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Post by Claire on Dec 16, 2010 11:59:06 GMT 1
I think this top 10 may be quite fun. What are people's top 10 most annoying pony book cliches/hackneyed plots! My number one gripe has to be gypsies, usually somehow involved in stealing horses or ponies. Pops up in all sorts of books right up to almost modern day, even tho it was already a hackneyed plot by the time Joanna Cannan wrote I Wrote a Pony Book in 1950 (Her main character disparages that particular cliche when she is thinking of a plot for her own book!) Also when I was a kid I knew quite a few gypsy types with their coloured cobs and as far as I know they had never nicked any!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2010 13:46:27 GMT 1
People/ponies falling in bogs. And gypsies!
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Post by foxglove on Dec 16, 2010 14:04:34 GMT 1
Getting lost on the moors, and trusting the pony to find its way home. The one time this happened to me, the ponies just started grazing when we gave them their heads.
Stumbling upon a stolen/kidnapped horse, who turns out to be a famous competition nag.
Stable's top rider gets injured at the last minute, allowing the underdog groom to jump aboard and ride to victory.
Snobby toff pot-hunter who doesn't appreciate their pony and only cares about winning. Invariably female and with an awful mother.
Brassy, booming-voiced, no-nonsense, middle aged, single female yard owner.
Perhaps we should award a prize to the book that contains most cliches?!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2010 14:37:43 GMT 1
That's made me think of another. The snobby pot hunter is usually dressed in immaculate riding clothes but the heroine of the tale has hand-me down baggy jods or worse still no riding clothes at all. But they usually manage to get decent kit in the end.
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Post by haffyfan on Dec 16, 2010 19:51:25 GMT 1
lol think they alreday are just about covered! To add a couple more - the broken down nag bought for pennies that turns into the best money could buy/ a champion overnight - Getting chased (bulls are common and escaping over ernormous fence whilst mounted on a shetland pony ) - The Ponies are always brilliant jumpers and clear 4ft fences with ease - in real life I have always found they start to say I don't think so at about 3ft max (or maybe thats just me ;D ) The one with the most cliches for me is April jaffe's satin and silk think she got them all in there * previous pony is deceased (not that she seems to care!) * New pony was in poor condition/broken knees * Two weeks later new pony is in fantastic condition and the best money could have bought despite it's bargain price (naturally) * Within said two weeks she teaches it half and full pass amongst other things and it wins at it's first gymkhana (of course) * Pony is involved in a fire * Another pony gets stuck in a bog (well sand but same principle) * They get chased by an angry bull * Rescue a donkey from nasty gipsys (who else!) * Pony gets stolen * Pony is found in auction ring in nick of time dyed piebald (what other ending to this could there have been) * Get lost in the fog * Pony turns out to be super hunter and keeps right up with hounds after a long and difficult run (yes most of the others making up the field do not make it - one even breaks a leg
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Post by fizz on Dec 16, 2010 20:55:23 GMT 1
An instructor trains previously hopeless children to win a cup after about 3 weeks training. Vet who wears tweeds & baggy old coats likes dogs & is probably a Scot Irish grooms who are not that nice Colic
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2010 21:16:13 GMT 1
The heroine has an annoyingly superior sister. They always seem to be eating in the older books
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Post by Claire on Dec 16, 2010 21:41:12 GMT 1
Lol at Satin and Silk ;D Certainly a contender for the 'most cliches in one book' prize. One of the Blackbirds books is similar, cant remember which one but it involves a lot of rescuing and putting out fires and things.
One we havent covered which really annoys me for some reason is girl rescues a child or dog (or prevents some stables from burning) which just happens to belong to some rich aristo huntin type who gives her pony as a reward. Or similar rich aristo just happens to have a pony going spare that his unhorsy nephew is not interested in to give to a needy heroine.
Both the PTS and their mother have been guilty of this one more than once!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2010 19:15:42 GMT 1
Just learned to ride child tames rouge horse/pony in short space of time, which experienced riders have failed to do. Then goes on to win jumping competitions.
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Post by garej on Dec 17, 2010 20:17:48 GMT 1
Someone always get lost and usually injured on moorland or on a mountain, and it's always the pony riders that find them, rather than Mountain Rescue/any other emergency services/the non-horsey search party. When in reality, it's probably the horsey people who are least likely to find them.
Or alternatively, someone steals a horse/pony, and usually the father turns up and buys said horse, or the real owner gives to the thief or changes their mind because of what the thief said. Whereas if we stole a horse, we would at the very least, find ourselves being arrested by a policeman.
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Post by garej on Dec 17, 2010 20:20:09 GMT 1
My number one gripe has to be gypsies, usually somehow involved in stealing horses or ponies. Try Mary May's Carol Lane series (if you can find them that is!). There are gypsies running through the entire series, but they are actually the good people for a change, and certainly don't go around stealing!
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Post by darkhorse on Dec 17, 2010 23:33:35 GMT 1
Annoying or snooty cousins who, despite being around horses all their lives, are worse riders than the inexperiened heroine/hero.
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Post by fizz on Dec 18, 2010 11:50:10 GMT 1
Eccentric angst ridden artist/writer Father or Mother. As an artist I find this annoying as artists are generally as normal as people in other professions.
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Post by trixiepony on Dec 19, 2010 1:38:31 GMT 1
Eccentric angst ridden artist/writer Father or Mother. As an artist I find this annoying as artists are generally as normal as people in other professions. Yes this one get to me as well I'm an artist, and how about the way they make the vegetarians out to be not all there , a bit mad :oor sum thing, I am a Vegetarian.
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Post by fizz on Dec 19, 2010 18:33:37 GMT 1
Are there many vegetarians in Pony Books? Well it is a mainstream lifestyle choice these days. Though I remember my Grandparents being very bemused by some people they ironically purchased eggs from (suspect hens were un-caged due to the date) because they were vegetarian & the woman wore slacks & ate cucumbers like bananas! They sound like the should be in a pony book! In the 1950s it was rare in this country so that is maybe why they seem "not all there" in some books.
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Post by foxglove on Dec 20, 2010 17:00:41 GMT 1
Satin and Silk sounds hilarious, I must look out for it!
The shows/gymkhanas are always conveniently near enough to hack to, aren't they?
Colic is another classic- only the heroine ever suspects a horse may be going down with it.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2010 7:29:25 GMT 1
Children going on long pony treks and having adventures along the way.....usually involving gypsies and bogs
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Post by Claire on Dec 22, 2010 11:25:19 GMT 1
Stolen horse is found just in time - invariably just as it arrives in the knackers yard and is about to be turned into a tin of Whiskas! It would be quite fiun to list all the cliches in the most popular pony books as per haffy did with Satin and Silk. Might start a thread up some time.
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Post by Claire on Dec 28, 2010 15:52:59 GMT 1
Hi all, added poll for this.
I also thought of 2 more.
Especially in PT books there are often some awful younger siblings hanging about, for instance in Prince Among Ponies, Margaret Radcliffe in the Pony Club books and those horrible twins in The Trick Jumpers.
Another thing which slightly annoys me is the heroine who has some sort of special horse ability, may be just riding or coulod be some sort of horse-whispering. Altho some of these books make good stories you often long for a heroine who is a crappy rider and whose horse hates her ;D Sometimes easier to relate to ;D
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2010 18:44:19 GMT 1
I wanted to vote for them all! ;D
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Post by trixiepony on Dec 29, 2010 1:07:44 GMT 1
I wanted to vote for them all! ;D Yes I did too! Tee Hee ;D
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Post by Claire on Dec 29, 2010 11:12:32 GMT 1
Lol you two ;D I think gypsies will come out on top on this one, and rightly so!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2010 13:09:47 GMT 1
closely followed by falling in bogs!
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Post by Claire on Dec 29, 2010 20:10:39 GMT 1
closely followed by falling in bogs! Or maybe a gypsy falls into a bog and is rescued by the local pony club whilst out on a pony trek who are then given a pony as a reward by a rich Lord who finds out the gypsy is really his long-lost aunt who was kidnapped by the other gypsies and lost her memory when the horse they were stealing (which turned out to be a top racehorse) kicked her in the head ;D
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Post by trixiepony on Dec 30, 2010 0:10:11 GMT 1
closely followed by falling in bogs! Or maybe a gypsy falls into a bog and is rescued by the local pony club whilst out on a pony trek who are then given a pony as a reward by a rich Lord who finds out the gypsy is really his long-lost aunt who was kidnapped by the other gypsies and lost her memory when the horse they were stealing (which turned out to be a top racehorse) kicked her in the head ;D Tee Hee now that wold be a good story. ;D
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Post by fizz on Dec 30, 2010 12:00:55 GMT 1
I am really surprised bogs come so high in the poll as I can only recall one incident of a bog & that was in Rufus the New Forest Pony & a pony not a person was involved. Cam someone tell me some of the incidents in books?
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Post by Claire on Dec 30, 2010 12:24:10 GMT 1
Someone will have to help out here as I dont have any pony books to check, not being home, and have a terrible memory anyhow, but bogs/marshes do feature in quite a few, tho nowhere near as many as gypsies. The White Colt by David Rook is one for a start, and I think a fair number of other books set on Dartmoor do too. In Martin Rides the Moor there is a marsh but he doesnt fall in it as his pony leads him safely home (via another cliche lol). In one of Allen Seaby's stories in an Exmoor Lass a man is rescued from a bog. In Jockey Silks by Molly Byrom a horse is rescued by from a bog (and she just happens to be an escaped top racehorse!)
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2010 13:35:19 GMT 1
;D Fizz I've read quite a few with bogs in them but I'll have to think which ones they are as I have a dreadful memory
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Post by haffyfan on Dec 30, 2010 14:28:59 GMT 1
Regarding stuck in bogs - Satin and Silk by April jaffe. Theres a least one incident of stuck in bogs in Jackie books (pony patrol I think...that has the rescue on the cover of the Whitham editions), Shantih in Running Wild and do they have a bog incident in another involving Sue and Pippen. Only just read them so you'd think I'd remember! One of Seaby's has a bog rescue too and one of the girls (pat maybe) ends up in a bog in Pony tracks.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2010 19:14:54 GMT 1
I think one of the 3 Jays may have got stuck in a bog when they went on their riding holiday to the New Forest
And maybe one of the children did as well in Ann Staffords Five Proud Riders where they go on a New Forest riding holiday ...oh that rings a bell lol...and I think there may have been gypsies in both those books ;D
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