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Ruth Hollis #2
The team
Fourteen-year-old Ruth acquires what is considered an unsuitable pony and determines to train him so that she can become a member of the Pony Club team. Sequel to "Fly-by-Night."
177 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
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About the author
K.M. Peyton
109 books149 followersKathleen Wendy Herald Peyton MBE, who wrote primarily as K. M. Peyton, was a British author of fiction for children and young adults
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 16, 2023
Not exactly a comfort read; Ruth is not a very comfortable person and there are many difficult situations for her to deal with. But a good one!
September 30, 2016
What I enjoyed most about The Team was its cast of secondary characters, particularly the battleaxe of a Pony Club district commissioner Mrs. Meredith. Mrs. Meredith has no compunction about sacrificing children’s egos—or even the odd broken limb—to win a rally and there is no twenty-first century hand-holding to her style of coaching. Peter McNair is also a truly unique character, utterly obsessed with his former pony Toadhill Flax, who was sold from under him by his horse-dealer father. Peter is a faultless, determined rider despite the fact that every decent pony he’s had has been sold for a profit, leaving him, as is memorably stated, “with the pigs.”
This is just a great classic British pony book, with independent children who ride about the countryside unsupervised on their ponies and who do outdoorsy things all day long like assemble motor bikes and gallop in the rain and snow. It’s beautifully written and the dialogue is just spot-on.
My only quibble is the main heroine Ruth, Toadhill Flax’s new owner, seems very passive. When she experiences a riding breakthrough it is described as something that suddenly occurs, not something she works for, and even at the end of the book Ruth still constantly doubts herself. It’s always underlined that Peter is the better rider and Toad is “a boy’s pony.” The female heroine is really what dates the book, more so than the fact that “crash helmets” are only used for show during PC rallies cross-country. I felt that compared with previous girl heroines of old pony books Ruth was unusually timid.
Still, well worth the read, especially for modern day Pony Clubbers.
This is just a great classic British pony book, with independent children who ride about the countryside unsupervised on their ponies and who do outdoorsy things all day long like assemble motor bikes and gallop in the rain and snow. It’s beautifully written and the dialogue is just spot-on.
My only quibble is the main heroine Ruth, Toadhill Flax’s new owner, seems very passive. When she experiences a riding breakthrough it is described as something that suddenly occurs, not something she works for, and even at the end of the book Ruth still constantly doubts herself. It’s always underlined that Peter is the better rider and Toad is “a boy’s pony.” The female heroine is really what dates the book, more so than the fact that “crash helmets” are only used for show during PC rallies cross-country. I felt that compared with previous girl heroines of old pony books Ruth was unusually timid.
Still, well worth the read, especially for modern day Pony Clubbers.
April 4, 2020
A tale packed with real people, real horses, real occurrences. I almost know these folks, almost rode those horses, almost had this happen to me. I didn't ride Pony Club, which is under 16, but I competed in Riding Club at 16 and found many similarities.
An eventing team is being formed for a one-day event, and a new purchase, a rogue, a stalwart pony and young riders are under consideration. I notice that my copy was published in 1975 and film International Velvet came out a few years later; wonder if the eventing team theme was an influence?
I read this book over three evenings and the night after I'd finished, I dreamt I was picking up horses' hooves to clean them, which I have not done in a few years.
I have not read Fly By Night, the first book about Ruth, and I'm disappointed to note that in the third book she is described as 'pony rescuer Ruth' but there is no mention of ponies and that continues to the following book. Don't think I'll bother with those.
This is an unbiased review.
An eventing team is being formed for a one-day event, and a new purchase, a rogue, a stalwart pony and young riders are under consideration. I notice that my copy was published in 1975 and film International Velvet came out a few years later; wonder if the eventing team theme was an influence?
I read this book over three evenings and the night after I'd finished, I dreamt I was picking up horses' hooves to clean them, which I have not done in a few years.
I have not read Fly By Night, the first book about Ruth, and I'm disappointed to note that in the third book she is described as 'pony rescuer Ruth' but there is no mention of ponies and that continues to the following book. Don't think I'll bother with those.
This is an unbiased review.
March 25, 2019
Ruth Hollis ei halua mitään muuta kuin oman ponin. Kun hänen perheensä muuttaa omakotitaloon, on unelma mahdollista toteuttaa. Mutta löytyykö 40 dollarilla yhtään hyvää ponia, ja miten poni pärjäisi heidän takapihallaan, jossa ei ole edes kunnon tallia?
October 1, 2012
Just as good as Fly by Night!
November 23, 2018
Well, this was a fast turnaround, certainly! K.M. Peyton has an intriguing knack for writing selfishness as a central character flaw – sometimes it’s really well done and makes you root for the character anyway (Flambards and Will come to mind); other times you end up wanting to slap the character a whole lot (hi Minna from the Roman pony series, I loathe you). This one fell into the latter category, sadly – I liked Ruth in the first book, where she was scrappy and capable but essentially kind. This book had her turning into something of an entitled, selfish brat. I’m sorry, but if you care more about having a new pony than what happens to your old one, or to the friend who has a pre-existing, unique bond with your new one and desperately wants him back, then I don’t care enough to root for you. The book was trying very hard to get you on Ruth’s side, but boy was I ever not impressed with her. She basically shat all over her old horse’s wellbeing and her friend’s mental health, all for the sake of looking cool on a spiffing new horse. I particularly hated how if a girl REALLY WANTS A PONY OMG SHE WANTS HIM SO HARD, she should be indulged and cossetted and helped out at every turn, especially if she cries a bit, because good god, girls and ponies, what can you do, right? – but heaven forbid a teenage boy with a lot of emotional baggage and a serious dearth of meaningful relationships form a genuine attachment to an animal, then he’s just being silly and should get over it, because the crying girl deserves the pony more. Ugh. Instead of delivering soothing, reality-erasing pony escapism, this actually made me mad. Shoulda stopped at book one.
September 5, 2019
Considering that I liked the other Ruth Hollis books when I was about Ruth's age, I think I might just have discovered this one too late. My feeling is that Peyton was just reworking the basic idea of Fly-by-Night: Tough, sweet girl, determined to have a pony although her parents can hardly afford one, has outgrown her first pony, whom it was a challenge just to keep and ride. Now she wants to ride in shows and competitions with her rich friends in a more expensive pony club, and again she can afford only a problem pony others don't want, and now she's working to pay for show gear and fees and so on. For young readers who were satisfied with tips on training and funding a pony (one of which I was), Ruth's example for showing the animal may arouse a reaction like "Why bother?"
This one will be even more of a disappointment to those who might have hoped Ruth would marry Peter or one of the other rich, nice boys in the pony club. Peyton was saving her for a character from a different novel.
This one will be even more of a disappointment to those who might have hoped Ruth would marry Peter or one of the other rich, nice boys in the pony club. Peyton was saving her for a character from a different novel.
June 29, 2021
The chapters were not the same lenght. Some were over 40, where as others were only around 5. Its not one of those "Just one more chapter before bed!" kind of books which bugged me a little as I had to keep checking to see how long the next chapter.
I would recomend it though, just don't read it while commuting.
I would recomend it though, just don't read it while commuting.
July 4, 2025
A childhood favourite revisited in lockdown. I found that I still thought it was great and really acknowledges teenage feelings but if I am voicing a non PC and offensive opinion then I daresay the Amazon / Goodreads censor will send an appropriate admonishment. I just hope they tell me why, this time.
February 11, 2019
Ruth Hollisin tarina jatkuu. Mielenkiintoinen kuvaus vanhan ajan hevoskilpailuista. Onneksi nykyään puututaan hevosten kohteluun vähän toisella tavalla kuin tuohon aikaan. Erikoista on myös se, miten vaativia kilpailuja juniori-ikäisille poniratsukoille oikein järjestettiinkään.
September 6, 2024
Peyton is really good at capturing a complicated feeling in a few pages, especially in cases where head and heart are pulling in different directions. She’s also good at tracking a characters growth, both the bits that the kid notices and the things she doesn’t.
July 19, 2014
Sequel to the much better "Fly-by-Night", this story continues with Ruth Hollis, Peter McNair and their families, while introducing new characters.
One of the reasons that "Fly" was so delightful was that it deviated from the usual pony book trope of schooling and endless bloody circles that the worthy pony heroines usually employ to break/school the unmanageable pony they've acquired. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy those books, but it was a nice change to gloss over that in "Fly".
"The Team" falls back into more usual territory. There's a new pony club DC, she wants to get a crack team together to win the one day event championship. The usual suspects are rounded up with a couple of new characters. However Ruth has outgrown Fly, and buys a new pony from an auction who turns out to be (surprise, surprise) Peter's beloved pony, Toad. Now in the usual run of these books, Ruth would have refused to part with Fly because she loves him so much. But she lets him go with barely a backward glance because, after all, she's outgrown him and so he's no use to her. The sentimentality was missing, but it didn't make me think that much of Ruth, and it was at odds with the Ruth from "Fly". Then, in the usual run of things, the heroine would gladly and unselfishly hand over Toad to his previous owner, the boy who loved him so much and missed him so much when his uncaring father sold him against Peter's wishes. Nope. Ruth decides she wants to keep Toad, but the reasons for her doing so didn't ring true to me. Especially when she goes to great lengths to save Toad from mistreatment, but doesn't even bother to find out anything about the home she sold Fly to... All she cares about is getting the money for the new pony.
Still an enjoyable read, the writing is still good bordering on great, but it fell uneasily between following the tried and true pony book lines and being truly original.
One of the reasons that "Fly" was so delightful was that it deviated from the usual pony book trope of schooling and endless bloody circles that the worthy pony heroines usually employ to break/school the unmanageable pony they've acquired. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy those books, but it was a nice change to gloss over that in "Fly".
"The Team" falls back into more usual territory. There's a new pony club DC, she wants to get a crack team together to win the one day event championship. The usual suspects are rounded up with a couple of new characters. However Ruth has outgrown Fly, and buys a new pony from an auction who turns out to be (surprise, surprise) Peter's beloved pony, Toad. Now in the usual run of these books, Ruth would have refused to part with Fly because she loves him so much. But she lets him go with barely a backward glance because, after all, she's outgrown him and so he's no use to her. The sentimentality was missing, but it didn't make me think that much of Ruth, and it was at odds with the Ruth from "Fly". Then, in the usual run of things, the heroine would gladly and unselfishly hand over Toad to his previous owner, the boy who loved him so much and missed him so much when his uncaring father sold him against Peter's wishes. Nope. Ruth decides she wants to keep Toad, but the reasons for her doing so didn't ring true to me. Especially when she goes to great lengths to save Toad from mistreatment, but doesn't even bother to find out anything about the home she sold Fly to... All she cares about is getting the money for the new pony.
Still an enjoyable read, the writing is still good bordering on great, but it fell uneasily between following the tried and true pony book lines and being truly original.
January 17, 2015
A great sequel to Fly-by-Night. I always enjoy how her adolescent characters have to work for everything, and make an effort. And they don’t always get what they want. Lots of pony background and a little hint of teenage love towards the end.
February 3, 2013
Favourite childhood author who read my first attempt at a book when I was 17, despite having never met me!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews