For non-fiction, I recommend Renegade Champion: The Unlikely Rise of Fitzrada by Richard Rust. My former farrier recommended it!
A Portion for Foxes Jane McIlvane McClary currently on Amazon 3$
I think they’ve all been recommended thus far, but seconding/thirding/fourthing:
The Lady and Ring of Fire, both Anne McCaffrey
Horseplay by Judy Reene Singer
Dressage Chronicles (think there’s 3 or 4 now, all on Kindle Unlimited, I think)
A Circuit (teen focused, but really fun)
all the Kim Ablon Whitney ones
Riders, by Jilly Cooper
Chronicles of the $700 Pony by Ellen Broadhurst
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If you’re interested in a memoir that reads like fiction, I recommend Jane Smiley’s “A Year at the Races”, which details her brief foray into owning a racehorse. It feels sort of like a horse racing version of The Sandlot.
Sara Gruen, Riding Lessons and Flying Changes
Alice L. O’Connell’s Pamela and the Blue Mare, Pamela and the Blue Mare at the Olympics. I had an almost eerie experience with these books while I was starting out with my first pony aged 11. They are very compelling fiction books about a beginning rider training a pony to jump with an excellent instructor who was using Vladimar Littauer’s method of Balanced Seat riding, learning to stabilize your young horse. IRL my instructor was also using VL’s methods so I was backed up by real life experiences as well a reading it in a book. I’m still being influenced by it because Pamela’s blue mare was named Frosty Morning. I named my pony the same and here I am sixty years later posting as Frosty M.
I hope you enjoy these books as much as I did. They got a five star review from Kirkus.
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Frosty, Smoke Rings was about a youngish teen girl training for the Olympic eventing team. I think the Woffords might even be mentioned. Of course,in the end she couldn’t go because women weren’t allowed to ride in eventing at the Olympics till 64. Dorthy Lyons rote some great horse books. They were about all disciplines too. One was about Sunshine something I think and it was western and I think the girl was slightly disabled. then Harlequin Hullabaloo was about gaited horses. And there were two books about Merlin in Jump shy.
Oh yes, I forgot about these! Also great!
Dark Sunshine… that was my fave. I always wanted a sooty buckskin mare named Dark Sunshine. 
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Don’t forget the classics if you haven’t already read them;
My Friend Flicka trilogy,
Smokey the Cowhorse and others by Will James or Zane Grey,
Black Beauty, and
National Velvet.
For fun, maybe some short story collections; look for James Herriot and others.
Here is a short story online, a section of The Day’s Work by Kipling, called “The Maltese Cat”:
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/kip…/chapter9.html
As mentioned, Dick Francis’ mysteries.
The Irish R.M. books by Somerville & Ross – not strictly about horses but they figure heavily.
Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley. I just re-read this because I enjoyed it so much.
The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon
The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
Stud: Adventures in Breeding by Kevin Conley
The Wild Heart by Helen Griffiths (young adult novel)
Pilot the Hunter by H.M. Peele
I discovered the Irish RM thanks to PBS. It was hysterical. Then I bought the book. I remember going into the swanky bookstore and asking for it. The sales clerk looking puzzled. “That is the third request for that this week.”
@PeteyPie :applause: for suggesting The Maltese Cat!
I have loved & had read to me, then read Kipling since I was a small child & this is hands-down my favorite work of his.
I defy any horseperson to read this story & not feel as if they had lived the experience of playing polo from the horses’ POV. :love-struck:
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I’m going to repeat some, and several aren’t H/J, but here’s my list:
Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley
Barn Blind by Jane Smiley
A Year at the Races by Jane Smiley (nonfiction, but a compelling story of her horses, not a fact manual)
Flying Changes by Sara Gruen
Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen
Missionville by Alex Brown
The Reivers by William Faulkner
Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon
The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand (nonfiction, but another compelling, readable story)
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara and the other books in the trilogy
And of course, you have the Dick Francis novels, which are mystery novels centered around racing in the UK.
OMG, I forgot about that book! I need to find a copy…
Pilot the Hunter was the beginning of a series about the Leysham Stud owned by Ann Henderson and her husband.
Each book focussed on a different aspect of equestrian sport (some better than others)
Pilot the Hunter
Pilot the Chaser (Pilot enters the Grand National)
Easter the Showjumper
Night Storm the Flatracer
Dido and Rogue (polo and harness)
Gay Darius (eventing)
Untamed (set in the Australian outback. It’s a crossover with Jago)
2 stand alones - both set in Australia
Fury, son of the wilds (wild horse ends up running in the Melbourne Cup. Far fetched but a good read)
Jago
I borrowed most of the series from my local public library when I was a kid, but the copy of Gay Darius was missing.
I finally read it in the British Library when I visited England in 2014. It was a trip highlight!
The author is sometimes given as Hazel M Peel or H M Peel. Can be either.
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Jump Shy was written by Joan Houston and illustrated by Paul Brown. One of my favorite childhood stories.
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Well, this a a little out there, but the New York Times book review has a section “Match Book” in which people write in and ask for recommendations of books to read. This week someone wrote in explaining that her horse Liebchen is on stall rest for 6 months, and she (the owner) needs books to read to her (the horse). A bunch of recommendations followed:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/books/review/horse-recovering-pet.html
I hope the link opens, and that an account/password is not needed
“Genuine Reason for Sale” and “To A Good Home Only” by Jennifer Melrose. “Working Trot” by Jessie Haas. “Dark Horse” series by Mary Herbert. “King of the Wind” by Marguerite Henry. “Year of the black pony” by Walt Morey. “Dunn Lady’s Jess” by Duranna Durgin to name a few not listed yet.
Bumping up this old thread, because we can always use another good horse book, and I just finished ready Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch and it is so funny and so pony
Here’s an article about it:
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/18/1213978439/nprs-book-of-the-day-christina-lynch-pony-confidential
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So funny as I read this thread I was thinking I should add Pony Confidential and got to the end and realized you’d bumped the thread exactly for that purpose. I thought it was a pretty delightful and fun read and would also recommend it.
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