Six Ponies

West Barsetshire Series #1

by Josephine Pullein-Thompson

Six New Forest ponies are given to six children for a year. During that time they have to break them in, and at the end of it there is a competition to see who has done best. But who will win; June Cresswell whose matelpiece is stacked with silver cups; John, who cannot get any one to help him till his mother comes gallantly forward; the Radcliffes who shout and quarrel and live in the whirl of a big family of all ages; Susan from the ugly red house on the hill; or scruffy, self-conscious Noel?

Genres: Childrens, Animals, Horses

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

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

[K.L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apparently I was lucky enough to get hold of an unabridged version, the abridged ones are apparently a lot lighter. The Major gives 6 pupils a chance to break in 6 ponies. Wow! these kids on the whole are pretty grim, felt really sorry for the poor ponies, but love JPT and the kids go on to become better riders and kinder people in later books in the series

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuing on the old pony storied re-readathon, I decided to go to the West Barsetshire Series which is a wonderfully fun read.

Six Ponies is the opening book to the series and it follows several different children who are all members of the same pony club as they break in and school 6 young ponies.
The kids all come from various different backgrounds and each go about schooling their pony in different ways, some more successful than others!

The trusty (if somewhat scary) Major Holbrooke is always on hand for advice and guidance and all in all it's a fantastic read.

[Mary Pagones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Normally I love e JPT’s pony books, but this is a hot, overstuffed mess. Six kids, all with siblings and parents, are given six unbroken ponies to train. Many of the kids have multiple ponies, and there just isn’t enough time to get to know any of them well enough to believe in their emotional journeys.

And the kids are horrors-beating and punching the ponies on one occasion, teaching them ponies to rest for fun, bullying less confident riders to get on, with terrible consequences.

[Christa Schönmann Abbühl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an exciting read, and quite harrowing in parts. The idea that six children are given young horses to train by themselves sounds crazy to me. I was sorry for some of those ponies. Also the way the author switched from place to place inside the same chapter was a bit confusing, and it took me a while to recognise all the names. Some of those names were so similar, like Roger and Richard. But overall I enjoyed myself.