The Secret Horse
Marion Holland, Taylor Oughton, il.
1959, Little, Brown & Company

The summer stretches out long and boring for Maryland girl Annick (Nickie) Baxter. A sudden financial crisis involving replacing the front porch means she can't go to riding camp with her friends, and she's sulking up a storm until the arrival of a new neighbor, Abigail (Gail) Walton cheers her up. The horse-crazy Nickie talks Gail into stealing an unwanted horse from the local pound, and hiding it in the abandoned stables of a seldom-occupied estate nearby.

Nickie's single-minded efforts to get what she wants are awe-inspiring, and her gamble is so high that every scene has the potential for disaster, from the midnight creep with a stolen horse to the breathless moments waiting for the annual influx of handymen and lawnmowers to leave. There are sufficient obstacles, convenient happenstances (like the gorgeous stableblock just out the back door and through the fence), appealing heroines and a very pleasant horse named Highboy, who is just skinny and neglected enough to provide a bit of rescue story as well. With all that said, it is mostly an adventure story revolving around a horse. The girls scarcely ride Highboy, and it can't be said to be a pony book in that sense. It is satisfying and well written. A few bits of dialogue seem impossible for a pair of 10-year-olds, though.

The book's set in Maryland, outside Washington D.C., and both fathers appear to work in the government. The owner of the big estate, Mr. Olds, has turned sour after the death of his wife and daughter. A rather expositionary conversation between Nickie's parents seems both out of place and irritating, hinging as it does on the assumption that the reader desperately needs to know the old man's motivations for returning. It also indulges an ill-judged foray into mild author pretension, as the utterly conventional, middle-class, stay-at-home mom makes a casual classical reference that simply does not belong in the story.

Also, in the annals of children's books, has there ever been a financial crisis as bizarre and dull as termites eating the front porch?

Setting
Maryland, suburban D.C.

Illustrations
I love the cover on the Scholastic edition. Taylor Oughton's drawings throughout are good, rather basic and better with people than horses, but satisfying.

Editions pictured:
1) Dark cover, horse with house in background
Scholastic

2) Horse in woods, paler frame (pictured below)
APPLE Paperback - Scholastic - interior same, different cover

Practical Information
Not a lot. That you can make hay by spreading cut grass on a flat surface to dry in the sun, mostly.

Horses
Highboy
Butterscotch - owned by Gail's family previously
Tennessee Girl - owned by Gail's family previously
Chocolate Chip - owned by Gail's family previously

Other Books by Holland
No Children, No Pets
Casey Jones Rides Vanity
Everygirl's Horse Stories (anthology)
No Room For A Dog
Muggsy

Holland also wrote several books for beginner readers

Themes
Abuse
Rescue
Bourgie Parents
Where's that footman?
Bulldozers on the Prowl

Other Editions
Apple Paperback (show below)

Billy And Blaze
C.W. Anderson
1936, Macmillan Publishing Co.

Billy loves horses, and is lucky enough to get a pony for his birthday. Together, boy and pony explore the woods, find a faithful dog and win a jumping class for Best Pony at a horse show.

C.W. Anderson's art is a favorite of most horse-crazy kids. What sums up the appeal, to me, is how soft it is. His drawings capture the liquid warmth of a horse's eyes, the gentle slope of their massive bodies; the charcoal shadings suggest the sheer bulk and physicality of horses, while the lines of ears and legs and curves of neck and tail suggest their substance. In his most action-packed illustrations there's still a hint of future peace, of the inherent laze of a large herbivore. Here, in one of his earliest books, the style is still being worked out and there are more lines, less shading, and altogether a less accomplished look. The art is good, certainly, but it doesn't yet have that distinctive Anderson touch. The dog, however, is excellent, with the touch of humor Anderson always showed in his art.

Animals
Blaze - bay pony with four white socks and a blaze
Rex - German Shepherd Dog (apparently)

Other Books by Anderson
Billy And Blaze books
Billy And Blaze
Blaze And The Gypsies
Blaze And The Forest Fire
Blaze Finds The Trail
Blaze And Thunderbolt
Blaze And The Mountain Lion
Blaze And The Indian Cave
Blaze And The Lost Quarry
Blaze And The Gray Spotted Pony
Blaze Shows The Way
Blaze Finds Forgotten Roads

Other Books (picture)
A Pony For Linda
The Crooked Colt
Pony For Three
Lonesome Little Colt

Other Books
Bobcat
High Courage
The Horse of Hurricane Hill
Salute
Afraid To Ride
Phantom, Son Of The Gray Ghost
A Filly For Joan
Great Heart
Another Man O'War
The Outlaw

Other Books (nonfiction)
Tomorrow’s Champions
Horses Are Folks
The Smashers
Thoroughbreds
Heads Up, Heels Down
Deep Through The Heart
Sketchbook
Twenty Gallant Horses
Complete Book Of Horses And Horsemanship

Casey Jones Rides Vanity
Marion Holland, author and illustrator
1964, Little, Brown & Company

Casey Jones has outgrown her pony, Top Notch, but is torn at the idea of having to part with him. At the first horse show of the year, she takes him for a last outing and falls in love with the beautiful mare Vanity Fair. An accident lands his owner in the hospital and allows Casey to board her for a few months. The first order of business is to get the lovely mare over her fear of jumping.

A clear, well-written horse show adventure with a lot of very nice drawings. A particularly skillful meshing of character with the horse story in the sibling relationship between Casey and her sister. The heroine is very independent and her adventures are rarely followed by the sort of dutiful scoldings so many authors seem obliged to write, as if fiction were required to carry some sort of moral message of 'be careful, and tell a grownup, don't do scary stuff yourself, kids.' This tendency has become worse in recent years; if this book was written in 2008, the little expedition to Vanity's real home would end up with a policeman or Casey's father telling her off.

The illustrations by Marion Holland are a little fanciful, but that adds to their charm. Some of the pony drawings remind me of Thelwell, but cleaner lines.

Themes
Horse Show
Abuse
Rescue
Sibling Jealousy

Other Books
No Room For A Dog
The Secret Horse
No Children, No Pets
Everygirls Horse Stories (anthology)
Mugsy
A Big Ball Of String
Billy's Clubhouse
Billy Had A System
Billy's Raccoon
A Tree For Teddy
Timothy And The Forest Folk

Can I Get There By Candlelight?
Jean Slaughter Doty, il. Ted Lewin
1980, Macmillan

Gail Simmons rides her Welsh pony, Candlelight, through a rusted gate behind her new home, and discovers meets a lonely rich girl who wears old-fashioned clothing and is shocked to see another girl riding astride. Despite the evidence that something is odd, Gail decides to take the friendship as it comes. And Hilary is a good friend, for a while.

This weak but haunting story presents two horse-crazy girls from very different worlds sharing a summer delighting in one beautiful pony mare. As in "Summer Pony,"the approach of fall brings about a crisis. All of Jean Slaughter Doty's horse books have an element of melancholy, but here it becomes the book. The sense of something bad always about to happen is the main attraction, and despite the crucial presence of the pony and rider in the plot, it fails to ever become a pony book, which makes it very different from most of Doty's work.

I call it weak not because it fails to be a pony book, but because despite the effectiveness of the mood created, it has numerous serious flaws. A short book, it still can't quite support the slim plot, and after a long, fitful buildup with entirely unnecessary forays into Gail's family life, it ends abruptly. The main characters are fuzzy; Hilary is a slightly spoiled rich girl who doesn't want to go to boarding school and does something very nearly evil, and Gail is a rather dull middle-class girl who's a little worried about going to a new school in the fall too. The mare is initially given quite a personality, but fades into the background until the very end of the book.

Practical Information
Some glorious information about sidesaddle and carriage horses, which are two things not commonly seen in pony books.

Horses and other animals
Candlelight (Candy), a Welsh pony mare
Nanette, a small white dog

Social Aspect
There is considerable emphasis placed on the wealthy Hilary's lifestyle, with the mansion serving as a summer home, the Mama and Papa in Europe, the governess and maids and coachmen. It is, of course, a more interesting story for a child, the 'princess' lifestyle of a bygone age, but reading the book as an adult, I'm a bit more critical of the modern princess lifestyle of Gail, whose family is living temporarily in a small house while their big new house is built for them, who owns a purebred Welsh pony, whose mother apparently does nothing more onerous than shop for the new house...

Setting
Vaguely Northeastern, author was from Connecticut

Illustrations
Ted Lewin's illustrations are black and white drawings, even on the cover (unusual) and actually do fit the rather modern attitude of the book and the era, unmistakably belonging to the 1970's brand of realistic flatness.

Other Books
Doty's other horse novels include Summer Pony, Winter Pony, The Monday Horses, and The Crumb. She also wrote a dog book, Gabriel, and several nonfiction works on horses as Jean Slaughter (Pony Care, Horsemanship For Beginners, and Horses Round The World)

Themes
Bourgie Parents
Where's that footman?
GHOSTS!!!
Magic Gardens
Bulldozers on the Prowl

Other Information
The University of Southern Mississippi's de Grummond Children's Literature Collection includes materials about Doty.

Other editions

And now an English book for a change of pace.



Poor Badger
K.M. Peyton, il. Mary Lonsdale
1990, Doubleday

Ros Palfrey is horse-crazy but lacks opportunity until she spots a handsome pinto pony grazing in a park near her home. Completely around the bend about the pony but suspicious of his careless owners, she makes it her mission in life to look after Mountfitchet Meteor Light or, as she calls him, Badger. But despite her efforts, his owners' sloppy care slowly turns to neglect, and as winter approaches, Ros begins to believe that Badger will die of hunger and cold. So she hatches a plan...

Going home from school, the path led out of Safeway's parking lot and across a wide stretch of rough ground toward the railroad. It was spring, and the ground was greening happily, bright with dandelions and ­-

Ros stopped in her tracks and Leo, trailing, walked into the back of her.

"What?"

"Look!" Her voice quivered with glory. "Look!" It squeaked, out of control.

Leo looked. Usually the field was empty, except perhaps for an old man walking his dog, but today a pony was grazing in it, held by a chain fastened to a tether.

I am so jealous. I always wanted to find a pony tied out in a field by my town's supermarket. All I ever found was a turtle. Damn those English towns with their wacky commons and lack of proper zoning regulations, making Americans drool with envy.

A crisp and energetic book with a dreamy sidekick who comes into his own, a brave heroine, a realistic villain and an adorable pony. I would quibble that the heroine's parents are rather spineless when the pony's owner calls up to complain about their daughter's behavior. Her father's caution about it being chancey to draw the RSPCA's attention to the pony's condition seem more about reluctance to get involved than a real concern about the pony or his daughter. And the insistence on realism at the end was more labored than a traditional perfect ending would have been.

Did I mention the adorable pony? The cover makes that quite clear. The interior illustrations are less charming, being rather rough and doing a better job with the human faces than the pony.

Animals
Mountfitchet Meteor Light/Badger - black and white pinto pony gelding
Ermintrude/Erm - dog

Themes
Horse Show
Abuse
Rescue

Other Books
Flambards
Fly-By-Night
Flambards In Summer
The Team

Author Website