. When did horses' names stop being something truly literal truth (Merrylegs, Black Beauty, Ginger, etc) and start being more fanciful (Sula, Shantih,)?

Dogs' names seem to have followed the same pattern, from Rover, Fido etc to the Max, Luna that we have today which are also people names.

Are the names you’re dubbing ‘literal truth’ not just different types of fancifulness, though? I mean ‘Merrylegs’ is fanciful (legs, whether equine or human, are not in themselves merry or gloomy or whatever), just in a slightly more humble way than Shantih? (I never read that series, so no idea if there was a backstory to that name…?)

Doesn’t Jill in the Jill books think Rapide is a silly sort of name at first?

I took Merrylegs to mean that he had very 'active' legs (he was a little pony, so I should think his legs moved a lot). What I really mean is that horses used to be called very 'basic' names that were pretty much just one name 'Jack' or 'Monty' or descriptive names like Black Beauty, Black Boy, Rapide, and then they started having very fancy names (although my pony was just called Jack, I have to admit, but he did have a fancier 'proper, on paper' name).

I grew up riding ponies called Minnie or Rufus, Smokey and there was a Prince in every yard I set foot in. See also: Blue. And Solo. And Silver.
It has changed a lot now. Very fancy names. Often after famous names - I know two Khaleesi's as an example.

I finished Ponies Plot. It was great! I mean the space pony bit was mad, but all part of the fun. It's safe to read as the pony did return.
I definitely read it as a child and I'm going to hang on to my copy this time, to re read in my dotage.
Ed to add: @theimposter I agree on your summary and it reminded me a little of Black Beauty with it's themes too.
I would take little Spice home in a heartbeat!