tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5609001996482522007.post5147674513829395769..comments2023-09-30T05:55:32.374-04:00Comments on The Pony Book Chronicles: Pamela And The Blue Mare (1952)Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08937427776827933594noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5609001996482522007.post-3599511447141308482017-10-15T21:24:24.061-04:002017-10-15T21:24:24.061-04:00I discovered O'Connell's "Blue Mare&q...I discovered O'Connell's "Blue Mare" books at the public library when I was 9, living in the Midwest in the Corn Belt. I read them voraciously as I was quite horse-crazy, and had them practically memorized by the time my parents moved us from a farm, where we had a an old buckskin mare to learn on, to a small town where I had access to an acre of pasture and used my allowance to buy a yearling colt to train. No, I did not go through the 4-H Club. I learned everything I knew about breaking and training a horse from those books and trained my horse to jump and do all sorts of other things. I went further much later as an adult, got instruction from a professional trainer, trained and rode other horses, and rode to hounds on both my 10 year old first horse and a Thoroughbread mare I had bought from a friend. I continued training and showing up until 1980, <br />To put a book written in the early 1950s in the context of today's world, when family structure and general customs have changed enormously is just silly. There is a vast difference between the way things were when I was 9, and the world we live in now, 65 years later, long after those books were written.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5609001996482522007.post-87387288101180793202015-04-07T00:36:37.560-04:002015-04-07T00:36:37.560-04:00While the story may not be the most wildly excitin...While the story may not be the most wildly exciting, the beauty of the O'Connell books is the incorporation of the Littauer training system for humans and horses. Littauer is supposed to have been her consultant on things equine, and it shows. One could use Pamela and The Blue Mare as a guide to bringing a young horse from before backing to finished hunter.<br /><br />The next book, The Blue Mare at the Olympic Trials, takes Frosty Morning all the way to the Olympics as an event horse in 1952, even though Pam is on the US Show Jumping Team. Unfortunately, women were not allowed to ride in the Olympics at that date.<br /><br />The books are treasures for anyone interested in horse training.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com