The Noel and Henry books
I'm doing a bit of a re-read myself, but I'd love to know why you like the Noel and Henry series, if indeed you do. And if you don't, what is it you don't like?
Rollkur and the blue tongue
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou...
Comments
I think it's the fact that we see the characters develop and grow. Noel changes from gawky, self-conscious adolescent to a competent, confident young woman and Henry changes from utter prat to a young man who is mature and considerate. The end of Pony Club Camp when he says that the debs he meets are dull and that he often thinks of riding home from hunting with Noel who has hay in her hair (not sure that's entirely correct and don't have a copy to hand to check) is lovely. And there's a bit of romance altohugh JPT tells me that Collins were a bit horrified by that. Sometime I must make her tell me what happens next....
I like that along with all the riding instruction, we get the sometimes irrelevent but entertaining chatter of the characters. For example, in 'Radney Riding Club' there's a discussion on French phrases to use for the visiting instructor. And the bit in 'One Day Event' where Henry describes the twins as having 'hacked off hair', which makes Noel giggle and tell him that the hair style is a fashionable 'urchin' cut.
Porsonally I'd like to know what happened to the characters from Henry's home area that we met in 'Radney Riding Club' and never saw again.
M&M - you are missing a treat. Some of the best characters outside Jill, with the added benefit of boys too.
Gillian - Yes, I do agree with you about Radney. Christo does get a tiny mention in PC Camp, but that's it. I suppose they were, geographically, too far away, and it would have made things incredibly complicated if the Radney lot suddenly turned up at any competitions the West Barset. were going in for.
I think they work well as the characterisation is so good. I love the bit in Pony Club Team where Henry is so ghastly and snobbish to John.
The fact is they are a series and the characters develop as they grow up.
I think The Radney Riding Club is my favourite. It has real sections of humour. The colonel that initially schools them badly could have been the District Commissioner of my own Pony Club.
I agree with other posters that it would have been good to find out what happened to everyone. We get hints in the later novels; John taking over the family farm, Christo doing an instructors course and Henry in the army.
Someone should write a sequel!
JPT's later Pony Club series is also spot on.I haven't read any comments on these. Mrs Rooke must surely have been based on the secretary of my Pony Club, I laugh every time I read one of them.
JPT was involved in the Pony Club and it shows in these two series. Surely some of the characters must have been based on real people.