Fondly remembered YA horse fiction

[McGurk]

Bear in mind I am in my 7th decade, so these books may not have been in print after the 1970s.

I believe it was a trilogy. The start of the series is a young girl who has been orphaned who moves in with relatives. Her parents were horsepeople, the relatives are not. She mourns for horses as much as/or for part of her mourning for her parents.

She starts spying on a horse owning neighbor, hiding in the woods above his riding ring. One day, horse owning neighbor (HON) gets a frantic call from the house about a long distance or overseas call; HON is conflicted, because he has just gotten on/started to warm up. Herione runs down the hill and offers to hold his horse. Having no other choice, HON agrees. When he returns from his call, he finds his horse with stirrups run up correctly, girth loosened and being walked, correctly and competently, by the herione.

Neighbor’s barn becomes herione’s refuge and solace. Herione works for neighbor, neighbor takes her hunting. Barn becomes her family.

Other details I remember: for Halloween one year, she dresses as Jorrocks. Her parents apparently read her Surtees.

At the end of the series she is an older teen, and makes a stunning entrance at a party after cutting off her pigtails in a chic short bob and wearing an emerald green dress.

If anyone can identify these books, let alone tell me where to find them, I will be forever grateful. Trying to remember details of these books (and clearly seeing the illustrations) has been a feature of Insomnia Jeopardy lately.

Thanks in advance!

[mommy_peanut]

Sounds like a good series.

[HenryisBlaisin]

A Horse of Her Own and Irish Hurdles by Selma Hudnut. I have them both. I don’t know of a third book, though.

ETA: Her third book is The Redhead and the Roan, but it is not part of a series and has different characters.

I got them all on Amazon. Irish Hurdles was the hardest to find.

[McGurk]

Oh my gosh, @HenryisBlaisin! Thanks so much!

I knew someone on COTH would remember!

Off to order on Amazon!

ETA: Ordered the first one on Amazon, the second was available from a third party seller for ~$100. May have to source that one someplace else.

PS - I wonder why someone isn’t digging out the classic horse fiction and making it available as an ebook? My memory of these books is that they got the horse details pretty much correct. There is a lot of self published crap out there that isn’t worth the time.

[RHdobes563]

Try bookfinder.com

[McGurk]

Great tip, @RHdobes563! Ordered an inexpensive copy of the Redhead and the Roan.

There were some copies of Irish Hurdles @ ~ $50.00; which is still more than I’m willing to pay. Will have to keep looking.

[Old_Mac_Donald]

https://archive.org/details/horseofherown00hudn

Available free to read - books 1 and 3

[McGurk]

Thanks!

[Spudsmyguy]

While on the subject, does anyone remember a book about a harness racer that was rescued from an abusive owner and turned into a jumper? The book is told from the horse’s point of view. I loved that one as a horse loving teen.

[McGurk]

So, A Horse of Her Own is pretty much as good as I remember, with the horse details and even the hunting details pretty accurate for the time period.

There are some obvious YA horse fiction tropes, like her rescuing her dream horse, etc. but it was a thoroughly enjoyable read. The horses pretty much acted like horses; and her dream horse didn’t rescue her from the well or from a snake out of love. Can’t wait for the next one.

[SharonA1]

OMG! OMG! I am thirteen again, just remembering this book.

[StGermain]

I just read A Horse of Her Own for the first time in probably 50 years. I remembered so much of that story, but had forgotten about it, if that makes sense. But you know what? I named my TB yearling Donnybrook Lad and have called him Irish for the 20+ years I’ve had him, without even remembering the Irish horse in this book. Now I want to read the sequel, but they’re asking $125 for a copy on eBay.

StG