My favorite were the “Jill” books…Written by Ruby Ferguson, a British author. I read these in the 60’s after finding one in the school library. I loved it so much that the librarian let me trade another book for it so I could keep it…
Set in England, the series of books followed Jill, her ponies and friends…Great books, still available at some hard to find specialty stores and on line. I ordered a few of them several years ago to re-read and still love them.
Here is the complete list and year published:
Jill’s Gymkhana, 1947
A Stable for Jill, 1951
Jill Has Two Ponies, 1952
Jill Enjoys Her Ponies, 1954
Jill’s Riding Club, 1956
Rosettes for Jill, 1957
Jill and the Perfect Pony, 1959
Pony Jobs for Jill, 1960
Jill’s Pony Trek, 1962
PONY PALS!
I have some of the Jill books too. My other favorites were The Horsemasters, Pamela and the Blue Mare and The Blue Mare in the Olympics (or Olympic Trials?) as well as the 3 Cammie books, Cammie’s Choice, Cammie’s Challenge and Cammie’s Cousin. When I was really small I “read” the CW Anderson Billy & Blaze books, so beautifully illustrated by the author; I also read Nancy Caffrey’s books, Pony Farm, Somebody’s Pony, Show Pony, Pony School, all illustrated by Paul Brown. I have bought many of these books used, partly for the wonderful illustrations. That’s just a few of my favorites.
C.W. Anderson :
A filly for Joan
Great heart
Billy and Blaze
A pony in the rumble seat
Walter Farley’s “The Black Stallion” series.
All Marguerite Henry’s books (“Misty of Chincoteague,” etc.)
Pony Pals, The Saddle Club, and Thoroughbred. And I remember there being books called Pine Hollow, which were when the saddle club was older teenagers, and dealt with slightly more adult things. I want to find those lol.
I remember reading all of the Black Stallion books by Walter Farley over and over again. There was a whole series and I loved them. I also loved the books like King of the Wind, Misty of Chincoteague and I think there was a whole series by Marguerite Henry that I LOVED!
I think I have them somewhere … I should pull them out and have my kids read them!
The Saddle Club and the Thoroughbred series! (90s)
2 Likes
[QUOTE=Beau Cheval;3648761]
Pony Pals, The Saddle Club, and Thoroughbred. And I remember there being books called Pine Hollow, which were when the saddle club was older teenagers, and dealt with slightly more adult things. I want to find those lol.[/QUOTE]
If you find them…please let me in on the fun. :yes: I’m still not too old for Stevie, Lisa and Carole.
I read Thoroughbred, Saddle Club, a few of the Pine Hollow (but I don’t think that series lasted long) and anything by Jean Slaughter Dotty (Monday Horses and The Crumb are in my keeper library). There were a few favs from my school library that I remember titles too, but not author names… Everyday Friends, Flying Changes, Last Junior Year, and Tic Tac.
One book I remember vividly but cannot remember title or author… Girl has a horse named Raz that she took all the way to medal finals. Now horse is lame and she wants to do the right thing by him. Her dad was her trainer but then her mom died and he became an uncaring jerk. Girl gets haunted by teen boy who her dad killed by stringing a trip wire across an atv trail. More teen angsty stuff and then the horse is put down and ghost boy rides him away (and I thought Twilight was strange…).
Oh and another… Book about girl who rescues a horse but it is way too much for her… makes a deal with her dad that they would give it a year. She likes her trainer’s son and he is a good rider… trainer and son leave at the end of the book because the trainer’s husband was a jerk who hit golfballs at horses. Book goes on for another 100 pages somehow, horse and girl have a lightbulb moment and dad lets her keep it… yaaay.
Strange that I had forgotten about all of those until just now.
The typical-Marguerite Henry, Walter Farley, Pony Pals, Saddle Club. And Heartland!
I was so horse-crazy I even read this absolutely hideous series about a girl who’s simultaneously a world-champion reiner and a Jr Jumper or something insane like that. To top it off, the writer liked to randomly insert Christian teachings. It was something like Higher Flyers or something.
The Perfect Distance by Kim Abalon Whitney
The Blaze books. C.W. Anderson
Misty and series. Marguarite Henry.
The Black Stallion and series. Walter Farley.
Sam Savitt - an awesome horse illustrator of my childhood.
[QUOTE=kateh;3648794]
I was so horse-crazy I even read this absolutely hideous series about a girl who’s simultaneously a world-champion reiner and a Jr Jumper or something insane like that. To top it off, the writer liked to randomly insert Christian teachings. It was something like Higher Flyers or something.[/QUOTE]
Haha, I remember those ones… my mom tried to buy me some from the Bible store, but I never got into it. Even I knew some of it was waaaay too far fetched ;).
Dark Horse; Summer Pony; Winter Pony; Can I Get There By Candlelight?; Valley of Ponies; King of the Wind; Misty of Chincoteague; Sea Star; Stormy, Misty’s Foal; Old Bones; a few of the Saddle Club series, and just about all of the Thoroughbred series.
ETA - I just remembered that I used to have a book about a unicorn that I enjoyed… shoot me the names of some “chapter” books dealing with unicorns that would date no later than the early 90s. I vaguely remember an ogre, I think, and a snotty/grumpy Lady (capitalized intentionally).
I practically devoured the entire Black Stallion series (and still have them complete with my little horse drawings all over them!). as I got a little older, I got heavily into Dick Francis mysteries…
My Friend Flika
Thunderhead
Green Green Grass of Wyoming
King of the Wind (far and away my favorite…I still read that one once a year and I’m 20!)
Most of the Marguerite Henry books, actually.
Smoky the Cow Horse
Black Beauty
Man O’War
Some of the black stallion books
The Thoroughbred books pertaining to jumping.
Walter Farley’s Black Stallion and Island Stallion series.
And a good book called “Pat’s Harmony” and I forget the author.
[QUOTE=Beau Cheval;3648761]
Pony Pals, The Saddle Club, and Thoroughbred. And I remember there being books called Pine Hollow, which were when the saddle club was older teenagers, and dealt with slightly more adult things. I want to find those lol.[/QUOTE]
You can probably find Pine Hollow books on Amazon
