George Jennison wrote a few animal and natural history titles, including one on animals in Ancient Rome.  He also wrote this one horse book, May the Mare.  This is an example of the genre made hugely successful by Black Beauty:  the story of a horse, told by itself.  May undergoes the traditional rite of passage of being stolen by gypsies before ending up as a happy horse.  The book does have one particularly unusual episode:  the tale told by a carthorse of a stallion and a tiger, set in India.  The stallion is, rather cheeringly, called Man-eater, which gives you some idea of what happens.

Finding the book:  very difficult to find.

Links and sources:

Thanks to Amanda Dolby for the photograph of the dustjacket.

George Jennison

May the Mare

A & C Black Ltd, London, 1926,  pp.186 pp.

Reprinted with slight corrections 1928

Reprinted 1933, 186 pp.

This is May’s story, told by herself, of her foalhood, hunting
experiences, and rather more exotic tales told to her by the
horses she meets.

Bibliography - pony books only