Favorite Horse Books from way back when

[Beezer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
(Originally posted by PamM)

I just found out, thanks to the link provided by everythingbutwings (geeze it is hard to type athat without putting in spaces…) that Patsey Gray is the author of the book “Challenger” that was my second fave of all time! And it took place at Cow Palace (Grand National). When I was a kid, I was used to MSG and the maclay finals, so I thought that the author of challenger didn’t know whereof she spoke, until I moved to Woodside, Ca and showed at Cow Palace. Then it all made sense… <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Doh! I think I might even have “Challenger” sitting on a bookshelf at home. If not, I will definitely have to go hunting for it. And the Cow Palace indeed used to be “the” in place for the Northern California set; it’s a grand place, isn’t it? Our version of the indoors. It’s been so long since I’ve been up that way … do they still hold hunter shows at the Cow Palace? We used to show up in Santa Rosa (and Sacramento) a lot but haven’t been up there in years…

But back to books… Anyone remember “Dark Sunshine” by Dorothy Lyons? Or “Blue Roan”? Anything by Jean Doty is great…

And speaking of East versus West, several years ago when I was at a bookseller in Cambridge, Mass., who specialized in horse books, she highly praised a kids book that had a title along the lines of “Silver Spurs” or ??? I know it had “spurs” in the title and it was about hunters; she said she could never keep copies in stock because all the “pony moms” who read it as kids have to find it again for THEIR pony-riding kids. Anyone have a clue about what book she meant?

[Weatherford]

as propaganda (in the BEST SENSE) for the RSPCA (or something related) in England in the late 19th century.

The original printings were cheap paper pamphlets, and sold enormous numbers to raise money and awareness of abuse!

It succeeded beyond their wildest expectations!

(so speaks the former book dealer with a barn full of them in NJ…all horse related, ofc course.)

[baymare]

Ccoronios the short story you described I am almost sure is from Marguerite Henry’s “Album of Horses”, beautifully illustrated by Wesley Dennis. It was a huge favorite, along with her “King of the Wind” and others.

Paul Brown (I lucked into a copy of National Velvet with the Paul Brown illustrations at a used book store this fall), C.W. Anderson, and Wesley Dennis are favorite illustrators. I remember “Pamela” and the Dorothy Lyons books. Also, years ago an adult student of mine who had ridden with the late great Gordon Wright lent me her copies of a couple of fiction works of his. One I remember had to do with a lovely young heroine who had lost her confidence, whose beautiful divorced or widowed mother kept meeting the trainer over cocktails…

[J_Turner]

An old, old book called “The White Pony in the Hills” is sooooo good. It’s very thick (for a little kid anyway). It’s told in the 3rd person omniscient so you get into the mid of the pony – so cute – as well as the human characters. It about a mother and daughter who ride(!) from Boston to Vermont to find a farm to buy to raise ponies, which they do. The pony’s dilemma is that his “mistress” is growing out of him, which makes him jealous of the horses which she rides. It’s awesome.

My source for horsie books of old is the Bryn Mawr Booksale. My grandmother is an alumnae (note feminine Latin ending - can I get the Merriam Webster Award?) and volunteered for years. She always picked me up horsie books. They have them in all parts of the country, whereever there’s an alumnae chapter.

[Cinco_de_Mayo]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Everythingbutwings:
Is Danza the one where the Paso founders?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, Wings, he founders then comes back to win the championship at the show but the minute he steps out of the arena he is dead lame from the performance he gave. I love that book-especially the part where the boy takes the young show horse out for a ride and lets him perform the faster gaits-corto and largo- although he was only supposed to do the fino; it reminds me how when we were kids we would see just HOW high our hunter ponies could jump/HOW fast they could gallop.

[Ghazzu]

Wings–
would you be thinking of “A Portion for Foxes”?

Books I loved (and still do):

School for Young Riders

Horsemaan’s Encyclopedia by Margaret Self
and the companion volume–Great Horse Stories, which turned me on to:
Surtees–all the Jorrocks and related books
David Gray and his “Gallops”
Gordon Grand’s tales of Col. Weatherford
and more.

King of the Wind
Black Beauty
Come On Seabiscuit
The Horsemasters
The Phantom Roan
My Friend Flicka and sequels
The Irish RM stories
Smokey the Cowhorse

I could go on and on…

[Weatherford]

Kate Seredy, I do believe was the name of the author.

The B&W illustrations for Black Beauty sounds suspiciously like our favorite illustrator’s edition - you know the PB guy whom no one can afford to buy any more? (Paul Brown - not paperback!) His BB illutrations appeared in both a condensed (simplified) version as well as the full length version. He also illustrated National Velvet - which is relatively available in the Grossett & Dunlap reprint edition.

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I will again, if you can find Terri Wear’s Annotated Bibliography of Horse Fiction (I think her cut off date was 1980), you will be one hundred steps ahead of everyone else in finding your favorites. While she does miss some, she does get most of the best ones, and I have found the book absolutely invaluable. I MIGHT even have a couple of extra copies…(Ha, I shall put them on eBay and finace my next trek to Ireland!)

[CdnRider]

I didn’t notice anyone else mention it and it is my absolute favorite: A horse Called Holiday.
Its about a girl that can’t afford her own horse and rides other peoples horses. She eventually gets a big chestnut tb who is deaf. This horse is old and has some fears from a very bad fall and eventually they over come the fears. Its a great feel good book!!

I also liked (own) Everyday Friends, Somebody’s horse, A Horse of Her Own, Dark Sunshine (another good one!), many Walter Farley books, Saddleclub books etc. And many of these are so tattered from countless reading. I think I read A horse called holiday about 15 times.

[lil_orphan_annie]

Thanks Rlclark for info on “Fly by Night” sequels. I’m going to the library to ask them to order them for me. I think I read “The Beethoven Medal” when I was about 12 but can’t remember much about it. I still have “Fly-by-Night,” I tend to pull it off the shelf on cold dark dreary days when I’m looking for something to do, it is so heart-warming! (I like books where the under-dog makes good)

[rockstar]

You know, Black Beauty was, hands down, my absolute favorite horsie book (and def. one of my favorite horse books all together!). It’s funny that I decided to read this thread because I’ve been thinking about Black Beauty and Ginger and all of their friends for days now. This past week I was in Seville… a beautiful and quite wonderful old city in southern Spain. Now, I go to New York City all the time and see the horses and carriages all around the Plaza Hotel and central park and usually try not to think much of them or let them get to me.

However, Seville just had horses and carriages EVERYWHERE! I couldn’t avoid thinking about the treatment of the carriage horse. You can’t walk five feet without seeing one or hearing the clopping of hooves on pavement in the distance. Every time I walked by one I thought of Black Beauty and the dreaded “bearing rein” (sp?) and the blinders, two items which nearly all of the horses sported. Many of them seemed visibly unsound to me. As well, many of them had long, shaggy coats and were sweating like crazy in the strong southern heat. Nearly all of them were very bothered by the blinders. Am I crazy in thinking that it is all incredibly inhumane in this moder age? To be sure, the romanticsim of a horse drawn carriage ride through the most resplendent parts of an old city is quite alluring. And I must confess, I even gave in and went for a ride my first day there.

But the more time I spent there and the more I got to see these horses, the more disgusted I became. I used to have to lunge or gallop many of my horses for hours to get them quiet… am I then a hypocrite to cringe when I see the horses carting tourist after tourist around in cities such as New York and Seville?

To see these horses trotting along on pavement for hours a day just really got to me. I guess I always rationalized my brand of torture for preparing to show because I loved my animals so much and I took exceptional care of them in the end and lavished as much love and attention on them as I could. But these horses go through so much more, and I have little evidence to make me believe that the drivers see them as any more than beasts of burden that are there to be exploited for their ability to lure tourists in and put money in their pockets.

So, I totally just crashed this lovely thread… perhaps I should start a topic if anyone has comments on this?

[Quinn]

Great Heart by C.W. Anderson. Wonderful story.

[Dementia_13]

does anyone remember a book called “Blitz?” i would love to know who wrote and many find a copy somewhere.

---

Wasn’t that the book about the horse that pulled the fire-wagon and went through a black-beauty like downturn and was rescued by a little boy? If so, I loved that book when I was a kid.

[Everythingbutwings]

Dorothy Lyons really got around the horse world! Silver Birch, Midnight Moon, Golden Soveriegn and Copper Khan were all in a series of saddle seat and driving. Smoke Rings was (I think) about cutting horses, Dark Sunshine with they crippledgirl, Blythe, Red Embers about polo, Blue Smoke and it’s sequel were California 3 day horses and another was about an Appy mare, can’t remember the name right now. OH! Bright Wampum!

Wonderful stories. Fools over Horses is VERY much the Virginia setting, girl trying to raise hunters on her family estate, family friend (non horsey good guy) tries to save the place from going for taxes.

There was another about the hunt country that was more like a soap opera (seemier side of the classy set), I remember a big to do over the highway cutting through the hunt territory. Loads of horses, sex and partys. Had a scene reminiscent of the Godfather - drat! Can’t remember the title.

How about the wonderful illustrators? Paul Brown, Sam Savitt, Wesley Dennis, C.W. Anderson? I loved Paul Brown’s “Silver Heels” and “Pony Farm” Thelwell had nothing on his ponies!

[This message has been edited by Everythingbutwings (edited 11-30-2000).]

[Winglet]

There has been a BIG oversight! Are ETBW & I the only ones who read Harlequin Hullaballoo?

JoHn (WiNgLeT)

[daytimedrama]

Keeping Barney
You’re somebody special on a horse.
A very young rider
Summer horse
Winter horse
Dark horse

[Lord_Helpus]

Thank you all who provided links to bookfinding companies. So far I have located Challenger (Patsey Gray) and Hobby Horse Hill(Lavinia R. Davis). but, SOB, no copies of Pamela or the sequel. I will perservere, now that I am on a mission.

BTW, for horse crazy teens nowadays, there is a series of books called the Thoroughbred series. I helped provide background and setting for one of the books and was rewarded by being put in a book as the friendly horse trainer who befriends the 16 year old champion-jockey-in-the-making. And my horse was put in as a stakes winner which she rides (NOT the hero horse of course). But he actually won a stakes in the book, which is certainly more than he ever did in real life. LOL

For those of you buying books for a 12 year old girl, it is #40 in the series and is called “Ultimate Risk”… (my boy is Decisive Moment and I am the wonderful, warm, understanding trainer, Pam Mahony and another of my horses, Commanche Trail, got a mention also!)

What fun!

[horsenut]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Robby Johnson:
[B]“For Love of a Horse,” which was about this family who moved from England to Scotland and the daughter tamed this wild Arabian mare who’d escaped from the carnival and almost died on the moor (I know, heavy drama now that I just read that)

“The Summer Riders,” which was the sequel to “For Love of a Horse.” Pretty good too, when one is 10 years-old

Robby[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh my gosh! I’d forgotten all about those books and I ADORED them. It seemed so hard to find horsey books when I was a kid – now they’ve got all this Saddle Club stuff.

Oh, and “Summer Pony” and “Winter Pony”!! I loved them!! That link to Alibris.com is going to be the death of me … they HAVE a lot of this stuff!

Did anyone else ever read “Scarlet Royal” by Anne Emery? I must’ve taken that book out of the library DOZENS of times.

[Everythingbutwings]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ghazzu:
[B]Wings–
would you be thinking of “A Portion for Foxes”?

King of the Wind
Black Beauty
Come On Seabiscuit
The Horsemasters
The Phantom Roan
My Friend Flicka and sequels
The Irish RM stories
Smokey the Cowhorse

I could go on and on…

[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

A Portion for Foxes, yes, I think that is it. I still have all my Flicka series as well as Smokey the Cowhorse and Come On Seabiscuit! The Horsemasters was great, about the a group taking the British horsemaster course. Learned about jumping lanes and strapping from that one

How about the Lonesome Sorrel? Unusual to find one with a boy for the center character.

Col S. P. Meek (Frog) wrote several others that are available through the book find lists.

[Bumpkin]

Rather than start a new thread I dug up this olde one.
Weatherford have you read the two privately printed hunting books titled:
We Go Fox Hunting Abroad and
More Fox Hunting in England by Charles D. Lanier?
They were printed in 1924 and 1927 and are delightful stories about Fox Hunting.
I cannot recall where I picked them up, I think in Middleburg, ages ago.
They are both signed and inscribed on October 20, 1942 to General BF Cheatham.
Do you know if this gentleman, Mr Lanier, wrote more books?

[Winglet]

Frog, the horse that knew no master by Colonel S.P. Meek was/is one of my all time favorites. Wild horse, Cavalry horse, Polo horse, and jumper all in one!

JoHn (WiNgLeT)