Long time lurker finally coming out of the shadows thanks to this thread. After years of toil, I just published my horsey novel – “Margaret Fletcher: Gallop Girl, A Fall From Grace at Forty Miles an Hour”. It’s a lighthearted comedy aimed at adults. It’s only available as an ebook on Amazon now (still working on the print copy). Hopefully this doesn’t count as advertising since it is on topic (technically, it is my favorite horse novel ;)). If so, please delete and my apologies.
[QUOTE=cllane1;7905217]
Horse Heaven as mentioned.
National Velvet by Enid Bagnold.
I liked the Dressage Chronicles series too, although I find the characters all a bit stereotypic and overdrawn. But love the insight into high level dressage: the author is a judge and rider too.
Didn’t Walter Farley write a novel about Secretariat called Big Red or similar? I loved that book as a kid.[/QUOTE]
Walter Farley’s book (fiction) about Man o’ War is Man o’ War (1965). Wonderful fictional portrayal of Big Red.
Big Red by C.W. Anderson (1943) is also about Man o’ War. Good too.
Big Red of Meadow Stable by William Nack (1975) is about Secretariat. i haven’t read it.
National Velvet is one of my favorite horse novels. Another is Show Gypsies by Leigh Brown. And of course Black Beauty.
The Stone Pony. It is about a girl whose horse owning sister dies and how she copes. Beautiful story.
The Clan of the Cave Bear series up until SoS. Well, the first one doesn’t have horses, but it is still awesome.
Black Beauty, Warhorse, all those classics that have been mentioned.
A horse of two colors - This one is about a Native American boy and his horse
Happily After All - This one is a kid’s book but I loved it as a child and gave it to my daughter.
So many out there.
[QUOTE=Frosty M;7906354]
Pamela and the Blue Mare may not be my favorite horse novel, but it is certainly the most useful. I read it at the same time I got my first pony when I was twelve. I named that red-roan mustang Frosty Morning after the filly in the book and still use the moniker for my on- line name. BUT, what was useful about the book was the excellent descriptions of training Frosty Morning, which were textbook applications of Vladimir Littauer’s method of “stabilizing” a young horse. My Frosty was a quick learner and we were jumping 2’6" and hill-topping on fox hunts within a few months. Unfortunately, she colic-ed and died one night.
She was a great pony and that book was a great training guide. I used what I learned from it training other horses for my junior showing days and career as a pro trainer/instructor.
Black Beauty is my favorite horse novel. I’ll be on the lookout for the Jilly Cooper books. I can’t wait to read them.[/QUOTE]
When a similar thread appeared about 10 years ago on COTH, I also voted for Pamela and the Blue Mare. Someone sent me a sample chapter – and it took me right back to my childhood. What a great story.
[QUOTE=Old Grey Mare;7908118]
Black Beauty–not a sentimental kid’s book, but the “Uncle Tom’s Cabin of the Horse.” And if you can find it, The Annotated Black Beauty by Ellen Wells is a treasure!
National Velvet (get the one with the Paul Brown illustrations!)
My Friend Flicka, ThunderHead & Green Grass of Wyoming, also Wyoming Summer by Mary O’Hara.
All the great old Marguerite Henry books: King of the Wind, Born to Trot, Black Gold, etc.
The Sister Jane foxhunting series, Riding Shotgun & High Hearts by Rita Mae Brown
So many books, so little time![/QUOTE]
O-G-M has already listed my favorites, plus quite a few more that I guess I’d better look into, since it appears that her taste and mine coincide! 
The Horse That God Built about Secretariat
Wild Ride [about rise/fall of Calumet]
There were some Rita Maes on sale at Barnes/Noble in the discounted books section if you buy/read paper books.
[QUOTE=Lord Helpus;7935125]
When a similar thread appeared about 10 years ago on COTH, I also voted for Pamela and the Blue Mare. Someone sent me a sample chapter – and it took me right back to my childhood. What a great story.[/QUOTE]
Seconded! And don’t forget the sequel, The Blue Mare In The Olympic Trials. I’ve got both, mint in dust jackets. I should probably have them in a safe! :lol:
Equally awesome, appallingly expensive, is the 1975 classic The Show Gypsies. Probably THE BEST novel EVER written about show jumping. How I wish someone would bring out a reprint so more people could read it! If you want to know how it really was and is, nitty-gritty, THIS is your book! Long out of print yet in demand, and the price reflects it. Unforgettable.
The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle.
But be warned, it is really, really dark. But beautifully written and poignant.
