The Impossible Horse

by Christine Pullein-Thompson

Jan has left school and started work schooling difficult horses. Everything is going well, and then she goes hunting and Sonia Stanmore's new horse, Benedictine, rears and comes over backwards on Sonia. The only people there are Jan and the man she likes, Guy, and they need to rescue Sonia. Sonia's family are horrified by the accident, and they condemn Benedictine. He is not safe. He must be put down at once. Jan is not so sure Benedictine is as bad as he is painted. She can see why Benedictine acted as he did, and then, when her old riding teacher, who broke in Benedictine, rings pleading with her to take the horse on and save his good name, she reluctantly agrees.

Can Jan prove Benedictine is not an impossible horse? And will Guy notice her and realise there is more to her than just horses?

Originally written by Christine Pullein-Thompson in the 1950s, this was a rare example of romance in a British horse book. Sadly the experiment was never repeated, but the book remains one of her best.

This book is of its time. Hunting was legal, and there is a lot of hunting in this book. There is a particularly upsetting animal death. For this reason we recommend this book for readers over 18.

Genres: Childrens

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

The Pullein-Thompson sisters — Josephine Pullein-Thompson MBE (3 April 1924-[1]), Diana Pullein-Thompson (born 1 October 1925) [2] and Christine Pullein-Thompson (1 October 1925–2 December 2005[2] — are British writers of several horse and pony books (mostly fictional) aimed at children and mostly popular with girls. They started at a very young age (initially writing collectively) and they were at their peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but their popularity has endured. They have written a collective autobiography Fair Girls and Grey Horses.

All 3 sisters have written at least 1 book under a different name; Josephine wrote 1 under the pseudonym of Josephine Mann, Diana 3 books under her married name of Diana Farr and Christine wrote 2 books under the name of Christine Keir.

Their mother, Joanna Cannan (1898–1961), sister of the poet May Cannan, wrote similar equestrian stories, but is better known for detective mysteries.

Reviews

[Dark-Draco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely not one of the PT sister's books that I read as a child - I don't remember quite so much romance in any of them ;) Not that it's anything like the smoochy stuff you get in more modern young adult books.

This essentially starts off like most 'pony' books of it's time - plucky, but quite ordinary horsey gal takes on a horse that is deemed dangerous by some bad owners, who just don't understand it. In minimum time, she has it's problems sorted, is back on the hunting field and wins the bet, all while going to her first hunt ball, falling in love and having to suffer through injury after a fall.

As an adult, there's quite a bit here that I shudder over, but if you can put that aside and enjoy the story for what it is (a story of it's era), then it's very enjoyable. Yes, it has a saccharine happy ending that I doubt would ever have happened in real life, but you can forgive it trying to end on an upbeat note.

[Mary Pagones · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful mid-century piece, with incredible descriptions of hunting (and hunt balls), and a strong, capable heroine running her own business, restarting rogue horses, who loves a special boy AND horses and doesn't feel a need to choose between the two of them.

[Sally S · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can't go too wrong with a Pullein-Thompson book. This one was very of its time, as fox hunting plays a major role and everyone has large houses with stables and sometimes servants. I was however rooting for Jan to keep her horse so everything ended in a satisfactory manner - even if the happy ending in the last few pages felt a bit out of nowhere (hadn't we spent the whole book being told how awful the Stanmores were? And suddenly they're the souls of generosity? What happened to Major Crossland??!).

[Dawn Lawrence Read_with_Lola · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took me back to the 70’s when I was a kid reading all of the pony books I could get my hands on. The Pullein-Thompson books were a favourite. This was clearly written for older children/young adults because there is quite a harrowing hunting scene which although horrific and unacceptable in these times, I imagine in rural England around the 1950’s was fairly normal. I did enjoy this book though it was a fun and nostalgic read.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 STARS

[Daisy May Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid enough stuff which does exactly what you'd expect it to do (And does it well!).

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read!

This is an outlier in my pony book collection atleast, as it leans slightly older, no pony club children here but instead 17 year old Jan who is having a go at training horses for other people.

While out hunting Jan witnesses one of her fellow riders take a nasty fall with her young horse, Benedictine and then when the horse is threatened with being put down due to his percieved danger Jan offers to ride him and prove that he is safe.

Set during winter time this was the perfect book for today when it's very cold and we've got snow outside!
Jan is pretty sensible and a good rider and uniquely here we get a little bit of romance, something that is not really present in other pony books.
It's a nice cosy read, there is one quite sad moment around the mid way mark A pet dog is killed by the hunt hounds which honestly, I'd prefer wasn't present, it's very sad and I don't feel it adds much in contrast. But other than that this is a nice old pony book!

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such fun!

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it, pure escapism.