Books, Mud and Compost. And Horses.

In the days before my scanner breathes its last (its yellow stripes are apparently terminal) I've scanned a few more images in from Pony and Riding magazines. Riding wear stayed very much the same for quite a long period in the 20th century, helped by the Pony Club's insistence on what was the correct riding attire. There were stirrings, though. One which interested me in particular was the move from the elephant ear jodphur to the fitted type we have today. (In passing, does anyone have any idea WHY the elephant ear jodphur had the elephant ear bit? Did it serve any actual purpose?) My very first jodhs were the elephant ear type, and my next were the riding trouser, a transitional trouser in between the elephant ears and the modern fitted type. In these ads, the riding trouser doesn't look too bad at all: more fitted; it's lost the elephant ears and as it has an elastic strap is less likely to disappear up your leg leaving your skinny ankles exposed to the evi...

Just found this Pegasus Toys ad, which comes from Pony Magazine December 1961. I'm sorry about the yellow stripe. My scanner, which is pretty ancient, has now decided everything needs a yellow stripe, no matter what I do. I really like this Pegasus model: it's much more delicate than the Julips, which love them though I do, are on the clumpy side. The hound's rather gorgeous too. It's a pity Isis and Pegasus became defunct. It would be interesting to know if the moulds still exist, as I think they're much more attractive than Julips and surely there would be an opportunity there for someone prepared to make the investment. Just found this

I blogged a while back about model ponies in the mid 1960s , but have since bought a load of Pony and Riding magazines from the early 1960s, which are wonderful source material for so much that I would like to write about but have not had time. The magazines have adverts for a whole range of model horses most of whom were defunct by the mid 1960s. As I was born in 1962, none of these ever swum across my ken, none were dandled over my pram to amuse or even bought in by an enterprising parent for Jane to have later. Ah well. There was certainly a wider range of materials and styles than later on in the decade. Not all of the horses were made of rubber: Rowe Horses were made of silks. I wonder how many of them have survived. I guess very few, as the silk must surely have decayed. The horses were also pretty expensive: 60 shillings was £3 (around £50 in today's money), and Pegasus and Isis rubber models were around the £1.50 mark (around £26), which also included tack or...

As ever with this blog, I've nearly made posts on several subjects, but then life has got in the way, and my great thoughts have fizzled. Anyway, inspired by this post on Musings, here is an observation. I wonder when other people find that instead of introducing your children to music (other than being hit over the metaphorical head with the Thomas the Tank Engine theme tune, which counts as torture), that they start introducing it to you? Son, like the rest of his family, was a bit credit-crunched when Christmas came round, so made us all CDs. So unlike my own teenage days, when you would tape things off the Top 40 show, finger hovering over the pause button so you got as much of the track as possible before the dj starting talking. So here are the Verve . Thanks Fred.

Janet Rising: Team Challenge (The Pony Whisperer Series 2) Hodder Children's Books, 2009, £5.99 Team Challenge is the second in Janet Rising's Pony Whisperer series. The whole idea behind the series is that Pia can hear what horses and ponies are saying, but only as long as she is touching the little statue of the horse goddess, Epona, which she found when out on a ride. I reviewed the first book, The Word on the Yard , a few months ago , and liked it. I was wondering quite where the series would go after Pia's quite spectacular horse whispering efforts on TV - Pia, Pony Whisperer - the Film? - but I needn't have worried. The action this time has switched to the yard, and to Pia and her friends' efforts to win the Sublime Equine Challenge. This is a competition for a team of four, each of whom must do one discipline from a choice of dressage, cross country, show jumping and Wild Card (where anything goes). I liked this one even more than the first: ...

Michael Morpurgo: Farm Boy Harper Collins, £4.99 Illustrated by Michael Foreman This is another book I've had for ages; in fact since I went to see War Horse when it was still at the National. Farm Boy is badged as a sequel to War Horse , but it is only in the loosest sense. Joey and Albert's histories are updated, but by Albert's son, looking back from decades later. Having read War Hors e, I was puzzled by a couple of things. The grandfather tells his grandson Joey's history. Joey is indeed won at the toss of a coin in No Man's Land, as Farm Boy says, but it is a Welsh soldier who wins him, not Albert, who only comes across Joey when he is brought into the Veterinary Corps for treatment. Albert bought Joey back from the Army after they were going to sell him and the other army horses for meat; using all his savings to do so, says his son. In War Horse , what actually happens is that the soldiers all band together to try and save Joey by buying him at...

Simon Weston: A Nod from Nelson Pont, 2008, hb, £7.99 Simon Weston: Nelson to the Rescue Pont, 2009, hb, £8.99 Having a quick look back at my lastest reviews, I see they're almost all historical fiction: I promise you I do read other things (though I have a couple more historicals waiting in the wings to be reviewed), and here are two. The Nelson books are by Simon Weston, a soldier who overcame appalling injuries sustained during the Falklands War. He has written several books about his experiences, but these are his first excursions into children's fictions. The books are written with David FitzGerald, and are illustrated by Jac Jones. These are tricky books to review: I normally end a book with a few comments charging about in my brain, but I finished the first one of these not entirely certain what I thought about it. I then read the second, hoping that would clarify what I thought, but I'm not certain that it did. Both books are larky fantasies about Nels...