Jill's Riding Club

Jill's Ponies #5

by Ruby Ferguson

"Other people make a success of riding clubs and I don't see why we shouldn't. It's about the only thing we haven't tried in Chatton."

Ann Derry, Jill's greatest friend, has a bright idea. They need something to do in the summer, so why not start a riding club? Or, to be more accurate, why doesn't Jill start a riding club? Jill is not keen to start with but with typical Jill verve, start a riding club is exactly what she does. Not everything goes to it's much harder work corralling a load of riders you don't know than Jill thought, and her ghastly cousin Cecilia turning up doesn't help either.

Genres: Childrens, Horses, Juvenile, Fiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Ruby Constance Annie Ashby Ferguson
aka
Ruby Ferguson and R.C. Ashby

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not, I have to admit, one of the more thrilling chapters in the 'Jill' series. Jill and her friend Ann start up a riding club in the school holidays & people ride. They finish up with a gymkhana, and that's about it.

[Todayiamadaisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mooching around a second-hand book shop this month, I found a couple of Jill books I hadn't read as a child. Even by Jill's sedate standards, this isn't the most exciting book, but it was fun and Jill is always an appealing character: sensible, bright and funny. In this one, it's the holidays, so Jill's best friend suggests that they start a riding club, and some mild, horse-related adventures ensue.

[A.E. Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

As good as a book can be. It helps if you like this kind of horsey thing, which I do, but I love this story, the imagination and industriousness, the humour and the lack of unpleasantry, whilst maintaining pace and interest. I love Jill, and want to be her just as much at 30 as I did at 13. A joy to return to.

[Pm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the Jill books as a child and I thought I would reread them decades later. Other books from childhood I have reread seem flat and stale: this sparkles. Clever and funny books, these are! Love Jill and love how Ruby Ferguson writes. I am going to read them all, then try her adult novels.

It fills me with a nostalgia for a rural idyllic I never knew, born as I was in Liverpool, after all the fields had been built on and the villages only surviving a long way away. Charming, engrossing, funny books. I always wanted to be one of those pony girls, as clever and honest as Jill. I never could be, but it was and is great to read about it.

[Jill Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another frightfully British book. I love the way Jill decides to take on the challenge of creating a pony club. Then reluctantly draws on friends help to get it all together and learn by mistakes to become better riders. I’m sure my granddaughter will enjoy this book. This is the third of Ruby Ferguson’s books.

[Emma Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is clearly the weakest of the Jill books - not funny at all and quite repetitive, Jill opens a riding club and at the end they throw a gymkhana - but can’t bring myself to give it less than five stars, this series is a huge favourite. 🥰

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful

I’m reading at least a book a day of these, and whilst it is indulgent nostalgia, it is also glorious. It is a joke with my horsey sister that everything I know about horses comes from the Jill books and she’s not far wrong! (I mean, Black Beauty gets a look in too!)

[Renata Shura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jills spunk still comes through but I just didn’t find this book as engaging as the first two.

[Lainey Grieve Ramsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jill’s riding club was first published in 1956 by Hodder and Stoughton

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Onto what might be my favourite book in the Jill series, it's this or pony trek...

Jill is convinced by Ann, after some prodding, to start a riding club and what follows is a 100% dream scenario of them getting together their members, tracking down an unused paddock and convincing its rather grumpy owner to let them use it for club rallies (shout out to my girl Mercy Dulbottle, MVP) and then spend a summer having fun, schooling and eventually setting up and having their own Gymhkhana.

There's a lot of returning characters here and also plenty of new ones, Clarissa and Cecilia are featured quite a bit, but they're pretty amusing in their own way so I don't mind it.

This book is just a dream honestly, a whole summer of riding your horse with your friends, with some decent equipment and space and very little adult supervision, what is not to like?

[Dark-Draco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this story a lot. Jill and her friends decide to start up a riding club during the summer holidays. They have to find a field, instructors, think of things to do and arrange the end of season gymkhana. Learning to get a long and to encourage the younge kids is all part of the process.

This was a sweet story and its nice to think everything could really be that simple - not these days though, insurance don't you know!! But it's the sort of thing that we used to get up as kids and bought back a few memories of long summer holidays.

[Gayle Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved all the "Jill " series. The best learning to ride and own ponies from the earlier days that I have read, and have read many any of them...........helped me become an Anglophile.....

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great entry in the series!!

[Suzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

So glad to find these books again!