Afraid to Ride
Classic pony books
Available again
There are over 40 titles out now. Coming soon:
Patricia Leitch
Highland Pony Trek (out now)
Afraid to Ride (out now)
Caroline Akrill
Caroline Canters Home – fully illustrated paperback (out now)
Diana Pullein-Thompson
Ponies in the Valley (out in 2021)
Ponies on the Trail (out in 2021)
Ponies in Peril (out in 2021)
Most titles are also now available on Kobo.
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Book Spotlight
Patricia Leitch
Afraid to Ride
Have you ever felt that sickening lurch in your stomach as you thought about doing something you used to love? When the prospect of getting on another horse again makes you want to run away and hide?
I have. And I think that’s why Afraid to Ride still rings so many bells with me. It’s a feel-good story, in which heroine Jill does find her way through the fog of fear, helped by the Fell pony, Digory, but you do get to see very vividly just what an effect an accident has on Jill.
Whilst still in the midst of her fears, Jill has to go on holiday to a riding school with her horsy cousins. Torture, but all those nerveless cousins provide an interesting counterpoint to Jill. And you get plenty of children-running-a-riding-school action as well (what could possibly go wrong)?
The thing that strikes me, reading it as an adult, is that Jill finds her way through by herself, basically by finding her own time and space to come to terms with what happened to her. I wonder if that ever happened to Patricia Leitch? We’ll probably never know, but I think it’s fair to believe that she, like so many of us, knew what it was to fear what you were supposed to love.
Authors A–Z is where you’ll find information on pony book authors: the encyclopaedia part of the site
Not all authors have yet been moved over to this site, particularly American authors. You can still find my old site here.
Click below to buy Heroines on Horseback
Author Jane Badger
Heroines on Horseback
The pony book galloped onto the children’s book scene with a flick of its rosetted bridle, and has remained a fixture ever since. Brave girls and nervous ones, scruffy ponies and ornaments of the show ring cantered through pony tale after pony tale, all fallen upon by an audience desperate to read anything that reflected their own passion for the pony.
Books, Mud and Compost. And Horses. Read my blog here.
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About Jane Badger
I’m a freelance writer, editor and proof reader. I’ve written Heroines on Horseback (2019), a gallop through the pony book in children’s fiction, and have written the world’s largest website on equine literature.
I’ve now started a publishing company to bring back the classics of pony fiction.
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Cover images
Photo by Thibault Carron on Unsplash
Photo (Fell pony) Ruth Chamberlain – Ruth on the Hoof
Photo (clouds) by Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash