Post by Deleted on May 18, 2011 17:57:16 GMT 1
The Young Horse-Breakers by Golden Gorse
*spoiler alert*
This is the story of cousins Felicity and Janet. They ride at their local Riding School and think they are experts because they can gallop about on the school ponies without falling off.
However they are in for a nasty shock when they are offered two half-broken Exmoor ponies, Mayfly and Brownie, to ride on holiday. It all goes horribly wrong as they can’t even catch them at the beginning. They soon realise they aren’t such good riders after all when Janet takes a tumble after Brownie is frightened by a motor-car and Felicity falls off when Mayfly bolts with her.
Uncle Tom comes to the rescue and shows them the error of their ways by teaching them how to school their ponies and to improve their riding. The aim of the book is to help the reader school their own ponies through Janet and Felicities adventures.
The children and the ponies do start to improve and they meet up with Jack and Mousie (from Golden Gorse’s book Moreland Mousie.) Jack gives them more good advice, although I did get a bit fed up of hearing how wonderful his sister Patience was!
All their hard work pays off when Brownie and Mayfly behave beautifully in the hunting field and jump stone walls and ditches.
It did start to grate on my nerves a bit in some chapters where nearly every sentence seemed to start with “Yes” said Felicity and “No” said Janet. Arghh!
And there is also that well-known pony book cliché of “The Bog.” Mayfly, having been born on Exmoor, knows better than to cross smooth green grass and stops dead throwing Felicity head-first into the mire.
I did enjoy the book even with the few quibbles I’ve mentioned and I’d certainly read it again. It also has lovely illustrations by Anne Bullen.
*spoiler alert*
This is the story of cousins Felicity and Janet. They ride at their local Riding School and think they are experts because they can gallop about on the school ponies without falling off.
However they are in for a nasty shock when they are offered two half-broken Exmoor ponies, Mayfly and Brownie, to ride on holiday. It all goes horribly wrong as they can’t even catch them at the beginning. They soon realise they aren’t such good riders after all when Janet takes a tumble after Brownie is frightened by a motor-car and Felicity falls off when Mayfly bolts with her.
Uncle Tom comes to the rescue and shows them the error of their ways by teaching them how to school their ponies and to improve their riding. The aim of the book is to help the reader school their own ponies through Janet and Felicities adventures.
The children and the ponies do start to improve and they meet up with Jack and Mousie (from Golden Gorse’s book Moreland Mousie.) Jack gives them more good advice, although I did get a bit fed up of hearing how wonderful his sister Patience was!
All their hard work pays off when Brownie and Mayfly behave beautifully in the hunting field and jump stone walls and ditches.
It did start to grate on my nerves a bit in some chapters where nearly every sentence seemed to start with “Yes” said Felicity and “No” said Janet. Arghh!
And there is also that well-known pony book cliché of “The Bog.” Mayfly, having been born on Exmoor, knows better than to cross smooth green grass and stops dead throwing Felicity head-first into the mire.
I did enjoy the book even with the few quibbles I’ve mentioned and I’d certainly read it again. It also has lovely illustrations by Anne Bullen.