Advent Calendar 9 - Lucy Rees: The Wild Pony

-
Lucy Rees' Wild Pony is today's Advent Calendar title, and is the suggestion of Lucy Bruckner. Wild Pony was Lucy Rees' first book, and she wrote it while she had her own riding school, which no doubt provided her with plenty of raw material on which to draw. Heroine Pippa and her parents move to the country (Wales) and Pippa, classic star-crossed, pony-less girl, dreams of having a pony now that having somewhere to keep it isn't the huge problem it was while living in town. 


As is the way of these things, lack of money means compromises must be made, and the compromise Pippa makes is buying a wild pony off the Welsh hills who is at times downright dangerous. This doesn't help her relationship with her parents. Christmas arrives, and Pippa spends some of it with her family, but sneaks off to see her friend Susan, and then to Ty Mawr, where live the bohemian family that fascinates Pippa. Pippa gives them possibly one of the most memorable pony book Christmas presents ever:
"I had a present for them all, but I wasn't at all sure about it, although it was one of my most treasured possessions: a complete goat's skull, with enormous horn, that I'd found up in the hills. I put the parcel on a chair, said goodbye, and left. They didn't seem to notice. But as I was catching the pony the door opened and they all tumbled out.
"Hey, don't run away, you haven't had this yet." It was a heavy belt, with an old brass buckle. All handmade. Lovely. I felt ashamed.
Mum and Dad, of course, were upset and curious when I got back."


Comments

Anonymous said…
I'm so pleased you included Wild Pony! I think I commented last Christmas that there was a lovely Christmas description in the book. I've only just realised you've done these Christmas posts again. I shall enjoy going through each one. Caroline
2 January 2016 at 17:48
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
Read more

The Way Things Were: Pony Magazine in the 1960s

-
Image
As you have probably realised by now, as a child, I was pony-obsessed. My favourite monthly reading was Pony Magazine, which I read cover to cover: every advert; every word. I recently bought a set of Pony Magazines from the 1960s. I actually took Pony in the 1970s, but there wasn’t a lot of difference between the decades in the style and contents of the magazine. One advert which took me instantly back to that state of childhood wanting; longing for things I couldn’t have, and trying to work out what I could do to afford them, was for Jacatex riding clothes. How I loved that ad. The Pat hacking jacket; the Pat riding mac and the Pat jodhpurs. Who was Pat? Was there a Pat? Or were the clothes just something that was off pat? It was never explained. Jacatex adverts didn’t change much over the years. The 1969 ad below is the same one that I remember from the 1970s, a cheerful pony girl in immaculate clothes. I don’t know whether Jacatex ever did haul themselves into the modern age a
Read more