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Jill's Ponies #2
A Stable for Jill
"I'm so glad you've come, Jill," Cecilia cried. "Tonight we're going to press flowers for my botany album."
When Jill is sent to stay with her awful cousin Cecilia - without her pony Black Boy - she is sure it will be a miserable summer. Then she meets the Walters children, and together they think up a bold plan to save their pony, Ballerina, from being sold. But can you really open a hacking stable with only one pony?
When Jill is sent to stay with her awful cousin Cecilia - without her pony Black Boy - she is sure it will be a miserable summer. Then she meets the Walters children, and together they think up a bold plan to save their pony, Ballerina, from being sold. But can you really open a hacking stable with only one pony?
160 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
12 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Ruby Ferguson
47 books36 followersRuby Constance Annie Ashby Ferguson
aka
Ruby Ferguson and R.C. Ashby
aka
Ruby Ferguson and R.C. Ashby
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 17, 2011
In the second book of the series, Jill is separated from her home and her beloved Black Boy when her mother, who writes horribly twee but apparently very successful novels about a series of sickeningly saintlike children, much to Jill's disgust, goes on a signing tour of the US and Jill is sent to stay with posh Aunt Primrose and Cousin Cecilia who doesn't ride, but knows she'd be good at it if she wanted to. Jill being Jill, she wastes no time in finding a local family mourning the imminent loss of their beloved pony Ballerina, and then in galvanising them into turning their home (which happens to be a vicarage) into a commercially successful riding stable. I suspect that in real life a group of under-15s might not really find this worked out all that well plus, wouldn't there be taxes and things? but real life is boring. I would quite happily live in pony-book-fantasy-world, if given the option. Although I fear I would be lumped in with the dreadful Cecilia, so maybe not.
September 3, 2013
The second book in the Jill series is just brilliant - a real visit to the past. Jill has to stay with her horrible cousin, Cecilia, and to make matters worse, can't take her beloved pony, Black Boy, with her. But she manages to find some horsey friends who need some help. Their pony, Ballerina, is going to be sold as their parents are unable to keep her. So, the four children decide to start their own hacking stables. Borrowing three aged horses from their uncle isn't enough, so Jill decides to spend her own money on two new ponies, money she was supposed to use for a showjumper for herself.
Another funny, entertaining story, although totally impossible these days - shock horror, health and safety and no insurance!!! But I love the naivity of it all...and the fact that £40 bought a hunter and a pony for the yard - that wouldn't even buy a set of shoes for one of my beasts! I really enjoyed this and am so glad I got a chance to re-read it.
Another funny, entertaining story, although totally impossible these days - shock horror, health and safety and no insurance!!! But I love the naivity of it all...and the fact that £40 bought a hunter and a pony for the yard - that wouldn't even buy a set of shoes for one of my beasts! I really enjoyed this and am so glad I got a chance to re-read it.
February 12, 2012
The op shop has a half price book sale on. I got this for 75c. The Jill books are some of my favouite happy books. This edition is the 1993 revised edition (first published in 1951). The cover has a photo of a sturdy girl in a baggy green tee shirt that is reminiscent of operating room scrubs. She’s assisting a child on a Shetland pony.
Wrong! All wrong!! Jill wouldn’t wear a tee shirt! She’d wear an open necked cotton shirt that had either been dragged out of the laundry basket that morning, or that the home help had cheerfully ironed for her, complaining all the while.
The revisions are very superficial (luckily). The 40 pounds Jill’s mummy gave her to buy a showjumper in 1951 is 800 pounds in 1993. Jill can do a clear round over one metre jumps as opposed to three feet, but Jill’s mummy still takes the boat to America instead of hopping on British Airways.
What is so fabulous about the Jill books is their cheery narrator. Jill narrates events as they happen, mundane ordinary stuff (and like all Brit kids’ books of the era with a healthy obsession with food “three kinds of jam and Chelsea buns”). She talks about whitewashing stables and then biking home furiously, late for cousin Cecelia’s boring birthday party. Jill is a “good sort” and the sort of person you’d like for your friend. She’s a good rider (very important) and yet she tries to be modest and unassuming (which are virtues in Jill’s world, unlike the modern one where boasting about your achievements is the norm).
I wanted to be Jill when I first read this age 9. I still do.
Wrong! All wrong!! Jill wouldn’t wear a tee shirt! She’d wear an open necked cotton shirt that had either been dragged out of the laundry basket that morning, or that the home help had cheerfully ironed for her, complaining all the while.
The revisions are very superficial (luckily). The 40 pounds Jill’s mummy gave her to buy a showjumper in 1951 is 800 pounds in 1993. Jill can do a clear round over one metre jumps as opposed to three feet, but Jill’s mummy still takes the boat to America instead of hopping on British Airways.
What is so fabulous about the Jill books is their cheery narrator. Jill narrates events as they happen, mundane ordinary stuff (and like all Brit kids’ books of the era with a healthy obsession with food “three kinds of jam and Chelsea buns”). She talks about whitewashing stables and then biking home furiously, late for cousin Cecelia’s boring birthday party. Jill is a “good sort” and the sort of person you’d like for your friend. She’s a good rider (very important) and yet she tries to be modest and unassuming (which are virtues in Jill’s world, unlike the modern one where boasting about your achievements is the norm).
I wanted to be Jill when I first read this age 9. I still do.
October 15, 2023
Reread in 2023 - this was tremendous fun, I loved it!!! So many adventures and I found the Cecilia bits hilarious (I was such a Cecilia!). Loved how resourceful the children are, they manage really well for themselves! The ending is fab, I love this series!
Original review - Jill runs her own stable while she's staying with her cousin Cecilia. Not a whole lot of riding but a great deal of caring for horses, which I think is just as interesting. I had no idea of the rivalry that seems to be exist between ballet and pony children (I'm an adult and I enjoy both) and I think the constant allusions to Cecilia's preciousness due to her ballet classes were a bit grating. Ferguon's writing can be generously described as disjointed but I suppose she gets away with it by saying that it's Jill narrating the story. Regardless, style is neither's strong suit. I look forward to more adventures.
Original review - Jill runs her own stable while she's staying with her cousin Cecilia. Not a whole lot of riding but a great deal of caring for horses, which I think is just as interesting. I had no idea of the rivalry that seems to be exist between ballet and pony children (I'm an adult and I enjoy both) and I think the constant allusions to Cecilia's preciousness due to her ballet classes were a bit grating. Ferguon's writing can be generously described as disjointed but I suppose she gets away with it by saying that it's Jill narrating the story. Regardless, style is neither's strong suit. I look forward to more adventures.
March 21, 2021
This is a lovely second book in the series of Jill and her ponies. Yes, I picked them up because the main character is a girl called Jill. These are very British stories first published in 1951, so the colloquial speech is of that era. I’m not sure my granddaughter will understand her sayings, but I hope she’ll enjoy the horse world Ruby Ferguson has created in these tales. Who knew that when Jill’s mother was asked to go on a book promotion tour in America and she was sent to stay at her Aunt’s with her dreaded cousin Celia, that things would turn out to be wonderful? Jill was able to help her new found friends in the district her Aunt lived in save their horse from being sent to the knackers yard. She helped start a stable and the new friends learned to ride, groom and care for their ponies. It’s a lovely story with a fitting ending.
July 12, 2022
This is such a lovely and surprisingly witty series; another I wish I'd discovered when I was younger. I only picked them up because I found out that Ruby Ferguson had been a strong influence on the writing of one of my favourite authors, Eva Rice. The genre and target audience are very different, but the joie de vivre is the same.
September 5, 2022
My only regret is not reading this series as a child!
January 4, 2024
Loved these books when I was a kid, and returning to them now I get more of the references as well as a rush of nostalgia.
July 4, 2024
I couldn’t be reading a better series to help me have that summer holiday feeling! Jill is spunky and just the girl to remind me to never stop dreaming!
February 28, 2025
Loved this series as a child and am really enjoying re visiting them.
March 14, 2025
A stable for Jill was published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1951, and illustrated by Caney. I loved it then and still love it now.
Jill stays with cousins while her mother travels to the US to promote her new book. Separated from her own pony Jill and her cousins start a riding stable with her cousins borrowing three older ponies from their uncle.
Jill stays with cousins while her mother travels to the US to promote her new book. Separated from her own pony Jill and her cousins start a riding stable with her cousins borrowing three older ponies from their uncle.
April 4, 2022
happy to be rereading the Jill books
Love this series and am happy the ‘50’s references are preserved. Grew up with Jill and her pony adventures, and am loving revisiting them now!
Love this series and am happy the ‘50’s references are preserved. Grew up with Jill and her pony adventures, and am loving revisiting them now!
July 1, 2022
The summer holidays are coming and poor Jill discovers that she'll have to go and spend them with her aunt, uncle and awful cousin Cecilia.
After a dull start things pick up for Jill when she meets some local children who are struggling to come up with ideas to keep their pony, Ballerina, who their father has decreed must be sold.
Thus follows a fun time of the 3 siblings and Jill starting up a hacking stables with some borrowed horses and a lot of hard work.
It's a really fun read, obviously a bit of suspension of belief is needed but that is often the way and why let that stop a good time honestly?
The kids work hard keeping up the stables and dealing with an interesting variety of clients, Jill ends up spending her showjumper money on two new horses to help bulk out the stables and then everything concludes nicely and neatly at the end.
After a dull start things pick up for Jill when she meets some local children who are struggling to come up with ideas to keep their pony, Ballerina, who their father has decreed must be sold.
Thus follows a fun time of the 3 siblings and Jill starting up a hacking stables with some borrowed horses and a lot of hard work.
It's a really fun read, obviously a bit of suspension of belief is needed but that is often the way and why let that stop a good time honestly?
The kids work hard keeping up the stables and dealing with an interesting variety of clients, Jill ends up spending her showjumper money on two new horses to help bulk out the stables and then everything concludes nicely and neatly at the end.
July 29, 2019
Oli ihan pakko lainata nostalgiasyistä kaikki kirjastossa olleet laura-kirjat. Pienenä hevoshulluna laura-sarja oli paras tai ainakin yksi parhaista ja nyt muistuu mieleen miksi. Kirjoissa on ihanaa 50-luvun maalaisromantiikkaa ja huumoria vähän samaan tapaan kuin Enid Blytonin kirjoissa. Mukavaa luettavaa. Muista sarjan kirjoista kommentteja ei tule erikseen, tämä koskee kaikkia kirjoja,
September 5, 2012
happy days! Huge part of my childood spent on this and all the Ruby Ferguson 'Jill' books. Loved this one, loved most of them
February 24, 2015
Omläsning!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews