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Post by garej on Jul 2, 2018 23:11:13 GMT 1
Can I have an CONFLICTED smiley for A Red Rosette Claire? A bit dull and too slow paced for my liking but made up for it by the ending. Am not sure what to make of it I enjoyed the ending but got bored halfway through. So I am not sure what to rate it.
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Post by Claire on Jul 2, 2018 23:40:56 GMT 1
Wow you're all doing so well.
Garej - I would recommend Ponies Next Door it's one of JMB's better ones. If you do decide to do it let me know and I'll add it to your list.
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Post by Claire on Jul 3, 2018 10:48:24 GMT 1
Just to say have updated the web page.
Congrats to Garej who wins the first rosette!
Ginslinger - you are now on, I've stuck you in at the bottom sorry but it's so much quicker than moving everyone's lists around. Just realised I forgot to answer your question. Yes Downhill all the Way is a sequel to Who Sir Me Sir. It's good but not quite as good as the first one in my opinion and it's not very horsy.
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Post by susanb on Jul 3, 2018 11:14:14 GMT 1
Congrats, garaj! BTW, I second Claire's recommendation of Ponies Next Door, it's one of my favorites of Berrisford's books
Claire, can I get a smiley for Days of Gold by Ann Spence Warner? Horses are more of a sidebar in this one, but it's still a very good read about the time in the American West when the gold rush days were over, about a young woman looking for just a bit of old gold to get her family's ranch on sounder footing. She manages to do both, but in unexpected ways. A very good portrait of a former gold rush town/country alongside, and how people reinvent themselves after the easy money (which was never easy) is gone.
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Post by haffyfan on Jul 3, 2018 11:20:55 GMT 1
Huge smiley for Eventers dream please. Love this trilogy, both the realism and absolute humour. Always bugged me most of the horses have no names, although it does of course add to the character and helps build up that mental image of them, and i think we may find them out when the new one gets published! I also read Hoof In the Door (and burnt my legs - no riders tan - what's all that about, although my left arm will have strange tan lines ) and about to start Ticket to Ride. Then will probably do Jill and that is no doubt where my wonderful (for me!) progress will then stall as not so motivated at reading things that have languished on the tbr pile for years already. Random fact - my SS is called Lady Jennifer, i thought it rather fitting!
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Post by garej on Jul 3, 2018 20:44:55 GMT 1
I have started on The Mystery Trek.
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Post by ginslinger on Jul 3, 2018 20:49:11 GMT 1
Thanks Claire. Yes I chose it thinking non horse book by horse writer was a category. Just small point it is crin blanc not black and it is in French not translated.
Smiley on the whole for Rode to the sea. I can’t see it becoming a favourite, the children are too unpleasant but it is a good story if more Famous Five with horses than a proper pony book but it rattles along. But oh the children are so up themselves despite being totally useless in so many ways and the anti German sentiment was one thing given the time of writing but the anti English sentiment got a bit tiresome. Slightly too Scottish for me but I probably am the least Scottish person whose ancestry is from the British Isles.
I love the Eventer’s dream trilogy but I have read them so recently it was too soon to go back.
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Post by garej on Jul 3, 2018 23:38:29 GMT 1
I noticed that Downhill all the way is credited to CPT in ginslinger's list. I think that KMP wrote it but am not 100% sure. Either way it's not a CPT book.
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Post by trixiepony on Jul 4, 2018 7:45:00 GMT 1
I will have neutral smile for Clean break by Jacqueline Wilson. I did like it just wasn't a love, or love love.
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cloud
Pony Trekker
Highland Dale
Posts: 56
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Post by cloud on Jul 4, 2018 19:20:04 GMT 1
Well now apparently I'm Cloud again, I've had yet another attempt to get Windows working on my computer and as a result have had to restart, reload or go looking for, just about everything!! When I came here, for some reason it just made me Cloud without asking! sorry folks for being so confusing, I swear it's the computer's fault not mine!! LOL I've forgotten my list so will have to go and check what's next, but can give a big Smiley to Jill's Pony Trek, and a big Frownie to Warhorse.
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Post by ginslinger on Jul 4, 2018 20:48:55 GMT 1
I noticed that Downhill all the way is credited to CPT in ginslinger's list. I think that KMP wrote it but am not 100% sure. Either way it's not a CPT book. Yes it is KM Peyton
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Post by susanb on Jul 4, 2018 23:13:57 GMT 1
darkhorse, I'm so sorry I just noticed you picked my recommended book, Secret Horse, do you need to have a copy sent over? If so, let me know!
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Post by ginslinger on Jul 4, 2018 23:44:08 GMT 1
Huge smiley for We couldn’t leave Dinah. It is a really good read with good central characters, vivid descriptions and a story that I really couldn’t put down even though I had read it as a child. As an adult I found it quite moving. My parents were of that generation of wartime children and I thought of Dad’s tales of being evacuated and fire watching and the blitz. It is going to be hard to beat for my favourite book spot. Definitely going to read more Mary Treadgold.
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Post by Claire on Jul 5, 2018 12:05:40 GMT 1
Smiley for Afraid to Ride. Not sure about the attitude of the family to the central character's fear of jumping. Although I think nowadays we tend to wrap kids in cotton wool, this goes to the other extreme. The poor child is constantly picked on and called a coward by her siblings for being nervous, shamed by an awful pony club rally instructor and even her parents don't really support her. The character actually reminds me of Augusta in I Wanted a Pony. The book is not just about the heroine overcoming her fear, it's about a family starting a riding school, ponies to be rescued and a show or two thrown in. A good traditional read. I think the book deserves a full review or is a potential reading group read, as it has a lot of scope for discussion.
Kunama/Cloud lol - your list is on the web page - link on the opening post on this thread. You probably didn't get my last PM as it was to Cascade so I'll send you an email!
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Post by rallycairn on Jul 6, 2018 2:10:41 GMT 1
SMILEY please for THE FIRST ROSETTE by CPT.
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Post by ginslinger on Jul 6, 2018 7:42:35 GMT 1
Smiley for Pony Club trek. Really enjoyed it and am glad I got the other Woodbury ones in the volume.
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cloud
Pony Trekker
Highland Dale
Posts: 56
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Post by cloud on Jul 6, 2018 15:38:58 GMT 1
Missing on the Moor gets an indifferent smiley - as modern ones go I have read much worse - but there are some weird grammatical expressions/mistakes which always winds me up. (Who says out in the rural, when they mean out in the country??)Sadly the thing I miss most, after growing up on the Pt's etc, is the horse knowledge that comes through as you read, so that you learn the correct way to care for horses, by accident! This is SOOOOOOO missing in the modern ones! Even just really basic stuff such as it not being the best idea to 'rescue' a donkey in poor condition and put it straight in with your own pony and donkey!! Lungworm anyone??
Post from yesterday vanished into the ether, so will just add I'm trying to find Mystery Trek for my next one, meanwhile found Dark Champion which someone else is reading so thought I'd read that too!
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Post by Claire on Jul 7, 2018 22:20:36 GMT 1
Hi folks, just to say that I have updated the web page. Well done to all who have rosettes. Even I have one, I'm ahead of the game for once!
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Post by darkhorse on Jul 8, 2018 13:29:18 GMT 1
darkhorse, I'm so sorry I just noticed you picked my recommended book, Secret Horse, do you need to have a copy sent over? If so, let me know! Thank you very much for the kind offer Susan, however Claire is loaning me her copy. Can I have a happy smiley please for I Rode a Winner. It's a re-read after many years. I still enjoyed it as much as ever.
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Post by haffyfan on Jul 8, 2018 14:25:17 GMT 1
Not on my list but finished Ticket To Ride and just last chapter of Jill's Pony Trek to go. Since it's not a new read can it have it's smiley now please? One of the Jill's i prefer, not too big headed in this one! Although generally i do find her her a beastly pot hunter, despite her claims to despise them in some books. Perfect Pony is my absolute fave, read it so many times as a child and also was fond of Riding Club and Rosettes, some of the others were a bit meh - so i'll pop off now to avoid the things being flung at me!
I'll read the Doris Gates books next, loved Morgan (or Horse as it was re-titled over here) for Melinda as a child so will be interesting to go back as an adult, can't recall if i've read the follow up or not previously.
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Post by rallycairn on Jul 8, 2018 15:38:02 GMT 1
Not on my list but finished Ticket To Ride and just last chapter of Jill's Pony Trek to go. Since it's not a new read can it have it's smiley now please? One of the Jill's i prefer, not too big headed in this one! Although generally i do find her her a beastly pot hunter, despite her claims to despise them in some books. Perfect Pony is my absolute fave, read it so many times as a child and also was fond of Riding Club and Rosettes, some of the others were a bit meh - so i'll pop off now to avoid the things being flung at me! I'll read the Doris Gates books next, loved Morgan (or Horse as it was re-titled over here) for Melinda as a child so will be interesting to go back as an adult, can't recall if i've read the follow up or not previously. I always enjoyed A Morgan for Melinda and A Filly for Melinda, haffy. I will be interested in whether a big continuity error between the two books appears in the editions you have -- it's not really a specific plot spoiler, and it could have been explained with a few sentences to smooth over the change if the author had wanted to (and maybe she did, and it was edited out) -- but Melinda is mysteriously pursuing a different style of riding (hunt seat and jumping) in the second book, whereas she was pursuing saddleseat riding and showing in the first book. As a horse crazy kid tangentially in the saddleseat showing world in the 1970's, even then I was a little surprised at the "old" mare being considered quite that old and infirm. At the stable where I hung out, teens for a horse and 20's for a pony were old, but IIRC the mare ("Merry" is it?) isn't THAT old. Aranaway Morgans is still a Morgan breeding farm in the western US, which I looked up recently. \
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Post by Claire on Jul 8, 2018 15:45:14 GMT 1
h generally i do find her her a beastly pot hunter, despite her claims to despise them in some books. You're not alone in that attitude Haffy, I do too in many of the books and I think there's a couple of other folk here who may admit to that view also. She's also a bit of a horse snob, which attitude backfires on her in both Enjoys her Ponies and Rosettes.
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Post by haffyfan on Jul 8, 2018 17:05:53 GMT 1
I will be interested in whether a big continuity error between the two books appears in the editions you have -- it's not really a specific plot spoiler, and it could have been explained with a few sentences to smooth over the change if the author had wanted to (and maybe she did, and it was edited out) -- but Melinda is mysteriously pursuing a different style of riding (hunt seat and jumping) in the second book, whereas she was pursuing saddleseat riding and showing in the first book. Aranaway Morgans is still a Morgan breeding farm in the western US, which I looked up recently. \ I have the American editions now Rally, i don't think i still have the original UK paperback. Interesting that the Stud is real, Wonder if Ethan was? Actually do i recall their being a foreword that he possibly was, will have to check now!
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Post by haffyfan on Jul 8, 2018 17:10:22 GMT 1
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Post by ginslinger on Jul 8, 2018 20:00:49 GMT 1
A conflicted smiley for the girl who rode the wind. Apart from an irking lingustic error, my Italian isn’t great but I am fairly sure that an American girl wouldn’t be addressed as Americano, it is vivid and well written but the modern story particularly is more like a fantasy or daydream heavily dependent on the heroine having inherited ability and a mystical connection with the horse. Also I have qualms about even well regulated forms of racing but il Palio seems to have such a disregard for animal welfare that I found the situation somewhat abhorrent. Nor did I like this alleged wonderful horsewoman just leaping on the horse and just galloping off. The older story was more moving and plausible. Bit inconsistent since I loved Peyton’s The last ditch but there although the horse is exposed to the demands and risks of the Grand National the attitude to the horse and the race is quite different. Anyway I would try another Stacey Gregg but I don’t like this so much.
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Post by rallycairn on Jul 9, 2018 5:29:59 GMT 1
Good cyber sleuthing! Seems likely to be Merry Jo! It is so neat to find the real-life inspirations for horses in books.
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cloud
Pony Trekker
Highland Dale
Posts: 56
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Post by cloud on Jul 9, 2018 14:42:45 GMT 1
Smiley for Highland Pony Trek, my trekking book replacement. Now Reading Dark Champion, my elderly hardback has the most amazing old plate illustrations in it, sadly not many showing horses!
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Post by Claire on Jul 9, 2018 20:15:59 GMT 1
I've changed your list Kunuma/Cloud. Well done to everyone so far especially Haffy who wins the first blue rosette!
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Post by haffyfan on Jul 9, 2018 22:01:51 GMT 1
Thank you - now isn't that a first! I read A Morgan For Melinda today, huge smiley please, There is just something so charming about it, I think it actually reads better as an adult than it did as a child. There seems to be some subtleties I missed as a child, or maybe they were edited out of the UK paperback. I agree Rally in them writing off the horses, Merry Jo was only 12 but has been retired 5 years, and Sam, also 12, was described as having a dipped back! Okay may be a conformation issue but still, they were both in their prime, I'm guessing they start them very young, there was a mention of not being able to ride the foal they viewed for a couple of years - eek (Sorry pet hate starting them too young). Couple of minor continuity errors, if i'm nit picking, Dwight was 16, then 15 a few chapters later, then just had hid B'day and 16 again at the end, although it must have been set over several months to a year at least. Also it mentioned 6 weeks of holiday to cater for, 3 her parents were home, 2 at the barn riding program and a week with Missy, few pages later 2 and half months of holiday had occurred. I must say i prefer the paperback i hads cover, the oversized head imposed over horse is a tad odd i thought! Will start the follow up tomorrow but would highly recommend this one!
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Post by ginslinger on Jul 10, 2018 0:41:15 GMT 1
Sorry to be a pain Claire but could you give We rode to the sea a smiley next update. It seems to have been missed.
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