Come Riding With Me

Frederick Muller Ltd, London, 1955, illus Tom Carr

Reprinted 1960

Looks to be non-fiction, but is actually a story, Jane is being taught to ride by her aunt,
and she progresses from raw beginnership to hunting.

Susan’s Riding School
Chatto & Windus, 1956, (Mary Dunn Career Novels)

Character list

Susan’s first job is at a local riding school, after which she works at a stud, and then has a very unpleasant
time in a livery stables.  She then studies for her British Horse Society examinations, and starts a riding
stables with her friend Mary.
 

Ponies in the Heather
Lutterworth Press, 1959, illus Jennifer Kent

Four children (Paul, Murray, Fiona and Clare) are in the Highlands for their holidays.  They decide
to form the Glen Ennicht Foxhounds with a pack of “five rogues and vagabonds” and their own
four ponies.

Veronica Heath (1927-2012) wrote one true pony story:  Ponies in the Heather.  Susan’s Riding School is a career novel (part of the Mary Dunn Career Novels series) and her other three titles were part of a slightly odd series, the Junior Sportsman’s Library issued by Frederick Muller in the 1950s and 1960s.  It aimed to encourage young people to take up various sports through what were basically factual books dressed up with a thin veneer of story.  The three titles she wrote are not a series, being about different characters.  

Veronica Heath started writing when she was 17, and had an impressively long career, only stopping when she was 83. Her articles covered a wide range: country sports, rural enterprises, gundogs, cookery and more. She was the Guardian’s country diarist for Northumberland for 35 years, as well as contributing to The Telegraph, The Shooting Times and The Field.

Finding the books:  If you want to read her pony books, don’t start with Susan’s Riding School:  it is very hard to find indeed.  The other titles are reasonably easy to find.  

Links and sources:

Veronica Heath’s daughter, Rose Murray Brown

Come Pony Trekking With Me

Frederick Muller Ltd, London, 1964, illus Tom Carr

Set in a pony trekking centre in Northumberland, this is the story of the Spencer family on
holiday.

Bibliography - pony books only

Come Show Jumping With Me

Frederick Muller Ltd, London, 1961, illus Tom Carr
 

Many thanks to Konstanze Allsopp for the picture.

“In this absorbing story we follow the fortunes of Jane, the heroine of Come Riding With Me, in her bid to become
successful in the show jumping ring. The reader is taken through each phase of show jumping training, including
the purchase of a suitable young pony and its earliest schooling and progression through small shows until in the
most exciting final chapter Jane successfully competes at the International Horse Show. “