Dick und Dalli und die Ponys

by Ursula Bruns, Marie Luise Prinzessin Salm (Illustrator), Rolf Rettich (Illustrator)

Die Geschichte zweier handfester Mädchen und eines Jungen, aus dem auch noch etwas wurde.

Genres: German Literature, Childrens, Animals

174 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Ursula Bruns war eine deutsche Autorin, Pferdesachverständige und Mitbegründerin und erste Schriftführerin des Deutschen Pony-Klubs.

Ursula Bruns studierte Kunstgeschichte und Germanistik. Bruns gründete 1958 die Zeitschrift Pony-Post und 1969, darauf aufbauend, Freizeit im Sattel. Die Zeitschrift wurde nach fünf Jahrzehnten verkauft und erschien als Pegasus – freizeit im sattel.

In ihrer Reitschule in Reken lernten viele Schülerinnen und Schüler den richtigen Sitz im Sattel, bekannt als Leichtes Reiten.

Für einen effektiven und pferdegerechten Reitunterricht erwachsener Freizeitreiter (speziell Reitanfänger oder Wiedereinsteiger) entwickelte Ursula Bruns mit Inge Behr (Erwachsenenpädagogin) ein pädagogisches Konzept als eine Art „Grundschule des Reitens“: die BB-Methode (Bruns/Behr-Methode). Dieses Ausbildungskonzept für Reiter und Pferd wurde in Zusammenarbeit mit Linda Tellington-Jones (TTEAM - Arbeit) und Rolf Becher (Chiron Springen) ergänzt.

Ursula Bruns gehörte zu den Pionieren in Sachen Offenstallhaltung. Sie hat in Deutschland das Freizeitreiten mit geprägt.

Ursula Bruns lebte lange Zeit in Spanien, zuletzt aber wieder in Deutschland in der Nähe von Reken. 2005 erhielt sie die „Goldene Nadel mit Brillanten“ des IPZV (Islandpferde-Reiter- und Züchterverband).

[https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursul...]

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ursula Bruns' 1952 middle grade novel Dick und Dalli und die Ponys was a personal favourite when I was nine years old, a story that I probably read more than three times in a row after receiving it as a birthday present and that Dick und Dalli und die Ponys was also one of the German language children’s books I took with me when we immigrated to Canada in 1976 (when I was ten) and which I also reread repeatedly as a teenager (not only to keep up with my German, but also because I just loved Dick und Dalli und die Ponys so much, especially the ponies and the horses, the grandmother and how arrogant and spoilt Ethelbert is with both reason and through tough love cured of his clumsiness, his sense of entitlement to become a true companion and a reliable cousin to and for Dick and Dalli and whose given names are actually Barbara and Brigitte Jantzen). And yes, my childhood self will indeed always and forever consider Dick und Dalli und die Ponys a lovely, evocative and favourite story, with important messages of friendship, of taking responsibility, of being there for others and remembering not to be selfish (and indeed, that hardy Shetland ponies and Icelandic horses should not be stabled in the same manner as warmbloods, as Trakehners, Thoroughbreds, Hannovarians and such, that while the latter will need to be covered with blankets and coddled during the winter because they have been raised and bred for centuries to be sleek and thin pelted, the majority of or at least many pony breeds often still are as tough and as resourceful as when they used to live wild, feral and do have such thick coats during the winter months that they are actually and therefore generally often better off living outside, on pasture, and only require a stable very rarely, mostly just for emergencies and in cases of severe illness).

However, and all that being said, and even though I still do in fact very much enjoy and appreciate Dick und Dalli und die Ponys as a horse story for children, I am as an older adult reader now also very much aware of the fact that Dick und Dalli und die Ponys is not only massively dated with regard to gender roles (which makes sense considering that it was published in 1952) but that for me, especially the grandmother (someone whom I in fact totally loved and cherished as a child) now kind of makes me cringe a bit. Yes, I can still with Dick und Dalli und die Ponys appreciate the grandmother's generally positive attitude towards life, that she stands by her lack of cooking skills and her belief in home remedies, but her often rather disparaging, borderline vicious, dismissive attitude towards Aunt Mathilde, towards her unmarried daughter, I now do find this massively aggravating and even rather verbally, psychologically abusive and neglectful, and that the grandmother supposedly means "well" in Dick und Dalli und die Ponys and obviously does very much love her daughter, this in no way make the constant put-downs, the grandmother's often biting sarcasm and the like any easier to bear, to accept (especially since it sometimes also appears in Dick und Dalli und die Ponys as though Dick and Dalli themselves are imitating their Oma, are being textually shown by the author, by Ursula Bruns as seeing their deceased mother's sister as someone to at best lovingly tolerate, but not ever take all that seriously).

And finally, but essentially, importantly, Dick und Dalli und die Ponys is equally both academically interesting and also frustrating with regard to what the novel and Bruns' story does in fact not contain and does not show. For although Dick und Dalli und die Ponys was published soon after the end of WWII (in 1952), there is in fact no direct mention of the war, of Nazi atrocities, of the Holocaust (not all that surprising, I guess, and really, even many children's novels published in 1950s America, Canada, Britain etc. also usually or at least more often than not fail to have WWII or its aftermath as direct themes). However, in Dick und Dalli und die Ponys, there actually and indeed is a very small section on German refugees (on Flüchtlinge), on East Prussians having escaped to the West with their horses, with their Trakehners (and although this entire scenario is really only briefly mentioned by Ursula Bruns, there is a definite and perhaps even somewhat understandable "blame the Red Army" attitude presented, but sadly not the fact or rather not yet the fact and truth of the matter that the loss of East Prussia, that the forced trek of tens of thousands East Prussians and their horses, that their flight from the Red Army is really and should really be seen as first and foremost primarily very much the fault of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, for without the latter, there likely would not have been a world war in the first place). But of course and furthermore, if Bruns with Dick und Dalli und die Ponys makes the point of presenting, showcasing and lamenting the plight of East Prussian, of German WWII refugees, what about the victims of the Holocaust?

Now I do well realise that the Holocaust, that the question of Nazi atrocities and German guilt as well as responsibility did not generally and thematically become a recurring and active consideration of modern, of more recent German children's literature until considerably later than when Dick und Dalli und die Ponys was published in the early 1950s (since only the 1970s and later saw the Holocaust become a main theme). However, and even though I as a child much loved reading about Major von Roth's Trakehners and how he escaped from East Prussia with them (mostly and especially because my family bred and raised Trakehners), as an older adult who has read much on the Third Reich, has much thought about this period, this horror and has also often felt guilty and ashamed of her German background, what is left out in Dick und Dalli und die Ponys, what is not mentioned, what has been for all intents and purposes ignored, although historically and culturally understandable, does now make me shake my head a bit, and also makes me realise that these at best problematic oversights and shortcomings do need to be discussed when reading this story, when reading Dick und Dalli und die Ponys today (and in my opinion, this should and indeed must be discussed much more so than the 1950s era datedness with regard to gender stratification and that the grandmother can be a bit harsh and dismissive towards the aunt). And while as a child, I would have instantly and without question rated Dick und Dalli und die Ponys with solidly five stars, I can now with a good conscience only consider a high three star rating at best (but that I am still keeping Dick und Dalli und die Pony’s on my favourites shelf).

Also, please do note that the title of this book is in NO WAY even remotely vulgar, as the German word "dick" means pudgy or fat (and therefore does not have the sexual connotations it now has in English). Now whether "dick" (pudgy) is in fact an appropriate nickname is to be left open, but the title of this book, the title Dick und Dalli und die Ponys is indeed not even remotely sexually charged or sexually offensive in German.

[BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Borrowed it from the local library at the time, because one of my friends had read it and like me, she loved horses and ponies 🙂

Addition November 2019:
Ever since the secondhand bookshops showed up on the internet, I'd been looking for a decent Dutch translation of this book, but no such luck, unfortunately. Until the end of last week... 😁 I reread the book immediately upon delivery and it was such fun! It turned out to be written with a lot of humour, something I can't remember I noticed during my first reading, but then again, I probably read it just f0r the story when I was in my early teens 😉 This time I chuckled, grinned and laughed out loud, as it was so very funny. It was one of the best children books I read as an adult!

[Tjade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grundsätzlich ein tolles Kinderbuch, dem alter geschuldet kommen leider viele rassistische Bezeichnungen darin vor und es ist recht mühselig, von Ethelberts diversen Krankheiten zu lesen. Dafür ist es eine schöne Abwechslung zu modernen Pferdegeschichten. Es wird nicht ein Pferd oder Pony explizit hervorgehoben sondern dieselben tauchen immer wieder auf, die Beschreibung des typischen Shetlandpony Charakters ist sehr treffend und alles in allem passen die Beschreibungen der Tiere und der Umgang mit ihnen zu dem, was ich vorn Ursula Bruns als Voranbringerin der Freizeitreiterei und des Isländers gehört habe.
Es ist schön, dass irgendwann die Charaktere begreifen, dass vieles ein Missverständnis ist und Herr von Roth erzählt, dass er in seinem Stall die Ständerhaltung abschaffen möchte. Die Info hätte ich in den Filmen auch gerne gehabt, es macht ihn sehr sympathisch.
Auf jeden Fall spannend, die Buchvorlage mit den Filmen aus den 1950er Jahren zu vergleichen!
Es gibt sehr sehr viele Änderungen aber irgendwie passt es auch und vieles taucht auch wieder auf - nur eben anders.
So wie das Buch ist wären die Filme nicht so erfolgreich geworden.

[oliviasbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

2016: The heroines have to be of my father's generation. Interesting to foray again into that story. But I'll give the book away after rereading.

[Arina Carolina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Das Buch las ich zuletzt als Kind und wollte es unbedingt nochmals lesen. Nun fast 10 Jahre später gefällt es mir nach wie vor sehr gut. Immenhof ist einfach Kult egal ob das Buch oder die alten Filme! :)

[Christine Mathieu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book for young readers.
The famous Immenhof Trilogie (movies) with a very young Heidi Bruehl was based on this novel.