It’s pink! It sparkles! It must be a pony book!

The 1990s and early years of the 2000s saw many pony books leave behind the realistic covers of the 1950s and 1960s. A substantial proportion of those aimed at the younger reader were badged with pink and sparkles, and winsome straplines. Peter Clover’s 1990s Sheltie series was a rare example of a series that succeeded through charm, not sparkles. “Could you,” asks the front covers of Sue Bentley’s Magic Ponies series, “be a little pony’s special friend?” Princess of pink, Katie Price wrote (with a ghostwriter) the Perfect Ponies series (2007–10). Emblazoned in pink and silver, it is about a group of four friends and their adventures at a riding school.

In a world which places so much emphasis now on how girls look, it’s sad to see the riding instructor continually praised because she “was living proof that you could be glam and still be a brilliant horsewoman.” This is fair enough, but it is a pity if it is made an issue for the books’ target audience, children of around eight. The pinkification of covers obscured even decent stories: Diana Kimpton’s sparky Pony Mad Princess series (2004–14) is very much better than its covers would have you believe.

Pinkification

Susanna Forrest, in her equine memoir If Wishes were Horses (2012), discusses the pinkification of the horse world.

“Horses used to be an alternative to pink and princesses and playing mother; now horses are pink princesses with Lullabye Nurseries™ and sparkly handbags,” she writes.

Horses, and indeed the vast majority of pony books, are now nothing to do with boys. Male membership of the Pony Club has plummeted: down to 389 out of 31,395 branch members in 2012; a little over 1%.

The American version

The twinkly cover appears to be a British phenomenon. American Pulitzer Prize winning author Jane Smiley has written a Young Adult horse series, including The Georges and the Jewels/Nobody’s Horse (2010), A Good Horse/Secret Horse (2011) and True Blue/Mystery Horse (2012). The original American editions have straightforward photographic covers. In the UK, Faber, a straight down-the-line publisher if ever there was one, has given them the sparkle factor.

Is pink on the retreat?

But is the tide turning? The world of equestrian clothing, which a decade or so was awash in a sea of pink, no longer is. I wondered if it was simply that adults prefer a little more sophistication with their bling. Surely children were still keen on pink?

To bring this up to date (in 2024) I had a good look at the LeMieux site. You can have a galaxy of colours with their outfit builder, but pink isn’t one of them. I had a look at the children’s section too: lots of pastels but no pink.

Then I investigated Aztec Diamond. The children’s collection was mostly black, white, navy and grey, with some muddy, knocked back pinks. Adults again were pretty traditional, and the colour for Autumn 2024 is apparently a nice trad olive green.

The content of pony books was generally not (with the exception of Katie Price) obsessed by pink, dressing ponies up, or the rider’s appearance, and it remains so. To go back to the 2010s, a look at the children’s pony book releases in the UK in 2012 reveals a remarkable lack of sparkle. Victoria Eveleigh’s Katy appears in a traditional photo cover; Lauren St John’s One Dollar Horse has a stylish neutral design (though with shocking pink page edges, which I rather like). Belinda Rapley’s Pony Detectives series has colourful but bling-free cover designs.

Twelve years later, I did another (not particularly scientific) survey. Where can I find the biggest concentration of pony books, I wondered? Pony Magazine’s shop, I thought. And so I went right the way through the 136 books they had on offer when I looked.

Very, very little pink. Most books still use photo covers, and there’s a little pink, but it’s pretty minimal, just what you’d expect in a relatively even distribution of colour covers.

What happened to pink and glitter? Was it just a brief interlude in the history of the pony book? For the last ten years or so, the pony book seems to have reverted to more or less realistic covers. There are still magical series on offer (and you can now buy books by your favourite influencer! Or at least their ghostwriter) but most books seem to be the traditional child/riding school/yard model that’s been on offer for decades.

I suppose it’s like changing your horse’s rug. The latest one might have ladybirds on it, but it’s still the same horse underneath.

*****