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Post by kunuma on Aug 6, 2008 21:51:08 GMT 1
I've just reread Pilot the Chaser and Easter the Showjumper, and am totally bemused by the National Velvet aspect of having apparently piebald TB's, and being able to enter them for the Grand National! Plus a horse being mated unknowingly by a stallion 10 miles away ( ) - the progeny being a prospect for the stud of a racing stables? Can anybody direct me to, or write out for me (don't want much do I?) a precis of the other books - I think there are two more? Does Night Storm become the stud stallion?
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Post by sarah on Aug 6, 2008 22:26:34 GMT 1
He becomes a classic winner no less (if I remember rightly - will have to check). Then I think he is at stud in Dido and Rogue.
Lucky you having Easter the ShowJumper - that's the one I'm still looking for - does your copy have a dustjacket?
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Post by Claire on Aug 6, 2008 23:15:09 GMT 1
Kunuma these are the series in order with short precis (taken from my web-page in progres) I also have a detailed synopis of the first book in the series if you want it I will post it on here/send it to you.
PILOT THE HUNTER (HARRAP 1962) ILLUSTRATED BY KEITH MONEY Ann buys a skittish oddly marked piebald at a local sale. Despite scorn and doubt from others around her she is determined to make Pilot into a superb hunter. Then she meets Jim who shares her dreams of training horses and her life changes completely!
PILOT THE CHASER (HARRAP 1964) ILLUSTRATED BY KEITH MONEY Has Pilot got what it takes to run in top steeple-chases?
EASTER THE SHOWJUMPER (HARRAP 1965) ILLUSTRATED BY MICHAEL LYNE The story of Easter, sister of Pilot, and destined to become another superb jumper.
NIGHT STORM THE FLAT RACER (HARRAP 1966) ILLUSTRATED BY CLYDE PEARSON Ann and Jim think that their horse Night Storm could be a brilliant flat racer and send him to be trained. But the horse is very temperamental. Will he ever achieve success in a classic race and assure the fortunes of the Leysham Stud by becoming a top stallion?
DIDO AND ROGUE (HARRAP 1967) ILLUSTRATED BY PHYLLIDA LEGG Jim and Ann have their work cut out training a polo pony and trying to cope with a vicious rogue horse.
GAY DARIUS (HARRAP 1968) ILLUSTRATED BY ROBERT HODGSON
UNTAMED (HARRAP 1969) ILLUSTRATED BY MORTELMANS
Yes, they are slightly fairy-tale books a bit along the lines of the Black Stallion series or as you say Natty Velvet, but if you take them with a pinch of salt they are quite good fun.
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Post by fizz on Aug 7, 2008 9:36:14 GMT 1
As Claire points out they are just good fantasy. However what confuses me is the inclusion of so much accurate and detailed information as if Hazel Peel wishes the reader to learn about the subject. It is ironic that she worked in the racing industry for a while and must have known the unlikelyhood of none thoroughbred colt winning the 2000 guineas & St Leger & going on to stand at the stud. I have copies of Easter the Showjumper & Night Storm with dust jackets which I am willing to part with. Offers anyone?
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Post by haffyfan on Aug 7, 2008 10:16:39 GMT 1
Nothing to do with the books but have you seen this Kunuma www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/article.php?aid=111328And fizz....what timing...I have just bought a load of books or I would have loved to have made you an offer. Don't want OH havinga fit now do we!
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Post by kunuma on Aug 7, 2008 22:20:18 GMT 1
Life imitates Art again! Thanks for that Haffy - genetics being my passion it is most interesting! It was always thought that the Nothern Dancer line with their flashy white faces and socks carried the sabino gene, and it is a short step from there to belly flashes, and then patches. Trust the Americans though, in all honesty - they won't stop until they have transformed every breed of every species into a rainbow coloured six legged version! "Avoids leaping on in-breeding soap box as you will all go home!" It's hard enough breeding healthy long lived sound natured anythings - never mind reducing your gene pool by going by colour Thanks for the synopses Claire - I was reading the books to talk myself into selling them, but of course all it did was make me wonder how the series continued, and now I find there are three more. Dido and Rogue come in during Easter - but who are Gay Darius and the Untamed?
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Post by Claire on Aug 17, 2008 16:50:57 GMT 1
Thanks for that article haffy I had no idea there was already a coloured TB registered! Love the foal I really like coloured horses.
As to the last books have no idea what Gay Darius is about. I think in the last one Jim goes to Australia and it joins up with either Jago or Fury but I could be getting mixed up with something else!!! Anyone know for sure?
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Post by sarah on Aug 17, 2008 17:08:31 GMT 1
Gay Darius is a Palomino - does he do dressage maybe? There was one for sale on ebay a while back - the auction finished early for an undisclosed amount!
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Post by haffyfan on Aug 17, 2008 17:17:48 GMT 1
Was that in Australia sarah?
I saw it too if so.......... I can never find sellers who will do that!
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Post by darkhorse on Aug 17, 2008 18:51:26 GMT 1
I have never read any of these yet. I've just been looking to see how much they are and I'm amazed. There is a copy of Untamed on Amazon for over £200.....and that is considered a "low price ite,m"
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Post by Claire on Sept 28, 2008 21:08:11 GMT 1
I have finished reading all of these up to Dido and Rogue and am writing a review of the series so far - will be posting on the review section in the next couple of days if anyone interested. From what i've read in Dido it looks like Gay Darius is about eventing. No doubt they will win Badminton or Burghley if it follows the same pattern as the other books! ;D Darkhorse that copy of Untamed for £200 sold so it looks like it may have been a 'low' price after all If anyone wants to read Easter there is a cheap reading copy (£10) on abebooks at the mo. No jacket and scribbles/writing on it which is why so cheap but as its usually about 40ish could be worth picking up.
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Post by garej on Sept 28, 2008 21:23:51 GMT 1
I havent read them either, but Fidra is republishing H M Peel's books sometime, so I am waiting for that.
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Post by Claire on Sept 28, 2008 21:55:10 GMT 1
OOH cant wait til they do the last 2 cos they are proving very hard to find!!!
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Post by sarah on Sept 28, 2008 21:57:37 GMT 1
Ha - was too slow!
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Post by Claire on Oct 30, 2008 18:37:53 GMT 1
Just finished reading 'Gay Darius' and I would say I enjoyed this one the best of all the series so far. I felt more sympathetic to Ann in this one than in the other books where she comes across as a bit of a clever-clogs. It is quite sad in parts tho. Will add to the review of series when I have a spare moment.
For anyone who wants a quick summary of book: Ann is now eventing Darius, her palomino gelding but he is such a curious horse that he keep getting distracted from his work by things happening around him and Ann is hard pushed to train him to keep concentrating. Her training too is disrupted by sad news and also the fact that Pat's crimimal father has escaped from prison and is swearing revenge on Ann for humuliating him and getting him sent to prison (in Night Storm). Will Ann ever get to Badminton with all these problems?
The book also comfirms what I thought the last book in the series (Untamed) was about. Ann and Jim are heading off to Australia with three of their bloodstock an Aussie has bought and having a long-earned holiday into the bargain. I suspect more excitement will be awaiting them down under!
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Post by fizz on Dec 10, 2008 19:01:01 GMT 1
Unregistered thoroughbreds were allowed to race on the flat (I don't know if this is still the case)and in the 1930s & 1940s horses like Verdict, Quashed, Black Tarquin & My Babu won major British races and were not allowed in the GSB. There was a half-bred stud book started by Miss Prior. However they were in all intents & purposes thoroughbreds excluded on a technicality and not the product of an unknown stallion on a piebald mare of unknown ancestry. I was surprised when I read the biography of Hazel Peel on Jane's site, that she had been in racing, as she must surely have known these details, and the books are accurate in so many other ways.
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Post by susanb on Dec 10, 2008 21:18:11 GMT 1
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Post by fizz on Dec 11, 2008 9:53:33 GMT 1
I think the horses I mentioned were excluded due to something called the Jersey Act that referred to some mares that had American bloodlines. My Babu & Black Tarquin were eventually accepted. I think a lot of the half bred lines have either been accepted now, as so many generations can be traced as TB, or have died out. I wonder when Weatherbys ceased to allow animals registered in Miss Prior's HB stud to race on the flat? I certainly have a volume from the 1960s that contains two year old & three year olds who were running at that time. There was a stallion called Hyacinthus by Hyperion out of one of these unregistered female lines, who produced some flat runners. I do not think he was a tremendous success at the stud and was better known for jumpers. He could only trace back four generations on his female line, it didn't stop him winning the Middle Park Stakes as a two year old.
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Post by Claire on Dec 12, 2008 13:09:55 GMT 1
In a similar vein there is the racing of The Black and his progeny in The Black Stallion series. I know we discussed this a bit on a thread a long time ago. Fizz what do you think of him, and his sons and daughters, be allowed to compete? As far as I can remember from the books he was Arab crossed with something else? Havent read them for a long time so can't remember the details. Will try and find the original thread.
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Post by kunuma on Dec 12, 2008 19:51:37 GMT 1
You know that remains the unsolved mystery to top all the racing story mysteries - I always thought he was a pure Arab, BUT when you go through with that in mind, it does appear several times as though he was meant to be some sort of special Arab cross (rather than an Arabian strain). Perhaps we should have a poll for our ideas of what he was? (I also never managed to get over the idea of the cross in Kit Hunter stories, but that was always more obviously not based on equine knowledge.)
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Post by darkhorse on Dec 12, 2008 20:22:06 GMT 1
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