The blog.
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How to put off getting back on a horse
I could do a solid hundred pages on how I put off getting back to riding again, because I have a fertile brain and I put it to good use finding excuse after excuse after excuse for why I wasn’t riding again. I knew the real reason I didn’t was because I was scared stiff,…
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Facing the fear: coming back to riding
I started riding when I was about seven. I’d been horse mad ever since I realised what a horse was, and one day Mum took me and my sister up to a local stable. Would we, she asked, like to have riding lessons. Would we! I loved it from the very first lesson. I was…
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What to call your pony book
Have you written a pony book? Writing a book is one thing, but thinking of a title for it is quite another. Do you tell the reader exactly what they’re going to get, or do you hint at it? Publishers in the past worked on the fair assumption that if you were looking for a…
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Victoria Eveleigh: my horses
The horses in my stories, and how they got there Welcome to today’s guest blogger, author Victoria Eveleigh. Victoria is one of my favourite modern pony book authors. I first discovered her when she self-published her first stories about Katy and her Exmoor pony, and I’ve loved everything she’s written since. Victoria is an author…
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The big Jill quiz
Bored? Think you know Ruby Ferguson’s Jill books? Try this quiz.
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More model horses
This piece originally appeared on my old blog, but I’ve brought it over here as I know so many people have fond memories of the model ponies they had when they were little. I have many, many Pony and Riding magazines from the early 1960s, and they have adverts for a whole range of model…
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Model ponies and other toys of dreams
For many pony mad girls, if you didn’t have a pony, you had a model pony. Preferably lots. I was definitely in the lots camp, having a fine collection of Britains model horses, riders and stables. The big advantage to Britains was that they were cheap: my 5/- (25p) pocket money would buy one in…
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To Make a Star on a Horse
If your horse didn’t come fully equipped with facial markings, this was not a problem for the 17th century horse (or at least, for the horse’s owners. Most of these methods were a problem for the horse). A whole sheaf of recipes existed, the object of which was to provide a permanent star, not just a…
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Health and Safety – who needs it?
By Janet Rising Warning! This feature contains descriptions of mild peril, personal risk and unhealthy scenarios! The older I get, the more fond I grow of Health and Safety. There is only darkness at the end of the tunnel; I’m grateful to have lived this long. No, really, I can recall numerous occasions with horses…
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The Cadogan Riding School: Horace Smith and the Queen
Horace Smith, who ran the Cadogan Riding School, taught Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret to ride. If you want to skip straight on to that bit, click here: Horace Smith and the Queen *** You would struggle to see a horse in central London today, but in the early decades of the 20th century, things…