PBOTD 24th May: Ann Stafford - Five Proud Riders

-
I'm continuing a bit of a theme here: the pony books which Puffin published. Editor Kaye Webb wasn't a fan of the conventional pony book, but she did publish some excellent pony stories. There are links at the end to all the other Puffin pony stories I've featured so far this year. Webb (and her predecessor, Eleanor Graham) published books from around the world, rightly recognising that horse stories do not have to be dependent on a deathless struggle towards the next rosette at the gymkhana.

Puffin, 1953
Ann Stafford's Five Proud Riders is one of those stories which revolve around a group of brave children venturing out on a long ride on their own. This was pretty much standard fare for the children's pony book right up to the 1960s, but I can't see it being published now, particularly when some of the children are so young. You'd never get an unaccompanied 4 day trek past a risk assessment.

So, it's worth making the most of a plot that has probably been killed by changing attitudes. Five Proud Riders (1937) is the story of Jill and Andy Meadows, their cousin Nigel, and their friends Gay and John set off on a trek across the New Forest. This trek is supposed to teach them, and their cousin Nigel in particular, to fend for themselves, which they certainly do. The usual alarums and excursions happen, added and abetted by those ubiquitous villains of the pony story: gypsies.

~  0  ~

More on Ann Stafford

Other Puffin pony books featured on PBOTD:
William Corbin - Horse in the House
Gunnel Linde - Pony in the Luggage
C Northcote Parkinson - Ponies Plot
Monica Edwards - The White Riders
James Aldridge - Ride a Wild Pony
Anna Sewell - Black Beauty
Don Stanford - The Horsemasters
Irene Makin - Ponies in the Attic
Phyllis Ginger- Alexander the Circus Pony (Picture Puffin)
Monica Dickens - Cobbler's Dream


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
Read more

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
Read more